Why Reading is Good for You and New Credit Score Options

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The issues that matter most, right here, The Drew Mariani Show on Relevant Radio.

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As Americans grapple with high gas prices and elevated interest rates, their credit card balances are reaching record levels. Overall, Americans face outstanding credit card balances just shy of the $1.28 trillion all-time record which was set last year. That's according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. So how did we get here? NerdWallet's Sarah Rathner says credit card debt can add up quickly, with high interest rates often over 20%.

She says the other major factor is inflation.

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And that's affecting the costs of things that people buy every day and have to pay for every day. So that's food, housing, gas for transportation.

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It's The Drew Mariani Show on Relevant Radio.

Drew Mariani (0:50)

Yeah, that was ABC Philadelphia on record levels of American credit card debt. I gotta ask you, how are you doing, huh? You're using your credit card to fill up gas? I stopped today on the way into the studio. I was on fumes. I don't have a very big tank in my car. It was $73 to fill up my car. I'm like, are you kidding me? It's crazy. As of today, Americans owe approximately $1.26 trillion, one and a quarter trillion dollars in credit card debts. That's according to the latest figures from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. I think a lot of Americans are doing it.

$21 billion increase in just three months.

You go back to 2025, $54 billion increase. If you go and you take a look at the balance at the end of 2025, you know, it was 1.28 now. If I, if I ran that, I might be wrong on that number. Anyway, today's the largest number that we have seen, and it continues to rise. The question is this, you know, how do you get out of it? How's it affecting your ability to buy a home? How's it affecting your credit score? I want to look at all those things. Paul Oster is going to be stopping by. And by the way, you can tap into this guy's expertise. You know, he's the CEO of a company called Better Qualified. It's a company that specializes in business and consumer credit services. And if you have trouble with your credit report right now, or you've got just credit problems, period, and I've got a question for him, too. And maybe I'll share it on the air with you. Something that just recently happened to me. He's known as a national credit repair man, and you can find more to simply go to betterqualified.com. That's betterqualified.com. But yeah, a couple stories here I want to get to for you, especially if you're looking to buy a home, mortgages, right?

There's a major shakeup right now underway in the mortgage market, and it could affect your ability to buy a home, maybe refinance your mortgage, even protect the wealth that you've spent a lifetime actually building. The Trump Administration right now is challenging the credit scoring system that has dominated home lending for decades. And feel free to stand up. Maybe you're a lender, maybe you're in this mix right now. I'd love to hear your experiences. Supporters say that it could make mortgages cheaper and home ownership more accessible. I kind of think it's a creative idea. But they said, well, get Paul's take on this too. I mean, what happens when you make credit easier for people and use a different score than the traditional one? Critics are warning that it could introduce very dangerous risks into the housing market, and we can go back to 2008 Remember what was happening then? We had this big real estate bubble.

Everyone was loaning money and people were getting mortgages and really weren't qualified. Same time, trillions of dollars in family wealth are preparing to change hands from one generation to the next, and I want to talk a little bit about that as well. So we've got a lot to come to get into. So feel free to join me, 888-914-9149 is the number to get in. I'm joined right now, as I said, by Paul Oster. Paul, it's good to have you. Good afternoon.

Paul Oster (4:01)

Hey, Drew, thanks for having me back on.

Drew Mariani (4:03)

I'm delighted to have you here. So let's talk about what is now being proposed, with VantageScore versus FICO, right? And if you want to unpack, I'll tell you what I know. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, I was reading that what the Trump Administration wants to do, they're opening the door to a major competitor. I think FICO is the credit scoring that has dominated mortgage lending for decades. And you know how important that score could be, because it determines whether you qualify for a mortgage or how much you can borrow or how much it's gonna cost you over the life of the loan. That number, even a quarter percent, has long-term ramifications for how much you have to pay.