In October 2019, I got into a refinancing high when rates suddenly dropped, and I was able to refinance my mortgage from 30-year fixed 5.125% down to 15-year fixed 3.25%. Looking at the amount of interest I saved, I started telling everyone to look into refinancing every loan they had: home, car, student. 

One of my friends, B.K., bought a car a year earlier and was asking me back then about shopping for a loan (yes, you can shop for loans and get people to match or beat them, but that’s a discussion for another post). When he told me the banks gave him 7%, I was livid. Some finance person had just taken advantage of my friend!

Now if you know me, you’ll know my reaction was “ah hell no, ain’t nobody mess with my fam.” 

So I looked into getting him a better rate that’d save him money with minimal closing costs, cause you can negotiate down or even away those pesky fees. But, when we took a look at his financial profile, his credit score was stopping him from a solid rate below 2%! 

He had a solid score at a 675, but the goal is to have a credit score of 740+ at all times so that if you wanted to borrow any money, you can always get the best rate AND have leverage to negotiate. We decided to table refinancing and instead focused on boosting his score. 3 months later, he hit a 712! 

In order to reach the goal this is what we did: 

1. Make a list of all credit cards he owned and if he had any debt on them. 

2. Pick the one with the lowest balance and throw extra payments to pay it off immediately. 

3. Stop using that credit card and focus on paying down the other ones. 

We get it, sometimes you just can’t help having credit card debt. But managing your credit utilization is one of the easiest ways to quickly raise your score, especially if you’re making the minimum payments and not paying anything late. If you do pay something late, just contact the credit card or lending agency and ask them to remove it due to your track record. This is literally what credit coaches charge you money to do. 

It really is that easy! 

Now my boy, B.K. has a great credit score, doesn’t feel guilty about splurging on a smoking car (he got an ‘05 EVO), and is ready to refinance to lower the amount of interest he gives to the bank. 

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