Insurance and Credit

The phone rings. You don’t pick it up, because you know that it’s going to be another debt collector. You’ve fallen behind – the mortgage, rent, credit cards. It doesn’t matter, you’re still under water for a lot of money and are looking for a way out.

The time to remedy this is before it reaches a collections agency. There are some very basic things you can do to keep your credit in good standing.

First and foremost, maintain a channel of communication. Contact your creditors (even the collections agencies) proactively and talk to them. Explain what’s going on in your life; the common perception that they’re heartless sharks isn’t close to reality. They want to get their money, yes. But they’re worried that you’ll vanish down a rabbit hole leaving them with an uncollectable debt as well.

Before you call, have a plan. Tally up all of your debts, all of your expenses in a month, including a general “oops” amount, and figure out how much you can really afford to pay. Paying down your debts takes some fiscal discipline; cut back on going to fast food restaurants and learn to cook more vegetables for meals are two surprisingly easy ways to cut back on expenses.

Unless you’re already at least three months behind on your payments, creditors aren’t going to be willing to negotiate a settlement with you; and since so far, you’ve been in good standing they have little incentive to do so. It’s not uncommon to make a late payment now and again and other than paying some late fees or interest payments, there’s really nothing else to it. Consumers typically return to making regular payments.

Fourth – talk to your creditors. Call them if you’re going to be late with a bill. Tell them about what’s going on, and demonstrate that you do consider your debts important. Most creditors live in fear of a person becoming noncommunicative and bailing out on the debt or filing bankruptcy. Most will be quite happy to extend a payment deadline by a week or two to help you out.

If you are dealing with a collection agency, have a copy of your credit report handy. Try to get the final disposition of the debt changed to “settled for less than the total outstanding balance” rather than “did not pay as agreed”. Even better, if you can work out a livable agreement, and pay it off, make sure to get your credit report again and get your creditors to report it as settled.

You might be able to take care of one or even a couple small debt negotiations by yourself – but if you have many delinquent accounts, it can be too much to juggle on your own. However, most people who are in such serious financial trouble that they’re considering debt negotiation have more than one past due account in need of settlement. If you only have one delinquent account, your creditor probably won’t be willing to settle since you’re keeping current with other accounts. Most of the time, professional help is the way to go to get a handle on your debts. A good debt management company is dedicated to helping consumers make wise choices and connect with the most appropriate debt solution to manage their debt.

Moving from one or more high interest debts to a low interest one is a sound financial planning strategy. If you continue making partial payments (or no payments) the interest charges are calculated afresh on the new balance. This is people get themselves into trouble.

We know that it’s good to consolidate debt (at least that is what we keep hearing from everyone). College student credit cards are really meant to be treated like a training ground for learning more about credit cards. Unfortunately they are not always used like that and often serve as a training ground for collection agencies and getting in over your head.

Now, what do you do to consolidate credit card debt? There are always a number of offers available for you to choose from. These are the cold hard facts. So what do we mean by consolidation loans?

Some debt settlement agencies might have a very low fee but no reputation. The first thing, really, is to keep your eyes and ears open. It goes without saying that learning to watch out for scams is a part of one’s success in effectively dealing with these things.

I think that you should find a well appointed intermediary that deals better with settlement negotiation due to extensive hands on experience. If some friend has been through this process previously, they might be able to recommend a settlement agency to you. Like most things in life, you are usually better off by following a referral from someone you trust than to go blindly forward without knowing the integrity of the other party you are dealing with.

It can be a vicious circle. Soon, these people again land up with a credit cards and are again trying to pay off credit card offer. That said, it’s important to note that no unsecured loans settlement agency will be able to help you if you are not ready to help yourself. Another very important preventive measure for avoiding too much unsecured debt is to avoid going for a second credit card.

This is one of my most favorite articles that I have written because it addresses so many questions that people have about credit. I love watching the eyes of my clients widen when they find out the truth about some of these most common myths.

A word of warning before we get started You are about to hear some things that will most likely be the exact opposite of what you have been told. Keep in mind that credit issues are some of the most misunderstood of all financial topics, and there are many professionals in the financial industry giving advice to their clients, who do not really understand credit themselves. On that note, here are the greatest myths about credit

Myth 1: Settling or paying off tax liens, collections, late payments or judgments will erase them from your credit reports.

This is simply not true. In fact, by paying off an old collection account, you can actually lower your credit scores. The reason for this is because more recent negative items will hurt your score more than older negative items. If you pay off an old collection account, not only will the collection account remain on your reports as a paid collection, but it will now show a current date, and cost your more points. I am not suggesting that you should not pay off your delinquent accounts, only that you need to understand the consequences so that you can factor that into your decision.

Myth 2: Paying my credit card balances in full every month will improve my credit.

Keep in mind that the credit system is designed by the creditors, to help them determine if you are a good credit risk, and if you are an optimal credit user (one who uses the system in such a way that it will generate revenue for the creditors). By paying off your accounts every month, you are not establishing a history of optimal credit usage. What your creditors want to see, is someone who pays slightly more than their minimum monthly payment every month, on time, with only occasional balance pay-downs. This behavior will optimize your credit scores.

Myth 3: Repairing credit is illegal.

Very false! Credit repair is not only perfectly legal; it is actually protected by federal law. For more information on the law, you can refer to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). It is legal for you to repair your own credit, as well as hire anyone you choose to do it on your behalf.

Myth 4: Credit Counseling (CCCS) programs will raise my credit scores.

Credit counseling programs do not help you increase your credit scores. In fact, they will usually harm your credit in a couple of ways. First of all, when you enroll into a credit counseling program, your creditors will insert a line on your credit reports for each account included in the program that states you are in credit counseling. This looks very bad to lenders that you may be applying for loans with. Also, in most cases, credit counseling programs will make your payments to your creditors late. This will result in additional late pays on your credit reports.

Myth 5: Negative items have to stay on my credit for 7 years because that is the law.

Completely false! There is no such law.

Myth 6: Making a lot of money will give you good credit.

Actually, your credit scores are made up of several factors such as payment history, account balances, types of credit in use, etc. Your income is not one of those factors that determine your credit scores.

Myth 7: As long as I have never been late on a payment, I will have great credit.

Your timeliness of payments does make up 35% of your credit scores, but the other 65% is made up of other factors that are not related to making your payments on time. It is important to understand all those factors to maximize your scores.

Myth 8: Your credit report from each credit bureau will be the same.

This is not true. In fact, most of the time, all 3 of your credit reports will differ from one another. The reason for this is that each of the credit bureaus is a separate independent company, and the processes at each are different. Also, some creditors may only report to 1 or 2 bureaus, but not all 3. In my experience, your reports will very rarely be exactly the same.

Myth 9: If you are married, you will share the same credit reports as your spouse.

This is not true at all. Even if you are married, you will still have your own unique credit reports. It is possible to see some shared items if you have joint accounts, but your credit reports are yours.

Myth 10: If I close my old credit accounts, my scores will increase.

This is often a huge surprise for many. When you close old accounts, your scores will often drop substantially, sometimes by more than 100 points. Often a lender will ask you to close some old accounts to qualify for a loan, but once the accounts are closed, your scores may actually prohibit you from qualifying. This is good knowledge for to know so you understand the impact of this decision. Old good standing accounts carry more positive weight on your credit scores than newer accounts. When you open new credit, you may also see a temporary drop in scores until those accounts have seasoned (usually 6-12 months).

Armed with this new knowledge, you can now get started putting it into action to improve your credit, as well as share it with others.