It is a nice dream to think about
money just falling from the Sky,
but it doesn't happen right now.
Many Americans are struggling to
pay their bills and they're putting
themselves further in debt just to get by.
So today on two wants to know,
we're answering your questions and
tackling your questions about debt,
about credit cards,
about money and finances so that you
can be in a better financial position.
Joining me today and answering
your questions,
credit Card insider senior analyst
Nathan Grant and money expert Janae.
Adams, you can text your questions to these
experts by doing this number right here.
336-379-5775 again.
Text only do not com alright April is
designated as National Literacy Month,
so Credit Card Insider just
completed a survey about kind
of all different things.
Mishmash of credit cards.
So let's start there with
your top three findings.
Yeah, so we had a bunch of questions
about various financial topics
for financial Literacy Month,
but some of the biggest takeaways were
that nearly 1/4 of those surveyed said
they made at least one late payment
since the start of 2020 and another 4%
were unsure if they even had or not.
And you know, we know the dangers
of late payments.
So that was one thing that
was kind of a surprise.
Over 23% of respondents had to get
a new credit card due to either
credit card fraud or stolen credit
card information since the start
of 2020 and 85% of people said that
they thought credit scores are
included on your credit reports.
And they are not.
They are not no, but the credit score
is so important, isn't it? Jenay.
Yeah it is, specially if you have to
look at things that you need to buy.
If you are having to take out debt so
forth they look at a credit score and
you know value on that in most cases.
What was interesting
to me is over the years we've
learned that a credit score can also
play into whether you get a job,
whether you get an apartment.
Yeah, there's some other things,
so sometimes you have to try to
see if someone would sell you your
house on their own support cash,
or either be able to go into an apartment
for someone who just owns a rental.
That's what I did in Indiana.
They did look at my credit score,
then you said you got the money. You
can stay here OK, but for the rest
of us we need to make sure that that
credit score is good so that it allows
us to have some more choices there.
Jay, I know that one thing that's
top of your mind is all this stimulus
money that's coming out and.
Everything that is included
in the rescue package.
So tell me about some of the things
that are on the forefront of your mind.
Yeah, so definitely they are extending the
housing relief housing and rent or lease.
So if you're someone who's watching has been
having problems as far as paying your rent,
paying your mortgage, reach out to
those that can help you pay for that,
or at least can put that on
the steel stand still until
everything gets back on your feet.
Whether you get a job or if you have
somebody in for your tax refund or that
stimulus check that comes in right and
so we do have a question here
about what is the best way
to pay off a student loan.
So I'm thinking Janay that's
in your wheelhouse, yes,
and so this is the best time right now,
especially if you have
a federal student loan.
It is on pause, which means that
anything you pay to the principle is
going to bring that balance down.
Which means you're going to
not be paying any interest.
And at least you pay off their
student loan debt a lot faster if
you have a private student loan,
always try to pay extra on the
principal so I can bring it out faster,
and you can pay it off faster.
That's what I did with 25
Brandon student loan debt.
That's how I got done in two years or less.
And I don't want you to miss that at home.
25 grand in student loan debt that she
got dead and she did it in two years.
That is making it happen for sure.
Alright. Hey Nate, when we were talking
about the credit score and the credit
report being very different just for
folks to clarify what is a credit score?
What is a credit report and
what do the two tell you?
So one thing that's important to know
and this is a good thing for financial
Literacy Month is that you actually have
many credit scores are not just one score.
There's hundreds of smaller
scoring systems, but.
Some of the more popular ones
are like FICO or Vantagescore,
which are different agencies that
do look at your credit reports
and put together your scores.
But that's the key difference is that it's
the information in your credit scores
that goes into your credit reports,
so you can't.
When you're looking at your credit report,
you're not going to see the
scores themselves on there,
it's just the information based
off of your payment activity.
How long you've had credit,
how much credit you have,
your credit utilization,
which is how much credit you're using
in relation to your maximum limits.
All sorts of factors like that go into it,
so it's important to monitor
your credit reports.
And since the pandemic began,
you're now able to check your credit
report for free at least until
April 22 once per week for free.
It usually was once per year,
so definitely take advantage of
that to kind of see where you're
at and make sure there's not any
inconsistencies and stuff in there.
Yeah,
you
can check it once a week.
That means if anyone is opening up a
credit card or a loan in your name,
and you don't know it,
you can check it and you can
see it quickly instead of.
A couple of months going by Anna whole
bunch of charges being racked up so
we want you to be able to do that.
We're going to put that link
for annualcreditreport.com in
our Web story for you today.
That way it's easy for you to see all right,
it is 534.
We've got one more segment of this credit,
money, financial information.
What we want you to do is
text your question in.
We'll be right back.