Heroes in Business - Experian Identity Report with Rod Griffin, Lifes Big Moments Buying a Car

Episode Date: June 20, 2023

Experian Identity Report with Rod Griffin, Lifes Big Moments Buying a Car. Rod Griffin is the Sr Director of Public Education for Experian. Extremely valuable information for making sure you know what to do when purchasing your first, or any car. Listen as David Cogan, Host of the Heroes Show and Founder of Eliances entrepreneur community learns all the facts about this important topic.   

Up in the sky, look, it's captivating, it's energizing, it's Eliance's Heroes. Eliance's is the destination for entrepreneurs, investors, CEOs, inventors, leaders, celebrities and startups, where our heroes in business align. Now here's your host flying in, David Kogan, founder of Eliance's. And we're back again, and just always an honor to be here to serve you, to bring experts to you where we learn and we grow from, especially too recently when we had Rod Griffin on of the Experian Identity Report, and he was talking about death. What happens when someone passes? What do you need to do in regards to protecting yourself from fraud

and identity of what can happen with the person who passed away? And we've got with us again, Rod Griffin this week with the Experian Identity Report, Senior Director of Public Education for Experian. You can reach him at Experian.com. That's E-X-P-E-R-I-A-N.com because I'm David Kogan, host of the Alliance's Hero Show. And we've got with us again, Life's Big Moments Week. That's right. Buying a car. And with us again, Rod, I want you to walk us through discussing what you need to do regarding managing your identity when buying a car. Because I don't think people even realize what goes into it behind the scenes and how identity can be stolen. And this is life's big moments. So what should people be concerned about protecting their identity when buying a car? protecting their identity when buying a car? Yeah, sure. When you buy a car, it is one of the life's most exciting times. I don't like the negotiating part. I always tell people I bring my wife because

she's better at that than I am, but I love getting a new car. And at the same time, you have to be aware of what's happening with the application process. When you apply for a car, especially if you go into a dealership and you submit an application, they will do something called shotgunning to send it to multiple lenders. As part of that process, we'll go to different lenders

and they're trying to help you find the best terms, the best rates. So let them do that because it will only count as one inquiry on your credit report. For scoring purposes, you'll see all of the lenders who look at your report or won't count at all for the new scores. But you have to think about the fact that your identity is going to be used and shared with all of them. And if you're going to share your identity with that dealership

or with the person you're buying the car from. And you need to make sure the steps are taken to protect that identity. So know what they're going to do with it. Know, for instance, how they manage it. We have talked in the past, David, a little bit about the requirements for businesses to protect identifying information under federal law. Car dealerships have the same requirements. They have to protect your identity. They have to protect the documents that they maintain that have your identity in them so if they have them in if you

fill something out they have to keep it secure if they dispose of it that needs to be shredded and disposed of safely and securely so make sure you understand ask them what do they do they may not know at first but it's a good thing to test them on. But when you apply, make sure you know where you're using it. If you're going online and looking for a car, which can be a great tool, and they ask for your identity, make sure you're working with secured websites that you see that little S, HTTPS, and the padlock, that you know the business you're working with so that you are confident that your information will be managed responsibly. How do we go about finding the lender and car dealership that you can trust?

Because a lot of people just pop up and have cars in some of these parking lots and go ahead and start trying to sell them. What do you do? Well, there are a number of things you can do. If you're working with a dealership or some of the large used car dealers, for example, that we know about, they're secure. They know what they're doing with their business

and it's going to be pretty safe, especially if you walk onto the lot and you'll know that they're online, same kind of thing. If you are online and you're looking at those websites, though, make sure you're looking at that particular business's website and not something that is what we call spoofing that site. So they'll have the name of the dealership and change a letter

or a punctuation or a hash mark, and it will be a fake website. So make sure you're looking at that business's website when you go online to make sure that you are working with a legitimate business. Another thing you might do is check with the Better Business Bureau, see what their ratings are, search online reviews. If you're working with an individual

and talking about buying a car from them, make sure that you are, if you're meeting them, meet someplace secure and that's safe for you. For example, where I live, if you're buying a car from an individual, rather than meet them where they tell you to or their house or they're coming to your house, we can go to our local police department and they have a designated space right outside their front door that is safe and secure so you can meet that person and be much more confident that that will be just a personally safe meeting. And don't share personal information with them. If you're going to make a transaction for a used car on an individual level, go to your bank, get a cashier's check, or do an electronic funds transfer. That way, you're not giving them a lot of personal information that they don't need.

Great. And again, you're watching, listening to me, David Kogan, host of the Eliance's Hero Show. Make sure you go to Eliance's.com, E-L-I-A-N-C-S.com, because we have with us, we're doing the weekly Experian Identity Report, and we have Rod Griffin. He is the Senior Director of Public Education for Experian. Go to Experian.com, E-X-P-E-R-I-A-N.com. They have a tremendous amount of tools that are useful for you. And again, we're talking about car buying, things you should do regarding car buying.

And I'm always concerned, again, Rod, of what happens when we share these documents and what they do. I mean, are they secure? Do they need to be shredded? And whose responsibility is that? Sure. And it is, when you're buying a car from a business, it's their responsibility to make sure that any documentation that they keep on file is secured, is kept securely, and that is disposed of securely. And that's a federal requirement. If you're working with an individual, you know, it's kind of up to you. They should take care of your information, protect it, but it's harder to know if you're buying a used car. Another thing I would suggest to help you know that you're working with a legitimate transaction is with a used car,

get an auto history report. So you can go to Experian, search Experian AutoCheck, and we provide auto history reports. Actually, we're the NADA, National Auto Dealer Association Preferred Report. And you can make sure that that car isn't stolen that it's not been in a flood that it's what it is represented to be that there are no accident claims those sorts of things so make sure that you're you're looking at a auto history report that tells you exactly what you're you expect it to. If there are things that suggest that it's being misrepresented, you might want to walk away. Same thing is true for a car in a dealer's lot too. You can get that auto check report as well. So just go to Experian.com or just search Experian

auto check and you can get an auto history report. That's great. And I want to lead up to that is what other tools does Experian offer to help when people are buying a car? Yeah, and that's one of them. I kind of skipped ahead on this. But get an auto history report from Experian, an auto check report that will tell you all about that car. And everything from theft to insurance claims to title washing to odometer checks, all of the things you need to know to make sure that that car is as it's represented. The other thing to think about is if you're going to borrow money to buy that car,

get your credit report, know what's in it, get that monitoring service, get your credit report regularly, get the credit scores. If you subscribe to Experience Monitor Service, our premium service, we actually provide a FICO auto score for auto lending, the specific auto lending as well. And here's an insider thing that most people don't know. Most people think scores go from 350 to 850. The FICO auto score for car buying, auto lending, it actually goes to 900. So you could have a score higher than 850. So know what those scores are. And you don't necessarily have to have that specific score, but if you have good scores, you're going to have good scores on an auto score if you have good scores on what we call generic scores as well. But make sure that you are informed. as well. But, you know, make sure that you are informed, make sure that you know you're working with, make sure that you're making a secure transaction from a financial standpoint and

from an identity standpoint, but also from a personal safety standpoint in the case of used cars today. Sadly, that can be something of a risk. So take precautions to protect yourself there. Ideally, you know, get the information you need from Experian so that when you walk into the lender, you know you'll qualify for that card and they'll say, yes, ma'am, or yes, sir, whatever you need, we'll get it for you. We'll write the check and you can get that dream card. Fabulous information as always. And again, this has been the Experian Identity Report with Rod Griffin, Senior Director of Public Education for Experian. Make sure that you go to Experian.com right after this interview.

Go to them, E-X-P-E-R-I-A-N.com. You're buying a car or you're having any of other life moments. That's right. Make sure you go there, whether it be death, maybe it be buying a home. The list just goes on, graduating, so much more. Make sure that you go to Experian.com. This has been David Kogan with the Alliance's Hero Show. You can check out past weekly Experian identity reports by going to alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-S.com. Thank you again, Rod, for your time today.

Always informative. Always glad to be here. Thank you so much.