How Credit Works with Nathalie Noisette

Come on What do I put this is George G. And the time is right. Welcome. Today’s guest is strong and powerful. Natalie knows that Natalie, you’re ready to do this?

Nathalie Noisette 0:18
Yes, absolutely.

george grombacher 0:20
All right, let’s let’s let’s go. Natalie is a credit expert. She’s a financial strategist, a podcast or a speaker, and she is the author of converted, uncover hidden strategies, you need to easily achieve a massive credit, massive credit score success. Natalie, I’m excited to have you on tell us a little bit of personal life some more about your work and why you do what you do.

Nathalie Noisette 0:42
Yeah, first of all, thank you for having me, I really do appreciate it, any opportunity to really get the message out is always, always a blessing. So I really am grateful for that. And with that being said, again, my name is Natalie, I am a financial expert. I’m a financial strategist and a credit expert. And I did not set out to go down this path whatsoever. This was not my call, this is not what I thought was my calling. However, as I became an adult, I started to notice some patterns. Namely, the fact that a lot of the kids in my well, then young adults in my age group, didn’t really know anything about financial literacy. And being the absolute nerd that I am, I went further back, and looked into like my mom’s history and my art history. And I noticed that this was a pattern like people just did not know, we had no clue what was going on personal finances. And then another trend and pattern that I noticed within my own life was the fact that a lot of the women that I looked up to that I believe I should have gotten this advice from were all single moms, right, struggling to make ends meet struggling to feed their children, there was always more month than money. They were robbing Peter to pay Paul, every single month, like this was just a pattern of behavior. And I was like, How do I end this? Right? What is the first step that needs to be taken to address this issue, and over and over and over credit keep kept coming up, you need credit to buy a car, you need credit to buy a house, which is all things that can either be leveraged or used to build generational wealth, right? You need credit to have credit, you need credit to have loans, which is things that people use to leverage to make to create other opportunities. So I’m like, Okay, this credit thing, there’s this thing to it, right, there’s a, there’s a piece to it, that is really important, and an integral first step to gaining financial wealth. And even and I’ve noticed even now as a, as a later on in life, a lot more successful a lot more money. Even if I wanted to buy a house cash, I’m still looking to my credit history. So this credit pieces is important. I just want to keep emphasizing that right? Um, then I had an a padding to be in a position to fix my own credit. And then other people were asking me, Hey, how did you do this? And then it kind of just tumbled into this. Now you know more about credit than most people do. And then I’m an expert now. So this is this is pretty much a short, short answer to why I’m here. And what kind of got me started down this trajectory? For sure.

george grombacher 3:18
Nice. Well, I appreciate all that. Yeah. More month than money. I’ve been talking about financial stuff for over 20 years. I’ve never heard that term before. It’s amazing. Yeah. And when I say it’s amazing, it’s a great term for a terrible scenario, or terrible place that so many people find ourselves. And he talked about, he talked about people that you were growing up with, and he dug deeper into it. And you realize this is a generational problem. It’s It’s It’s across different places that people live. It’s just it’s it’s chronic, and credit is such a huge piece of it. Right? Is his credit, so hard for people to understand? Or is it just that nobody’s really looked at it? People don’t pay attention?

Nathalie Noisette 4:03
Definitely is it it’s a twofer. So one on one piece, and on one side of the spectrum, there’s an algorithm that determines three numbers that are going to pretty much determine your financial fate. There’s an algorithm algorithms are difficult to understand. And then, even though like I’m going to be completely transparent, I’ve written this book, I’ve been in this field for eight years, there’s some times I will look at a credit report. And I’m like, what triggered the score drop? Because this is supposed to be algorithmic, right? This is supposed to be you know, pretty linear for the most part and I should be able to look look at the factors and see what dropped it. Sometimes you just can’t tell. So even with all the experience I have and then you have a consumer who then on the other side of it is just not exposed to it doesn’t have the knowledge. Of course it’s gonna be difficult, you know, so that’s why I really And I joke about this a lot. I’m almost a therapist in some regards when it comes to this financial literacy space, is because I’ve noticed that it’s not that a lot of people are not like educated or empowered around money. There’s also a piece of shame that comes in the society around money. And then the emotional elements. So when you factor all these pieces, I wouldn’t want to look at my credit reporting there. It is intimidating. It’s hard to deal with. There’s so much information how do you know what’s right, right? So definitely twofold for sure.

george grombacher 5:35
Yeah, I intimidating, confusing, immense. And that’s really it’s personal finance, right? It’s like, okay, well, now I’ve got to worry about this. And I’ve got to worry about that. And now credit to, but to your point. It’s a you know, jeez, when you’re sitting down with people, and they say, You know what, I really want to get my act together. How do you how do you? I don’t want to say spoon feed, but how do you give people just the right amount so that you don’t just totally shut them down?

Nathalie Noisette 6:11
Right? I love this question, because you’ll hear me say this a lot and annoys me too. But it’s twofold. So I first determine if the person is ready, right? Because readiness is going to determine how much information and also determine how motivated they are to retain this information, right. There are some people who don’t really want to know they want the result. So once I gave, then I have a whole process to really gauge how active and motivated the person is really to learn about their credit. So once I’ve determined that that person is really motivated, the information fascinates them more than anything, right? It’s almost like, oh, my gosh, I didn’t know that. And okay, so if I do this, and how do they you can start to see like the strategist, ignite in their brain. And it’s, so I guess I have a cheat code, it’s not really a matter of what I do, or how I interact with the consumer as much as it is their preparedness, their readiness to really retain this information and make a difference with their own personal finances.

george grombacher 7:19
Yeah, that certainly does make a lot of sense, because you can be super, super engaged in helping individual John did his credit together. But if John’s just kind of hohem on it, then that’s not gonna work.

Nathalie Noisette 7:32
Right? For sure. And what I found in the past, also is that when the consumer isn’t as interested or as engaged, we could repair their credit, we can address all the negative items on their credit, and then there’ll be back in about two years, that’s the average. So I’m just like, oh, no, that I need to, I need to find a way to filter out people who are prepared to not only increase our business, right? Because that’s we’re in the business of helping people. So make sure that people are actually helped. But then also making sure that the person is really empowered and educated enough to make the right decisions to not be back in that position, for sure. Because I don’t I don’t want repeat clients in this business. I don’t want you to come back. So let’s just get it right the first time.

george grombacher 8:15
Yeah, that’s, that’s funny, right? It’s like, thank you. But I’d rather you just be you know, past client and not and not not not returning. And that kind of comes down to the pattern that you were talking about, right, when we got started is that we all have patterns, and it’s how we use our money. And a lot of those patterns are, are have negative impacts on our credit. Right? For

Nathalie Noisette 8:39
sure. Absolutely. And you’d be surprised. Until the shame piece, right? I can understand why there is so much shame around credit. Because if I look at your report, I can tell a lot about you. Not necessarily you as the person, I don’t know if you know if you’re mean or if you’re kind of not your character, but I can tell a lot about your relationship with money. Right, especially in the past seven years, because that’s how long, typically an item, especially a negative item will stay on your report. I can see what months maybe you were neglectful. Or I could see maybe what months you struggled. You know, I can’t I can’t get down to the details. I wasn’t there when it was happening. But I can get an overarching view. And as someone who’s working with your money, there’s a piece of oh my gosh, I’m so vulnerable and exposed. This this person judging me, but I’m not I look at it like a mechanic looking at a car, right. It’s technical, there are pieces that need to be addressed. There’s a problem here and once that’s addressed, you have to really be concerned about how you look and how your credit report looks because lenders don’t want to be making decisions based on this. How high of a risk are you? How has your relationship been with other lenders in the past? So I get the shame piece, but at the same time addressing that emotionally What absolutely and exponentially help you improve your credit on in the on the front end?

george grombacher 10:07
Yeah, I appreciate that. And it’s such a, it, I think it makes sense to look at it from what kind of, like you said, mechanic looking at an automobile, or stripping away the shame and the emotions. And that’s a part that needs to be addressed. But also, we need to just put all that aside and say, Hey, we need to position you, as a good potential customer for this creditor, because they’re looking at you, and they want to make sure that you’re going to be able to pay back the money that they lend you.

Nathalie Noisette 10:40
Right? For sure. Yeah, for sure.

george grombacher 10:43
So as you’re going through, through through an engagement with with with with people, or they pick up the book, how is it? How does the process sort of start and flow with cleaning up my credit, improving my credit, whatever term you use,

Nathalie Noisette 11:03
right? So I call them restoration, right? Because it’s a process for sure. First part is to educate yourself, if you don’t know what you don’t know, it’s going to be harder to navigate the situation and it’s going to take you longer to so first part of the book is formatted in a way where it’s educating, you look at what’s in your report, you understand the pieces, you understand how the actual credit score is calculated down to the right, like 297.5 points for X, like that’s how much we allocated to meet the total of your a 50. That kind of thing, right? So really deep dive intent, I need to know this, because this is going to be the foundation for moving forward, then you’re going to look at the things that are not so good on your report. That’s the second piece. So now that you understand what’s on it and how its structured. The second part is to actually address the things that are hurting you, right? Because there are a ton when I say a ton, I mean a ton of errors on your report. old and outdated addresses, your name could be spelled incorrectly, I’ve had people who have had wrong birthday years, which can impact your insert, like let’s say, for example, let’s say I were to apply for a credit card right now, I put my correct information in there. But then when they pulled my report, it has a different year, I’m automatically disqualified, right. So things like that. I also had a client who had a similar name to her sister, she married into a family adopted the last name, culturally, the first and last name, the first name is similar. And then the middle name is their like real name. And then the woman married into the family and then like seven items from a sister in law’s profile ended up on hers, not associated to her at all. So those errors are major. And then micro things like if an account was in collections, and it says it’s open. That’s not right, you have to address that. And then just even within some of the negative items, making sure that the collectors and people who are furnishing the data to these credit bureaus are being honest, because some of them are not always aboveboard, right. So the second part is how to look at your report to see what’s not right. And then the third part is addressing it, there’s letter templates in there. There’s how to reach out, there’s who to reach out to, there’s what you should be asking. And then I just want to go ahead and say this, because I say this, anytime we talk about it is this is not legal advice. A lot of the letters have case law referenced. But just because these are your consumer rights that people don’t even know about, right. So there’s, there’s that. And then the fourth part, now that your credit is addressed, we’ve gotten all the things right, is the restoration piece. So resources that will allow you to add good payment history onto your report, you know, make it appear as if you have a loan, which is important because it’s a it’s one of those metrics that the algorithm likes, right? Different kinds of credit cards that you can have that limits your limit your exposure to debt. And then my favorite piece is the manufacturer spending, which is how you really leverage your credit credit is not just to buy things, right? Because if you buy something on credit, you’re actually prolonging the amount of money that you actually spent on it by the interest rate, right? So my favorite piece is to have a budget the bad D word, have a budget, you know, get everything copacetic and really maximize it like I I’ve had a client on average have $1,200 a year and getting credit card companies to pay them and having to pay zero interest. That’s the goal, right? Because these rewards in these purchases. I pay $11 for flights every time I fly with Delta, because I rack it I put everything when I say everything on my credit It’s hard. And I, I am able to rack up those points pay for my my flights and miles and only pay the taxes. Those are the goals, right? And then on the back end, because I’m going to write another book about this, in particular, is really understanding that once your debt is in order, and once you understand how much you really have coming in, and really how much you have going out, which is the budget, right? That’s, that’s the bad word that everybody hates so much. But once you really understand that, then you really open up the doors to financial freedom, because now you have more discretionary income to invest, you have discretionary income to do things like say for home to buy a home, you know, so the book is formatted so that you get every piece of the repair process, in addition to the resources that are just amazing. And once we get to the end, now share some of those,

george grombacher 15:55
love it incredible what a what a huge shift to get somebody, you know, have their arms around their debt, get it paid off, and then to actually have the credit cards paying them and you know, talking about flights, $1,200 a year, that’s a meaningful, really a meaningful amount of money. So a little bit. Natalie, people are ready for your difference making tip.

Nathalie Noisette 16:20
So today, and I’m not endorsed by them, but this is one of my number one resources, right? Self look up cells, they used to be self lender, but now they’re self like myself, right? This, this different, this is a difference making tip because it addresses three parts of your credit payment history, which is number one, not number one in importance, but number one in the biggest factor. So in hits your payment history portion of your credit report, it also hits your credit mix piece of your credit report, which is important. And then the third piece that it gets is it allows you to really play around with some savings. So that’s the benefit to looking into self. So what they do is they open a CD for you. And every month you pay them, they’ll put the money to the CD, they’ll report the positive payment that you made that month, on your behalf to the credit bureaus. And then at the end of the year or two years or three years, whatever the term you pick with them is they will send you your money back. So it’s like you saved a little bit. Somebody was holding the money for you, you paid them, they give you the money back and then you get this all this positive payment history on your credit report. Game Changer. absolute game changer. Because you don’t have first of all, you don’t have to qualify for it. It’s for its extended to everyone even at my credit score. Now I still use it every year, or every two years now they changed their terms, but every two years now, I’ll re up and get like 25 bucks plan it absolutely it’s just free points free payment history added a great credit mix without having to get alone absolute gamechanger. And if you want to look into it self

george grombacher 18:06
I think that that is great stuff that definitely gets come up. But that’s awesome. What a what a great tool and resource. So thank you so much for sharing that. It’s awesome. Well, Natalie, thank you so much for coming on. Where can people learn more about you? How can they engage with you and where can they get a copy of converted?

Nathalie Noisette 18:24
Yes, so converted is on converted credit calm, that’s converted credit calm exactly how it sounds. I’m co n VRTD see our ebit.com and then me personally, I’m one credit conversion on Instagram is where I’m the most active like lives answering questions like those kinds of things. And then if you want specific questions or if you want to work with us, it’s converted at converted credit calm.

george grombacher 18:53
Perfect. Well if you enjoyed this as much as I did show Natalie appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciates good ideas, pick up a copy of the book at converted credit.com and take advantage of that step by step process complete with the different resources and letters, the templates for actually interacting with lenders and getting stuff taken care of find on Instagram at credit conversion. And give us the website one more time.

Nathalie Noisette 19:19
Converted credit.com Perfect.

george grombacher 19:23
Well, thank you again, Natalie.

Nathalie Noisette 19:25
Now of course My pleasure, thank you.

george grombacher 19:27
And until next time, keep fighting the good fight. We’re all in this together.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai