How do you approach someone about fixing their credit?

[DeeBee78]

So yesterday, I invited my friend/coworker out to lunch (Chipotle). After ordering, I realized I didn't have my wallet! 

"Not to worry,"  I thought to myself. I have Apple Pay! Well, apparently Chipotle is stuck in the past, so they don't take Apple Pay. 

My coworker said he would pay, and proceede to pull out an orange First Premier credit card. I didn't say anything to him, but I know how predatory and fee-intensive they can be. I know he has bad credit, because he's told me. I know what he can do to fix it, and want to help him. How do you approach this kind of situation for someone? 

Side note: One of my friends posted on Facebook today a picture of his chopped up First Premier card. I was very happy to see it. 

[elim]

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@DeeBee78 wrote:

So yesterday, I invited my friend/coworker out to lunch (Chipotle). After ordering, I realized I didn't have my wallet! 

"Not to worry,"  I thought to myself. I have Apple Pay! Well, apparently Chipotle is stuck in the past, so they don't take Apple Pay. 

My coworker said he would pay, and proceede to pull out an orange First Premier credit card. I didn't say anything to him, but I know how predatory and fee-intensive they can be. I know he has bad credit, because he's told me. I know what he can do to fix it, and want to help him. How do you approach this kind of situation for someone? 

Side note: One of my friends posted on Facebook today a picture of his chopped up First Premier card. I was very happy to see it. 

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   lol nice...

  All you can do is share your experience and send them here.

  Another side note:  Chipotle has the mag swipe on the side of their monitors and even Samsung Pay is hit-or-miss.  I am getting spoiled and am starting to not like digging my overstuffed wallet out of my pocket. My GF has a decent Iphone and it's pretty sweet so I may grab an Ipad Air to get to know an apple product better. I stepped down to an S7 when my Note7 (nice phone for what i do) was recalled.  :[

[wa3more]

most times you can't . Its embedded in their DNA.

[SouthJamaica]

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@DeeBee78 wrote:

So yesterday, I invited my friend/coworker out to lunch (Chipotle). After ordering, I realized I didn't have my wallet! 

"Not to worry,"  I thought to myself. I have Apple Pay! Well, apparently Chipotle is stuck in the past, so they don't take Apple Pay. 

My coworker said he would pay, and proceede to pull out an orange First Premier credit card. I didn't say anything to him, but I know how predatory and fee-intensive they can be. I know he has bad credit, because he's told me. I know what he can do to fix it, and want to help him. How do you approach this kind of situation for someone? 

Side note: One of my friends posted on Facebook today a picture of his chopped up First Premier card. I was very happy to see it. 

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Uh ... you don't.

[Anonymous]

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@DeeBee78 wrote:

So yesterday, I invited my friend/coworker out to lunch (Chipotle). After ordering, I realized I didn't have my wallet! 

"Not to worry,"  I thought to myself. I have Apple Pay! Well, apparently Chipotle is stuck in the past, so they don't take Apple Pay. 

My coworker said he would pay, and proceede to pull out an orange First Premier credit card. I didn't say anything to him, but I know how predatory and fee-intensive they can be. I know he has bad credit, because he's told me. I know what he can do to fix it, and want to help him. How do you approach this kind of situation for someone? 

Side note: One of my friends posted on Facebook today a picture of his chopped up First Premier card. I was very happy to see it. 

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I don't see this as either a huge conundrum or a massive no-fly zone.  The key sentence as I see it is:

"I know he has bad credit, because he's told me."

He's already chosen to broach this subject and indeed to share his private details.  So you just find a moment at some point and tell him:

"Hey, I know you mentioned to me the other day how your credit isn't the best.  I had some similar trouble a while back.  Good news is that I ended up finding out all the bottom line methods of fixing it and then getting way better.  If you ever want me to sit down with you and share with you what I know, gimme a shout.  I'd be really happy to do that."

Friendly, zero judgment, non-invasive, identifies yourself as a fellow screwup, lets him make the next move, etc.

Then if he makes the next move, great.  If he doesn't, you don't have to feel like you didn't try to help.

[Anonymous]

I think CGID's advice above is excellent and is a no-lose method to handle this.

There are plenty of people out there that simply aren't in the know about credit.  Some don't care to be where others are very willing to learn and even want to learn, but don't know where to start. 

The vast majority of my employees are in their late teens and early 20's.  Sometimes I'll strike up conversations with them about credit when the opportunity presents itself, like when they take out their debit card to pay for a meal for example.  I'll start the conversation off with "out of curiosity, do you ever use a credit card or just your debit card for things?"  Usually I find that most of them don't even have a credit card, which usually leads me into a 20 second FYI about how important establishing credit can be when you're young.  Some I can tell don't care or aren't interested, so I leave it at that.  Others start to ask me questions and I can tell are genuinely interested, so I'll go into more detail if they desire. 

I think the important thing is for people like us to open the door for those that are less in the know on the subject than we are.  Some will choose to walk through and others will choose to walk away.  I think we can feel good about opening that door though.

[Berk]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@DeeBee78 wrote:

So yesterday, I invited my friend/coworker out to lunch (Chipotle). After ordering, I realized I didn't have my wallet! 

"Not to worry,"  I thought to myself. I have Apple Pay! Well, apparently Chipotle is stuck in the past, so they don't take Apple Pay. 

My coworker said he would pay, and proceede to pull out an orange First Premier credit card. I didn't say anything to him, but I know how predatory and fee-intensive they can be. I know he has bad credit, because he's told me. I know what he can do to fix it, and want to help him. How do you approach this kind of situation for someone? 

Side note: One of my friends posted on Facebook today a picture of his chopped up First Premier card. I was very happy to see it. 

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I don't see this as either a huge conundrum or a massive no-fly zone.  The key sentence as I see it is:

"I know he has bad credit, because he's told me."

He's already chosen to broach this subject and indeed to share his private details.  So you just find a moment at some point and tell him:

"Hey, I know you mentioned to me the other day how your credit isn't the best.  I had some similar trouble a while back.  Good news is that I ended up finding out all the bottom line methods of fixing it and then getting way better.  If you ever want me to sit down with you and share with you what I know, gimme a shout.  I'd be really happy to do that."

Friendly, zero judgment, non-invasive, identifies yourself as a fellow screwup, lets him make the next move, etc.

Then if he makes the next move, great.  If he doesn't, you don't have to feel like you didn't try to help.

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Exactly. After you talk to him about it, the rest is up to him. You did all you can. You have no obligation to do anything else. We all want to be credit Messiahs (that's one reason why we are here). Fortunately for us our credit does not depend on how well we help others with their's. Remember - unsoliceted free advice generally goes unheeded. However, since he has already broached the subject with you, he has given you an open door that you can feel free to walk through.

BTW, CreditGuyinDixie has some of the best advice on these forums.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Berk wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@DeeBee78 wrote:

So yesterday, I invited my friend/coworker out to lunch (Chipotle). After ordering, I realized I didn't have my wallet! 

"Not to worry,"  I thought to myself. I have Apple Pay! Well, apparently Chipotle is stuck in the past, so they don't take Apple Pay. 

My coworker said he would pay, and proceede to pull out an orange First Premier credit card. I didn't say anything to him, but I know how predatory and fee-intensive they can be. I know he has bad credit, because he's told me. I know what he can do to fix it, and want to help him. How do you approach this kind of situation for someone? 

Side note: One of my friends posted on Facebook today a picture of his chopped up First Premier card. I was very happy to see it. 

---

I don't see this as either a huge conundrum or a massive no-fly zone.  The key sentence as I see it is:

"I know he has bad credit, because he's told me."

He's already chosen to broach this subject and indeed to share his private details.  So you just find a moment at some point and tell him:

"Hey, I know you mentioned to me the other day how your credit isn't the best.  I had some similar trouble a while back.  Good news is that I ended up finding out all the bottom line methods of fixing it and then getting way better.  If you ever want me to sit down with you and share with you what I know, gimme a shout.  I'd be really happy to do that."

Friendly, zero judgment, non-invasive, identifies yourself as a fellow screwup, lets him make the next move, etc.

Then if he makes the next move, great.  If he doesn't, you don't have to feel like you didn't try to help.

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Exactly. After you talk to him about it, the rest is up to him. You did all you can. You have no obligation to do anything else. We all want to be credit Messiahs (that's one reason why we are here). Fortunately for us our credit does not depend on how well we help others with their's. Remember - unsoliceted free advice generally goes unheeded. However, since he has already broached the subject with you, he has given you an open door that you can feel free to walk through.

BTW, CreditGuyinDixie has some of the best advice on these forums.

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I think it's a big mistake to get into a coworker's face about his personal finances.

When someone asks for advice on this board, the first thing we do is pepper him or her with questions, because we know that we can't give credit score improvement advice without knowing the person's situation. In this anonymous forum, that's fine. In the real world, it's something else again.

His personal finances are none of your business.

You should butt out.

[Anonymous]

"get into a co-workers face" seems a bit harsh here. All anyone is suggesting here is opening the door, not shoving the guy through it.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:
"get into a co-workers face" seems a bit harsh here. All anyone is suggesting here is opening the door, not shoving the guy through it.

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By broaching the subject with someone you could be insulting them, hurting their feelings, etc

Even if they bite, and get into a whole credit improvement thing with you, they might later on resent it.

Also having credit problems or other financial trouble is often depressing and humiliating, people commit suicide over it. Just because someone has once confided that he has bad credit doesn't mean he wants to keep talking about it.

It's much more important for OP to preserve his relationship with a coworker he lunches with.

There's also the very common result of such credit conversations between people like us and other folks... boring someone to tears.  Not everyone is interested in this stuff, as we are.