Posts Tagged ‘debt consolidation’

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The 1 2 3 on Finding a Credit Counselor

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

The 1 2 3 in Finding a Credit Counselor

Looking to purchase a home and found out your credit just won’t cut it? Trying to figure out a way our of this debt that has spiraled out of control? Consider credit counseling.

We all wish that successfully negotiating debt with creditors was easy but it’s not. Many of us do not have the skills or knowledge to successfully negotiate debt settlement.  Here is where debt counselors come into play. Debt counselors are the people who can assist with getting a calming relationship with your creditors. Finding a good credit-counseling program can be a bit complicated.  That means you will have to do careful research. Here are a few things to keep in mind to make the task a little easier.

First, look for a nonprofit company. Nonprofit debt counselors get most of their funding from creditors, so the cost to you will most likely be affordable. Be sure to also ask if the organization belongs to any professional groups, such as the NFCC or the Better Business Bureau. These rankings confirm the credibility a debt counselor and their firm.

 Ask detailed questions and find out exactly what services you will be receiving, such as the amount of counseling, a debt-repayment plan and budgeting advice. The more services they provide the better. Also, have them provide this information to you in writing and send it to you before you proceed. Ask about services beyond a debt consolidation. Get the facts, everything should be disclosed upfront.

Once you’ve found a service you trust, get together all your bills so that you can assist the debt counselor in figuring out what you owe and determine how much you can afford to pay each month.  Once this phase is complete, you will be able to write one check, instead of several checks, and they will disburse the money to your creditors. When payment schedules have been set up, the counselor will talk to creditors and make an effort to get them to reduce your interest rates, and waive late fees to shorten your time in debt, and possible report your past-due amounts as current.

Once you’re on your way to paying off your old debt, you should then begin to plan a budget, which the credit counselors should also help with that as well. Most people do not know how much they spend each day. We can keep track of the big-ticket items such as the rent and mortgage payments and the utility bills, but lose track of how much they spend on extras like restaurants, dry cleaners and video rentals. If you write down everything you spend, you may be shocked at how much money you go through. Debt counselors can help you track your spending. They teach you to record what you pay right down to the penny. Counselors are trained to walk debtors through every spending category and come up with an acceptable budget. The counselors should also check in with clients over the next several months to see how well they’re sticking to their budget spending plans.

Before you pay an outside counselor for help, however, you should be sure that you’ve tried all the easy solutions first, such as considering a loan from a family member or even using your entire tax refund check to pay off your debt.

Thanks for reading, please visit my site at www.thelegalpress.com for more articles like this and other legal issues and free legal forms downloads.

 

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/debt-consolidation-articles/the-1-2-3-on-finding-a-credit-counselor-4678633.html

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Eliminate Credit Card Debt Fast – Say No To Bankruptcy

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

The economy has pinned lots of credit card holders in a serious financial situation. Unemployment, loss of income, and unstable companies have been very common, leaving people incapable of paying their bills and looking for means to eliminate credit card debt fast.

If you are in the same situation, you might also be looking for viable debt relief options to clear your bills. In the past, the only possible way out of debt was through declaring bankruptcy. Many have realized that this strategy can only cause them much trouble in the long run. The best option available is a debt settlement scheme which is a legal and convenient way out of financial trouble. Here is why this strategy is preferred by many.

1. Debt settlement revives your credit record faster than all other debt relief options. Usually you will only need 1-3 years to pay off your debt. Declaring bankruptcy, on the other hand, is a tedious process and requires a long period of time.

2. Unlike other strategies, debt settlement will not require you file a court case or even hire lawyers to clear your debt off. This option is a legal way of dealing with your debt minus lawyers and court case. In contrast, bankruptcy will oblige you to seek legal help to make things go through in the court.

3. Settlement does not give you a permanent bad credit history and you are able to enjoy normal interest rates in the future. Bankruptcy ruins your financial future by pulling down your credit score to its lowest level. It remains in your credit history for at least seven long years, rendering you incapable of getting loans or getting normal interest rates.

In settlement, you will lose some of your credit score but once the negotiation and the payment is done, your record will be revived to its earlier status and this is the best way to eliminate credit card debt fast.

4. You can erase some of your outstanding debt when you settle matters with the creditors. This is only possible if you have an expert financial negotiator who knows how to craft favorable deals. Some people have tried doing the negotiations all by themselves which is also possible. However, choosing to do things your way will, most likely, end badly.

Many people find settlement the best option because of these advantages. It is more consumer-friendly and proves to be a reliable way of gaining your financial independence back. The federal government has also encouraged creditors to be more lenient with its clients to help them out of the financial problem. If you are struggling with bills and debt get help now and say goodbye to it for good and eliminate credit card debt fast.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/debt-consolidation-articles/eliminate-credit-card-debt-fast-say-no-to-bankruptcy-4678882.html

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Here is the #1 resource to eliminate credit card debt fast just click here to get out of debt now

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Do I Have to Include My Partner's Income When I Apply for an IVA?

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

If you are applying for an IVA and are living with a partner or spouse, we consider whether you need to include your partner’s income in your income and expenditure budget.

If you are living with a spouse or partner and you are applying for an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA), you will have to declare your partner’s income.

Your creditors will require information firstly to make sure that the amount you are proposing to repay them in the IVA (your disposable income) is calculated fairly based on you paying your fair share of the household expenses.

Your creditors will assess your disposable income by considering what percentage of the total household income you generate. They will require you to pay no more of the household expenses than is fair based on this percentage.

For example, if you generate fifty percent of the income, your creditors will expect you to pay for no more than fifty percent of the joint household expenses.

If you were to pay more than fifty percent in this example, your creditors would argue that your partner was not contributing a fair amount towards the household costs. This would depress the amount you have available for paying into your IVA and it would be unlikely that your creditors would reject the IVA proposal.

Should your partner pay towards your debt?

If all of the debt you want to include in your individual voluntary arrangement is in your name alone, you will perhaps argue that your partner should not have to contribute towards paying back these debts.

However, generally speaking your creditors will argue otherwise.

They will say that even though the debt is in your name, it is likely that both you and your partner have benefited from the expenditure.

For this reason they will normally only accept your IVA application if the amount you propose to repay is based on your household disposable income. That is the amount remaining after your total household expenditure is deducted from your total household income.

The only exception to this rule is where you have only just started living together with your partner and you can reasonably argue that they have not benefited from the expenditure and debts that you have built up.

Dealing with your partner’s debt

You can only include debts that are in your name (or in joint names with somebody else) in your individual voluntary arrangement.

If your partner has debts in their name which they are planning to keep paying, they are allowed to do this as long as the payments can be covered by their portion of the disposable income.

Of course, you must ensure that you have added sufficient budget in the household living expenditures to allow these payments to be made.

If not, your IVA payment will be too high and you will not have enough funds to maintain it once your partner has paid their debts each month.

If your partner’s portion of the disposable income is not sufficient to maintain their payments, you will not be allowed to subsidise them as you would be making a preferential payment to your partner’s creditors over and above your own.

In these circumstances, your partner may then have to consider carrying out their own debt management solution such as a debt management plan (DMP) or even starting an IVA themselves.

The easiest way to do this may be for both you and your partner to carry out what is known as interlocking IVAs so that only one payment per month is made based on your household disposable income.

Proof that you are paying as much as you can

Generally speaking, if you want to apply for an individual voluntary arrangement and you are living with a partner or spouse, you will have to declare both your incomes.

This is so that you can prove to your creditors that the IVA payments you are proposing are fair and you are doing as much as you can to repay as much as you can possibly afford.

If you have been together with your partner during the time when your debts were built up, you should also expect your creditors to want your partner to contribute towards your IVA.

This will mean IVA payments based on a household income and expenditure budget.

At the end of the day, an individual voluntary arrangement is a way of paying as much as you can towards your debt in a controlled and managed way. Providing information about your partner’s income and including this where reasonable will help show that you are doing your absolute best to repay what you owe.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/debt-consolidation-articles/do-i-have-to-include-my-partners-income-when-i-apply-for-an-iva-4673255.html

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James Falla is a debt adviser from BeatMyDebt.com in the UK. For more quality and unbiased information on Debt Management Plans, visit our website at http://www.beatmydebt.com

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Consumer Debt Consolidation Helps You Free Yourself Of Debt

Monday, April 25th, 2011

Debt in any form is not a welcome change in anyone’s life and the sooner one can get rid of debt the better it is. The Government had observed the trend of increasing number of people getting affected by debt and so the debt relief services were introduced to help people get rid of debt.

Debt relief services offered by various debt management companies included consumer debt consolidation and debt settlement. Debt consolidation services offered by numerous debt management companies help debt struck people consolidate all their debts into a single consolidation loan which need to be paid on a monthly basis only a single time. With multiple credit card bills to be paid at different times of the month it becomes really difficult for a person to manage his funds and remember to pay the bills on time. This is how the credit card bills go on accumulating and reach a stage where there is a huge amount to be paid off to the creditors and the debtors are no longer able to repay the creditors with whatever source of income they have. With time a situation comes when the debtor either has to opt for bankruptcy to pay off all his creditors or opt for debt relief services to get rid of their debts.

Amongst the debt relief services the most popular and recommended is the consumer debt consolidation as it enables an individual to pay off the entire debt but at an easy pace and also without taking much tension as half of the responsibilities towards the creditors is handled by the debt management company instead of the debtor himself. Right from handling creditor calls to paying off the creditors everything is taken up by the debt management company. Bad credit debt consolidation services are available for people with bad or no credit and this helps the debtors manage their situation more smoothly and with a clam mind set.

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Bad credit debt consolidation consolidates all the debts of an individual with bad credit but at a minimal fees as more often than not those debtors are not in a position to gather enough funds to pay off their debts so they will not be able to gather cash to pay high fees to the debt management companies. Consumer debt consolidation allows the debtor to avail a new consolidation loan at low rate of interest thus making the monthly amount to be repaid affordable and manageable as per the debtors financial situation. Debt settlement is different from bad credit debt consolidation as this type of debt relief services involves negotiation with the creditors to waive off a certain portion of the debt so that the balance amount can be paid off at a reasonable rate of interest. However, debt settlement should be opted only when there is no scope for an individual to acquire funds for paying off the debt with the help of consumer debt consolidation and the only option left is waiving off a part of the debt which will definitely scar ones credit rating for sure.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/debt-consolidation-articles/consumer-debt-consolidation-helps-you-free-yourself-of-debt-4669434.html

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Peter Lawson is a regular writer on DebtConsolidation123.net, a US based portal, which provides detailed information on Debt Consolidation Services, Debt management companiesand other Bad credit debt consolidation related issues.

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Eliminate Credit Card Debt Legally – Find the answer right here and erase your debts

Sunday, April 24th, 2011

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There are a great many options available to people with debt problems. Two of the most commonly used options are bankruptcy and debt settlement. There are many different opinions out there about which of these two are the best.

Those who feel that bankruptcy is the better option think so because the result is a complete elimination of the debt. Others think that settlement is a better option, because it does not damage a person’s credit history anywhere near as much as bankruptcy. For many, settlement is the best solution. The following is a comparison of both bankruptcy and debt settlement for a solution to how to eliminate credit card debt legally.

First, let’s take a look at bankruptcy. The most important benefit of it is that all of your debt is completely eliminated. So if there is no realistic possibility of paying back what is owed, bankruptcy might be your only alternative. There are drawbacks to bankruptcy that are very important to consider.

The biggest drawback to bankruptcy is that it has a very negative impact on your credit history. This negative impact lasts for a long time. This can make future purchases difficult or impossible. People who have gone through bankruptcy have a difficult time getting mortgages or car loans in the future. Bankruptcy will impact your credit negatively for at least seven years. This is a very serious consequence and most people should try to avoid it if at all possible if you want an answer to how to eliminate credit card debt legally.

If you have the ability to continue to pay for at least a portion of your debt, then debt settlement might be a much better choice for you. Settlement does not erase your entire debt, but it does reduce it. Often, you can get your debt reduced by up to half of your original debt, plus you will not pay any more interest or fees on your debt. Debt settlement will lower your credit score temporarily, but once you have paid back your debt settlement, your credit will be restored. In most situations, debt settlement, if handled by a professional debt negotiator will be the best solution to your debt problems.

If you are having credit problems and are looking for solutions, bankruptcy or debt settlement are both options that you could explore. Based on the information here, debt settlement is most often the best solution for people who are looking for a solution for how to eliminate credit card debt legally.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/debt-consolidation-articles/eliminate-credit-card-debt-legally-find-the-answer-right-here-and-erase-your-debts-4655881.html

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Here is the #1 resource to eliminate credit card debt legally just click here now

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