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Credit Trouble Could Easily Become Job Trouble

Jun 11

Posted by admin in Bankruptcy, Credit, Debt Consolidation

The credit report has become a vital tool in doing business in America. Lenders, landlords, and utility companies routinely check to see if an applicant has a solid history of paying bills. Based on that information, they will decide if doing business with the individual represented is warranted. For this reason, as well as making sure that you can get favorable loans, it is important that consumers take care to make sure that their credit report is a healthy one. There is another, equally important reason ? to make sure that you can get a good job.

The job market has changed over the years. A generation ago, a company that was interested in hiring someone would simply call their last employer and ask a few questions about that person?s tenure there. Such questions usually involved such things as whether or not the employee was prompt, finished assigned tasks on time and whether he or she got along well with coworkers. Such phone conversations usually settled any issues that might arise regarding whether or not a prospective hire was a good risk. Times have changed, and today, out of fear of lawsuits, most companies will offer no useful information about former employees. They might volunteer hire and termination dates and perhaps salary, but nothing else. That has forced companies to look for other sources of information, and the credit report tops the list.

A check of an applicant?s credit report won?t reveal whether or not they got along well with others or how good their work might have been. It will reveal whether or not they have a lot of outstanding debt and whether or not they pay their bills on time. The timeliness of paying bills might suggest that the person in question is organized and from that an employer might infer that they could get the job done in the new position. A lot of debt might suggest that the person may not be suitable for high risk or sensitive positions or those involving the handling of money.

Anyone who is searching for a job in today?s market should take the time to make sure that their credit report is accurate and that outstanding debts and delinquencies are kept to a minimum. Today, an applicant?s credit report is almost as important as their resume and any errors or unflattering information could not only cost someone a good rate on a loan, but it could keep them from obtaining their dream job.

?Copyright 2006 by Retro Marketing. Charles Essmeier is the owner of Retro Marketing, a firm devoted to as href=\"http://www.retro-marketing.com/\">affiliate marketing and informational Websites, including End-Your-Debt.com, a site about href=\"http://www.end-your-debt.com/\">debt consolidation, credit counseling, payday loans and personal bankruptcy.

Writen By : Charles Essmeier

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Car Title Loans Make Payday Lending Look Wise

May 14

Posted by admin in Bankruptcy, Debt Consolidation, Loans

Consumers complain, and rightfully so, about credit card interest rates that average 19% per year and go up from there. Those rates are certainly higher than those charged by banks, were personal loans can often be had at half of that rate, provided that your credit is good. On the other hand, credit card interest rates are bargains when compared to those charged by payday loan companies, where interest rates can often exceed 400% per year. Consumers usually take out such loans, which require repayment in two weeks? time, only when they have no other lending options available to them, such as when their credit card balances are full. Four hundred percent per year sounds completely insane, until you consider that there is a form of lending that is potentially even more expensive ? the car title loan.

Car title loans work much like payday loans and have similar terms. Payday loans are short-term loans, usually two weeks in duration. The borrower pays a ?fee?, which amounts to interest, that can average between $15 and $30 per $100 borrowed. If the loan is repaid in two weeks, the loan is retired. If the loan is not repaid, the borrower can usually renew it for another two weeks by paying the fee a second time. This is known as ?rolling over? the loan. These loans have no collateral required; proof of a bank account and steady employment is usually enough to secure the loan.

Car title loans differ from payday loans in that the loan is secured by the title to the borrower?s car. The duration of the loan is typically 30 days rather than two weeks, but the loans often work the same way. At the end of the loan period, the borrower can either repay or ?roll over? the loan for another month. The difference, and it is a big one, is that failure to repay a car title loan allows the lender to repossess the borrower?s car! At that time, the lender may sell the car and keep they money that they are owed. Most states require the lender to return any extra funds, but some states actually permit the lender to keep all of the money.

One would think that by requiring collateral in the form of a car title, the lenders could offer loans at a more affordable rate than those offered by payday lenders. They probably can, but in practice, the interest rates are very similar, which makes a car title loan a very risky way to borrow money. Most people need their car to get to their job; if your car is gone, so is your opportunity to repay the loan or to buy another car.

Lawmakers in various states have been trying to crack down on the growing car title loan industry, but they often meet with resistance from industry lobbyists and Republican legislators who think that the ?free market? should decide how lending businesses work. Unfortunately, the ?free market? is not available to most car title borrowers, who only go to such lenders after they have exhausted all other borrowing avenues, such as banks, credit cards, and even payday loans.

The bottom line is this ? No matter what the interest may be, putting up the title to your only means of transportation as collateral for a $500 loan is a bad idea.

?Copyright 2006 by Retro Marketing. Charles Essmeier is the owner of Retro Marketing, a firm devoted to affiliate marketing and informational Websites, including End-Your-Debt.com, a site about debt consolidation, credit counseling, payday loans and personal bankruptcy.

Writen By : Charles Essmeier

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My Experience With Bad Credit Loans

Apr 22

Posted by admin in Loans

Bad Credit loans are offered everywhere on the net and on all other media. However, not all loans are the same and if you are desperate and can?t take your time to analyze each of your options and just hold to the first lifesaver you find you may end up with the water up to your throat. That?s what happened to me.

How I Got Into Debt Problems

My parents have always been there for me. I?d never earned too much and they aided me a lot. I used to use my credit cards moderately and lived day by day. I had no savings whatsoever as whenever I had a problem, my father would come to my aid. But my father got sick and couldn?t work anymore, the family income shrank dramatically and not only I couldn?t count on my parents support anymore but now it was time for me to help them.

I was desperate because medical bills and medication ate up almost all of our income. I didn?t want my parents to know that I was already indebted by the time so I didn?t ask them to cut on their expenses. I limited my expenses and maxed out my credit cards. Finally, I couldn?t meet the minimum payments on my credit cards and had to resort to bad credit loans.

Vicious Circle of Debt

Sadly, I didn?t know by that time much about the loan industry. What I knew is that I needed money. With so many delinquencies on my credit report I couldn?t get approved for traditional loans. My credit score was too low and I read about bad credit loans on the net.

The only loans I could get approved for (or at least I though they where the only ones) were cash advance loans. It was little money and not much time to repay but at least it helped me pay for our expenses. So I started requesting one cash advance loan after the other, interests accumulated and my debt started growing. I reached the bottom and I had to start selling some of my possessions. That?s when I realized I had been doing things wrong.

How I escaped the Circle

I finally told my mother who was unaware of all of this and she asked for advice to a friend of her. She was told that I should have requested a bad credit home equity loan and that we were still on time since the property was owned by my mother and I and she had a good credit score so she could act as a co-signer too.

With the money obtained from the home equity loan I paid off all my debts as instructed: First the higher interest debt and so on. The new loan had a stretchy repayment program that gave us a lot of ease since we had small monthly payments I could afford. Now everything is in order and happily my father is healthy again.

I learnt a lot from this situation but hope you don?t have to go through it. If you are having debt problems, ask for advice and consider all the loan products available for you. Cash advance loans have their purpose and I used them wrong. What I needed at that time was a bad credit home equity loan to consolidate my debt and get some ease.

Kate Ross is a professional consultant with fifteen years in the financial field. She helps people in the process of securing personal loans, mortgage, refinance or consolidation loans and prevents consumers from falling into financial scams.
Visit http://www.badcreditfinancialexperts.com/article/ to get more articles and smart tips on this and other financial issues.

Writen By : Kate Ross

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The Basics Of Amortization

Apr 18

Posted by admin in Loans, Mortgage Refinance

Most of us have done it at a point or another during our lives however most of us do not know that the term is called amortization. Amortization in its simplest term means paying off your loan over a period of time. Amortization is pretty general and does not just relate to home loan or mortgages. It can be used to refer to your car loan, credit card bills etc.

The process of amortization is usually determining how much you need to pay for each payment over a set period of times. It is usually calculated by the loan amount, the time period in which you have to pay back, the amount per payment and the interest rate.

An example would illustrate the above point better.

Take for example you brought a house for $150,000, you pay a deposit of $20,000. So you are left with a home loan of $130,000. Suppose you found a lender who is willing to give you the loan that is for a period of 30 years with an annual interest rate of 7%

So how much would be your monthly payment?

First we divide the principle loan amount which is $130,000 with the time period in months. That would be 30 times 12 equals 360 months. You also need to factor in the interest rate of 7%. When you add up, the monthly payment would be around $870.00.

Besides calculating the monthly payments, for amortization loans, the interest payment is first deducted and then followed by your loan. However, it does not mean that the first payment is totally used to pay interest but rather parts of it.

Taking our previous example, the monthly payment of $870.00. About $760 will be used to repay interest while the rest ($110.00) is used to pay off your principle loan amount. For each subsequent monthly payment, the amount of interest paid is reduced. Eventually after as you approached the 30-year period, your interest paid would be minimum while the majority of your monthly payment goes towards repaying the principal loan.

Quite clearly as you can see, for each new loan you take out, the early monthly payments will be used to pay off the interest with only a small portion towards repaying your loan.

As you can see, amortization is quite a complicated matter. Most people would never be able to calculate the amount of interest and the amount that goes into repaying the principal loan per month. Thankfully, there are many free amortization calculators available on the internet. You can use them to calculate your monthly payment before deciding which loan to take. Your lender will also provide you with these information when you take a amortization loan.

Writen By : Ricky Lim

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Understanding The Basics About A Home Equity Line Of Credit

Mar 28

Posted by admin in Credit

More than ever, people are looking at their homes as sources for much needed cash in times of difficulty. Regardless if you need to consolidate bills, pay off medical costs, or start a home improvement project, a home equity line of credit can provide a much needed boost.

A home equity line of credit, or HELOC as it is also know, can give you a large amount of money at low interest terms. Another important advantage is that a HELOC provides some great tax advantages as well.

Home equity lines of credit work in the same way a credit card does, with one catch. More on that in a moment. As a homeowner, you can take out a line of credit on the difference between what your home\’s current value is, minus your outstanding loan balance.

As a line of credit, you are free to borrow any dollar amount up to the available limit. You can make only the interest payment on the borrowed money if you like, or pay down the outstanding balance.

The interest rates on a home equity line of credit rise and fall according to the prime lending rate. This can be both good and bad. In 2004, it was great as the prime rate was at a record low, but since then it has been raised nearly 20 times. So, what was once a really great deal, with interest rates in the very low single digits, has turned around dramatically to where a fixed rate home equity loan is now your best deal.

Still, the advantages of only having to pay interest charges on the balance, or just the minimum payment, make home equity liens of credit attractive to many homeowners.

The catch I mentioned earlier is the fact that with any home equity loan or line of credit, you\’re putting your home up as collateral. You must keep that in mind, but it comes with a responsibility.

With that said, a home equity line of credit may be the financial solution you have been looking for.

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To learn more about a Home Equity Line Of Credit as well as more information on everything to do with home equity loans, visit us at http://www.HomeEquityLoansA-z.com

Writen By : Terry Edwards

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Credit Card Interest Rates Can Rise On A Whim

Mar 25

Posted by admin in Bankruptcy, Credit, Debt Consolidation

The average American household owes thousands of dollars on their credit cards. Given that the average interest rate on a credit card is currently in the 18% range, the monthly payments that card-issuing banks receive should generate pretty substantial profits. Those profits are substantial, especially when combined with the fees that merchants pay to accept the cards for purchases in the first place. The growth of the industry, and subsequently, growth of profits, has slowed somewhat since the Federal government mandated higher minimum monthly payments for credit card customers last year. Since the average minimum payment has doubled, to about 4% of the outstanding balance, many customers have started to pay down their balances. When balances go down, so do profits.

If the balances are going down, how can the credit card companies increase their profits? It?s easy; they just raise the interest rates that they charge their customers. Customers may find their interest rates increasing to as much as 30% per year for any of the following ?transgressions?:

  • Paying your credit card bill late. In addition to a late fee that may amount to as much as $39, a late payment will probably cause an increase in the interest rate on the card.

  • Paying any bill late. A clause found in many cardmember agreements, called the ?universal default clause?, allows credit card companies to increase interest rates if you make a late payment to nearly anyone. This might include a mortgage, car loan or even a utility bill.

  • Getting too close to your limit. If you find your balance creeping up close to your limit, your card issuer may decide that you are now a ?risky? customer and may increase your interest rate accordingly.

  • Not using enough of your limit. Banks want you to use the credit cards. Having too much credit could also trigger an interest rate increase.

  • Any, or no reason at all. Most cardmember agreements permit the issuing bank to raise interest rates for any reason at all, even for accounts with so-called ?fixed? interest rates. The only legal requirement is that they provide you with fifteen days written notice.

    • How can you avoid having your interest rate increased to 30% per year? In some cases, it will be unavoidable, in which case you should consider applying for another card. Otherwise, you should be diligent about paying all of your bills on time and make sure that you remit at least the minimum amount due. If you have a card that has a high limit that you rarely use, you might consider asking the company to lower your limit. If you have a high balance, you might look into transferring some or all of that balance to another card. You might even consider taking out a loan to pay down the balance.

    Credit card companies are becoming more and more eager to find reasons to raise interest rates. The last thing you want to do as a consumer is to make it easy for them to do.

    ?Copyright 2006 by Retro Marketing. Charles Essmeier is the owner of Retro Marketing, a firm devoted to affiliate marketing and informational Websites, including End-Your-Debt.com, a site about payday loans , debt consolidation, credit counseling, and personal bankruptcy.

    Writen By : Charles Essmeier

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    Guide To Home Equity Line Of Credit

    Mar 18

    Posted by admin in Credit

    For most people getting any kind of loan on their home and property is far form being an ideal situation, but since most of us do not have some much investments and properties out there, we have to understand that many people have their most substantial investment in their homes and property. Taking a line of credit on your home is called a home equity line of credit, it is just like any other line of credit, only in this case it is your house that allows you to draw more money in, and will also probably come with a relatively low rate of interest.

    The reasons for taking a line of credit are different for every case, some pay off their debt or credit that they need to pay back, some put this back into their homes and properties, which is a cleaver way of adding some capital to your home improvement projects, the idea of borrowing money in order to increase the property value is one that can lead to a significant increase of your equity worth. In other cases the reason for taking this big line of credit is to sponsor a child going to college or in some cases to further the education of one of the family members.

    In either case you should think about what you really need, and only if it is a large sum of money that you need to rise should you consider taking the home equity line of credit, this is simply because there is no financial sense in taking a small loan on a property, and there is no common sense in placing your house on the line if you don?t need to.

    Once you will be authorized the credit you can start using it right away, you should only remember that this is not an indefinite credit line and it will probably be set on ten years, more or less, so you will need to pay this money back eventually. A wise thing to do is to make a detailed plan of how you will pay back the home equity line of credit loan that you take in the few next months, and then the first three or four years, this way you will see how the line of credit will effect your everyday life and financial planning.

    One last thing, it is always important that you make sure you understand all the details of the agreement and their meaning, there is no reason to walk into a home equity loan or home equity line of credit without knowing what is going to happen next, so do not sign anything or shake hands on any agreement that you are not absolutely sure you are comfortable with.

    There are many people who use a Home Equity Line Of Credit these days, it can be a very wise way to invest money in other things, while your house can be used to gain financial benefits. Educate yourself on Home Equity Line Of Credit, Home Equity and its benefits and risks.

    Writen By : Daniel Roshard

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