How to Get Out of Debt With the Get Out of Debt Guy » bank credit card debt

Claims of Fraud by Debt Relief Companies Soaring

Steve Rhode — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:28:40 +0000

Attorney General Bill McCollum announced this month that his office is investigating the unregulated debt relief industry. Until he can persuade lawmakers to impose rules, McCollum hopes lawsuits his office has filed and its investigations “send a message to this industry that preying on consumers in financial distress will not be tolerated,” according to an Oct. 15 statement.

The Attorney General’s Office has filed five lawsuits and is reviewing or investigating more than 30 others, including one involving Outreach Housing LLC, a Broward County company that does business in Palm Beach County.

More than 100 of the 600 homeowners who filed complaints said Outreach Housing told them to make a partial mortgage payment of 60 percent to the company, which would work with lenders to reduce their mortgage debts. The company failed to do so, according to the Attorney General’s Office.

That scheme is typical of debt relief fraud. The solicitations come in the mail, appear in newspapers and on the Internet, at bus stops and, most frequently, in telephone calls to a debtor’s home. The company offers to reduce interest rates, modify loans, set up reduced payment plans or settle debts for pennies on the dollar.

Clients are charged hefty upfront and monthly fees and told to stop making payments to creditors and instead send the payment to the debt relief company. Few or no payments or negotiations occur and clients are left with more debt, damaged credit and, often, higher tax bills.

Claims of debt fraud soaring Palm Beach Post, United States - 2 hours ago As for her credit card debt , the company "made a couple of calls" and came back to her with a proposal to make a reduced, lump-sum payment of $5000 – an …

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Source: Claims of debt fraud soaring – Palm Beach Post

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Bailout Plan Wants to Push More Credit On Overloaded Consumers

Steve Rhode — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:39:16 +0000

From How to Get Out of Debt

The average client who seeks help at the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Central New York has $47,000 in credit card debt and makes $37,000 a year.

Not surprising, considering that living expenses are going up while wages aren’t rising to match.

“Living expenses have jumped significantly, and people’s income hasn’t kept up,” said Karyn Dettbarn, the credit counseling company’s Albany branch manager. “People are using their credit cards to pay for their expenses.”

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke suggested on Monday that a new economic stimulus package should include increased access to credit for consumers, home buyers and other borrowers.

So we already have consumers that are overloaded with credit and the governments answer to the economic crisis is to make it easier for consumers to get more credit?

Bailout plan to perpetuate our house of cards Times Herald-Record, NY - 56 minutes ago By Christian Livermore The average client who seeks help at the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Central New York has $47000 in credit card debt and …

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Source: Bailout plan to perpetuate our house of cards – Times Herald-Record

Business Noticing Increase in Credit Card Purchases. Not a Good Sign.

Steve Rhode — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 14:55:22 +0000

From How to Get Out of Debt

The story below caught my attention. An early sign that things are getting worse for consumers. When you notice a noticeable uptick in credit card use in a down economy that means that more people are running up debt when they can’t afford to pay. Yikes!

POLK COUNTY (Bay News 9) — During these tough economic times more Americans appear to be turning to plastic when they’re making purchases, and business owners are noticing.

Crowder Brothers Hardware has sold hammers and nails to people in Polk County for three-decades.

And while many small businesses are struggling, their customers keep coming in.

“You can put off buying a new car or some new clothes,” said Bruce Phillips owner of Crowder Brothers Hardware. “But if your toilet is leaking you don’t have that option of saying, ‘well we can let it go — we’ll fix it in a few months.’ So, we’re fortunate there.”

Phillips says the biggest change he’s noticed through the years is that his cashiers now swipe more credit cards than they count cash.

“We’ve probably seen credit card usage go from 30 percent up to now 50 and 60 percent,” Phillips said.

But as more consumers get used to swiping, more are finding themselves in the red.
Americans now owe an estimated $850 billion in credit card debt, which is four times as much as in 1990.

Consumers aren’t the only ones affected by the increase. Small business owners like Phillips say they’re also paying a price as the popularity of plastic rises.

“Cash is king,” Phillips said. “Credit card — we pay a percentage to have those processed and that affects our bottom line profit.”

The Consumer Federation of America reports 58-percent of people with credit cards do not pay their balance in full each month.

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Source: Business noticing increase in credit card purchases

Beware Of Zombie Debt Collectors

Steve Rhode — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 21:32:45 +0000

From How to Get Out of Debt

Have you ever received a letter or phone call asking you to pay a debt that you’re not sure you owe? If so, you may be the target of zombie debt collectors. What is zombie debt? How does it rise from the dead? What you can do if zombie debt starts its relentless lurch toward you?

It has become increasingly common for companies to sell their old, uncollected debts for pennies on the dollar to third-party debt collection agencies. Credit card companies, telecommunications companies, gyms and health care facilities want to get these bad debts off their books, so after a period of several months of nonpayment, they will turn your bills over to a debt collection agency. Sometimes the debt is sold to the collector, which gets to keep every penny it collects, and sometimes the collected debt is returned to the original creditor with the collection agency retaining a fee or a percentage of the collected debt as compensation.

Beware Of Zombie Debt Collectors Forbes, NY - 15 minutes ago Read “Debt Consolidation Made Easy” to learn five steps to help you get out of debt faster.) The statute of limitations on debts varies by state, …

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Source: Beware Of Zombie Debt Collectors

Credit cards face bad debt

Steve Rhode — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 10:05:49 +0000

From How to Get Out of Debt

Consumer groups have long complained that credit card issuers push cards onto people who don’t need them or can’t afford them. They say that rising credit card defaults – just like mortgage defaults – are largely the fault of banks who lent to risky borrowers.

Innovest estimates that about 30 percent of Bank of America’s credit card loans are to subprime borrowers – second only to the failed Washington Mutual Inc., which had almost half of its credit card loans held by subprime borrowers.

Innovest also estimates that more than half of Bank of America’s credit cards are high-limit cards – second only to American Express Co. (Innovest classifies high-limit cards as those with lines of more than $10,000.) Nishikawa says that combination could prove toxic for Bank of America, which may have “lent more than (borrowers) can be expected to pay back.”

Bank of America’s charge-offs, or loans it doesn’t expect to collect on, increased to 6.14 percent of all credit card loans, or $1.24 billion, in the third quarter. That’s up from 4.61 percent the year before.

Credit cards face bad debt SunJournal.com, ME - 1 hour ago Asked in a recent TV interview if credit card debt would be "the next shoe to drop" for the banking industry, Lewis replied: "It, in some ways, already is," …

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Read the rest here: Credit cards face bad debt

Living (too) Large?

Steve Rhode — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 05:22:13 +0000

From How to Get Out of Debt

A study by the Homeownership Preservation Foundation found that 43 percent of American households spend more than what they earn annually.

Living (too) large? Lancaster Newspapers, PA - 2 hours ago The average American household carries a credit card debt of more than $8000. According to The New York Times, as household debt has mounted, incomes have …

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Source: Living (too) large? – Lancaster Newspapers

Searching For a Debt Consolidation Loan or Credit Card Counseling Service

Steve Rhode — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:19:49 +0000

From How to Get Out of Debt

When faced with credit card debt and suddenly looking for a credit card debt payoff it is not unusual for people to search out solutions they feel might be able to provide debt consolidation for bad credit.

See if this sounds familiar, you wake up, in the middle of the night, worried about your debt problems. You know that the credit card debt is out of control so what is the first solution that jumps into your mind, credit consolidation or credit counseling. It’s a natural knee jerk reaction but is it the right way to get credit card debt reduction?

The Debt Consolidation Credit Card Loan Scam

The reality is that unless you have a good local bank that appreciates your business and a load of equity in your property, you might find it very difficult to find a lender that will actually offer you debt consolidation for credit card debt.

When you are deep in debt that is the least likely time that a lender will want to provid debt elimination help. It’s always when you least need the debt consolidation loan that the lenders are jumping at the chance to consolidate your credit card debt.

Chances are significantly higher that will will be scammed, the target of a scam, or encouraged to pay a fee up from with the promise that if you pay the up-front debt consolidation fee that a loan for debt consolidation for credit cards will be waiting for you. I’m sorry to break the news to you but if it sounds too good to be true, then in the debt consolidation or credit consolidation world, it probably is.

The reason I mentioned the equity situation and helpful local bank is because the exception to the rule is that if you owe little on your home, a local bank may lend money to you for a credit card loan to allow you to consolidate your credit. Local banks these days have more flexibility than the larger banks do to make small loans for local community customers.

The tremendous amount of equity in your property will protect the lender in case you should default. Sadly, there is a chance that even with the credit card debt reduction that you could find yourself right back in the same situation again. I know, I know, you’re promising yourself right now that you won’t. That’s what most people say.

What happens after the debt consolidation loan provides a payoff of your credit card debt is that unless you are vigilant and very self-aware, in about six months the cards that you got the pay off on will find their way out of the drawer and back into the wallet. If that happens you’ll then have a debt consolidation loan for your credit card debt and a whole new crop of fresh credit card debt on top of the credit card consolidation loan. It’s not a good situation.

Other than contacting your local bank you can try this link for a mortgage loan or this one to refinance your mortgage.

The Credit Card Counseling Service Scam

You will hear a lot from companies that will offer some sort of credit counseling service. These companies may claim to offer Christian credit card debt solutions, be a for profit company that charges a fee, or proclaim to be a nonprofit credit counselling service with credit counselors just standing by to help you consolidate your debt. It does not really matter what flavor the credit counselors come in, you need to watch out for the same issue from each.

The non-profit credit counselors and those that say they offer Christian credit counseling often lead people to lower their guard and trust them more. That’s not such a smart thing to do.

Credit counselors who are offering a traditional debt management program don’t actually negotiate with your creditors to put together a repayment plan that best meets your needs. They will tell you the payment the creditor will accept and then ask you if you feel you can afford that amount.

Consumers who enroll in a credit consolidation program often think they will be getting a debt consolidation loan from the counseling service for their credit card debt. That’s not what happens.

The credit card counseling service does not pay off your debt, they simply act as an agency of convenience between you are your creditors. What actually happens in a credit counseling debt consolidation loan program is that you will make one payment each month to the credit counselling service and they will in turn cut it up into smaller payments and send a portion to your creditors.

There is it is, debt consolidation for your credit cards, when in fact your individual accounts remain with each of your credit card companies and the credit card counseling service is just taking your single payment you make each month, cutting it up and sending it off for you.

Credit counseling services often charge a fee for their service these days. The fact that they charge a fee is not necessarily a bad thing as long as you feel you are getting a good service for that money.

Not-for-profit credit counseling services are getting paid by your creditors based on how much money they collect from you. They skim off a “fee” for collecting the debt, send the rest to the creditor and the creditor will credit the entire amount to your account. This hides, from you, the fee the credit counseling group got.

In this way the creditor claims the fee they paid was a tax-deductible contribution, the credit counseling agency is paid a collection fee for service and you feel like you are getting a bargin by not having to pay a fee to the credit counseling agency.

There is no free lunch, remember that, please.

How to Get Out of Debt With the Get Out of Debt Guy » bank credit card debt

Claims of Fraud by Debt Relief Companies Soaring

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Bailout Plan Wants to Push More Credit On Overloaded Consumers

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Business Noticing Increase in Credit Card Purchases. Not a Good Sign.

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Beware Of Zombie Debt Collectors

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Credit cards face bad debt

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Living (too) Large?

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Searching For a Debt Consolidation Loan or Credit Card Counseling Service

The Debt Consolidation Credit Card Loan Scam

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