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Hidden errors on credit reports are surprisingly common, and they can hold you back from achieving your financial goals. John Hope Bryant, CEO of Operation Hope and financial literacy expert, joins TheStreet to discuss his best tips for taking control of your credit score while building generational wealth.
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Full video transcript below:
Conway Gates: I always love getting advice. So is your first tip on how to raise your credit score is to actually take a look at your credit score?
John Hope Bryant: Yes. Yes, the first tip is to actually look at it because most people don’t know that there is something wrong with your credit report. And the credit bureau’s credit reporting agencies are negative. They won’t sit there, there’s something wrong. They let her sit there. They are the warehouses. You have to say, this is not for me. Now the law again stipulates 30 days. Once challenged, they must confirm or remove it, and more often than not they do. Again, show your credit score. Now your self-confidence rises. She says what else. We have now been negotiating these fees for 10 years when I divorced for pennies on the dollar. You owe $1,000 on the phone bill from the divorce. Well, 10 years later, it was sold from AT&T to Pacbell to Joe’s Financial Corporation, which bought it for $0.05 on the dollar. We call them and they want $50. We give them $100. So they want $100 for $50. We pay them. $200 to cooperate. Keep pulling that off your credit report. And now you have an 80% discount. They got a 200% profit. Everyone wins. This comes from your credit report. That’s another 25 to 30 pips.
He received tax revenues. You make less than $60,000 a year. And let’s be specific. You make $40,000 a year. You have three children. The government owes you about $5,000 or $6,000 in cash. Contact the EITC. If you never apply, it will be retroactive for three years. So anyone who watches this and who knows anyone in their family who makes less than $60,000 a year and you go, what’s this again. Congratulations, you have been approved. That’s all it takes. It is retroactive for three years. So, if you make $40,000 a year and you get a check for $15,000, that will change your life.
Pay off those credit cards, which now amount to trillions in the national figure. Pay off that student loan. Pay off that car loan. Refinance or pay it off. Push it. Put a down payment on the house. Get out of that apartment and get into creating wealth. The number one way to build wealth in America is home ownership. Go buy your own small insurance policy when you’re 35, start a family, and get a $100,000 policy for $25 a month. This does not cost us anything. Now when you die, God forbid, you will pay for your funeral and create generational wealth. And if you buy that house, and you do that three times in five years, a house for yourself, and equity in three years. Take out a small home equity loan. You have a million net worth in 5 to seven years.
Now, in just four minutes of this book, I tell hourly people, like my mother, how to become a millionaire. Stop arguing with your husband and wife about money, which is the number one reason for divorce, by the way. Stop having high blood pressure because the number one cause is heart attacks. Stress, the number one cause of stress is money. And move your mind from depression and survival to ambition and prosperity. This affects something big on Wall Street. People say, I hate rich people. I hear it all the time. I hear people say, why do people hate rich people? They don’t hate rich people. They hate rich people so they can get rich. What they hate is the gaming system. And no one, in your view, explains how this thing works.
