credit sesame has been a fantastic resource for a long time in terms of learning about the best
credit cards lending products and everything that you need to know how to build a fantastic
credit score and now they offer their own product called sesame cash that is essentially a free
debit card that can also help build your credit score with the credit builder feature enabled
and gives you cash back rewards for certain score improvements so today let's break down
everything that the credit sesame platform has to offer and talk about how it can help you save
thousands of dollars in interest by raising your credit score alright let's jump right into it
what is going on everyone i hope you are all having a fantastic day so not only are you able
to get daily credit score updates via the credit sesame app right from your smartphone as well as
a catered recommendation on how to improve your credit score but the sesame cash debit card is
a really unique product as well i do want to thank credit sesame for sponsoring this video but i have
personally used this platform for years and it's one that i am definitely excited to share with
all of you so if you do want to sign up for credit sesame there is a link down below the like button
but let's take a look at the sesame cash account so we've talked about several of these credit
builder products and each of them seems to work in a slightly different way and sesame cash
is no different after you've enabled the credit builder feature the first thing you're going to do
is move money into your credit builder accounts from your sesame cash prepaid debit account
you do currently have to move at least 50 bucks but don't worry this money isn't going anywhere
and you can always pull that money back out if you need to this becomes your security deposit
and establishes a line of credit reported to the credit bureaus by credit sesame plus this can be
done right from your smartphone at any time so so far this process seems pretty familiar
but what happens next is you're going to select a utilization limit and credit sesame is then going
to find sesame cash debit card purchases that fall under the utilization limit that you set
and report those to the three major credit bureaus as an on-time payment i know that there's a lot
to unpack in that sentence so let's break it down first of all remember that your credit utilization
is a percentage of how much of your total available credit you have used and this is a huge
factor used in calculating your credit score so if you have one thousand dollars in available credit
and you spend 100 then your utilization would be 10 which is actually pretty good so by setting
your own utilization limits you are essentially choosing how much of an impact this is going to
have on your credit score and that is something that is really unique to this product since other
credit builder products typically don't report your utilization to the major credit bureaus at
all so in this example let's say that you've set aside four hundred dollars and you simply move
the slider to set your utilization limit which i personally would recommend you keep below 10
then from there since you've already set that money aside you can utilize the
automatic payment feature where credit sme will automatically pay off your balance in full on time
and report that on-time payment to the three major credit bureaus and again any remaining funds that
don't get used can either remain on the sesame cash credit builder card for the next transaction
or you can always pull them back into your bank account if you need to for whatever reason
i know we can sometimes get a little bit confused with how these products work so
in a nutshell you're setting money aside as a security deposit to establish a line of credit
setting your credit utilization amounts spending on this debit card up to the utilization that you
set and those debit transactions are moved to your builder accounts and reported by credit sesame as
on-time payments as well as good utilization and that of course is going to be really good for your
credit score don't worry this does not mean that you are being double charged it simply allows you
to use your everyday purchases to help build your credit another big differentiator that i'd like to
mention is that credit sesame reports these to all three of the major credit bureaus while similar
products only report to one or two of those credit bureaus we all know that building your credit
score typically means lower interest rates when it comes time to borrow money on a car or a house
but remember that your credit score can also impact your employment eligibility and in some
cases even your ability to rent an apartment even though in that scenario you aren't even borrowing
money so long story short having the ability to build that credit score in a safe and easy way
is wonderful and the best part is for a majority of these features this product has no monthly
service fees no minimum balance requirements no foreign transaction fees plus you can even use it
to withdraw cash at over 55 000 free to use atms worldwide essentially you get the benefits of both
a prepaid debit card and secured credit card but with the ease of only one card unlike a standard
prepaid debit card you can monitor your credit and get cash rewards for building your credit
score there's also up to 10 cashback on select merchant purchases and you even have the ability
to build your credits with the additional credit builder feature on the other hand credit builder
is better than a regular secured credit card in a lot of ways because it doesn't charge you any kind
of annual fee or hidden fees there's no interest or late fees and you don't have to worry about
digging yourself into a whole of credit card debt the other thing i feel is important to mention is
that this product is widely accessible to pretty much anyone you don't need to have some huge
income you don't need to have established credit already or have some great credit history and you
don't need to have some thorough understanding of how building your credit score actually works
they really want this product to be widely accessible to as many people as possible
and i think that that is why this type of credit builder product has grown in popularity so much
over the past several years plus as an added bonus they're also going to give you 10 dollars every
time that you increase your credit score by 10 points or more in a 30-day period and they will
give you 100 if you can increase your credit score by 100 points in 30 days which i know might sound
crazy but trust me that is absolutely possible for those of you that are new to credit with a
product like this that is reporting not only your on-time payment history but healthy utilization
as well which are the two largest factors in calculating your credit score with sesame cash
you also have access to the features that we've come to love with these modern fintech products
like the ability to get paid up to two days early and even things like free mobile device protection
up to five 500 and not to mention all of the wonderful financial resources that credit sesame
continues to publish on their website all of these services and features mentioned so far are free
and you can sign up for them today at no cost to you but they do also offer some premium
subscription packages depending on what additional features and value you are looking to get out of
this platform for 15.99 per month you can get full credit reports and scores from all three credit
bureaus most packages also include monitoring alerts from the three major credit bureaus
as well as 24 7 access to live experts who can help resolve any issues that may appear
on your credit reports with premium you can also build your credit history with your rent payments
since credit sesame will report those as on-time rent payments to transunion and equifax on a
monthly basis alright so if you just want to try out this platform and use those basic features
that we talked about earlier in the video then i would go ahead and sign up for the free platform
and you can always upgrade it down the road in fact a lot of you were probably wondering
why in the world would you pay money for a service like this and that's a great question
and the simple answer is it can actually save you a lot of money in the long term as
we talked about many times before having a good credit score in good credit history can save you
thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars when it comes time to borrow money for a car
and especially when it comes time to borrow money on something like a house two identical
borrowers could go purchase the exact same home at the exact same time for the same price
but the one with the higher credit score will get a lower interest rate and therefore they will save
a lot of money compared to the other individual who has a lower credit score and over a 15 or 30
year mortgage that small difference can add up to tens of thousands of dollars so a couple of bucks
per month for this service might sound a little ridiculous at first glance but depending on where
you are at in your financial situation that might actually pay for itself 100 times over in the long
term but as is the case with any financial tool or strategy the final decision has to be up to you
so i'd love to know what you think of the credit sesame product down in the comment section below
and which of these very unique features is your favorite for me it is definitely the credit
builder feature of the sesame cash accounts and the ability to set your utilization limit
because of all of the credit building products that we've looked at in previous videos i have
never seen that one before and i really like it be sure to sign up for credit sesame using the link
down below the like button if you do want to help support my channel and of course thank you so much
for your time i really do appreciate it so much take it easy and i'll see you in the next one.