EP 686 – Busting Credit Myths In 2022 With Merrill Chandler

NCS 686 Merrill Chandler | Credit Myths

 

Are credit myths ruining your chance at becoming fundable? Then it’s time to get educated and take a step towards fundability. In this episode, Scott Carson talks credit education and myth-busting with credit expert and the founder of Get Fundable, Merrill Chandler. Merrill and Scott discuss Merrill’s new initiative to educate people on how to get fundable and why busting credit myths go a long way toward this goal. Learn more about fundability and credit by tuning in.

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Busting Credit Myths In 2022 With Merrill Chandler

This is Merrill Chandler from GetFundable.com. In this episode, Scott and I are going to do a complete takedown of my research this last summer of 2021 of over 350 credit funding, credit repair, personal credit and business credit myths. We call it the myth busters. We invite you to join us because you might be very afraid of what you learned to be the truth instead of what’s a misrepresentation or a myth. We will see you on the inside.

I couldn’t think of a better person to start off 2022 and the episodes here than the man, the myth, the legend, our good buddy Mr. Merrill Chandler from GetFundable.com. He’s been a regular contributor on here, providing tons of nuggets and helping you see through. As we like to say, “The credit matrix out there is what’s crazy going.” What’s going on Merrill. How’s it going?

I’m thrilled to be here. I’m always been a fan. We share with hundreds of clients together because there’s such perfect synergy of what we’re doing, what you’re doing and how they all get those fundings necessary so note buyers can buy more nodes. I’m so happy.

You said you’ve helped a lot of our students out there. If you’re reading for the first time, you don’t know who he is, you can always go to GetFundable.com. Find out more about how Merrill is the, as we like to say, “The Credit Messiah.” Not credit repair but the Credit Messiah and helping people see through the myths out there that come to help you get a more fundable profile, getting lines of credit, getting credit cards, getting loans approved at lower interest rates.

We’re his clients. He’s helped us with our mortgage getting down and we’ve learned the things that he’s taught. It’s helped us save thousands and boost credit scores some of the things that we’re screwing our stuff up there but I don’t want to take anyway to the thunder. You have been working on something massive.

We are so excited. It’s the credit mythology. It’d be MythBusters but since that’s trademarked, Myth Masters. Over the course of this last late spring-summer of 2021, I spent months. I looked like a mad professor. We bought every single credit repair, personal credit, business credit, business funding book available on Amazon and I went through every popular, when I say popular, anything that had more than 100 views, every single YouTube video. For everybody was talking about collections, business credit. I’m eyeballs deep in all of these supposed experts.

Taking them from all these sources, I compiled a list. We’re almost 400 myths deep from what’s being out there by these supposed experts. I can tell that they lifted a sentence from one book that they read and wrote it in their own book with no thought in between. We have almost 400 myths and we’re building fiction, anti-myth campaigns. Myths, misrepresentations, misunderstandings because some are innocent.

They’re like, “Credit bureau started out as government agencies.” I don’t know where they got the information from but that’s patently not true. We have hundreds of these and we’re building an education platform and campaign. We can blast America with the myths and the truth. They have a chance of being able to see. You can subscribe to an email and watch every single social feed.

Instagram is my favorite because it’s like, “Did you ever think that such and such was true?

Swipe.” It’s not swipe. We get the layout. People can have a chance to find out what the truth is. Every one of these social platforms, if you want to know the truth about a particular myth or about all of them that we’re talking about, we’re going to be able to download an eBook that lists them all. A platform where free of charge.

Simply tell us how to access, get your login information and off you to the races to find out the truth about these things. We have strategies, masterclasses, our Bootcamp, anything that you need to learn how to implement the truth. There is the myth, truth and strategy to stop stepping on that landmine and take control of your personal credit, business credit, funding opportunities, all of it. Massive campaign. That was a long answer to a short question, Scott.

You’re creating the credit cliff notes when it comes down to it for everybody in life and the real world. Question for you, you mentioned something and you may not know this, you may have a feel for it, what would you say the percentage of, we said half of the videos out there are 75% or 25%? How much of the content out there is outdated and you could get expired like a gallon of milk.

This is discouraging and heartfelt because I would probably say of the number of principles taught in a single book and then aggregate all the books. I would probably say that they’re 40 to 60% inaccurate when they say, “Do this thing.” When they get into some credit repair and they teach how to write a dispute letter.

The dispute letters, most of them are fine. I’m talking about the principles like, “To build your credit, let’s get you an authorized user.” Every single book and video on the planet says, “Become an authorized user.” What does this distill for me? I’ve been doing this for many years now but what this exercise did for me is insane. It’s honed in my attention a couple of key principles.

Remember V is for vendetta, the guys setting up and there are millions of those of the dominos and he pushes one and it makes this entire gorgeous logo. That is what these key principles, key myths, key beliefs cause all these other things to be true. For example, if I may. I’ve been sensitive but you know how things consolidate and make more sense even at a new level.

A freebie for all our readers. If anybody says anywhere, “Do something, raise your credit score.” If you see in their ad raise your credit score, run for the hills because they’re focusing on a score, not fundability. We’ve known this but we didn’t know how nobody else knows this? You’re in the note visit, you know how you take for granted like the ABCs of notes but somebody asks the question. You’re like, “Some people don’t know this part.” We’ve forgotten more than most people know.

In this case when somebody says, “Raise your credit score.” I’m telling everybody to run for the hills because they’re focusing on a score. What do they do? They want to sell you a tradeline. It is a fancy word for becoming an authorized user on some randos account out in the country that they have found. One of their friends and they’re buying it. It costs $2,000. You can buy credit score points.

Most people don’t know FICO Falcon that the consortium of 9,000 banks is monitoring. Are you related to the person who you’re giving an authorized user? If you’re not related, they may shut down the owner’s account for misuse of credit. Authorized user or trade lines. Others say, “Credit repair, raise your credit score in 100 days. I’m like, “You can’t repair your way to fundable credit and to fundability.”

Credit Myths: We have literally hundreds of these myths and we’re building an education platform and campaign so that we can just blast America with the myths and the truth so that they have a chance of being able to see.

 

Anytime anybody mentions, “Raise your credit score,” on TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, everywhere that there is this bad faith. You know how TikTokdoes duets. You can say, “See what they’re saying right there? It’s not true and here are the facts.” You can show documentation of why the truth is not what these people are saying.

That’s my first thing is if they even mentioned raising a credit score, it means they’re focusing on the wrong thing. Credit scores aren’t even counted in the approval process until after the approval. They use the 40 borrower behaviors to establish whether or not to approve you. They use your FICO score to determine the rate, the term and the amount they want to give you, not approvals. If you’re raising your score, you’re not talking to approvals so it’s irrelevant.

I have to ask you a question because we saw a lot of information about Experian Boost or credit boost. Is that in line with what you were talking about?

Even if the credit bureau says, “Raise your credit score.” They’re focusing on the wrong thing because even Experian Boost, FICO has UltraFICO. They’re measuring alternative data to be more inclusive. If you don’t have a current credit file then let’s talk about Ultra and Experian Boost. If you have a credit file, one or more credit cards, an auto loan or a mortgage then Experian Boost focuses on the wrong thing. They’re trying to deceive you into raising your credit score. When the credit score is not used to approve you.

The credit score is used after your approval to determine the rate, term and loan amount. It’s the same with UltraFICO. I’m talking about the people who haven’t been beyond manipulating you to focus on credit scores as we’ve talked about in plenty of other episodes where your credit score is the shiny object they want you to focus on so that they can measure your behaviors behind your back.

I know that you have a very good relationship with the FICO World that you go to once every 18 months or 1 year and a half. You’ve talked to the head of FICO and other things like that. Have you gotten any feedback or have you discussed with any of your FICO friends on the myth book on the 300-plus myths and stuff like that to get any feedback on how they decided?

When it’s ready. I do have a FICO liaison. When I finished it, that it’s in a reasonable order. I did send him a copy of my book and to get notes. He’s like, “Well said.” He can’t represent FICO’s official thing but he’s like, “Well done.” I’m going to send him the myths and see if we’re like, “You may want to explain this one more,” or, “This seems a little truncated you may want to expound on the differences between different types of business credit.” Things like that but he’s been very generous about steering me towards a complete and utter accuracy.

Have you seen any of the banks changing their marketing aspect? I say this because suddenly on my log into my Wells Fargo account, I said, “I get approved for a business line of credit. I have not seen it like that forever where it popped up automatically, ‘Five minutes you get approved for a business line of credit.’”

It may be because you’ve been implementing optimization strategies over a longer period of time now, number one. Number two is Chase officially says that all of its business lines of credit from now on are going to be secured and yet behind the scenes, we keep seeing some Chase approvals unsecured. When we do funnels, sales or whatever we split tests.

We see what the response is over here. I don’t know which Chase website I’m looking at because they may be testing. I’m violently opposed to, “Why are you going on secured? They don’t want to make the same mistake that Wells Fargo did. Remember early spring of 2021 they said, “We’re cutting out our personal credit lines, closing them all down.”

There was such an uprising that they said, “If you have certain criteria now and certain traffic patterns, we’ll give them back to you.” Eighty percent were returned to the owners and opened back up. They want to test because you’ve seen it yourself. Lenders nowadays are in a way different space than there were in 2008, 2009 and 2010, when they were like, “Screw the proletariat. We’re taking back all of the houses.” Now, it’s a moratorium.

Some people are on a moratorium for eighteen months still. It’s crazy. They don’t want to lose long-term positive relationships with borrowers. They’re willing to carry the paper and put it all on. No loan mods, no nothing. It’s like, “We will take that interest, put it on the back end of your loan and we’re going to call at a paid as agreed.” That is way different. That attitude for mortgages, auto loans and credit cards. There’s been an amazing leaning in by lenders. For those of us who want to get the most amount of money and partner with these lenders, it’s all about building the right relationship with them.

I saw an agreement that gave the borrower a payment of $0.01 for 48 months.

You should send that to me because that is amazing. Look what they’re willing to do because they’re seeing some long-term catastrophe with that borrower, I’m assuming. They’re like, “We’re going to make this, we’re going to codify this so that paid as agreed now means one payment of one penny for the next 48 months paid as agreed.”

I’m telling you, there are so many positive things that are going on with lenders right now but it’s strange. Attending all of the lender forums and the lender symposiums, I get to be the borrower rep in all these lenders symposiums. What’s fascinating is to watch the Tier 1 banks and in the same footprint and geographic area to watch all the Tier 2 banks, what they do to compete.

Even the top four, nobody gets carte blanche anymore because, with underwriting guidelines that you can tweak here and there, you can take on a competitor in your same baking space with new products that fill the whole of the one they pulled back on. I’m going to watch Chase see how long they make their business lines of credit secured.

This goes back to my days of being a banker. This is across the board for Capital One, Chase, Wells Fargo Bank, Bank One and a bunch of them. If you’re a banker and you’re opening a new account because it all starts with that new account. It’s the same thing if you open a credit card, you’re suddenly getting inundated to open a checking account, doing direct deposit or electronic checks. They want you to spread across at least a minimum of five products. Not necessarily loans but online banking and other things, direct deposit. They secure you and it makes it more difficult to move that relationship.

One of the funny things that we’re seeing is the amount of the amount that lenders continuing to pivot. I wanted to give you an update. I’m working with one of the FICO groups. I attended a lender forum. FICO reps were there. It was hosted by FICO. After we all introduced ourselves and I go, “I’m Mr. Borrower Education. I want to make fundable borrowers.” He contacts me through LinkedIn, the leader of this workgroup. He goes, “I’d like to have a conversation about what you’re doing.”

NCS 686 Merrill Chandler | Credit Myths

Credit Myths: Chase officially says that all of its business lines of credit from now on or go are going to be secured. And yet behind the scenes, we keep seeing some Chase approvals unsecured.

 

We spend an hour on the phone. He goes, “You don’t have to give me all of your techs but would you mind doing a use case about how a bank could educate their depositors to become borrowers, how to become fundable and be ready to do an application with a higher likelihood of being approved.” I’m like, “They don’t have that.” Thinking that everybody’s thought of everything before I did.

He goes, “I came to FICO from Bank of America. The thing Bank of America is using is what I did years ago.” If you look at any Bank of America, it’s called Life Plan. You set up a savings account and you indicate how much to auto-draft from your checking account to a savings account that’s named auto loan down payment, mortgage down payment.” That’s Life Plan. There is no education, no nothing. He asked me to build this.

By the January of 2022, we’ll be meeting again so that I can present this educational piece and have them direct auto, mortgage and credit card so that lenders can capture it. I’m like, “I cannot believe they don’t have this.” Do you realize that one of the people who were in that same space said that 82% of depositors do not have credit products at their depository institution? They check with Chase and then they have an American Express credit card. They do not stay home and get more instruments. They want me to help them solve that

I have to give you a little insight into that too, as an ex-banker. It is hard to believe that things haven’t changed since I was a banker. As a banker for Chase, that was one thing we had to do was look at who had a credit card who didn’t have a checking account or who didn’t have a checking account but didn’t have a credit card. That was us. We were required to try to set twenty appointments a week with our client base to get them to add a product.

To sell them on a new product with no education pieces, no nurturing campaigns. “Did you know that if you do this, it means this? Here’s what happens with your fundability and let’s make your credit card fundable.” You’re going to see that coming straight from this right here.

It’s the thing. They called it Five Star. You would know, they received a postcard and letters. You could see what mail pieces they had gotten. It makes me think back to how you said, “Don’t open a mail piece because you’re going to be tagged in a system.” That is exactly true. To this day they still use that same system.

It’s insane. Many years later for you, several years since you developed the origins of Life Plan and I’m like, “I cannot believe but I’m okay. I’m willing to come up with this. You’re welcome.”

In the fourth quarter of 2021, we saw a lot for Mint credit cards, debit cards for the youth kid, under eighteen. I see opinion and emotion coming from Merrill Chandler. We released the beast.

Mint is using a finance company to underwrite its offers. The finance company is a Tier 4, 40% low value going to get a ding on your credit because FICO dings consumer finance accounts. Mint is trying to get wallet share while they’re young. To combat this, we’re in the first quarter looking at doing a how to build a fundable profile for your teenager or child without authorized users.

We’re doing a masterclass so that we can get our real estate investor, entrepreneur clients and tribespeople to get their children up and fundable sooner. Mint, anybody like that. All the web banks that are coming up and all of this craziness, this buy now pay later. Have you noticed that every single pay portal now says, “Interest-free, four payments of XYZ.” Time value of money. There’s so much BS going on.

I was doing something on Under Armour on the app and I said, “You can get four payments. Pay this shirt off in four payments of $15. I was like, “No.”

It’s like, “What?” The payment process is robbing Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover blind in their processing fees and trying to get the time value of money into the banks of the folks who are collecting these payments. They don’t even know FICO. I talked to my guy and since it’s mostly four payments, do they not even count anything until after four payments and don’t even put it on your credit? It’s an extension of credit but how do you moderate? Is it a loan with four installment payments? It sounds like it. Is it a revolving account? Those are treated very differently by the algorithm.

Lots are going on and most of it is not in favor of your fundability. They’re trying to take advantage of our ignorance and our lack of borrower sophistication. That’s why Bootcamp is becoming the place to learn the strategies on how to take control of your fundings, personal credit profile and your borrower experience.

Let’s talk about that a little bit because it’s 2022. You had great success over the last two years starting your Get Fundable Bootcamp, your Friday, Saturday events, your Saturday, Sundays, occasionally. Bringing people in and indoctrinating them into dispelling a lot of these myths and sheltering them see behind their own credit curtain. What are the plans for the new year? Are you still going to be doing those two days on a regular basis? Do you have a digital side?

We’re splitting out. We’re approaching more consumers rather than entrepreneurs and real estate investors. We’re starting out an on-demand digital master course that covers the tech that we do in the Bootcamp now but you don’t have to wait 20 to 30 days to get to it. It’s on-demand. It helps you. There are quizzes and certifications that you know what you’re doing when it comes to revolving accounts, etc.

We’re making it interactive and engaging. Our FAQ is questions from the 30-plus Bootcamps we’ve done. It’s me answering live and you can read it as well. There’s the question then there’s me answering it live. If there are subtleties to the Q&A, I’m going to give the different subtle answers. It’s going to be so comprehensive that people can sit back and go, “I can digest this.”

It’s lifetime access. Once you get there, you’re all in. We go to the interactive on a quarterly basis and then we’re going to start two days with me going, “Now that we know what we’re doing, how do we implement, leverage and grow our credit lines?” That’s where it’ll be the live because I never going to get away from a live experience.

I love live Bootcamps, in-person live. I love them Zoom live. Our biggest complaint has been like, “I can’t make that date,” or, “What do I need to do to watch the recordings?” You can buy the recordings now or get a ticket that includes the recordings but now you’ve got to make other choices and everything. Instead of like, “How do you get access? Do it and move on to the live engagements.”

NCS 686 Merrill Chandler | Credit Myths

Credit Myths: They’re still doing means tests, but by and large, if you’re going to do the credit card, they say, keep it open, pay off the balance, and then you don’t have to use it.

 

I’m excited about that. We’re going to dovetail it or we’re going to split tests. Once we have dialed in the digital master course that covers all of this, we have the Q&As and everything’s done, we want to ultimately replace my Bootcamp and we’ll use my time with you in not learning the tech but now solving the damn problems. We’re even working on software where you can subscribe to the software, optimize your profile and do everything. 2022 is our year. It is the capstone.

You’ve been building and revolutionizing things before COVID-19. You made the right pivot to do that prior to 2019. We talked about there that the banks are delaying things by pushing things out, “Agreed paid upon is agreed upon.” What are you seeing back with it? Is it the same thing on credit card companies, auto debt or other things like that where they’re allowing people to kick the can down the road?

That was the first to start being curtailed. They’re still doing means tests but by and large, if you’re going to do the credit card, they say, “Keep it open, pay off the balance and you don’t have to use it.” They want a plan to reduce to zero if you want to keep this thing open and a good standing. If you the borrower contacts the lender and say, “I am struggling because I am caring for someone with COVID-19,” or, “I have COVID-19, and all of these things are happening but they have not still been open to solutions that show them a plan for paying it off but not using it any further and things like that. It’s mitigating their risk but taking care of you the borrower at the same time.

Here are the things that surprised me the most that I thought we would see more of is such a big reduction in BK filings.

There through the floor, because people aren’t afraid to talk to their lender to say, “I am legit trying to solve these problems here in my household. Could you hook a brother up? Can you take care of me while I take care of that?” People aren’t using bankruptcy as an escape hatch. I even did it for some of my rental properties.

You file bankruptcy in order to protect the mortgage to not have them foreclose. Very little of that is happening. I’m not aware of it and none of my clients. I have thousands of clients both current and previous who successfully finished their funding targets. I haven’t heard a single one who said, “Merrill, I’m getting ready to do a bankruptcy. What do I need to do?”

The number say that they’re down somewhere between 28% and 39% year over year compared to the 2020 numbers. We aren’t in completely for December 2021 but the November 2021 numbers were down 29.1% for the twelve-month period that ended as of November 2021 compared to 2020.

It shows collaboration between borrowers and lenders. Lenders are not the big bad wolf knocking on the door and borrowers are not afraid to say to the lender, “There it is. Can I get some help?” You may be aware of these numbers in the second quarter of 2020 that the four top banks Chase, Wells, Bank of American, Citi, their profits were $6 billion between the four of them. In 2021, second quarter, they were over $20 billion. Something is working in this new relationship-building model with borrowers because they are profiting while still not getting some percentage of their credit card, auto loan or mortgage payments.

That number, when you look at that same period of time, we saw a solid increase in people saving at that time. We had been in a savings deficit. That makes you think, are they taking money and saving it. You’re glad to give you that 1/10 of 1% and landed in out on loans, mortgages or credit cards.

That’s great math because it is. More people are saving. Do you realize that in 2020, we also dropped significant debt usage, credit card balances were as a percentage of GDP, the lowest they’ve ever been. Now back in 2021, we kept at $13 trillion. We are over. It’s like a slingshot. Everybody said, “No credit.” Let’s spend on credit. These are wild times for us in the financial services. This is a rollercoaster. This is like bungee jumping, not knowing if somebody hooked up the cord.

These are wild times we’re seeing all these new financial products. Everybody is trying to get into the bank. Walmart announced that they’re going into retail banking and they already have a 53 million captured audience, 53 million are going to start using a Tier 4 bank and pollute their profiles without even knowing it because it’s a captured audience.

It’s all that Woodforest Bank that we see at the checkout aisle and your banking here where you go see the same thing, 53 million is a heck of a database to start putting in there that they can automatically be marketing.

“Get a savings account here. The auto pays because we’re the only place you shop. We’re going to do all these programs to save money or stock money. Over here’s your Christmas fund to spend down here in the Christmas aisle.” It’s a captured universe but unfortunately, I wish they were at least a Tier 3 bank. They’re not. It’s all finance BS and those sales matter. I wish it didn’t matter but now we’re captivating the opportunity to ruin. It’s convenient but a Tier 4 bank does harm the fundability of your profile because you are now being treated like a consumer rather than a strategic borrower. That is not okay. We need to up our game.

I hate to say this and make an analogy but the number one show on TV was Squid Game. If you think about how those folks ended up in the Squid Game because they’d borrowed too much money. They have student loans and credit cards debt. Are we headed down to Squid game 2022?

We’re headed down to Squid Game and it’s not a ski slope. It’s a luge. There are very high walls and there’s only one way. You’re going to get to the bottom as fast as possible. No Bueno. We got to do this differently.

If you want to avoid and learn the true rules of the Squid Game or how to make sure you’re not screwing up your credit by falling for one of the back doors and screwing in the rear end offers that seem too good to be true, what’s the best way for folks to pick it up?

GetFundableBootcamp.com, read the reviews. Don’t believe me and Scott. Read your peers. This Bootcamp is peer-reviewed. You can read what your fellow note buyers, real estate investors and business entrepreneurs. There are dozens of these reviews. Just read them. I promise you. If at the end of the first day, you are not wowed. Not like, “That was pretty cool.” Screw that, I’ll give you your money back.

If you are not like, “Holy hell.” I will give you your money back at the end of the first day. You don’t get to go on the second day but at the end of the first day, I want you to be a part of this fundability movement. I want you to believe that you now have power over your own approvals and that’s the bottom line.

NCS 686 Merrill Chandler | Credit Myths

Credit Myths: It’s not a ski slope. It’s a luge. There are very high walls. And there’s only one way you’re going to get to the bottom as fast as possible.

 

It’s one of the best things out there for you guys. We go to attend a lot of events and have been through it a couple of times. I consider the Get Fundable Bootcamp one of two must-attend events out there for you to build your foundation and make sure that if you’re wanting to build a big house whether it’s real estate rentals, notes, whatever your entrepreneurial journey is, you’ve got to start out with a good foundation and Merrill’s course is the rebar that holds the concrete of your future success together.

Thank you so much, Scott, for having me again. I love our time together. It’s always high energy and amazing amounts of intel. Thank you for the bankruptcy intel. That was awesome. I know they were lower but I didn’t know month over month, year over year, no. Thirty-plus percent is crazy.

38% percent in September, 29.1% in November is the number. It could have been a month before based on when the numbers come out but I say it averages 30% across the year in 2021 compared to 2020. Merrill’s also the host of the amazing podcast that Get Fundable Podcasts. Check it out on any place that you listen or watch your podcast. It’s got a great YouTube channel out there and on Instagram as well.

By the beginning of 2022, you’ll be able to go to Credit Myths Exposed Podcast. I’m going to crush it.

Guys, go take action. We’ll see you all at the top, bye.

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About Merrill Chandler

NCS 686 Merrill Chandler | Credit Myths

For over 25 years, Merrill Chandler, a co-founder of Lexington Law Firm, has been the pointy-edge-of-the-spear regarding the education of Borrowers in how to improve their borrowing opportunities and success.
During that time, Merrill developed a process to optimize personal and business credit profiles to improve a borrower’s “Fundability.” Based upon this concept, he founded GetFundable.com to deliver his revolutionary technology to entrepreneurs, business owners, and real estate investors who want easy, no-hassle, approvals.
In 2016, Merrill met with FICO CEO, Will Lansing, to review the impact GetFundable.com optimization technology was having on a borrower’s “fundability.” As a result of that meeting, Merrill was authorized to meet with FICO’s Score Development Teams. After signing a non-disclosure agreement, Merrill was able to quiz FICO developers about their credit profile metrics so that he could better assist borrowers in accomplishing their funding needs. Merrill and members of his team have been to every FICO World Conference since then with a commitment to continually improve Fundability Optimization and significantly improving Borrower’s funding approvals.

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