Business and Finance

Posts Tagged ‘Credit Card Debt’

Debt consolidation loans are very much in demand these days but what if your credit history makes you ineligible for a standard consolidation loan? You do have other options for reducing your credit card debt and, with a little online research, you can find a solution that’s right for you.

If you own you home or have other real estate, you may be able to get a “secured” loan. This is most often a home equity loan or line of credit. Depending on the equity in your home, you may even be able to borrow more than you need to pay off your debts but be aware that in doing so, you’ll be perpetuating the kind of spending behavior that got you in dire financial straits. A secured loan used real property that you own as collateral, or a guarantee that you’ll repay the loan. If you default, the lender takes possession of the property.

An unsecured loan, on the other hand, doesn’t require collateral and won’t tie up any of your assets. The interest rates will be higher, making the monthly payments more than with a secured loan, but your property won’t be at risk if you default on the loan.

Borrowing to pay off debt isn’t necessarily the right solution to debt problems. You got into financial trouble in the first place because you were borrowing money, right? There are credit counselors and other companies that may be able to help you. These companies can possibly get your creditors to lower their interest rates, allow you to make smaller payments and even forgive part of your debt. If they do lower your interest rates, more of your payments will be applied to the principal-or original amount borrowed-and your debt will be paid off sooner. It’s not an easy fix by any means, but many consumers find it a very effective way to get a handle on their debt.

Credit counselors and lenders often charge a small monthly fee for their services but there are many programs that don’t. Be sure that you are dealing with a reputable company. With so many consumers in real financial trouble there are many fraudulent credit counseling companies springing up. The Better Business Bureau is a good place to start when you’re checking the reputation of a company that claims it will be able to help you get a handle on your finances.

Debt consolidation can be a great relief and help in dealing with your debts as long as you change the type of spending habits that may have landed you in that situation. Consolidation can free up funds to help pay down other debt or to make the first step in living a life free of credit cards.

The apparent difference between a credit card and a prepaid debit card is that the former one lets you to use your card with a predetermined limit that is mutually agreed by you and your bank. The latter one still functions almost the same like a credit card, but with an amount that you deposited in advance. Prepaid debit card can help you to improve your credit score without the burden of debt. However, there are some things you need to know before you choose to use prepaid card.

The prepaid card users will need to deposit a certain amount of money to open an account, and the amount will be the credit limit. It depends on the card holder whether to deposit more money on the card. In other words, you can only spend how much you have got in your card. If you are spending over the limit, the transaction will fail. You can benefit from it since you would not overspend your money. It is indeed a great step to help you to build your credit.

Furthermore, it has no interest charges. Nonetheless, fees will be charged by the card companies when you top up your cards and you may also be charged for not depositing money after a particular duration. Some companies will even set a limit of maximum amount that you can deposit on the card and there must be a minimum balance that you have to always keep in the prepaid card. Before you apply for any card, please ensure that the company will report payments to the credit bureaus, or else you would not be able to build your credit.

Getting a prepaid debit card is easy since the procedure is simple and only a small amount of procedure fee and deposit will be charged. It is time for you to improve your credit score by getting a prepaid card, especially if you are a big spender who does not wish to be burdened by credit card debt!

Prepaid credit cards for teens and preloaded credit cards are increasingly popular for or all ages. There is no risk of credit card debt with these cards because prepaid cardholders can only access the funds preloaded to the card. Fair play to the card people for giving us the chance to avoid overspending!

There are different types of prepaid card, ranging from ePurses, to gift cards, to travel cards. They include a wide range of payment products, such as gift cards, payroll cards, teen cards, and travel cards. Despite significant product innovations, it is unclear whether and how existing federal and state laws that apply to other financial products (e.g., checks, credit cards, deposit accounts) apply to the different varieties of prepaid cards. Although the legal system may be slow to pick up on the prepaid trend, don’t let if put you off using one.

These cards are particularly useful for parents with young families. Your youngsters are probably used to seeing you pull out your card to pay, but have they ever looked at the statement’s bottom line or watched you write a check to pay the bill? Concepts like paying with plastic can be abstract without a reality check. Most of all, kids want to enjoy the card and the freedom it provides – it is natural that the problems of payment may not come to their mind when they start using a card. These cards are great because if you do overspend and there is no cash in the card to draw on, the effect is that you cannot just go and get any more money out, with one of these prepaid cards. This soon teaches them a stern and rapidly assimilated lesson.

One way to impress on them how easy it is to overspend and to get into financial trouble is to explain the following true fact to them: Let kids know that people who use credit cards spend more compared with those who use cash or checks.

The extra they spend is substantial as well. One study found that customers at fast-food restaurants spend 50% more when they pay with plastic rather than cash, says Baylor University Marketing Professor James A. T.

When I got my first credit card I was 19. I was financially clueless, and when I got my first card I had left home so my parents were unable to keep an eye on me, or guide me through the youthful danger period with my early cashless purchases. I do wish I has started with a prepaid card.

So, be a responsible parent by ensuring that they are regularly tracking their spending activity. That way your teen will always know how much they are spending, where they have spent it, and how much is on the card.

This helps them to understand budgeting and the value of money, and it makes shopping with their so-called “Visa Bucks” easy. The best repaid cards cost very little, there is no interest that you will be paying, and the companies profit by charging merchants and service providers a fee each time a customer uses the company’s credit card in the merchant’s establishment.

Among the major European countries, Italy and Spain seem to have taken an interest in prepaid products the most avidly. In Asia-Pacific, prepaid cards barely exist although retail gift cards have expanded over recent years.

There are various providers. Naturally, both Visa and Mastercard have their own offerings. However, there are a number of other providers in this market providing a variety of products.

The Blackhawk Network is another prepaid and payments network. They describe themselves as a market leader in card-based financial solutions and the largest provider of third-party prepaid cards. Blackhawk Network describe themselves as developing unique products in easy-to-use formats and it then delivers them to consumers through an exclusive retail network of leading grocery, mass, drug, convenience, and specialty retailers in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

One new prepaid debit card worth mentioning is linked to a Virgin Mobile phone, allowing users to earn free airtime. The extended offering of features includes peer-to-peer money transfers and wireless text alerts to manage spending and prevent fraud, as well as online account management and a savings program. The need for a payment product that gives security and allows them to do something they currently cannot do is almost enough to sell cards in itself these days it seems, as the popularity of this type of card rises.

The ease of obtaining these cards without complex form filling is a big selling point and BanqueCardGold says that now anyone can have a stored value card BanqueCardGold account. This unique new system guarantees an electronic, checkless and virtual bank account for anyone.

Contrast this with increasing security concerns about standard credit card offerings where you may not know you have been hacked until it is too late, and by then the charges may have pretty much wiped out the use of the card. Luckily, the banks realize what fraud is and offer you protection – but this doesn’t mean you get peace of mind.

Teen pp credit cards are a great way to help your teen develop their money management skills and also learn how to save and make wise spending decisions with their money. For those of you who would like to have a debit card without a major commitment something like a Prepaid Visa or Mastercard should work out just fine for you.

Prepaid credit cards also called stored value card can be ideal for individuals who are unemployed, have bad credit or difficulty obtaining an unsecured credit card. Prepaid credit cards are also excellent for individuals who have a hard time controlling their spending and prevent the individual from overspending and getting into credit card debt. If your objective is to establish or rebuild you credit over a period of time, make sure the prepaid card issuer reports cardholder transactions to the credit bureaus namely Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union.

It is very easy to obtain a prepaid credit card because there is no credit check or employment verification since the funds you will be using are yours and not that of the prepaid credit card issuer. Prepaid credit card spending limit or credit line is the amount of money you loaded to your prepaid credit card account. Prepaid credit card carries the Visa or MasterCard logo. It can be used anywhere MasterCard and visa is accepted except renting a car at certain car rental companies and setting up automatic recurring payments.

The difference between a prepaid credit card and a debit card is that the spending transactions are deducted from the amount of money you loaded to your account unlike a debit card where the money spent is subtracted from your checking account and could cause Non-Sufficient Funds (NSF) charges. The NSF charges are due to a customer drawing funds from an ATM or making purchases that exceeds the balance in their checking account. With a prepaid card this will never happen since the prepaid card holder is not borrowing any money and can only spend the amount of money loaded to their prepaid account.

With prepaid credit card there are no interest charges because you are using your own money. To obtain a prepaid credit card requires paying a setup or application fee and may charge a fee each time you load more money to your account. Some of the ways prepaid credit card can be funded is with a wire transfer and a cash deposit at certain locations approved by the issuer.

As a bankruptcy lawyer in Florida I see potential clients every week who hope to find a way to eliminate thousands of dollars in debt and start over with their lives. Some people get themselves into trouble because they gamble or misuse credit cards. Sometimes their businesses fail or they lost their job and couldn’t find another position with a comparable salary. I have the most compassion for those people who have thousands of dollars in medical bills because of health insurance issues.

I had a client once who had been fighting breast cancer. While she was going through cancer treatments her company downsized, and she got laid off and lost her health insurance. She would die without those cancer treatments. She was responding well to the treatments; in fact, when she came to see me, she was in remission. However, her health insurance company opted to not cover her through COBRA. She had to use credit cards to pay for her medications and treatments, and her credit card debt was over $150,000.

Another man had been in a car accident and was in a coma for over a month. He was still on his 90-day probation period with his new job, and his health insurance hadn’t started yet. Life was good and things were looking up. But he got into his car and without warning everything changed. He ended up unconscious in the hospital with broken bones all over. When he came out of his coma, he stayed in the hospital for a while and then went to a nursing home for therapy. His company didn’t hold his job for him, and his house went into foreclosure. The other driver was at fault, but he didn’t have adequate insurance coverage for these kinds of injuries. My client wasn’t covered enough either through his own insurance. Without necessary insurance, car or health, he was now looking at hospital and doctor bills at over $300,000.

A third client came to me with about $110,000 in hospital bills because of his child’s kidney transplant. His health insurance started paying for his child’s medical procedures. Then he lost his full coverage without his or the hospital’s knowledge. Since no one knew the insurance had changed, the doctors continued to treat the child and he even got the kidney transplant he needed. But the insurance company refused to pay many of the bills when they were turned in. The problem was my client had been working full-time but his hours were cut to part-time hours as a cost-saving measure for his company. He didn’t lose his insurance completely, but it was cut back proportionately. He had coverage for doctor visits, trips to the emergency room and over-night stays in the hospital, but his insurance cap was lowered considerably. Any charges over that cap had to be paid for out of pocket. What was really ironic was the operation was done early in December so the child could be home by Christmas. If they had waited until January, the next year’s coverage would have started with a new cap, and my client wouldn’t have been in this situation.

Medical expenses for a catastrophic event can be astronomical, and overwhelming medical expenses is the number one reason people turn to bankruptcy. If someone faces a catastrophic injury or illness with poor or no health insurance coverage, their life and the lives of their loved ones can be ruined.