Financial Wellness Today Episode 6 - Augie Card

And what was interesting, like I always talk about, one of the targets for Cambridge Credit Counseling is to get into employers because most employee access plans do not have a debt counseling benefit. If the financial advisor is working with people and HR directors all the time say, hey, we already have this benefit. And I dig deep with them. And I said, I don’t really think you do. And they think the financial advisor covers everything.

So I first in this presentation live listened to their employee access plan benefits. And it makes it sound like they’re doing counseling, but they can’t do debt management. 17 trillion in credit card debt. 3 trillion, which I updated for the recorded presentation. So it’s apparent it was still going in that direction.

Everything costs more. And foreclosures have gone up. Delinquent car payments have gone up. Everything is still trending, seemingly not in the best way. And that’s why, again, I’m proud to do this show with you because bringing on people that can be trusted, experts that will give consumers things to think about, things to have available.

We all know there’s a lot of bad things out there for people when they’re desperate. So it’s a pleasure to do this show with you. Every single time we get on here, it’s just we’re building on something that for long term will be great advice for people. Yeah, no question about it, Gordy. You know, the best thing about it is, is that we’ve vetted already all of our financial partners.

So it’s nice to be able to bring them onto the show. So we know that the advice that they’re giving is expert advice. Yeah. And look, today’s guests, before I introduce them, in our business, you know, we’ve been in business since 1996. And the credit repair world is just riddled with people that just really want to take advantage of people.

Mortgage ready and hero programs

All you have to do is Google credit repair lawsuits and you’ll kind of get a feeling for that. That said, in our business, when we’re dealing with people, they come to us sometimes where they’re not understanding what to do about fixing their credit. They think they can quickly fix things. And we all know it’s an organic process if you have had some problems that you need to work your way away from the problems that you had. So Mortgage Ready, as an example, that’s a program where we help people with HUD certified coaching when they can’t get pre-approval for a mortgage and you need to work on rebuilding or building their credit so that they can eventually get approved.

So today’s guest... No question about it. You know, this weekend, I ended up working a lot more than I thought I was going to. And it’s all because people out there, some of people are actually buying homes. And with our HERO program that we offer, we actually scheduled just for today, I think we have six closings, which is fantastic.

And with that, basically, all we’re doing is all the HEROs that we did the mortgages for and the real estate transactions is they’re all going to walk away with a reward of an average of about $5,000 after closing. They can take that money, apply it, some of it at closing. They can buy furniture with it, take a trip with it, whatever they want. But the HERO program is really exploding nationwide. We’re signing up organizations left and right, especially since if you qualify, it doesn’t cost anything to even sign up for that program.

It’s completely free. And then you mix in the PERT platform for it. And then you mix in the fact that you and I are now setting up individual financial wellness webinars for a lot of these companies so they can push it out to either their employees or their members. It’s just a great way of interacting with our databases. Yeah, look, the more that we can do these wellness initiatives and the more we can bring on trusted partners, it will become a focal point for people to know that they can come listen to these podcasts, contact us when they need this information.

Introducing the guests

So without any further ado, it’s my pleasure to introduce two great gentlemen that we’ve been working with for a while. And the product that we’re going to talk about today is the Augie Card, which Augie is a platform that enables people to build a credit profile without getting into unsustainable debt or incurring costs, which is directly in the heart of our work here at Cambridge Credit Counseling. So with that said, I’d like to introduce Rhys Bogle, who’s an advisor for GetAugie. And we have Paul Harkins, who’s the co-founder of GetAugie. And gentlemen, you know what we’re about here, so we’re going to get right into it.

It’s a pleasure having you on here. In our work, I’ve seen things being offered for consumers over time, and we’re going to get into the GetAugie product because it’s important for people to know the worst underserved people are the people that just are not necessarily understanding what options that they have when they’re trying to build themselves in a credit profile. So before we get into it, I’d like you guys to just, we’ll start with you, Paul. Can you tell us a little bit about your background? Sure thing, Gordon.

Guests share their backgrounds

And Randy, thanks for having us. My background is in entrepreneurial-based activities. This is the sixth startup that I’ve been involved in in my career. And all of the companies that I’ve been involved in have been focused on consumer doing things to help them do other things. So for instance, I built platforms for large multinational mobile operators that enabled consumers to be able to perform an action to then earn money to reduce their mobile bill.

We had a deal in one of my prior startups with a messaging service in Indonesia, where you could do certain things on the platform, and that would give you more access to that messaging service so you can communicate with your friends and relatives. So in creating GetAugie, it was really a matter of saying, okay, what have I done in the past to benefit consumers? But can I take it to the next level and deal with a problem that no one seems to be able to solve over the past 50 to 60 years? And we can talk more a little bit about GetAugie and our business model and how it’s unique and how it does create that, what do I do first path for consumers? But as we get into this, I’m sure we’ll get deeper on it.

Yeah, looking forward to it, because again, from our scope, it is all about the education side, which is part of what the product does in helping people get from where they are to a better place. Rhys, great having you on again. A pleasure working with you always. Can you tell our audience a little bit about you and your background? Sure, I’d be glad to, Gordon.

Gordon, thank you to you. And Randy, really appreciate everything you guys do as well as inviting us to this program. I’ve been in banking and financial services for close to 45 years. Recently, I was at one of the fourth largest credit card companies for 17 years. And again, you know, there is a place for current credit card issuers.

But what we also found and what I enjoyed really working with Paul on was a secured credit card program that didn’t put people behind the eight ball. And most secured credit card programs, there’s high fees, there’s high deposits, things of that nature, really didn’t look forward to how are we going to help you? Most of the secured credit card companies are how do we make money? And so, you know, that was one of the things I really enjoyed with the Get Augie program. I met Paul a number of years ago, and then we’ve worked together.

I’ve also worked in the insurance space for a number of years. So really kind of putting the whole financial service, including financial wellness together. And that’s where I think the Get Augie program can really be a foundation for that for many people that need to either build credit, or in some cases, will take somebody getting out of college that really doesn’t have credit at all, but has a good job and they need to figure out how they’re going to be able to pay for an apartment or not pay for but get an apartment because, oops, I don’t have any credit. Yeah, it’s funny that you bring that up. I mean, we deal with student loan counseling all the time.

And, you know, a lot of families get to that point where they’re too late in the game of trying to educate their child when they’re planning for college, they get into college, the college student comes out with, let’s say, 30 grand in debt, and is trying to get into the real world, and maybe not be educated with credit. So that’s a good example of this product and how, on the educational side of things, having something to help build on that is tremendous. And Randy, once again, nothing short of having no slouches on this program, two tremendous people here to share some information that’s really great for the credit building community. Yep, no question about it, Cordy. And I was actually even thinking about a new contact I had for Paul.

We’re actually getting ready to do a webinar right now for over 1,000 schools, 200 colleges, 250 colleges, actually, 950 K-12 schools, and another couple hundred other schools that we’re going to be doing a series of six different webinars for to introduce them to both Perk Plans and to Hero Benefits Network. Because as an educator, they all qualify for Hero, and then they’re all going to have all the perks that we offer available to not just the teachers, but the students, the alumni, even some of the families that are going to want to get involved. So it’s going to be a great opportunity, I think. That’s awesome. All right, so Paul, why don’t we start with you?

Explaining what the Augie card is

So why don’t you tell our listeners, what is Augie? Yeah, sure thing, Gordon. So in layman’s terms, if you have no credit at all, or you have credit that has been impacted negatively, you’re sitting in a situation where you have no ability to borrow more money, right? That’s the key. So anything that you pay for has to be in your bank account and available to you immediately.

So we came up with a plan to say, okay, what if there was a way that we could create a credit card that had the same type of features? So it acted very much like a debit card. If you have the money to pay your bills, then we would lend you the money to pay those bills based upon the money sitting in your bank account. So in basic terms, the Get Augie credit card is a secured credit card. It’s not a debit card.

It’s a secured credit card that will enable you to pay your reoccurring monthly bills that you would normally pay today on a debit card. You can now pay on a credit card, which is then reported to the credit agencies. The key for us though, was how do we do it in a way where we’re not, as Reece said, where we’re not just trying to make money on people. The idea is, and it’s funny when we talk about the credit card issuers out there and their offerings of secured credit cards, they all want to make money. Well, there’s a reason for that.

They have a secured credit card out there because they have to. They have to have some product to at least, or at least most of the issuers have to have a product that will help this quote unquote market. And keep in mind, Gordon and Randy, there are what 40, 45 million consumers right now with no credit at all. Forget about the people that have experienced credit challenges that have what we call damage credit. So the Augie credit card is designed to help those people kind of get back to where they should be or create a path of where they should be.

Because as you said, building credit is not a overnight thing, right? That credit repair companies make a lot of money and sadly they take a lot of money off of people by explaining, hey, we can fix your credit in 24 hours or your money back. It doesn’t work. Credit is something, it’s like, I use the analogy all the time, especially with my kids, is that credit building is like working out, right? It’s like you’re not going to go to the gym two days and all of a sudden you’re going to lose 10 pounds and have these rock solid abs.

This is more of a feature in your life as opposed to an add on. So credit building starts with not only education, right? How do you actually build a solid credit profile? We have to understand budgeting to build a solid credit profile, which we help consumers with. You have to understand how your income to bill ratio impacts your ability to maintain a solid credit profile.

But what was missing in the marketplace was the actual vehicle to go alongside that. Because every other vehicle to build credit either fell into one of two buckets. One bucket was a secured card that required a security deposit. And I think we should explain that for people in a minute. Or a quote unquote debit based credit building program that is not effective when it comes to reporting to the agencies.

So the Augie credit card offers the ability for a consumer to create a pathway to paying their monthly bills using a credit card that doesn’t require interest, it doesn’t require fees, and it doesn’t require setting aside a large security deposit. Because we all know that secured credit cards are the best, most effective way to bill credit. But up until us, the only way to get one, forget about fees and interest, was to say take $300 to $500 and set it aside with the credit card company in an escrow account. And that money just sits there forever, right? Until you don’t need the card anymore.

We created a first of its kind business model and card that didn’t require that. So it’s really the first step in the path for people. So Paul, it’s funny when I do workshops, again, sometimes these topics can be a little dry. So it’s funny you said about the gym, because I always do like the Chris Farley was in Tommy Boy was like, anybody see where the gym is? And he pulls his sleeve up with his bicep.

Credit building mindset and lifestyle analogies

So it’s funny that you bring up the same analogy, because that is true. And unfortunately, what consumers need to understand is you can actually work away from bad activity or damaged activity pretty quickly with the right understanding and the right advice. If you’re doing the work it takes from month to month to get away from that bad activity. So it’s such a great point and so important that people understand. I think people when they have damaged credit, they feel like they’re hopeless.

And that is true to an extent because they don’t necessarily know who to turn to. But when you have a couple of organizations that you know you can get sound advice from, and you have a product like this that has no annual card fee, no interest to be paid, no credit check, and simple operation and setup, I mean, that’s as good as it gets really. Yeah. And Gordon, you also have to keep in mind, and you know this better than anyone, both you and Randy, that when someone either doesn’t have any credit or they have damaged credit, there’s a shame factor. And there’s a I’m less than human factor, right?

Where it’s just not the case. And it’s organizations like you guys have that enables consumers to say, okay, wait a minute, I have a little more power to become a regular human being, if you will, if you want to call it that, than not. And the exposure of these products is really critically important. But it also goes to, we’re in a very, I want immediate results society now, right? And we’re all not young chickens here.

But when I was in my 20s, it wasn’t that way. It wasn’t something where you thought, I needed to solve this overnight. It was a, I’m going to build a very solid history. I’m going to get a credit card first. I’m going to get a card loan next.

As long as I’m okay with that, I’m eventually going to buy a house. And you start slowly building your credit picture. People don’t want to do that now. They want to get maximum credit lines, buy whatever they can, go on vacations they can’t afford. And then when they have to figure out how to pay for it, it’s like, well, I need a plan to solve this overnight.

And it’s just, it’s not reality. And I think it’s really critically important for your organizations to be able to make sure that people understand, you have to take a step back to be able to take five steps forward. And it’s the analogy I use all the time is the physical fitness analogy of a human being. You can’t eat three Big Macs a day and 10 beers and then go to the gym for 20 minutes and be like, oh yeah, I’m going to get in great shape. It just doesn’t, it doesn’t work.

You have to evaluate something. And I think combined with programs like yours, the Augie credit card was the vehicle that was missing in the marketplace to be able to get from point A to point C. Paul, it’s funny that you brought up eating three Big Macs a day. Not that I’ve ever done it in my life, but one of the terms I keep hearing out there is lifestyle change. That’s what our government keeps pushing and pushing and pushing now.

And when you think about that, you think about healthcare, you think about what should I be eating? How should I be exercising? The one thing that they’re missing is financial wellness. Financial wellness actually is a big part of that. And finding organizations like Cambridge, Get Augie, our PERC platform, Hero Benefits Network, other things that Reese is involved in really help a lot with your financial wellness and wellbeing that go right back to your health.

So I think it’s the lifestyle change that people are looking for today that a lot of people are adapting to. Yeah, look, I want to bring up another really important aspect that I think is one of the biggest benefits from our card compared to a normal secure card. So today, if I get a normal secure card, as Paul said, I put down $500. Now the bank’s going to say, wait a minute, you got interest in everything that you’re going to owe. So we’re only going to give you a 350 line of credit.

How the card works and forced discipline

Here’s the key point. They don’t tell me what I can spend that $350 line of credit on. I could go to a local bar. I could go to a fast food restaurant. I can just spend it on whatever I want to.

Next thing I know, I’ve spent the $350. I’m now owing interest on it. Now I can’t make those payments. Now they take the security deposit. The difference with our card is we go in and look and see what bills you’re paying.

And we’ll use a simple example. You’re paying a Netflix bill. You switch out our card with Netflix. We take the money out of your checking account prior to your Netflix bill coming due. And when the charge comes in for Netflix, we approve it, pay it, start the credit history for you.

If you try to take the card to Amazon and buy a widget, we’re going to say, no, sorry, that’s not approved. And we’re going to decline that charge. So again, they’re only able to spend what they’ve been spending already on current transactions. And I think that’s a huge difference between our card and the other card. And then lastly, the whole goal of this card again, is to get you to get your credit up, get it to where you need to be to be able then to get more into the, I’ll say, real world of true credit and things of that nature.

So it’s a building block to get you where you need to. If you handle yourself correctly, you do your financial wellness, and then you can take the next step for you. Yeah. Paul, let me ask you a question. Is the card and all the charges that you would incur, like your normal charges every month reported to the credit bureaus?

In the aggregate. So if you have, like, as Rhys said, if you have Netflix, and then you also pay your mobile bill with the card, you also pay your electricity bill with the card, and you charge up $300, $400. We just report the $300, $400, whatever the aggregate is. So it’s not a micropayment. And again, if you want to get into really dry topics on what goes into credit scoring, we’ll just put everyone to sleep.

But the reality is that there are so many nuances about the Augie credit card that speak to how credit should be built. But I think it’s something, I believe, Rhys, you hit on something really important. It’s forced discipline, right? The only time someone stops drinking is when they get to the point usually where they’re in trouble, right? They need to stop drinking.

They usually don’t do it for themselves. The only time someone changes their lifestyle, Randy, to your point, is when they’re forced to do so. So we have a very soft touch forced discipline. The way we do it, you know, we don’t want to make it punitive, of course, but we have to make sure people understand that there is a right way to approach your credit lifestyle, much like there’s a right way to approach how you eat, or a right way... How to approach how you work out or study, these things are not rocket science, but people I think have gone away from creating business models that allow consumers to learn things the right way, as opposed to learning it immediately.

Connecting to mortgage ready and education

And Augie has kind of really hit a sweet spot in combining both. It’s both relatively quick to build a credit profile, but it’s done the right way. Yeah, I want to talk about our Mortgage Ready Program a little bit, because the Mortgage Ready Program is to help people get eventually to underwriting. And that’s going to take a process of being coached, having homework to do from month to month for everything that we’re talking about here, building away from the activity that’s preventing you from getting credit approval, let’s say. All too many times, people will listen to a friend that swears that they’re knowledgeable in finance or whatever that would be.

And they tell them to do something, and they do it, and they didn’t realize that actually puts them backwards, right? So it’s a strategic approach of walking away from that bad activity. And unfortunately, all too many times, people listened or think they’re doing something that’s helping them, it’s actually hurting them. So it is the total. I always talk about the ecosystem here, right?

It’s the ecosystem of knowing where to turn so that if you are working on building your financial wellness the way you want it, having good credit, you’ve got to know the things that are good. And you’re right, Paul, if we did a webinar on FICO score, it would be tough to sit through because it’s convoluted. There’s different models. And we’re here at the basics, right? We’re here trying to get people to do the most basic of things to help them improve themselves.

Yeah, and this is what we’re fighting. We’re fighting now a society where people, again, they grow up in a certain way. Again, I have three boys who are in their 20s, early to late 20s. And they, by the grace of God, only because their mother was a genius, they were brought up the right way, right? And the reality is that when they got their first, when my oldest got his first credit card, he didn’t go out there and start spending like a madman.

You know, he went out there and he was like, all right, what can I pay back? Because that’s the way he was educated. But sadly, we don’t have a lot of kids, right, to your point of this webinar you’re doing with schools. We don’t have a lot of kids who, you know, don’t understand that a piece of plastic is not free money. It is something that you are now adhering yourself to as a debt.

And the Augie card is designed to get someone from not having any piece of plastic to, as Reece put it, a quote-unquote normal credit card, graduating them to better products, right, which is exactly what you’re doing with the Mortgage Ready program. You’re giving them the education to be able to say, once you actually apply for a mortgage and get a mortgage, you’re going to know you can afford that mortgage. It’s not something where you’re going to get booted out of the house in a year because we’ve given you that solid foundation. Yeah, so a couple of things I think we need to make sure that we get clear on with this episode. How do people sign up for it?

Signing up and trust in the product

The product’s relatively new. So can you speak to that a little bit? How do you sign up for it? The product’s new. So, you know, how they can trust, you know, get Augie.

Let’s get into that a little bit. Yeah, the product itself is new to the market, but we’ve been working on this product for almost four years, working with regulators, credit agencies, issuing banks to make sure that the product was bulletproof when it came out to market. How Augie is distributed to consumers is through what we call a trust bridge. So mainly through employee benefit programs. So if you’re looking for Augie, you should check your employee benefit platform.

It should be on there as we have relationships with pretty much the entire employee benefit world. It’s also distributed through community banks and credit unions. Same thing. However, if you just simply want to get on there without having to go through one of them, just download the app, right, and reach out to us at info, get Augie, and we’ll give you an invite code. It’s a very, very solid bulletproof program when it comes to the operation of it.

And even though we only launched quite recently, it’s now starting to pick up a little faster than we expected. And I think, Paul, the other key is the bank that we’re with is the bank that is used for credit card issuing for ICBA, which is Independent Community Bankers Association. So it’s a very top-notch bank that knows the credit world very well, and they normally only issue through their community banks. In this case, they’re issuing for us directly because they believed in the program that strongly, and they have that type of cachet in the business world and the banking world to be able to issue something like this. It’s an incredible product, and again, the fintech world has been growing very quickly, right, so technology can be our friend, and this is a perfect example of how that is being pulled in to offer something to help the most underserved consumers.

Reese, with your history in banking, I have to believe that knowing what you know from being in banking for so long, you became part of this as an advisor because you could see the true benefit that it’s going to help a consumer. Definitely, and one of the things that is part of banking is CRA, which is called Community Reinvestment Act, which is how do you benefit individuals in low- to moderate-income segments of your business? How do you benefit individuals in low- to moderate-income segments of your bank that is being covered in the community? I’ve been involved with that with a number of banks that I’ve been working for, and some banks do a great job. They really do help that low- to moderate-income group.

Then there are a number of banks that just throw money out. They can show the regulators that they paid so much, they gave a grant to this group or to that nonprofit, but they really didn’t do anything to really help that underlying group. I actually, when I was working for one of the large credit card banks a number of years ago, and at that time, I was still working there, so I couldn’t be on his advisory team, but I started learning more about it, started looking more into CRA, looking more at what was going on, and really saw that this was a product that directly helps the individual. It also helps banks and nonprofits because, again, we’re not charging the fees. We’re not charging the deposits.

There’s no interest rate being charged. It’s truly a product that helps the individual, and then in the long run, can also help a bank when they’re getting the regulators come in, and they look at their CRA programs and see that this is a true program that’s helping them. From our standpoint, we’re not charging the banks anything to offer it. It’s just a really good product to help their current customers as well as individuals that may come in, and they end up turning down, but now is a way to help them get further credit and come back to them. Again, a very natural alignment from the companies that are on this call, right?

Closing remarks and contact information

All with the same directive and mission in mind to try to help consumers get to a place where they’re financially well, happy with where they’re at, with goals, with ways to improve themselves, and trusted resources to turn to when they need the assistance. Before we’re getting to the end of the episode here, and before we leave, the video on the website, I’m going to share in the description of the episode, so I’ll make sure I put up the website, the video, and anything else you guys want me to put up on there, please share it with me, and I’ll be happy to put it in the bio of the episode. Before we leave, can you, for the individual, for the employer, for the member benefit organization, what’s the best way for them to reach out to you guys to talk about promoting the product? com. Just reach out, and we’ll have a conversation about your specific needs and see if we can help.

The reality is, Gordon, to your point, FinTech has been occupied for years now by tech people getting into the financial space. We’re financial people that actually are using tech for the benefit of a consumer, which is very different. Yes, same here. Again, the tools have been helping us do our job more concise because the process is not short. When we start helping people, the counseling is one part, then the solutions are others.

It’s been a great merge. Tech has been helping us tremendously as a nonprofit as well. As time goes on, getting these opportunities to work with companies like yours are tremendous for the consumer. It’s really great to be on this podcast, to be future-looking in how we can work together. It’s really a pleasure having you on here because I do know how important this product is, especially in the economy and the world we’re living in right now.

I want to thank you guys. Randy, do you have any last thoughts? Once Reese had originally told me about the Get All of You product, I thought it was a great product and really happy to have them on our show today. com. We’re happy to share any information that we can with them.

Same thing, Cambridge Credit Counseling. If you’re struggling with high interest rate credit card debt or you have some housing, you can reverse mortgage counseling. We do mortgage ready for people that can’t get pre-approval and need some assistance getting coached so they can eventually become a homeowner and most importantly, an educated homeowner to know the costs and the responsibility of being a homeowner. org. With that said, this is episode six of Financial Wellness Today.

Paul and Reese, thank you so much for joining us. I’d like to have you guys back in, let’s say, three or six months to talk about where things are at, some new information on the product moving forward. Because again, I think this economy where it’s at is going to be long, so the more that we can have organizations like yours in front of the consumer is important to everybody. That’d be great and we really appreciate you having us on and I think this is one of those stories where one plus one equals three and as a banker, I should know one plus one equals two. But in this case, it really does equal three and I think we can benefit widely from your guys’ programs as well as what we do.

Awesome. With that said, this is Financial Wellness Today. We’ll see you next episode. Thanks, guys. Thank you.

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