Podcasts
Video Library
House of Bricks Interview 2025
Howard sits down with House of Bricks podcast to discuss his experience growing up to become an entrepreneur.
How to Avoid Credit Repair Scams | The List
Debt.com chairman and CPA Howard Dvorkin explains how to spot a credit repair scam, and why it’s so important to keep your credit healthy.
FOX 24 News Now: Debt.com Chairman Howard Dvorkin on Avoiding Impulse Spending
Debt.com chairman and CPA Howard Dvorkin tells FOX 24 News practical ways to curb impulse spending, and how you can save money by avoiding it.
FOX 24 News Now: Avoiding Credit Repair Scams
Debt.com Chairman Howard Dvorkin drops by to offer advice on avoiding credit repair scams. Learn how to pull your own credit report for free (every WEEK, if you’d like) and how to get started with doing your own credit repair.
Reality with Vicki Ep. 5: Special Guest Howard Dvorkin
Howard Dvorkin answers frequently asked questions about personal finance with Coto Insurance & Financial Services president Vicki Gunvalson.
FOX 24 News Now: Securing a Loan In Today’s Economy
Debt.com Chairman Howard Dvorkin gives the inside scoop on why securing a loan may be difficult even with a good credit score, plus tips to get on the right track.
How to Improve Your Relationship With Money: A Financial Education Summit
Want to start the new year financially strong? Here’s advice on how to do it, from Debt.com chairman and CPA Howard Dvorkin and President of Coto Insurance and Financial Services Vicki Gunvalson.
What 2020 Taught Americans About Finances
Debt.com chairman and CPA Howard Dvorkin discussed some of the ways Americans got better with money because of the pandemic on Fox24. They learned to save more for emergencies and spend less on luxuries. Visit Debt.com to learn how to improve your finances in 2021.
Tuesday Town Hall Segment Three
Howard Dvorkin, chairman of Debt.com and a personal finance expert talks about college loan debt.
How to Handle Creditors When COVID-19 Concessions Expire
Deferred Payments, mortgage forebearances and more “nice thing” creditors have done during COVID are eventually going to catch up with us. How to keep that all-important credit score where it needs to be.
How to Manage your Bills – Segment on NBC6
NBC6 in South Florida asks Howard how to juggle bills during the pandemic. His first priority: Paying the bills that will hurt your credit score first.
How to get a Lower Interest Rate – Segment NBC6
Howard tells NBC6 in South Florida: “You just have to ask.” It’s true, and it works. But only once. The details are on Debt.com.
Howard Dvorkin Talks Debt Management vs. Debt Settlement
Howard tells Fox 24 in Charleston, NC, how these two similar-sounding debt solutions are very different – and how to find the right one for your situation.
Recipe For Success With Guest Howard Dvorkin, Personal Finance Expert & Entrepreneur
Just as there are no two recipes that contain the exact same ingredients or measurements, there are no two success stories exactly the same. Recipe For Success features entrepreneurs, visionary leaders and innovators of all ages who will share their ingredients that make them successful – personally and professionally.
Tell Me Something Good with Howard Dvorkin, Chairman at Debt.com
Howard Dvorkin, Chairman at Debt.com joins us for another episode of Tell Me Something Good!!! Howard Dvorkin is a serial entrepreneur, author, personal finance expert, and Chairman of Debt.com. He focuses his professional endeavors in the consumer finance, technology, media, and real estate industries creating start-ups including Consolidated Credit, PowerWallet, Start Fresh Today, and Lifestyle Magazines. Howard is a highly regarded expert and has played an instrumental role in drafting State and Federal Legislation. He was a consultant to the Board of Directors for ACCPros and was the past president of the AICCCA. Howard has been interviewed by Fortune, Entrepreneur, American Banker, and virtually every national and local newspaper in the country. He has appeared on national and local television and radio programs, including CBS Nightly News, ABC World News Tonight, Fox News, and CNN. His book “Power Up: Taking Charge of Your Financial Destiny” (Wiley & Sons 2013) shows how to lay a solid financial foundation on which to build a secure worry-free future and his first book, “Credit Hell: How to Dig Out of Debt” (Wiley & Sons 2010) detailed consumer rights and the credit problem warning signs.
Howard Dvorkin, Founder/Chairman debt.com, Americans have over $1Trillion in debt
‘Somebody offered debt.com to me, but it was too expensive. Over time the man came to me like clockwork, until finally he called me and I told him- “this is my number if you don’t want it, don’t call me again.” And he took it!’ Howard Dvorkin, Founder/Chairman debt.com, Americans have over $1Trillion in debt is interviewed by David Cogan founder of Eliances and host of the Eliances Heroes show broadcast on am and fm network channels, internet radio, and online syndication. www.debt.com www.eliances.com
Cool Your Heels with Lillian Cauldwell and Howard Dvorkin
This interview is a must to listen to with Lillian Cauldwell and Howard Dvorkin for help with debt. Who hasn’t been in a credit dilemma? So listen and see how you may find a solution with your credit debt. For more information on contacting Lillian Cauldwell and Howard Dvorkin http://bit.ly/39v057q
Why Are Credit Freezes Important
What is a credit freeze? Put simply, a freeze is like a lock on your credit, where no one has access to your credit history but you. If you want to give a company access to your credit history, you must have the “key,” which is a specialized PIN you give the credit agency. Once they confirm your PIN, they “unfreeze” your account to allow businesses and companies to view it. For example, opening a new credit card, getting a new phone, buying a house, a car or most other major purchases, all require a credit check. If your credit is frozen, you would have to call each bureau to unfreeze your account to then apply for a loan or make a purchase. Under the old system, it could take up to three days and cost up to $30 in total once you contact and pay each bureau. In 2018 credit freezes from all three credit bureaus became free for all consumers nationwide. Two of Debt.com’s experts – founder and CPA Howard Dvorkin and personal finance writer Jessica Patel – talk about what credit freezes are, how they’ve changed with the new regulation, and why everyone needs to consider setting credit freezes, given the prevalence of identity theft today. Learn how to freeze your credit reports under the new regulations so you can protect your identity and credit in the age of identity theft.
UltraFICO Score Explained
For years, Debt.com readers have told me horror stories about suffering a financial crisis —a divorce, illness, accident, or natural disaster — and then watching their previously awesome credit score plummet. There was nothing they could do about it. UltraFICO will help. The Journal says UltraFICO “will function as an appeal of sorts.” If you apply for credit and your lender sees your “traditional” FICO score is weak, there’s now an option to strengthen it enough to get that loan. Namely, that lender will be able to consider your “banking activity.” If you have even a few hundred dollars in your accounts, and you haven’t bounced checks or gone under the minimum balances, that will count in your favor. It might not sound like much, but as anyone who’s applied for a mortgage or an auto loan knows, every little bit helps. When you talk about big-ticket items, a few points can be the difference of hundreds of dollars over the life of the loan. Howard Dvorkin, CPA and Jessica Patel discuss UltraFICO score, and its potential. Watch your UltraFICO score increase by being financially responsible. Get better loan terms and financial freedom.
CPA Howard Dvorkin: Typically, credit in the past the person has been judged on their ability to pay and their history to pay timely. Now this product tells you something else. It tells you can this person actually pay me back if I lend them money, and frankly that’s beyond imagination for any credit guy in this country or world, frankly. Remember this product they don’t have freewheeling access to the consumers’ bank accounts. The consumer has to be part of the process by giving them their password – their bank passwords and login information – or else that creditor cannot gain access to the consumers’ bank accounts.
Personal finance columnist Jessica Patel: See that’s and interesting insight as well. When you’re being looked at for a potential loan or something like that, you don’t usually think about “Oh yeah, here’s my bank account information.” So, if you don’t provide that do you think it would preclude the lender from loaning them the money if they don’t provide that and do you think it’s more of an option or do you think it’s a necessity to be approved?
CPA Howard Dvorkin: I think it’ll become a necessity for approval. I mean it’ll be give me your Social Security number, give me your bank information. What I believe is the future is a capacity score where can this person handle any more debt and still maintain the credit history they had prior?
Personal finance columnist Jessica Patel: Actually, that’s a really good point and I think it’s going to open it up for millennials who haven’t used a lot of credit in the past and are kind of averse to using credit. And so now that there’s Venmo and there is PayPal and all of these new ways and they don’t use it and usually stick to cash and their debit card. So, I think this will make it easier for them to garner credit as well.
CPA Howard Dvorkin: It’s funny you say cash. I didn’t know people were still using cash. But certainly, this product that’s issued by FICO or Risk Insight certainly make sense and it is the future.
Personal finance columnist Jessica Patel: One of the potential downsides to this is those people who have great credit for years and like, owned credit cards for years but maybe they have some credit card debt, they pay out but they don’t always pay on time and maybe they’re a little over extended but they still have great credit, I would wonder about the implications for those people, whether the bank would then relook at their FICO score and be like “you know what, we’re going to raise your interest rate now, because we see that you can’t pay.” You know, because it’s never the opposite way like, “we see you can’t pay and we’re going to lower your interest rates.”
CPA Howard Dvorkin: Well that’s a very good point you’re making, I mean it’s going to give banks an excuse to charge more, because of the “risk profile,” which is unfair. The other problem is the same people may not have access to credit cards like most of us.
Personal finance columnist Jessica Patel: In terms of the FICO score it can help the lender see where their money is going. So, if you’re overextending yourself on your mortgage, maybe we shouldn’t extend you on your car payment for $700 a month. Maybe you should buy something that’s a little bit less. Then I think it will guide people in terms of budgeting, too, it could help. But again, it could also hurt. It really depends, as you said, it’s in the beginning stages of it and it’s just going to grow just like the regular FICO score does. And it’ll be interesting to see which lenders adopt it, because a lot of lenders are still using really outdated FICO scores.
CPA Howard Dvorkin: Well remember the Vantage score is also still out there. The FICO score has been you know the predominate player in scoring models. But the credit bureaus got tired of being taken advantage of from a pricing standpoint, so they built their own model. And that is an interesting play, so we’ll see a lot of advancements going on in this world and hopefully the consumer will benefit. But what I like about this, frankly, if the person is struggling there are a lot of people that go and even though they are struggling they’ll take on more credit that they can’t afford, and they know they can’t afford it. Maybe this will solve a few tears along the way.
Personal finance columnist Jessica Patel: Yeah exactly it will be good.
Why Does Checking Your Credit Score Lower It?
When people refuse to believe an answer, it’s because there’s a kernel of truth in the myth they embrace. In this case, it has to do with two terms: hard pulls and soft pulls. A “soft pull” is the industry term for when you check your own credit score. Your creditors — like your credit card issuer or your mortgage holder — are smart enough to realize this is actually a good thing. You care enough about your finances to do your homework. Where they get concerned is with “hard pulls.” That’s the term for someone else pulling your credit score. Who does that? Whoever you applied to for new credit. For instance, say you’ve applied for an auto loan with GMAC. The company is checking your score to make sure you’re a good credit risk, and the interest rate they demand you pay will be based on that score. For obvious reasons, if you’re applying for a lot of new credit — and a lot of creditors are pulling your score — that’s worrisome. It might mean you’re trying to get more credit than you can afford to pay back, which makes lenders skittish. That’s why your credit score might take a small hit if there are too many hard pulls. But those soft pulls? You can quite literally check your score every day, and it won’t make a dent.
It lowers the credit score
If The United States Can go Into Debt and be ok, Why Can’t I?
Just because the government doesn’t stick to a budget doesn’t give you a pass not to. The Federal Government has an annual budget of $4 trillion dollars, which doesn’t even come close in comparison to the average budget of an American. Debt can be crippling, don’t hesitate to visit Debt.com.
If the government can owe trillions of dollars, why can’t I be in debt too?
The United States is in deep debt. Our federal government owes nearly $20 trillion. As a CPA and financial counselor, I’ve said for a long time that our country needs to stick to a budget. Don’t think for one minute because the government doesn’t stick to a budget that it’s an excuse for you to overspend.
Let’s be clear: the federal government is still better off than many of its citizens. Let’s look at the numbers:
- The federal government has an annual budget of $4 trillion
- It owes nearly $20 trillion in total
- That debt represents a little less than a quarter of its total annual income
Now how does this compare to you? Now imagine, if your annual salary was $50,000 and you owed $200,000 on your mortgage, car and credit card, that puts you in the same financial situation as the federal government.
If you want to be in better shape than the federal government, Debt.com can show you how to get back into the black. Visit us today, and don’t forget to sign up for our newsletters.
How Millennials Handle Their Money Matters To Us All
In this episode of Dvorkin On Debt, we cover why it matters to us all how Millennials handle their money. From what were once bumbling teenagers have now become masters at handling their finances.
Our Credit Cards Reveal More Than Our Debts
Debt.com’s CPA and Chairman Howard Dvorkin explains how our choice in credit cards could reveal more about ourselves. Watch the video to learn more about debt management and credit card options. Do you pay off your credit cards right away? Maybe you choose a card with a low-interest rate.
Can You Go Gray Without Going Into The Red?
Debt.com’s top financial expert reviews how to can go grey without going red. What he means by this is how you can grow old without getting into massive debt. If you’re 55 and owe more than $55,000 in debt then it may be time to seek professional help.
If I Pay Off My Credit Card, Will My Credit Score Go Up?
Howard discusses why paying off your credit card will be the most beneficial option. Pay off debt and love the difference! Learn from our expert about debt advice and debt management today.
How To Pay Off Credit Card Debt When You Have No Money?
Learn how to pay off credit card debt when you have no money. This is not an impossible task! Get the information that will save your financial life. Don’t go bankrupt just because you are in debt. Our top financial expert dives in on how to pay off credit card debt when you have no money.
Can I Fix My Credit Report If Theres A Big Mistake On It? Howard Dvorkin, CPA Answers
Question: I have an erroneous hit on my credit which reduced my FICO score from 840 to 724. The company refuses to acknowledge the error. What can I do?
Quirky Questions From Perplexed People In Debt
This week, Debt.com’s chairman Howard Dvorkin addresses several readers’ questions that leave out important details needed for him to provide a helpful answer.
Ask the Expert Should I Loan Money to My Kids
You want to help your children get ahead in life, but you also want to make sure they can be independent and live without your support. That makes lending money to adult children a bit of a conundrum. Debt.com chairman Howard Dvorkin explains how you lend money to kids without becoming a crutch.
Ask the Expert How Much Do I Need for Retirement
It’s the age old question and one that can be difficult to answer, but Debt.com President Howard Dvorkin gives you an easy way to figure out exactly how much you should have saved for retirement by the time you turn 35, 45, 55 and 65.
Ask the Expert Debt Collection Statute of Limitations
Just like any other civil suit matter, debt collections have a statute of limitations that applies to how long a debt collector can pursue a borrower for repayment on a defaulted debt. Debt.com President Howard Dvorkin explains what you need to know about these statutes.
Ask the Expert How Do I Save for My Kids’ Education
Student loan debt is crippling young Americans and preventing them from achieving financial stability right out of school. Debt.com President Howard Dvorkin explains options for saving for your children’s education so you can give them a leg up.
Ask the Expert Can I Consolidate My Student Loans?
Debt.com President Howard Dvorkin explains student loan consolidation and explains the difference between debt relief for federal student loans and private student loans. Learn about your options if you’re struggling to keep up with your loans.
Ask the Expert Mortgage Payoff or Retirement Savings
A consumer with extra cash on hand wants to know if that money is better spent on paying off part of the remaining balance owed on a mortgage or if it would be wiser to invest it in order to gain an extra asset for retirement. Debt.com President Howard Dvorkin weighs in.
How Can I Avoid Overdraft Fees?
This week, Howard Dvorkin answers a reader’s question about using her bank account’s overdraft protection to cover her bills. She is barely scraping by, and has all her bills consolidated into two separate monthly payments to coincide with her monthly pay periods.
Howard Dvorkin and Steve Rhode: Life as a Debt Relief Counselor
Financial Experts Howard Dvorkin and Steve Rhode talk about what it’s like to offer consumer debt relief counseling, from how the industry has changed over the years and how you deal with the emotional side of helping people find relief to the impact of the student debt crisis on borrowers.
Howard Dvorkin Talks Debt: Charlie Sheen’s Credit Card Tab
Financial experts Howard Dvorkin and Steve Rhode talk about Charlie Sheen’s outrageous $300,000 credit card debt and give insight into what to do when you owe big money to major creditors.