Credit experts Thomari Story-Harden and Reggie Burns bring awareness about the different levels of credit and how to boost or fix it.
FRESNO, CA--It is shockingly real that minorities are more likely to have insufficient credit histories to generate a credit score according to a report released in 2015 by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which looked at the number of Americans who were “credit invisible,” meaning they had no records with credit reporting agencies, and the percentage who were unscorable, meaning they had insufficient records to generate a credit score.
The report continued with finding that one reason for the lack of credit confidence among minorities could be that minorities tend to have lower credit scores than white Americans: In 2013, more than 64 percent of white American borrowers had a FICO score of 720 or higher compared with 41 percent of Latino borrowers and 33 percent of African-American borrowers.
Although it may seem easy to push all those statistics to the side, the reality is that society's instrument of evaluating "stable citizens" is based on "credit worthiness."
Thomari Story Harden and Reggie Burns of Credit Pulse know all too well the staggering statics; however, they are determined to educate the Central Valley community on ways to improve and boost credit as well as avoiding any pitfalls that can disrupt one's credit history or FICO score.
Valley Black Talk Radio has been decoding key issues in the black community through
its several-week series: State of Black Central Valley, beginning with education, by including such guest educators as Chris Finley and Atiya Cruise who tackled key issues in the public school system along with possible solutions. (Click here it see past show.)
But it was the next topic for discussion in which VBTalk hosts knew there had to be immediate solutions and remedies: Economics.
According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, in 2015, 50 percent of African-Americans, compared with 49 percent of the general U.S. population, said reducing personal debt was an important financial priority. Forty-nine percent of African-Americans said in 2015 that they had some credit card debt compared with 49 percent of the general population.
In its Economics Part 1, financial expert Marshawn Govan of MKG Insurance Agency explained how to get started in budgeting, the importance of being health and life insured and the ABCs' to understanding one's finances and priorities. (See video here.)
Harden and Burns finalized the Economics Part 2 of VBTalk Radio's series, educating viewers on all aspects of credit, FICO scores and collection agencies--and what to do about it all. Watch more below to get insight on how to get one's credit up to par in just a few months.