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You're listening to Carrie Lets's Financial Survival
Network, where you get valuable information you

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just can't find anywhere else to thrive
in today's trying times. You need the

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Financial Survival Network now more than ever. Go to Financial Survival Network dot com

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Financial Survival Network now more than ever.

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Welcome, you are listening to the
Financial Survival Network. I'm carry let's your

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host. Well, we got a
return visit from our good friend Paul Auster,

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and we're gonna be talking about new
scams. Everything old is eventually new

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again, as well as we're going
to be getting some insight into the new

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rule that the Current and Men has
implemented that will effectively enialize credit worthy home

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buyers and reward deadbeats just what you
don't want to be doing. Paul.

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Great to have you back. Hey, just tell us again your website before

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we get started. Sure, great
to be back. It's better Qualified dot

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com. Better Qualified dot com and
there's a link to that in the show

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notes. By the way, if
you've got a question for Paul or myself,

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I knew this is a very popular
topic what we discuss. Shoot me

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an email k l at Kerry Lutz
dot com. So, Paul, it's

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great to have you back and connect
with you. You know, you're one

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of my oldest running guests. We've
been doing this almost since the beginning when

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I started the podcast eleven years ago, and amazing how things have changed.

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But some things don't change. So
these skimmer things are back again. I

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mean they used to nail me on
them at the gas stations in yeah,

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Miami. Yeah, I mean it's
it was worldwide, and it was so

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easy because all they had to do
was get the data off of that magnetic

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strip and it had everything and it
was unencrypted, stagnant data. So once

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just swiped the skimmer, you know, the identity thieves had everything that they

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needed. Moving forward, they went
to the chip card, which made it

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much much more difficult. But like
everything else, the identity thieves and the

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bad actors have now upgraded their technologies, so they're back, and they're back

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both as skimming, which is where
they'll take a device and actually you know,

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it's an overlay that they put on
top of an ATM machine, any

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point of sale device. Gas stations
are notoriously bad for this, but the

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latest technology is what's called a shimmer, and this is where they actually take

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a very small circuit board and insert
it inside of the machine. Much harder

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to detect it, you know,
with just physically looking at a device,

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because most of the times they pop
the thing open, pop it in,

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and close it back up, and
nobody's the wiser until they realize that a

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lot of their customers data has been
stolen. So they're now able to decrypt

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and get most of the data off
of even the chip cards. A lot

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of times they do it in conjunction
with a camera that's installed. They want

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to see you put in the three
digit CVV code, they want to see

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you put in any other data that
they can grab, and they do that

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via very very small cameras. So
between those things, believe it or not,

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coming out of the pandemic, this
type of credit card fraud and identity

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theft is exploding and on the rise. Unfortunately. Really that's a real shock

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there that it came back again.
I can't believe that. And yep there

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is a time when and I was
getting a new credit card from American Express

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once a month was unbelievable. Yeah, yeah, so this, you know,

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this goes back to you know,
one of the ways that you can

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limit your your exposure and your risk. And look if they get and if

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you if you use a debit card
in this situation, they could literally drain

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your account. Um if you use
a credit card, which obviously we don't

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try and promote because people get themselves
in trouble by using the credit card.

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But at least the credit card,
you know, you're not responsible for any

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fraudulent charges um. And in the
case of using a debit card, you're

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going to get your money back,
but typically they will freeze your account during

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the investigation, which becomes a huge
inconvenience, you know, at that point

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in time. So we're we're we're
up against you know, these bad actors

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and carry One of the things I
didn't really grasp was when you look at

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Silicon Valley and you look at the
tens of thousands of very very smart,

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technologically advanced workers that have been laid
off. Unfortunately, when they fall on

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hard times, they're the ones that
are being recruited to perpetrate these crimes and

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to advance their technologies on their side. So we're in for some rough waters

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when it comes to identity theft and
cybersecurity. It's kind of like that movie

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Fun with Dick and Jane where they
both get laid off from their jobs.

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I think it was like George Seagull
and yeah, Gaine Fada and then they

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become bank robbers. Not really good
at it, but they keep improving and

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getting better and better at it.
Right, absolutely, absolutely, Oh man,

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will it ever cease? But the
good news is I got a Tesla,

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so I never even use a credit
card to fill my car up anymore.

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Though at least that exposure has been
limited in my case. Yeah,

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well, I don't know about that. The smarter, the smarter, the

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cars, the smarter. You know, those are now open, uh you

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know, uh portals. It's like, believe it or not, they were

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hacking into refrigerators and think that's connected
to the internet. You know, they

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can reverse engineer it and somehow gain
access to your to your data. You

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know. It's always worried that the
my refrigerator would turn state's evidence against me.

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Yep, that's a little world.
What a world? Hey, onto

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other things. So you heard about
this proposal that's being implemented today. I

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believe that will penalize credit worthy borrowers
who are seeking a guess, FHA or

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federally backed mortgage and reward to the
dead beats. Yeah, this is you

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know, I am not a fan
of this at all. If they wanted

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to put forward a program that helped
people that had some credit issues, Look,

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the pandemic was very unfriendly to everybody. But the reality is to do

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it this way, and they've tried
to spend it a thousand different ways.

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The bottom line here is, on
an average let's say three hundred thousand dollars

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mortgage, somebody with less than stellar
credit. Let's say you're at a six

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twenty, right, and then you
take somebody who is above a six to

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eighty or a seven hundred. The
person with the lower credit is going to

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save close to four thousand dollars.
The person with the higher credit is going

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to wind up paying about four hundred
dollars more. So really is going to

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stay people. This is for only
for government backed loans like your your Federal

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Housing Authority, your FAJ loans.
So if you do, if you get

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a conventional loan, then you're okay. The problem with this also is that

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the FED, the government, the
administration assumed that people who have higher credit

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scores have a higher net worth value, and that's certainly not the case.

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Income has nothing to do with your
FICO score, and they know that on

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both sides of the coin here.
So to penalize somebody, let's say a

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person is making minimum wage, they've
been exhausting their resources, they have two

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jobs just to make all the pay
their bills on time, and they go

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to get the first time owned buyer
mortgage and they're going to get penalized because

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they've actually done what they were supposed
to do. This is completely bananas to

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me. It's counterintuitive, and it's
probably one of the biggest socialized piece of

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legislation that's ever been passed, and
there wasn't a lot of fanfare out of

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it. A lot of people are
going to find out when they actually apply

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for a mortgage, yeah, that
it should go on the closing statement on

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the HUD one as a deadbeat tax
one hundred percent. Again, you want

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to put programs to help foster first
time homebuyers, to help the underbanked,

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um uh, you know all these
different communities. That's great, put those

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programs in place, give them incentives, help them out for sure, down

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down payment assistance programs, grants.
All of that is awesome, But how

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did we get to a point where
again, this is not taxing the rich

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to pay the poor. This is
taxing you know, let's call it attack.

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This is penalizing someone who has a
good credit score to help somebody who

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doesn't have a good credit score.
And again you could have people that are

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are you know, not wealthy either. The same sense is saying socioeconomic status

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as the person who's kidding rewarded.
Um. Again, this just does not

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make sense to me. I hope
they actually repeal it and get rid of

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it. Yeah. Well, Congress
is threatening to override it, and it

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seems like both parties are in an
uproar over this, which is unusual.

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Yeah, just another example of government
overreach. Do you think they'll do You

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think they'll revoke it or repeal it, override it? I do? I

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do? You know? The bank, the banking industry as a whole is

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very very powerful. Um. They're
the ones that are there screaming and hollering

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because it Again, this just does
not make sense. Um, So I

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think it goes back on the table
and again massage it, tweak it.

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If you want to help the people
that had fallen on hard times and their

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credit has suffered because of it.
That's a good idea, right again,

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I would just do it during the
pandemic. If you suffered some financial hardships,

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you were you, you know,
you miss some bills, you know,

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Listen, if you miss one payment, a thirty day late payment comes

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on to your credit report, it
could easily cost you fifty points. Those

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fifty points could wind up costing you
hundreds, if not thousands of dollars,

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especially when you're talking about a mortgage. So if you want to help those

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people, great, but you certainly
can't do it by penalizing the people again

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who have exhausted themselves to pay their
bills on time. Yeah, it certainly

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is an outrage. But by any
calculation, and it's not a political thing

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at all, is now reward people
who have managed to get through the pandemic

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and eat their credit high Maybe give
them a bonus too, because presumably that

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these people can get through a pandemic
without defaulting on various obligations, they're going

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to be a more credit worthy risk
one hundred percent. They're the ones that

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will ultimately drive the economy moving forward
anyway. Way, So this is,

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you know, this is just such
a negative impact on the people who again

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we're doing everything that they possibly could
to maintain a good credit score, and

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to penalize them for those efforts.
Is it just doesn't make any sense.

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Yeah, it's just a slap in
the face, it really is. It's

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not a lot of money or a
hundred bucks, but hey, you can

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maybe take the family on a vacation
for that or a weekend. Yeah,

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we can, even if it was
even if it was only fifty dollars a

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month, right, So fifty dollars
a month, six hundred dollars a year,

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you know, on a thirty year
mortgage. We're talking a lot,

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a lot of money. Now,
the average person doesn't hold the mortgage for

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thirty years. I get that,
but some people do. And so we

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just look, we're smart enough to
figure out a different path and a different

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way to help the people. I
don't want to say that they deserve it,

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but we can certainly help the people
that need it the most, and

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those are that's certainly people that have
suffered, you know, a negative impact

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of their credit scores. Your credit
score is going to cost or save your

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money every single month, whether it's
financing, whether it's insurance, security,

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deposits, you know, for cell
phones and having utilities turned on. It's

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going to cost or save you money
every single month, relatively speaking. So

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the people that you know are are
below a seven forty, Actually, it's

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all tiered base pricing. So the
minute you drive below of seven forty,

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you're gonna pay a little bit more. If you're a seven twenty to a

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seven forty, you're gonna pay a
little bit more than someone is a seven

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forty and above. If you're below
is seven twenty. If you're between a

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seven hundred and seven twenty, you're
gonna pay that much more. And it

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goes right down six to eighty six
to sixty eighty six forty and to a

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point. You know, typically if
you're below a five eighty, you're not

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even going to get approved for the
mortgage. And if you do. You

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know, people are screaming about the
interest rates that they see on the TV.

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Well, those rates are for people
with a seven forty or a buck

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up. If you're a six hundred
and the bank has some program that can

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get you approved, you're probably paying
close to nine percent. Yeah, hey,

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give us one tip, one hack. They can help you raise your

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credit score without doing a heck of
a lot. Yeah, I mean the

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easiest way possible. I'll give you
two. Hey, you have to build

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new accounts, open positive accounts.
There's all sorts of credit builder companies out

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there. One is called self Excellent
Company. The results are great, it

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won't cost you a lot of money
to do it. And then the other

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thing is to pay down that credit
card debt because that's, you know,

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the second biggest score factor that impacts
your scores. So figure out a way

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to get out of credit card debt. We say it all the time,

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But add new positive accounts to your
credit report and you can do that even

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if you have lower scores. Credit
builder accounts you can get approved, even

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if you have a lower credit score. Secured credit cards you can get approved

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even if you have a lower credit
square. So it's just a numbers game.

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You have to you have to skew
it in the other direction. You

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have to have more open positive accounts
than you do negative accounts. All right,

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Well, we appreciate you coming on
Paul. As always, Hey find

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00:15:54,799 --> 00:16:00,279
Pulse site, check them out on
a better qualified dot com and the Hey

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00:16:00,440 --> 00:16:03,320
you can find a link to it
in the show notes. This interview on

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00:16:03,519 --> 00:16:07,480
Financial Survival Network dot com. Just
click it and you go there. And

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00:16:07,519 --> 00:16:10,559
while you're there, sign up for
a free newsletter. And if you got

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00:16:10,559 --> 00:16:14,879
any questions, comments, whatever for
Paul myself, shoot me an email k

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00:16:15,279 --> 00:16:18,279
l at Arry Lutz dot com.
Paul, great catching up with you.

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We'll talk to you again real soon. Thanks so much, Carrie. Bye

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now, thanks for listening to carry
Lutz's Financial Survival Network, your solution to

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00:16:27,200 --> 00:16:33,679
today's trying times. For the latest, go to Financial Survival Network dot com.

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