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Bad debt can really harm your credit history
While most people use the phrase "bad debt" to refer to a lot of debt, or just owing a lot of money, this phrase actually has a very specific use when it comes to financial issues. Bad debt in this case is a debt that cannot be collected. This...
Christmas Cheer and a Debt Hangover.
Christmas is a time for celebration. A time to spend with family, friends and loved ones. This is a time to savour all that is good in life, to rest, relax and recuperate ready for a new year. Unfortunately Christmas is also a time when people...
Debt And Financial Optimism In The UK Continue
With £1.3 trillion pounds worth of debt in the UK, Scotland’s Citizens Advice Bureau ( http://www.cas.org.uk/ ) has welcomed a new Bill to regulate lenders and protect borrowers from creating un-repayable levels of personal debt.
Chief executive...
Debt Settlement -- Why the Critics Are Wrong
After October 17, 2005, a lot of people are going to become interested in debt settlement as an alternative to bankruptcy. That's the date the new bankruptcy law goes into effect, and it means a rude awakening for many consumers seeking a fresh...
Legal Debt Collection Tricks
If a customer owes your local business money, it's hard not to feel angry, like you want to do anything possible to get your money back. But the days of going all out to collect on a debt over. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, designed to...
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Debt Consolidation for Americans
Times are hard for many Americans, with interest rates going up,
sky high gas prices, and overall inflation, so it's not
surprising that many families find themselves in financial
difficulty that's frightening enough to cause them to seek
professional help.
When faced with mounting financial obligations, it's easy to
fall prey to any number of the advertisements you see on
television, in magazines and newspapers, on the radio, in your
email box, or on the Internet, promising to either eliminate
your debt altogether--or to "consolidate" your debt. In this
article, we're going to look at how the debt consolidation
process works.
It's a tempting thing to have a company take all your bills,
roll them into one package, and then have you pay them off with
one lump monthly payment, often less than the combined total of
your individual bills. But let's look at what's really involved.
The pitch is that debt consolidation companies will reduce your
monthly payment on what's known in the industry as UNSECURED
DEBT, which includes credit cards, utilities, or anything else
you bought that wasn't secured by a piece of property that could
be foreclosed upon by the lender. Your home mortgage, on the
other hand, is a secured debt, which is the key to how debt
consolidation companies function.
When you contact a debt consolidation company, the first thing
you'll find yourself doing is answering a number of questions
concerning your home--how much equity you have, your monthly
payments, how long you've been in the home, and other things.
Since your home mortgage can (and often is) the largest monthly
payment you have, you might be lulled into thinking that they're
merely asking in order to add your house payment into your
monthly debt total.
However, there's something potentially ominous behind those
seemingly innocent questions. The
company is asking questions
about what's generally the most valuable asset of a
family--their home. Why? Because their plan is to combine all
your unsecured debt and turning it into SECURED debt--by tying
it to your home.
There are several potential dangers involved in that. First, if
you find that you can't make the new, lower payments in the
future, you'll find yourself not only continuing to have bad
credit (which is something that you could ultimately live with,
even as difficult as it would be). But you could actually find
yourself losing your HOME, as well--a situation that could be
life-threatening!
But debt consolidation companies say they can lower your monthly
payments by a significant amount, and that's why you sought
their help, right? Well, your must understand that the debt
consolidation company won't lower either your overall debt load
or interest rates. What they'll do is extend the life of your
loans by transferring them from short-term (1-3 years) into
long-term loans, which can take as long as 30 YEARS to pay off.
You may lower your monthly payment, but you'll be paying up to
THREE TIMES as much for those things you owe money on--for
DECADES to come!
So, regardless of how much debt you're faced with, be smart, and
before you sign with a debt consolidation company, ask them
EXACTLY how they plan to help you, how long it will take to pay
off your debt, and what they'll get out of it, since they're in
business to make money, just like every other company in the
world.
Copyright © Jeanette J. Fisher
About the author:
Jeanette Fisher teaches how to get out from under credit card
debt and how to use credit to make money. Free ebook "Credit
Tips" http://worryfreecredit.com
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| Advertisements Promising Debt Relief May Be Offering Bankruptcy |
| Cautions consumers about ads in newspaper, magazine and telephone directories that offer quick fixes for debt problems. |
| www.ftc.gov |
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| Factsheet - Debt Relief Under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries ... |
| The HIPC Initiative is a comprehensive approach to debt reduction for heavily indebted poor countries pursuing IMF- and World Bank-supported adjustment and ... |
| www.imf.org |
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| Special report: debt relief | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited |
| February 6: A year ago the Guardian set out to track the west's promises of action for Africa on aid, trade, health and debt relief. As G8 finance ministers ... |
| www.guardian.co.uk |
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| Debt Relief Options - Findlaw for the Public - |
| Welcome to Debt Relief Options. This section contains information about the ... To begin, select one of the Debt Relief Options topics from the list below ... |
| bankruptcy.findlaw.com |
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| William Brewer |
| The Brewer Law Firm. William E. Brewer, Jr., Attorney at Law Board Certified Consumer Bankruptcy Specialist. 619 N. Person Street Raleigh, NC 27604 ... |
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| Debt Relief - InCharge Debt Solutions |
| There are many ways to get out of debt, for good, and it may be easier than you think. The first step is knowing your options, the second step is taking ... |
| www.incharge.org |
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| Economic Policy and Debt |
| May 2006, IMF And World Bank Support Cameroon’s Completion Point Under The Enhanced HIPC Initiative And The IMF Immediately Grants 100 Percent Debt Relief ... |
| www.worldbank.org |
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| Economic Policy and Debt - The Enhanced HIPC Initiative |
| The Initiative’s debt-burden thresholds were adjusted downward, which enabled a broader group of countries to qualify for larger volumes of debt relief. ... |
| www.worldbank.org |
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| Debt relief - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Debt relief is the partial or total forgiveness of debt, or the slowing or stopping of debt growth, owed by individuals, corporations, or nations. ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
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| Debt Analyzer, Debt Reduction Software, Home Page |
| Debt Elimination at its best! Potential savings of hundreds or thousands of dollars! Build debt reduction, timed elimination or consolidation schedules. |
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| Superior Debt Relief |
| We help you get rid of credit card debt much faster than you may believe possible with credit card debt settlement and negotiation tactics, providing debt ... |
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| Debt Relief - Social and Economic Policy - Global Policy Forum |
| Aid Inflows, Debt Relief Yet to Translate into Reduced Poverty (March 20, 2006) ... Fearing that the IMF could tie debt relief to economic benchmarks, ... |
| www.globalpolicy.org |
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| Debt Relief - Global Policy Forum - Social and Economic Policy |
| Debt Relief - Global Policy Forum - Social and Economic Policy. The Debt Relief Page Has Been Moved to: ... |
| www.globalpolicy.org |
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| BBC NEWS | Business | Q&A: African debt relief |
| BBC News looks at the progress of international debt reduction efforts, and the sticking points which continue to hamper the process. |
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| Debt Relief Australia - Start Reducing Debt Today! |
| Debt Relief offers Australians in debt assistance with finding the most appropriate debt relief solution. |
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| Debt Consolidation Australia, Debt Relief & Bankruptcy Information |
| Specialising in debt agreements, mortgage refinancing and bankruptcy. Company profile, calculators, solutions, media releases, testimonials and existing ... |
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| Oxfam - Debt and Aid - Debt Relief for Nicaragua: breaking out of ... |
| Oxfam policy paper on relationship between international debt servicing and poverty. Linked to table of contents and also zipped for download. |
| www.oxfam.org.uk |
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| What debt relief means for Africa | csmonitor.com |
| This weekend's $40 billion debt cancellation deal could spark major improvements in the lives of the world's poorest people. |
| www.csmonitor.com |
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