Debt Consolidation - Don’t Hire an Agency; Do It Yourself
The average American household now has more than $9000 in credit card debt and the savings rate in this country is lower than at any time during the Great Depression. And a quick glance at all of the debt consolidation commercials on late night television will tell you the obvious – debt is a tremendous problem in our country today.
Listening to these ads makes it seem as though only the advertisers can help you get out of debt, as though they have some financial secrets that will allow your debts to magically disappear. Is that true? If you have a debt problem, do you need to hire one of these debt consolidation services? Is there another solution?
The short answer is “no.” You do not have to hire a company to get you out of debt. In all likelihood, the company you would hire cannot do anything that you cannot do yourself. No one can make your debts disappear; the only way to make them go away is to either pay them off or file for bankruptcy.
So what do you do? For starters, pick up the phone and call your creditors. Explain your situation and tell them that you simply cannot make ends meet. You would be surprised at how often creditors are willing to work out some sort of payment plan with their debtors, especially if the debtor is behind on his or her payments. Their motivation Is simple – it is much easier to get some of their money back, under different terms, from a willing customer than it is to try to get payment by turning the debt over to a collection agency. It is also better than writing off the debt as a loss.
By working out an agreement with your creditors you can also avoid having some nasty notes put in your credit report. If you can fulfill your obligations, you can have your debt marked “paid as agreed”, which is much better than having it shown as delinquent.
Of course, you can always hire a debt consolidation company to do the above for you. They can call the creditor in order to work out a repayment play for you. The only difference is that you will not only have to pay your creditor but you will also have to pay the debt consolidation company. Just remember that when those debt consolidation firms run ads on television, they are hoping to make money from you. If you have a debt problem, you would be much better off using that money to pay down your debt.
©Copyright 2006 by Retro Marketing. Charles Essmeier is the owner of Retro Marketing, a firm devoted to informational Websites, including End-Your-Debt.com, a site devoted to personal bankruptcy, debt consolidation, establishing credit and credit counseling.
Should You Itemize?
When you finally decide it is time to prepare your taxes, the first question is whether you should itemize your deductions or take the standard deduction provided by the IRS.
Choices, Choices…
Tax deductions are a very simple part of a theoretically simple tax reporting system. If you’ve ever prepared your own taxes, you know this simply isn’t true. Complicated tax forms can be a nightmare to fill out. Ever helpful, the IRS gives you an option of just taking a standard deduction instead of itemizing your deductions. So, what should you do?
The standard deduction is the easiest method because it requires no calculations or supporting documentation of any sort. You figure out your adjusted gross income and simply submit the amount for your classification. The amount differs based on whether you are filing as single, married, older than 65 or have kids.
Many people scoff at the mere idea of taking the standard deduction. As with all tax issues, deciding whether to take the standard deduction isn’t so easy. If you have a fairly simple financial life and don’t have many deductions, the standard deduction is almost always the best choice. For instance, if you make $45,000 as an employee of a company, rent a residence and don’t have any major medical bills or losses, the standard deduction is probably going to save you more money than itemizing. Unfortunately, you can never be sure until you take a stab at itemizing your deductions in a rough draft of a tax return.
Itemizing your deductions is exactly what it sounds like. You literally go through your records and categorize every possible deduction. These deductions are then subtracted from your adjusted gross income to get a final figure from which tax is determined using the tax tables. Itemizing is the way to go if you have significant tax deductions or tax credits in your financial life. For instance, you almost always want to itemize if you own a home as mortgage interest can be deducted. Generally, you want to itemize if you own a home, have significant medical bills, can claim a tax credit or suffered some type of major loss. Obviously, there are other situations where itemizing makes sense, but this gives you an idea of the situation.
If you have a simple financial situation, claiming the standard deduction may be the answer. If life is a bit more complicated, itemizing is probably going to save you more on your tax bill.
Richard A. Chapo is with http://www.businesstaxrecovery.com - recovery of business taxes through tax help and tax relief. Visit http://www.businesstaxrecovery.com/articles to read more business tax articles.Low Interest Credit Cards: Are They For Real?
Credit cards are very common nowadays. In fact, some surveys show that 81% of the American households have at least one credit card.
However, most financial experts contend that these facts are not on its positive aspect. This is because most of the people who belong on this percentage have more than $8,000 credit card debt.
In reality, that is really a big amount. But one might wonder on how these people were able to accumulate such big debts.
Experts say the trend of credit cards today is very addicting. There are those who assert that it is the consumer’s lifestyle that must be blamed. While others say, the problems are based on the interest rates.
According to the consumer credit website, the average interest rate of one credit card is nearly 18.9%. It is pretty obvious that the amount is not at all fair. Getting to pay some debts with almost 20% of additional charges brought about by the interest rates would really lead the consumers to bigger debts.
Interest rates are usually charged by the credit card company once the user had accumulated some balances on his or her due payments. The problem is that most people tend to pay their minimum balance only. In fact, 48% of the credit card users were known to pay their minimum balances only.
What happens next is that the remaining balance is carried off to the next monthly billing statement, which, in turn, would only aggravate the situation. Pile after pile, the debt becomes bigger, but certainly not brighter for the user’s financial future.
This is where low interest credit cards take its fair share in the limelight. With the alarming condition in the credit card industry, more and more people are trying to look for the best credit cards with low interest rates.
In reality, it is not so hard to find low interest credit cards. The problem is that not all credit card companies that offer low interest rates are created equal. This goes to show that there are some companies that only use this very motivating factor so as to amass more consumers.
Hence, there are many instances wherein people are attracted to get credit cards because of the so-called low interest rates, only to find out that the interest rates are just one of those fraudulent promotions known as “teaser rates.”
With these low interest credit cards, they would usually offer some tempting deals to the public. The credit card companies would be more than willing to provide lower interest rates like low introductory APR or annual percentage rate.
However, most experts contend that lower interest credit cards only motivate people to make more purchases. They have this common notion that it is just okay to make many purchases because the interest rates are just small.
So for those who fall many times to this kind of situation, it is best that they analyze their standing first. Never grab a low interest credit card instantly because what goes with the promotion may not be long lasting.
And so, here is a list of some tips that can be used in analyzing and interpreting some facts about low interest rates in credit cards.
1. The promotion is very limited
In reality, low interest credit cards are especially built to make shopping easier, more fun, and extremely economical. That is why according to some surveys, most of the advantages of low interest credit cards are absolutely dependent on the duration of the promo.
For instance, a particular credit card may have low interest rates because of its low introductory annual percentage rates. The problem sinks in if the person failed to understand that this promo is only limited within the introductory period.
Therefore, after the introductory period, regular charges will usually apply.
2. It is extremely important to read the fine print
Having low interest credit cards is not exactly a bad thing. What makes the situation worse is through the effects of not reading the fine print.
In reality, almost 75% of the consumers who are heavily buried in debt were not able to understand the things written on their cards fine print. In fact, they confessed that they did not even read it.
So the bottom line here is that people should not focus more on having low interest credit cards. If their primary reason is to save more money, then, it is best not to get a credit card at all.
Besides, interest rates are only applicable to those who have overdue payments or who have carried over the balance of the previous bill.
Therefore, whether the credit card’s low interest rates are for real or not, it really does not matter for those who do not carry a balance on the next bill or those who pay their dues on time.
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