How To Raise Credit Score: September 2010

Choosing Your Debt Counselor

Now that you have become aware of what benefits you can acquire from hiring a
credit card debt counselor, your next step is to choose a reliable credit card debt counselor. Below are proper guidelines that will help you evaluate a debt counselor before choosing them:

â€¢ Research on the specific agency's reputation. Were previous clients satisfied with their service? Was it able to deliver the promise of debt relief?

â€¢ Make sure the specific agency you are looking into has its own insurance.

â€¢ Your
debt counseling agency should be one willing to work with all credit companies. Beware of those who are willing to work only for specific companies since they could have some secret arrangement wherein both companies can profit.

â€¢ Paying methods to your creditors. Take time to learn about what percentage goes to the agency so you can finish paying your debts within your desired time frame.

When To Opt for Debt Counseling?

The choices of debt relief programs are quite extensive. Hence, deciding on whether debt counseling might offer the best and most efficient debt relief method is difficult. Every credit company has their own counselors that are responsible for handling the budgeting, debt counseling, and debt management aspects. Therefore, having a reliable debt counselor will also provide the financial organization you need.

If you are still unsure, ask your credit card
consumer credit the following questions to assess whether this credit repair service is for you:

1. How much will the service cost you?

2. How much is the percentage of payments or if there are any hidden fees?

3. What range of services do you offer? Does it meet my debt relief needs?

Once you have determined that a particular debt counseling agency provides services specific to your needs and still allow you to save some money after paying the program's services, then it should not be a bad option for debt relief.

Credit Card Debt Counseling

What is Credit Card Debt Counseling?

1 Interest rates on most debts incurred by debtors become increasingly high to the point that an individual's monthly payment isn't even enough to cover just the interest. Individual resort to many different credit card debt relief programs and credit card debt counseling is just one of your many possible choices. But, why should you opt for debt counseling?

2 This method enlists the help of professional debt counselor. Their role is to do the negotiating with your credit card company with regards to possibly reducing your current credit balance. Some might even suggest you get into a debt consolidation program once they have assessed that it would help alleviate your financial condition while eliminating credit card debt.

3 You will typically start off with basic money management and they would help you come up with a sound budget plan. Hence, the idea here is to not only help an individual get out of debt but to improve their financial management ability to ensure that they put an end to the debt cycle.

Common Credit Card Debt Settlement Mistakes

Paying off your credit card debt can be damaging to your financial status that you often resort to just about any technique or method needed to get out of that trap. However, you need to methodically analyze your decisions in terms of handling your debt settlement since they can impact your long-term financial status. Moreover, legal complications could get in the way and that's the least you want to happen with an already escalating credit card debt balance.

If you want a good credit card debt settlement, you must try to avoid any of the following methods or mistakes. Most of them include pointers on what you should avoid if you would not want your credit card debt to continue escalating.

Closing Your Account

Some people become extremely fed up with their credit card debt due to their inability to meet the rising interest rate and debt balance to settle. Therefore, most opt for the easy way out, which is to close their accounts. While this solves one aspect of your problem, it offers another type of dilemma. Doing so will cause your credit rating to take a massive dip.

Here's a solution that you can try. If you have determined to not want to use the cards, then set it aside. You need to really fulfill the promise to not use cards in any of your purchases again since it can easily add up to your debts. Meanwhile, make sure to continue settling any other existing credit card debts while you help yourself by not adding more to the damage.
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Avoiding Credit Card Debt Relief Scams

Benefits of Debt Relief Programs

People with mounting debts can reap major benefit from debt relief programs. These programs are designed for this specific purpose but choosing the specific terms of the plans could affect each individual's financial condition differently. If you wish to free yourself off any debt, then you must choose a debt relief program that meets your needs.

For instance, debt negotiation is one common debt relief program that offers benefits to the debtor. It saves money since you will get to pay a reduced amount from the original amount of debt you owe, it will save you time as professional debt negotiators will be the one discussing this debt reduction process on your behalf. If you are able to choose a reliable and sound debt relief program, most people with debts find themselves free of debt within two or three years.

Common Scam Techniques

While there are several legitimate debt relief companies available in the industry, there are a few others who are looking to take advantage of people's urgency to settle their debts. Like with legitimate debt relief companies, they offer debtors a promise of the opportunity to become debt-free. Sadly though, they most often target individuals who are desperate to find debt relief since they cannot afford to lose their money.

There are a few common tell-tale signs that the debt relief program you are dealing with is a scam. Hence, identifying them will help you recognize whom to trust and whom not to in terms of finding solution for your debt problems.

Charging to Fix Your Credit Report

There are a few debt relief programs who offer their services of cleaning out your credit report and any errors with massive fees. This process is quite intricate, which is the reason why most people often opt to hire professionals to do it for them. However, you need to be extra careful with choosing since some of them can be outright deceptive. Another reason why such claims are considered scam is that you can fix credit report free of any charge. There are three credit bureaus from which you can acquire a free copy of your yearly credit report. When you have the copy, study it for any false information or suspicious transactions.

Loaning To Fix Bad Credit

This particular scam technique affects debtors in two ways. First, you are charged for a loan that you are not even qualified for to begin with. Therefore, the money you spend trying to settle the loan is put to waste since you could have used that trying to settle off your previous credit card debts. Next, although your creditor makes claim that you have loaned out money, you never get to receive any money. Worse thing is, these scams do not provide you with a legitimate company name so they basically run away with your money while you are left with no way to trace them.

False Identity

This is a sure sign that you are dealing with bogus credit repair companies. When they ask you to create a new credit identity to attain a high credit score, then you need to realize that this is a complete illegal move. Even if you are unfamiliar with legal laws, then everyone might be aware that creating false identity is a clear violation of law.

Therefore, make it a point to screen out the credit repair company you are dealing with before you decide to work with them. If you are serious about getting rid of any credit card debt you currently have, then opting for illegal means is not the best way to do it. Moreover, being subjected to scams would cause you money that could have been used to pay off your credit card debts.

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Labels: Avoiding, Credit, Relief, Scams

10 Cities With the Most Debt

Thursday September 9, 2010

U.S. News has put together a list of the Top . Did your city make the list?

Denver - $26,636 average debt per personSeattle - $26,351Dallas - $26,209Phoenix - $26,100Atlanta - $26,000Portland, OR - $25,870Baltimore - $25,722Washington, DC - $25,720Houston - $25,593Philadelphia - $25,491

Only Atlanta, Dallas, and Houston have a cost of living less than 100.

How to Get a Free FICO Score

Friday September 10, 2010

I'll say upfront that this isn't a truly free FICO score, but it's the closest you'll get to a free FICO score without applying for a mortgage or car loan (is that really even free?). Sign up for a 10-day trial subscription to FICO's Score Watch and you get a free FICO score as part of the deal. The catch, you need to cancel the subscription before the trial ends or you'll be charged.

Score Watch is a credit monitoring product that lets you know when your Equifax-FICO score has changed. The subscription is $12.95 per month and has a three-month minimum requirement.

If you get your free FICO score through this offer, remember that you must cancel Score Watch within 10 days or your credit card could be charged up to $38.85 for three months of the service.

Visit myFICO.com for access to your "free" FICO score.

For a truly free credit score (FAKO), visit CreditKarma.com. There's no credit card or subscription sign-up required to get your TransUnion-based credit score from Credit Karma.

Advantages of Working With Partnership in Personal Injury Law Practice

One of the decisions you have to make in preparing to open your personal injury practice is whether to practice solo or form partnerships. To make this decision, you need to analyze yourself if you are willing to share a firm with another practicing lawyer. Life as a solo is less structured than life in an organization. Solos don't require you to have regular meetings. When you go solo, you don't have to share office and other stuffs, you get to keep everything. However, when things go bad, you would expect that you won't have anyone to share your problems too.

The advantages of partnership are both social and financial. Partnership in law practice is like marriage. There are two or more people to bring in resources and generate fees and to share expenses. This will give you peace in mind especially when one of you had a bad month as there is someone to catch for the office expenses. Solos can get feedback from other lawyers in making tough decisions but the advice of someone who has a direct stake in the decision is often more sound than that of someone who has no interest in the situation. Without someone to challenge, or at least question, a lawyer is more likely to make decisions on the "spur of the moment." Partnership also allows you to take vacations as there is someone who can handle emergencies when you are out. If you go solo, it is your legal secretary or legal assistant who will take care of most things that might come up during your absence but what about the need for unexpected court appearance? Your secretary might arrange another lawyer to cover it but then it can be a hard situation. If you have a partner, there will be someone that can organize to cover a deposition or other proceeding while you were away on your vacation. And of course, you in return will do the same in case your partner is away.

K. William Gibson wrote that there are two primary reasons why having a partner will help you get financing for your personal injury law practice:

1. Your partner may have additional resources to use as collateral to secure a loan.

2. A lender will feel more secure about having two people on the hook for the loan rather than having just one person.

The person you choose to form partnership in personal injury practice should first and foremost, can be trusted. Do research before making the big decision of choosing your partner. You can talk with their former partners or other people who know them better than you do. Check their references. On a personal level, "your partner must be truthful, ethical, and considerate of other people, compassionate, slow to anger, and unselfish," says K. William Gibson. On a professional level, he must have "good work ethic, diligence, thoroughness, a willingness to fight for clients, and the ability to present a case effectively" (How to Build and Manage Personal Injury Practice, 14). It is a lot better to have a partner who has the same goals for the practice as you have. Your partner should also have the same financial objectives as you. A partner with different financial goals and objectives with you might leave you crippled. Avoid someone who could just as easily live on his or her trust fund.

How To Raise Credit Score

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Sunday, September 12, 2010