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Welcome to the NerdWallet Smart Money Podcast, where we answer your personal finance questions and

help you feel a little smarter about what you do with your money. I'm Sean Piles. If you want

your money questions answered on a future episode, turn to the nerds. You can call or text us on the

nerd hotline at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730 nerd. Or you can email us at podcast at nerdwollet.com.

This episode, my co-host, Liz Weston, and I answer a listener's question about whether paying off a loan early will harm your credit.

But first, I'm joined by NerdWallet mortgage writer Linda Bell for a conversation about her recent

article on redlining and its effects on black home ownership

and the racial wealth gap. So, hey, Linda, welcome on to the Smart Money podcast.

Thank you so much, Sean. I'm happy to be here.

It's so good to have you on. I've a meeting to have you on for a while now, so I'm glad we can

finally get this going. Over the past year, our collective awareness around our country's legacy

of racism and the myriad ways

it has manifested over centuries and up into the present has really come into stark relief.

And redlining as a practice has received a lot of attention, but many are still unaware of what

this practice is and how we're still seeing the effects today. So to start, can you give us off an

explanation of what redlining is?

Well, redlining is when someone is denied a mortgage based on their race or where they live,

...