Black Enterprise Financial All-Star: Sonya Smith-Valentine

Black Enterprise talked to some of the top financial planners, investment advisers, real estate professionals, tax accountants, and insurance agents to get their best advice for your money. Over the next few weeks, BE will share their tips.

Today, we get expert advice from Sonya Smith-Valentine, who has more than 20 years of personal finance experience. Smith-Valentine specializes in helping consumers overcome counterproductive financial behaviors.

Financial All-Star: Sonya Smith-Valentine, CPA, Esq., founder and CEO of Financially Fierce, LLC

Smith-Valentine’s advice: Don’t close unused credit card accounts. Closing a credit card account lowers your credit scores. Also, deal with credit disputes while they are still small problems. Ignoring the issue will turn it into a bigger problem when it shows up on your credit report as a collection.

If customer service doesn’t solve your problem, write to the Office of the President at the company’s headquarters address. Someone in higher-level management will help you solve the issue. And there is

government help available to resolve credit disputes. You can find the right governmental agency to file a complaint or dispute at www.HelpWithMyBank.gov.

Stay tuned for more expert advice from our financial all-stars in the coming weeks.