Archive for the ‘Useful Financial Advice’ Category
Recovering After Filing for Bankruptcy
Posted by: admin in Useful Financial Advice on May 10th, 2009
Many people think that when they file bankruptcy there is simply no hope in building their credit back up. This is far from the truth. Sure, bankruptcy will be listed on your credit report for 10 years, but within a matter of a few years, you can build up your credit even if you filed bankruptcy.
By managing your credit responsibly and taking the right steps towards building your credit, you are opening yourself up to the opportunity of being able to build your credit score in just a matter of a few years.
Bankruptcy actually affects the four Cs of credit. Here they are in case you don’t know them.
Collateral: This is simply an asset that can be used for security on a loan that you get. In most cases, there aren’t any assets after bankruptcy is filed. You can take out a loan to buy something to use as collateral or open up a savings account at a bank in order to use it for collateral.
Guide to Getting Out of Debt
Posted by: admin in Useful Financial Advice on April 30th, 2009
Ignoring debt won’t make it disappear. Interest rates are compounding at the rate of 20% per month, every month. Wishing won’t make it go away, but you can start to make a dent in it by following one or more of the steps given here. Read a little further to find out more.
Pay more than the minimum, always! Usually the minimum is two or three percent of the balance, and only paying enough to get by is what the banks want. The longer you take to pay a debt, the more interest they squeeze out of you. The best thing to do is to pay as much as you can afford, and if that amount is twice the minimum, then that’s great. Paying more than the minimum might require a little sacrifice, but it will be worth it in the end.
When you’re examining all your credit cards, look at the one with the lowest rate. If you haven’t maxed it out, consider transferring a high-interest balance to that card. If the balance is too big to fit on one card, try to pay the minimum on all your cards but one. Concentrate on paying THAT one off, then work your way on to the next one. This way is sometimes called “snowballing”.
Understanding Credit Card Balance Transfer Offers
Posted by: admin in Useful Financial Advice on April 24th, 2009
If you’re like most other Americans, you carry a balance on your credit card. You’re probably wondering how you can lower the amount you pay. A tempting offer is a 0% interest rate on a balance transfer. It’s a good deal, because it basically means that for up to a year, the credit card company is lending you free of charge. That means saving a lot of money, if you have what’s known as a revolving balance.
The average American household carries at least $10,000 in credit card debt. For some, it’s a lot more. Most families end up paying over $1000 in interest on that bill per year. And, to make the problem worse, most credit cards have a “locked in” rate that’s almost always higher than 10%. This statistic explains why those balance transfers are so tantalizing, and why a lot of people get so excited that they fail to read the fine print. If you’re thinking about a balance transfer, you definitely want to read the agreement fully. That way, you know what you’re getting into.
Coping with Being Denied for a Loan
Posted by: admin in Useful Financial Advice on April 18th, 2009
If your credit has recently been denied for a loan you were trying to acquire, you may have been thinking of a few choice ideas in receiving revenge that were not all that nice. You are more than likely also not the only one who has ever had these types of thoughts, but there are better ways of striking back. One way you can do this is to show your lender they have made the wrong decision.
Correct The Black Marks That Errors Can Cause
There are several different types of errors that can occur on your credit report that will cause your score to be much lower than it actually should be. Information that does not contain current and up-to-date facts, credit that you have earned yet has of yet to be posted onto your report, and even information on a specific loan that may be completely untrue, are three of the most well known errors that can occur on a persons credit report.
Simple Tips for Pulling Yourself Out of Debt
Posted by: admin in Useful Financial Advice on April 13th, 2009
When confronted with debt, sometimes “just paying it off†isn’t as easy as it sounds. Unfortunately, your debt won’t disappear overnight, nor will it help you to ignore your obligations. However, with perseverance and determination, you will pay off your debt. To get started, here are a few tips.
#1: Learn to Snowball
One of the best debt elimination techniques is the snowball method. Basically, start by examining the balances and interest rates on your credit cards. Find the card with the highest rate and focus/divert your resources to paying down that card while making the minimum payments on the others. Once this card is finished, move on to the one with the second-highest rate and so on. You’ll find that as your debts decrease, the amount of money you have to tackle remaining debt increases.
Another way to snowball your debt is to transfer your balances to a low-interest card. In some cases, look for banks offering promotional transfer rates that can substantially reduce your monthly payments for a brief time and allow you to hit the principal hard. Watch out though, at the end of the promotion the new rate may be applied retroactively to all outstanding balances!