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4 Debt Reduction Tips For You

Posted by | Posted in Debt Management | Posted on 06-11-2010

Getting out of debt can be a long, drawn out process. If you spent years wrestling with financial problems, the solution will not come to you overnight. It can take months, even years to unravel debt difficulties but it can be done. You have some options to help you get started; let’s take a look at four of them:

Credit Counseling. Credit counseling companies are vying for your business. This can be a good option as you shop around to find the best plan out there, but bad as you learn that many companies will charge exorbitant fees or do work for you that you can do yourself. Some government agencies and nonprofit firms provide credit counseling too. For little or no money you may be able to find a professional who can help you navigate through your debt dilemma.

Debt Consolidation Loan. Replace your high interest credit cards with one, low interest rate credit card. You could also see if a lending institution will give you a debt consolidation loan. However, you may have to pay for an application fee, whereas with a credit card you would not.

Home Refinancing. Even with rising interest rates, refinancing your mortgage may make sense and allow for you to save hundreds of pounds per month on mortgage payments. With the monies saved  with a new, lower mortgage payment you could use your savings to pay off your other debt.

Cash Out. Alternately to home refinancing, you may have enough equity in your home to cash out and pay off your debt. Importantly, although credit card debt is not tax deductible, a home equity loan is. Ultimately, you can reduce your debt as well as reduce your tax obligation by cashing out.

You have some viable solutions to help you reduce your debt. Learn all you can about each option and select the plan that is right for you.

Getting Out Of Debt

Posted by | Posted in Debt Management | Posted on 05-10-2010

Getting Out of Debt, The Smart Credit-Card Plan, the perfect paydown strategy

Behavioral economist Meir Statman, recently said “getting out of debt is the financial equivalent of trying to quit smoking.” Just like any bad habit, good intentions alone will not be enough. To ensure success, we need to break our underlying patterns of behavior. How is it we live in the richest most powerful country in the world, but the average American is more than £11,000 in debt. Our European friends who live by a mainly debit card system have an average savings of £13,000. On a recent visit to Germany, I was shocked to find that less than 35% of all the shops and restaurants accepted credit cards. What would we need to do to reverse this trend and get into a (plus) situation.

Plastic Surgery
If we are serious about paying off our balances. We don’t have to literally cut up our credit cards, just stop using them routinely. We should go green for our everyday spending. Try carrying around a set amount of cash to use each week. We make better purchasing decisions when we actually have to hand over the green stuff plus there’s a preset spending limit. When we run out of money, we stop spending it’s that simple. When the only way to purchase is plastic, buying online for instance, then use your debit card. Your debit card can also be used as an emergency substitute for cash should you run out.

Leave Those Cards At Home
The best way to ensure that you enforce the cooling off period on new credit purchases is by taking the cards out of your wallet. You should store them in a place that’s not easily accessible and safe. Do not let others know where you have hidden them.

Close The Accounts No Longer Needed
Having unused credit available from lenders with whom you’ve had a long relationship will help boost your credit score. Having too many will harm your credit score. As a rule, 3 credit cards is what works best and try to never spend more than 50% of the available credit on any of the cards. This will keep your score at it’s highest. You should also consider closing all your store cards, if you need to make a purchase then use your credit card and pay it off at the end of the month.

Lowering Your Interest Rates
Start by reducing what you pay in interest. We can start by calling our current credit card companies and explaining that we intend to transfer our balance to another issuer unless our interest rate is lowered. Almost all credit card companies run promotional programs with low or 0% interest. They will be willing to put you on one of those rather than risk losing your business. All you need to do is ASK.

Tackling Those Credit Card Balances
Finally we need to develop a strategy for paying off our existing credit card balances.

Gather all your credit card statements together and make a simple table listing the entire amount you owe, and the minimum payment and interest rate for each card. This will help us determine the order in which we should pay off our cards. We need to focus on the highest interest rate cards first and pay off as much as you can each month while making only the minimum payments on our other cards. When the first card is paid off, use the same strategy on the next-highest interest rate card and so on until you’re debt-free.

Late Payments
Are the number one cardinal sin of debt management. You get hit with hefty late fees and very high penalty rates that can go to 30%, plus of course your credit score will take a big hit.

We all have a responsibility to improve our financial literacy and develop the required skills and practices for effective financial management. There is a real need to get away from the “Someday things will get better in my life” or the “Someday I will be able to earn enough money to stop worrying about the bills. There is a lot more to life than that, but it has to be said and understood that the only person that can change your life is YOU. There is NO substitute for Action! With Action, you will overcome your fears and hesitations and accomplish everything you set out to do and more.

Have an opinion or a question you would like me to answer, then write me! http:www.CarlHampton.com

Get Out of Debt: The First Step

Posted by | Posted in Debt Management | Posted on 18-09-2010

The World is in debt.  Almost all people and organizations are carrying debt to survive, including the Governments of all of our Nations.  This is just a fact of life and this is the way that we were raised.  You must acquire debt to survive; there is no other way.

This is entirely not true.  In fact if we chose to save for the things that we really want, we would be able to afford a lot more than we already have.

Just think about it for a minute.  Without debt, we would only have to pay our “bills”.  Rent or Mortgage (Debt, but necessary), Utilities and Insurance.  Imagine all of the money that you would have at the end of the month.  No credit card payments, no car payment, no personal loans.  Now you can afford some of the luxuries that you used to pay for month after month on credit and it won’t cost you three times the cost of the purchase as with credit.

Okay, this sounds great in theory, but it is a little late.  Boy, if only you had told me this when I was 18 (like I would really have listened).  I am in debt up to eyeballs and there is no way out.  This is the way that it is supposed to be.  This is the only way that it can be.

Rubbish!

This is the exact reason that everyone stays in debt and why the credit card companies are making fortunes.  You can get yourself out of debt and take back control of your life.  Of course it will take desire, will power, and perseverance.  Most importantly you have to take the first step.

The key to getting out of debt is really quite simple; organization.
You cannot help yourself get out of any situation without first realizing what exactly you are into.  This indeed is the first step.

Most people go on day-to-day paying their bills as if it is just a part of life.  They get the bill, pay the minimum or a little over and wait for the next one.  This is a vicious cycle and it has no end.  As long as you keep doing this, is as long as you will stay in debt and stay at the mercy of your creditors.

You first need to gather all of your most recent statements.  Write down or input (I use Excel for this) all of your creditors.  At this point I would even put in your mortgage holder to give you the whole picture.  Find out your current balance for each and input that.  Now input your minimum payment for each one.  At this point I would not even worry about interest rates.

You now have the whole picture.  Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.  Now you know what you are up against and you can make a plan.  Just remember, try not to take on additional debt.

You are now ready to take control of you financial life.  Say goodbye to debt, say hello to life!

Debt Management Finding Hope

Posted by | Posted in Debt Management | Posted on 19-08-2010

Debt is a four-letter word that puts us on parole for the rest of our lives. The cost of living alone is so demanding that debt mounts, mounts, mounts, and breaks us with each heaping rise. We have to pay folding money, pay for apparel, food, gasoline, Uncle Sam fees, rent, installment credit, car payments, institution, etc, that sometimes it is next to impossible not to find yourself humming this four-letter word.

The most highly way to solve arrears is to sit down and find preparations. Breaking down problems is the first step you will occasion to take to find a way out of debt. Once you start to see you have cafeteria plan, you can find it rest easier to cope with your stress and damages. If you cannot find new ideas to help you find ways out of debt, visit your local information science and search for debt solutions and controllers that walk you through take part in permission out of debt.

Exercise many resources can help you to pull up new ideas that lead to solving problems. Rather than compliant messes weigh you down, take action now and find solutions that will reduce your tension and your debts.

If you have access to the Data highway, search the engines to find relevant links that teacher you into debt relief. Stay away from companies that offer to get you out of arrears for a high monthly fee. The concept of getting out of debt is to relieve positive self-image of extra burden, such as a new bill. For the most part, you can call your creditors and make pay-off form. The creditors are often glad to hear from you. Rather than have the scavenger hunt from wretchedness hunt you down, the creditors you could rather keep you as a friend, since they want you to pay your debt and incur future debt with their assembly.

You go through points of no return to finding your way out of debt, so takes some time to learn elimination procedures to become debt free. Debt elimination is not an option, since when you get rid of one debt another exert follow the same patterns of the human mind. You get the point. The solution is getting out of the past claims you owe, set a budget and avoid spending more than you can afford. Pay off one debt at a time, amid by installments you find relief.

To avoid incurring new debt, stay away from credit bet. Use your credit cards to pay demanding bills culmination your credit card as soon as possible to pause, high interest rates. Stay reject from payday lends also, unless you see that you can avoid better part of the levies and can payoff the loan right away. Keep in mind however, that payday lenders often attach a steep fee.