Archive for August 17th, 2009

Compare Credit Cards To Get The Best Deal

One thing is sure about credit cards, they can get you into trouble. If you don’t compare credit cards you will not find the best deal. Not finding the best deal may have you facing high interest rates and annual fees that you could have avoided.

By far the best credit card offers are those of unsecured credit, because you won’t need to have any collateral to get those. But with less than exceptional credit those offers will not be there for you. In that case you will need to settle for secured offers of credit.

Though most likely you will need to have a secured credit card in the case of bad credit, with comparison shopping you can get low rates. Don’t always think that if you get an offer that says you will get rates of 10% though that you are always going to have a interest rate like that. Reading of the fine print may show that the rate will increase in three months to 20% or whatever the offer is.

Reading of the fine print will allow you to see if that low rate will be different any time in the future. Sometimes with that increase you may see that the rate will be entirely too high, and that will rule out that credit card offer.

With secured credit cards you will need to compare if you will have any type of processing fee that will be charged to you. Secured cards will normally require some sort of payment from you to have on an account, say as an example $150. But many times you will also be required to pay a onetime fee known as a processing fee. These fees may even be up to $150, so instead of only $150 being taken from your account a total of $300 will be removed.

If you hadn’t read the full offer you may not know the total that will be removed, which may create a problem with overdraft fees. That’s why it’s very important to compare credit cards and the full offer before you agree to them.

Again to get the best offer you’re going to have to compare credit cards and many different offers. No matter whether your credit is outstanding or bad. Yes the better offers will come when you have exceptional credit. But that doesn’t mean you should give up on getting a credit card when you have credit that isn’t the best either. Of course you also need to make sure that if you’re looking to get better credit again, you may need to get a secured credit card. Make sure you find out if the interest rates will stay the same, or how much they will go up. How much your processing fee will be, and always look for no processing fee or a small one.

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A Phone Call from a Credit Card Debt Collector? . . . You Do Not Need to Take It.

Telephone calls have no legal weight since there is no record of what was said on a call. Knowing this, credit card debt collectors will say threatening things on the phone and get away with telling their lies. That is why consumer debt collectors choose to use the phone over mail. Debt collectors lose their power when communications are reduced to writing.

What matters in court are the written communications, or the lack of them, between a consumer and a credit card debt collector. Mail sent certified return receipt requested further helps the consumer put the debt collector on the defensive.

There is a saying in online consumer forums, 100 percent of debt collectors tell lies 100 percent of the time. Here are some examples of those lies.

1. They claim you are the target of a lawsuit in your local court and that you’ll get your summons any day.

2. They threaten to have you arrested. (Debts are civil, not criminal.)

3. Debt collectors will threaten to have you arrested. No one can be arrested for a civil matter.

4. They will tell you may have your wages reduced to pay your debt, and you will get a negative listing on your credit report.

5. They might even threaten you with having your bank account seized.

Each of these lies is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Credit card debt collectors use the phone attempting to get personal details such as your bank account number, Social Security number, and work number, as well as getting you to confirm your credit card number and admit to the debt in question. The Credit Card Debt Survival Guide advises that you should never share any personal information with people on the telephone, as they could be anyone, and that you should always dispute and deny the debt to which they are referring and hang up the phone.

Curiosity should be the only reason for taking one of these calls. If a credit card debt collector calls out of the cold, let them tell you what debt they are calling about, then tell them you have received no written notice from them about the debt and hang up.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act allows the consumer to instruct the debt collector in writing to stop all collection calls. After that each call is a violation of the law, and subject to a $1000 penalty. Consumers should keep logs of the phone calls and contact a consumer rights attorney, who may agree to sue the credit card debt collector over these violations on a contingency fee basis.

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Information On Consolidating Your Credit Card Debts

If you consolidate your credit card debts then you can pay off your debts in as less as three or six years. The very aim of consolidating your debts is to reduce the time for repaying your debts while lowering your payments every month. Now, different credit card debt consolidation plans have different terms and different conditions.

You should first make sure and verify that the cost of consolidating your debts is actually less compared to the amount that you are paying at present to your creditors. Most often, people who want to consolidate their debts often face the problem of not finding a low enough interest rate.

However, if you have a solid collateral such as a house, you will be able to secure a low interest loan.

First, calculate the interest as well as the fees on all of your present accounts. The sum is the payment that you make at present. Now, compare this sum with the amount of your consolidation loan. The difference will help you decide if yours is a better selection or not.

In case you have a loan already then you should keep making your payments every month regularly. This will be an assurance to your creditors about your intentions of paying back their debts. Delaying your payments can cause the creditors to turn on you.

This can mean that you might have to return to paying the regular rates of interest, fees.

You should always keep in contact with the consolidation representative. It might be possible that your account have been assigned to some collection agency. If keep your agent or representative informed about any changes, then it will help you.

You should keep paying the consolidation company your credit. This is because they decide and divide to pay your creditors.

Keep checking the statements from your creditors. Sometimes they might make mistakes and it is always your duty to point them out. You should keep an eye open for any reduced rates. Besides that, you should see if they have stopped the late fees yet. Above all, check if your consolidation agency is paying the creditor the appropriate amount.

Now, you can choose from a number of loans for debt consolidation. While some offer you longer repayment periods and high rates of interest, others might offer you short periods of repayment but a lower interest rate.

These loans come at different rates. There is also one that offer a variable rate so that you can make extra payments and not be charged with any extra charge.

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