Financial Future

Because credit is something that is so important, but also sometimes confusing, we are going to lay everything out for you, in simple terms.

We’ll also show you how to get the credit you deserve, how to make the most of your credit, and ways to improve your overall credit rating, no matter where it is now.
For years, the conventional financial wisdom was “credit cards are bad.” We were told that cutting up our credit cards was the only way to free ourselves from debt-ridden indentured servitude. People needed to “live within their means,” and if credit cards were ever to be used, it should be “only in the case of an emergency.”

This conventional “wisdom” turned out to be not only untrue, but hurtful to those who listened to it. The truth is that credit cards are our friends. They are our allies in building credit. How easy do you think it is it to qualify for a home loan when you’ve never even had a credit card? Responsible credit card usage shows potential lenders that you’re able to manage your finances. What’s more, an intelligent credit card user turns the interest game on its head, and actually uses his credit cards to give himself interest-free loans.

Use Your Credit Cards to Earn Money For You

In order to get the most out of your credit cards you need to use them, and use them frequently. If you have two cards with $500 limits, you might want to nearly max them out each month. Set one card up to pay your recurring monthly bills (cable, cell phone, auto insurance, etc.), and use the other one for gas and grocery purchases. If you have cards with much higher limits, say $5,000 or $10,000, then maxing them out each month probably isn’t a good idea, but you should use your credit cards to the fullest extent possible – and you should pay them in full every month.

Say you have a $90 cable bill due on the 3rd, a $110 cell phone bill on the 12th, and $150 in auto insurance premiums due on the 15th of each month. You “pay at the pump” using your credit card on the 4th, 11th, 18th, and 26th, spending a total of $165. That’s a total of $515. But here’s the beauty – your credit card company sends your statement on the 1st, but doesn’t require payment until the 15th. This means that the charges of $515, some of which date back to the third day of the previous month, aren’t due until the 15th of the next month. Since interest is only charged on the unpaid portion of your monthly balance, this represents a month-and-a-half interest-free loan! If you have a $1,000 credit limit (or two $500 credit cards), you can continue charging on the card into the second month before ever paying for the first month’s charges.

What’s the big deal? Well imagine you had $1,000 sitting in a money market savings account yielding 5 percent. Your money would be earning interest for you. In essence, you would be earning money each time you used your credit card.

Balance Transfers – Another Way to Turn the Credit Card
Game on its Head

If you have a higher credit limit, credit cards can be used for the short-term financing of larger purchases. Say you had a $10,000 credit limit and you wanted to buy a new sofa for $2,500. The financing options at furniture stores are normally rip-offs, so why not finance the purchase yourself? You could have an interest-free loan for up to 45 days (maybe 60, depending on your credit card’s “grace period”), during which time you could save the money to pay off the entire amount, or at least a portion. And the best thing about your mailbox being constantly flooded with credit card offers is that oftentimes you can transfer existing credit card balances to new cards with introductory interest rates of 0 percent!

For example, imagine you purchased a used car for $9,000 – completely on your credit card. Conventional wisdom would say this was a terribly foolish thing to do, but you know better. You have already been offered and approved for an additional card with a $10,000 credit limit, and an introductory interest rate of 0 percent for one full year. After making one payment on your existing card’s balance, you transfer $8,500 to your new card, where you can pay it off in full with 12 payments of $708 – all principal, no interest. After that, you’ll own the car, debt-free.

If the $708 was too much for you, you could pay less each month, of course. An even riskier, but potentially rewarding strategy would be to pay as little as possible on the new card, and then hope for another 0 percent introductory offer coming in the next year. There’s nothing illegal or even unscrupulous about playing the credit card game this way – it only makes financial sense. Credit card companies exist to make money from your mistakes, but if you’re a vigilant consumer, you can invert the game and make money for yourself! What’s even better, if a bit strange, is that the credit card companies will find you all the more desirable. So the next time you read an article in which the financial guru tells you to tear up your credit cards, do yourself a favor and tear up the magazine instead.

James
http://www.CC-YES.com

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Bad Credit? Lose The Shame, Take Responsibility, and Begin Rebuilding

According to the research firm Sherbrooke and Associates, 43 percent of American households are “credit constrained.” This is probably because they carry too much current debt, or they were forced into making poor choices with their credit in the past. With interest rates rising and the housing market cooling, the number of credit constrained households is likely to increase. If you find yourself in a such a situation, know that you’re not alone.

Having excess debt and bad credit is a source of shame for many, and it has even been known to break up otherwise loving marriages. Many people who are credit-constrained feel there is no way out – particularly now that bankruptcy laws have been changed to make filing for bankruptcy more difficult for people with even average incomes. The truth, contrary to what most bankruptcy lawyers will tell you, is that bankruptcy is rarely the answer. You can dig yourself out of debt and repair your credit – all that it takes is commitment, discipline, and most of all, a new attitude.

Step #1 – Let Go Of Your Shame

Unless you fraudulently charged items that you had no intention of paying for, you need to let go of all shame related to your bad credit and debt. After all, the credit system is set up with the understanding that some people will be unable to pay their debts – that’s why lenders are paid interest, to compensate them for risk. If you buy a corporate bond and the company goes under, nobody feels sorry for you, so don’t let your creditors make you feel sorry for them. Just like buying a bond, your creditors took a financial risk by lending to you, and they didn’t do it out of the kindness of their hearts – they did it to make money. So long as you had every reason to believe that you’d be able to pay for your debts, you have nothing to feel guilty about.

Letting go of your guilt and shame is not the same as abdicating all responsibility. To one degree or another, you are responsible for your situation. To another degree, externalities – things in the outside world – are responsible. Take responsibility for your actions, but do not let anyone make you feel guilty or they will wield that guilt as a weapon against you.

Step #2 – Contact Your Creditors

Once you’ve let go of your shame and have committed to taking responsibility, it will be much easier to face your creditors. Explain to them that you’re over your head in debt, and while you want to honor your commitments, you would appreciate it if they would work with you to make doing so easier. Most of the time, your creditors will be more receptive than you would imagine – after all, they’re used to people in your position ducking under a rock and ultimately sticking them with the bill.

Your creditors may offer to let you skip a payment or two in order to help you get back on your feet, or they might offer to lower your interest rates. If you still have your accounts open, they might offer to suspend your credit while you pay off the balance in principal only at regular monthly intervals. Finally, they may offer to settle your accounts at less than the full amount due if you pay in one lump sum.

Step #3 – Begin Rebuilding Your Credit

While restructuring your payment terms, by all means, stop abusing credit. You need to work out a budget that will prevent you from finding yourself in this situation again. If you still have credit cards that haven’t been canceled, you should continue to use them – but make absolutely sure that you can pay for everything you’ve charged that month when the bill comes due. By doing this, you’ll keep a credit account active, which is good for your credit.

Many of these negotiated payment plans will adversely affect your credit – particularly settling for less than the total amount due, which will be a black mark on your credit report for up to seven years. The fact is that negotiated settlements may still may be superior to falling deeper and deeper into debt, which could ultimately destroy your credit and lead to legal action being taken against you.

Once you’re back on your feet, be sure not to repeat the same mistakes you made in the past, but don’t swear off credit altogether, either. Just because you’re in bad shape now doesn’t mean that you always have to be. Open up a small credit account and pay your bills in full and on time, and in a matter of just a few short years, your credit can be just as good as anyone else’s. The sooner you start rebuilding after a near credit meltdown, the sooner you’ll be able to experience the security and peace of mind that the other 57 percent of Americans enjoy.

Stay safe.
From: James’ Desk

Free credit reports are given to shoppers according to Federal law…one every year. Given that it is a free service, you only receive the bare minimum in the print out, and you do not usually obtain your credit score. If you are getting ready to purchase a home or repair your credit, then you want a paid credit report due to the fact it contains more detail and most importantly, your FICO score. Let me commence from the beginning…

A credit report is a 7 to 10 year historical past of your lines of credit, payment history, court ordered judgments and bad debts that have gone into default. Your FICO score is a numerical worth that is assigned to your distinctive credit history, based on the facts within the credit reports. While there are other credit scoring models, the FICO score is the only one that makes a difference. Typically, the only method to receive your FICO score is by getting a paid credit report. If you are beginning the credit repair process, the only way to precisely measure your success in repairing your credit is to acquire your FICO score just before you begin to repair your credit AND six months after you have corrected the errors on each credit report.

I have found that myfico.com is the greatest place to get paid credit reports. They give you the initial credit report and a ten-day free trial to their site. They charge a membership fee, on a month to month basis. During your membership, you can review your FICO score and full credit report as many times as you want. If you are repairing your credit, this allows you to instantaneously see what is being done to your credit report and how your FICO score is impacted.

While there are quite a few other sites, which offer purchased credit reports and FICO scores, they are not all the very same. Some will demand that you sign up for their services for a specific quantity of time, say 12-24 months. Others will charge additional for credit monitoring and other services that you may not desire to purchase. All you really require is access to your complete credit report and FICO score and that is it. You desire to be able to stop the service once you are happy that your credit score has improved and your work is completed.

Be warned that there are some web-sites that are located offshore and NOT respected! They will basically rob your particular data and use it to steal your identity. These websites will appear respected and seem expertly set up, but that is the point, to acquire your trust!

If you want to acquire a paid credit report and your FICO score go to myfico.com. It is that simple to get started on credit repair.

One of the 1st things you must work on when it comes to eradicating debt from your life is your overall attitude. As you are working on reconstructing your credit and paying down those monies owed, it can be fairly simple to become depressed.

The key in this situation is to keep your attitude high and comprehend that you can certainly rise up out of this mess. Focus on reading personal growth and development publications as you are working on your debt. Paste uplifting quotes on your refrigerator, mirror and desk so that you are always looking at all of the good things in your life.

In addition, be positive to have patience with yourself. It took time to end up in this scenario and it will take some time to get out.

Invest the time to work hard on Fixing your credit. Even as you are working to get out of debt, you really should be doing all you can to restore your credit score. Be sure to investigate fully online all your alternatives when it comes to credit restoration.

Focus on organizations that will teach you how to correctly do it yourself: do it yourself credit repair. The less control you hand over to a third party, the better. Don’t go for those free credit repair letters that are seen all over on the net. They don’t work. You must investigate how to draft more customized letters that won’t get rejected by the credit agencies.

You may perhaps want to consider joining a local support group. Check web-sites like meetup.com and see if there is a group already in existence that meets and helps one another with tips for getting out of debt. Or, begin one yourself.

It may be needed for you to look for a part time job so that you can bring in the extra funds it requires to pay down your debts. Or, look into starting a internet site and making cash through the Google Adsense program or selling affiliate products.

Debt consolidation is an additional possibility in your work to find help for getting out of debt. Check out your local bank or credit union and see if they can aid you to consolidate things down to a smaller payment that you can handle a bit easier as you work through this course of action.

Sit down with your household and see where you can trim down your bills. Can you save on electricity or your water by considering things in a more conserving way? Can you do away with one of the cell phones? Can you cut back on your cable bill?

Stay optimistic, patient and keep moving forward with your plan to get out of debt. You’ll be pleasantly stunned to find out how much debt you can pay off and how greater your credit score can get if you basically adhere to it.

I have spoken at great length about the significance of using up to date credit repair details to ensure that you are not wasting your time and are effective in repairing your credit. Just as important as the credit repair system that you use is the assistance that you have DURING the credit repair procedure. Without a very good support system, you will not know how to get around the obstacles that the credit reporting businesses are infamous for putting in front of consumers trying to restore their credit. Without trusted and consistent credit repair help, you will not be successful and will waste a lot of your time.

Even the best credit repair system cannot anticipate all obstacles that you will come across when repairing your credit. Since each and every credit situation is different, along with the particular creditor you are working with, it is imperative that you have a resource to turn to when you hit the unavoidable obstacles.

There exist free support systems, but they are unreliable and commonly offer inaccurate advice. The explanation is that you get what you pay for. There are no totally free sites providing credit repair support that are manned by credit repair pros. Usually, the sites are monitored by some person who has little to no idea of how credit repair works in the US due to the fact they are located offshore. Much of the time, you will discover that the posts are quite old and there are minimal responses to online inquiries by consumers.

Choose a credit repair system that offers an online support tool that is monitored and managed by industry professionals. Take note of how swiftly the fellow member posts are replied to. Do the replies specifically address the member’s issues or are they basic in nature? A different way to discover about the support site is to notice how far back the posts go. If the posts go 8-twelve months back, then you can be confident that the website is well proven.

Thousands of consumers repair their credit each year and are very productive in the process. Those who employ a total credit repair system have a high accomplishment rate in reaching their credit goals because they have help when hurdles arise. After 19 years in the credit repair sector, I know what I am talking about. I have assisted thousands of consumers just like yourself enhance their credit scores and get a new lease on life. If you are sick of getting turned down for credit and want to take charge of your life then take the first step in restoring your credit today.