These credit repair people will have you thinking that these creditors are just bullies and they hate you and they just want to see your demise. That's not true. They want their money, but we have to be responsible. Step up and say, okay, I need to have these adult conversations with these creditors to let them know what's going on and what I can do and see if they're willing to work with me. And more than likely, they will work with you regardless of your circumstances
Angela Kaye
@AnngieKaye · 3:31
Let me look it up. And that's how it was sold to me. And that's when I first got on Facebook. And it was fun to be friends with people from high school, some of my cousins that I didn't talk to every day. And I think a lot of people still believe that it's that, but it's never been that. It's been a huge advertising marketplace
Angela Kaye
@AnngieKaye · 3:36
I haven't paid anything off. I certainly didn't open any new accounts, but my score went out because I know how credit works. And so if people learned how it worked, then they could do it themselves. Now, credit counseling is a great idea, but the credit repair, like you said, is a scam
LaShekia Chatman
@Sheika_MC · 4:52
And if you happen to be among any already marginalized group, that misinformation and then the trauma sort of around it, like how we approach it or feel empowered or don't, that also gets perpetuated. It's compounded when there's separation among financial information for people within these already disparaged groups because the solutions that are created still don't speak to the current situation of people in the lower rungs
Luce Fonrose
@ilovelucee · 4:23
At a young age that you got to speak up for yourself, because at any given moment, people are willing and ready to take your money. So make sure you're on your game. So agreed. For me, though, what I think is the biggest scam, one of the biggest scams, anyway, would be ATM, like, debit card fees. There you go. Debit card fees
Dewuan .
@FryedOreo · 4:34
We're talking about necessities like shelter, food, right? These are things that if you can't have, you die. I remember many swells ago, I found out that America, in terms of aid to poverty, we don't do. It's not within our meat. We don't honor it. You got to work
Tanya Coles
@MsColes77 · 3:20
It's, hey, I totally agree with you. I also joined Facebook in 2009 because I used to work with some high school kids that were going into college, and they were the first ones that told me about Facebook because back then, it was mainly college kids that connected on Facebook. And so it wasn't a well known platform. And then one day, I started getting blown up with friend requests from classmates. Like you said, classmates.com
Tanya Coles
@MsColes77 · 3:58
They work, they get paid, and that's about as they pay their bills, and that's about as far as the financial literacy part goes. And so these companies present themselves, like the payday loan places. They present themselves as, like, a saving grace. You don't get paid till Friday. It's Tuesday, and you got to get your car fixed. So we're going to go ahead and loan you some money today
Tanya Coles
@MsColes77 · 4:45
Hey, Dewuan, it's so good to hear your voice. I agree that on some of the things that we perceive as scams such as credit repair, rent to own, payday loans, that, yes, you have a largely uneducated group of people who are willingly signing their name to these schemes. Because when it comes to with the credit repair thing, when it comes to things like that, it can be very intimidating to some people, especially if they're not very financially literate
dee felton
@MrDee · 4:53
Now I pay all my bills on time and I'm trustworthy because how do you determine that based on somebody paying their bills on time and what type of credit they have now, that's two levels. And then it goes beyond, well, maybe you use too much of that. Maybe you didn't use enough of this. It's just all over the place. And nobody has the winning combination. Some people say they do
dee felton
@MrDee · 3:27
But, yeah, people are making living means and things like that on who they post and market to. So, yeah, you're definitely correct. Sometimes we could be just saying things that we give all of these apps, we don't read the fine print. That's just what we don't do, because the fine print is to cover their tales. But in reality, it's just too overwhelming to read
Al Cosby
@Cosbyal4165 · 1:44
And it seems as though they're getting all your information, and the next thing you know, it's like your bank account is drained or it's just missing just a lot of money altogether. So that has definitely become more of a scam now these days. And in a sense, it seems like it's normalized. And even when you do get computers now, they say, like, we need to just put this virus program, well, antivirus program in there for you
Tanya Coles
@MsColes77 · 2:17
And my insurance rate is still not going down because now you claim everybody's insurance is going up because folks are having to fix more things on a car. I will agree. Cars have more technology now. And so what used to just be a bumper is now a bumper with sensors and camera. And it costs more. It does. But still, if my driving record is good, why am I having to pay for other people? Like, I don't get that. So I totally agree
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Tanya Coles
@MsColes77 · 2:06
Hey, Al, I totally agree with you on the computer virus stuff. I remember years ago, I had a Dell computer, and I got a virus on that computer, and I had to call their customer service to get some type of fix. So they routed me to the third party customer service, the indian or whatever country their international customer service is. And there was just a breakdown in communication