Consolidation Tips & Low Credit Score Hacks 🔑

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0:31Such good feelings. Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you? I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. Mind Games, a new podcast exploring NLP, a.k.a. neurolinguistic programming. Is it a self-help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam, or both? Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, hello, all my people. What's up? It's Questlove. Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with the one and only A$AP Rocky. He reflects on his journey from Harlem roots to global icon status and discovering the hip-hop origin of his name.

1:14The ledge was on the TV. Rakim had the Buckethead Kangol join on. Pops was like, that's Rakim. That's who you named after. I just, damn the f***ing f***ing swag. But listen to the Questlove show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. A new year doesn't ask us to become someone new. It invites us back home to ourselves. I'm Mike Della Rocha, host of Sacred Lessons, a space for men to pause, reflect, and heal. This year, we're talking honestly about mental health, relationships, and the patterns we're ready to release. If you're looking for clarity, connection, and healthier ways to show up in your life, Sacred Lessons is here for you.

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2:36Brilliantly boring since 1865 is a service mark of the PNC Financial Service Group, Inc. PNC Bank, National Association, member FDIC. This is the other part because we talk about the things that credit can affect, right? Obviously your score, but it could affect loans and sometimes employment. Yeah. But it also could affect relationships. This is important, right? Because you said you need to have maybe three to four items on your credit report. And some people, when they're in relationships, we've seen, I'm going to get a car. I didn't get approved. Can you co-sign? I love this. Y 'all asking a good question.

3:14This is why, yeah. We've been known to do that a few times. So talk about that. I mean, co-signing could be very detrimental. So one of the things that I do in my day-to-day is I'm a credit specialist specializing in mortgage scoring, right? So I deal with a lot of people who can't seem to close on their home, who need a few more points to obtain a home loan. Now, this is one of the things that I see so much, and we need to change it. So when it comes to married couple spouses, make sure that the accounts are evenly distributed, right? So make sure that one spouse is not the primary account holder, account owner of all of the accounts.

4:01And then the other spouse, usually like the stay-at-home spouse, is just co-signed on all of the accounts. There is something within the Credit Card Act of 2009 that says on every credit card application legally, you can use what's called household income. So if you're a spouse, if you have a spouse that maybe does not make a lot of money or stays at home, as opposed to them just being a co-signer and authorized user on all of spouses one accounts, they can apply using the income. They can apply using their spouse's income. So make sure that they still have credit cards, home or not home loans, but loans and installments in their name as owner.

4:39Because when you only have co-signed accounts, authorized user accounts, then you're never going to unleash your true borrowing power because it's based on someone else, regardless of who it is. so make sure yes I'm glad you asked that question because that man they're they're having so often like it'll just it'll be one person has great credit and then one person has subpar credit because they don't have any they haven't built any credit yeah and that's if you're married yeah specifically your boyfriend and you broke up good luck oh well yeah to speak on that cosigning no no no no I won't cosign I'm not cosigning for nobody because that affects you like if you co-sign for someone um and you can have amazing credit if they choose to not pay it or you know run up your card you are responsible for that when it comes to co-signing when it comes to um authorized users authorized users they don't have any legal um binding to that account so they can run it up they can spend every dollar and it still is going to be your fault when you co-sign for someone that if that account goes derogatory it's going to affect both persons credit report and you can't do nothing about it um so what about credit consolidation is that always the most beneficial way to kind of manage multiple no it's not um that that chips away at your credit age drastically so um now it like when it comes to like student loans and things of that nature sometimes that it's worth it right but when it comes to just consolidating your everyday credit cards, I don't always recommend it unless like you're just trying to prevent bankruptcy or something like major like that.

6:17But consolidation, I'm not the biggest fan of just because it doesn't really aid to you improving your borrowing power. So if people have bad credit and they're trying to improve their credit, what's the steps to actually go from, you know, having issues, bad credit to having better credit yes the good thing about having bad credit is you have a lot of points that you can obtain like the lower your credit score is the more points you can grab right so my favorite thing when helping someone with their credit is when they do have a low credit score because it's so easy to get those points you just have to understand that obtaining those points will not come from just repairing your credit or disputing your credit report it's going to come from building credit.

7:01That is where the points are released from, right? So making sure if you have bad credit, if you have collections, charge-offs, whatever, there is nothing that will help you other than building credit. Making sure that you have those four accounts, two credit cards, two installments, one short-term, one long-term. Making sure you do not pay off that installment early, the short-term installment specifically, because you want to build credit, Right. Also, if you are if you do have collections challenging those. Right. If they get removed. Great. But if they if they do not get removed, you still can have good credit with collections because the older a collection gets, the less impact that it has on your score.

7:43The more credit that you've established since the collection will help you sort of undo bad credit. Right. I think I had it was one account that I could not get removed. And again, that did not stop me from getting credit cards or buying a home and things of that nature because I had established credit that spoke to my financial habits, my current financial habits, more than those old collections. Right. But yeah. So making sure you have your building credit. That's what people people will say. I have bad credit, so I'm just not going to touch my credit for seven years. It's the worst thing you can do because that's seven years of wasted time where you can build credit.

8:23You can come back from collections. I've never, I've never, and I have helped thousands. I've looked at thousands of credit reports. I have never seen a credit report that is irreparable, ever. And I haven't seen 300 credit scores. That's the lowest credit score you can get. The lowest score that I've seen, FICO score, was a 311. The lowest, right? It goes lower than 350. No, so the lowest score you can get is 300. Oh, 300. Oh, okay. Yeah, the lowest score you can get is 300. The highest you can get is 850. I've seen a 311 credit score. People think that because they have bad credit, they're just doomed for the next seven years.

8:57That's not true. Build credit and you will get credit points. When you add your credit card in the first month, the first month that you get a credit card, please, everybody who's watching this, if this is your first credit card, do not allow that first month to be wasted on reporting a$0 utilization. because a lot of people get their credit cards and they're scared to use it. So they'll just like whatever, like keep it in their pocket or keep it in their wallet. When you activate that card, you typically are going to be mid-cycle, depending on how long your bank took to mail it to you. Go get some gas, go buy some chips, go do something so that you have at least 1 % to 3 % reporting that first time.

9:37The reason why it's important the first time is because when your credit card hits your credit report for the first time, you open yourself up to utilization. because if you don't have any credit cards, you're not getting a single point out of the 165 points that are allotted for you credit utilization. So when you first get your credit card, make sure that you report a very small balance. So the second that that credit card hits your credit report, which is usually like 60 days after you get it, you'll see you'll see you should see a large increase in your credit score. Go buy your pair of sneakers, y 'all.

10:08Ernest, what's up? Look, this episode is brought to you by Square Banking. One of the things we love most is seeing neighborhood businesses level up. There's this West Indian spot right in our community that started with a small takeout counter. Now with Square, they've been able to expand into a full sit-down restaurant and even started catering events across the city. That's the kind of growth that inspires us, and it's powered by Square. Square is built for all types of businesses, from the corner bagel shop that turned into a local chain, to the specialty market with thousands of unique items to the stylist who's been holding you down for years.

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11:22So go to square.com slash go slash E-Y-L to learn more about how your business can grow with Square. That's S-Q-U-A-R-E dot com slash G-O slash E-Y-L. Block Inc. is not a bank. Banking services provided by Square Financial Services, Inc. and Sutton Bank. Members FDIC. Loans are subject to credit approval. What if mind control is real? If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car? When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings. Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you?

12:02I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. Mind Games, a new podcast exploring NLP, a.k.a. neurolinguistic programming. Is it a self-help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam, or both? Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, hello, all my people. What's up? It's Questlove. Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with the one and only ASAP Rocky. He reflects on his journey from Harlem roots to global icon status and discovering the hip-hop origin of his name.

12:42The ledge was on the TV. Rakim had the bucket hat Kangol join on. I'm possibly like, that's Rakim. That's who you named after. I just, damn the f***ing f***ing swag. Listen to The Questlove Show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. A new year doesn't ask us to become someone new. It invites us back home to ourselves. I'm Mike DeLaRocha, host of Sacred Lessons, a space for men to pause, reflect, and heal. This year, we're talking honestly about mental health, relationships, and the patterns we're ready to release. If you're looking for clarity, connection, and healthier ways to show up in your life, Sacred Lessons is here for you.

13:25Listen to Sacred Lessons with Mike DeLaRocha on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Dr. Jesse Mills, host of the Mailroom podcast. Each January, men promised to get stronger, work harder, and fix what's broken. But what if the real work isn't physical at all? I sat down with psychologist Dr. Steve Poulter to unpack shame, anxiety, and the emotional pain men were never taught how to name. Part of the way through the valley of despair is realizing this has happened, and you have to make a choice whether you're going to stay in it or move forward. Our two-part conversation is available now.

13:59Listen to the Mailroom on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.