Millionaire Banker Drops Blueprint on HOW TO GET RICH w Credit! (NEVER BROKE AGAIN)

[00:00:00]What's going on YouTube? Welcome to the Credit Plug channel. So, for today's video, we have the honor to have a very special guest. We have Teri Williams, President and COO of One United Bank. Uh welcome to the channel, Teri.

[00:00:16]>> Thank you for having me. Thanks. Good to be >> Absolutely. So, let's jump right into it. For those who are not aware, you know, what is One United Bank? When was it founded? Explain a little bit of about One United for those who might not be aware.

[00:00:29]>> Yeah, sure. So, uh One United Bank is the largest Black-owned bank in the country. We have offices in Boston, Miami, and LA, but we're also a digital bank and we have been. We launched our digital platform in 2006.

[00:00:44]So, we've been doing it for quite a while. And then we have customers all over the country in all 50 states. And I just want to do a shout-out to Alaska >> [snorts] >> because I was just I was just um talking to their Black Chamber of Commerce. So, um we're all over.

[00:01:00]>> So, can you tell us a little bit more about yourself and your journey to becoming, you know, COO at one of the largest Black-o- I'm excuse me, the largest Black-owned bank in the United States?

[00:01:11]>> So, in addition to being President, I am also owner of One United Bank. And um my background, just so you know, I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth.

[00:01:22]Um I come from a small town um where white people lived on one side, black people lived on the other.

[00:01:28]Uh Indian Town, Florida.

[00:01:30]Um but my great-grandmother, my honey, was a businesswoman. I used to follow her around. Uh she owned a juke joint, a penny candy store, a barbecue pit, and some real estate. I used to follow her around. And I think that's where I got my inspiration for being a businesswoman um from the time I was, you know, a kid.

[00:01:51]Um and I tell that story because, you know, I also went to Brown University, majored in economics, Harvard Business School.

[00:01:58]Um I used to give that resume when I told my story, but I realized that really I'm a Honey's great-grandchild and that the reason I am who I am is because what she instilled in me as a kid.

[00:02:12]And I encourage our community to find the Honey's in their life because that's really who makes us strong.

[00:02:19]>> You know, speak speaking of impact, you know, how is One United making an impact in the community? What sorts of initiatives does One United currently have?

[00:02:29]>> And now, thank you for asking that because it's not just that we're the largest, we're also an institution that's focused on building wealth in our community and we're unapologetically black and focused on the black community.

[00:02:42]You don't have to be black to bank black, but that is our focus in terms of where we're trying to build wealth. And we have like many initiatives to do that. We do things really we recognize that our community is very broad, you know, from people that you know, need to rebuild their credit, you know, we have a secured credit card program, people that have check systems records, we have a second chance checking account program, we have you know, cash please, our small dollar short-term loan program to people that are actually further along in their journey and really want to look at investments and savings and want to focus on you know, having profitable businesses or in one of the things I'm promoting, buying profitable businesses. So, our community really runs the gamut and as an institution, we're really focusing on helping every element of our community, every you know, aspect of our community build community wealth and close the racial wealth gap.

[00:03:40]>> Now, a couple points I wanted to just highlight in terms of some of the initiatives that you mentioned, the cash please, the secure credit card as well as the second chance, you you banking.

[00:03:50]So, I know uh especially with our subscriber base, you know, one of the biggest questions I always get when we do different financial reviews, uh is their check systems because that seems to be a big barrier just getting into the banking system, you know, if you've had any, you know, previous accounts that, you know, may have gone into check systems. With the second chance banking uh bank account, if someone is in check system, are they able to apply for that account?

[00:04:16]>> So, yes. If you have a check check system First of all, a lot of people don't even know what check systems is. So, really applaud you for sharing that with our community and with your audience knowing what check systems is. You know, a lot of people like, "Check systems?" I mean, you hear credit scores, but you really don't hear about check systems. And it is a credit agency. And because we don't hear about it, you know, a lot a large percentage of our community, um actually about 30% have a check systems record and can't open a bank account with any bank. We, you know, many, many years ago began offering a second chance checking account where even if you have a check systems record, you can open a bank account with us. And even more than that, you can actually graduate from that check systems account to a, you know, regular bank account uh by contacting us after a year and by responsibly using your account for that year, you can quote graduate out of that check systems uh or that second chance checking account. And what we're really trying to do is to help our community understand responsible banking, you know, um the reason that you have a check systems record is because you, you know, you overdrew an account and then the account was clo- the the bank had to close the account because you didn't pay the overdraft. And so, we really try to encourage our community to avoid overdrafts, um but also uh if that did happen to you, to give you a second chance to get back on track.

[00:05:45]>> And I also saw, you know, the secured credit card, right? And so that's a product where, you know, someone will put down a deposit and then be issued a secured credit card. What what are some of the benefits to that and you know, is there a credit check? If so, is there particular credit bureau that's being used and, you know, what are the qualifications for that secured credit card?

[00:06:06]>> So, um we only use the credit uh just to ident to ensure sure identity. There's no minimum credit score. You know, you could have the worst credit score in the world. We don't check your credit score.

[00:06:19]There's no minimum. There's no credit check for the purpose of checking your credit. And that's what's great about uh our secured credit card is is that there is no uh credit score check. Um in addition to that, it's not only good if you do have, you know, quote bad credit or a low credit score, but it's also good if you don't have any credit. You know, a lot of times, you know, our teenagers, you know, we we want to educate them about having a credit card.

[00:06:45]A secured card is a really great way to get them started on building credit and to do it responsibly. And and by the way, it is our Unity Visa card is a credit card. It is, you know, to the merchant or to anyone that you show it to, it is a credit card. There's nothing, you know, that says secured credit card, you know, behind the scenes. Because also a lot of people in our community who do have bad credit and they want to rent a car and a lot of car rental companies don't allow you to use a debit card. So, our Unity Visa secured credit card is really good for that as well.

[00:07:20]>> Now, what I'm really excited to learn a little bit more about is this new Cash Please loan, right? Where I believe it's up to $1,000 without having to undergo a, you know, hard credit check. You know, what was the purpose of, you know, implementing this new product and can you go over, you know, what qualifications customer has to meet in order to be able to qualify for it.

[00:07:43]>> Yeah, so we realized that certain members of our community are using check cashers and payday loan. And we were trying to figure out a way to really provide a service that allowed them to avoid that. And so our cash please program does no credit check.

[00:08:02]Actually, this is we don't even we don't do a credit check at all. And it is up to a thousand dollars and it is a short-term loan. So you do [singing] pay it back over 90 days. You can then after a week you can get another one. So you have to sort of pause for a week and then you can get another one. But the idea of it is to help our community avoid check cashers, payday loans, and overdrafts. You know, if you can see, you know, a lot of times emergencies happen, you know, things you don't expect. You know, we got a flat tire or, you know, the refrigerator broke or, you know, things that, you know, I mean, even some things that are positive like, you know, our child got into some program that we didn't anticipate that cost, you know, a few hundred dollars.

[00:08:47]And the idea of the program is to make it available quickly. You know, the the the money's deposited into your account in 4 hours.

[00:08:56]So to make it available quickly and to give our community another source of funding that we deserve.

[00:09:04]>> [laughter] >> I want to say that, that we deserve.

[00:09:06]So we have to I mean, a lot of times we have to figure out how to do these programs. They're not programs that are typically done by banks. You know, whether it's our secured credit card, our second chance checking account, or cash please. These are not programs that are done by most banks. And but we see the need in our community. And the good thing is that we there's enough of us here that have a lot of banking experience that we can figure out how to use banks for good.

[00:09:36]And that's really what we're doing here is we're, you know, our goal is to be, you know, Black America's bank.

[00:09:43]Our goal is to provide all the as well as others, you know, but provide but it's to provide services that, you know, we see are needed in our community, particularly that other banks are not providing.

[00:09:57]>> Absolutely. And that's one of the things that I observed as well because, you know, when I was looking for banking services, you know, I wasn't aware of a lot of the different minority depository institutions or CDFIs. Usually, you know, you'll go based off what you see on TV, you know, the big banks who do a lot of marketing. But one thing I realized is that, you know, some of those big larger institutions business models might not fit customers who might be just starting out or maybe, you know, starting from a deficit, whether it's their financial or credit journey. So, uh it's really important for institutions, especially like One United, to offer some of these different products that are really, you know, filling the void when it comes to financial services. So, uh definitely applaud, you know, all the initiatives that you have going on. Um the last thing I wanted to follow up with is the uh partnership with Lendistry on the business side. Uh can you talk a little bit more about that partnership and what that has to offer One United customers?

[00:10:52]>> So, we specialize in real estate secured lending. Um we didn't have or don't have the expertise for the business lending that we knew our our our community needed. So, we went out and and found a really good partner. In fact, we came together on the Paycheck Protection Program. And we partnered on that and were able to get loans out to small businesses in our community that were really being overlooked by uh the larger banks.

[00:11:22]Lendistry is a black-led fintech. And just to uh put them in perspective, you know, they've done billions of dollars of small business loans. And what we saw when we when we partnered with them on on PPP is how they treated our customers. And so we were like, this is a good partner for us. And so we launched this year a small business loan program that offers from 50,000, that's the minimum, up to 5 million dollars in lending and loans. You need to be in business for 2 years and you know, profitable so that you can support a loan. But I also want to encourage our community to think about using our program to buy existing businesses. I mean, the reality is, you know, I bought a community bank, actually four. We bought four community banks and rolled them into one to become One United. One of the things that you know, we talk a lot about in our community are starting a business and startups, but there are a whole lot of businesses out there that that we can buy. Particularly now because a lot of black-owned businesses were started in the '60s and '70s and the owners of those businesses are getting old. And so and they're looking to retire. I actually had an uncle that had a dental practice and he ended up selling it not to someone in our community cuz he couldn't find someone in our community. And so he he sold it to a a you know, a woman but another not someone in our community and you know, I look around and I'm just like, gosh, we need to start focusing on buying businesses as well as growing businesses. And this small business loan program that we have with Lendistry can finance both, growing an existing business but also buying an existing business.

[00:13:10]>> That that's very interesting. So, can you walk through like how that looks?

[00:13:15]Let's say for example, you know, I want to purchase a business and maybe I don't have a an existing business myself. Is that a possibility or would it be, for example, an existing business owner if they want to acquire an existing business, would they still need to be, you know, the 2 years time in business and profitable in order to be able to acquire another business, or could it be someone who's just brand new? Maybe they, you know, have a little bit of capital to put towards it. Their credit might be good. How does that process look like? I'm I'm very interested in in >> One of the things that we sometimes don't see are the businesses that are in our community that are that have been there for years. So, it it is important to join the chamber, you know, of commerce in your community and start to get to know those businesses.

[00:14:04]And to even the the head of the chamber say, are there any businesses that you think in our community are for sale, you know, that where the owner is looking to cash out, retire? And I can guarantee you they'll be able to identify for you the businesses that where the owners are looking to retire and and need to, you know, sell their business. And in most cases, if they owners don't have kids, you know, that want to go into the business. I mean, we're talking It could be funeral homes. It could be, you know, news black-owned newspapers, or I mean, there are a whole lot of businesses in our community where, again, they were started in the '60s. The owners are 70, 80, 90 years old, and they need to retire. So, what you do is is you talk to that business owner, you know, agree to a purchase arrangement, and then contact us through, you know, to Lendistry, say, I want to buy this business. The good thing about those businesses is that they have cash flow.

[00:15:05]You know, they've been profitable for years, and they will look, you know, Lendistry will look at that business and see, you know, the price that you want to pay for it to see whether or not it can be financed. It's a new area for us as a community, you know, it's not one that we have focused on, but I'm really, really pushing us to do so because otherwise we're going to lose, you know, these legacy businesses that we have. And when you look at those legacy businesses and add, you know, so that you young folks and, you know, the technology part to it, you know, those businesses really can grow. You know, you think about whether it's black newspapers that now have this online presence. You know, you think about dental practices that, you know, you can't find them on a, you know, on social media. You just create social media buzz about, you know, a dental practice, you're going to start to see more customers. I mean, when you add, you know, what we use today in terms of marketing ourselves to those legacy businesses, you can easily see how they can grow.

[00:16:07]>> You know, we cover a lot of topics about, you know, starting businesses, but to your point again, what about those businesses, you know, maybe you have a grandparent or uncle who, you know, is looking to retire. You know, what happens to that business? And I think there's a a lot of value in, you know, continuing that legacy with a lot of these different, you know, businesses. So, very, very interesting stuff right there.

[00:16:30]So, >> pause you for one second cuz I do think a a lot of people in our community think it is going to be like an uncle, like, okay, you have to be, you know, you have to be be born into a family that has a business. But I guarantee you that most business owners don't have a family member to turn that business over to.

[00:16:51]They, you know, you could be their their, you know, [laughter] >> Right.

[00:16:54]>> their owner. So, don't don't just look in your family, you know, look in our community cuz they they are there looking for us, you know, as the next generation to take over. And I just want to encourage our community to start looking.

[00:17:10]>> So, last question I wanted to ask, so for those considering a banking financial institution, what's one of the reasons why a prospective customer should, you know, open up an account with One United and Bank Black?

[00:17:23]>> So, first of all, it is so important that we have black-owned banks and black-owned businesses. We're more likely to be located in the black community. I am actually in the city of Miami and in Miami, the black community in Miami right now.

[00:17:38]You know, we're in Compton and South Central in LA. We're in Roxbury and in Dorchester in Boston and we're, you know, every, you know, city, almost every city, I shouldn't say every city, but a lot of our cities have black banks. And we hire from the community.

[00:17:54]We lend to the community. Only 2% of the lending of national banks goes to the black community. Whereas 70% of our lending goes to the black community. So, it's really important to support black banks and it's also important you get better service. You know, we know you, you know, you you call us, you're going to call people at the in our community that know who you are and and the services that we offer. First of all, our services are better. As I always say, our ice is actually colder.

[00:18:28]You know, we have, and I'm going to use this as an example, you can use Chase and Citibank ATMs surcharge-free with us as well as MoneyPass.

[00:18:38]So, we have more ATMs available across the country than any bank.

[00:18:44]And you know, we have the Cash Please program, we have the small business loan program and we have check cashing, the second chance checking account program.

[00:18:52]So, I mean, we have better services, auto pay, I'm sorry, auto save, you know, you get paid two days early.

[00:18:59]You know, we have better services. Our ice is colder, as I like >> Absolutely. Well, definitely appreciate you coming on the channel and, you know, sharing a lot of information, a lot of wisdom with our audience. Anyone is interested in joining One United, checking out some of the different products including the Cash Please secure credit card, you got business lending as well as second chance checking accounts. I've dropped a link in the description of the video. Well, it's been a pleasure, Terry.

[00:19:25]>> Yeah.

[00:19:25]>> Great having you and uh >> Thank you. Thank you for what you do, too, cuz it's really important to educate our community, so.