All Posts Tagged With: "credit"

Think quickly …which would you rather buy: 6 cans of corn at a quarter a piece, or those same cans during a 3 for a $1 deal? Wow … 6 cans for two bucks! Sound good? Well, it’s not because you were just duped into wasting 50¢! The real truth is: advertisers rely on your brain to trick you so they never really have to lie to you to get what they want, which is your money!

And guess what … the grocers aren’t the only ones paying for this deception: most companies are doing it as well. Retailers do it, and so do the insurance agencies! The biggest practitioner of this super dishonest behavior, however, has to be the auto industry … or its car dealerships to better focus the attention. These guys pull no stops when it comes to taking your wallet on a ride, and making you truly feel guilty about you purchase mere days after you drive it off the lot! Let me explain how their word games work, of which it all is when it comes to these clowns … Continued

Got your eye on a new laptop, or a flashy, overpriced digital camera?

Now, at the same time are you low on funds, and seriously contemplating taking those damn credit card companies (who have been flooding your mailbox recently) up on their offer to secure a way too heavy APR line of credit out for it? Well, you better stop right there … before you do anything stupid (truth is: those cards and their companies suck, and they rip people off at the same time) and read the rest of this article. Ready? Ok, let’s move on … Continued

A lot of people just ignore their debt (I don’t know how they do it).

Then there are those wimps who are afraid to contact their creditors. They don’t really seem to understand the step-by-step consequences of not even trying to pay their bills, which I have laid out, in chronological order: 1) your credit rating will definitely be affected, 2) your creditors will seek a judgment in an effort to get paid, 3) your bill will be turned over to a debt collector, 4) your property might be repossessed and your wages may be garnished, and finally 5) you more than likely will be forced into bankruptcy.

While we don’t have enough time here for specific details of the often complicated measures people take in order to get out of debt, we do have enough to review the correct ways to start turning this problem around: Continued

“Pay my bills on time”, you ask? “Avoid late fees?!” What’s all this crazy talk about? Does this sound nice to you? Well then, let’s get started!

Go ahead and grab your bills for a second! If at all possible, start thinking about automatic bill payments while you’re gathering them. That’s right, today most utilities companies and other “makers” of bills (yea, I know— sounds like ol’ GWB a little) will let you set up your bills to be either charged on a credit card or directly deducted from your checking account. Who knew? Also, many banks now offer free bill-paying programs. Is that right (note: it is)? So what’s your excuse going to be now for forgetting to pay on time, which always leads to unnecessary late fees? “I’m already late, so who cares?” you answer (wow, a curve-ball)? Well, why not call the company and “politely” request a late fee waiver (most of the times, they’ll give it to you). Continued

Americans are the biggest borrowers in the world. We’re also the most in debt!

“Why is this,” you ask? Well, after World War II, our grandparents (or parents for you old-heads) had a large increase in money available to them for both consumer goods and to help establish credit. As they acquired more and more household wealth, they also became more credit-worthy, both to the lenders and in their own eyes. The result has been the complete, social acceptance of debt.

Skip to today, and payments on mortgage and consumer debts absorb almost three-fourths of the average citizen’s annual income (and that’s after taxes). For most people, there’s not much left after this. A lot of Americans are being forced to use one credit card to pay on another, or to delay one bill so another overdue bill can be paid. To top this off, personal bankruptcies had doubled in the past decade, and most of the people who filed for them had jobs. Unexpected bills and reductions in worker’s pay were the root causes for these bankruptcies. Americans can simply not afford any more debt. Scary to think about, right? Continued