Debt, Credit Repair, Mortgage, Loans, and Credit Card Advice » Debt Relief

Top 5 Credit Score Killers

admin — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 07:00:47 +0000

A good credit score speaks volumes about your financial habits. It’s the evidence most creditors need to evaluate your credit worthiness. Interestingly, there are some credit killers? that even people maintaining good credit scores would unwittingly be a part of, which will be their undoing when applying for credit facilities in the future. These mistakes may seem to be insignificant, but when the time comes, you may face more problems than you expect.

Avoiding Debt

Creditors need to evaluate your financial history to approve any credit facilities. If you have no previous or existing debts, it might adversely affect your case, as creditors have no way of checking out how you’ll handle the credit you get from them.

Shopping For Rates

Looking around for the best rate may actually turn out to be bad. Too many inquiries within a short period could damage your credit score. Usually, if you do more than six inquiries within a single month, you are likely to scare the lenders. For the same reasons, transferring the balances on your credit cards could be a bad idea as well.

Assuming There’s a Grace Period

If you are late on a payment by even one day, you are late, period. Never assume there’s a grace period for late payments, because it only affects your credit score negatively.

Closing Old Accounts

Because your relevant transaction history also gets erased when you close your old accounts, your credit history is shortened and it may lower your credit score. If you want to close your old accounts, close everything except the oldest account, which will leave a longer history.

Co-signing Loans

The obvious problem here is that the primary borrower’s mistakes will end up on your credit report as well.

Avoid Debt With Good Budgeting

admin — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 04:36:13 +0000

If you’ve managed (or mismanaged) to get yourself into a boatload of debt, there are ways to insure that this never happens again if at all possible, and the cornerstone of these ways is a sound, well-thought-out budgeting program. While this may not seem like a very sexy answer to what appears to be a huge problem, it is in fact the most essential part of your future going forward from here.

If you don’t manage your money better, you’ll only end up in the same position all over again. I have known many who have dipped their toes in this well far too often, and it has been not only their financial ruin, but sometimes also at the cost of their families. Debt and sensible budgeting are definitely things to get a handle on! Let’s look at some of the ways you can do that.

First of all, if you are married, this needs to be a joint effort. Nothing will bring ruin to a marriage faster than a spouse running rampant with the finances. You need to be in agreement here, both on the totals and the categories of spending. There needs to be give and take. There needs to be some hard questions. There needs to be an accounting of your financial lives that takes into account your needs, and what you can live without. You need to be totally honest with one another, or this is simply a waste of time.

Many people who are in debt trouble resort to the envelope system, where you put each month’s allotment for certain expenses into an envelope in cash, and when this is gone, so is the budget for the month for that item. Obviously, things like your mortgage won’t fit in this envelope, nor should automatic payments. This is intended for controlling discretionary spending that has gotten out of hand and needs to be tracked.

It is surprisingly effective. Some of the categories you might consider are clothing, entertainment, eating out, even Starbucks. I know people who were shocked to discover that they spent several hundred dollars a month there!

The main point about implementing a budget needs to be the long-term aspect of all this. It will do you next to no good to do this for a month or so. Sound household budgeting is really no different than using a budget for your business. Most people wouldn’t consider running a business that way, so neither should you run your home that way. It is YOUR business!

In this day and age when prices keep creeping up and saving is getting harder and harder to do, make it easy on yourself and find the extra dollars to save and invest in the money you already have.

There are free budgeting forms available all over the web. Find one you like and start using it, and maybe, just maybe you’ll find more money at the end of the month this time.

6 Ways to Get Out of Debt in 2008

admin — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 11:28:19 +0000

Here are 6 things you can do right now to increase your possibility of becoming debt free.

Try consolidating your debts if you have many accounts with small balances on them. It can be a nightmare to keep track of numerous credit cards and loan payments each month, which increases your potential for sending a payment late. If you are able to get a larger loan to consolidate all or most of your smaller accounts, you will have one payment to make each month. You can save on interest if the new loan has a lower interest rate than each of your individual creditors, too!

Try the snowball payment method. The snowball method has you pay all of your creditors the minimum payment except for the creditor that you owe the least amount of money to. On that account, you pay as much as you can to pay it off as fast as you can. Once the account has been paid off, you apply that accounts payment to the next account in line- and the payments you are able to send “snowball” bigger as you pay off each of your accounts. You do pay more interest using this method- but you can generate momentum- after you pay off your first account quickly, you are compelled to keep at it! To save on interest, you can use the snowball method of payment but pay your accounts in the order of the highest interest account first!

Use automatic payment scheduling. Many credit cards and loan companies allow you to schedule your payments to automatically be paid from the checking or savings account of your choice. There may even be an incentive for doing so, like a lower interest rate or other discount since it’s less work for the billing department. By doing this, you don’t have to remember to send the payments out on time and you save on the cost of the stamp. Take it a step further, and schedule your payments on a weekly basis rather than monthly, and watch how much interest you save!

Pay your mortgage bi-monthly. As long as your mortgage company does not have a prepayment penalty, you should consider sending bi-monthly payments instead of one monthly payment. Just be sure that your mortgage company will apply the payment when you send it, and not hold it until the end of the month. Sending two payments each month doesn’t mean you have to send extra money if you don’t have it to send, but by simply dividing your regular monthly payment into two payments rather than one lump sum will save you a considerable amount of money on interest and therefore pay off your mortgage faster. If you get paid bi-weekly, this is how you should pay your mortgage payment. You’ll end up paying 26 half-payments each year, which means you end up paying an extra mortgage payment each year without really noticing!

Reduce unnecessary spending. In order to increase the amount of money you have each month to make it possible to pay more to each of your creditors, you should look for ways to reduce unnecessary spending. If you’re buying a coffee three days a week on the way to work, consider making it at home instead and save $2 a cup. It doesn’t seem like a lot of money, but over time it does add up and can help you pay down your debt quicker.

Consider a part time job. If you are really serious about paying off your debt, you might consider getting a second job. Keep in mind- if you have to travel all over the place to go from one job to the next; you probably aren’t going to make enough to offset the expenses involved in the traveling. But if you’re able to find part time work online, including ebay, writing, making posts on forums- or whatever skills you may have- the money you make can be applied directly to your creditors as additional payments.

Student Debt Help Tips

admin — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 11:27:00 +0000

Student debt help can come in the form of useful advice on things to do with managing your money better and budgeting, but there are solutions for those who are really struggling.

If like many other students you’ve maxed out a credit card with purchases on clothes and other ‘must have’ accessories then it can be difficult to shift the debt. In fact, many students will carry this debt on credit cards well beyond their time at University.

You can however do a number of things to reduce the amount you owe. The first option is a balance transfer. This simply means moving the debt you have on one credit card to another. This might not sound particularly good, but you can get 0% balance transfers which mean you pay nothing on interest for a long period of time after you’ve moved the debt. This means that every repayment you make chops down the debt and doesn’t get eaten up by interest.

If you’ve managed to get into more serious credit card debt or maybe spent too much on a store card as well, then a debt consolidation loan is a viable option. This is just one big loan that you get hold of to wipe out the arrears you’ve wracked up on cards. This can save you a lot of money on interest alone. For example, the average store card will have interest rates of 22.5% where as the loan might only have an interest rate of 5 or 6 per cent. You do the maths.

Many young people don’t realise the threat that comes with serious financial problems and the effect it can have on them in later life. Student debt help is therefore invaluable if you’re struggling while at University and can help you take steps towards a brighter financial outlook when you finish.

Before you enter into any kind of agreement like this though, make sure you consult with the counsellors that will usually be dotted all over campus. They’re specialists in student debt help and might be able to contact your providers on your behalf and sort something out for you.

Self Help Tips Towards A Debt Free Existence

admin — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 19:51:09 +0000

To begin with, it is important to put together a debt plan, to assist you get out of liability and save for the future. The best debit plans work towards assessing the number of dues you have, citing all your pending dues and tackling them one by one, until they are all paid off. To get out of card debit, you need to get your hands on ample amount of information. Knowledge is the best weapon in your obligation armory.The first step towards achieving freedom from over dues is self-realization. You need to review your lifestyle habits and ensure that you don’t end up in further trouble owing to them. You should modify your perception towards money and try to incorporate ways to save as much as possible in your budgeting. Lifestyle changes are difficult to incorporate, but they benefit a great deal towards paying off the arrears, sooner than anticipated.

Secondly, you also need to perk up your self-esteem. Since this period is emotionally frustrating, it can hinder your productive thinking process, which can otherwise help you plan constructively towards financial freedom. You need to make sure that you do not end overspending money by restricting yourself too much. Therefore, you must make sure to formulate a practical monthly budget that can be followed, so that your expenses and debt payments are balanced. Hence, it is not just practical skills, but also emotional and spiritual skills that play a major role in managing dues. Your optimistic approach towards life will push you a great deal and help you with your financial goals.

Sometimes, debtors tend to create new arrears in course of time, which is a result of poor planning- practical as well as emotional. You sometimes try and fool yourself by setting unrealistic goals, which would deter in your path to financial independence. You need to make a personal pledge to yourself to take strict practical measures, as in to control your expenditures that can be done without and prioritize your dues. A crucial step in stopping the accumulation of new dues would be to avoid using cards at all. Even if you do own one or more cards, ensure they are not easily accessible to you or try to keep only a couple of cards and close accounts on the remaining credit cards. Having fewer cards will result in lesser and more manageable debit. If you can pay for your expenses in cash each month, go for it.

Cutting Back On Expenses

admin — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 03:42:57 +0000

Before you consult a bankruptcy attorney or a credit card counseling service, make an honest assessment of your monthly expenses and see what you can cut back on. If you are making a car payment, consider whether you could do without a car for a year or so. By applying you monthly car payment and auto insurance premiums to your credit card bills, you can substantially reduce your credit card debt in a relatively short period of time.

Communicate with your creditors. If they know you are serious about not getting sued over credit card debt, and that you are willing to sacrifice your personal convenience by giving up your car for a year to pay your credit cards off, they are more likely to work with you than to sue you over credit card debt.

Top 20 Personal Debt WARNING Signs

admin — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 08:10:29 +0000

The pressure of being in debt can make it hard to live. Period. Having to worry about things like making your next payment to creditors and simply putting food on the table can be, well, overwhelming. And if you’ve been receiving letters and phone calls from creditors and banks, it makes things even worse. Then, when the bills really stack up, bankruptcy comes into play.

But I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves here. I’m going to list below 20 warning signs that you may have a problem with your debt situation. And I don’t mean a problem as in, “Honey, the baby just went #2.” I mean you really have a problem… As in, “Honey, why is the IRS in our house this morning taking all the furniture outside?” All jokes aside, if this is the case, you need to find some help…like a solid online debt consolidation agency.

Without further due, here are 20 warning signs:

1. You are juggling bill payments, holding off one credit card to pay another debt.
2. It becomes more and more difficult to make ends meet each month.
3. Credit cards become a necessity rather than a convenience.
4. You find yourself using credit cards to pay for normal expenses such as groceries.
5. Your credit card balances continue to increase.
6. You have several credit cards that are at or close to the credit limit.
7. You begin decreasing your monthly credit card payments.
8. You apply for new credit cards because you don’t have any money.
9. You dip into your savings to cover non-emergency expenses.
10. You find it hard to save every month. (Even the smallest amount.)
11. You are receiving calls or letters (or both) from creditors and bill collectors.
12. You are unaware of how much you owe and dread finding out.
13. You are spending more money than you bring in. (Big No-No)
14. You have to borrow money to pay some of your monthly bills.
15. It becomes difficult to pay normal expenses.
16. You continually hide how much you are spending from your family and friends.
17. You have recently been denied for a credit card or loan.
18. You have no way of paying for unexpected expenses. (Like health issues or car repairs.)
19. You have considered filing for bankruptcy.
20. You put off going to the doctor or dentist because you cannot pay the co-pay.

If you answered yes to one or more of these warning signs, then you could be headed for bankruptcy or a serious debt problem. Hopefully, you are early enough in the stages of debt that you can take preventative action. Here’s a simple 2-step action plan:

1. Start budgeting. Chances are, if you’ve been having trouble paying bills and other expenses each month, you haven’t been living by a budget. What better time to start than now.

2. Cut back. Use your budget to evaluate your spending. Take note of leisure expenses such as movie rentals and restaurant dinners.

If your situation is beyond budgeting and cutting back spending then I recommend you get help…

Get professional help. Seek out a reputable online debt consolidation company to assist you in paying off your credit cards and other unsecured debt.

NO CREDIT CHECK Get Out Of Debt Loans

admin — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 04:13:41 +0000

Your doorway to get out of debts! When you are drowned in debt or are trying hard to not have a negative credit on your report as you are battling against multiple loan payment, merge all your loan payments, be it secured or unsecured loans at fixed or variable rate you a sole solution to deal with all these predicament… cheap debt consolidation loans.

There’s no credit check carried out. No tedious procedure or strict scanning of your income, or your collateral. The idea behind such consolidations are to bring together different difficult to pay loans into a single loan….so that it has a single date of repayment. You don’t miss out on any loan payments and as you back your collateral against the consolidated loan, you will attain a reduced or zero interest rate and only Principal amount payable loan. Eases your burden of handling a variety of creditors and stop being threatened by them any more. A simple, yet cost-effective solution will get you out of debt if you are already trapped or are trying to avoid getting in a lurch.

Be aware of the fact that if you own a home or property, you may obtain a debt consolidation loan using your property as collateral. Of course, if you cannot repay the loan, your property is confiscated. Thus, you should be cautious when applying for a debt consolidation loan.

Debt Consolidation companies are devoted to helping individuals with excessive debt. Eliminate your unsecured credit card and consumer debts. By consolidating your debts, you eliminate making payments to several lenders each month. These consolidations are not bank loans. Thus, they do not involve credit checks, and all those who’ve developed a bad credit score due to some reason and are struggling to repay all their outstanding debts will be approved.

Quick fix to debt problems! Debt Consolidation Loan with no credit check, you make a single payment every month to pay the balance on your loan. Because these loans have a low interest rate, you are able to repay your bills and save money at the same time.

Once you have realized you are caught in bad debt, seek out for a debt consolidation company to get all your outgoings wrapped up into a smaller monthly single payment. Find out your various options, before finalizing on the debt solution. You come to an agreement, and they consolidate your loans, giving you a loan for you to pay off your one large debt.

Pay Off Your Mortgage

admin — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 22:11:51 +0000

There is an idea floating around out there in the ether. Some folks are actually talking about paying off their mortgages and getting out of debt for good. Poppycock! That’s madness. What is so great about financial freedom anyway?

Face it. Your mortgage, for which you probably broke traffic laws to get to the closing, has become a ball and chain. The dollar amount of your home loan may have actually increased over the years, while the appraisal value may have gone down. This begins to look rather hopeless after a while.

Now, there are some friends of mine who claim that they do NOT want to pay off their mortgage. They say they need the tax write off. I just can’t get my mind to go there. Saving a few bucks on taxes cannot compare to owning your home outright. You must eliminate your mortgage if you really want to build wealth, which begs the question…..how?

The typical comsumer has mortgaged the largest loan he could, right? Didn’t you sit down and figure out your budget with your lender? They have formulas for this kind of thing, and we all went for it. They were right. Your mortgage is probably just the right amount to guarantee that you can make your payments….almost comfortably. By the way, they also know that you will probably be refinancing in the next 5-7 years, and that you will, indeed, never get out from under the beast that is called ” closed-ended loan with front-loaded interest”. It is a killer, make no mistake.

You have GOT to do something about it. So how do you pay off a mortgage? Simple. Just add more money. If you pay down your principle balance, they charge you less interest. If you make just one additional payment per year, you will save 5-7 years of payments at the end of your mortgage. Great. Where am I going to get an extra $1199 this year? You could scrape up $100 per month couldn’t you? Sounds fun doesn’t it? Not.

Suppose you could use someone else’s money? Would that work? Yes, I think it would. In fact, if you could apply $5,000 to principle on your 30 year mortgage, just once, you would eliminate $28,000 in interest charges. Why, if you did that several times, you could pay off your mortgage in a fraction of the time! So, who is going to let you use their money, because most of us don’t have the extra 5 grand sitting around. Ah, but perhaps you do.

See the whole time you are slaving away and making your mortgage payments, you are building equity. Not much at first, but it is happening. You also may have some built in value in your home or elsewhere. This is the beginning of leverage.

The bank has available to you, a completely different kind of credit. It is called “open-ended” credit. It is nothing like your mortgage.

Your mortgage is closed-ended credit. Money only flows in one direction. The Bank’s. You have to make full payments, on time, and you can never ask for them back. The interest is extremely loaded onto the front of the loan, so that the bank gets paid their profit first, long before you actually make progress on your part of the loan. That is why banks have the biggest, nicest buildings in every town or city.

But open-ended credit, in the form of a Home Equity Line Of Credit (HELOC) or a Personal Line Of Credit (PLC) allows you to create real cash flow. Cash flows in and out, and every time it does, the balance in the account changes. The bank can only charge you interest on the actual daily balance. So get the picture here. If you were to borrow 20 dollars today, and pay it back tomorrow, you would only owe interest on 20 dollars for one day.

If you were to borrow, say $5,000, and make a payment to the principle on your mortgage today, and then deposit your $5,000 paycheck tomorrow, what would happen? Well, you would owe the interest on $5,000 for 1 day….about $1.75 – $2.00. But you cancelled $28,000 in interest charges on your 30 year mortgage! Whoa! Does this sound too good to be true? Yes and no.

The fact is, this is just math and money. Neither of them ever sleep. If you do the math right, this idea becomes fact. The problem is, it is a lot of math. You would constantly have to be monitoring your cash flow, expenses, fluctuations, and lifestyle. Life changes all of the time. You cannot just pull a dollar figure out of a hat, and go borrow some money from your HELOC. You could easily get yourself in an expensive financial hole. It would have to be a precise number, and that number would always be changing. Boy, if only there was computer software…….

Did I mention that there is computer software that can help you do this? Oh yeah. There are several companies out there that offer software of different kinds. Some companies are just banks who want to “help” you refinance, some offer a course on how these ideas work, others are legitimate software developers. Most of them charge $3500, so make sure you pick the right one. The big names in the business are: United First Financial, Sydney Financial Group, CMG, Free and Clear, and McCory. More are popping up all of the time.

Do your own research, and make sure that you are not getting stuck with nothing more than a fancy spreadsheet. You want a tool that is responsive and dynamic and flexible with your changing financial tides.

Call these companies at their customer support centers and see how long you have to wait. You want to deal with professionals. You want live customer support for life. You want free updates. You want a written guarantee. But mostly you want the best, most intuitive, interactive, simple to operate system, and not a static piece of software with an owner’s manual. Don’t fall for a 10 year projection on your payments. Keep in mind that the optimum numbers will change as your life happens.

If you do this right, you can be debt free in 1/3 to Â½ the time. You will save a fortune in interest payments. You can discover a whole new way of thinking about money, like how to make other people’s money work for you, instead of the other way around. Enjoy.

Assistance From Credit Card Debt Relief Grants

admin — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 15:31:36 +0000

Credit card debt relief grants provide assistance to those, who want to free themselves from debt. These grants provide assistance through an assortment of funds to cater to requirements like need for higher education, health care, owning a home, debt consolidation. These loans are quite resourceful. They offer lower rates of interest and easy repayment schedules. You need to however, clear the eligibility criteria to avail these services. These debt relief grants are available in plentiful online to suit your requirements and bring about a reduction in your debt.

Different forms of credit card debt solution are easily available in the market. All the solutions come in different forms, but their target is to remove your debt problem. With the help of your credit card debt management, you can select the best plan for consolidating credit card debt. You can even consider seeking credit card debt relief grant if your debt situation is that bad.For more information visit best credit card debt consolidation.