Loan Modification Help & Assistance is available for those in need to help stop foreclosure.

It is one of the worst feelings in the world being slapped with a foreclosure notice, the cold dark reality of potentially losing your home that you have paid 1000's sometimes 10s of thousands of dollars or even perhaps 100's of thousands of dollars for; only to be punched in the gut by the lenders that refuse to give you a break!

The banks and mortgage lenders are not in it to lose and they have a government sanction to basically do whatever they want to with little to no recourse, that being said though there are loan modification companies available to help you in your time of need.

The banks and mortgage lenders these days probably do not want your home to go into foreclosure as the current economic climite has seen a huge amount of homes come back onto the market from foreclosure and decrease the overall market value of homes even more.

A loan modification company has many tools available to them to help stave off a foreclosure:

An adjusted repayment plan
If you suffer a temporary short-term financial setback, your lender may allow you to pay off your past due amounts in several installments over several months.

Modifying your loan
As mentioned above the lender does not want your home. In many cases, they can adjust the terms of your loan, most often by lengthening out the amortization schedule of your loan, lowering the interest rate or rolling the deficiency into your loan and reamortizing the new balance, all in an effort to bring your loan current.

A short sale
If the value of your property has dropped and the loan balance exceeds the value of your home, the lender may allow you to sell your home for less than the outstanding loan amount, takes the proceeds and forgive you of any remaining debt. Please refer to more complete information about short sales here.

A short refinance
Again if your property value had dropped dramatically, the lender may release you from your existing debt and refinance the outstanding balance into a new loan.

Obtain a "private money mortgage"
While the rates and fees for this type of loan may be high, a loan from a private lender may allow you to buy time to sell your home in an orderly fashion and avoid default or foreclosure.

A few debt cartoons

I know we have a huge national debt... But you can't justify your bad credit as your patriotic duty.

Why babies cry at birth, your tax liability.

Dr. Bernanke explains quantitative easing:

If we feed the banks enough dollars, something good is bound to come out the other end eventually...

Gimme your money... and throw in an application to consolidate my debt into one low monthly payment.

Of course we should be using retardant. Why do you ask? This is a refueling tanker!

Your low-income, deep in debt and you have bad credit. you need to act immediatley.... By getting more high interest credit cards!

Oh Yeah? Well my dad looted a bigger hedge fund than your dad

...And so it has been agreed that we bring the international debt crisis to an end as soon as we have found an alternative way of keeping the developing nations poor.

Move back home?

Kids today are so lazy and irresponsible! Your mother and I started out with nothing.

Trust me I wouldve loved starting out with nothing!...

All works copyright their respective owners. If you are the copyright holder of any of these cartoons and would either like a link back to your original or would like them taken down for any reason, please contact us.

Principal Reduction Program

Please feel free to download a copy of our principal reduction program application Reliance Capital Funding LLC.pdf (197.75 kb)

Frequently Asked Questions - FAQ's

There are many questions involved when working with a program such as this. We'll try to cover the basics here as there are too many smaller details that might affect some files, details which will be covered in your consultation with your representative.

• Q: What is the Principal Reduction Program
• A: The Principal Reduction Program (PRP) is a program designed within the last year to help clients that are in homes with mortgages well underwater, that need help to correct what a bursting housing bubble helped cause.

• Q: Will I get updates as we go?
• A: You will receive an email from Reliance inc alerting you to the fact that your file has been received in house, delivered to us from one of our affiliates. From that point, you will receive an initial underwriting email letting you know your file has been QC'd and is approved. From that point, you will receive automatic emails from Reliance inc for various things over the course of this program. Once your pool is filled, then you will receive an individual email from one of the in-house consultants, letting you know what next to expect.

• Q: How long does it take for my file to physically get negotiated?
• A: That's the hardest question to answer. Because each pool has to fill up PRIOR to the portfolio being dealt with, it could be a month, it could be six months. This is why we give a time from of at least six months, with a probability of 8 and potentially longer. We try to set the precedent as well as we can so people don't feel that they were mislead

• Q: If I've ever had a BK discharged or had another house foreclosed on, will I still qualify?
• A: YES!

• Q: If I am currently unemployed, will I qualify?
• A: Unfortunately no. However, if you are married to someone that is employed, we can get their name added to the new loan.

• Q: Why are only some of fees refundable?
• A: There is sizable expense involved in getting this file submitted. Parts of the total fee are used to cover any and all third party expenses needed to secure your new loan. You will not be billed for anything above and beyond.

• Q: What if something happens to me that affects my ability to qualify for the new loan?
• A: If for any reason during the process you are unable to qualify for the new loan, your commitment fee would be refunded.

• Q: What is the interest rate?
• A: Your new rate is based off of Prime +3% (currently 6.25%) at the time of issuance. If Prime changes during the process (good or bad), you will receive a note based on that.

• Q: What are the benefits of being in the program?
• A: The PRP offers you the following benefits: -A new mortgage with a principal balance set at the current market value of your home – A fixed interest rate of prime + 3% for the entire term of the loan (30 years) – No closing costs associated with this program as there is no new loan issued, only a reduction of your current principal balance

• Q: How long does this program take?
A: The PRP process generally takes six months to complete, but can take longer depending on the lender. This process from start to finish involves Reliance inc, your new servicer (our investor), large financial institutions, the federal government, attorney firms, a title company and you. Reliance inc makes no guarantees on the expeditiousness in getting your file done from start to finish since we cannot vouch for the speediness of every lender worked with.

• Q: Why would my lender agree to sell the servicing rights/ownership of my note at a loss?
• A: There are many reasons that a bank would allow a lower payoff on your mortgage, here are some of the more common reasons: – To free up capital that has been required of them to hold in reserve because your loan has been re-rated – They sell/transfer a loan so they can qualify for government funds set aside specifically for public banks that transfer/sell loans to private investment companies.

• Q: How does this differ from a loan modification?
• A: This is NOT a loan modification. If your lender approves one, a loan modification can change the terms of your pre-existing loan. With the Principal Reduction Program, we help secure a new loan based on current market value. The Principal Reduction Program is a permanent change to your mortgage, because you are getting a completely new loan; whereas, a loan modification merely temporarily changes the terms of your existing loan. Often a lender will make you pay back arrearages from the modification at a higher interest rate down the line. With a PRP, your new loan is locked into a 30-year fixed mortgage at a rate of prime plus three percent (3%). You know what you are getting.

• Q: What is the difference between a short sale and principal reduction?
• A: A short sale often times leaves the borrower with what is called a deficiency judgment, requiring the borrower to have whatever the loss on the loan was, follow them for the rest of their lives, or until it's paid off.

• Q: If I am pursuing a loan modification with another company, can I still do this?
• A: Yes. Because we are not dealing with the loss mitigation department of the individual banks, you can still pursue the loan mod. Often times, we will assist our clients (at no charge) in getting in the HAMP (making home affordable program), helping you get current and buying you much more time before a sale date is scheduled.

• Q: Are there any limits to the maximum loan amount?
• A: Absolutely not. Whether you are in a $150k mortgage or a $2,500,000 mortgage, we can still help.

• Q: If I have more than one loan on my property, (1st/2nd), will I qualify still?
• A: Yes!

• Q: How do I know if I've qualified?
• A: Your consultant will have had you fill out (or they would have filled it out) a pre-qualification form determining your Debt To Income ratio. Provided that you are at 50% or less, you will qualify and be placed into the program.

• Q: What is considered qualifying income?
• A: The following ways to verify your income exist: – W2's – 12 months bank statements – Tax Returns – P&L from your current business – If you are on child support or alimony, you will also qualify

• Q: Do you accept mortgages that were secured on commercial properties?
• A: Unfortunately no.

• Q: Do I have to live in the property that I am putting into the program?
• A: No. You can do a second home or an investment property.

• Q: What are the automated notifications that Addvent sends me?
• A: Once you are in the program, you will be added to our Lead Management System. At various points in the process, you will sent friendly reminders of how long you've been in the program. You will be sent some ‘self helps' and ‘how tos' in regards to lowering your taxes/insurance payments, along with other various types of miscellaneous emails.

• Q: I have a mobile home, would I qualify?
• A: Unfortunately no. Mobile homes are one type of property that we cannot lend on.

• Q: Besides a mobile home, are there any other types of properties that you cannot do?
• A: Yes. We cannot do a CO-OP, high rise condo-tel (case by case) and land.

• Q: If I am over 90 days past due, can you still help?
• A: Due to very strict laws governing people that are over 90 days, we cannot help you unless you get modified first or current again. Please speak to a consultant regarding this prior to making any decisions.

• Q: I have a sale date on my property, can you still help?
• A: Unfortunately we cannot. We can refer you to individuals that can assist in getting your sale date postponed.

• Q: What if I'm working with a credit counseling company or a debt management company, can I still get in your program?
• A: Absolutely!

• Q: If I have more than one property, is there a discount?
• A: Yes, depending on how many will determine what the charges are, but as we will already have everything we need in the first file, copying the file isn't any more difficult and we will pass the savings onto you.

• Q: Do you have a referral program.
• A. No, we don't. Sorry.

• Q: Will this affect my credit?
• A: No. If you aren't late, when the loans servicing rights are transfered, it will show as 'satisifed' on your credit report and your scores will not be affected.

This holiday season will be like no other. Shopping like a drunken sailor and maxing out credit cards on presents for our friends and family is the old archaic way of fulfilling holiday wish lists. What’s in is sticking to a holiday budget, making affordable purchasing decisions, and stretching your dollar further to save money while shopping for your loved ones and friends.

With nearly ten percent of all Americans unemployed (and that may not even be accurate when you factor in those who have given up looking for a job or are just temporarily working; the figure is then closer to 17%), common sense would dictate this holiday shopping season to be rather sleepy. Not so, according to many economics and financial analysts polled: just about every retailer, from big box chains like Wal-Mart and Target to upscale department stores and luxury brands like Coach and LVMH, are forecasting increased, perhaps even record-breaking, revenues.
And their expectations fall right in line with what we’ve already seen.

Black Friday, the biggest holiday shopping day of the year that falls on the Friday following Thanksgiving, saw huge revenues being reported from retailers. The following Monday, known as Cyber Monday (the Black Friday equivalent for online shopping and ecommerce retail) saw explosive numbers too. Online payment processor Paypal reported a 25% jump in the amount of transaction it processed that day.

Blame it on consumers being tired of practicing frugality following one of the worst recessions the world has ever seen. Or you can blame the 2010 holiday shopping splurge on the notion that economic conditions in this country are improving and people are feeling better about their financial positions. Either way, the fact is retailers want your money this year and they’re going to great lengths to get it.

You can follow this guide to make sure you get the best bang for your buck while filling and packing those stockings and colonizing the bottom of your Christmas tree with presents.

1.    Use credit sparingly
The Great Recession has impacted middle class families in a way that sparked a whole new approach to shopping. Rather than maxing out credit cards and embracing the “buy-now-pay-later” approach to generous gift-giving, people are feeling more motivated than ever to adopt frugality. You should be buying only what you know you can afford and be willing to pay for it now, not later. Consider foregoing high-ticket priced gifts like flat-screens and computers and instead, put a fraction of those savings towards updating or extending the lives of the electronics you already own. For example, use the hundreds of dollars you save in not purchasing a 3D TV to purchase a Roku box and a Netflix subscription that allows you to download movies right to your set. Or you can use the money you’ve saved from purchasing a new laptop or computer to upgrade your existing machines with software, games, memory, speed, or a faster Internet connection, for example. Use the rest of the money to purchase additional lower-ticket gifts that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford or simply funnel that cash into a savings account.

2.    Create a budget that will stick
You’ve likely heard that sticking to a budget will help you save money in just about any situation, and that’s because it’s true. But here’s a suggestion to really maximize the benefits of budgeting: make sure your budget is reasonable, it’ easy to follow, and don’t give yourself any opportunities to divert from the plan. You can create specific metrics that will allow for you to know what it is you can afford to spend, or you can simply set an inflexible cap on what you’re willing to spend.
For example, you may only want to spend 10% of this month’s income on gifts, and you’ll refuse dipping into your savings account. Or, if credit cards are a necessity, you will only charge a small percentage of your total purchases to credit cards; the rest you’ll pay in cash. Remember that you have bills to pay in January, and unless you’ve got at least six months of living expenses saved up in a cash account at your bank, avoid tapping emergency funds for gifts.

3.    Find deals, discounts, and coupons online
Retailers are clamoring for your buck, so make them work for it. It’s easier than ever these days to find coupons, discounts, and deals online. Consider the audacious success of group discount websites like Groupon.com, which allows users to sign-up for deal-of-the-day offers. A retailer will offer 75% off or more for one of its products or services as long a certain amount of people sign up. When that quota is hit, the deal becomes available and you save tons. The company is just 2 years old and projects 2010 revenues of more than $500 million.

If you have a specific gift in mind that you know you want to purchase, try to locate a coupon by doing a Google search. You can also browse the company’s website and try to find a newsletter sign-up form. Many times, companies use these newsletter lists to promote discounts, coupons, and great deals. In addition, coupon sharing websites are everywhere these days; they include Retailmenot.com, which allows users to post coupon codes and printable-discounts for just about every product, service, and company you can think of.

Lastly, shop online. Ecommerce is getting easier, faster, and increasingly more affordable than going to a brick-and-mortar shop to purchase the same stuff you can almost always find online. In fact, many times you can find stuff online that you can’t find anywhere else anyway. Finally, if you have a high-ticket purchase in mind, whether for yourself or for someone else, consider waiting until after the holidays to buy it. Would you be willing to forego opening a gift on Christmas morning if it meant you can get that same gift just 2 days later at 10%, 15%, or 20% off?

The holidays should be less about gifts and shopping and more about spending quality time with families and friends. Use whatever unpleasant financial challenges you’re facing these days as an opportunity to get closer with the ones you love. Let’s save some money, pay down some debt and outstanding bills, and be thankful for what we have.

According to USA.gov, the government’s official web portal for public information and services on the Internet, the 10 most popular New Year’s resolutions include: drinking less alcohol, getting a better education, getting a better job, getting fit, losing weight, managing debt, managing stress, quit smoking, save money, take more vacations, and volunteer more time and money to charitable causes. Those are all worthy resolutions, but what’s interesting to us is how many of these goals are financially focused, either directly or indirectly, on your money, credit score, and creditworthiness.

Even more striking than the similarities and shared characteristics between what the mission and services our firm promotes and the fact that they are services Americans are making New Year aspirations to achieve is that while nearly 50% of us say we make resolutions, only a tiny fraction of us actually make them happen. Yet year after year, we make a personal vow to instill revolutionary and permanent changes in our lives, sometimes taking multiple years and multiple attempts to successfully fulfill our ambitions.
If you share in the motivation of your friends, family, and neighbors to work towards realizing one of these 10 most common resolutions, then you’ve got some work ahead of you. Let’s take a look at the resolutions that are financially focused, require diligent commitment to achieve, and how our tips can help you get on your way.

Getting a better education
Higher education demands money, time, and effort, but we all know it’s an investment. There’s a ton of federally-funded educational grant money available for those who apply and qualify which is largely determined based on how much you make, how many dependents you have, and what type of school or program you’re enrolling in. Many times, colleges, universities, and trade and training institutes will offer private school loans with interest rates that vary from 6.5% to as high as 15%. If your credit took a beating recently, expect you school loan to carry a higher interest rate.

Regardless of how you fund it, in all but rare cases furthering your education (whether it’s at a 4-year university of at a vocational or professional institution) will help you land and retain a better paying job. You’ll also gain invaluable skills that you can apply in and out of the workplace.

Managing debt
This common resolution is perhaps most appropriate for us to talk about. Americans on average borrow more than any other nation in the world (although Europe has some worthy competitors – just look at Greece’s messy debt problems that snagged headlines throughout 2010) and our national savings rate is stagnant at about 0%. Millions of Americans are out of work (some have been unemployed for more than a year), their home values are far underwater, sparking foreclosures all around the county; and personal credit scores and reports are getting pummeled. Make 2011 the year of the bounce-back. Consider debt negotiation to reduce your monthly payment on things like your mortgage, loans, or credit cards, or settle the full amount of your outstanding and delinquent debt all together.

2010 was the year of the foreclosure prevention industry, and the popularity of mortgage relief programs will continue throughout 2011. Use this year to manage, consolidate, negotiate, settle, and eliminate your debt with the tools, resources, and services of a reliable, competent debt management company

Save money
Saving money is easy when you have enough of it; for the rest of us, we face never-ending challenges. Prioritize which bills are most important to pay (mortgage, car, groceries, electricity, etc.) and forego un-necessities like entertainment, new clothes, and high-ticket purchases or home upgrades. Did you know that the bottom earners spend more of their dispensable income (income after bills are paid) than the top earners in our society? It’s not only true, it’s actually simple economics. You can contest that principle by putting away cash whenever possible in 2011.
If employed, max out the company contributions to your retirement account. If self-employed, simply set up a Roth IRA (Individual Retirement Account) with your local bank and make regular, systematic contributions to it. Also, if you’re looking to get the most interest back on your savings account, consider opening an account with an online or “virtual” bank. Companies like Ally Bank (owned by GMAC) and ING Direct offer customers the ability to capture 1.5% in APY or more on their online savings account (compare that to a measly .05% interest rate most brick-and-mortar banks are offering). You can also browse Bankrate.com for the banks offering the highest APY in your zip code.

Your New Year’s resolutions don’t have to be lofty and unattainable goals; start slow and reward yourself with small accomplishments. The best approach to achieving any goal is to practice patience, diligence, commitment, and utilize every opportunity, resource, and tool you have available, and realizing your resolution goals take no exemption from this guaranteed and proven theory.

Debt validation is a very important topic to many people these days and can make a huge difference in a persons life when it comes to credit scores, and utlimately the price that we pay for our goods. For instance a better credit score can over the life of a car loan be worth thousands of dollars.

Validating debt can if done correctly get erroneous items removed from your credit report and help to alleviate collection agency calls.

Debt-Validation-Letter.doc (49.50 kb)

Debt-Validation-Letter-After-30-Days.doc (28.50 kb)

Maintaining good credit and a decent credit score of 720 or over makes a difference when you go to apply for a credit such as a car loan or home mortgage. The higher your score, the better loan terms and lower interest rate you will get. If your credit score is too low below 600, you will be seen as a high credit risk, you probably won’t qualify for a loan and you may even be denied employment. Employers run credit checks to determine the character of an employee. If you are applying for a high security clearance position, you could be turned down for the position because your employer may view you as someone that could be bribed for financial gain and divulge trade secrets or classified information.  Negative credit reporting by your creditors impacts your credit score dramatically.  Negative credit reporting items such as charge-offs, bankruptcy, collection, foreclosure, tax liens and judgments all lower your score by as much as 200-300 points or more.

Charge-off occurs when you have missed six or more payments. Your creditor may just decide to write the amount off their books as uncollectible. They may report the negative item. Charge-offs stay on your credit report 7 years.  Bankruptcy stays on 10 years unless you file a Chapter 13, then it stays on 7 years from when you complete your payment plan. But since most payment plans last 3-5 years, figure your credit will be affected by the bankruptcy for10 years. Foreclosure has the most negative impact on your credit report. A foreclosure is when your lender takes back your property after you default on your mortgage loan. After a foreclosure, you are seen as a poor credit risk. Foreclosure stays on your credit 7 years. Unpaid tax liens stay on your credit 15 years, and paid tax liens stay on for 10 years. Judgments can stay on your report 7-20 years from the date they are filed even if you pay the amount in full. You can negotiate with your creditors to reduce the debt and settlement with them for a lump sum payment. This is referred to as debt settlement. A debt settlement company negotiator can negotiate with each of your creditors to reduce your balance between 30% to 70% so you can become debt free sooner. You will need a lump sum cash payment to pay to each creditor so if you don’t have enough money saved, you can start putting the money away each paycheck until you are ready to make the cash payment. Your negotiator will also follow-up with your creditor to make sure that they have removed any negative reporting information.

Understanding how to read your credit report is important. Generally, the first page contains your personal information such as your name, address and telephone number and employment.   Mistakes can occur frequently in personal information through mix up of social security numbers, names and addresses so you should order a copy of your annual credit report to make sure that items reported belong to you. If they don’t, you can dispute them with the credit agency, and they will take them off. The report will reflect each account you have even paid and closed ones and your payment history, balances and whether you were late on any payments. If there is negative information, you should dispute it. The credit bureau has to write to your creditor advising them about the dispute and give them a chance to respond. If they don’t respond in 30 days, the credit bureau has to take the information off your report. This can help to improve your score with less negative items on your credit report. The other area of information contained on your report includes public records such as liens and judgments that may have been filed against you. You can dispute those items as well. Usually courts don’t respond to credit inquiries because they are too busy and short staffed so many times the credit bureaus remove the negative reporting judgment item. You still owe the debt, but you don’t have to worry about it showing up on your credit report again if they credit bureau takes it off.  When creditors or employers make inquiries about you, they show up as credit inquiries. Too many inquiries can lower your score as well. Identify theft is can cause your score to be affected if someone is using your name and social security number to obtain credit and not paying the credit card bills or obtaining other credit under your name. Identify theft is a crime and should be reported to the police immediately if you discover that someone is using your identify to obtain credit that you did not authorize. You can put a freeze warning on your account with the three major credit bureaus to stop the thief from continuing to incur debt under your name.

Credit repair takes some time so don’t expect your score to dramatically improve in a short period of time. Be patient. Credit scores do improve over time. A credit repair company can be helpful in assisting with credit repair. The specialist can review your report and go over which areas can be improved, what items should be disputed and give you suggestions on how to lower your credit balances and give you tools for managing your money so you can make your payments on time. The credit repair specialist will help you with a budget to meet your monthly expenses and give you an opportunity to save some money for emergencies as well. This way you can make sure you set aside enough funds each month to pay your creditors in a timely manner and improve your credit payment history to raise your score. Also, be sure to pay the balance in full each month if you can or pay at least more than the minimum balance so you can get the balance paid sooner and avoid interest and other fees that may occur each month. Avoid using your credit cards for daily expenses. Instead pay cash, use your debit card or write a check. This way you won’t spend more than you have. It’s easy to take out your credit card and just charge, but it is not so easy to come up with the money to pay the bill off each month. Developing good credit habits takes practice and discipline. Your credit repair specialist can teach you how to manage your credit in a responsible manner so you don’t get into any bad spending habits again.

Designing a monthly budget is necessary if you are having trouble meeting your monthly payment obligations to your creditors. Start by getting together all your financial statements including your bank account statement, retirement account statements and any stock or investment portfolio statements. Then list your income. This includes your wages, any overtime or bonuses or commissions. Make a list of interest income from savings accounts and investment fund income, any other miscellaneous income from a second job, alimony or child support. Next write down your taxes that are withheld from your paycheck to determine your net spendable income. Expenses are next. Your expenses such as your rent or mortgage, insurance and car payment, any homeowner dues and home improvements, utilities, food, entertainment expenses, medical and dental, child care and educational expenses. Other debt such as student loans or installment and credit card debt, pet expenses, clothing, dry cleaning and beauty expenses should all be listed as part of expenses. Deduct the total monthly expenses from the monthly expendable income. If you have any surplus, then put that away as savings for emergencies. If you are short, you will need to cut down expenses so you have money to pay all your bills.

Cutting your expenses is difficult for most people, but necessary. Start with entertainment. Cut out some sporting tickets, concerts, theatre and movies. Stop buying expensive coffees or lattes, limit the number of times you eat dinner out to once or twice and go for appetizers instead of expensive meals. Bring your lunch to work and cut out dining out at lunch time. Use coupons and watch for specials at the grocery store to cut food expenses. Buy in bulk at places such as Costco or purchase discounted items at Wal-Mart or Target. Grow your own herbs or vegetables if you have a place to plant a vegetable garden. Carpool to work or school. Buy clothing that is machine washable and limit dry clean only items in your wardrobe.  Look for the gas stations in your area that have the least expensive gas.

Other ways to save money are raising deductibles on medical and insurance policies. Take driving safety classes to get discounts. Negotiate with your bank to get a free checking account. Don’t use ATM’s that are not affiliated with your bank because they charge you fees of up to $3.00 to $5.00 per transaction. Pay your bills online. Look for specials with cable and satellite TV companies and Internet companies. Package your telephone, cell phone, cable and Internet with one company if possible because you will get better discounts. Don’t go out and buy a new cell phone or lap top just because the manufacturer has come up with a new version or more features. Shop around online before you buy those items and make sure you are getting the best deal. You might be able to refinance your home mortgage to a lower interest rate if you have enough equity, if not, see if you qualify for a mortgage modification.  Cash in on your credit card rewards and use them for savings.  Find out if your utility company has any budget saving plans. Negotiate with your credit card companies to lower your interest rate or shop around and find new cards with lower rates. Pay more than your minimum payment, don’t go over your credit limit and pay your bills on time.  You will be surprised on how much money you can save by following these simple and easy tips.

If you are not disciplined to sit down and design a budget, then seek help from a professional such as a debt settlement and credit repair company. The specialist can sit down with you at your initial meeting and go over a budget and debt reduction plan for you to help you become debt free and make your monthly payments on time. Debt settlement is a great option if you have a lot of unsecured credit card debt and you are getting behind in your payments. The debt settlement negotiator is an expert at negotiating debt reduction with creditors and can help you reduce your debt by half in some instances or more. You could try and negotiate debt settlement on your own, but your creditor might take advantage of the fact that you are not an expert at debt negotiation. You can expect better results when you use a professional debt negotiator to do your negotiating. Also, you don’t have to get stressed out or intimidated by your creditor because you won’t ever speak with your creditor. Also, you can get them to stop calling you and start calling your negotiator.  Most consumers who use debt settlement are quite relieved that they don’t have to receive those annoying and harassing telephone calls from their creditors when they use a debt settlement negotiator.  Debt settlement involves offering your creditor a reduced lump sum payment to pay off your debt. Most creditors are happy to receive some money than take a chance that you might file bankruptcy and they receive nothing.   You have nothing to lose by working with a debt settlement company to help you negotiate debt reduction and everything to gain by reducing your debt and becoming debt free sooner.

Finding a reputable and trustworthy debt settlement company is important. You should try and get a referral from a friend or family member that has had a positive experience with a debt settlement company. Your attorney or accountant may be able to recommend a good company to you. If you cannot get a referral, then check the Internet and call three companies to compare services with so you can comparison shop. Find out what they charge, what services they will be charging you and how long they expect it will take to complete your debt settlement. Get everything in writing and ask for references.  Don’t pay any large upfront fees. That is a sign that the company may not be legitimate. Also check your local Better Business Bureau and your attorney general’s office to make sure there are no complaints against the company. If there are, then find out what they are for and how they are being resolved or were resolved. Most debt settlement companies are reputable, there are just a handful that are not. To make sure you are not scammed by one of them, just use your judgment and take your time selecting. Don’t let anyone pressure you into signing anything. If they offer you too many promises that sound too good to be true, it’s a sign you should move on to another company. Debt settlement is working for millions of consumers and there no reason why you should not expect positive results.

Establishing credit can be done by various ways. If you have no credit history at all, you will need a bank account to start with. Most credit applications ask where you bank even though banks don’t report your credit history to the major credit bureaus. Then you can start applying for a department store credit card or gas credit card. Students might want to look for a student credit card. Make sure whatever card you apply for reports to the three major credit bureaus so you can establish a payment history and that you meet the guidelines for approval. Creditors look at your annual income and whether you have any liens or judgments against you or defaults on student loans so even if you don’t have any credit cards, you may have other negative items that are on your credit. You should try and clean up your negative items first before applying for a credit. For those consumers who have no negative history or credit history at all, you can start fresh. When you do get a credit card, be sure to charge only what you can afford to pay off each month. Don’t get into the habit of making minimum payments because you will end up paying interest charges and other fees. Make a budget and factor in your credit card spending. You can also apply for a secured card, which means you open a savings account with the credit card company for the amount of your credit limit. If you default, the credit card company can take the money to pay off your balance. If you are denied credit, you are entitled to find out the reason why. You can request a copy of your credit report once a year for free or if you have been turned down for credit recently.

Students have a choice of several student credit cards. However, students must show that they are financially able to pay back the debt or have a co-signer. Otherwise, they will be denied credit. Some of the more popular student credit cards are Discover Student More Card. This card offers a 0% introductory rate for 6 months and a regular APR between 13.99%-20.99%. There is no annual fee or balance transfer, and you only need a fair credit rating to qualify.  Discover Student Open Road Card offers an introductory rate of 0% for 6 months. The regular APR is 13.99%-20.9%. There is no annual fee, no balance transfer, and you only need fair credit. The Citi Forward Card for College Students is another choice for college students. No co-signer is required. Like the Discover card, there is a 0% introductory rate. The introductory rate is for 12 months on balance transfers with a regular APR between 12.99%-19.99%. There is no annual fee, but there is a balance transfer fee, and you need good credit to qualify. Citi also offers their Citi Platinum Select Visa Card for College Students. No co-signer is required, there is a 0% introductory rate for 7 months on purchases, the regular APR is 12.99%-21.99%, there is no annual fee, there is a balance transfer fee and you need good credit.  Upside Visa offers a prepaid card with an annual fee, no balance transfer, and you can have poor credit to qualify. Capital One offers their Secured MasterCard for Young Adults, with a regular APR of 19.8%, an annual fee of $24.00, a balance transfer fee and bad credit is okay. Journey Student Rewards from Capital One offers a regular APR of 19.8%, no annual fee, a balance transfer fee, and you need average credit.

There are several low interest rate cards available for consumers with some credit history. Discover More Card offers 0% introductory for balance transfers for the first 12 months, no annual fee and at holiday time you get a 5% cash back bonus this year and a double cash back bonus on online purchases up to $1,000, and up to 1% unlimited cash back bonuses on all regular purchases. BankAmericard Cash Rewards Visa Signature Card offers a $50 credit on your statement after you make a $100 retail purchase within the first 60 days of opening your account. You also can earn 3% cash back on gas, grocery items and drug store purchase during the first 6 months and a 1% cash back on all your other purchases. There  is a 0% introductory offer for the first year’s purchases. After the APR is 12.99%-20.99%, and a 25% bonus on all cash reward redemptions of $300 or more. Citi Platinum Select Mastercard has a 0% introductory APR on all balance transfers for the first 24% and 0% APR on your purchases the first 12 months. After the introductory rate, the ARP is 11.99%-19.99%. There is no annual fee, and you get free online account management.  Citi Diamond Preferred Car offers a 0% introductory APR on balance transfers the first 21 months and 0% on purchases for the first 12 months. After the variable APR is 11.99%-19.99% based upon your creditworthiness. No annual fee either. Other low interest rate cards include Redstone FCU (0% introductory rate), Suncoast Schools FCU (5.75% introductory rate), First Command Bank (6.25% introductory rate), Zion’s Bank (7.00 introductory rate) and Citizens Trust Bank (7.25% introductory rate).

To understand your credit card terms, you should be aware of some credit lingo. Intro Apr means the initial interest rate offered during the introductory period. Regular APR is the interest rate charged after the introductory rate. Annual fee is a yearly fee that some credit card companies charge for their card. Annual fees range from $15.00 to $300. Balance transfer means you can transfer the funds from your new card to pay off the balance of another credit card or bill.

Once you do establish some credit, you want to keep your rating as high as possible. The higher the score, the better terms and interest rates you will be able get. Pay your bills on time, and don’t get too many credit cards or go over your limits. Pay cash for your everyday purchases or use your ATM debit card or write a check. You want to make sure you always use credit wisely so you don’t get in over your head.

So you charged up too much on your credit cards and now you have to pay it down. No more minimum payments, skipping payments and balance transfers. Time to focus on getting out of debt. It’s easy to get in, but much harder to get out especially if you have buried yourself. Financial experts recommend that you start with the highest interest rate debt first by paying as much as you can until you get it paid off. Then go to the next highest until you pay that off. Paying an extra $50.00-$100 every month on your bill will make a huge difference. You can cut expenses elsewhere during the month such as taking your lunch to school or work instead of eating out, using coupons to purchase grocery items, buy items in bulk and watch for sales. Eat at home more and rent a movie instead of going to the movie theatre. If you see you can only afford your minimum payments, you may want to get professional help from a debt management services company. Many people are finding themselves in debt and turning to a professional for help. In fact, there has a been a sharp increase in the amount of unsecured debt, foreclosure filings and bankruptcy filings as a result of the current economic conditions. There is nothing to be ashamed of if you are facing financial hardship or you just plain over spent and have been living beyond your means.

Understanding credit and debt is the first step towards getting out of debt. If you can learn debt management tools to manage your credit responsibly, you should avoid making the same bad mistakes that got you into debt in the first place. There are many places to learn about debt including the Internet, the library, free seminars and working with a debt management services specialist. The specialist will teach you the basics of debt starting with understanding the difference between secured and unsecured debt. Secured debt is secured by collateral such as a home or car. Unsecured debt is credit card debt and medical debt. Unsecured creditors have no collateral to take back. Their only recourse is to sue you and obtain a judgment that they can collect against you. If you own property, they can put a lien against your property, which means you cannot sell the property until the debt is paid off. They can also attach your bank account or garnish your wages to collect the debt. The specialist can work with you and your creditors to settlement your debts by offering your creditors a reduced lump sum payment on your behalf.

Once you are debt free, you need to maintain a budget, which your specialist can help you with.

Your specialist will sit down with you and go over your monthly income and expenses to help you make sure you stay on budget. You may want to cancel some of the cards after you pay them off. Keep at least two cards with limits under $5,000. You may need to take a second job for awhile if necessary if you cannot budget on your current income until all your debts are paid and you reduce your expenses.

Mortgage debt and car loan debt is separate from debt settlement. If you are falling behind on your mortgage or car payment, you may want to have your specialist help you with a loan modification. A modification is when your bank agrees to modify the terms of your existing loan such as reducing your interest rate and extending your loan term so that your monthly payments are reduced to payments you can afford. A modification works if your financial hardship is temporary, and you have a plan for getting back on your feet. You need to show your bank you have sufficient income to make the new payments. The specialist can negotiate the modification terms between you and your bank so you don’t even have to speak with them, and you can direct any telephone calls from them to your specialist. The specialist is experienced at negotiating modifications on a routine basis so they can get the paperwork to the correct department to make sure there are no delays or that your application is not rejected. Using an experienced loan modification specialist assures that you will have better results because you have a professional looking out for your best interests. Your bank will take your modification request much more serious because they know that you are working with an experienced professional and cannot take advantage of you by negotiating terms more favorable to them.

Be sure to work with a reputable company. There are some scam artists out there that prey upon the fact that you are in financial need and care nothing about helping you. All they are interested in is your money. If anyone asks for a large upfront fee, that is a bad sign. Reputable debt settlement and modification companies get paid the majority of their fees after they get you the results you asked them to help you obtain. It’s a good idea to get references, make sure you have everything in writing including the fees they charge, the services they will perform for you and the time frame it will take for them to complete the job. If you have any doubts about the company’s reputation of the company, check their rating with the Better Business Bureau or the local State Attorney General’s Office. You can also file a complaint if you feel that you have been a victim of an unscrupulous company. The vast majority of debt settlement and loan modification companies offer legitimate services and are helping millions of consumers get out of debt and keep their homes. The same advice should be followed when hiring anyone you have not done business with. Just be careful and take your time and above all trust your instincts. If someone over promises something and it sounds too good to be true, most likely it is, and you should move on to find another company.

There isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t hear some shocking statistics on the number of people losing their homes to foreclosure. Everyone has something to say. The news, the government, your Realtor and your neighbor. Families all over America are seeing their most precious asset slipping away. By now, you must have heard you can fight back and save your home from foreclosure if you are proactive and act quickly. The reason so many homeowners have failed is they waited too long to get help. The moment you discover you are in financial trouble is the right moment you should contact your lender and explain the situation and your intentions regarding your home. Whether you want to keep it or sell it. For upside down homeowners, the best option if you want to stay in your home is to request a mortgage modification from your lender. The modification works like this. Your lender will modify your existing loan terms to lower your interest rate generally at least 2% and extend your loan term up to 40 years. This will reduce your monthly mortgage payment to one that is more affordable for you. If you cannot afford your home, then you may want to ask your lender to approve a short sale. A short sale is when you sell your home with your lender’s approval for less than you owe on your mortgage and negotiate that the sale proceeds satisfy your debt. A deed in lieu of foreclosure allows you to sign the deed back to your lender, and walk away. You may want to inquire about a deed in lieu as well.

For those of you who are interested in a mortgage modification, you should do some research so you understand the process and what is involved. Top qualify for a modification, you have to have a steady income. So if you are unemployed, you probably won’t qualify for a modification, but you could qualify for a forbearance short term agreement where you don’t have to make a payment for a few months until you find another job and are able to get caught up or qualify for a short sale or deed in lieu of foreclosure.  Either way,you will need to show you have a financial hardship. Acceptable hardships are loss of job, reduction of races, illness, disability, death in the family, divorce or job relocation. Your mortgage payment must exceed 31% of your monthly gross income. For your modification, you will need to provide copies of your last two paycheck stubs, your most recent bank statement, your last two year’s income tax returns, a financial statement showing you have sufficient income to make your new mortgage payments and a hardship letter.  If you have a third party negotiator helping you with your modification, you will need to sign an authorization letter allowing your third party to negotiate with your lender. Ask your lender what other paperwork they require so your application does not get rejected. It is important to complete all the information and attach the required financial documentation. Otherwise, your application may be delayed or rejected. If you only get one chance to get a modification, you don’t have the luxury of messing it up by forgetting to answer a question or attach an important document.

Mortgage modifications are the number one choice for borrowers facing foreclosure who want to keep living in their homes. Lenders prefer mortgage modifications to having to foreclose on you because a foreclosure costs them anywhere from $50,000 to $75,000. However, lenders can be difficult to negotiate with so many borrowers work with a mortgage modification negotiator or debt settlement services specialist to assist them with the negotiation process. The specialist negotiates modifications on a routine basis and is familiar with the process and the forms and knows who to send them to so there won’t be any unnecessary delays in getting the application approved.  On average, the approval process takes about 90 days, maybe longer depending on how many other modification requests your lender is working on at the same time. If you don’t have someone representing you, there is a good chance that the lender may take advantage of the fact that you are unfamiliar with the modification process and may try and negotiate more favorable terms for them. When you have your own representative, the lender knows you are serious, and they cannot take advantage of you because you have someone looking out for your interests. If your lender has already initiated a foreclosure action against you, there may still be time to negotiate a mortgage modification and save your home. Your specialist will work closely with your foreclosure defense attorney to keep the attorney advised of the status of the modification while your attorney works on your foreclosure defense. You have other options as well such as filing bankruptcy under Chapter 13 to reorganizing your debts and reduce them with all your creditors including your mortgage lender and car loan finance company. Talk to your bankruptcy attorney about this option if you have substantial assets and a lot of unsecured debt. Otherwise, bankruptcy is a last option because it has serious affects on your credit. A bankruptcy stays on your credit 7-10 years depending on whether you file a complete liquidation Chapter 7 or reorganization under Chapter 11.

The important thing to know is there is foreclosure help and you can do something about saving your home from foreclosure. You have to be realistic that the problem won’t cure itself on its own though so you need to ask for help from your lender, your modification specialist and your attorney.  Believe it or not lenders do want you to stay in your home because they have so much foreclosure inventory as it is the last thing they want is to take your home away from you. If you sit around and do nothing, you will lose your home. To avoid foreclosure, act today and find out about how you can qualify for a mortgage modification by speaking to a modification and debt settlement specialist in your area.

The moral of the story is not to give up if you are facing foreclosure.  Do not walk away from your home. You have options.  Be proactive, and fight to keep your home and/or avoid foreclosure.  Also, don’t be afraid to get professional help.  There are housing counselors, attorneys and other professionals who can help you through these difficult times.

The years following a debt or credit charge-off and the lingering after effects of bad credit can really take a toll on a borrower’s hopes for an eventual return to normalcy. Laws protecting consumers from unfair and unethical credit reporting by the major bureau’s and creditors have made great strides in curbing the disastrous consequence of defaulting on debt, but for many borrowers, bad credit is like a haunting plague that just won’t go away.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act, or FCRA, is a comprehensive law that’s revisited and updated regularly by Congress with the intent to protect consumers from unfair and unjust credit reporting tactics. Thanks to the most recent revisions of the FCRA, unpaid debt and write-offs must be removed from your credit report after 7 years. Unfortunately, however, the language of the law is not that simple.

Here are some of the most commonly misunderstood applications of the 7-year statute of limitations for reporting bad and unpaid debt on a borrower’s report.

Re-Aging
Re-aging is a practice in which a creditor makes the status of your debt obligation current. It can be very helpful for borrowers when used properly and to their advantage; for example, let’s say a borrower is 5 months delinquent on a credit card payment, but is showing a willful and genuine desire to get current on the payments. The credit may choose to re-age the debt and wipe out those 5 months of non-payments as an incentive to the borrower.

However, creditors use re-aging illegally to bring old debts current again, although since the most recent revisions to the FCRA has for the most part curtailed this cruel practice. Here’s how it works: a bad debt will stay on your credit report for 7 years, but that 7 year period start from the date of the “last activity”, or DOLA. That means a creditor could simple run an investigation on a particular part of your credit report – finding some crafty and underhanded reason to access it - after 6 years, and just like that, the debt is brought current again.

If you suspect you’ve been the victim of malicious re-aging (or any re-aging that you did not explicitly consent to), you can contact the creditor and agency and in writing request that the re-aging be removed. Be prepared to prove, if necessary, that the DOLA was something different than what the report lists.

Good credit reporting after 7 years
Many over-whelmed borrowers, whether under stress or under the misguided impression and opinions of others, don’t realize that not all credit showing up on your report after 7 years is bad. If you’ve still got an account that was handled well and reflects positive account activity, don’t remove it even if 7 years have passed. In fact, the statute of limitations says any good credit is permissible to remain on your report for up to 10 years.

Despite the facts, some borrowers elect to have their credit history, whether good or bad, purged after 7 years. Account and debt activity that was paid off accordingly and in agreement with the creditor need to remain on your report because it will continue to affect your credit score, every year, in a positive way. There have been reports of good portions of a credit report sticking even after ten years; so leave it alone.

What else sticks for 7 years?
We know that unsecured credit that is left unpaid or written off, such as credit card charges will remain on your credit score for 7 years, but what about other types of charges? Some different types of debt remain for longer, and some don’t have statues of limitations at all regulating how long they can appear on your credit report.

Bankruptcies, for example, can stay on your credit report for up to 10 years from the date of the court’s decision (the DOLA), while account activity relating to a review of your credit score by a creditor can stay on your credit score forever. For example, let’s say you’re applying for a $50,000 loan. The fact that you applied for it can stay on the account with no time limits. 

Student loans can be reported for up to 7 years, and so too can tax liens, whether paid or unpaid. Information concerning a lawsuit or a judgment against you can be reported for seven years or until the statute of limitations runs out, whichever is longer.

Removing default information after 7 years
You can remove credit default information from your credit report after 7 years, and here’s how you do it. First, identify all the negative items on your credit report that are hurting you. These include charges that were paid, unpaid, and written-off. Remember, only so many different types of defaults can be removed after 7 years, so make sure you’re not trying to remove a bankruptcy judgment after 8 years, for example.

Next, find the contact information for the creditors and send them a letter requesting the withdrawal of this information from your credit report. Remind them that the FCRA requires these charges to be removed after 7 years, regardless of their current account status (whether paid or unpaid).

Make several copies of that letter for yourself, and send one to each of the 3 bureau’s reports that the charge is appearing on (Experian, Equifax, and/or TransUnion). Follow-up with phone calls to the appropriate parties if after 30 days you receive no response.

Borrowers are starting to pay back their credit card and personal debts for the first time since 2007. Consumer credit data, a statistical model designed to track and analyze the way Americans borrow and pay back all types of loans and debt that’s released monthly, quarterly, and yearly by the Federal Reserve, shows that consumer are borrowing more and paying down more debt at the same time. If you’re a credit card holder looking to pay down debt, now’s the time: and here’s how to do it right.

One of the unexpected results of the credit lending freeze following the economic collapse of 2008 was the formation of an entire cottage industry of third-party debt collection agencies and companies. You may have heard of them of these guys in the news or perhaps even received calls from them. They’re called “third-party” because it refers to them being outside the original transaction of a borrower and a creditor that created the defaulted debt in question.
 
Here’s how they work: if you’ve defaulted on a lender, the lender has a few simple options. One is to try to secure payment from you directly (in-house), an approach that typically proves to be ineffective. They can hire a debt collection agency (the third-party, since the lender is the first party and you’re the second party) to try to secure payment from you in exchange for a fee though a number of different industry tactics. Or, they can outright sell the debt, in the form of an accounts receivable asset, to the debt collection agency, an option that has garnered increased preference among lenders and creditors.

That makes sense when you consider the lender gets paid right away, although it’s usually an amount that is substantially less than what is owed, and the lender no longer has to worry about it. Now, the debt collection agency owes the debt, and you will be required to pay them. And since the most recent revisions to the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA) by the 2007 Congressional bodies, the tactics and process for securing the repayment of an owed debt is now heavily regulated.

1.    Don’t be played by a debt collector – play them
Here’s the deal – debt collection agencies, for the most part, all operate the same way. They make initial contact with you as the borrower of the debt, at which point you have some options. You can elect to pay the debt right off the bat, which unless it’s a substantial amount of money, you might as well do (many third-party collectors will chase even the smallest debts - $10 library overdue fines, for example – because they pocket just about all of it. Just pay it and avoid the hassles of what will probably end up being a lengthy, annoying pursuit). 
Another option you’ll have is to sign or commit to a “promissory note” of some kind, essentially an agreement that guarantees you will eventually honor the debt. Lastly, you may simple choose to argue the validity of the owned debt. By law, debt collectors are now required to issue proof and validity of the debt, in writing, that described the debt and amount owed and information on the debt collector. This is usually the first thing you want to do (unless you decide to just pay the debt right off the bat, of course).

2.    If you refuse to pay the debt, be prepared
If you’ve already attempted to strike a deal with the third-party collector, they’ve proved the validity of the debt and took all the necessary attempts to secure the debt from you but were unsuccessful; the last ditch attempt by the collection agency to recover the money owed will be to take you to court. If you’re sure you want to go this route (in some cases, you may legitimately want to – there have been reports of people hounded by collection agencies for credit card purchases they did not themselves make) be sure you’re 100% prepared. The collection agency will come to the table with experienced lawyers and will stop at nothing to suede the court in their favor.
Always keep a record of communication between yourself and the debt collector as it would now come in handy. Keep transcripts of parts of your conversations, if necessary and here’s why: by the FDCPA law, debt collectors are required to abide by many limitations in what they can say and do to you in pursuit of a debt. For example, they can only call you during certain times of the day. If your collection agency left a violent or angry message on your answering machine at three in the morning, you have leverage against the agency in court.

3.    Know you’re rights under the FDCPA
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is just that – its laws, rules, and regulations debt collection agencies must follow to keep the borrower protected from inflammatory, offensive, or otherwise unethical behavior or tactics to secure a repayment of an owed debt.

In addition to not being allowed to call at all hours of the night, the FDCPA now says debt collectors can only contact you so often at work. Also, they can’t share your information – a frequent practice among debt collection agencies to learn who is paying and who isn’t, what’s owed, etc. – with each other or anyone else for that matter.  It also requires debt collection agencies and agents to be more transparent than ever. Today, you can request all kinds of information about them just by asking, and they have to comply.
Most importantly, the FDCPA requires that debt collection agencies be able to prove at all times and upon request by the borrower the validity and authentication of the owed debt. That’s unprecedented. If at any time a debt collection agency, when prompted by you, sends you questionable forms on vague letterhead, thin and inadequate proof of the debt’s legitimacy, or really any other behavior or practice that raises your eyebrow, fight them. The chances of a win are now greater than ever before.
With consumer and borrowers more willing to pay down and get current on their debts these days, therein lies a great opportunity for you to strike a deal with a debt collector. They want the debt settled, and so do you. Just insure yourself with all the tools available out there, including the laws of the FDCPA, to help you challenge, and maybe even get the best of, debt collection companies.

Most credit scores are determined by using the FICO scores. Credit scores provide your creditors with an idea of the risk of giving your credit. The higher the score, the less risk that you will default on your debt. A FICO score of 700 and higher is an excellent or very good credit rating. A score ranging from 680 to 699 is a good score. 520 to 679 is just okay, and anything below that is considered a bad score, and you may be denied credit as a result. Consumers with high credit scores are offered better interest rates on credit cards and loans. FICO scores are calculated from various sources of data compiled in your credit report. Each is given weight in determining your overall score. For instance, according to FICO, 35% of your score is reflected by your payment history. They look to see if you pay your creditors on time. The total amount of debt you owe factors in next at 30%. How long you have had a credit history account weighs at 15% of your score.  New credit and types of credit each account for 10% of your score.  Adverse and negative items such as bankruptcy, judgments, liens, wage attachments and delinquent and charge off items can lower your score as much as 200-400 points.

Your credit changes all the time based upon the importance of any of the above factors. The negative impact has the most damaging affect right after a negative event. As time passes, the negative item affects your credit less. Lenders and creditors also look at your income, liabilities and assets when extending credit to you as well.  What is not in our credit report are items such as public assistance-welfare, unemployment, disability, your race, religion, national origin, age, sex and marital status. The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) prohibits your creditors to discriminate or turn you down for credit based upon sex, race, marital status, religion, national origin, age, or whether you are receiving public assistance. Creditors may ask about your income, but they cannot ask about your religion or age or marital status or sex when deciding to grant you credit. All creditors who grant credit or arrange financing must comply with this law. If you are denied credit, you have the legal right to know why.

Raising your score is important.
Pay your bills on time. Don’t go over your limits. Don’t apply for too much credit. Avoid collection and charge offs. Negotiate a settlement with your creditor. Otherwise, a negative item can stay on your credit 7 years. Avoid making minimum payments and balance transfers from one card to another, Pay more or pay the entire balance. Don’t open a lot of new accounts at one time. Pay cash for everyday expenses. Use your debt card or write a check. Establish a budget and stick to it. Avoid department store cards because they have higher interest rates. Check your report for mistakes. Mistakes such as the wrong person’s name and social security number getting mixed up on your account can happen. Clerical errors can result in this happening sometimes.  A loan payment or credit card payment may not have gotten credited to your account. Dispute all errors immediately with the three credit bureaus. If your creditor does not respond within 30 days from receiving the inquiry from the credit bureau, then the bureau will take the item off your credit report permanently.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) was enacted to make sure that credit bureaus are giving the correct and complete information on your file. You have the right to a free copy of your report every year or if you have been recently turned down for credit. You are entitled to know who is making inquiries about your credit and to contest or dispute any incorrect information and to add an explanation on any items that you are disputing or that are not resolved to your complete satisfaction.

The Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA) and Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA) have procedures for resolving mistakes on your credit card billing or electronic billing statements which cover any funds that have been taken out of your account that you did not authorize electronically or manually and failure to reflect payments or credits on your account, failing to mail or send your statements to you electronically within 20 days before the due date and to provide you with an explanation regarding charges or electronic transfers.  The FCBA applies only to credit cards, revolving charge accounts (such as department store accounts), and overdraft checking accounts. The law does not apply to loans such as home loans or auto loans. The EFTA applies to ATM machine transfers and point of sale debt card transactions and other electronic banking transfers.

A credit repair company can assist you with getting your credit back on track by teaching you how to manage your credit responsibly and understanding debt. Getting rid of bad credit habits takes time. The credit repair specialist can help you review your report and make recommendations in areas that you can improve your credit right away. Since each individual’s credit and financial situation are unique, the credit repair specialist can design a custom plan for you to follow, including a monthly budget designed for your financial needs. Debt settlement is another area that you specialist can help you with if your credit card debt and medical bills are out of hand. Debt settlement is used by millions of consumers today to reduce their debt by as much as 30% to 70% and become debt free. Debt settlement is for consumers who cannot afford their monthly credit card payments, find they are behind and delinquent and have creditors constantly calling and threatening to sue them. Debt settlement involves a one-time lump sum payment which your debt settlement specialist will negotiate with each of your creditors reducing your debt. If the terms are agreeable to you and your creditor, then you can make arrangements with your specialist to send your creditor their payment and settle your account. The account will be reported on credit report as satisfied or paid, and you will avoid a charge off or other negative reporting.

If you don’t have the cash to pay off all your creditors, you can put money away each month until you do, and then your specialist can arrange for the lump sum payment. This can be done with each of your creditors until all your debt is gone. It could take a couple years to do this if you have substantial debt and need to save, but it is a lot less time than if you were to pay the full amount. That could take you as long as 10-15 years and you would be spending a substantial amount of money in interest and fees as well.  Debt settlement is the perfect solution for many consumers who are ready to do something about their debt.

According to TransUnion, one of the credit bureaus, eight million people stopped using their credit cards the past year. That means that there are 78 consumers in the United States that do not have credit cards compared to 70 million the year before. This is partly due to charge-offs and people being more conservative on spending as a result of job losses and wage cuts.  While, it is unprecedented for consumers not to be using their credit cards, it does say something for the fact that people are using credit more wisely. Consumers are scared and nervous about the economy and have been cutting back on their spending or paying cash.  The decrease can also be attributed to the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act that went into effect this year restricting the credit card industry’s ability to raise rates. Credit card companies have eliminated a lot of consumers that were high risk for default by closing their accounts or reducing their credit limits and closing dormant accounts. Replacing credit cards are pre-paid debt cards. However, some of these cards like the Kardashian Kard have been facing problems of legality with predatory fees. It appears that consumer trends are showing that consumers are just not interested in credit cards like they had been in the past. For many credit cards have had a negative impact on their lives and their credit. Overspending is easy when you have a credit card. However, spending pattern trends show that when the economy starts improving and consumer’s are more confident about the economy and have job security, a number will probably go back to using their credit cards, just more wisely.

Many people have turned to credit card counseling and debt settlement to help them with their credit card debt and spending habits. A debt settlement counselor will evaluate your situation and give you a budget to start with. Following a monthly budget helps you to see where you are spending and wasting money so you follow the plan and make sure you have enough money to pay your bills and save some money for emergencies.  Your credit counselor will teach you about debt management. For instance, you should pay cash for your everyday purchases or use your debit card instead of using your credit card. Items such as clothes, food and gas should not be charged. It’s too easy to fall into a pattern to charge and then at the end of the month you don’t have the money to pay off the balance because you over spent your budget. Get into the habit of using your debt card, paying cash or writing a check and then you won’t be tempted to over spend because you would overdraw your account. Try to avoid only making minimum payments on your account as well. Pay the balance in full each month so you will avoid fees and interest and late penalties. You would be surprised to learn how much that adds up in wasted money in a year if you have several credit cards. If you cannot pay the entire balance, then pay a larger sum to get the balance paid off. Close any cards that you have paid the balances off and are not going to use. In fact, you should not have more than 3 cards maximum. Avoid department store charge cards, they have high interest rates. It’s easy to fall into the trap of opening one when they offer you a 10% or 15% discount to do so, but you will end up spending more money than saving in the long run. Make your payments on time so improve your credit rating. You may be able to negotiate a lower interest rate on your card by calling your credit card company and requesting that they lower your rate. If they won’t, then find another card with a lower rate.

If you cannot afford to pay your cards, then your credit counselor and debt settlement negotiator can come up with a debt settlement plan for you to pay off your creditors with a lump sum reduced payment. You can reduce your debt anywhere from 30% to 70% and pay your cards off sooner to become debt free. For consumers that do not have the lump sum payment to pay off all their creditors, you can pay one off at a time. Your negotiator will contact your credit card company, make a deal with them that is acceptable to you and arrange for your payment. They will follow up with your credit card company to make sure that they remove any negative late payment reports and report the debt as satisfied or paid. This will help to protect your credit. Debt settlement is the best choice for many consumers who have high unsecured credit card debt and medical bills. They can avoid filing bankruptcy, keep their assets, avoid lawsuits and maintain their credit while becoming debt free. It’s a perfect solution.

The specialist can also help you repair your credit and raise your score. The good news is credit scores improve over time, but there are some ways to improve the score quicker. For instance, you can dispute items that are incorrect, have been paid or are old with the major credit bureaus either online or by writing to them. A lot of the time, the creditor does not respond within the 30 day dispute period, and the credit bureaus have to take the items off your report. This will help to raise your score right away.  Credit scores are determined by your payment history, the amount of credit you have available, the amount you owe and the number of credit inquiries against your account. Understanding how credit scores are determined and using credit wisely will keep you out of debt and help you improve your score.  Since most people are not disciplined to get rid of bad credit habits on their own, working with a creditor repair specialist is a good way to learn good credit practices and avoid making the same bad mistakes that got you into trouble in the first place. Understanding how to manage and use credit may take you a little time, but the end results will be worth it.

Consolidating unsecured credit card debt is a great way to cut high interest rates, reduce the life of your payments and even the payment amount. It’s a win-win for runaway credit card debt that crushes a borrower’s creditworthiness and ability to get a mortgage, loan, or even a job later in life. But did you know that you can consolidate other debt as well? You can consolidate personal or business loans and even multiple student loans with the Direct Consolidation Loan.

In this article, we’re going to explore the process and potential benefits of consolidating your student loan debt into one easy to manage payment plan. Hands down, the best solution available is the Direct Consolidation Loan offered by the US Department of Education (DOE). The Direct Consolidation Loan website has all the information herein this article (although this article touches on the main and most important points), along with a consolidated loan calculator, forms and publications including news and current events, current interest rates, and the application to begin the process of applying for a consolidation.

Who needs a student loan consolidation?
Many graduates and students can benefit from the Direct Consolidation Loan, especially today when interest rates are hitting rock-bottom lows. If you’ve attended several schools and ended up with a mish-mash of private and federal student loans, you can consolidate them all into one easily manageable monthly payment to the DOE. Also, if you’re worried about being able to make payments on time, you should know that a consolidation could, but is not guaranteed, to lower your monthly payments or reduce your interest rate.

To qualify for a Direct Consolidation Loan, a borrower must have at least one Direct Loan (federal loan) or a Federal Family Education Loan (known as a FFEL) that is either in grace, repayment, deferment, or default status at the time of the application. Also, if you’ve defaulted on any part of your student loan, you can still qualify for a consolidation, but the requirements will be more demanding.  Some private loans, like a PLUS loan or Perkins loan, are not eligible for consolidation by themselves, and some are. It’s very important that a borrower understands exactly what kinds of loans they have and then make contact with the DOE to find out if they’re eligible for consolidation.

Why does a student consolidate the loans?
While the reasons for student loan consolidation vary from borrower to borrower, the benefits far outweigh the costs of continuing to pay a bad loan. The needs of graduates and borrowers change as time goes on; perhaps the variable interest rates on one or more of the loans is too high or the borrower has lost his job and cannot afford to make payments.

In most cases, the Direct Consolidation Loan can provide repayment flexibility to a student who otherwise wouldn’t have it. With this consolidation, students can choose and switch to and from, without penalty, a variety of repayment plans, and there’s no minimum or maximum loan balance that must be met for qualifications. Some student can even retain their federal subsidy benefits after consolidating their loans. Most importantly, consolidation can result in reduced monthly payments because one payment is typically less costly than 3, 4, or 5 separate monthly payments. Even more beneficial for some students, a consolidation could result in the eligibility to renew a borrower’s exhausted deferment benefits which can be particularly helpful for graduates who recently lost a job. 

How is a student loan consolidation work?
Essentially, you’re moving all of your student loans from several lenders to one lender, the DOE, and making one monthly payment to the Federal government from now on. Your interest rate will be lower and you’ll have an opportunity to choose a new repayment plan that works for you.  A standard plan will require you to make a fixed payment each month for 10-30 years. You can “graduate” your payments; in other words, by allowing your payment amount to at least equal the amount of interest accrued monthly, you payments start out low and increase every two years for 10-30 years.

Some repayment plans are less traditional than these two options. With an income contingent repayment plan, your monthly payments are based on the direct loan balance, number of household dependents, annual income, and will be spread out over 25 years. An income-based repayment plan is basically the same concept, however the loan balance is not taken into consideration and therefore the monthly payment will be less. To qualify for this repayment plan, however, you must demonstrate a legitimate hardship and once this plan is chosen, you cannot switch to any other plan except for the standard repayment plan.

A guide to applying for a Direct Consolidation Loan for the borrower
You can get started applying for the Federal Direct Consolidation Loan by going to www.loanconsolidation.ed.gov and clicking “for the borrower”. You’ll be taken to a page that explains what paperwork you’ll need to gather, tips, information, and resources you need to get started. Next, you’ll apply for the consolidation and sign your promissory note online.

The application review process can get messy so take your time here. The DOE makes contact with the lenders to ensure the numbers are all correct and will send you a confirmation to review when complete. Make sure all of this information is accurate and make adjustments where needed; the penalties for making mistakes will be high and so too are the chances of a DOE miscalculation.

During this time (the review process takes 60-90 days, so be patient) you have the opportunity to view the status of the application and make changes to documents, add loans to the application, and review a wealth of information and publications relating to the DOE, the loan program, and much, much more.

As the Great Recession winds down, many of the frail markets that plunged the world into economic dire straits have rebounded. Banking revenues and retail sales are up nearly across the board, stocks have strengthened, and technology is constantly innovating itself. But there are two major economic indicators that are still in critical condition: the housing market and unemployment.

As long as these two pillars of American economic growth and stability are depressed, the middle class will continue to suffer and find new ways to deal with their financial stressors. And with that comes the popularity of once largely unfamiliar alternatives to personal bankruptcy and foreclosure. The housing crisis has sparked a massive flood of foreclosures and mortgage defaults across the country, and it’s an ugly process for banks, lawmakers, and of course, homeowners.

One unique financial transaction, although it has been around for many years, has gained explosive popularity since home values began to plummet faster than mortgage values. It’s called a “short sale”, appropriately named so because in a short sale, a home owner can sell the home for less than what’s owed on the mortgage. The difference between the value and the sales price is the “short” value, hence the name.

Short sales as an alternative to bankruptcy and foreclosure

The short sale is a win-win opportunity for both the home owner and mortgage lender because it allows the owner to get out of crushing and in many cases un-payable debt and the lender the ability to recover a portion of that debt now. If the home owner can find a buyer who is willing to purchase the property for a price the lender approves, then the owner can usually walk away without owing anything else. Of course, it’s not always going to be that simple. Many times the short sale price is at such a steep discount to the mortgage value that the lender refuses to approve the deal.

Happening more frequently now than ever before, lenders are also requiring the home owner who cannot prove total hardship to sign a promissory note as required for approval of the short sale that says the owner will cover the short difference.  For a simplified example, if a home is worth only $60,000 today, but the home owner took out a $100,000 mortgage 3 years ago when real estate prices were higher, he may be able to come to his lender with a short sale buyer who is willing to pay $50,000. The lender may approve the short sale (they would rather have $50,000 now as opposed to rolling the dice to potentially collect $100,000 in 30 years) with the requirement the seller sign a note worth $10,000.

Generally speaking though, a short sale makes sense for the lender. The bank gets to avoid high attorney and court costs and fees to evict, sue, and bring judgments against defaulted mortgage borrowers. The home owner also avoids foreclosure, which destroys credit and usually results in the owner having to pay at least a small portion of the debt anyway. Some home owners are so behind on their mortgage payments and underwater on their home’s value that they figure bankruptcy makes sense, but – like foreclosure – it doesn’t, unless all other options, a short sale included, are unavailable.

Ready to sell short? Follow these guidelines.

If you’re sure a short sale is your best alternative, consider this: short sales will consume an endless amount of time, effort, paperwork, and in many cases, money. Talk to a competent lawyer or real estate agent for initial consultation on all of your options. Further, remember that the lender has to agree to the short sale, and not all deals will get approved. In some situations, it makes sense for the lender to file foreclosure, and they will. Be prepared for the worst possible outcome.

Know your value and costs. You’ll need to understand, clearly and thoroughly, the value of your home, your total mortgage value, and how much you owe on your home. For a close approximation of your home’s value, use Zillow.com; for a more accurate figure, contact a competent real estate agent and request a Comprehensive Market Analysis on your property (loosely referred to as a “comp”, or competitive analysis, by agents). It’s a free service so you have nothing to lose.

Compare your comp to what you owe. Knowing what you owe is always a good thing, especially when you’re considering a short sale as an alternative to foreclosure. This way, you can closely calculate a more accurate estimation of your “short” value – one of the most important considerations for the lender when approving a potential short sale– allowing you to begin formulating a strategic plan with your real estate agent to find a buyer and land a deal.

Be prepared to prove hardship. Lenders who are reviewing your short sale proposal want to prove or disprove this major question: how able or unable you are to pay off your mortgage? If you show enough legitimate hardship and absolute inability to continue paying your mortgage, the chances are likely that you’ll walk away without a note. However, if you have a large retirement or savings account, have a great job, or you’re just trying to unload an investment property you foolishly bought at the height of the housing bubble, the likeliness of a short sale going unapproved or approved with a promissory note increases greatly.

Find a great Realtor. Finding a Realtor who is competent, experienced, and understands all the complicated aspects of a short sale will prove to be invaluable. Not all Realtors deal with short sales and some only dabble. “An Agent that doesn't specialize in short sales will not know the process or have a strong negotiator on their team, which is the most important part of closing a successful short sale” says Tracie Whillock, a West Palm Beach Short Sale Realtor. Find more of her articles and insight at Traciesellsflorida.com.

A short sale can be a fantastic alternative to foreclosure, but if there’s one warning that must be headed by the borrower who is considering this complicated financial transaction, it’s this: there are no guarantees. Lenders approve or disapprove short sales brought on by defaulting home owners on a case-by-case basis, a big reason why the short sale process can take anywhere from 6-22 months or even longer from beginning to end. A short sale is not ideal for everyone, but for the home owners and lenders it does work for, it works miracles.

Millions of homeowners have been pondering the question of whether they should keep their homes.  For underwater homeowners who have a financial hardship and cannot make their current monthly mortgage payments, there is foreclosure help. You have to decide what your intention is first. Keep your home, sell it with a short sale or give it back with a deed in lieu of foreclosure or let the lender foreclose. If you want to keep the home, then your best alternative is a mortgage modification. With a mortgage modification, your lender modifies your existing loan reducing the interest rate by at least 2% and extending your loan term. Ideally, if they would reduce the principal, that would be the best alternative. Most lenders are resistant to the latter solution. So if you are lucky enough to negotiate a principal reduction, you are doing quite well with your negotiations. Realistically, the best you can hope for is the lower interest rate and the extended repayment term.

For those homeowners who have to sell their home, it is a better idea to get your lender to approve a short sale or a deed in lieu of foreclosure than to just walk away or have your home foreclosed upon. The reason is your lender may be able to obtain a deficiency judgment against you for the difference between what the home sells for at a foreclosure auction and what you owe on your mortgage. The other reason is a foreclosure seriously damages your credit. It stays on your credit 7 years, and it makes it difficult for you to obtain another mortgage later. With a short sale or deed in lieu, you can negotiate with your lender that the sale proceeds satisfy your debt. You can also ask them from refraining to report negative comments on your credit report.  The good part is you get to walk away owing nothing.

Filing bankruptcy is another alternative for people that have substantial amount of debt besides their mortgage. Bankruptcy is always the last resort though. In bankruptcy, you can eliminate your unsecured debt. Secured creditors can either take back their collateral such as a home or car or if you want to keep your home or car, you can reaffirm your debt and agree to continue paying your loan payments. In a Chapter 13, you can enter into a court-approved repayment plan with your creditors and reduce our debt. With a home loan or car loan, you can obtain a modification from your lender or finance company. Also, with Chapter 13 you can keep all your assets. While Chapter 7 allows you to claim a homestead exemption and other exemptions, if you have substantial assets, you won’t be able to keep them because they will be sold by the bankruptcy trustee to pay off your creditors.

Debt settlement is helping millions of homeowners save their homes and cars and keep their assets. Debt settlement is when you pay your creditors a lump sum payment at a reduced amount saving you between 30% to 7u0% in the amount of debt you owe. This way you can become debt free. Debt settlement cannot eliminate certain debts such as student loans, child and spousal support, court fees and debts or debts resulting from the debtor in a personal injury accident or for fraud or embezzlement.

Before you make any decisions, you should speak with a professional such as a debt settlement services negotiator and loan modification specialist. The specialist can negotiate debt settlement with your creditors and find a custom plan that works for your needs. If you need to modify your car or home loan, the debt settlement specialist can help you with negotiating a modification with your lender or finance company. The reason most people turn to a debt settlement negotiator is for their experience and expertise. The average person does not know how to negotiate debt reduction with a creditor or a mortgage modification. Since you may only get one opportunity to do so, you should make sure you use a professional that ensures that your application will not be rejected because of an error. If you forget to attach financial documents or skip a blank, your application could be turned down. The specialist negotiates modifications routinely and is familiar with the application process and the documentation required to be submitted with your application. Also, the specialist knows exactly where to send your application so it gets to the right department.  The specialist has long term relationships with the loss mitigation departments of many mortgage lenders and loan servicers. Having the proper representation in loan modification negotiations is essential since lenders are difficult to deal with. They are out for their interests. Having a specialist means you have someone looking out for your interests that can negotiate more favorable terms for your modification. The specialist will follow-up with your lender’s negotiator on a regular basis until you receive a response regarding your modification. If you are not happy with the terms, your negotiator will continue negotiating with your lender until you a resolution is achieved.

If your lender has already started foreclosure proceedings against you, your specialist can refer you to a foreclosure defense attorney who can handle the legal defenses of your case while your specialist negotiates the modification. The specialist will coordinate all efforts with your attorney so that all parties know exactly what is happening. Once a modification agreement has been reached between you and your lender, the lender will drop the foreclosure proceedings, and you can get on with more important family and business matters.

If you do receive a modification, your specialist will be happy to work with you on making sure you don’t continue with bad credit habits that got you into financial trouble in the first place. The specialist can help you with a monthly budget that you can follow to make sure your bills get paid on time and you don’t fall behind. The specialist can help you repair your credit if you need those services as well. It takes time to repair credit so you must be patient. As you can see the benefits of using a debt settlement services company are many, and they don’t just stop with a mortgage modification or car loan modification. The wide range of services the company offers can benefit you in many ways.

According to the Federal Housing Agency, U.S. home prices fell 3.2 % during the third quarter 2010. Atlanta had a 10% decline in home prices and lead among the 25 largest metropolitan areas. Prices rose 4.6% in San Diego. Distressed property inventory and unemployment near 10% are projected to cause more price declines according to industry analysts with Moody’s Analytics, Inc. Industry analysts at the Federal Housing Finance Agency expect that home prices will drop another 8% by the third quarter of next year. Prices fell in 40 states led by Idaho, Georgia, Arizona, Oregon and South Carolina, the FHFA said. Ten states and the District of Columbia had gains. The FHFA is in charge of supervising Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both which are under government conservatorship. It also oversees the nation’s 12 Federal Home Loan Banks. According to FHFA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac backed mortgages that recently originated are showing outstanding performances considered better than during the pre-housing bubble years.

According to the National Association of Realtors, home sales declined 2.2% to a seasonally annually adjusted rate of 4.43 million in October from 4.53 million in September and are 25.9% percent below the 5.98 million level of October 2009. Year-to-date there were 4.149 million existing-home sales, down 2.9 percent from 4.272 million a year ago. According to the NAR’s chief economist, Lawrence Yun, the housing market is experiencing an uneven recovery, and the foreclosure moratorium in some states caused some home sales to be postponed. He believes that based upon the improving job market and price affordability that sales should improve above 5 million by spring 2011. The NAR’s most recent report reflects the national median existing home price was $170,500 in October 2010, down 0.9 percent from October 2009. Distressed homes sales accounted for 34% of all sales in October, compared with 35% in September 2010 and 30% in October 2009. According to NAR President, Ron Phipps, the foreclosure moratorium that we experienced recently and tough credit guidelines are make it difficult for some buyers to get mortgages, and appraisals are coming in lower than negotiated prices. In fact a survey conducted among Realtors in October show that 10% of Realtors had a contract that was cancelled as a result of a low appraisal, and 13% reported that there was a closing delay, while 16% reported that the sales price was negotiated lower.

According to the NAR report. Housing inventory fell 3.4% to 3.86 million the end of October 2010, which represents a 10.5 month supply, down from the 10.6 monthly supply in September 2010. First-time buyers purchased 32% of the home sales in October, which was unchanged from September and down 50% from a year ago, when the first time home buyer credit was being offered.  Investors purchased 19% of properties in October, 18 % in September and 14% in October 2009. All cash sales were 29% of the sales and unchanged from September, but up from 20% a year ago. Existing condominium and co-op sales fell 3.6% to an adjusted annual rate of 540,000 in October 2010 from 560,000 in September, and are 27.6 percent below the 746,000 units sold October 2009. The median existing condo price was $166,000 in October, which was down 4.2% from October 2009. Existing home sales in the Northeast declined 1.3% to 750,000 in October, and were 27.2% below October 2009. The median price home in the Northeast was $240,200, which is 1.9 percent higher than a year ago. Existing-home sales in the Midwest were down 1.1% in October to 940,000 and were down 32.4% from one year ago. The median price in the Midwest was $139,500, which was down 3.6% from October 2009. In the South, existing home sales fell 3.4% to 1.71 million in October and are 24.0% below a year ago. The median price in the South was $148,700, down 0.7 percent from October 2009. Existing home sales in the West were down 1.9% to 1.03 million in October and are 21.4% below October 2009. The median price in the West was $209,300, which was 4.8% below October 2009.

RealtyTrac, which is an online marketplace that monitors foreclosure activity, released its October 2010 report which showed that all foreclosure filings were down, with 332,172 properties that received some type of foreclosure notice, down 4% from the previous month and almost the exact same total reported for October 2009.  One in every 389 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the month of October. October 2010 is the 20th consecutive month where over 300,000 U.S. homeowners received a foreclosure notice according to RealtyTrac. If there had not been a moratorium from the robo signing fiasco, the numbers would be much higher. It explains the 9% drop in REO’s from September to October. There may be further increases in November.  If you break the numbers down by types of foreclosures, 100,575 U.S. properties received default notices, a 2% decrease from the previous month and a 19% decrease from October 2009. Default notices were still on an increase over a monthly basis. For instance, in Florida, they were up 2% from the previous month. Ohio was up 10%.  Illinois was up 24%. Default notices decreased in California and were down 9% from the previous month. Nevada was down 17%, and Michigan was down 18%. Foreclosure auctions totaled 138,361 properties in October 2010, which was a 3% decrease from the previous month, and a 6% increase from October 2009. Scheduled auctions decreased month-over-month in 26 states and the District of Columbia. Lenders foreclosed on 93,236 U.S. properties in October, which was down 9% from the record high in September 2010, but up 21% from October 2009. Bank repossessions decreased month-over month in 33 states and the District of Columbia, while 14 states had decreases in REOs. Through October 2010, lenders have foreclosed on more than 91,000 properties each month this year.

If you are seeking foreclosure help, you should speak with a debt settlement services company. You may be qualified for a mortgage modification. A modification is when your lender modifies your current mortgage and lowers your interest rate by 2% and extends your loan term up to 40 years so you can have more affordable payments. Millions of homeowners are turning to debt settlement and mortgage modification companies to help them obtain mortgage modifications with their lender to save their homes. You can find a reputable company on the Internet or ask your attorney or accountant for a referral.

President Obama signed into law the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure, or Credit Card, Act of 2009 which went into effect on February 22, 2010. One of the provisions of the new law affects consumers who are under 21 years of age. If they cannot prove they have an independent means of paying for their card or provide a co-signer, they will be denied a credit card. This comes at a time when student debt is on the increase. According to a study conducted by Sallie Mae, college students have an average balance on their credit cards of $3,173. This is  record high since the study began in 1998.  In fact the study reveals that all types of student debt are on the rise. When college graduates finish school, USA Today reported they owe an average of $19,000 in student loan debt. Nellie Mae reported that the average credit card debt of college graduates was $2,700.

Credit cards for college students can help younger consumers build credit. They are valuable if used properly. If used unwisely, they can be disastrous.  Citibank®, Discover®, Chase or American Express® area all good places to start looking for a college student that wants to build their credit. The Discover Student Platinum Card has a 0% introductory rate for the first 6 months on all purchases and no annual fee. Also, the Discover Clear Card is another good choice because it features an introductory APR of 0% for 6 months on all purchases, and up to 5% cash back on some purchases and 1% cash back incentive on all other purchases. When you obtain a credit card offer, you should read the fine print carefully.

According to information from Georgetown University, college students are much more likely to pay their credit card balances in full than other demographic groups. However, they are also more likely to pay their cards late or go over their credit limits. The average monthly debt for college students according to Georgetown University is $552. Some more interesting statistics from Nellie Mae:78 percent of college students hold at least one credit card; 32 percent have at least four credit cards with an average of three credit cards; and 95% of graduate students have at least one card.

Student loan debt is a major source of debt for college graduates. Loans used to be public and private. Most lenders have done away with their private student loan programs. Under the new student loan rules for federal government loans, the government requires you to complete loan counseling to make sure you understand your responsibilities and credit obligations. For undergraduate students, entrance counseling will complete your counseling requirements for Direct Subsidized and Direct Unsubsidized Loans. For graduate or professional students, the completion of counseling will fulfill the requirements for you for Direct Subsidized and Direct Unsubsidized Loans as well as Direct PLUS Loans. There is a Master Promissory Note (MPN) that you must sign that can be used to make one or more loans for a maximum of 10 academic years. There are MPNs for Parent Plus loans. The new law eliminates fees that were paid to private banks to act as intermediaries to provide student loans. The savings of approximately $68 billion over 11 years will be used to expand the Federal Pell grants. The new law also makes it easier for students to repay their loans. The rising costs of college educations have left millions of student with no other choice than to take out student loans so they are not going away. The loans programs are great as long students understand they have to repay them, and they use their credit wisely. Credit counseling teaches the students about debt and helps to get them on the right path with their credit card uses as well.

If you do find yourself in debt and need help, you might want to speak to a credit counselor at a debt management company. The counselor can help you with debt settlement of your unsecured credit card and medical bills. Debt settlement is when you negotiate a reduced lump sum payment with your creditor to become debt free. Debt settlement can save you money by reducing your debts as much as 30% to 70%. Debt settlement cannot be used for student loan repayment.  The specialist can help you with a loan modification for your home or car and also credit repair. Millions of consumers with high credit card debt are turning to debt settlement as the number one preferred choice over bankruptcy. In bankruptcy, you risk losing your assets if you file for Chapter 7, and even though you can keep your assets in a Chapter 13, you ruin your credit for 7-10 years. Bankruptcy is always the last choice for most consumers. A mortgage modification is not part of debt settlement. It’s a separate service that your specialist can assist you with to negotiate with your current lender so you can avoid foreclosure of your home or repossession of your car. The modification modifies your existing loan terms by decreasing the interest rate, extending the loan term and sometimes reducing principal. Your specialist will review your finances to let you know which of these services works for your financial situation. Working with a good and reputable debt settlement company that you trust to look out for your best interests is a valuable and rewarding experience for most consumers. While there are a few bad companies out there, most are reputable. You should get references and check the debt settlement company out with the local Better Business Bureau and Attorney General’s Office to determine if any complaints have been filed against the company, and if so, how they were resolved.

If you are in the military or your spouse is on active military duty, then you may qualify for military forbearance. Forbearance is when your lender temporarily suspends your mortgage payments for 90 days to 180 days until you get back on your financial feet. There is no adverse effect on your credit history and all credit reporting will be suspended during the forbearance period. You may want to look into military forbearance if you are ineligible to refinance your home because of declining property values or you have a financial hardship and you are behind in your mortgage payments. Since every financial situation is unique, you should speak to your lender about what programs you qualify for, or call the Fannie Mae hotline for military forbearance at 877-MIL-4566 (877 645-4566). Many people have chosen to speak with a debt settlement company as well. Whomever you decide to work with, you should tell them about your hardship and that you are in the military. Veterans who reside in the Guild States affected by the oil spill may also qualify for forbearance programs. You can visit the VA website for more information or their loan center. To qualify for the forbearance, you will need to gather your financial information such as W-2’s or 1099’s, your last two year’s tax returns, monthly debt payments statements, your bank statement, your last two paycheck stub, copies of your car loans, student loans, credit cards,  and other debts and any information if you have a second mortgage. A debt settlement specialist can be of beneficial help in negotiating with your lender if you are worried about handling the matter on your own.

If you qualify for military forbearance keep in mind that you will have to repay the deferred amount when your financial situation improves, unless your lender agrees to forgive the arrearages and/or reduce your principal. Your lender can put the arrearages on the back end of your loan or you can make a one-time catch up payment or add it to your monthly payments after the forbearance period has ended. The Service member's Civil Relief Act (SCRA) provides you protection until 90 days after the end of your deployment from many different collection actions regarding debt that you may have acquired before you were deployed including credit card debt, mortgage payments, taxes, lease terminations, and pending trials. Service members and their families cannot be evicted while on active duty due to nonpayment of rents that are up to $2,932.31 per month.  The Act prevents service members from double taxation that can occur when their spouse who works is taxed in a state other than the state in which they maintain their permanent legal residence.

While you can try and negotiate a modification or forbearance on your own during or after you return from active duty, you will find it is much more efficient to work with an experienced professional. A specialist that negotiates modifications on a regular basis understands the process and will make sure that the paperwork is not only completed properly, but that it gets to the right department. One of the biggest reasons why modifications fail is the paperwork gets rejected because something is missing or the form is completed incorrectly. You don’t have to worry about this when you work with a specialist. Also, your lender will take your request much more seriously if you have someone on your side looking out for your interests.  Once your lender assigns their negotiator to your case, your specialist be able to start negotiating the most favorable modification terms for you. As soon as the modification has been approved by you and your lender, the specialist will follow up to make sure that the paperwork is processed and you can get on with our life. Your specialist can also refer you to an attorney if you need additional legal help. The worst thing you can do is nothing. Don’t walk away from your home. Be proactive and get the help you need and deserve.

Credit repair is another area that military service people may need help with. The economy and not being able to find a job after returning from military duty have caused many people to have problems paying their credit card debt and caused them to make late payments. If you want to repair your credit, you need to have a commitment to a budget that you are going to stick to. Your debt settlement company specialist is the right person to help you with planning your budget. A budget helps you pay your bills on time and also put some money away for emergencies.  You should try and pull a copy of your credit report at least once a year. You are entitled to a free report on an annual basis or whenever you have been denied credit. The report does not contain your credit score. For additional nominal fee, you can obtain your credit score. Also, at CreditKarma.com, you can get your score for free. The reason you want to review your report is to make sure there are no errors. If there are, you can dispute them by writing to the major credit bureaus. Your creditor has 30 days to respond. If they do not respond, then the credit bureaus will take the information off your report. Try disputing all negative items, it doesn’t hurt, and you may get some additional times removed this way. You still may be legally responsible for paying them, but they won’t show up on your credit report. You can improve your credit score this way. The good news is over time, your score improves if you continue to make your payments on time and don’t go over your credit limits. Also having too much credit can lower your score. You should limit yourself to one or three credit cards.

Millions of people are getting help from a mortgage modification and debt settlement company. You need to be careful though who you choose to work with because there are scam artists who will steal money from distressed homeowners by taking advantage of their situation. Avoid signing over title to your property to anyone, redirecting your mortgage payments or paying any large upfront fees. If you have any doubts, check the company with the local Better Business or your State Attorney General’s office to see if any complaints have been made against the company and how they were resolved.

Many people lost their health insurance, cannot afford COBRA medical insurance on their own and having to make the choice to go without medical insurance. When a medical emergency occurs or they get sick, they are having to pay the costs of their medical expenses at higher rates than those that have insurance. Even people that have insurance are incurring medical debts because they still having to pay high deductible payments or pay for services that are not covered by their insurance.  Medical costs keep going up, premiums keep rising and soon many people are going to have to cancel their insurance even though the new health care plan provides for a penalty starting in 2014 if you do not have health insurance. The penalty may be cheaper than paying a high insurance premium for many people that have pre-existing health conditions or belong to a certain age group that has higher premiums.  While the new Republican Congress is expected to chip away at the health care bill, medical costs will continue to rise and more people will continue to incur some sort of medical debt that they cannot afford to pay.

If you have high medical debt, then medical debt settlement might just be the best financial alternative for you. You can find a debt settlement company specialist through a referral or the Internet to help you negotiate your medical debt settlement with your doctor or hospital.  With medical debt settlement, you can reduce your medical debts by as much as 70% and become debt free. Medical debt settlement is a better alternative for some people who don’t need or want to file bankruptcy. It’s a good idea not to try and resolve your medical debt with your creditors on your own though. Let a medical debt settlement specialist help you by hiring them to negotiate with your creditors. The medical debt specialist can review your financial situation and then develop a customized debt settlement program to suit your financial needs. If you don’t have the lump sum payments to offer your creditors, you can start a savings plan and when you have saved enough money, your specialist can negotiate with each of your creditors a reduced sum so you can pay them and be debt free.

Not only does debt settlement decrease your debt, but you don’t have to worry about your creditors suing you, obtaining a judgment, putting a lien on your home or garnishing your wages or bank account. All that stress and hassle is taken off you with debt settlement.  Before you know it in a few years, you can be debt free. If you try and pay off the full balances of your accounts, it could take a life time if you have extremely high medical debts. So many consumers are realizing that debt settlement is the most practical and easiest way to resolve debt problems.  Medical professionals understand that the economy and job losses have created financial hardship for millions of Americans, and they are willing to negotiate a settlement with you. After all, some form of payment is better than nothing. Medical debt settlement is the best alternative to filing either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy. When you file for Chapter 7, you can eliminate all your medical debt, but you risk the loss of your personal assets, excluding homestead and other state or federal statutory exemptions. Chapter 13 allows you to keep your assets by entering into a pre-approved repayment plan with your creditors. After the plan has been completed in 3-5 years, your unsecured medical debt and unsecured credit card debt will be discharged. However, the bankruptcy remains on your credit 7 years from the discharge and 10 years after a Chapter 7 bankruptcy discharge. With medical debt settlement, you don’t have to worry about losing your assets. You can keep them all. Also, your credit won’t be severely damaged like it would if you have bankruptcy on it. Your credit score can be lowered as much as 200-300 points with a bankruptcy.  Having an experienced negotiator and specialist working for you gives you the security and protection that someone is looking out for your interests when negating with your creditors. The specialist can negotiate a debt reduction settlement in your favor because they do this on a regular basis and understand how creditors and debt collectors work.

If you have credit card debt, your specialist can help you negotiate with each credit card company as well. Also, the specialist can assist you with a car loan modification or home loan mortgage modification if you are having trouble making your monthly mortgage payments or car payments. Loan modification is the number one foreclosure prevention option for many distressed homeowners right now. The loan modification helps lower your monthly payment because the lender reduces your interest rate on your current mortgage by at least 2% and extends their loan term up to 40 years. Some lenders will even consider a forbearance, which is a temporary agreement for you to stop paying your payments for 3 to 6 months and then catch up later. Most people are not skilled or experienced enough or don’t have enough knowledge about modifications to negotiate a favorable modification on their own. That is why millions of people have turned to a debt settlement modification specialist for help. The lender knows that you are serious when you have a specialist negotiating on your behalf. The specialist will follow up with the lender until they have obtained results for you.  You have to be patient because a loan modification can take an average of 90 days to complete. You can stay in your home while you are waiting for your modification to be approved. Your specialist can try and make arrangements with your lender so you don’t have to make your payments while you are waiting for your modification to be approved. If your lender has already initiated foreclosure proceedings, your specialist can refer you to a foreclosure defense attorney who can help you with your legal defenses against the foreclosure while the specialist works on getting your modification. The specialist will always keep you and your attorney informed as to the status of the modification, and advise you when it has been approved. The specialist will explain the modification documents to you and will follow-up to make sure that the lender has processed them so that they will stop the foreclosure and you don’t have to worry about losing your home.

Don’t wait until you lose your home before you get foreclosure prevention help. You have options that you might not be aware of such as mortgage modification. If you have a large amount of unsecured debt, you may want to file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, which allows you to keep your home, car and other personal assets and negotiate a mortgage modification with your lender. A modification is when your lender modifies your existing loan by lowering your interest rate at least 2% and extending your loan term to 40 years if necessary to lower your monthly mortgage payments. Some lenders are willing to forgive the arrearages or tack them on the back end of the loan. If you are really lucky, your lender may even forgive some of the principal. The worst thing you can do is ignore your situation and do nothing.

According to RealtyTrac, there will be a record 3 million U.S. homes that are repossessed by the end of this year as a result of high unemployment and depressed homes prices leaving borrowers upside and unable to make their mortgage payments or sell their homes without owing more than their home is worth. There were 2.82 million foreclosures in 2009, and they expect more than 4.5 million by the end of this year. Besides high unemployment at 10%, the underemployment rate of 10% is adding to the problem as well. Home prices fell 13 percent in 2009 to a median of $172,700, Prices are down 26 percent from the July 2006 peak. If some of these borrowers had taken action quicker, maybe some or most of them would still be in their homes.

Talk to a mortgage modification company sooner rather than later. The specialist can help you determine which modification program is right for your financial situation and negotiate the modification for you with your lender. You don’t have to do much work other than provide your financial information such as your last two year’s tax returns, your last two paycheck stubs and your W-2 or 1099 and a list of your assets and liabilities. The specialist will take over from there and keep you informed until they have reached a settlement with your lender. One of the reasons modifications are rejected is consumers don’t understand the process and try and negotiate on their own with their lender. Even though lender says they want to help, they are in the business of making money, and they look out for their own interests not yours. When you have your own loan modification negotiator, your interests are being protected. The negotiator understands the process so the lender takes the request more serious because they know the negotiator is knowledgeable. In fact, lenders hope you won’t hire a modification expert to negotiate your modification, so that they can negotiate terms more favorable for them.

If your lender has already instituted foreclosure proceedings, the negotiator can work with you and your attorney to keep your attorney apprised of the modification so the attorney can work on your foreclosure legal defenses and review your loan documents to see if your lender committed any predatory loan practices or violated any truth and lending laws. The attorney can stall the foreclosure proceedings while the negotiator is negotiating the modification to give you some more time to stay in your home and find a foreclosure prevention solution that works for you and your lender.  If you cannot afford to keep your home, a short sale might be a solution as well. A short sale is when you sell the home for less than you owe with your lender’s approval and negotiate that the sale proceeds satisfy your loan balance so you can walk away owing nothing.  The attorney can assist you with the short sale negotiations.

Even if you have to file for bankruptcy, each state has a homestead exemption that protects part of your equity from your creditors. The equity is calculated by subtracting the amount of mortgage and other liens you have on the house from the current fair market value. If the equity equals or is less than your state’s value, you can keep your home as long as you continue to make your payments, and pay your real estate taxes. You may be able to negotiate a mortgage modification as well reducing the principal to fair market value A Chapter 13 allows you to keep your home, car and other personal assets by entering into a court approved repayment plan with your creditors reducing your debt over a three to five year payment period. At the end, your unsecured debt is discharged. If you don’t make your payments, your lender could foreclose though. So you should only file for Chapter 13 if you know you will be able to complete the payment plan and have a steady income. Otherwise, you will have a foreclosure and a bankruptcy on your credit.

The negotiator can also assist you with credit repair and help you plan a budget so you can pay your bills on time and fix your credit. Good credit habits take time to develop.  There are some things you can do to help your score. You should always order your annual free credit report to make sure there are no errors. Dispute incorrect items in writing by sending the dispute to the major credit bureaus. Equifax’s address is P.O. Box 740241,Atlanta, GA 30374,1-800-685-1111, Experian is P.O. Box 2002, Allen, TX 75013,1 888 397 3742 and TransUnion is P.O. Box 1000,Chester, PA 19022,1-800-888-4213. You can also dispute the items online once you order and receive the report. When you dispute a collection or negative item, the creditor has 30 days to respond. If they don’t, the credit bureaus take the negative item off your credit report. This helps to increase your credit score. A foreclosure stays on your credit 7 years, while a bankruptcy stays on 10 years. It is very difficult to get them off your credit earlier. However, the most negative impact is right after the foreclosure or bankruptcy occurs. With time, your score will improve. Be sure to make all your payments on time and don’t go over your credit card balances. Avoid balance transfers that have a low introductory interest rate. Those are teasers and the rate will increase so it defeats the idea of the balance transfer because you could be paying higher interest rates on the new card.  Once you start practicing good credit habits, you will see the difference in the improvement in your score and your credit and you won’t have to worry about getting in debt again.

According to statistics released by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, bankruptcy filings were up for the period October 1, 2009 through September 30, 2010 by 13.8%. Total bankruptcy cases filed for the period were 1,596,355 compared to 1,402816 filed during the same period in 2009. Non-business bankruptcies rose, but business bankruptcies dropped slightly for the first time since 2006.  If you are contemplating filing bankruptcy and you have a co-signer, your co-signer is only protected against creditor’s claims in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. A Chapter 13 bankruptcy allows you to enter into a repayment plan with your creditors for a period for 3-5 years. The purpose of the plan is to reduce your debt and pay it off during the plan term. The co-signer receives a stay against creditor’s claims during the plan term. The co-signer cannot be the recipient of any benefits from the debt, and you must make all the payments to relieve the co-signer of liability.  In a Chapter 7, the co-signer has no protection and the creditors can go after the co-signer for the debt. Also, you cannot keep all your assets in a Chapter 7. A Chapter 13 allows you to keep all your assets including your home, car and jewelry.

If your secured assets are worth less than what you are, Chapter 13 bankruptcy laws allow the debtor to obtain title to collateral by paying the "fair market value" of the collateral plus interest as part of the secured claim, and the balance is treated as unsecured debt. It would only have to be paid in the same percentages as the other unsecured debt you owe such as credit cards and medical bills. For example, if you owe $20,000 on your car loan, and your car is only worth $10,000, you only need to include in your plan the $10,000 value plus interest and probably about 10% of the remaining $10,000, which is treated as unsecured debt. However, you cannot take advantage of the cram down law unless you have owned the vehicle for at least 2 ½ years prior to filing for bankruptcy.

All under the Chapter 13 laws, if your income exceeds your state’s median income and you are attempting to reduce your debt less than 100%, you have to remain in the payment plan for 5 years.  There are 11 debts that cannot be discharged in Chapter 13. This includes credit card debt incurred by fraud or misrepresentation, debts caused by debtor’s willful conduct, late filed debts not listed in the bankruptcy petition, debts incurred by embezzlement or breach of fiduciary duty, child support, spousal support, student loans, except in rare cases if you can prove financial hardship, court fees and fines and taxes, except sometimes federal taxes that are more than three years old, cannot be discharged in Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

One of the major causes of bankruptcy today is medical bills. Harvard released a study showing that 55% of bankruptcies were attributed to medical expenses even though 78% of the consumers were insured. There are large deductibles that consumers have to pay, co-payments and a variety of uncovered medical services that are leaving consumers cash strapped with large medical expenses especially in the case of illnesses such as cancer or heart disease. Medical bills topped with job losses caused 62% of bankruptcy filings in 2007.

Before you decide to file bankruptcy, you should speak to a bankruptcy attorney to find out if debt settlement or some other option may work for you. Typically, bankruptcy is used as a last resort when nothing else works for debtors that owe substantial amounts of unsecured debts. Debt settlement and credit counseling are helping millions of people reduce their debt and change their bad credit habits. If you fall into any of the following bad credit habits, you may want to get credit counseling from a debt settlement company and look into a debt settlement plan:

• Overusing balance transfers. Getting new credit cards at low introductory rates, paying off other credit card balances and them finding that the new card has a higher rate after the introducing period is over. You should not continue using the card until you pay off the balance.
• Failing to review their annual credit report for errors and disputing them to improve their credit scores.
• Waiting until it is too late before notifying their creditors they have a financial hardship. Many creditors have programs to help you if you cannot make your payments such as skipping a month or two payments, reducing your minimum payment and negotiating a reduced pay off with debt settlement.   Your lender may be willing to give you a loan modification for your home or car loan if you qualify.
• Not following a monthly budget or sticking to a budget and spending beyond what they make.
• Overusing retail installment credit accounts.
• Not having an emergency savings.
• Charging all purchases instead of paying cash or using a debit card.
• Paying bills late and incurring late fees and interest charges.

Debt settlement is a good alternative to filing bankruptcy for many consumers. A debt settlement company can help negotiate debt reduction with your creditors.  You can reduce your debt anywhere from 30% to 70% using debt settlement. If you have cash to pay a lump sum payment, you can be debt free right away. Otherwise, there are payment programs for you to save money and then do a lump sum payment plan with your creditors.  It may take you a few years to become debt free, but you will save a lot of money and time. Trying to pay off debt without debt settlement could take you 10-15 years. Using a reputable debt settlement company that you can rely on and trust makes more sense. The debt settlement specialist can review your financial information and find a debt settlement program that suits your needs. The specialist can also you help you negotiate a loan modification on your home mortgage or a car modification on your car loan. The specialist can help you with credit repair and assist you with a budget you can follow you can develop good credit habits and remain debt free.

When my credit report is pulled for an inquiry, is my credit score hurt?

Just a few months back I was looking into switching my cable and high-speed internet provider because I was frankly just not happy with the cost or the service. I figured if I called a competitor, they would be slinging deals at me left and right to incentivize me to leave my old company in the dust and come to their team. The conversation I was having with a sales agent was pleasant and going well until he asked me for if I wanted to participate in a personal credit inquiry to see what kind of promotional discounts I could receive.

That really got me thinking: What does my credit history and score have to do with my eligibility for an additional promotion or discount? I went ahead and authorized the credit inquiry because I thought it would be interested to see the results – and it was even more of a surprise than I originally anticipated. Not only did I receive an additional discount (not significant, or course, but a discount nonetheless), I also did some research into authorized credit inquiries – this would be an example of one – and found that it does not lower my credit score at all.

That’s right – a promotional credit inquiry does not lower your credit score like other credit inquiries. I found some other useful information that persuaded me to write this post about authorized and unauthorized credit inquiries, how they can and can’t affect your credit, and tips for purging some of these inquiries from your report.

These credit inquiries do hurt your credit score
Inevitably, some credit report inquiries will hurt your credit score, and because everyone pulls credit reports these days, the unfortunate punishment your credit score takes is unavoidable. An example would be if you’re in the market looking for a new car and need to finance it, the sales agent will always pulls a full credit report to determine the loan type and APR your qualify for.

Another common inquiry that many of our clients unfortunately experience is when a credit card or debt collection agency pulls an inquiry on your credit report. This type of credit investigation will almost always lower your credit score, but it’s a necessary and regular practice for their investigation. Debt settlement companies will also periodically pull a credit report for an initial analysis of your debt situation and as a guide during the negotiation and settlement of your debt.

The general rule of thumb is that if your credit is being pulled as an authorized inquiry – in other words, you’ve given explicit permission by signature or some other legitimate form of consent – your credit score will be slightly lowered.

Some credit inquiries will not hurt your credit score
So how about the authorized credit inquiries that does not affect your credit score at all? In my research, I actually found that there are many. Court ordered inquiries, including an analysis of your assets and abilities to pay child support during divorce of custody proceedings do not affect your score and neither does an insurer’s inquiry into your credit report. Another type of inquiry that’s becoming more and more popular and common is the potential employer’s inquiry, which is a double edged sword; your score won’t be penalized for these types of inquiries but if you have a neglectful credit report, you may not get the job.

The idea here is that these types of inquires are not being pulled to necessary asses your creditworthiness, a measurement that a potential lender would be primarily interested in, but more like these inquiries are an indication to the type of financial behavior you engage in. Insurers have defended their credit inquiries of potential customers when providing auto insurance quotes based on their studies that show if a person is reckless with their finances, they’re likely to be reckless behind a wheel, too.

Another type of authorized inquiry that will not affect your credit score is one that you initiate yourself through an official source. Remember that everyone is entitled to check their credit score and report for free once a year through Annualcreditreport.com, a company formed by the three major reporting bureaus as mandated by Congress and the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and it won’t affect your score.

In all cases, authorized credit inquiries can affect your credit score for no longer than 12 months and won’t lower it by much, depending on how good your credit is. Everyone’s credit score is calculated differently depending on hundreds of different factors. The more delinquent you’ve been on your report, the more you’ll be penalized for inquiries, and in some not-so-rare cases, people have reported seeing their credit score drop by as much as 12 point per inquiry.

Unauthorized credit report inquiries
Most unauthorized credit inquiries will affect your credit score. An unauthorized inquiry is one that you haven’t granted explicit permission to be pulled, but the good news is there are ways to remove them from your credit report. In most cases, writing a straightforward letter to whoever performed the inquiry (typically, it could be a lender or credit card agency) and demanding proof that you’ve authorized their inquiry is a good starting point.

If all goes well, you’ll receive in response either a letter that basically says they didn’t have authorization which can then be mailed to all three major credit report agencies (Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian).  Within 30 days or so, you should see the inquiry eliminated from your report and your score returned to normal if had been penalized. If the lender doesn’t respond, well, you have some options.

Depending on how badly your credit score was damaged you may or may not want to continue the fight from here. However, lower credit scores can really hurt you in a lot of ways, especially when it comes time to apply for a mortgage or a car loan, so make sure you know your credit score and report before and after discovering the unauthorized inquiry. If the damage is bad enough, turn the heat up on whoever is responsible for the unauthorized inquiry.

One option is to have an attorney send a letter on your behalf, threatening to sue the lender for the unauthorized inquiry (there are many laws that protect you as a consumer in this situation, one of the biggest and most powerful apart of the Fair Credit Reporting Act). Usually this will get the lender moving on your behalf.

Any requests for changes to your credit report or score must always be sent to all three credit agencies, so make copies, track your paperwork, and be diligent and unforgiving in your pursuit. If you need your credit score to be reviewed and deserve those changes, don’t be discouraged – it can and will be done.