Posts Tagged ‘creditors’
If you read the newspaper or watch TV, you can’t help but feel that everyone in the US is in debt up to their ears. With the economy still struggling to recover, we hear of more and more people becoming mired in more and more debt.
I have heard from many people who are just paying the monthly minimum, but keep on using the card. The result is that the debt just keeps growing and growing and every payday a larger part of their salary is being used to service their debt. These people want a path toward financial freedom, a place where they control their finances, instead of their finances controlling them.
The problem so many of these people have is that they want very badly to gain control of their finances, but they lack the motivation to keep on track, to keep taking the steps they need to take to make that dream happen.
For those people I offer in this article, five steps to financial freedom, steps by which you can seize control of your finances. These steps are based upon the model for self motivation. They serve the dual purpose of not only helping you get back on track, but also keeping you motivated to stay on track.
Step 1: The first thing you need to do is to understand why you want to seize control of your finances. The more valuable a goal is, the more likely you are to achieve it. So write down all the positive reasons for why you want to regain control of your finances. What will you gain? reduced stress? the ability to buy things you need? a feeling of pride at how responsible you are? Also write down what will happen if you fail to make this change. Will you have to file bankruptcy? Will you lose your house? Will you be miserable and depressed and disappointed in yourself?
Step 2: Determine exactly what regaining control of your finances means in your situation. Clarity is motivating, so the clearer you are on exactly what you are moving toward, the more likely you are to get there. Here are some issues you need to get clarity on. How will you know when you have regained control of your finances? Does it mean reducing your debt? Does it mean living below your means so you can be paying off your debt? Write down what will be occurring in your life when you have succeeded. Every success you have will motivate you even more to achieve another success.
Step 3: Write down a clear description of how you are going to make this change happen. Make a plan. Write down all the steps you can think of that will help you make this change. Will you cut up your credit cards? Will you track your spending for a certain period of time? How long? Will you make a budget? Will you set aside a set percent of each pay check to use toward your debt? Will you need to take an additional, part time job for a while to catch up on your debt? Will you contact your creditors to try to work out a payment plan? Step Three provides two very important motivational impacts. Clarity, as we saw in Step Two, is motivating. But also, a big goal, like gaining control of your finances, is less scary when it is broken down into its component tasks. The less scary something is, the more confident you will be that you can succeed. Nothing is more motivating than confidence in your competence. That’s why it’s factor number two in the model for self motivation.
Step 4: Be in charge. Suze Orman says in The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom, “True financial freedom is not only having money, but having power over that money as well.” Make a conscious decision that you control your financial life. You are the boss! Power is motivating. Acting intentionally is motivating. Being a helpless victim of the economy is NOT motivating. Take charge and you will stay in charge.
And last, but by no means least:
Step 5: Find resources that will help you make this change. The worse the economy gets, it seems, the more resources there are for those who need help getting back on their feet.
Credit cards for bad credit are one of the best methods available to overcome your financial black marks. Having a poor score for whatever reasons can be a serious problem for individuals trying to re-gain financial stability and secure loans for mortgages or other long term financial investments. Hundreds of thousands of people in the UK suffer from negative credit ratings with 6% of the population having to make rent or mortgage payments using these cards in 2010 alone. The average UK adult has over 30 thousand pounds of unpaid debt and more than four million people missed a monthly card payment in 2010. With such dramatic figures it is not surprising that more than 10% of the adult UK population has some form of bad credit rating in their financial history. The good news is that there are credit cards for that are specifically designed to help those with poor credit ratings get back financial stability.
A poor credit history is likely to prevent individuals from getting most unsecured loans, credit cards and also will often prevent an individual from successfully applying for a mortgage. Due to the recession increasing the cost of living, prepay cards for bad credit are becoming increasingly prevalent as a means to repair ratings as they offer a number of advantages in building credit history.
Credit cards for poor scores are the best way to repair credit ratings, provided you keep up with the payments, as they show that individuals have regained control of their finances and are exercising good financial monitoring on a regular basis. There are of course downsides to using cards for bad credit which will become apparent as we discuss the pros and cons of these cards.
The advantages of credit cards for bad credit
The key advantage of cards that aim to improve your rating is that you can show a financial stability history to future creditors. This allows you to slowly improve your reputation over the course of months, or years, if you have a particularly bad credit rating to begin with. Gaining a good repayment reputation will encourage creditors to trust you with in the future and therefore you are much more likely to receive mortgages and other unsecured loans.
Other advantages of cards aimed at those with poor credit history are that they are essentially the same as those for normal cards. You get the freedom to make payments immediately for purchases and bills, and get to spend money you otherwise wouldn’t have. In this respect cards for bad credit work in much the same way to normal credit cards.
The disadvantages of credit cards for poor credit history
Cards for poor credit obviously come with severe disadvantages as the companies providing them must secure debt against the risks of non-payment that bad credit entails. For this reason cards for lower scoring citizens will typically have a very high APR (Annual Percentage Rate). The average rate is typically over 20% so if for any reason you fail to make a payment you need to be prepared for a large additional fee. The other disadvantages are that you typically do not receive any of the benefits that other cards offer which takes away some of the advantages of having a credit card.
So should I use credit cards for bad credit?
Cards for bad credit are one of the easiest ways to absolve yourself of bad credit so should consider applying for one if you are secure in your current finances and will predominantly be using it as a means to improve your credit rating; rather than as a means to support yourself or cover unpaid bills.
Looking for bankruptcy? Don’t go for it! Instead, keep bankruptcy as your last option and try out the other options which are available in the market. There are a few debt relief options to consider. The best 3 are mentioned below with brief explanations for each one of them.
Do it yourself – debt management:
This method involves arrangement of the credit cards or other personal unsecured loans in an order. The order will be a descending one with loans having high interest rates getting top priority and then followed by the ones with lower interest rates. In this method, you will have to create a new budget in which, you will have to eliminate some of the unnecessary expenses and then save some extra money. Pool this money with the amount out of your paycheck that you keep aside for loan repayment and start repayments with the one, which has the highest interest rates. This helps in containing the debt due to faster accrual of interests.
Professional or self arbitration – debt settlement:
In the method of settlement, you will have to negotiate with the creditor on your own or you will need to use professional help for doing the same. In either case, the process converges to push the creditor to eliminate the debt by a certain percentage. The amount not forgiven is to be paid in lump sum to the creditor. To force the creditor to eliminate at least 50% of the dues, the use of the bankruptcy threat is essential. Once the remainder is paid, the consumer will get a clean cheat and the debt will be considered as paid in full.
Reducing monthly installments – debt consolidation:
In this method, negotiation with the creditor is carried out by a professional negotiator who negotiates for the reduction in the interest rates and elimination of associated costs like insurance charges, over limit fees, late fees and other. The threat of bankruptcy is used to force the creditors to agree to the above conditions. When the creditors agree, they re-amortize the loans and then the monthly installment burden for the consumer is reduced significantly.
The above mentioned three methods ensure that the credit score of the consumers remain unharmed and that the consumers get back their financial stability and get out of their debts asap. This is not possible in case of bankruptcy filing because, once the consumers go for bankruptcy, the FICO score will be lost completely. This brings in more financial troubles for the consumers. Hence, personal bankruptcy should be avoided.
Recession has left people helpless in situation where they are looking for all affordable debt relief solutions. It is because they know very well that they already are in financial hardships and in order to get rid of these debts, they will have to hire the services of some company and that is something which they cannot afford. Hence they want to adopt affordable ways to get back to their debt free lives.
When people got stuck in the pools of debts, finding no way out they started filing for bankruptcy. It is the situation where people get rid of all their liabilities in no time. On the other hand once a person is declared bankrupt his financial life is destroyed at once. He becomes ineligible to get any kind of financial aid for the next six to seven years. Moreover his credit rating becomes negative. At the same time filing for bankruptcy is not at all advantageous for the credit card companies as well. It is because in this case they lose all their money.
Hence in case a person gets under the debts of $10,000 or more then he must apply for the most affordable debt relief solutions called debt negotiation. In this method the debtor has to hire a debt settlement firm. Financial experts of the hired firm will negotiate on behalf of the debtor with the creditors. They will ask then to give reduction of half of the amount over the total outstanding amount to be paid. In case the creditors do not agree for debt settlement the financial gurus of the settlement firm threat that if they will not settle the debt then the debtor will file for bankruptcy.
At this the creditors get afraid because they know that bankruptcy will result in losing all the money. While in case of debt settlement they will be getting half of the amount back from their debtors. That is why they consider it better to settle the debt. Hence debt negotiation is the best option among affordable debt relief solutions which are working in the markets for the assistance of people under pools of debts.
If you have over $10,000 in unsecured debt it may be a wise financial decision to consider a debt settlement. Due to the recession and overwhelming amount of people in debt, creditors are having no choice but to agree to debt settlement deals.
There are several options available to you when you feel your personal debts spiralling out of control, though debt consolidation loans tend to be one of the first things people consider. When you are deep in debt with a long list of separate creditors to deal with, the idea of having only one payment to think about can seem very attractive. Indeed, the simplification that debt consolidation brings is one of the main benefits of such loans.
It is important to look beyond this basic benefit and consider carefully whether taking on another loan is really going to help you to manage your debts. Generally speaking, the best solutions to debt problems should not involve spending more money or getting deeper into debt.
The reason your monthly payments can be lower with a debt consolidation loan is usually that you are spreading your debt over a longer period of time. When you add up what you are paying over that period, you will often find that it is more than you would have spent with all your separate debts.
There are certain circumstances in which debt consolidation loans can be a good thing, and others when there are better options. You need to consider these carefully before committing yourself.
When Debt Consolidation Loans May Be The Best Option:
* When the debts you currently have are at very high interest rates
* When interest rates have dropped and you may get better terms now than when you took on your other debts
* When you have properly considered your financial situation and know that you can afford to make the new payments
When Debt Consolidation Loans Should Be Avoided:
* When you have taken out a debt consolidation loan before and you have not kept up with payments
* When you want to use the loan to pay off another debt consolidation loan
* When you plan to use the loan to pay off credit cards or store cards so that you can use them again
If you have consolidated your debts before and it has not worked, do not do it again. You need to break the cycle of borrowing more money and deepening your debt. There are other ways of tackling your debt without involving loan companies or anyone else with an interest in selling you something.
Preparing a financial statement will help you to identify what you can actually afford to pay each month. It is vital that you have an accurate picture of your finances, so that you do not agree to anything that is beyond what you can afford.
If you are going to take out a debt consolidation loan, make sure you shop around because interest rates vary enormously.