credit card debt relief

Credit Card Loan Consolidation Can Be Useful

November 29, 2013 by penn

Credit card loan consolidation is something that you might be considering if you have Visa, American Express, Master Card, or any other credit card debt that is over 10,000. Credit card loan consolidation is where you borrow money that can help you to pay off all of your credit card debt at once. There are several pros and cons when looking into consolidation loans.

The Pros

There are some pros when it comes to credit card loan consolidations.

One great thing about consolidation is that the collection agencies will no longer be pestering you. An individual will receive no more phone calls at all hours of the day, from several different companies at a time.
You will only have one debt. When you have more than one credit card you end up with more than on debt you need to pay on. By getting a consolidation loan, you will combine all the smaller debts into one single debt.
A credit card loan consolidation will allow you to lower your monthly payments. This may seem strange because you are having a larger loan, but if you combine the entire little bill payments into one, the consolidation as a single payment is less.

The best way to understand this is through an example. If you were to have a debt of $15,000 with an annual percentage rate (APR) of 18%, for this particular debt a person will be looking at paying roughly $225 per month. However, if you were to obtain a secured loan (similar to a second mortgage) for the $15,000 that you are in debt. This secured loan should allow you to receive and APR as low as 2.79% for a 10-year period. This would allow you to have only one monthly payment around $114. This is about half of what you were paying previously. This price drop is something that is one of the biggest pros for someone looking into credit card loan consolidation.

The Cons

As with anything, there are some negative points to a credit card loan consolidation.

The biggest thing that can make you not interested in taking out a consolidation loan is the length of time that you are to be paying back this loan. The average secured loan can be obtained for anywhere from 10 to 30 years. Credit card debts may only take 3 to 4 years to pay off, which is significantly lower of a period.
When you take out a credit card loan consolidation it is very important that you ensure not to gain anymore debt while paying off all your debts. If you put yourself into new debt you can potentially end up far worse off than you were before.
Another downer to a credit card loan consolidation is the interest rates on the loans you try to obtain. Remember that you are in debt and that is a problem when trying to get a loan at all. It is important to remember that lenders prefer low risk individuals to offer loans to. This is one reason that a secure loan is the best option for low interest. However, without the collateral, you might be paying a higher interest rate. If you try to obtain

Another Option

It is important to remember that a person cannot completely eliminate all of their debts. It can be helpful to work with a company the specialized in helping people to receive a credit card loan consolidation. Some debt settlement programs can help you to reduce and even remove the debt that you owe. This can be beneficial for those that are not sure of the best way to go about eliminating their debt. Some of these debt programs can help a person to remove their debts within 24 to 48 months.

Is it the Best Option?

Several things can help you determine if obtaining a loan consolidation is best for you.

This is a great option if a person is able to take out a secured loan. This means that you have something that is useable as collateral.

In order for an individual to gain the most benefit, they should have many high interest credit cards.

Nothing is all good or all bad. When comparing all the pros and cons of credit card loan consolidation you will see that overall it is a good solution. You want to evaluate your situation and make sure that it is the best option for you. Be sure that when committing to this loan you understand that is long term. It is also something that needs to be financially acceptable. Do not take on higher payments that you are able to afford. Over commitment can cause even more problems than not gaining help at all, be sure to only commit to what is actually doable.

Options for Payment with Credit Cards

August 24, 2013 by penn

Why Must Your Business Be Able to Process Payments with Credit Cards?

A major transformation is in process throughout the consumer driven economies of the developed world. To say that cash is “out” as a medium of exchange, and credit cards are “in”, may be a bit of an overstatement, but the phrase neatly summarizes a trend that all sellers of goods and services must pay attention to. Mints around the world are still producing good old coins and paper currency, and there are many minor purchases that are quicker to complete with a dollar or two and some big pocket change. But an increasing number of transactions such as renting a car or checking into a hotel, can only be accomplished with a credit or debit card. The same is true for the rapidly increasing proportion of purchases we now routinely make online. Small and medium businesses that set up to accept payment with credit cards find that the ability to accept payment with credit cards brings a wide range of advantages, with only a few minor downside concerns. On the plus side, small and medium-sized business owners report advantages including:

Purchases of expensive products or services are easier and more convenient for customers if they do not need to have hundreds of dollars of cash in their wallet to complete the transaction.
More and more people prefer not to carry more than a few dollars of currency on their person. If your business doesn’t “take plastic”, that increasing portion of the population is excluded from your potential customer base.
The consumer’s sensible resistance to indulging in high-margin impulse purchases is often undermined by the simple phrase “I’ll just put it on the card”.
For some kinds of shopping, credit card users spend more per store visit because they are not limited by the amount of cash they are carrying. Cash customers, by contrast, make the more visits, and buy less per visit. Larger sales per customer visit works to the advantage of the business owner.

[Reported] Downsides of Accepting Payment with Credit Cards

The card processing companies take a small portion of each credit card transaction to cover their expenses, and frequently charge monthly or annual account maintenance fees.
Sales completed with credit cards carry a slightly higher risk of fraud than cash sales.
It can take up to several weeks longer for credit card sale proceeds to show up in the company’s bank accounts than cash sale proceeds.
The time lag between the sale of an inventory item and the receipt adds an extra layer of complexity to company bookkeeping.

How Does Accepting Payment With Credit Cards Actually Work?

In its simplest modern form, credit card processing starts when the seller enters the transaction information into a terminal connected to a modem. The buyer then swipes his or her card through the terminal, which then encodes both buyer and seller information, and transmits that information to a “merchant account” in a bank or specialized credit card processing company. The merchant account immediately accesses the buyer’s credit or debit card account. If sufficient credit (or cash, in the case of debit cards) is found in the buyer’s account, the transaction is authorized, and funds are transferred from the buyer’s account to the merchant account, and then on to the seller. Variations on this process exist to accommodate the special needs of restaurants, resort hotels, and other product or service providers.

Credit Cards and Online Purchases

The ability to accept payments by credit card opens the door for sales through company websites and other online venues. It is not uncommon for revenue from online sales to quickly surpass direct sales revenues. With a little help from website design experts, business owners can learn a great deal about the age, gender, and web browsing habits of current and potential customers. This information can be used to place targeted ads with links to the company website at online locations most likely to be visited by potential customers. Privacy concerns notwithstanding, the emerging science of precisely targeted Internet marketing has become a powerful force in today’s consumer driven economy.

Online payment by credit card can be transacted using a merchant account as described above, or through an online payment processor such as PayPal. Fees are generally similar even though the buyer’s local currency may be different from the seller’s.

Beyond the Credit Card

Technology has existed for some time that allows the connection of handheld card readers to cell phones, allowing credit card transactions to take place almost anywhere that cell phone coverage is available. This technology has been used in a surprisingly diverse range of financial exchanges.

There are a number of competing technologies that permit a buyer to complete a transaction using a smart phone application instead of a credit card. In most cases, the seller must have a specialized receiver for the process to work. Some major retailers have installed terminals for one such application, perhaps hoping to attract the demographic group most likely to find the technology interesting and fun.

How Do I Go about Credit Card Debit Management?

August 16, 2013 by penn

It is important to take control of your debt, do not let debt control you. Credit card debt management is just one aspect of debt that you will need to address, it is the most difficult to reduce and control.

There are many different kinds of debt but they are all part of the same overall package, debt. Debt is classed as money that you owe to other businesses to pay for services or purchases, these include:

Credit cards
Mortgages
Car loans
Personal loans
Store cards

No matter the kind of debt that you have it will be reflected in your credit report. It is possible to manage credit responsibly and it can have a positive effect on your credit report if used correctly.

Credit Card Debt Management

Knowing what is on your own credit report is vital. So,

Understand and know what good credit look like.
Don’t be afraid of your own credit report.
Plan to improve your credit report.

It is important to realize that a report will change during a month and it can go up as well as done, this is normal. If you are late with a payment or miss a scheduled bill then this will have a negative effect on your credit report. You are aiming to attain the score around the 740 mark. If you want to purchase any items on credit then it is a good idea to check your credit report a month or soon before to make sure that the report is correct and is looking healthy, if there are any errors on your credit report these will need correcting before you apply. The better the score on your credit report the less that you will pay in interest rates and this will be better for you in the long term.

Control

If you take control of your credit card debt management then you will be in a better financial position. It is important to pay your bills on time each month because late payment fees will lower the credit rating scores. Many companies will allow the set-up of text alerts to remind you when the bill is due to be paid.

Paying Down Debt

It is important to think about paying down debt, this is where you are reducing the amount of debt that you owe each month. If you are unable to pay the full amount off a credit card and are only paying the minimum amount then you will find that this will take a long time to pay off especially if you are still using the credit card.

Plan to pay more of the balance each month and this will then reduce the time that you are paying for a credit card. You will be paying a lot of interest each month, the more you pay the quicker that the debt will be cleared.

Good Credit

The idea of having good credit is important for any future prospects of loans or credit applications. It is possible to have a good credit rating. It is important to look at your credit report and to plan how you can improve on what you already have in place. A great credit report will be around the 740 score but with most Americans sitting around the 620 mark there is scope for improvement. This will come from paying bills on time, paying of the debt in full will also boost your score.

There are many ways in which you can improve the credit score; you will need to find the ones that you are able to do. Using the system and finding the right tools for the job will mean that you will be in a better position financially.

It will also mean that when you apply for services and products the company will look at your report and if it is healthy you will get a better interest rate than someone with a poor credit rating. The lower the interest rate the lower the total cost of the loan will be. The higher the interest rate is the more money that you will be paying out over the loan period in interest payments.

It is important to have control and have a credit card debt management in place. This will allow you to see where you have debt and what you have spent the debt on to work out the possible solution to your situation. Debt itself isn’t a bad commodity, it is when the debt takes over and a person loses control of the situation. This then can have negative effects on the future and any prospect of getting credit when you need it for new purchases, not matter the reason, bad credit will affect the interest rates and the possibility of securing the loan in the first place.

What To Do With Your Maxed Out Cards

April 11, 2013 by penn

A maxed out credit card simply means that you have been making very bad spending choices. There are only a few options for you when you reach this point.

One of them is ignoring your cards. That is a flat out bad idea. This is the worst thing that you can do because not paying anything for a couple of months can increase your debt balance significantly.

The other option, and obviously the better one, is to pay off your credit card debt.

First things first, you need to stop using your cards. If you maxed it out, you will not be able to use it anyway. But in case you have other cards that are not yet maxed out, then you need to stop using them as well. It will help you solve your debt problems if you stop adding to it. That will allow you to expedite getting a debt free life.

It helps to actually remove the physical cards. Keep them in a place where it will be very difficult for you to access them. Some people refuse to close the account for credit score purposes. If this is what you want, then make sure you come up with a great place to hide it. You can keep only one card in case of emergencies but even that should not be kept at home. Do not bring it with you as you go out performing your errands to avoid using them unnecessarily.

Once you have your cards out of the way, you can start thinking about how you will pay off what you owe. There are debt relief options like debt consolidation that can do wonders for your credit card problems.

There are two ways for you to consolidate your debts. One of them is getting a loan that will help pay off your loan. This is called debt consolidation loans. If you had been taking care of your credit score, you can get a low interest rate. That will be a better alternative for the high interest on your maxed out cards. These loans are usually stretched over 3-5 years so your total card debt will be paid over that time. That can effectively make your monthly contributions smaller.

The other option is getting help through debt management. This involves going to a third party company for help. They will assign a credit counselor who will help you come up with a payment plan called the DMP or debt management plan. This plan will contain a new payment term that spreads out your debt over a longer period – much like in debt consolidation loans. The difference is it will be subject for your creditor’s approval. But once the credit card companies agree, you will send a single payment to your counselor who will distribute payments on your behalf.

Probably the best thing about debt management is learning how to make smarter financial choices. The best companies offering this service usually have financial education and training programs that will help their clients stay out of debt. Credit card debt is the easiest pitfall to get into so you need to learn the right habits that you will implement even after you have reached a debt free status in life.