Credit

Are you using the wrong credit card?

20/07/2011
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You may be thinking a credit card is a credit card, so there’s really no difference between two squares of the same plastic. This cannot be farther from the truth. Credit cards, like anything else in life, have a certain quality to them and your current card may be completely wrong for your lifestyle and financial situation. As our lives change, our needs change and this is certainly true with credit cards. The low-balance card we may have started out with after high school graduation is not the same type of reward-laden card we crave in adulthood. Throw any notions of brand loyalty out the window. Staying with the same credit company forever can hinder you from pumping up your credit score. With that said, keeping an old credit account open will show you have a long history of good credit and can improve your credit score. But before...

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A College Freshman’s Guide To Credit Card Debt

18/07/2011
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When surveyed about the reasons that they first take out a credit card, college students inevitably rank a concern for credit scores as their primary motivation, beating out even convenience and protection in case of emergencies.  To a degree, of course, this is utterly specious, and we would expect our most responsible and ambitious young Americans to underscore the importance of FICO and Vantage figures (highly complicated logarithms guarded zealously by the three credit reporting agencies and only vaguely understood even by seasoned consumer finance professionals) above their desires for late night pizza runs or shopping binges. All the same, though, it is true that credit card debt payments are an excellent means of creating and then elevating the three digit scores, and, furthermore, the credit bureaus will admit that the length of time that unsecured lines of credit are held in good standing also plays a significant role...

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New Government Watchdog Group Monitors Credit Card Debt Companies

28/06/2011
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Although the legislation empowering the Consumer Financial Protection division of the federal government won’t formally take effect until the third week of July, the largest corporations issuing credit card debt accounts have already started making changes to their policies in anticipation of the coming industry wide upheaval.  Thus far, while waiting for their formal mandate to begin, the CFP has limited its moves to the preparation of introductory literature and consumer friendly information on how best to avoid bankruptcy and develop a personal credit card debt relief plan that would fit the individual household’s current status.  As well, they’ve already designed a internet portal to be used as a virtual bulletin board for group counseling about credit card debt relief, and, despite little media attention and no advertising this far in advance of the bureau’s technical opening, a small community of aggrieved borrowers has already started posting advise and...

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The Economy and Personal Debt

24/06/2011
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The UK economy appears to have finally escaped the spectra of recession, but growth remains low.  The latest snapshot from the National Institute for GDP indicate a slowdown in month on month growth, which it said showed a “picture of continued weakness in the UK economy”.  Austerity cuts, increasing energy bills and higher fuel costs are all hitting the average UK homeowner hard. According to Credit Action, a national financial education charity, average household debt in the UK is £8,144 (excluding mortgages).  Taking into account households with some form of unsecured loan, this figure increases to £15,661. Credit Action figures also show that every day in the UK 1,392 people will be made redundant and 337 will be declared insolvent or bankrupt. The Citizens Advice Bureau deals with, on average, 8,004 new debt problems every working day in England and Wales.  The organisation also states that average consumer borrowing,...

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Credit Card Defaults Hit New Low

20/06/2011
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Five out of six major credit card providers in the US have reported further reductions in credit card debt. Overall credit card debt stood at $785 billion at the end of March, according to the Federal Reserve. Figures for April show only Bank of America with increasing debt balances with approximately 1 in 12 in arrears. Best performing institution was Capital One with a default rate of 3.5%. This hardly reflects a strengthening of the consumer base since the financial meltdown of 2007/8. The explanation given by most analysts is that the reduction is due to the inability of customers with any payment problems in the past to get new cards. Nevertheless, there are ways that consumers can widen their choice of card, so click here to browse those on offer. Banks and other financial institutions have written off billions of dollars over the past few years and have...

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Protecting Your Credit During and After a Divorce

18/06/2011
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A divorce will, most likely, affect every aspect of your life. Unfortunately, your finances are not excluded from this. While many people understand that the legal proceedings of a divorce can add up quickly, some neglect to consider the other financial complications that arise due to a divorce. If you are like most couples, you and your spouse probably combined all of your income, savings, and assets when you got married. Some couples choose to keep separate accounts in addition to these joint accounts, but most keep the majority of their funds in accounts that are accessible to both of them. This usually applies to credit card accounts as well. While there are certainly benefits to having these joint accounts, a divorce can complicate things fairly quickly. Even if legal arrangements are agreed upon in a divorce – to settle, for example, who will make which payments – missed...

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New Limits On Credit Card Debt Spending

07/06/2011
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In this age of credit card debt relief nightmares, when so very many Americans find themselves in the position of begging lenders for debt settlement negotiation just to avoid bankruptcy, it seems a tad silly that anyone would spend time worrying over what they can’t buy through card accounts, but lending banks have increasingly decided to impose odd and arguably unfair restrictions upon consumer purchases.   While helping their clients through eventual debt relief by disallowing otherwise legal expenditures on gambling web sites or casino currency at least makes sense, the largest credit card debt companies are also have expanded the purchasing bans to cover such items as pornography and medical marijuana (currently legalized by more than a third of the United States ). Representatives of the creditors insist that these sorts of strictures are fully within their corporate rights and, rather than enforcing their notions of morality upon the...

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Would New Federal Controls On Credit Card Debt Collection Help Consumers?

25/05/2011
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As a result of increasing public pressure for governmental support of debt relief measures (spearheaded by the ever more powerful advocacy groups tackling the basest tendencies of the credit card debt industry), commentators and pundits familiar with the goings on around Capitol Hill agree that our elected officials may soon have no choice but to bow to popular opinion and create a wholly separate branch of the Federal Trade Commission specifically designed to constrain the abusive practices of the burgeoning credit card debt collection market.  At the same time, however, the fairly explosive political landscape concerning interest bearing consumer debt loads raises very real fears that the implementation of any substantive changes may actually do more harm than good. The prospective Department of Consumer Financial Protection (one of several possible titles currently being tossed around Congressional back rooms) would not necessarily effect a notable improvement within the legislative oversight...

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How to Settle a Deficiency from a Car Repossession

17/05/2011
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Car Repossession

Consumers who are searching for credit card debt assistance often have problems with other types of loans as well, including car loans. The unfortunate part of this is that a car can be repossessed by the creditor when as little as one payment has been missed. Repossession laws vary from state to state, so if you are in this position, read the fine print of your car’s financial contract and do your best to avoid having your vehicle taken from you. Many lenders will be willing to work with you while allowing you to keep the car. However, if it has become apparent that you can no longer afford the car, but you still owe a balance on it, the best option would to surrender the car voluntarily. This will reduce your costs, have a better effect on your credit and enable you to buy the car back in...

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