The end of the year is a busy time for everyone and it is also a time of year when finances can get a little bit out of hand. This can be due to the fact that it has been a heavy festive season already or perhaps the general state of the economy has got you down. Whatever the case may be you should not feel as if there is nothing you can do. There is definitely some bankruptcy help for you out there if there is no alternative or debt solutions you can come up with.
A lot of people will find as if there is not really an alternative to bankruptcy when it comes to this type of situation and that they are not going to be able to get out of it. But this need not be the situation at all if you know where to look for help and there is definitely some out there. Many times credit card debt is the reason they have to look to this type of action. In fact filing credit card bankruptcy is one of the most common reasons for getting debt relief among most Americans. They get too far gone in their credit cards and cannot manage money well so they end up filing.
Your first port of call should perhaps be your bank manager. Now you might be scared to go and see them and they might be a little bit annoyed at you to begin with. But this is not the situation at all in the long run because they want to make sure that you are able to service your debt. In the current economic climate they are likely to be more approachable when it comes to sorting your problem out.
If you do decide to visit the bank manager then it is also important that you get the timing right. Don’t leave it to the last minute because this means that they are going to think that you have tried to avoid the situation as much as possible and that you are not going to construct a workable plan. You basically have to show your commitment to improving the situation. If you are going to file for bankruptcy help then be sure you have exhausted all other alternatives. Filing chapter 7 or 13 is no laughing matter and it takes years to recover.
If you are going to be using nation auto finance to finance your car you want to make sure that you get the best price possible on your car. Even if you are using a different place that offers non secured loans for car financing you still want to get the best price possible on your car. The reason for this is that by getting the best price possible on your car you will only have to finance a certain amount of money, the less money you have to finance the better your loan terms will be and the more money you will save on interest throughout the years.
When buying a car the best time to purchase a car is at the end of the month. The reason for this is that at the end of the month many car dealers are more interested in making the sale no matter the price that they want to win any contest that the dealership is sponsoring for the month. If the car dealer wants to win the contest they will be more willing to negotiate because they want to make the sale, car dealers are less likely to be as open to negotiations at the beginning of the month.
You should also have good credit; the better your credit rating is the better loan terms you will be able to find. Non secured loans are based on credit scores, the better your credit score the more choices you will have when choosing a non secured loan. Part of the loan terms is the interest rate you will be charged, the higher your credit rating the lower your interest rate options are going to be.
Finally when talking to a national auto loan lender never tell them how much money you can afford to spend on your car payment each month, if they know this information there is not going to be any room for negotiating.
Credit card relief programs are generally developed in order to help individuals set guidelines to decrease several types of financial burdens including credit card debt. Credit card relief companies have information available for reading and putting into action on the Internet through their websites, along with phone consultations plus more; some companies have physical building spaces for those seeking personal meeting time and consultation for credit card relief.
In order to reduce debt, checking into a relief program to reduce deep financial problems could help.
Relief from credit card debt from online consultation and written guidelines is fast, simple and usually free. Learning how to manage a budget in order to stay away from credit card relief can help in major ways. Libraries and book retailers sell plenty of financial informational pieces that provide people with the knowledge they need to uplift debt problems.
The owners of the credit card being used, also known as the creditors, could be called and questioned; this process could allow people to develop payment ideas or plans other than the current plans that are causing credit card issues. In some cases, the perfect plan gets developed and credit card relief becomes a reality, fast. Debt collectors who may be causing major stress and hassles because of credit issues or debt burdens must follow certain rules and federal laws; knowing these regulations can help relieve the constant nagging that often comes with major credit issues.
Ultimately, there are numerous options to relieve credit card issues, including debt. While contacting individuals who have control over credit for personal cards and accounts may work, there are always more extreme and fast options, which could be labeled as the last resort type decisions one should try to avoid.
Options and actions such as filing for personal bankruptcy or cancelling cards completely offer quick relief, but could result in more financial issues. Legal matters play a large role in credit card relief decisions, though by following them, one can achieve a relief goal legitimately.
A bill consolidation company can help advise you on consolidating your debts. They should also offer other services such as a free no-obligation financial assessment, negotiating with your creditors in an effort to lower your payment rates, and even handle your payments for you.
Bill consolidation companies help transfer all of your existing loans and debts into one loan, which means that instead of having many different payments to make, you will only have one payment per month. Your original credit card balances, loans, and other outstanding debts will all have different interest rates and payment terms. Once all of these have been combined into a single loan you will have only one payment to make at one interest rate instead of all the individual payments. Generally a consolidated loan does not include mortgage or car balances, but it could still simplify your financial situation considerably.
Companies that consolidate bills are sometimes also known as debt management companies. Most bill consolidation companies guarantee that they will do all they can to not only consolidate your debts and loans but also help you pay off your loans and get out of debt within a specific period of time. This is a great goal and a great service as long as you find a good company to help you. There are a number of companies that are not so good and are only after the fee that they charge you. You want to avoid a company like this and find one that is really determined to helping you help yourself get out of debt.
A bill consolidation company has the ability, and the knowledge, to turn your debts around. Those employed by bill consolidation companies are usually well versed in matters of financing, loans and debt management. They are usually adept at negotiating with your creditors to lower interest rates and in some circumstances they can even leverage your creditors to eliminate late payment fees completely or other charges related to overdue or late payments.
The way companies that consolidate bills are able to do this, is by having you pay their company one monthly payment. The monthly payment would equal the total amount of money you need to pay your creditors each month as well as their monthly fees. Most debts and loans can be consolidated in this way, although student loans cannot.
If you are looking for a bill consolidation company to work with, do your research first and look for reputable companies with good track records. You may find it is best to go with a company that deals only in debt management rather than those that also deal with debt negotiation or other services as well.
Learning to become a debt collector can be a really daunting task. Your whole job is to collect money from individuals that either don’t want to pay the debt, or they want to pay the debt but cannot afford to due to a job loss or other event. Often times you will hear really sad stories and other things that make you feel sorry for the people. At this point you have to tell yourself that you are just doing your job. You cannot feel sorry for these people or take it personally because it will eat you alive.
I once worked overtime in the mortgage collections department and I heard every sad story in the book and I honestly went home at night and felt terrible for these people. I couldn’t help it, my personality was not the right one to be a debt collector.
As a debt collector you will often work for a debt settlement agency or a collection agency. These companies sole purpose is to collect debts for other businesses. They utilize the best debt collect software to run an efficient business that can make thousands upon thousands of collection calls and route those calls where someone picks up to a debt collection specialist who will guide the call and hopefully collect debt.
Debt Collecting Tips
To be a good debt collector you need to be respectful. Once in a while you will hear debt collection call on TV or the radio and the debt collector just sounds plain disgraceful on the phone. As a debt collector you have to realize that you are talking to someone’s grandmother, father or child and karma will get back to you some day. How you treat others will come back to you and you really need to be respectful, but firm with individuals that owe you money etc…
Removing the debt from your life can have truly amazing results. It reduces stress. Think about it today with gas prices over $4 per gallon does it really matter if you are earning an average income and have 0 debt? Nope not one bit, sure you would like to see it cheaper but think about the other side of the coin…
What if you are living paycheck to paycheck does $4 per gallon gas hurt you? Heck yeah!
Just a quick post today, been a long few weeks and it is really hot here today I am going to go keep cool! Until next time.
Derrick
Personal finance blogs are awesome reading. Some of my favorite blogs are ones where people are deeply in debt and working to pay it off all while detailing the journey on a blog. This really puts the personal in personal finance.
The one thing I find lacking is they very rarely determine what got them into debt in the first place. Sure they may be out of debt now but if they did not determine what was the cause of debt they very well may find themselves back into debt once again down the road.
Personally I have never really been in debt. Sure I have a car payment and a house payment but I could pay off the car right now if I needed to and my house payment is less than most people’s rent in an apartment.
I should be debt free including the house in roughly 3 years maybe 4. Not bad for a 26 year old. Likely I could slow down the 401k and IRA contributions and become debt free much sooner but I like knowing I am putting money away for when I retire.
Just remember know what got you into debt to not have to face the same issues later in life.
Budgets are good… Budgets are great…
But who really likes to budget, they truly are a pain in the rear and I have not found one person who likes doing a personal budget.
1. Why do people hate budgets so much?
Many people associate budgets with being poor, having do watch every penny. People often have the idea that if you do not know how much you really are spending that it doesn’t really seem that bad. To some maintaining a budget is like admitting that darn I screwed up and now I have to live like I am poor to get out of it. They then will usually not do the budget and just keep spending more than they make digging a larger and larger hole.
2. I hate budgets, now what?
I would only recommend this if you cannot follow a budget. You need to setup automatic deductions that will pull a set amount of money each pay period into a savings account, this will force you to live on less and save more. The best way to make this work is to only spend cash, that way you cannot spend more than you actually have. If you continue to use credit cards you will over spend and dig a bigger hole.
This has personally worked very well for me.
Derrick
The first article in our reducing debt series discussed getting out of debt, after finding out where exactly your money is going you need to figure out where you can cut back to reduce your spending. This is next most critical item that is necessary to help reduce your monthly expenses so you ensure you earn more than you are spending.
That is why the first step of getting out of debt was to calculate how much you are spending on average each month, now you can easily and accurately determine how much you need to cut back to reach your goal of being able to lower your overall debt and save more.
Where can you cut back? Well the first thing I would look at is anything that is a recurring monthly payment.
Kill The Monthly Recurring Payments
1) Cable TV, do you really need HD cable right now or if you have a service like Directv do you really need to have the service in 4 different rooms? Consider cutting back the amount of channels if it will allow you to save some money.
Some people go to the extreme of getting rid of cable all together. You miss it at first but after some time you find other things to do to pass the time that are more productive.
2) Phone service – Do you really need a cell phone and a house phone? Currently I do not have a house phone. When I suggest this people usually ask don’t you always go over your minutes? Personally no I do not. Most of my friends are on the same cellular network and we get free mobile to mobile. I have also cut back on the amount of time I am on the phone which also helps reduce minute usage.
Also see if you can cut out extras on your cellular plan, do you really need those 500 text messages per month, texting is a pain anyways, I used to get a lot of them and the small fees add up.
I would tell people I didn’t like then and they would still keep sending them to me. Finally I just would not answer unless someone called instead of sending a text message and slowly but surely they stopped.
I have a few friends who are monthly subscription addicts. Some of the actually spend more than they make just in monthly recurring purchases such as, house and cell phone, TV, XM Radio, house payment, car payment etc…
He has no choice but go into debt to buy food and any other normal expenses.
After killing recurring monthly expenses I then would look towards things that you may not really need. Such as going out drinking every weekend. If you buy a case of beer and invite some friends over you can save more money that just buying your own drinks out at a bar.
You do not have to cut out all the things you like, but do not need… You just need to cut back. That is a big difference when you actually start doing it.
This next post will focus on the other way to attack your debt earning more money!
Derrick
I am one of the lucky ones, to be 100% honest with you I have never been in debt other than an auto loan and mortgage, never had a credit card that I couldn’t afford to pay off at the end of the money. This doesn’t mean I cannot relate to exactly how someone in debt may feel. Working for a rather large bank I used to see daily the destruction lack of financial responsibility can cause someone.
Many people who have dug themselves into a financial hole do not know where to start to reverse course.
The first think you have to do is figure out exactly how bad it really is. Most people who are in great debt do not even know how much they owe, or how much they need to pay each month to just cover the minimum.
The reasoning is if I do not pay attention to how bad it really is I will not have to face the music and do what needs to be done.
So if you have no guessed it yet you need to figure out how bad it is. Sit down right now and figure out exactly how much you own, the interest rates attached to all debts.
Next you need to figure out exactly what all your monthly expenses are(rent or mortgage, utilities, telephone, cell phone etc..), do not skip a single thing.
Figure out what you can cut out that is a recurring monthly expense. Do you really use the high speed internet that much, do you need a telephone and a cell phone? Most people have financial issues because they signup for these monthly obligations that are more than their income.
Next you have to figure out exactly how much you make every month. This includes any interest income, even money you find laying on the ground or returning soda cans.
You have to spend less than you make, 99% of the time people having trouble spend much much more than they bring in each month. So the solution is simple spend less! Ok, I know it really isn’t that simple. But you need to cut out things, even things you may enjoy, like TV until you can get your bills under control and consistently make more than your monthly obligations.
The other option if you cannot cut out anything is make more money. This is possible in many ways, starting a home based business, picking up a second job or working more at your primary job.
In the next blog post I will focus on how to cut back.
Derrick