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Credit Card Debt: How To Deal With It
Do you have a hard time paying your credit card bills? Starting
to get notices from waiting creditors to pay? Worried that you
might lose your properties like your house because of credit
debt? Chin up: Dealing with credit card debt is not as...
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Debt Relief - Debt Settlement vs Mortgage Refinance
How do you choose between debt settlement and mortgage refinance? What are the differences? Which option is better?
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Debt Stress, The Really Bad Side
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It's very difficult to not...
Understanding how a Debt Consolidation Program works
You have finally decided that you need help with your debt and you have made a great decision to take a load off your shoulders. Debt is so stressful that it can even affect our health and certainly our enjoyment of our daily life. Understanding...
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How Credit Card Debt Effects You
The statistics are truly mind numbing and continue to get worse
each and every year. At the current rate about 1% or one in a
hundred families will be forced to declare bankruptcy at some
point and over 90% of Americans' disposable income is spent
paying back debts.
Not a happy picture but as bleak as that sounds running won't
change it but knowledge may and so, let's take a quick snapshot
at a few of the current credit card debt statistics facing so
many Americans today.
The American Consumer spends over 1 trillion (that's a 1 with 12
zeros) per year on credit card purchases. Not a big deal in and
of itself but the problem lies in that they end up carrying over
and paying interest on about half that amount or $500 billion.
This translates into a balance of between $5,000 and $8,000 per
family, with about $1,000 per year going just to pay the
interest.
That's just the average - many people owe much, much more!
Excessive Debt Costs Everyone Money Many American receive at
least one new credit card offer in the mail every day. The money
being spent to service the debt industry is truly immense.
Billions are spent administering, calculating and marketing the
various aspects of the credit card industry.
Few industries or people escape unscathed, at least in the long
run by debt. The burden that bankruptcy puts on the court system
or the cost to government of providing subsidized debt
counseling, are just a few examples of how debt effects the
nation. In addition, consumers with excessive debt have less to
spend and when money isn't flowing, it hurts the economy.
Whatever Happened to Saving? Debt is becoming increasingly more
common. Not long ago, even a little debt was considered to be
absolutely unacceptable. When you wanted something, you saved up
for it and bought it ONLY after you had enough money to actually
pay for it. And, if you had less than perfect credit, you
couldn't even get a credit card. Look at consumer debt figures
as little as 50 years ago and they were absurdly low - the way
most of the
non-Western world is today.
The reasons are many and everyone has an opinion but regardless
of the reasons, the art of saving, at least in the "western
world" seems to have been lost. Outside of a 401K or similar
vehicle offered at your place of employment, virtually nobody is
saving enough for retirement. Banks are starting to have to
offer ever-higher interest rates to get people to put money
anywhere near a savings account. In fact, few people even have a
savings account anymore. Most people have a checking account and
that's it. Our society and progressed into a "now" culture and
the virtues of patience that help grow this country seem to have
been lost. Whatever it takes to live life in the present with
little regard for the future, appears to be the prevailing
sentiment.
Is Over Spending the Culprit? Ok, I've been a bit harsh up until
now but I don't want to give the impression that the only reason
you're in debt is because you continuously and frivolously
overspend. Other factors are involved.
Truth be told, many people get buried in debt because of the
loss of a job or an illness and they use credit cards to pay for
basic expenses. As a result, they fall into the downward
interest trap spiral as their debt grows out of control from
just a few thousand dollars initially borrowed to pay for
essentials.
Most people do have a reasonable sense of what they can afford
and they don't just go out and use credit cards to buy any and
everything. Getting heavily into debt is usually a combination
of many factors but the problem lies in people leaving balances
on their credit cards for too long and not realizing just how
deadly compounding interest really is to their financial
well-being.
About the author:
Amber Knutson is a contributing writer to: Eliminate Credit Card Debt
and Debt
Consolidation and Managing Debt. This
article may be reproduced only in its entirety.
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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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Welcome to Debt Relief International |
Welcome to the web site of Debt Relief International. |
www.dri.org.uk |
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www.imf.org |
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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 |
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www.incharge.org |
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Economic Policy and Debt |
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www.worldbank.org |
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Economic Policy and Debt - The Enhanced HIPC Initiative |
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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 |
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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 |
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www.globalpolicy.org |
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BBC NEWS | Business | Q&A: African debt relief |
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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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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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