Archive for September, 2008

Sep 30 2008

Profile Image of admin
admin

How to Take Care of How to Avoid Bankruptcy Properly

Filed under Finance

Consolidate your loans to make repaying them easier. Having lots of loans and debt is one of the biggest reasons leading to poor credit ratings. The larger your debts, the worse your credit rating. This is how you can take care of the bad credit.

Consolidating your loans means that you take out one large loan to repay all your creditors so that you only have one large loan to repay. While the overall amount of the loan does not change - if you owed $20 000 to five different companies, you will still owe $20 000 but to only one lender - but the interest rates and monthly payments are usually quite smaller.

Debt consolidation can be an especially good idea if you have lots of high-interest debt and lots of bills that are hard to keep track of.

If you only pay down the minimum amount on each of your loans, it will take you a long, long time to pay down your loans. This is because most lenders only require that you pay down slightly more than the interest amount on your debt each month. Even a debt of a few hundred dollars could take several years to repay this way.

Paying down your debts by putting down more than the minimum required monthly payment can help you pay down your debts faster and so can boost your credit score. Paying down more than you need to also shows lenders that you are in good financial shape and conscientious about your debts.

If you are taking out a new loan, consider putting down a larger down payment to take out a smaller loan. Doing all you can to take out a smaller loan - by putting down a larger down payment or buying a less expensive car or home (if that is what the loan is for), for example - can help ensure that you don’t overextend your credit and can help ensure that your monthly payments on the debt will be reasonable and affordable to you.

In fact, for larger purchases, some debtors take out piggyback loans, most often for a mortgage. They borrow money for a down payment, so that they can get a better rate deal on the larger second loan they take out to pay for the purchase.

Do your math before making a big purchase - you may find that a larger down payment - even if you have to borrow to get it - can help your credit by making your payments more affordable and by ensuring that you don’t overextend your credit.

Online loan calculators are a useful tool that can help you determine how much of an interest rate you should pay, how much in monthly payments you can afford, and how much your loan will cost you in interest over the long term. This is a nice preventive tool to avoid bankruptcy.

Online loan calculators are free to use and can help you figure out how to make your debts more affordable. There are online loan calculators for auto loans, home loans, and personal loans.

You can also try to apply for government grant online that is not a loan at all and can help you to get out of the situation.

 Mail this post

Popularity: 29% [?]

No responses yet

Sep 30 2008

Profile Image of admin
admin

Life After Bankruptcy And Its Courses

Filed under Finance

Living after bankruptcy may seem like it will never be normal again. At first you may feel adrift and alone. You may feel helpless and afraid. Rest assured that all these symptoms are completely normal.

It is a big step to filing bankruptcy, although a very helpful step. We are blessed that we have bankruptcy as one of our options to help put things straight. Once you have finished filing and your enormous debt load is erased, you are finally ready to move on. What seemed like an eternity has finally come to an end.
Your experienced bankruptcy lawyer can guide you toward a whole new set of habits to rebuild your credit based on the following four steps. And since you aren’t allowed to file another bankruptcy for at least eight years, these steps are important for you to start rebuilding your credit and your future.

Step One: Learn to control your spending
Assuming that you don’t have a way to significantly increase your income, the way to start fresh is by controlling the way you spend your money. You need to spend less than you make. By spending less you are making sure you have a little extra money each month for those “just in case” emergencies. The little extra that you have goes straight into saving. If you are able to do this, your life after bankruptcy will be successful.

Step Two: Learn to live within a budget
Once you get your spending under control, the next step is to create a budget for yourself with the money you make each month. The word “budget” may have some negative association for you. Living within a budget may seem restricting and this may not be the life you would like to have for yourself. But the truth is, living within a budget will eventually give you the freedom to do what you want with your money. Thus, a budget can actually keep you focused on where your money is coming from and where it’s going. Don’t think of a budget as a way to deny yourself things; think of it as a way to empower yourself to make intelligent financial decisions.

Step Three: Start a saving plan
There is a famous saying that goes “Always pay yourself first”. This is very important to remember when it comes to saving. You may think that you don’t even have any money to pay your bills each month let alone to put money aside for a savings plan. But it is very important to realize that even the few dollars that you may put away each week can add up to an enormous sum 10-20 years down the line.

Step Four: Rebuild your credit
In order to rebuild your credit after bankruptcy, there are three critical things to do. The first thing is to review your credit report. Second, make any changes to your credit report in order to make it accurate. And third, make sure that you have not been a victim of identity theft. Once these three things are in place you can start rebuilding your credit. It is very important rebuild since your account will be looked at very carefully if you are ever going to apply for a loan or credit card again.

 Mail this post

Popularity: 28% [?]

No responses yet

Sep 23 2008

Profile Image of admin
admin

The Evils of Credit Card Debt

Filed under Credit Problems

            Credit card debt is a major cause   of over one million  bankruptcies each year.  One reason is that many people get a credit card without researching and reading the fine print.  By the time annual fees are added on, along with spending indiscriminately, payments are missed, which causes their balance to skyrocket.  

 

Although we all like to place the blame on the credit cards and the credit card companies, you need to keep in mind that the real cause of your financial mess is you. 

 

One shopping spree does not usually cause high debt.  It is usually a pattern that consists of gradually increasing purchases that add up to a large debt.  The great thing is that it can be very easy to get out of debt.  The key is to start spending less than you make.  This is a long-term solution that can help you to whittle your debt down. 

 

Although it may sound simple, it can be very difficult if you have a problem with willpower.  It is important to stick with spending less than you make or you will find yourself in exactly the same place as you were before.  Overcoming your debt will take willpower and a great deal of time. 

 

It may be difficult to stick with your debt repayment program, but keep yourself strong and you will find yourself out of debt before you know it. 

 

It is important to learn how to get out of debt and then stay out of debt.  If you can summon enough willpower and strength towards your finances and spending, then you will find yourself the winner in the game of debt.  It may be easy to get into debt, but getting out of debt is much more difficult, but worth it.  

 

One simple phrase can sum up the solution to your financial problems.  If you don’t have the money to spend, then don’t spend it! 

copyright 2008 UberWins.com 

 Mail this post

Popularity: 79% [?]

Technorati Tags: , ,

No responses yet

Sep 20 2008

Profile Image of admin
admin

Free Credit Reports 360

Filed under Credit Problems

I just checked my 3 credit scores for FREE! with Free Credit Reports 360 and I’m glad I did. I found 6 instances of outdated information and other errors that were just costing me both in terms of Credit Score and MONEY too! "Free Credit Reports 360" is a lifesaver!

FreeCreditReports360.com

FreeCreditReports360.com

Know Your Credit ScoreDear Friend,

Just 1 error in your Credit Report could cost you hundreds each month! 79% contain errors!

Get your Free 2008 3-in-1 Credit Report Plus Credit Scores Now and find out if your Credit Score has been affected.

Knowing your Credit Score can help save you hundreds every month. You want your Credit Report to be accurate because banks, landlords, and even mobile phone carriers use your credit report to rate your ability to make payments on time. Your personalized 2008 3-in-1 Credit Report gives you a look at your complete credit profile so you can easily check for errors that could lower your credit scores. It’s safe. It’s easy. It’s really free.

What’s your Credit Score? Find Out Now

Kind regards,

Kevin Long

Get Your 3 Free Credit Reports Plus all 3 Credit Scores Now! Yes, it's really free along with your Free 7-day trial of Credit Diagnosis.(SM)
Get It Now!

 Mail this post

Popularity: 96% [?]

Technorati Tags: , ,

No responses yet

Sep 14 2008

Profile Image of admin
admin

August foreclosures hit another record high

Filed under Credit Problems

There were 304,000 homes in some stage of default last month, and 91,000 families lost their homes.

Admin note: This trend just keeps going. Anyone who thinks either of the 2 main political parties are going to be able to do anything about it is dreaming.
By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer
Last Updated: September 12, 2008: 9:51 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Foreclosures hit another record high in August: 304,000 homes were in default and 91,000 families lost their houses.

More than 770,000 homes have been repossessed by lenders since August 2007, when the credit crunch took hold.

The report from RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosures properties, is the latest in string of bad news for housing.

Foreclosure filings of all kinds, including notices of defaults, notices of auctions and bank repossessions, grew 12% in August over July, and 27% compared with August 2007.

The 27% jump over last August represents a more modest year-over-year increase than in previous months, but that’s only because the housing crisis was already underway in August 2007, which saw a big spike in foreclosures.

“In August 2008 the total number of U.S. properties that received foreclosure filings, as well as the national foreclosure rate, were both the highest we’ve seen in any month since we began issuing our report in January 2005,” RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio said in a statement.

Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500) chief economist Doug Duncan isn’t surprised by the swelling numbers. “It’s been my view for a long time that foreclosures won’t peak until the last three months of 2008,” he said.

And now that the nation in a recessionary economy, with job losses exceeding 400,000 a month, Duncan speculates that the foreclosure crisis may be drawn out even longer.

“We’ve been saying that the foreclosure trend has not yet peaked,” said Doug Robinson, a spokesman for the foreclosure prevention organization NeighborWorks America. “Before it was a subprime problem,” he said. “Now, it’s everybody’s problem.”

Putting filings on hold

The August figures would have been worse, had it not been for new legislation passed in several states, including Maryland and Massachusetts, designed to make lenders wait before filing notices of default.

In Massachusetts, for example, a 90-day waiting period went into effect on May 1. Every Massachusetts homeowner now has to be notified of their lenders’s intention to file a notice of default against them, and they get a 90 day window during which they can attempt to bring their payments up to date. Lenders are prohibited from filing a first notice of default until after that period.

The impact has been immediate. RealtyTrac recorded no new notices of initial default for the state during August. That helped drive down total foreclosure filings in the state by more than 46% compared with last year.

Other states didn’t fare as well. Nevada once again had the highest rate of filings in the nation. One of every 91 households, or 11,706 families, received a foreclosure notice of some kind during the month, and more than 4,000 others lost their homes.

More than 101,000 Californians received foreclosure notices, which comes to about one in every 130 households, while more than 33,000 people there lost their homes. Arizona had the third-highest rate with one out of every 182 households in default.

All of these states saw tremendous home price run-ups during the boom, which meant that many buyers had to use exotic, risky loans in order to be able to afford a home. These mortgages include subprime, hybrid adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) that feature two or three years of low introductory rates before the loans reset to higher, often unaffordable levels and cause borrowers to default.

In some of the other hard hit states, such as Michigan (which had one filing for every 332 households) and Ohio (one filing per 444 households), which never saw a housing boom, delinquencies are being driven by fundamental economic woes like unemployment, rather than pricey real estate.

Eight of the top 10 worst performing metro areas were in California. Stockton, in the Central Valley, had the highest rate in the nation with one in every 50 households receiving a foreclosure filing during the month.

“You go up and down the central part of [California] and that’s where you’re seeing the carnage,” said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac’s director of marketing. Home sales are actually up in many of these cities, the prices have dropped, often precipitously. “What’s selling is the bank owned properties,” he said. To top of page

 Mail this post

Popularity: 96% [?]

Technorati Tags: , , ,

No responses yet

Sep 12 2008

Profile Image of admin
admin

High gas prices linked to late credit card payments

Filed under Credit Problems

With gas prices skyrocketing and budgets tightening, more people than ever are having trouble making their credit card payments on time. 

Admin note: This article was written nearly 3years ago and it more relevant today than then. http://debtfree.uberwins.com

Late Credit Card Payments Soar To Record Highs For Second Quarter
The percentage of past due credit card payments zoomed to a record high in the second quarter of the year, according to the American Bankers Association. The high number of late payments is believed to be due in part to the recent rising costs for gasoline, as well as the unexpected repair and relocation costs many Americans have recently faced because of catastrophic hurricane damages. Unplanned for expenditures such as these have made it difficult for many people to pay their bills on time, and industry analysts expect the trend to continue or worsen.

The ABA says the seasonally adjusted percentage of credit card accounts that are more than 30 days overdue rose to 4.81% during the second quarter of 2005. Coming on the heels of a delinquency rate of 4.76% in the first quarter, the new higher figure is the highest calculation since the association began collecting such information in 1973. The association’s chief economist, Jim Chessen, explained a number of suspected reasons for the rise. “The rise in gas prices is really stretching budgets to the breaking point for some people,” Chessen said. “Gas prices are taking huge chunks out of wallets, leaving some individuals with little left to meet their financial obligations.” He added that other factors have contributed to consumers having less money to pay their bills, such as personal savings rates dipping while interest rates are climbing.

With smaller amounts of personal savings set aside, people have less of a cushion to fall back on when there are unexpected large jumps in energy costs. As the rate of late credit card payments has risen to record highs, the personal savings rate has dipped to record low, coming in at negative .6% in July. Rising borrowing costs could also be a factor affecting the spike in credit card delinquencies, since the Federal Reserve has been slowly raising rates since June of 2004. The prime lending rate of commercial banks has risen to 6.75%, which is the highest rate in the past four years. The prime lending rate is used by many credit card companies in setting their interest rates.

Because of the factors affecting the American economy, credit card delinquencies are expected to remain high and perhaps even continue to rise. And when credit card companies don’t get paid, they have trouble paying their own debts. In court filings for bankruptcy proceedings by Northwest Airlines, the airline has asked a bankruptcy judge to force American Express Corporation to pay $63.4 million that Northwest says it is owed by the credit card company. The money the airline is demanding represents payments made by American Express cardholders to purchase tickets, and the airline says that the credit card company has withheld part of the payments due.

By Buzzle Staff and Agencies
Published: 9/30/2005

Post title:
Late Credit Card Payments Linked to High Gas Prices?

 Mail this post

Popularity: 95% [?]

Technorati Tags: , , ,

No responses yet