Mastering Mortgages and Credit: Your Financial Future Starts Here

Hey everyone, welcome to Always On Point podcast with Kristen Ambos.

We are partnered here with 97.9 FM, 1590 WGBW on the Civic Media app.

And so excited to be here with you on this Sunday morning.

Today, we're going to give a little bit of a mortgage update because I know everyone's dying to understand that, but also really wanting to understand what's going on with interest rates.

It's been a hot topic for a couple of years and continues to still be going on.

So we'll deep dive into that.

What we're doing with the show today, we're going to do a lot of the show about credit because that is also something that is very interesting to people they want to understand.

One, how to build credit.

Two, how do they come back if they've had a financial situation that has hindered their credit?

And you know, what do they need to know about credit with mortgages and how do they apply for a loan?

So today to help me with that conversation, I have Ms.

Sophia Ambos.

Hello.

Hello, glad to have you here.

Yeah, I'm super excited.

Thank you.

And for those of you that are listening in the audience, you know,

This is our daughter.

So we are super excited.

I'm super excited to partner with her.

And the reason why I asked her to come on and speak is because she has a real life example of her own situation that we did and super proud of it when it comes to credit and building credit.

And I wanted to share a real life example with everybody.

So she was kind enough to say, yeah.

I'll come on in and talk about it.

So thank you for being here.

Yeah, of course.

I'm super excited.

As a parent,

this is like a surreal come true moment.

The fact that my business and the radio and the podcast have now collided with our daughter who is in the real estate business as well.

And so it's just really neat to come around and to see how much you've grown and starting off your own career here.

Yeah.

Yeah, very surreal.

I never, never really saw it coming.

I know.

It's, it's crazy.

Just never ever say never, right?

And so her story and credit building is really exciting.

And so we wanted to share that with you, but

you know, first and foremost, where are rates at?

That is the question of the day, the hour, the week, the year, the last few years, right?

And even Sophia's not in her head, yes, because she understands now that she's in the business, how important interest rates are to people and how it can change things.

So if you listened to me a couple of weeks ago, we talked about how rates were down and they are

down according to where they've been in the last few years.

However, the one thing that happened again this year that happened last year was we got an interest rate cut.

And that interest rate cut probably came about four to six weeks ago.

And then about two weeks ago, the federal chair stepped up, had their meeting, and Mr. Jerome Powell said, you know what, we're gonna cut rates by a quarter of a percent.

And what happened last year, again, happened this year was rates actually ticked up.

after he said that he was lowering them.

And that's the mortgage rates I'm speaking of.

Now, I'm not speaking on anything to do with vehicle rates, credit cards, anything like that.

This is just mortgage interest rates.

That always surprises people because then we talked to them on the phone and they're like, no, no, Kristen, what are you talking about?

Powell was just on the TV saying that rates are down a quarter of a percent.

And then us mortgage lenders and all my loan officers out there, if you're listening, understand they're nodding their head.

Yes.

have to answer this question.

And it's because the mortgage rates are not directly affected by the Federal Reserve rate.

They are directed by a lot of the huge investors that we have.

Now, the investors will see what's going on in the economy, and they will adjust rates accordingly, which, you know, there is some reflection of the Federal Reserve rate to the mortgage rates, but again, not directly correlated.

So even though

Jerome Powell dropped rates by a quarter of percent and the Federal Reserve dropped rates by a quarter of percent.

Our rates actually ticked up about an eighth to a quarter of a percent.

Seems crazy.

Doesn't make sense.

But I'm here to tell you that the world of mortgage does not make sense.

It is not black and white.

It is very cumbersome, which is also why this show is so important because mortgages are such an important piece of building personal and financial wealth.

And

home ownership.

And that's why it was like, okay, we need to educate more on this because they don't teach this stuff in high school.

Mm-mm, they do not.

No, they do not, right?

And they don't teach credit.

And you know, so this is why it was so important for us to get out there and educate, right Sophia?

Yeah,

yeah.

And just now it's finally high schools are starting to implement more about credit and finances.

But for a long time they didn't, you walked out of high school not knowing anything about it.

Yeah, not having a clue.

And I think, don't quote me on this, but I believe it's now a state mandate that there is some financial literacy in the high schools starting maybe this year and next year.

I think I heard that too.

I hope so at least.

I hope so too.

I've been fortunate enough over my career to speak in a couple of college finance classes, a couple of high school finance classes, and the need is real.

And you got lucky enough your senior year

to take a financial literacy class.

Yeah, and it was amazing too.

It was really helpful.

Very helpful.

And I remember I was constantly poking at you like, what are you talking about today?

What are you talking about today?

Because it is affecting our youth and how they're brought up and how they start out life with finances, which credit and finances are everything.

Even though they don't feel like they should be, really it

it is the backbone of where you get in life, right?

Yeah.

Oh, absolutely.

Would you think so?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Even starting out young and then now being in real estate, I work with so many people that are my age and didn't start out right away.

And now they're trying to play catch up with everyone else.

Right.

Right.

And when you turn 18, all of a sudden the credit card mailers start flying and pre-approved and take my credit card and spend all the money and do those types of things, right?

And that can also be a damage to some because if they didn't have the financial literacy from school,

And not all parents understand how to teach finance.

You know, like, I'll just say you got lucky.

Oh,

I

totally did.

But with me being in the financial world, I talk money all day, every day.

It's what I do.

It's what I've known.

I've been doing this for, you know, almost 25 years.

And so, you know, not having necessary financial literacy involved in all the classes and all the schools you did.

And then on top of it, you could come home and ask

you know, ask myself questions about what you were learning in school.

And then get another answer that was the same.

And then it made you trust.

Yes.

Yeah.

It was amazing having two people say the same thing.

It felt like it was just the right thing to do.

And I was young at it.

No.

And I just listen to other people and it ended up working out really well.

Yeah.

I'm so, and I'm glad for that.

And then that's what makes me so happy that the state stepped down and was like, okay, we need to do something to make sure financial literacy is brought.

brought back to kids.

Yeah.

You know, people don't really balance checkbooks anymore.

No.

If you were age, kids even know what a checkbook is.

Well, I did have to get one the other day.

Oh, you did.

That's right.

I did.

Yeah.

And now I just need your help on how to use

it.

Okay.

Well, I can show you.

Yeah.

I can just hand me over the checkbooks and I'll write them up for you.

No, I'm just kidding.

So we have Sophia Ambo's with us today and this, yes, this is our daughter and she is here to talk about credit.

And that's the main point of this episode because it affects so many.

So Sophia, if I can ask you, just to get right into the nitty gritty, when we started, how old were you?

I was 18 for two days.

Two days, all right.

So at two days, you came to Dad and I and said,

I need a credit card.

I want to build credit.

Yeah, which I was super proud of.

And part of that was because of the class you were in.

Yes.

You knew that that was the next step, right?

So there was no pressure.

Like you came to us and said, I want to do this.

And Dad and I were like, OK, well, there's two ways you can do this.

One, you can have parents that can add you to their credit card and as a co-

Authorized user if you will learn authorized user or two We could give it to you the hard way and make you earn it and we go get you on Yourself and then you learn how to teach and we are those mean awful parents That said no, we're not just adding you we want you to learn and the reason for that was that and you understood

yes,

but the reason for that was is because I grew up in a world where My parents were extremely young

and were not really taught well on finances and so I did not have that same opportunity and I really had to learn how to manage my own credit and I had to learn what the right things to do and that was by doing some wrong things right and not being always smart and so for me and and for dad that was a huge opportunity to teach you

It's your credit.

And anyone out there, I'll say the same thing.

It is your credit.

It is yours to build and it's yours to break.

And only you can do that if you're protective of it.

And you gotta be protective of it.

It's a huge factor.

Listen, I know

Dave Ramsey is an amazing money coach and he does some great things.

But he also, one of the things he says is you don't need credit.

Being in the mortgage world, I agree with him with so many things, but I disagree with him on that because really great credit can get you a better interest rate.

It can get you better loan options.

It can get you so many things, less PMI insurance, things like that.

So having a good credit score matters.

The sooner you can build that, the higher it is.

That's where it goes.

So yeah, there's two options for credit cards.

And that's where we got to be careful because some people are very terrified of credit cards.

And I understand that, right?

All of a sudden you get a credit card and let's just say it's got a thousand dollars on it.

And you're like, holy cow, I could go on a shopping spree right now.

And that doesn't mean you should.

But I mean, I suppose you could.

And so, or there's step two, you can have an unsecured credit card, which would be, for example, a Capital One card or a Bank of America card or a Discover card, just a generic, you know, company card.

Or you can have a secured credit card.

A secured credit card is one where you actually put your own money up and you can get these at any of your

typically, any of your local banks are credit unions.

And so we decided with you, the best option was to start with a secured credit card.

Yeah.

You use your own money.

So tell the audience if you can what that is when you, when we did that, we went to the bank and we sat down.

Yep.

Yeah.

We, you can put in, I think, any amount that you want.

I think we agreed on 300.

Yep.

Just something

easy.

Yeah.

Something that was

doable.

And we decided that I didn't need it for much.

We did it for

gas like every other two weeks and I paid it off right away

so I didn't

need a whole lot so we agreed on 300 and then you gave him the money and then a week later I got a credit card shipped out and

yeah

then it was like okay now what do I do like now first step like check

yes so when when Sophia gave the bank

It's a local credit union.

When she gave the local credit union $300.

Think of it as a savings account.

They put it in an account for her attached to this credit card.

And now mind you, debit cards do not report to credit.

So that's why debit cards don't work.

And you need a secured credit card because secured credit cards actually report to your credit bureau, which is what you want to build credit.

So with that being said, you have a secured credit card.

She gave them $300.

She's right about a week later.

They sent her a credit card with her name on it, and it's attached to that $300.

So as she was charging gas, she was using her own money, even though she was charging it to this credit card, it was her own money.

And then she'd go, she'd get gas, and then the bill would come.

And then it was, how do we pay this, right?

How do we keep this card going and how do we keep it revolving?

And one of those things is, I know this sounds crazy, but it's a trick.

Don't pay the card off in full.

I know there's a lot of you out there rolling your eyes at me right now going, what the heck?

We will come back after this break.

Stay tuned because I want to give you my why and the tried and true reason why it works to not always pay your credit card off in full every month.

So with that being said,

Sophia Ambo's night, we'll be right

back.

Everyone and welcome back to the Always On Point podcast here with 97.9 FM, 1590 AM, WGVW, the Civic Media app and the Always On Point podcast here with Ms.

Sophia Ambos and we are talking about credit today and how important that is.

And right before the break, we discussed how not to pay your credit card off every month.

And I know that there's some flabbergasted people listening right now and they're like, what in the heck is she talking about?

With that being said, I want to give the why.

Why you don't pay your credit card off every month.

So there's three big types of credit.

One, installment loans.

Installment loans are going to be a car loan, a student loan, something that let's say you have a dollar amount and every month you have the same payment, you're going to pay that off till it's paid off in full.

You are making installment payments.

The second is a mortgage, right?

So you have a mortgage similar to an installment loan, but it's just classified a little bit different.

So it is a mortgage and you pay that down every month.

Third is revolving.

Revolving is credit, credit cards.

And when you pay your card off every month, that keeps the card kind of sitting stagnant is the easiest way layman's terms that I can explain.

When you don't pay it off every month.

and you just leave even what I, what do we do?

Leave like 10 bucks?

10 dollars, yeah.

Yep, you'd pay it off, you'd put on 30, you'd pay off 10, or pay off 20.

Pay off 20, leave 10.

Leave 10, yep.

So you're paying a really small amount of interest, but what that's doing is that month when it's reporting to the credit bureau agency, it's saying, Sophia only used $10 of 300.

She's using this card extremely smartly, and she's getting bumped points for that in the right way.

Earning that credit score.

Mm-hmm.

And so every month you did that about how long did it take?

It took well only took about two months to actually get a score

Yeah,

and it wasn't what I loved but it took seven months to get over 700 for a credit score But that was the only card I was using like that was it so just off of that and only

paying for gas and Starbucks here and there and paying it off.

It took

like seven and a half I think months to see my score really be something a lot better, a lot more what I wanted.

Right and so scoring works and I wish there was a rhyme or reason I could tell you for every payment you got five points doesn't work like that.

There's so much that's involved in it but what I can tell you is

in order to earn the highest scores, you want one of three, or one of each, I should say, one mortgage, one revolving, one installment loan.

If you can do a couple more, that's great.

I'm not saying go out there and take a bunch of cards, buy a bunch of cards, not that kind of thing at all, but that's just the most optimal.

So for

The first couple months, I don't remember and we don't have to quote it, but I want to say she was like, after just making a couple payments, you were up in the high 600s.

Yeah.

My first time I ever saw like my credit score, I think it was 687.

Yeah.

Somewhere in the 680s.

Which not bad after two months.

No, no, it was not bad at all.

And that, that time too, because I turned 18 before my senior.

So while I was taking these financial classes, I already had a score.

Yeah.

So I was already, I felt like I was already a step of.

I step ahead of everyone in my class.

It was, it

was awesome.

That's awesome.

And that's a place that a lot of kids aren't.

Yeah.

So, or teenagers, I should say not kids, but teenagers, it's a place where a lot of them aren't.

And then within seven months, you were up over a 700 credit score.

Yes.

My first, I think it was like 704.

And I remember calling you right away, cause I was so excited.

Cause that was my goal.

That was my goal to get over 700 and I did it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And you can't do anyone, you can do this as well.

It is not difficult.

I think the hardest part for me with clients, when we're talking about this is to get them to understand that they shouldn't pay it off every month.

Now listen, that caveat is when you get to a space where you're like 800 and above and your score is about as high as you can possibly go, pay it off.

you've established your credit.

I'm talking about people who are either building credit or trying to take their credit score from a lower score to a higher score.

And again, because this isn't just spelt out, there's not a credit class that's out there that I'm aware of anyway that's good and you can take on this.

These are just some, this is just some feedback to give out there so that you, when you're listening to this, you're like, okay, I could do that.

That's not bad.

I can make that work, right?

Okay, so now it's a year, two years later, and you've been doing the same exact thing.

And now it's a part of your every day or every month life, right?

It's your bills.

It's what you're doing.

It's your use to it.

Yeah, I got very used to it.

Then after a year of applying for the card, they give you the money back, and I got a $100 bonus, I think, for using the card responsibly.

Awesome.

So I

put in $300 and I got $400 out, and then they upped my limit to a couple thousand after that.

Perfect.

So showing that responsible limit, that's what you do.

So the other key part to this, you guys, is let's say you have a thousand dollar limit just for easy numbers.

You don't ever want to buy over 30% of that or have over 30% on the card a long time.

So that means

If you have a $1,000 limit, keep it to around $300.

Now, again, if you can leave it on there while you're continuing to build credit, leave $10, $20 on there and then pay off, you know, $280, $290, leave that $300.

But if you do borrow over or use your card for over $300, get it paid down to that 30% marker, that $300 as soon as possible.

That's again, with a thousand dollar balance.

So that's the 30% rule is just one of those rules that isn't, it's not hidden, but it's not talked about a lot.

And so that's one key tidbit I can give to anyone out there who is really looking to get their credit score up is if you have, if you have credit out there right now, that's over the 30% limit, just get it paid down to that 30%.

If you are just starting out, don't go over the 30%.

Those are that.

It's like an unspoken rule.

Yeah, it's the hidden secret.

It's the secret that goes through everything.

And so with that, we got a little bit more that I want to go over with Sophia on that.

So again, we have Sophia Amboz here on the Always On Point podcast, partnered with 97.9 FM, 1590 AM WGBW on the Civic Media app.

We'll be right

back.

Best friend's house, I loved you then

Welcome back to the Always On Point Podcast, partnered here with 97.9 FM, 1590 AM, WGBW and the Civic Media app.

We appreciate everyone who

calls, checks in, texts with questions.

So we'll get to those in just a little bit.

Right now we are sitting with Sophia Ambo as my special guest today.

She is my daughter who we were able to help with credit and she was kind enough to come in and share because her story is one that can help inspire

those and the youth out there help people understand that it's not too far away to make a fix, right?

And how important credit really is and where it can lead you in just a short period of time.

So with that being said right now, we're talking about how to responsibly use credit and credit cards specifically.

Cause those are the, that's the one thing that it's kind of first and foremost to see that or car loan.

And typically you need, you need a credit card to get credit in order to get a car loan.

So that's why we decided to start out with with how do we build credit and that just goes with even if you have a lower credit score because you know, I always my motto in life is When it comes to credit bad things having a good people Do not sit out there if you don't have a great credit score and think I'm never gonna get anywhere We have helped people build their credit so many times in order to be able to get that credit card Get that car loan get that house at a better interest rate

Again, things happen, medical things, divorce things, theft identity.

I was a victim of theft identity when I very first started out and my credit was horrible.

It was like, I don't even know if I can go to a 400, but it was really low.

And I had to work through that.

And that was 25 years ago where we didn't have, you couldn't just call your credit card and say, hey, it's not mine and they just took it off, right?

Like it affected my credit bad.

that theft identity and, you know, stealing credit cards and using them, not paying them when I didn't know about them.

That really hurt and I had to earn my way back.

And that is why I'm so particular.

And even with, and she'll still sit next to me and hopefully still love me, but it's even at the point where, you know, Sophia knows and my advice out there is do not cosine for a parent, for a child, for anyone.

the second you co-sign for somebody you are taking that responsibility on and if they miss a payment, it hits your credit as hard as if you were the main borrower.

Consider yourself the main borrower when you co-sign.

Now, I know I sound like I have a cold black heart when I do that, right?

But we worked with you, we made it work, right?

And now, whose credit is it?

Now it's mine.

All yours.

And you

should be so proud, right?

And everyone out there, you can get through this and you can get by it.

And the reason why I'm such a stickler to it is because in my situation, I had people that took advantage and that's why I'm the way I am.

Not just because I'm a mean person, but also because it is so personal.

Credit is an incredibly personal thing.

And that's why it's such a big topic.

With that being said, we talked about mortgages.

We talked about installment loans for those of you just joining us now.

We also talked about revolving and revolving is the credit card side and that's where we're really leaning in today because that's where the majority of people either find themselves in trouble and or can easily get themselves out of that trouble and that's by using credit cards responsibly.

Now with that said, Sophia told us about

taking out a secured credit card and only using 30% or less utilization of that card, right?

And now we're at the position where it got you up to, they gave you your initial, because it used your $300 to start.

They gave you your initial investment back.

They gave you $100 for doing it responsibly.

So you basically, any little bit of interest you paid, they basically paid you back.

So pretty much made you whole and probably didn't pay anything out of pocket in the long run.

Yes.

And now you have a couple thousand dollar limit that you're also using responsibly.

Yep.

And we are now from the beginning to the, to, to where we're at now is it like 17 or 18 months since you took it out?

It's almost two years.

What is it?

It's over two years.

Oh my gosh.

Time flies.

Yeah.

It would be almost two, two years from like a month ago.

Wow.

Yeah.

That's crazy.

It is.

That's right.

Yeah, you just turned 20.

I know, yeah.

Oh my gosh.

Crazy.

All the parents out there understand exactly where my head is at right now and how did that happen so fast.

But it is, here we are.

So, okay, so about, but about 17 or 18 months in to doing this is when they gave you your money back and when they upped your limit, right?

They gave me my money back a year after using it.

Okay.

They

gave it back, but my limit was still 300.

That was capital credit unions, money that they

that they gave me instead.

And then February of 2024 is when we decided to apply for a higher limit because it was a year and a half of good usage.

And

then that's when they gave me the couple thousand dollars on my credit card.

Yep, because you were proving yourself.

So they were like, okay, we're willing to give you a little bit extra.

We can extend your credit line because you're using it responsibly.

So that's wonderful.

And then now at that point, where's your credit score?

Right now, my credit score is a 757.

That's

amazing.

Thank you for sharing that.

Yeah, of course.

So for everyone listening right now, within two years, she went from a no credit score to a 680, to a 707 or something like that, low 700s, to over a 750.

One credit card started secured $300.

That's why I say everyone can do this if they want to do this.

Absolutely.

you can do this if you want to do this.

It is possible.

And it does.

Listen, you could even start a secure credit card with $100 and only use 30 bucks.

Like you didn't really ever charge much over 30 or $40 anyway.

So you can do this.

Get with a local credit union.

We did happen to use capital credit union.

They've been good to us on that.

So there's a shout out to capital credit unions as a local one.

But with that being said, now is where kind of the river meets the road, right?

20 years old.

Yeah.

wanting to start out on your own.

Tell us what happened.

So it was.

And for y'all, she's got a big old grin on her face because she is so proud of herself.

I do.

I'm extremely proud.

Good.

It's easy to be proud of it when I have a lot of friends that are my age and they can't do this kind of stuff because they didn't have the knowledge right away.

And I honestly had to drive the second I turned 18 to really get it together.

You did.

And it was.

I think about a month ago when I decided I wanted to move out and be on my own and do my own thing and I found this cute apartment that I really liked.

My parents will tell you it's too expensive for me, but I really like it.

We're

parents.

So I applied for it and I figured I would need the security deposit and first month, last month's rent, all of it.

that sort and after I applied I heard back within two days that my credit was good enough and I didn't have to put any money down for this apartment and I move in tomorrow.

And no co-signer.

And no co-signer, no co-signer, no deposit, nothing.

Because my

credit was that good.

Y'all listen to that.

Yeah and the property manager too had told me that she has never seen credit this good come from such a young applicant.

When you called dad and I are

Grins were from ear to ear so now you guys this is where my cold heart remember I wouldn't I wouldn't add her to a credit card I wouldn't cosign anything for because I'm a mean horrible person But now look at yeah, mm-hmm, and it's all yours.

Yes.

No one can take that away from you.

Mm-hmm.

You did it on your own.

Yeah

And you guys, I mean it when I say, I didn't bug her if she was painted on time.

I didn't, you know, sometimes we gotta let these kids fly and learn for themselves good and bad.

And she happened to take the really right road, which we're super grateful for.

But it worked so well for you.

And that's where it was so important for me to bring you to this podcast and to the radio, to talk about credit and building because it's something that

for some people seems so far gone and so hard, yet it doesn't have to be at all.

It can be real easy and time flies.

Time really flies on this.

So one of the questions that I get from clients all the time and from people that I'm talking to who are wanting to start out looking for a mortgage is, my credit is really bad.

How do I get it up?

And Sophia's nodding her head because she can understand that, you know, she's in real estate.

She works with clients that want to buy houses and they're like, but I don't have the best credit.

So the reason why I want to bring credit into it is because obviously credit and mortgage kind of go hand in hand, especially when you're looking to finance that mortgage.

And so with that said, credit can be relative and some people think a 680 is an amazing score.

Some people think 680 is a terrible score.

I'm not here to judge it.

I'm just here to tell you, these are the different scores we need for financing a mortgage.

Yes, we can go down to 620.

We even have some programs that'll go down to 550.

With that being said, the lower the credit score means the more skin in the game, quote unquote, you need to have maybe more reserves, maybe more down payment, things of that.

There are a lot of programs out there right now that do 0% down.

But a lot of those need a 680 to a 720 or above score.

Score and so while you can still buy a house with a lower credit score in order to optimize Your mortgage and your financing which anyone want to do at a mortgage that's you know over a hundred two hundred three hundred four hundred I mean all the way up to a million plus dollars you want the best interest rate you can get because that's gonna affect your payment and So that's why credit is so important and that's why we wanted to bring it in even if you're at a 620 score

it might only take six months to get over a 680 to now maximize your financing ability.

And that's why I wanted to bring you in and I wanted to really share how quickly those scores can happen if you just stay the course.

I'm a firm believer that anyone who wants to buy a house should own a house.

Anyone.

just because you might have a lower credit score right now does not mean we can't help you get to a position or it's better and you can buy a house.

I never say there's no credit score we can't do because that's just is what's the lowest credit score you'll go to.

Well, there's the lowest credit score you're able to finance, but that doesn't mean that we can't start out now and work with you in order to buy.

Maybe it's six months, maybe it's a year, a year and a half from now, but if you don't get started now,

you're only prolonging it, right?

So if you really want to be a homeowner and you want to talk to somebody, listen, there's a lot of loan officers out there who won't work with somebody like that.

If you don't have a $500,000 loan amount and an 800 credit score, they're going to be like, nope, sorry, can't finance anything, not worth my time.

I'm not that person, never been that person.

I've always been the loan officer.

That's like, if you want to buy a house, let's figure out how you buy this

house.

Again, it might take a couple months, but we're going to work with you to do that.

Our team is set up and available to do that.

We want to do that.

We'll even find a way to help if you don't know where to start.

We'll help you find out, okay, what do we need to do?

What cards do you need to pay off first?

What medical collections?

What do you need to do here or there?

We'll advise you and we'll do all of that to help you build in that.

So when we come back, after this short break, stick with us, we're gonna wrap it all up and we're just gonna talk a little bit more about credit, housing, and what we can do to help you along.

So with that being said, we'll be right back, 97.9 FM, 1590, partnered with the Always On Point podcast here on the Civic Media Station.

Be right back.

Here we are with the Always On Point podcast partner with 97.9 FM, 1590 AM.

Civic Media.

app as well as you can find us at the Always On Point podcast on all the top podcast locations.

I know I'm not saying that, right?

I'm so old school and I don't just get in with all this stuff, but what is it?

Apple, Apple podcast, Spotify.

Yes, all that.

All of them.

There's so many of them, but we're on all of them.

Check us out.

We're just so grateful to be around and to be able to provide education.

Today's education is brought to you by Sophia Ambrose and myself.

Thank you so much for being on here and we're discussing credit because credit is such a huge part of life and it is such a huge part in getting started and not everybody gets the, we talked about earlier, the financial literacy.

Sophie and I, you know, we really discussed how to start that and again, just a quick recap, I should say, secure credit card, 30% utilization, don't pay it off in full every month.

That's the recap.

It's as easy as that.

We're happy to walk through.

You can always get ahold of me at 920-606-1156.

Shoot a question.

We'll help get it answered.

My team and I are here ready to help you.

And the main point is obviously we want to see everyone succeed with credit that came.

But again, we want to see everyone who wants to be a homeowner be a homeowner and credit is such a crucial part of that.

helps you get to those 0% downs, helps you get the better interest rates and, you know, cheaper PMI and things like that.

So with that being said, you know, we want to make sure that we're working with, you know, ways to increase credit.

People don't know that.

People don't understand that.

And some of the ways you can do that again as a little bit of a recap.

Mortgage being number one, installment loans being number two, installment loans again are credit card, I'm sorry, student loans, car loans, those types of things.

Credit cards are revolving.

The more those credit cards revolve in the best way possible.

Now another tidbit is most credit cards report by the 10th of every month.

So if you're listening out there, if you pay it off, let's say you paid off in the 30, your apps, there's a lot of monitoring apps out there, which I want to get into that too.

They're great, but they don't always have the most accurate numbers.

I've seen it where credit reporting apps, because credit bureaus don't typically report to the 10th of every month, I've seen it where, you know, they'll go up and then come down.

You make a payment, they go down, you make a payment, they go up.

And I've also seen it where, remember, these are monitoring apps.

They're not doing hard credit polls.

So they're monitoring you, giving you, if you have a little bit of an uptick and score means

Probably just that you do, but it's not if you're monitoring apps as you have a 750 credit score and then you go get a mortgage and we tell you it's 720, don't be alarmed by that.

Cause remember that monitoring app might only be looking at TransUnion.

When really a mortgage loan officer like myself is going to pull TransUnion, Equifax, Experian, there's all three.

And not every account, not every car loan, not every...

student loan, not every mortgage does, but not every credit card is going to report to all three of those scores.

And so those, you need all three scores because in the mortgage world, we're gonna throw, we're gonna pull all three.

We're gonna throw away the lowest and the highest, right?

Leaving you with that middle score.

That middle score might not match your monitoring service, but it should give you a pretty good idea.

Like if all of a sudden you're monitoring your credit score and it drops a lot,

That's a heads up, get in there, look and see, did you accidentally miss a payment?

Did you, you know what I mean?

Like what happened?

That's what it's there for.

If it's going up and up, that's always great, right?

But just know that when we pull a credit, when a mortgage loan officer pulls credit, it might not be the exact same score.

Just be prepared for that.

The other thing is, is that when you take out new credit, let's say you take out a new mortgage, it is not odd for your score to fall.

for a month or two before you start making payments to put it back up.

The reason for that is because even if you're putting, let's say you're buying a $300,000 house and you put $100,000 down.

We're not showing $100,000 of equity on your credit.

We're showing that you borrowed $200,000 and so it almost looks like it's being maxed out on day one.

So of course your credit is gonna come down a little bit.

It's no different than if you took out that credit card and maxed it out on day one that is not going to help you, that is going to hurt you.

And remember that's why we gave the tips.

Go back, if you're just jumping into the radio now, go back, go to my Always On Point podcast, listen to the whole show.

It's so good as far as information, financial literacy when it comes to credit card utilization and building your credit score.

With that being said, right?

Sophia here, within two years?

Yeah, about two years.

We went from a no credit score to a mid 700s.

Yeah.

Huge, you guys.

doesn't have to take forever, but you got to work at the right way.

Lucky enough for her, she trusted what I said and she did it and it worked and I'm so grateful.

And I do have clients who trust that do it and I've seen it work for them too.

Now I'm not saying I'm a miracle worker.

I'm not saying that these are the only ways to do things.

I'm just saying these are the ways that I have seen that are tried and true to what people have used.

And so that's why it's so important for me to share that.

It's not information you need to go spend a gazillion dollars for online or anything like that.

that it's here and we wanna work with you on that.

So we use all three bureaus, that's why you want to make sure that you're also utilizing a card that reports to hopefully all three bureaus or why it's important to, once you get that good credit score, maybe it is time to take out a car loan.

And then make sure you're paying on that really responsibly and then your score's just gonna keep going up and up.

Then later on in life, you add a mortgage onto it.

And listen, I'm doing mortgages for,

I say kids, but young adults, anywhere from 19 to 23 right now, we're working with that, our home buyers.

Sophie and I just had the opportunity to close on one of her friends and he was, you know, how old was he?

I think he's 20.

Yeah, 20 years old.

I mean, what an amazing way to get ahead of the game and get started in this world and your financial future.

So,

We're definitely here.

We want to help.

We are a team of people who wants to see people succeed, especially in their financial futures, their credit futures.

So we're here.

Again, shoot questions over 920-606-1156.

You can also email me at kambosatpointmtg.com.

You'll see all that in the notes, but again,

Thank you so much for listening.

Always on Point Podcast, partnered with 97.9, 1590 WGBW, and the Civic Media app, Sophia Ambos.

Thank you so much for being my guest today.

Thank you so much for having me.

We appreciate it.

We'll see you next Sunday.