Suze Orman's Webcast Transcript

Suze: And your FICO score is made up of the things you're all seeing on your screen right now. And again we talked about how 30 percent of your FICO score was, you know, made up of how much debt to credit that you have. Thirty-five percent of your FICO score, however, the most important thing is, do you pay your bills on time?

Oprah: Do you pay your bills on time.

Suze: All right? Fifteen percent is the length of your credit history. How long have you had credit cards? And if you close down a credit card that you have open for 15 years, that closes down your credit history. Another reason that I say be very careful about closing down credit cards and which ones you close. Ten percent of your FICO score is the mix of credit. What we were just talking about. Do you have a car loan? Do you have, you know, a home loan? Do you have credit cards as well? So are you responsible in all types of situations? And 10 percent is applications for new credit. How are you doing? Are you making a lot of new credit out there? Are you applying for all of these things? So they're watching you very carefully to make sure you don't go FICO crazy and open up all of these credit cards and all of a sudden charge up to the hilt. So that's how your credit score or your FICO score is comprised.

Oprah: And I hear you have another offer for everybody watching and that is?

Suze: I do. And here's the thing, everybody. FICO has been around now for a number of years. It wasn't until 2001 that the public—they were able to get their FICO scores. For years the banks have been looking at your FICO scores. Credit card companies have been looking at your FICO scores. They have been out there forever that way, especially, you know, they came about in 1989, 1990. And in 1990, you know, they were mainly for credit cards. In 1995, home loans started to look at it. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mack got involved. Now everybody, for you to get a credit now, credit, and a good interest rate, you need a high FICO score. So you have to know what your FICO score is. You have to know what your credit reports say on it. You have to understand all these things. So a FICO score is given through MyFICO.com, and it's normally $15.95 a FICO score. You have three FICO scores—one for every credit reporting bureau out there. There's Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. If you pay a car loan, it goes maybe to one of those. If you pay your home loan, maybe it goes to another. Credit card's another. So you have three FICO scores, one for every credit reporting bureau out there. You have to know all three of your FICO scores because when you go to buy a home, they look at all three. So, therefore, you have to get involved in this. Now like I said, normally a FICO score is $15.95. Years ago, I partnered with FICO to bring you FICO scores in a way that you could understand them, to bring you coaching in these kits and things that we do, so—and normally that kit is $50. That comes with three prepaid FICO scores, your three credit reports. It has a debt eliminator that literally goes onto your credit reports, pulls your credit cards off for you, lines them up in the order that you should pay them off so your FICO situation improves.

Oprah: Wow.

Suze: It has a coaching model on it that if you're going to buy a home, it tells you the interest rate that you will be qualifying for.

Oprah: Great. That's great.

Suze: And gives you the—you wouldn't be in the trouble you're in. Same thing if you're going to buy a car. It does everything for you. There's day to pay reminders in this kit. You set the date and you get an e-mail that says—

Oprah: How do you get it? Sign me up.

Suze: So here's how you get it. Right now on Oprah.com the FICO people, they're the ones offering this, they're offering it a I don't know how they're doing it, for a 50 percent discount to all of you. So it's approximately I guess $25 or $24. So if you are interested in knowing about FICO scores, learning about how to improve your situation, understanding your home, your car loans, getting out of debt, all these things, you should seriously take advantage of that because I think that's good for—is it today or just one week? What is it?

Oprah: Oprah.com/FICO, there you go. Oprah.com/FICO. And I don't know how long it's available. Our phone lines are lighting up. How long is it available, guys?

Dean: One week.

Oprah: One week. One week.

Suze: And that in itself is extraordinary. That's all I can tell you because that—I mean, again, I don't know how they're doing that. But if you're ever going to do anything, do that. Three—you need those. And it's good for one year. So you don't have to use them all today. You can use one today, one three months from now. Just get it and use it and—oh. Also I just have to say, also if there are mistakes on your credit report, that's what determines possibly a lower FICO score. And all these people have mistakes on their credit report. This takes you through every line of your credit report.

Oprah: I love that lining up your credit cards so you know in order—

Suze: It does it automatically for you.

Oprah: Wow.

Suze: It pulls it from your credit report line, and then you say how much you want to put per month toward this debt and it tells you exactly how much you should put toward your debt to get you out of debt the fastest. But also to improve your FICO situation the fastest.
Oprah: That's incredible. So our phone lines are lighting up. Thank you. And we'll try to get to as many people as we can. Jamie from Daytona Beach, you have a question? Hi.

Jamie: Yeah, hi, ladies.

Oprah: Hi.

Jamie: Thank you for having this webinar today.

Oprah: You're welcome.

Jamie: I filed bankruptcy in November, and I was wondering if my FICO score will ever get off zero.

Suze: Oh, Jamie, it will take approximately four or five, six years. You know, a bankruptcy does stay on your credit report, you know, for 10 years, essentially. You can't claim bankruptcy again for six or seven years, so it's going to be there for quite a while. And you just need to know that it eventually will recover, and it's not that big of a deal. So don't worry about it, okay, girlfriend?

Jamie: All right.

Suze: And I just have to ask you this. Do you feel bad because you claimed bankruptcy?

Jamie: I did for a while. I felt kind of guilty and kind of like a thief.

Suze: And why did you feel like a thief? Because you claimed bankruptcy?

Jamie: Because I promised these people I would pay that money back.

Suze: Oh. Well, you know what? If ever and when you do, you hit it big and you make money, just because you claimed bankruptcy, doesn't mean you can't go in and not give them back the money so you don't feel like a thief.

Jamie: I know.

Oprah: All right.