their fico scores have been ruined.ble to help their fico score by just paying cash or a debit card. so i made a deal. this is the first prepaid card in history that is going to share information with transunion, one of the three major credit bureaus, in the hopes that 18 to 24 months from now there will be enough information that they can look at this and go, oh, a debit card can create a fico score. if a debit card can create a fico score legitimately, then the true need for credit cards for your kids to have a credit card so they can have a fico score so they can buy a home one day or get a job goes out the window. if that goes out the window then everybody is back to cash on a debit card. >> this idea of a prepaid card is not new. and some of them have been quite controversial. the kardashian card had ridiculous fees. >> yes. >> walmart has one that seems to be on the low end. >> walmart is great. >> how does this one fit in? >> this one is very simple. as long as you deposit every single-month automatically deposit

a fico score does many things. it entitles you to a good interest rate or a bad interest rate.it's starting to be what lapped lords are looking at before they will rent to you. many employers are looking at your credit report, therefore, your score before they will hire you. it also can determine what your car insurance premiums are. it affects everything in your life. >> and paying with cash or paying with a debit card is a responsible thing to do because it draws down from your checking account. >> isn't that backwards? this will be the first pre-paid card in history that is going to share information with a major credit bureau, trans union, and over the next 18 to 24 months trans union will be looking at the data that is coming in from the people who have signed up for the approved card. they will then make an evaluation, can debit activity predict future behavior? if Ñiso, then we have just chand history where a debit card, a pre-paid card will create a fico score. >> how does the prepaid part of this work? >> the way this works is if you want money on it, you would simply

. >> reporter: that all important fico score can impact so many monthly bills. >> what if i told you that if you don't have a fico score, a landlord will not rent to you, your car insurance premiums, your life insurance premiums, your health insurance premiums, are higher than they need to be. what if i told you that? there's something radically wrong with the system that penalizes you if you only pay in cash or a debit card. and yet rewards you for putting money on a credit card that you simply pay the minimum on every month. >> reporter: and racking up debt. >> and debt. >> reporter: that's what really sets her card apart. it's the first one in history to share information with one of the major credit bureaus, trans-union, though it might take a couple of years before you can build credit. >> it's an experiment, everybody. my goal is to get it so debit cards create a score. and if it can, we change the scoring system in the united states of america. >> reporter: so is one credit agency enough though to make those scores relevant? >> no, no. i want experion to change me. i want equi

fico isn't perfect.kes to see you have a variety of credit because it should prove that you can manage responsibly a lot of types of credit. it's only 10% of your score. don't fret about it. just say, cheers to you and you're in great shape. no worries. >> good for you, lisa. >> now to an e-mail sent in from carol in owensburg, kentucky. are there any government grants to help a low income family get its own home or business? >> when you think about grants you think about free money. unfortunately there is no free money from the federal, state or local government to start a business or buy a home. there are plenty of programs out there for low income families to help you at least make this go more affordable. what you should do is start to go to hud and look at the programs they have available and some of the information they have about home ownership. they give money to state and local governments that might have a home buyer's assistance program with the down payment or closing costs. often there are i

fico is the one who controls the fico credit system, not transunion.whole issue there. >> bottom line, ryan, round it out for us. if you want to not get into debt and you want to be a responsible user of a card, what is it that you should be using? >> well, essentially you should go with a website like smarterchoice.org and put your zip code in. join banks where you have a know credit fee or go to annualcreditreport.com and get your credit report and start to establish a history. >> i can see you guys feel strongly about prepaid cards, all of them in general. thanks, guys. >>> here's the bottom line with prepaid debit cards. be wary of them. they're useful if you want to give them to a collegebound kid, although ryan said he wouldn't give them to a college-bound kid but maybe a gift card or cash. there's a long list of fees that could cost you way too much. you may get charged for checking your balance. there are often fewer protections than a debit card or credit card when you view it. listen to how "time" magazine boils it down. consumers who use pre

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because the thing that counts most on fico scores, 30, 35% is your debt, what you owe to your creditpay down your debt, your credit limit ratio goes down, your fico score goes up. >> we have been working down the ladder of people and their financial situations. now we're going to talk about those almost one in two americans who have virtually no money, if none at all, can't get access to credit, they have lost a lot of stuff, they can't get a credit card or can't even get a secured credit card? >> they can get a secured credit card obviously, but here's the problem with secured credit cards people aren't understanding about them. to get a secured credit card you have to put a sum of money, 100, 500, $1,000 to secure the card. >> right. >> now you have a card and you can go out and charge. you charge $200 on it. they don't take the money from what you put down, they say now you owe me $200 and the person goes, well, i don't have $200. i'm in poverty. they go okay, you say, okay, yoa month at 19% interest. now we have this person again getting themselves into trouble on a secure card.

they're even taking your fico score. so now you are really fico-ed. without a good score, if you happen to own a good car, no matter what kind, your premiums are high. landlords will not reach you. employers are starting not to hire you. if you want to do anything to change the situation, good luck getting a loan at all. if you happen to get a loan, it will be at the highest interest rates possible. the main thing i am trying to do is that get people who pay in cash or bond debt that to change. if you pay in cash are on a debit card, it does not report to a credit bureau. there for you do not have a score. therefore you are a non entity. you do not exist in the financial system at all, people. if you want to just pay your way in cash, you do not count. if you count the time if you run up your credit cards and have a minimum paid do every month. then you really count. you are paying their way with 20's arm and 30% interest. -- 20% and 30% interest. i am trying to change things of that a debit card create a fico store so we can get rid all together.ards

the thing that counts most on fico scores is your debt, what you oh, to your credit limit ratio.wn your debt the ratio goes down and fico score goes up. >> we have been working down the ladder and we will talk about those probably almost in two american who is have virtually no money and can't get credit. they lost a lot of stuff and can't get a credit card and not even a secured credit card. >> they can get a secured credit card obviously. to get a secured card you have to put a sum of money like $1,000 to secure the card. now you have a card and you can charge. you charge $200 on it. they don't take the money from what you put down. they say now you owe me $200. i don't have $200. you pay me $20 a month at 19% interest. here we have this person again getting themselves into trouble on a secure card. i don't like secure cards, however if it is your only alternative to build a credit score right here and right now because there not alternatives, it's one way to go. you know when i grow up, i'm going to own my own restaurant. i want to be a volunteer firefighter. when i grow up, i

they're even taking your fico score. so now you are really fico-ed. without a good score, if you happen to own a good car, no matter what kind, your premiums are high. landlords will not reach you. employers are starting not to hire you. if you want to do anything to change the situation, good luck getting a loan at all. if you happen to get a loan, it will be at the highest interest rates possible. the main thing i am trying to do is that get people who pay in cash or bond debt that to change. if you pay in cash are on a debit card, it does not report to a credit bureau. there for you do not have a score. therefore you are a non entity. you do not exist in the financial system at all, people. if you want to just pay your way in cash, you do not count. if you count the time if you run up your credit cards and have a minimum paid do every month. then you really count. you are paying their way with 20's arm and 30% interest. -- 20% and 30% interest. i am trying to change things of that a debit card create a fico store so we can get rid all together.ards

fico likes to see you managing the new debt responsibly and actively.f you have new bills address them first. the old bills last. >> the last tip is my favorite. ask your credit card company to raise your limit. >> yes. this is a sure and fast way to raise your score if you have been managing your debt responsibly and you have good credit. call your company to raise your limit. that, again, will lower your credit utilization and boost your score. >> raise the limit but don't spend up to the limit. that defeat it is purpose. >> this is not to get into debt. just for credit score purposes. thank you. still to come, movies have the oscars. dave z david zinczenko is here for the food awards. up next, jill martin has another edition of steals & deals. deep discounts on everything from jewelry to a spa vacation exclusively for "today" viewers. first, these messages. the bankamericard cash rewards credit card, we earn more cash back for the things we buy most. it's 1% cash back everywhere, every time. 2% on groceries. 3% on gas. automatically. no hoops to jump

if you pay down your debt, your credit limit ratio goes down, your fico score goes up. >> we've been of people in their financial situations and now talk about almost one in two americans who have virtually no money if none at all, can't get access to credit, they've lost a lot of stuff, can't even get a secured credit card. >> they can get a secured credit card obviously. but here is the problem can secured credit cards that people aren't understanding. you have to put a sum of money, $100, $500, $1,000 to secure the card. now you have a card and you can charge. you charge $200. they don't take the money from what you put down, they say now you owe me $200. the person says i don't have $200, i'm in poverty. they say, okay, you pay me $20 a month at 19% interest. so now here we have this person again getting themselves into trouble on a secure card. >> right. >> so i don't like secured cards. however, if it is your only alternative to build a credit score right here and right now because there aren't any other alternatives if you can't get a regular credit card, it's one for you to g

i want to go back to being america with a cash society for everyday things and then build up your fico scores are you can one day have a car, a home, you can one day get that job or rent an apartment because you are now an entity because you have been paying with what you have verses what you wish you have. [laughter] [applause] i am trying to do something that is a little out of my ordinary, and nobody wants me to do it. they want to keep everybody down, so the people who take advantage can continue to do so. i will not let them. i will continue to fight for you. [applause] and in two years time from this date, if this works, you will be able to get a credit score simply if you have a debit card. that is my goal. [applause] tavis: majora? >> my thing is, how do we make poor people less support? jesus said, the poor will always be among us. i do not think he meant that they had to stay that way. [applause] that is where we need to start thinking within the confines of the system that we are in right now. what can we do to help our leaders have a vision? how do we people leaders with vi

of fico, the credit risk scoring firm: >> consumers are sort of focused on automobile purchases and themportance of paying off those obligations. that and credit cards have sort of moved higher in what people call the payment hierarchy and mortgages. mortgages tend to be something that people are willing to walk away from, but they're not walking away from car loans. >> tom: as for other types of loans, the survey predicts student loans and mortgage delinquencies both may increase this year. just one day after orange juice futures hit a four-year high, imported orange juice shipments have been put on hold. the food and drug administration is implementing a "test and hold" policy, halting all o.j. imports to test for a fungicide found recently in oranges from brazil. the agency says if its contaminated, the imported juice will be destroyed. the agency also is screening juice that's already on store shelves. o.j. futures fell about 10% despite the halt on imports. overall, stocks were able to cling to most of their recent gains thanks to a small late session rally. here's tonight's "marke

edward told me and fact similar to what you're saying to start planning my vacation to the a mall ficos next summer because of the euro and the dollar strengthening against it and optical density wrote to me on twitter about our interview with professor steve keen where we discussed occupying economics department happened a while ago but we really air the interview last week when we're on vacation he caught it then we're so glad and he said fabulous interview with steve keen and here's the occupy economics you suggested and he shared a really great video to show some of the action that's been going on from a group trying to change the economics profession here's a bit of that video. we're going through a period of economic crisis. that's kind of illustrated a lot of the shortcomings conventional approaches it's pretty clear to everybody that economics as it is commission. do have sufficient warning and certainly did not inform the decision making that took place prior. thank you so much for sharing that video with us and for telling us some we didn't know about what's going on in the oc

they're even taking your fico score. so now you are really fico-ed. without a good score, if you pp to own a good car, no matter what kind, your premiums are high. landlords will not reach you. employers are starting not to hire you. if you want to do anything to change the situation, good luck getting a loan at all. if you happen to get a loan, it will be at the highest interest rates possible. the main thing i am trying to do is that get people who pay in cash or bond debt that to change. if you pay in cash are on a debit card, it does not report to a credit bureau. the for you do not have a score. therefore you are a non entity. you doot exist in the financial system at all, people. if you want to just pay your way in cash, you do not count. if you count the time if you run up your credit cards and have a minimum paid do every month. then you really count. you are paying their way with 20's arm and 30% interest. -- 20% and 30% interest. i am trying to change things of that a debit card create a fico store so we can get rid all together.ards when yo

i would love to say close the cards but if you close them it will impact your fico score, your credit score. it could lower the score by 50 to 7 5 points. there are two major things that credit bureaus look at. your length of credit history and how much available credit you have that you are not using. the fact that you have credit cards with high limits that you're not using is a good thing for your score. the fact that you have a credit history is good for your score. if you're going to close any of the cards close the ones with the small limits and the ones that you took out most recently. that won't impact your credit history length. here's the thing i have to tell you. the biggest risk to keeping the cards open is credit fraud. if you have open cards you're not using you need to check your credit report regularly to make sure nobody else is using it. >> all right. >> annual credit report.com. we talk about it. got to love it. >> it's free. >> congratulations on paying off the cards. we have dana from hicksville, ohio. >> good morning. my question is my husband and i purchased two

who benefited from that fico? i talked, tonight, about the deficit of trust between main street and wall street. but the divide between this city and the rest of the country is at least as bad. and it seems to get worse every year. and some of this has to do with the corrosive influence of money in politics. so, together, let's take some steps to fix that. send me a bill that bans insider trading by members of congress. i will sign it tomorrow. [ cheers and applause ] let's limit any elected official from owning stock in industries they impact. let's make sure people who bundle campaign contributions for congress can't lobby congress. and vice versa. an idea that has bipartisan support, at least outside of washington. some of what's broken has to do with the way congress does its business these days. a simple majority is no longer enough to get anything, even routine business, passed through the senate. [ applause ] neither party has been blameless in these tactics. now, both parties should put an end to it. [ app

both are going to have the same effect on your fico score and credit report. >> and ron says i'm a retiredsurplus. what should i do with the surplus each month? >> it depends. do you have any bills you need to pay? carrying any credit debt? do you have a car loan? normally what people need to do is make sure that all of their loans are taken care of, and then if it's a surplus and you really don't need it, you might want to start dollar cost averaging into the stock market through exchange traded funds that don't have a commission on it. suze orman, pleasure to have you here answering the tough questions. we appreciate your advise as always. love to have you back some time. >> you got it. >> strong showing in south carolina could mean everything for rickson tor um. he's spitting fire on the trail. we'll have the latest in the political ticker. and in the next hour, we'll look at the human impact of releasing now almost 200 criminals in mississippi. >> a full and unconditional pardon. >> yeah. >> which means -- >> which means he has the same rights you have. he has the same rights i have. >

they will be able to decide does behavior on a credit card create a fico score and i hope the answernd of agree with that. i decided i'm going to start to change that industry. because i didn't want to be attached to a bank per se, a retail bank. because i personally think if real estate doesn't come back, banks are going to be hit hard. i don't think that real estate is going to come back this year. banks are going to be forced to charge more fees on their checking account, where their -- i control the fees, i'm the only one who funded the card, so the approved card, i am hoping changes how people do things. >> how does that card differ from like an ordinary bank debit card. >> a bank debit card is attached to a checking account. if you bounce one, two, or three checks, there's the checks system, you can't go to a bank and get a checking account. a prepaid card is very simple. you get the card, you then ask your employer to deposit money directly on this account. if you do have a bank account, you have them deposit on this account. you get free identity theft protection, you get fre

de un juez federal que proÍbe a sus oficiales detener a personas para aplicar la ley contra el tÁ ficograntes.Ás en despierta aÉrica la salud de todos. no sólo es una molestia. puede causar enfermedades del corazón e incluso la muerte. no te quedes callado. tu salud y la de tu familia dependen de ello.

de un juez federal que proÍbe a sus oficiales detener a personas para aplicar la ley contra el tÁ ficograntes.Ás en despierta aÉrica