New Jersey Bankruptcy Podcast
Podcast by Daniel Straffi
New Jersey Bankruptcy Podcast
How to Rebuild Credit and Get a Mortgage After Bankruptcy – Featuring Matt Victoria
On this episode of the New Jersey Bankruptcy Podcast, mortgage banker Matt Victoria of PRMI discusses practical strategies and key insights into securing mortgages and rebuilding credit after bankruptcy. Matt shares real-world advice on navigating FHA, VA, and non-QM loan options, providing hope and clear guidance to listeners working toward financial recovery.
Podcast Takeaways:
- Establish secured credit cards early to improve post-bankruptcy credit scores.
- Maintain consistent trustee payments in Chapter 13 bankruptcies to ease future refinancing.
- Explore non-QM loans for flexible mortgage solutions after bankruptcy.
- Utilize autopay to prevent missed payments and support credit recovery.
- Strategically refinance to maximize equity and lower financial burden.
- Actively manage minor collection accounts to protect credit ratings.
- Maintain positivity and proactive financial habits to expedite recovery.
- Prioritize homeownership to build long-term equity regardless of interest rates.
- Partner with empathetic mortgage professionals for tailored financial strategies.
- Treat your initial home purchase as an investment in your financial future.
About Matt Victoria:
Matt Victoria is an experienced mortgage banker at Primary Residential Mortgage, Inc. (PRMI), specializing in assisting clients navigating mortgages after bankruptcy. His empathetic approach and creative problem-solving provide personalized solutions to help clients achieve financial stability and homeownership.
About Daniel Straffi Jr.:
Daniel Straffi Jr. is an accomplished attorney and host of the New Jersey Bankruptcy Podcast. Through insightful discussions and expert interviews, Daniel aims to educate and empower individuals to effectively manage and overcome bankruptcy-related challenges.
About New Jersey Bankruptcy Podcast:
The New Jersey Bankruptcy Podcast offers actionable financial insights and strategic advice, helping listeners navigate bankruptcy, credit rebuilding, and homeownership with clarity and confidence.
Youtube: https://youtu.be/wXGjVr-gAxk
Good afternoon everybody. Welcome to another episode of the New Jersey Bankruptcy Podcast, powered by Straffi Straffi. I am your host, Daniel Straffi Jr. Today, we welcome mortgage banker Matt Victoria, who works at PRMI, Primary Residential Mortgage. Matt, how you doing today?
Matt Victoria:I am excellent. Dan, how about you?
Daniel Straffi Jr.:I'm doing well, thanks so much for coming on, giving us some of your time. We appreciate that. Especially in the podcast format, Usually our conversations are a little bit different, but today we're gonna help enlighten people and break some myths, as far as financing is concerned in relation to bankruptcy. Let's jump right into the biggest myth, Matt, which is, a lot of clients think that you can't buy a house for a minimum of a decade. I always tell clients two years to rebuild credit. As far as after a bankruptcy is filed, give us an idea of what the real timeline looks like.
Matt Victoria:Well, it could be anywhere from three months to four years, depending on which type of program that you're looking to do. FHA is two years, conventional is four years. Then we have what we call non-QM, which is a lot of the types of loans that help your clients out. The little is three months for some of the lenders there.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Wow. Does it really depend on the lender at the end of the day, or does it depend on the qualifications that you're seeing from clientele?
Matt Victoria:It depends on the criteria of the people because everybody's details kind of fits into different boxes, and then you just have to figure out which box fits where.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Is that where your expertise comes into play, your experience? Tell me how that goes.
Matt Victoria:Yeah, I like to think of myself as a creative financial specialist. So we look at a couple of different things. We look at credit, we look at the bankruptcy itself. Was it a Chapter 7? Was it a 13? Some other things that might be in there too. Everybody really is different. And a lot of people don't understand that there's a lot of different options out there for people. So it's not just one box fits all.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Okay, well that's good to know for people, and I always try to gear them towards the professionals in order to make those determinations, but clearly it's not cookie cutter in any respect. And from your side of the desk, what is the biggest difference between someone who has filed a Chapter 7 versus when someone's been in a Chapter 13 when it comes to acquiring a mortgage or refinance?
Matt Victoria:So Chapter 7, obviously, you're done, you move forward, everything's wiped out. With a Chapter 13, Now you're gonna go into trustee payments. What's gonna be probably the most important for people like that, that are in 13s? Did you make all of your payments on time? And with these non-QM lenders, they're not as particular as some of the other ones. But we look to try and get people out of the 13 because if they're in a 13 and they want to buy a house or do a refinance, now you have to go back to the trustee to get the trustees, okay, if we're just gonna get'em out of it and do a refinance, I call it a Chapter 13 buyout refi, Then nobody has to go to the trustee.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:In other words, you strategize in anticipation of an event that being a buyout or refinance and an attorney such as in my position, we might strategically look to dismiss the bankruptcy and anticipation of that. Is that what you're talking about? Or is it more about the approvals one needs within a Chapter 13 context?
Matt Victoria:I prefer to get'em out of the 13 if we can because it's easier for everybody that way. If we do a Chapter 13 buyout refi, we get rid of the Chapter 13 and then we can come back in later. You can't do a cash out refinance with a Chapter 13 that's why we need to get people out of it. So there's a little bit more behind all of it. Credit is very important for people, we want to look at all these different things and figure out exactly what's the best thing. Like we have somebody right now. Turned out that she was late on three of her payments to her trustee. They don't like that. So we have to wait three more months and then come back in and then do it at that point. When you have the 13, you're looking at 12 months of on-time payment history to trustee. Something happens, which it can. Now that kind of puts a little kink in the system.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Okay. And from a lender's perspective, from what you've found as far as what qualifies as a late payment, is it missing a month of time? Is it past the 15th of the month? Is there any qualification to that?
Matt Victoria:30 days. It's the same when you're a credit card. It's the same with a mortgage payment. If you pay it on the 16th, it's not late. It's only late when it's 30 days. A lot of people don't understand that sometimes, but you wanna make sure that you get it in that month. Once it goes past the 30th day now it's late.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Okay. That's good to know. How much is the why behind the bankruptcy? There's a myriad of different reasons as far as why people end up having to file for bankruptcy. How much of the why matters to lenders? And how do you guide someone through presenting an explanation to a lender in that circumstance where they might require it?
Matt Victoria:The why is somewhat important. Whether it was a divorce, COVID or something happened. Because if you're going with a traditional loan, they're gonna wanna have an explanation letter. But what they're really looking for, how is it not gonna happen again? So normally when they have an explanation letter, they wanna know what happened and how is it rectified? Is it gonna happen again? And one of the other things that's super important is the after. If you have a bankruptcy and then you have late payments after that, that's a big red flag for people. They're not so much as to what happened to cause it. They're more like, Hey, did you fix it afterwards? Because if you start having lates on there, you look like you could wind up doing it again.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:And that's interesting that you say that because often when I speak with my clients, we look at the bankruptcies like a capture of time. Because of everything that we're presenting to the court as far as assets, liabilities, whatever happened in the past. It stops right there as far as the filing date. So what you're really emphasizing is start showing it after the bankruptcy has been filed, no matter which circumstance, and that's gonna help to build things for them.
Matt Victoria:Just like establishing new credit. Most of the time all of their credit is closed due to the bankruptcy. Open up two secured credit cards at that point, and make sure that you're paying them, using them wisely, 30% usage and you pay'em on time because they look at the histories. If you have lates after that, that's a tough one.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:When you say 30% usage, are you referring to the amount of credit that the person has available to them? So if they have a thousand dollars credit limit, use up to about$300 or so. Okay. And if it's less than that, is that helpful or should someone strive to be in that area?
Matt Victoria:No, the 30%, once you start going over that like 50%, now it starts hitting your credit score and bringing your credit score down. So it's really just to try and help balance out or give'em, you know, not ding them on the credit, on the scores.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Understood. As far as the type of debt that folks encounter, is there a difference in how a lender would view medical debt versus credit card debt in a bankruptcy? And what's changing now that as far as I understand medical debt is being removed from credit reports?
Matt Victoria:Not yet. They've talked about it. It's supposed to be happening. Another thing they've also been talking about, which they also have not implemented yet, is trending data. So normally we could have somebody pay down their credit cards and get what we call a rescore, and all of a sudden, hey, boom, you got 30 points right there. Now they're looking at 12 month or 24 month averages or history, that's trending data. We haven't seen anything yet with the medical, although it would be great. We don't factor medical into when we're looking at somebody's collection accounts. Medical is actually not part of that.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Okay. Is there a reason for that overall?
Matt Victoria:Anything over, and there's a difference between a charge off and a collection. We could go into credit all day long, but when we're looking at mortgages with collection accounts, they collectively don't wanna see more than$2,000 in collection accounts. Medical debt is excluded because that's medical.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:So it's more about their usage as opposed to some type of debt that is forced upon them due to some type of medical injury or otherwise.
Matt Victoria:And collection accounts. The funny thing is most people have them and they don't realize it, and they're usually from cable companies because they didn't return a cable box or they're from a cell phone because they wind up switching cell phone carriers, but the carrier never paid off the bill. Or they have copays from medical like they were on workman's comp. Those are some of the biggest collection accounts that I see for people that they just don't even realize they have.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:And I would imagine that following up on that is more tedious than insurmountable. Is that a fair statement? As far as giving clients an opportunity to take care of it.
Matt Victoria:I would agree with that. Yes.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Okay. Yeah, those things add up. You don't even know it.
Matt Victoria:Well, you're like the cleanup guy, so when they're doing all these things, you gotta look at the full credit report and make sure. Because I've seen so many times where people did bankruptcies and the bankruptcy attorney wound up missing a bunch of them and never put'em actually into the bankruptcy or got'em taken care of with a credit company or something like that. A lot of people don't realize that they can actually call and have them deleted when they're paying them. They just never ask because they just don't know.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:It takes a concerted effort to make sure that all creditors are on there. Part of our services is we pull a credit report and a judgment search for folks. That's as much as I can know about their situation. But they also have to think of anyone and everyone that may be out there, go through old shoe boxes of bills to just get'em down, because it can be quite a tedious process for them.
Matt Victoria:The easiest thing to do is just to do a soft pull because we do tri-merge, we see everything. And then at that point start running cleanup from there.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:When someone's in that waiting period after a bankruptcy, what's your playbook? What's your approach as far as coaching people to rebuild their credit and what have you found works overall in helping them get to where you can be of assistance?
Matt Victoria:So exactly what I just said before, right? Opening up two secured credit cards and making sure that everything else is paid on time. And then also making sure any of the cleanup items get addressed. So this way, because people don't realize credit could be fixed. Time heals all wounds, but you also have to put a little work into it. I've seen people with bankruptcies, two years later and had 740 FICO scores. A lot of times people get so discouraged or distraught, they give up and it's all fixable if you put some work into it and it will get better.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:It's a matter of doing the work, and being proactive with it, like you said. So many bills just get piled up because ignorance can sometimes be a temporary bliss for folks when they're dealing with that kind of stress of financial disrepair.
Matt Victoria:Best thing is just to take the bull by the horns. Face it. Deal with it. Fix it. And then just keep moving forward for a better life. Yeah. And it sounds like you have a strategy to try to get'em on track in every case, but every case is different, as you mentioned before.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:When it comes to FHA or VA loans, are those loans more common after a bankruptcy or are they better options or does that not really factor in?
Matt Victoria:So VA and FHA both have two year waiting periods after a bankruptcy. Fannie and Freddie or conventional has a four year waiting period. FHA tends to be the more favorable route. If somebody has more money, then we can go with one of the non-QM lenders that will do a loan, right? You know, three months out of bankruptcy with a 30% down payment. Not everybody has that. The FHA tends to be the better way to go, provided that they didn't have any derogatory after that.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:And when you say non-QM, just for our listening audience, what do you mean by that?
Matt Victoria:They're outside of Fannie, Freddie and FHA. They're outside of the government entity. They're private lenders and they do a wide array of different types of things. They do the no income loans. They'll do Chapter 13 refinance loans. Like we had somebody who was one of your clients that he wound up having some interesting difficulties with his mortgage and things like that. His wife wasn't on the mortgage that was foreclosed on, and we wound up doing a loan under her because she had great credit. They had the 20% down payment. She didn't work, but we didn't need to because this was one of the non-QM loans as we call it. So we actually closed on them a few months ago. We're gonna fix his credit up, come back in and do a regular refinance to drop the interest rate on it for him. There's a strategy there. Sometimes it's two or three loans.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:And it may take two or three years to effectuate, but at least you have the plan for them.
Matt Victoria:They're paying a mortgage rather than a rent. Any day of the week. I don't care if the interest rate is 2% higher and the fees are higher. I'd rather pay a mortgage than rent any day of the week.'Cause it's mine and I get the tax deduction for the interest.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Yeah. How much of the tax deduction do you play into folks when they're making those sorts of determinations?
Matt Victoria:Well, usually if you're around a 7% interest rate, you're really somewhere around five and a half, five and three quarters are actually what you pay after taxes. Even if you're at a nine, you're still probably somewhere in the 8% range. But I'd rather pay 8% than a 100% on rent. Cause 0% of that goes to any benefit for yourself or your family. And you're not building any equity either.'Cause if you do it now, two years from now when you come back into refinance, your house is gonna be worth 10 to 20% more and you're still paying a mortgage and getting your interest deduction.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Right. How does a current rent payment compare to a current mortgage payment as far as effect on credit is concerned or how do you look at it?
Matt Victoria:We factor more about a debt to income ratio depending on the type of program. If you're in a Chapter 13 and you're renting, you have to go to the trustee if you wanna buy. And it has to be within 10% of what your rep payment is now because they worry about a payment shock. So with the other types of programs, the non-QM programs, they don't look at that. They don't really care.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:And speaking of one of those types, as far as our veterans that listen to the program. What do you see with VA loans, are they more available than FHA or other ones to our veterans?
Matt Victoria:Veterans could be if they tend to be more accommodating. If there were certain circumstances that we can have substantiate it like a medical condition or something like that, then there are more possibilities with a VA loan. You know, just like anybody. You go through this, the best thing to do is to get yourself on the right track, to get fixed up. This way you look better, that you're making an effort, that it is a one time thing. If that's what they're concerned with like, is this gonna be a repeat offender? Are they gonna keep coming back every two or three years?'Cause that's not good for them for lending.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Now in those non-QM scenarios where you're trying to expedite the process, someone needs something sooner than two years. Aside from what you just indicated as far as that post-bankruptcy history, is there anything else that you're looking for clients to bring to the table to try to get'em done?
Matt Victoria:If we're talking about a refinance, it's going to be trustee payment on time. Mortgage payment on time.'Cause the other problem is that once you start a bankruptcy, your mortgage is no longer being reported to the credit bureaus.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Right. No attorney is going to have a client reaffirm a mortgage just for that purpose. That's bad practice.
Matt Victoria:So now when I see a credit report, I immediately know, all right, bankruptcy, no mortgage history.'Cause it stopped three years ago. So now I have to go and ask them, Hey, have you been on time for the last 12 months? Because if you're not, that's gonna be a problem. So we need to work around that. So we had somebody who had a whole bunch of lates. He was actually, his wife was the divorcee, and we needed to refinance her off the mortgage. He had a bankruptcy a while back, and a bunch of mortgage lates. So FHA was excluded, so we had to get a solid 12 month history. So all of his lates, he had two at the end. We just had to get beyond those and then we wound up doing a refinance. That one was a six month process.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Gotcha. So after you had found out about those two lates, you set the chorus for six months in order to get you where it needed to be.
Matt Victoria:Yeah. Oh, and it got better because he actually had a car that was totaled and a lot of people forget about something called gap insurance, so he wound up having a car totaled, there was a balance left on the car because they only pay what it's worth. And he never made a payment on it. It wound up hitting his credit in the process and dropped him from a 620 to a 550, so then we had to fix the credit.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:So you always have to keep your creative hat on and certainly you've helped a lot of my clients out with that creativity. What is it about your background would you say that excites you about the business that makes you the type of person that can work with people who need that sort of listening ear and creativity in order to get something done for them?
Matt Victoria:I used to be a mechanic, so I used to fix construction equipment on the job sites, so I didn't have anybody else around me. I just had to do it. I didn't have a choice.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:You just have to figure it out.
Matt Victoria:Yes, and there was just nothing else that I could do. I would just figure stuff out. But the other part of it too is that I like a challenge and I'm empathetic because these people went through a rough patch. They had stuff that happened, whether it was a family member dying or a divorce. So for me, I enjoy trying to figure out how to find an option for somebody. Some people just want quick and easy. Me, I'm not that type. I like figuring out how to make stuff work for people.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Well, strategy and empathy will get you a long way especially in our line of business. So we certainly appreciate your listening ear. And in light of the clients you've assisted both, from me and in general, that have performed the Chapter 13 buyout refinance, what has that process been like as far as, what you can relay for a potential client that might experience that down the road?
Matt Victoria:The nice thing about it is that we get rid of the bankruptcy, right? So after 12 months of on time, trustee payments. We do a refinance where we roll the balance of the trustee payments into a new loan and put'em together and we get rid of it. So now they're done. In two years, they can come back in and actually do FHA financing. In four years, they can come back in and do conventional financing. They don't have to wait the whole five years of trustee payments. Like we get them back straight now. And we could even come back in three months and do a cash-out refinance and give them some extra money if they need something else. If they have extra debt that they want to get rid of or they wanna put some money back into a retirement fund or something like that or do some work on the house or buy a new car. But once you're out of the bankruptcy, you're back to living again. Like you don't have to worry about this stuff. You get the monkey off your back.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:And then like you had indicated, if they stay current moving forward all the options are open as far as getting to something perhaps more conventional down the road.
Matt Victoria:All they're doing is looking in the rear view at that point. The bankruptcy they had back when they did it.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Now, you're based in New Jersey. Is your company based anywhere else or just strictly New Jersey?
Matt Victoria:No, we're nationwide with the exception of New York. And we just have another client that they wound up actually moving down to South Carolina and we're now doing a refinance on the home they bought down in South Carolina with that no income loan that I told you about.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Okay. So you have flexibility in light of the fact that you guys are nationwide to address the local laws and standards in one state versus another. You have those flexibilities. And is there anything here in New Jersey as far as state or local programs to assist homeowners or potential homeowners?
Matt Victoria:Well, the programs are gonna be FHA, which is gonna be two years past your bankruptcy. So there's nothing that's gonna help somebody while they're in all of this. They're state run programs that are agency type programs.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Okay. So nothing, outta the ordinary in that regard other than the normal that you kind of encounter.
Matt Victoria:But we do a down payment assistance programs that'll give somebody, a down payment or money for closing costs and things like that.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Okay. When you close a client, whether it be handing them the keys to a new property getting them the interest rate on a refinance or getting cash out of it. Do you stick with that client in any respect as far as managing this new set of financial realities for them or do you try to impose certain habits on them or stay in touch? What's the process once you actually get to the end with them?
Matt Victoria:So one of them who we just closed, he was a cash out refinance and it was a divorce buyout. So I sent him to my credit person. We got his credit all cleaned up. Now he's going to a financial advisor because he wound up getting some extra money in the house and now I'm making sure that he gets other things in order too. Another one, he's going to a credit repair person. This way I can come back in a year or two and do a refinance for them. So I wanna make sure that I'm their advisor, not just their mortgage guy.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Okay, and is a lot of that staying on top of interest rates to give them opportunities and things of that nature?
Matt Victoria:That'll be coming in the future. I think.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Fingers crossed.
Matt Victoria:We're looking at about two years, but right now it's more about getting them moving through from the non-QM program into an FHA loan, into a conventional loan and things like that. So staying on top of them to keep the plan going.'Cause sometimes it's a multi-step plan.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Okay. When it comes to interest rates presently, how would you define the present interest rate landscape? Obviously we all knew that we were in a very favorable situation, four or five years ago. How would you describe it presently?
Matt Victoria:Listen, the cost of living is high. Interest rates are high right now because we go off of the 10 year treasury. A lot of people think we run off of the fed rate. They say, the fed lowered its rate. A lot of times rates will go up. There's a lot of uncertainty in the market. So what I tell people is, get your house, get your equity, come back later. Do a refinance when rates drop. But if you don't buy now next year, that house is 10 to 20% higher than what it was today. So you're better off getting your house and shoring up your home. Taking the equity and the property and the tax advantages that you get and then refinancing later. Don't worry about your interest rate right now. Worry about what you're gonna make on the house.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Those being the folks that may be looking to get into the market, their renters presently. What do you say to the folks who have those low interest rates but need to figure something out as far as their cost of living is concerned? They have that 2.5 or 3.5 rate. The interest rate is close to double that presently, right?
Matt Victoria:Yes. My suggestion is that if you can keep your rate, great. If you need money, look at what you're gonna wind up doing. So it's all about the monthly payment. If you're paying 30% interest on your credit cards, the cost of those kinds of debts can wind up getting you into a conversation with you. Live in your means. If you have an opportunity to refinance your house, don't worry about the interest rate. Worry about what your monthly savings is. If I can come in and save you five or$600 a month, even though your interest rate goes up, that's a win for you. Because now we made your life more manageable. We freed up debt or freed up money. On top of that, we've also turned a lot of that credit card debt into now tax deductible interest because you cannot write off interest on credit cards or student loans or things like that.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Now first off, thank you for all of your time here today, Matt. We appreciate it. But as we wrap things up, when someone is feeling hopeless about ever owning a home again. What do you say to them? How do you get them on track as far as having a positive mindset and turning that into action?
Matt Victoria:Well, first off is having a conversation with me. I always like to have an educating conversation. The other thing is that prices are gonna keep going up. Rates are not always gonna be high, right? It's cyclical. Are we gonna see twos or threes again? I don't know, but you know what? We could see fives. So rents are not gonna go down, you're better off paying a mortgage than paying rent. It's about getting into the right mindset because a lot of people are doom and gloom, and that doesn't help people. You know, you should buy a house. Maybe you start out smaller, start with a condo, and then build up from there. Then you can turn that condo into an investment property, into a rental. And these are some of the strategies that I go over with people because, like I drive an Acura TLX, right? My first car was a 1978 Chevy Chevette. My current car is far different than my first car, so some of it is setting the proper expectations for people. Because your first house is not gonna be your forever house. You live in a house that you had built, that's not your first home. Setting the right expectations and getting yourself in the right mindset, forget what you see on HGTV and other shows about buying houses and international home buyers and all that. Get a place that's gonna work for you if you're paying a$2,500 a month rent, which is not cheap, for some people. Your mortgage payment will be somewhere around$3,000 that could be comfortable for you. You have to have the right expectations and look at things in the right way.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:And I think overall what you're really getting across is that. There's never an end to any of this. Bankruptcy is not an end all. If anything, it's a new beginning, a fresh start.
Matt Victoria:It's a bump in the road and if you have the right people that can explain things and help you along the way, that's all that it is. Time heals all wounds. It's not forever. Get it over with. Be current on your mortgage. That's one thing I always tell people. If you do have a bankruptcy, reestablish new credit. Make sure that you're current with all your cards. Set'em up on autopay. This way, you never, ever, that's the one thing that screws people up the most. They miss card payments because they never actually scheduled them, or maybe they don't receive the bill. Well, that's not the creditor's problem. That's actually your problem. Their bill is irrelevant. Set up your autopays.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:I always tell folks put your core on the card, your core being, your groceries, things that you need to spend on, pay it off every month. Using that credit is gonna help to rebuild things. Is that where you try to steer folks as well?
Matt Victoria:Yeah. And another great one too is use the seasons. If you have credit cards, like some people have 10, 20 cards. Every season pull it out and use it. Because if you don't use it after 12 months, they're going to close your card on you. And closing cards will actually hurt your credit.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Right. Using it is important. It's kind of a catch 22, right? You know. You don't want to overuse it.
Matt Victoria:Unfortunately it's a necessary evil, set up Netflix or your Amazon or something like that. Set it up on there so this way there's something on there all the time. Or just use it for groceries or gas once a quarter. You know, pay it off in a couple of installments.'Cause they like to see the history. Paying everything off in one shot doesn't necessarily help you as much as paying it off in a couple, because the couple shows diligence. It shows that you can pay your bills on time.'Cause a credit score is just a numerical representation of how well you pay your bills.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Right. Well, thanks again, Matt, for all of your time here, your expertise. How about giving us a plug as far as your business, what you're up to? This way our listeners know where to find you.
Matt Victoria:For anybody that is thinking about buying a house or refinancing or has gone through a bankruptcy, I'm always here to listen and help them. You can find me at mvictoria@primeres.com. My phone number is(908) 296-8904. Or if you look on Facebook, you could find me at Matt Your Mortgage Guy. That's the easiest way to find me.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:Matt, great speaking with you. Thanks as always, for your expertise and obviously all you do as far as helping out our clients. We really appreciate it.
Matt Victoria:Thank you, sir.
Daniel Straffi Jr.:All right, we'll talk to you soon. Thanks, Matt.