Personal Bankruptcy
March 6th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
This is something that you should really only consider as a last chance option. Although it is possible to declare bankruptcy and still rebuild your life afterwards, you need to know the full truth before you make any solid proceedings in this direction.
Bankruptcy should never be a first option for anyone looking at debt and credit problems, it should always be a last option. And even then you need to be completely certain that you are willing to take that last step and deal with the consequences that will follow. So, now that I have hopefully given you an idea of how serious you need to be to even be considering bankruptcy as an option, we can take a look at it with due seriousness.
Bankruptcy
What does bankruptcy mean, and how does it affect you. Well, to begin with, you need to find out the pertinent details about bankruptcy in your own area/ state/ country.
The laws change from place to place, and before you look to file bankruptcy proceedings, you should ideally check things over with a lawyer or other such professional, to find out where you will stand after filing for bankruptcy.
The long and short of it though, is that once you file for bankruptcy, your creditors etc, will not be able to ask you for monies, or otherwise, owed to them. This is generally known as a ’stay’, as in a stay of all proceedings against you, which means that your creditors cannot take action against you.
Once proceedings have moved along and you have been declared bankrupt according to the laws of your state or country, matters will then depend on what type of bankruptcy was declared to begin with. As I said, all laws regarding bankruptcy vary from place to place, but the there are generally two different forms of bankruptcy filings available to individuals, families etc.
For businesses, the forms of bankruptcy and the outcome of what they have to do, is different. You should ideally check with a qualified person dealing with bankruptcy for more information on these. You will have been required to declare at the time of filing for bankruptcy, your debts and any assets which you posses.
Generally, you will find that once you have been declared bankrupt, you are discharged from most of your debts, however, some debts will remain depending on the type of debt it is, for instance child support.
Your assets, those which are not exempt from being liquidated that is, will be sold off to discharge your debts. And depending on the state/ country etc, you will not be able to file for bankruptcy proceedings again for a certain number of years.
If you are thinking seriously about filing for bankruptcy, you should really get in touch with someone who knows what they are doing on this front, and get some qualified professional help to get you through the entire procedure.
Remember that you need to have everything in order, and that you cannot be found to be ‘concealing’ any debts or things, as this can be constituted as fraud. There are many things that you should learn about, before you file for bankruptcy, the least of which, is what happens to you after you have been declared bankrupt.
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Debt Relief Grants from the Government
March 4th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
You will see that there are many ways and forms of getting rid of your debts. These routes for the most part will entail that you pay the money that you have borrowed for this purpose. There is however another way that you can reduce your burden of debts. This route is to look at the various debt relief grants from the government that is available from the government.
While you can find different debt relief grants from the government these should be applicable to the debt that you are laboring under. For this reason when you are looking at the different debt solutions that are readily available you may want to have a good idea of how much trouble you are in.
Once you have found the information that you need from the internet you should start looking at each of these debt relief grants from the government individually. Before you start applying for any help from these, be sure that you meet the standards and requirements that are needed.
Seeing to these matters will help you with getting the loan that you need. There is one fact that you should keep in mind. For the most part the debt relief grants from the government are usually provided for companies that need this help, businesses that provide help to other people in the community such as providing low income housing.
A little searching around on the internet should provide you with some information about the different debt relief grants from the government that you can get to help you in your debt crisis even if you are not part of the earlier stated categories.
The nice thing about looking at these debt relief grants from the government is that these loans don’t need to be paid back. This route also lets you not worry about any interest that is gathering on these debt relief grants from the government. You also have the freedom of worry from tax payable to these relief grants.
As the government is the backer who is providing this debt relief grants from the government you do need to make sure that you meet their requirements. The first requirement is that you are an American citizen. The next requirement is that you do need help badly. Thirdly you have a good idea of how you are going to stay debt free.
By thinking of all of these items you can decide on the best course of action. While getting these debt relief grants from the government is a step in the right direction you will need to implement the changes in your life to be free from debts.
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Deal With Debt
March 2nd, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
It doesn’t matter whether you are in deep in financial difficulties, or you have only just stopped yourself from falling into the pit of debt trouble, you are at a point in your life where you need to stop your debts from taking over your and the only way to do this I’m afraid, is to, let your debts to take over your life - for a little while that is.
It is important that you continue on with your regular life, but to enable you to live debt free in the future you will have to give in to your debts and get rid of them as soon as possible. To do this there a number of different options available to you, more than can be covered in one article.
It is more than likely that getting rid of your debts sooner rather than later is the preferred option. If you want to deal with your debt, fast, you will be able to do so, but you will need to cut back on some things in order for this to happen. This will involve commitment, dedication and knowing what to economize on.
To start you will need to get a pen, piece of paper, all your debts. What you will need to do is put down on a piece of paper all your debts and put them in order of the smallest to the largest. This puts all your debts as a monetary value in one place, From here you can lay out a payment plan base on your available budget. The idea is you pay each debt its minimum monthly payment every month, while concentrating on one debt till its paid. This is done by paying off the minimum payment every month plus some extra to get the debt paid sooner, when paid off this money is used to pay the next one off, creating a snowball effect. Below are a few options available to you
* Pay off your debts one by one, in an orderly manner
* Use the snowball method to pay off your debts
* Talk things over with your creditors to be able to pay off your debts in any which way that you can
* Consolidate your debts into one and pay it off with only one smaller payment
* You also have the option of considering bankruptcy as a way to deal with your debts - but this should not be your first choice!
There are of course other ways to deal with your debts which are not, strictly speaking, dealing with the debts you have accrued now, but instead deals with debts which you might accrue in the future.
This might sound silly now, but the truth of the matter is that after you manage to extract yourself from the pile of debts you are under right now, you will have to think about the future, and ways and means of keeping yourself debt free in the future so that you don’t become mired in the same situation once again.
* Controlling your spending - this means no impulse buying!
* Staying away from the temptation of credit cards
* Practising better economy in your life
* Trying to better yourself and find a higher paying job
* Keeping track of your spending - basically you keep to a budget
* Learning to recognize the signs when you might be going off track again
* Getting your family involved in the whole thing so that they too can help - this not only spreads the burden from your shoulders to others, but it really does help if you can share your troubles with somebody else
Like with any financial undertaking, a professional opinion based on your circumstances is the best way to proceed, as the financial world is continually changing to offer new products and money management.
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Debt Consolidation
February 24th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
How does it work?
Say for example you had a monthly car payment, loan, and a few credit cards, each one of these would have it’s own monthly payment requirement. Now, if you were to consolidate all of these into one large lump sum of a debt (a single payment), then you would have consolidated your loan. Basically it means that you take all of your debts, from everywhere and then put them all together into one total.
The above does not sound to complicated admittedly, but there is a little more to a debt consolidation loan than just this. This is where a debt consolidation company will be able to help.
A debt consolidation company will give you the option of consolidating all your loans into one, after which they will then give you a loan - secured or unsecured depending on what you go with - which will allow you to pay off your debts with only one payment at a time.
Basically you go to a debt consolidation company to get all your outgoings wrapped up into a smaller monthly single payment, they look at your situation, you come to an agreement, and they consolidate your loans, giving you a loan for you to pay off your one large debt.
So now, instead of paying all those different payments every month, you pay only one smaller amount to the debt consolidation company in the amount to which you have agreed. Basically they hold your loans for you, and you take out a loan with them to pay off the total debt.
Usually a debt consolidation company will offer you a loan at very low interest rates, or a fixed interest rate. If you are thinking about consolidating your loans, and what you have are unsecured loans, find out first whether or not you are going to turn your unsecured loans, into a secured loan, as this could spell more trouble for you in the long run. A secured loan will be against a high money value asset, normally a house, so if you default on these payments you could be putting everything at risk.
You should also think about what the advantages are going to be with consolidating your loans. Are you going to have a significantly reduced amount to pay overall; or are you going to have be paying for some considerable time to come?
Is Your Credit Score Costing You A Fortune?
February 21st, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
By Jay Peters
It has been reported in some surveys show that 9 out of 10 consumers are unaware what their credit score is, I’d like to quickly share with you how your credit score could be costing you a fortune… in more ways than you can imagine.
We all know a low credit score will make everything in the world of finance more expensive because of higher interest rates from lenders due to being considered a greater credit risk (i.e. higher interest rates on car, homes and credit cards). While this may be considered common knowledge by some, it’s truly devastating effects are understood by few.
For example. If you purchase a $200,000 home on a 30 year fixed mortgage at 8% interest instead of 6% (because of your credit score); that 2% is going to end up costing you a total of $96,934.11 over the term of the loan. Now, think about how many “extra” years you’ll have to work to pay off $96,934.11 because of an extra 2% in interest?
The part few people talk about is all the other areas in life where a low score will increase your cost of living on an annual basis. For example. In addition to paying more for a car, home and credit cards, a low credit score will most likely have you paying more for the following as well.
1.) AUTO INSURANCE. As many as 92% of the 100 largest personal automobile insurers use credit information to underwrite new business, according to a 2001 study by Conning & Co., an insurance-research and asset-management firm.
2.) HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE. It’s thought many insurance companies see a correlation between low credit scores and increased property insurance claims. Therefore, a low score will result in higher rates.
3.) LIFE and HEALTH INSURANCE. Customers who are unable to pay their monthly insurance premium thereby pass along that increased cost to the insurance company whose stuck with the bill… resulting in a loss for the company. Since customers who pay without lapse are more profitable it is felt by many that a low credit score now even affects a monthly life and/or health insurance premium negatively.
One of the more shocking areas where a low credit score will you cost you is in the area of employment. It’s estimated as many as 42% of employers now do credit checks on applicants before hiring them (according to a 1998 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management).
While many employers claim they only do it to “verify” information on your application (such as where you live and where you have worked etc.) we can both assume they are taking the liberty to “have a peek” at how you handle your financial affairs as well. According to the Public Research Interest Group (PIRG) as many as 79% all credit reports contain errors — 25% of which are serious enough to cause the denial of credit (according to a 2004 report).
And that’s all the more troubling in light of the increasing impact a bad credit report can have, says Ed Mierzwinski, director of PIRG’s consumer program. “It’s outrageous that the credit bureaus are claiming their scores are accurate enough to take people’s lives and screw with them like this”.
Jay Peters is the founder of Consumer Publishing Group which publishes the Credit Secrets Bible (in print since 1994). To receive Free Credit Tips including “How to Bullet-Proof Yourself From Identity Theft For FREE!” visit their Website
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Debt Solutions
January 26th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
In general most of us don’t plan on getting into debt. Unfortunately there are various instances in our lives where we do need to borrow more money that we have or delay paying some money. All of these steps are the beginnings of a person’s getting into debt. There is however help at hand with various debt solutions that you can look into.
While you can find many ways to solve your debt problems these solutions must be valid for the problem that you have. For this reason when you are looking at the different debt solutions that are readily available you may want to have a good idea of how much trouble you are in.
The best way to get this information is to look at the total amount of money that you have to spend. Next see how much money you are spending on various essential items. The money that is left over from these should be accounted for as well. This accounting should take into account your credit card expenditure as well.
Once you have tallied this amount up you can see exactly what areas you have developed problems in. The next step is then looking at practical ways that your debt solutions can be taken care of. The first step that you can take is to see about paying off your credit card as the amount from this can rise quickly before you know it.
You should see about keeping your credit cards as solutions for emergency problems. This way one of your debt solutions is taken care of. The next step is to see what debts you have gotten into. The small ones that you can take care of quickly should be paid off as soon as possible so that you don’t have to worry about these.
To help you settle some of the larger debts there are online debt lending agencies. These agencies will provide you with loans that you can use to settle your debts. You should however take only the amount that you will need for one or two debts at first. Once these debts have been paid off you will need to settle the loan.
This is an important step as otherwise these debt solutions will end up turning into another debt that you need to worry about. If you approach the problem of your rising debt with a clear cut goal you will soon find that you have many debt solutions that you can use.
The main thing with all of these debt solutions is that you clear the existing debts first in a manner that you can handle. You will then need to settle any debts or loans that you have created to end your prior debts. Once you have settled all of your debts you are ready to begin your life again debt free.
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