PublishMyself.net » Credit and Debt

Are Credit Bureaus Guilty of Extortion?

article2pls — Wed, 23 May 2012 15:09:34 +0000

Brian Nelson, writer for the Finance Gourmet, in his article, Credit Monitoring Scam exclaims: One of the biggest financial scams in America comes courtesy of the credit reporting industry and the three major credit reporting bureaus. In class Mafia-style extortion, a tough looking guy visits a local business. He says that bad things might happen to his business. In order to be safe, he should pay for protection. Of course, the only protection the business needs is from the crooks offering the protection. Credit reports and credit report monitoring work the same way.

In his article, Brain goes on to say The credit bureau’s extortion scheme works exactly the same way. You see, bad things might happen to your credit report. Someone might put false, damaging information on your file. The smart thing to do is to check your credit report often. To do that, you have to pay your protection money a credit monitoring service so that you can be informed when negative information goes on your credit report. Of course, the only thing you need protection from is the credit bureaus and their lackadaisical efforts to ensure that only accurate information is on your credit report. Not surprisingly, Transunion, Experian, and Equifax all gladly offer high-priced credit monitoring protection.

In an article written by Cathy Moran, a California Bankruptcy Lawyer, the term extortion is again used. In her article, Doesn’t this seem like extortion, she talks about the June 2006 AARP magazine and the touting in that magazine about an AARP sponsored law enacted in Arizona that prevents theft of one’s identity for a fee. Arizonans will now be able to bar credit reporting agencies from releasing their personal financial information to banks and businesses for a fee of $5.00 per credit reporting agency. This sounds like the credit agencies are saying We have personal financial information about you that might harm you. However, if you pay us, we won’t release it to anyone. Cathy Moran, a lawyer, states that this seems like extortion to her. Cathy exclaims: Why should that information be available in the first place and why does one have to pay to prevent misuse of the information? What am I missing here?

The old saying innocent until proven guilty does not work with your credit report. The credit reporting agencies will tag your credit report with any unpaid charge from any collection agency who has agreed to collect past due accounts for any crooked company, regardless of that company’s reputation. It then becomes your responsibility to prove you don’t owe the money. Just proving the company is running a scam won’t do it because the credit reporting agency does not consider the reputation of the reporting company. At least, that has been the experience of many people.

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John Smalley is owner at an Austin web design company and advocate for consumer rights. If you have had a bad experience with credit bureaus and would like your story published online to expose their dealings, e-mail me at franklinsmalley@yahoo.com or write to JF Smalley, 12343 Hunters Chase Dr., Apt. 1515, Austin, Texas 78729.

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Personal Financial Checklist

readabook — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 03:32:51 +0000

A financial wellness kit is a list of questions that a financial planner would ask you if you were just starting a relationship.

Financial planning is not just for people with money. People who are in difficult financial situations can benefit from getting answers to these questions. A financial wellness kit gives you simple tools to figure out where you stand money wise.

Here are some of the questions included in the kit:

1. Is your net worth growing?

2. How are your ratios?

3. Are you spending more than you earn?

4. What has changed in your life in the last year?

Other questions help you think about what you are spending on and how it relates to what you really want out of life. Most people don’t think about their spending. They spend on reflex. Or they spend to subconsciously keep up with their family, their friends, and their neighbors. They spend to make themselves feel better. They spend to show off. They spend on things they want instead of the things they need.

Answering the questions helps you identify and focus on our goals.
Your goal may be to retire early or your goal may be to get out of debt so you can sleep at night.

Even just reading through the questions can give you a new perspective on how you think about money.

See our post atWomanwork.net Financial Wellness Kit

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Will A Poor Credit 2nd Chance Loan Help You?

Laila — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 14:56:15 +0000

2nd Chance Loans To Repair Credit

If you are buried under a lot of credit damaging, high interest debt, another loan may actually provide you with a way to get out of trouble. That is true if you can be careful to find a loan with fair terms, and use your financing with great care. Are there some practical ways to find good financing when your credit is poor? You must be very careful when considering your own second chance loan options.

What Is A Second Chance Loan?

When we discuss, second chance loan options, we usually mean loans for people with poor credit. There are so many examples of things that are much easier to accomplish when you have great credit. You will be able to get cheap interest rates for almost any type of financing you need. Bad credit can affect other areas of your life too. It may make it harder to get a good job or get cheaper insurance. rates. Yes, the best car insurance companies tend to reserve their best rates for people with good credit! If you can find a way to improve your credit, a lot of things will get much cheaper and easier! A lower interest loan may be one way to do this.

Poor Credit Loan Warnings

Be careful when you shop around for bad credit financing. Some of these are loaded down with high fees and interest rates, and they will not end up helping you. Your goal should be to find a loan with a fair interest rate. You will have a chance to keep your current bills paid, reduce high rate debt, and get back on track! If you can start improving credit scores, you will find it much easier to progress in the future.

Watch out for some bad credit offers you may see on TV or get in the mail. Some of these loans and credit cards are loaded down with high interest rates and fees. When you have to pay a lot of money to use money, you will not be helping yourself.

A Fair Loan Could Solve Problems

Of course, if you can find a personal loan with low interest, it can solve a lot of problems. You may want to look for a secured loan. This means you will have to have an asset to use as a guarantee. This could be risky too. You must be sure you can make your payments promptly. If you can, this solution can help you get the best possible rates.

Make sure the lender will report your good payment history to the credit bureaus. You will still get to use the asset that you put up as loan security too. Be sure you are determined to handle this new debt carefully. You need to have a good plan for the use of this money!

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Suze Orman and Free Advice

readabook — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:02:55 +0000

Suze Orman gives out a lot of free advice and most of it is worth taking a look at. Credit card debt is the kind of thing keeps you up at night and nags at you during the day. Suze has some pretty practical advice regarding how to whittle down your debt. Here is a summary of her 9 steps to financial freedom. See the full details at Womanwork.net on our post Suze Orman Credit Card Debt Consolidation

You find a zillion articles about debt consolidation and each one will probably say something difterent. If you are doing searches on debt payment plans than you are most likely feeling stressed and worried. Suze Orman does seem to be on a mission to save us all from financial disaster and she frequently does offer a lot of free advice. Her advice is sound and well thought out even thought sometimes she gets a bit preachy. Here is a quick outline of her 9 steps to financial freedom.

1. Make getting out of debt a top priority.

2. Cut up your credit cards except for one emergency one.

3. Pay more than then the minimum payment every month.

4. Pay off the credit card with the highest interest rate first and work your way down in order of interest rate.

5. Get the best interest rate you can even if you have to swtich credit cards every six months.

6. Understand how your credit card works i.e. read all the boring fine print.

7. Honor your debts even the ones to people in your family.

8. After you pay off one credit card, take the money you spent every month on paying off that credit card and use it to pay off another one.

9. Once you have paid it all off you can take the money you were spending on credit card debt and begin creating your profitable financial future.

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Dealing with Medical Debt

readabook — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 01:30:44 +0000

About half of the activity for collection agencies concerns people with unpaid medical bills. The problem is more common than you might think. If you are in the position of having unpaid medical bills don’t be embarrassed or overwhelmed. There are things you can do to help the situation even if you don’t have all the money to pay the bill.

Collection agencies specialize in scaring people and they don’t hesitate to use some very nasty tactics. What they are legally allowed to do is covered by the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) sets the national standard for collection agencies. The FDCPA, enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), prohibits abusive collection tactics that harass you or invade your privacy. The full text of the FDCPA is found at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre27.pdf

If you do have an overdue medical bill it is legal to turn it over to a collection agency and also to make note of it your credit report. This can be done legally without consulting you.

If you decide to settle with a collection agency, the medical debt is not considered any differently than credit card debt and can remain on your credit report, even after you have paid off or settled the debt.

Your best bet is to prevent the bill from going to collection. If you have limited funds there are still options.

1. Check the bill for accuracy.

2. Be polite when making inquiries regarding the bill and you will get more help than if you are rude.

3. Apply for Medical Financial Aid

4. See if you can negotiate a Discount

5. Ask if you can pay it out over time.

For more details on each of these steps see our post at Cheapskateliving.org on Medical Bills and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

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Debt Reduction Counseling and Credit Rating

readabook — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 04:07:18 +0000

No one wants to run up a lot of debt and not pay them off. Sometimes though things happen that are beyond our control and we find ourselves with too many bills and not enough money to pay them off. Unemployment, unexpected medical bills and unexpected car repairs are all events that can cause to incur more debt than we would like.

If you are in the situation where you need to reduce debt here are the basic option available otherwise known as debt solutions. You don’t want to declare bankruptcy but you are having trouble staying current with the debt you have. You can either do a debt settlement plan or a credit counseling program.

Credit counseling can be a good option for you if you have very high interest rates or are having trouble paying much more than the minimum payments on your credit cards. This is the situation where you may have just charged a lot and need help in managing your debt and handling credit in a responsible way.

A debt management plan is for the more financially troubled. If you are late on your payments, find yourself over your credit limits and incurring a lot of extra fees, a debt management plan may be the way to go.

In this case, the credit counselor will approach your creditors and negotiate with them to lower rates, fees and monthly payments. This will allow you to pay less per month, avoid incurring more extra fees and let you actually have a fighting chance at paying off the debt.

The cost to you is the hit you take to your credit rating. When you consider what all the late payments have already done to your credit rating though the “hit” is really not that bad. The common myth is that using a debt management plan is a bad as declaring bankruptcy.

Yes it will show on your credit report and may affect your ability to get credit. But the whole point is that you are making an effort to repair your credit. You are actually making payments and reducing debt which is something future creditors can see.

You will have to close all of your credit card accounts that are under the debt management plan and this can cause a temporary drop in your credit score.

If you are not in deep financial distress don’t go with a debt management plan, there are more appropriate solutions to your debt problem.

Debt settlement or credit card debt negotiation is usually what is advertised on television. They offer relief to the tortured souls who are up late nights worried about their debts. Except what they are pedaling is not going to bring you relief. There is a big catch to this sort of plan.

You have to pay the creditor in one lump sum. Your credit rating is adversely impacted because creditors will report you “settled” or only paid part of the debt. Your report reflects this information for seven years. The portion you did not pay as income and you have to pay taxes on it. None of this is detailed in the television commercial.

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Medical Bills and Collection Agencies

readabook — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:31:33 +0000

If you are trying to keep your credit rating as high as possible here is something you should know. If your insurance company refuses to pay a medical bill you may not be made aware of situation and the unpaid bill will be turned over to a collection agency. Your credit rating gets hit and you will have a hard time figuring out what happened because of privacy laws. .

How does this happen? You incur a medical expense and the bill is given to the insurance company. It may be that the payment is held up for some reason or the insurance company decides the claim is not valid. So the bill does not get paid and no one notifies you.

Your doctor’s office sees the bill was unpaid and they send the bill to a collection agency and the collection agency reports the debt as delinquent to the credit reporting agencies — Experian, TransUnion and Equifax.

Doctor’s offices don’t want to hassle with collecting unpaid bills because there is a lot of rules and regulations they would have abide by if they did. So they simply send to the bill off to a collection agency.

First thing the collection agency does is report you to the credit agency. Collections are weighted more heavily than other unpaid or late bills when it comes to your credit rating. This then is where your credit rating takes a hit and all this may happen without you ever knowing.

Even if you do find out about it and are discussing the problem with your physicians office, the bill can still be sent off to collections. Find out what you can do to prevent this from happening to you. See our post Medical Bills and Credit Rating

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Can You Ever Get Out Of Debt?

Laila — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 20:19:47 +0000

Is Debt Pulling You Down?

Few things are more depressing than having to handle large amounts of debts that you really cannot afford. You may dream about the days before you ran up this debt, and you may think your problems could be solved if you could just wipe it away!

It is not that easy to get out from under big credit problems, but there are actual ways to get out of debt today. They may require some discipline, patience, and painful choices. But you can also find some help that can make it much easier.

Most real debt strategies will begin with a solid plan. This means you will have to figure out what bills have to be paid, how much you have to pay, and how much money you can allocate to reducing debt.

If you cannot pay your living expenses and your debt, you may look for a legitimate credit counselor. They can actually help you consolidate debt or negotiate with your creditors for better terms.

There are no magic answers when you need to fix bad credit and get out from under a big pile of bills. However, there are answers that can work for you if you seek them.

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Is Debt Pulling You Down?

Laila — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 17:19:07 +0000

Debt can ruin lives.

When people do have some financial setbacks, they are more likely to recover from them if they do not have a lot of debt to burden them further. Sometimes, you can find ways to pull yourself out of a debt crisis by yourselves. But if you are drowning in debt, you may need help.

Get Real Debt Help From Approved Agencies

When you do seek help, just make sure it is legitimate. It is very sad that some organizations, or even people, prey upon those who get in trouble. You can find government approved counselors who provide debt and credit counseling services for a low charge, or even for free. They should not charge you any upfront fees either, but only bill you after they have done what they said they would do!

The laws about the things that credit counseling services can do, and even what they can promise to do, have changed. Make sure you understand the difference between a real agency that exists to serve you and a scam! The US government actually publishes a lot of helpful information that will help you. Here are some things you can find on .gov extensions websites.

The laws which protect consumers today.
Lists of approved agencies in your local area.
How to tell a real agency from a scam that may take advantage of you.

Your mission should be to control your debt, save money for emergencies, and climb back up to a secure financial life. There are steps you can take to help yourself, but if not – there is real and legitimate bad credit help out there. It is much easier to just avoid debt problems in the first place, but there is a way out!

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Why Online Subprime Auto Lenders are Preferred over Conventional Lenders? Know Now

wKeelyHooverc — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:54:10 +0000

Purchasing a car is often a challenging selection but availing the proper auto loan interest rates is easily the most demanding. People who have good credit ranking need not worry about getting any kind of loans at low interest but individuals with bad credit or no credit score are the type who intend to make the important choice of what sort of loan suits their finances and which is the best source of obtaining car loans.

Online lenders provide many different auto loans for instance quick auto car loans, pre approval car loans or pre accepted auto loans, instant car loans, bad credit auto loans, no credit assessment car loans and the like. Traditional lenders provide a bad credit score or no credit score car loans but at really high rate of interest therefore which makes it a hardship on the debtor’s to pay for the month-to-month installment. However, on the web subprime auto lenders concentrate on providing bad credit car loans, no credit check needed auto loans, same day auto car loans and car loan pre approval at extremely low rates and so the majority of the subprime debtor’s prefer online car loans internet sites than offline auto finance companies or banking institutions.

The auto loan rates of interest billed with a particular loan may differ amongst numerous lenders and is dependent on a number of elements the most important kinds been the financing ranking from the car loan applicant, his month-to-month revenue stream and how constant it’s, his career track record, listing of assets as well as other investments he’s made, lender statements, income tax results and so on. While those with poor credit or no credit history need to look to get the best choices by making use of for car loan pre approval or fast auto car loans individuals with good credit rating can use for any sort of loan that is best suited for their finances and other needs. subprime auto lenders decide to negotiate the auto loan rates of interest with subprime borrowers on specific problems like:

- When the subprime debtor carries a property or another resource that is certainly worth add up to or even more than the value of the car getting obtained then that can act as a great security or collateral rather than the loan offered by the subprime auto lenders. Obtaining such security as safety will ensure the lenders that in the event of go delinquent or have missed obligations the tool might be consumed into property and also the amount recovered as a result.

- An additional efficient strategy to safe minimal auto loan rates having a poor credit background is simply by presenting a cosigner with a very good credit rating to guarantee the loan to ensure that in the event of long term foreclosures the cosigner can be depended after to create the total amount settlement. Setting up a massive advance payment can be an effective way of securing low rate car loan pre approval, same day auto car loans, a bad credit score or no credit history car loans as the larger the advance payment the bottom may be the amount to be taken for the car loan.

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