One Declaration of Independence copy sold for $477,650

Rare 1823 copy auctioned for $477,650 after being bought for $2.48

Talk about a profit! Wow, time to start looking in the local thrift stores!

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A rare 1823 copy of the Declaration of Independence sold at auction for $477,650 by a man who found it last year in a Nashville thrift store for $2.48.

Michael Sparks, a music equipment technician, sold the document Thursday at Raynors’ Historical Collectible Auctions in Burlington, N.C.

Six bidders contended for the document, most by phone or Internet, when bidding opened at $125,000. The identity of the winner was not disclosed.

To read more visit the website now…

How much do you owe? Is Debt Settlement for You?

We would like to know just what our visitors are looking for? Whether it is debt settlement, debt consolidation, credit repair, or refinancing.

We have added a poll on the left side of our blog to see what most of you owe. We are not tracking this poll in any way except to see the debt amount. It is totally anonymous.

Thank you for your participation.

This is the first part of an article that we found at MSN Money. This is one of the reasons that if you are one of the unsuspecting people that has fallen for what Capital One and many other credit card companies are doing, you should contact us about settling your debts and stop the game they are playing with you.

Capital One Financial keeps the limits low and offers its most vulnerable borrowers additional cards instead — helping them dig ever-deeper holes with penalties of hundreds of dollars a month.

When Brad Kehn received his first credit card from Capital One Financial in 2004, it took him only three months to exceed its $300 credit limit and get socked with a $35 over-limit fee. But what surprised the Plankinton, S.D., resident more was that Cap One then offered him another card, even though he was over the limit — and then another and another.

By early 2006, he and his wife had six Cap One Visa cards and MasterCards. They were in over their heads.

The Kehns were late and over the limit on all six cards, despite occasionally borrowing from one to pay the other. Every month they chalked up $70 in late and over-limit fees on each card, for a total of $420, in addition to paying high interest rates as a penalty.

The couple fell further behind as their Cap One balances soared. Even so, they still received mail offers for more Cap One cards. "I didn’t open them," says Kehn, 33, who manages a truck stop and runs a carpet-cleaning business on the side. "I owe these people that much damn money and they are willing to give me another credit card? This is nuts." The Kehns sought relief at a credit counseling agency last May.

Credit card experts and counselors who help overextended debtors contend that Cap One is simply aiming to maximize fee income from debtors who may be less sophisticated and who may not have many options because of their credit history.

By offering several cards with low limits, instead of one with a larger limit, the odds increase that cardholders will exceed their limits, garnering over-limit fees. Juggling several cards also increases the chance consumers will be late on a payment, incurring an additional fee. And if cardholders fall behind, they pile up over-limit and late fees on several cards instead of just one.

 

To learn more about what we do go to this debt settlement page and contact us as soon as you can!

 

 

Despite growing publicity about ’soft’ addictions, drinking, smoking, drug abuse, overeating and gambling still are the most costly to society.

Addictions are all the rage. Life experts popping up everywhere from group-speaking engagements to "The Oprah Winfrey Show" are extolling the dangers of overdoing activities from shopping and watching television to surfing the Web, drinking coffee and even daydreaming. Some even include excess complaining on the list.

"Everyone has some sort of (addiction), whether it’s constantly checking your finances or just biting your nails," says Judith Miller, an author and speaker on the subject. "The problem is doing these things beyond their intended use, and they dominate your life."

Worrisome? Perhaps. But despite the hype, the overall economic effects of "soft addictions" pale in comparison with traditional "hard addictions" like drug abuse and alcoholism. While common sense says that those who spend work hours popping out to the store for a new pair of shoes or surfing the Web for personal use probably cost employers something in lost productivity, there’s no definitive proof that employee "downtime" is any more prevalent than it was a generation ago, when telephone and water-cooler banter was in.

To be sure, there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that people can flirt with financial distress when overindulging in their favorite hobbies or escapes. Miller says the typical person she’s met on her speaking and research travels spends $15,000 a year on his or her soft addictions, and that no one has ever spent less than $3,000.

Statistical evidence sparse
But there’s precious little scientific quantification to enable economists to determine how much these problems really cost. Take sex addiction; it’s good for headlines whenever it gets discussed, and it’s considered a serious malady by the medical profession, but no formal cost studies exist.

Treatment-Center.net, an online service that compiles lists of treatment facilities around the country, estimated that the percentage of U.S. men addicted to pornography has grown to 20%, from 6%, in the past 10 years. That sounds plausible — the Internet’s been growing at an explosive rate during that time. But how much does this cost the economy? No one can say.

"We don’t have government funds to carve out as much data for things like sex addictions, exercise and others," says John Fitzgerald of the Center for Addiction Management.

Some companies, such as New York tech advisory firm Basex and outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas, have tried to quantify the productivity costs of employees distracted by online activity, such as fantasy sports. But the methodology, which is simply to multiply average employee wages by an estimated number of minutes per day online, essentially treats people as robots who would normally spend every moment in full concentration mode.

That’s never been the case. Why not look into how much productivity is supposedly lost by bathroom breaks or endless meetings?

The biggest problem, from an economic perspective, is that despite all these ills attacking the labor force, government statistics show that, thanks to technology, the average worker is twice as productive today as he or she was 40 years ago, meaning that an occasionally distracted employee is a small price for a business to pay for so much more output.

‘Hard’ addictions most costly
Meanwhile, studies compiled by various government health agencies show that the five most-chronicled "hard" addictions — alcohol, drugs, tobacco, gambling and eating disorders — are what society truly pays for. Those maladies cost taxpayers and businesses $590 billion annually, primarily in lost productivity and government-assisted medical treatment. That’s about 5% of the national debt. And it doesn’t count the sometimes bankrupting amounts of money those people personally spend on drugs, liquor, cigarettes or at the craps tables. Economically, those purchases are treated as pure transfer payments, no different than any other form of shopping.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) estimates that a combined $276 billion was spent or lost in 2005 on health care, lost productivity, premature death, auto accidents and crime relating to drug and alcohol abuse. Approximately three-quarters of that money came from public sources, it found.

About $18 billion of the tab went for treatment, even though fewer than 15% of the estimated 22 million Americans who engage in substance abuse actually seek treatment.

Early intervention recommended
"Many don’t recognize they have a problem. Plus, there’s the stigma," says Jack Stein, a SAMHSA director. He favors early intervention, including questioning of hospital patients by medical professionals who are qualified to detect an alcohol or drug problem.

Fitzgerald believes that standard inpatient treatment for a set period of time, or until an addict is "cured," is ineffective. He’s found that with his patients, brief periodic follow-up visits make a big difference in keeping them sober.

"The real issue is keeping people connected with their treatment after their main rehab; it should be more about long-term management." he says.

Cigarette smoking, despite a shift in public attitudes over the years that’s raised its social stigma, costs taxpayers $157 billion annually in medical expenses and lost productivity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There are some outward signs that more people are kicking the habit. According to the Treasury Department, the 378 billion cigarettes officially sold in the United States last year represent a 21% drop from 1998, the year a group of state attorneys general secured a landmark settlement against the tobacco industry. The lawyers were quick to take credit for the sales decline in a statement this year, claiming that by "focusing attention on the conduct of tobacco companies and the dangers of cigarette smoking," they compelled more people to quit.

But given that the surgeon general’s landmark warning on smoking came in 1964, it’s doubtful that many people needed a reminder of cigarettes’ health risks decades later. More likely, the sky-high taxes imposed by federal, state and local governments sent a good chunk of the business underground.

Meanwhile, eating disorders carry a $107 billion price tag, according to the National Institutes of Health. The estimated 39 million workdays lost to obesity-related problems cost businesses about $4 billion annually in lost productivity. And to think, some people criticized Wal-Mart Stores for considering a policy of attracting and retaining healthy employees.

Physical addictions aren’t the only serious problems. Compulsive gambling, defined by the American Psychological Association as a mental health disorder of impulse control, accounts for $40 billion in annual losses from counseling, productivity declines and social services, according to an estimate by the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, a body created by Congress to study the problem.

Cutting down on shopping or television may make sense for plenty of people, but it’s probably not a life or death decision. And neither your boss nor your fellow taxpayers are likely to care — at least not until there’s research out there that shows they should.

The 5 most expensive addictions

• Alcohol. Estimated annual cost: $166 billion. Binge drinking hits the unemployed harder on a per capita basis — 10.4%, vs. 8.4% of employed people. It is most prevalent in small metropolitan locales, rather than big cities or rural areas. The $18 billion spent on alcohol and drug treatment last year represented 1.3% of all health care spending.
• Smoking. Estimated annual cost: $157 billion. The tab includes $75 billion in direct medical expenses, with the rest in lost productivity from ill patients missing work. Given the low-tax (or no-tax) underground cigarette economy on the Web and on Indian reservations, it’s unlikely that sales and usage have dropped much over the past decade, official government statistics notwithstanding.
• Drugs. Estimated annual cost: $110 billion. Like alcohol, illicit drug use is more prevalent among the unemployed. Most addicts are also heavy drinkers, though only a small minority of alcoholics are drug abusers. Crystal meth has followed marijuana, cocaine and heroin as the drug of choice among the young set.
• Overeating. Estimated annual cost: $107 billion. Overeating increases the risk of many health problems, including heart attacks. Obesity causes 14% of attacks suffered by males and 20% of those suffered by females, the National Institutes for Health says, and fewer than a third of adults get regular exercise. The bulk of the $107 billion is the direct cost to treat heart disease, osteoarthritis, hypertension, gall bladder disease and cancer.
• Gambling. Estimated annual cost: $40 billion. Addicted gamblers often feel compelled to chase after bad bets with more money in the hope of winning back their losses. And some who catch the fever develop the need to periodically raise the betting stakes to keep the same thrill. Also, addicts often face job loss, bankruptcy and forced home sales, and they are at greater risk to commit crimes like forgery and embezzlement.

Juggling balances between credit cards in search of lower rates may just leave you deeper in debt. Here’s how many consumers reach balance-transfer hell -– and how to escape.

 

Like high-stakes gambling, there’s no question that the credit-card balance transfer game is a racket. Still, a lot of people think that if they can master the rules of the house, they’ll come out on top.

Unfortunately, the deck is literally stacked against you. And overconfident (or poorly informed) consumers who rely on balance transfers as a means to cope with debt may find themselves sucked into a scary downward financial spiral.

That’s what happened to Kimberly Mufferi and Colleen Mastro, two New York friends who started with modest amounts of credit card debt in college and quickly fell into balance-transfer hell.

The temptation of plastic

Like many young people, Kim, 25, is an old hand with credit cards. She got her first when she went to college. She used plastic to pay for living expenses like food, books, gas, car repairs and moving expenses.

Five years ago she read up on balance transfers — the pros, cons and pitfalls — and started moving her balances around. "I was always responsible," Kim says. "I never missed a payment, I never made a late payment. I stayed on top of the deadlines."

If she’d stayed the course, she might be within striking distance of a debt-free life right now.

But Kim ran up against one of the biggest flaws in the balance-transfer plan: the temptation of all that empty plastic.

"I’d transfer the balance to the new card — and I’d end up using the old card again," she admits. "Something would always come up. It would be the end of the month and I wouldn’t have enough for rent, or my sister would come visit and I’d take her to dinner. I just kept saying to myself, ‘I’ll pay it off, I’ll pay it off.’"

Kim’s financial Waterloo

Now Kim is $21,000 in debt. And although it’s distributed between three cards with very low rates — 0%, 1.99% and 3.99% — she’s about to face an even bigger financial hurdle.

In November, the grace period on her student loans runs out and she has to begin paying back $50,000 in federal and private loans.

Kim’s parents are not in a position to help her, so she’s trying to figure out what to do. She had hoped that by maintaining her debt at super-low interest rates she would have it under control.

She is able to pay a bit more than the minimums — about $400 to $500 a month all together. But on a bartender’s salary of roughly $2,800 a month, she’s beginning to worry: "Will I ever pay off any of my debt this way?"

Caught in a balance-transfer nightmare

If Kim’s story illustrates how this strategy can lead you down the rabbit hole to more debt, Colleen’s experience shows how the balance-transfer fantasy can turn into a genuine nightmare.

Colleen, 25, got her first credit card in high school, but it wasn’t until college that the debt started mounting. "None of this is some wild spending spree," she says. "It’s mainly food, which makes me sick."

When she graduated from college in 2004, she only had a few thousand dollars in debt on one card. But the job market was tight and so was money, so it made sense to reduce her monthly payments by transferring her balance to a lower-interest card.

It wasn’t long before the house of cards imploded. At one point, she tried to make a transfer, but the new card only accepted part of her balance. "So now I had two cards," she said. "So I tried to do it again, to get all the balances on one card — and then it got too confusing. I couldn’t remember which ones to use, which ones not to use."

Next, Murphy’s Law of Money kicked in, as reliably as the law of gravity: If you’re on the edge financially, brace yourself for the fall.

After a major work dispute, Colleen quit her job earlier this year. "Suddenly, I had no money and I couldn’t make the minimum payments."

Not only did she get hit with a slew of late fees, but because she was so close to her limit, now she faced over-limit charges from her creditors. And the interest rate on all three cards shot up to 33%.

Colleen’s financial paralysis

After February, Colleen says her minimum payments were hiked into the hundreds of dollars — and she simply stopped paying those bills. "One was so high, I just started laughing," she says. Another recently sent her a letter demanding that she pay her balance in full.

The irony: Colleen’s total debt load is a relatively manageable $12,000. But with those stratospheric rates, there’s no way she can keep up.

Looking back, she says, "I was looking for a way to beat the system. I thought, if I could transfer my debt to a zero-interest card I would pay it off and never pay any interest."

Like Kim, she can’t turn to her parents for help, and she’s living on a waitress’ salary of about $2,000 a month while she looks for a full-time job. In the meantime, she says, she just doesn’t pick up the phone.

Cleaning up the balance-transfer mess

Despite the similarities of their situations, the two dilemmas require very different solutions, says Gerri Detweiler, author of "The Ultimate Credit Handbook."

Although Kim has a great deal more debt than Colleen, she’s kept her accounts current — and her interest rates low. And she’s able to maintain her payments.

For those reasons, Detweiler pretty much rules out either a debt-consolidation loan or using a credit-counseling service. Here’s why:

• Kim isn’t likely to get a loan with a lower interest rate than what she has now.
• She has already accomplished most of what a credit-counseling service would do: She is paying the lowest rate possible and making steady payments. "There’s probably not a lot of relief there," Detweiler says.
• Besides, if Kim signed up for a debt-repayment plan with a credit-counseling service, her battered credit rating would take another hit — and she would be forced to close her existing accounts, which won’t help her credit in the long run.

Keeping your head above water

Still, Detweiler says, Kim can only keep this ball rolling for so long. "She’ll be okay in terms of not going into collections, but it doesn’t take a late payment or a default for her creditors to raise the interest rates." Creditors can raise your rates simply because your debt levels are too high, Detweiler says.

Detweiler’s advice to Kim:

• Quit using the cards and buckle down on any extraneous spending.
• Get a second job and put every penny toward debt. (This step is key, given the additional pressure student loans will bring.)
• Use the Debt Evaluation Calculator to determine how quickly she can pay down her credit cards.

If there’s no way Kim can bail herself out of the hole in three or four years, her best bet may be to reconsider the services of a credit-counseling agency — especially if her interest rates have jumped or the card payments plus the student loans are unmanageable.

Settling your debts

Colleen, on the other hand, could be a prime candidate for a debt-consolidation loan or the help of a credit-counseling agency — "but she’ll still have to pay off 100% of her debts," Detweiler says, "just at a lower rate."

Instead, given Colleen’s financial straits and her rapidly mounting bills, Detweiler thinks her best bet might be to negotiate a settlement with her creditors. Because Colleen literally cannot afford to pay her bills at this point, her creditors may consider an offer to pay, say, half of what she owes rather than lose all the money.

"Settlement" is a dirty word to some, notes Charles Phelan, a former debt-settlement lawyer who now runs an educational Web site for consumers at ZipDebt.com (the blog part of the site contains valuable news and information as well). But for people like Colleen, who have defaulted on their debt, settling is a far better option than bankruptcy.

"There are two ways to do it," says Phelan. "You can hire a third party to negotiate for you — or you can do it yourself."

Having worked in the debt-settlement business for many years, Phelan believes consumers can do this themselves. (His site offers a detailed audio CD program and coaching service for about $400).

Otherwise, consumers who hire a third party can pay fees as high as 15% of their total debt — and they face steep minimum payments. (One debt-settlement law firm Colleen spoke to said she would have to pay them $25 for every $100 they knocked off her total balance.)

Settlement tips from a pro

Here are some reasons Colleen might consider negotiating a settlement — and the pros and cons she should weigh:

• "Credit is important, but debt is life threatening," says Phelan, who points out that the sooner Colleen can pay off her debt, the sooner she can get on with life.
• A debt settlement shows up as a black mark on your credit history — but it’s not as long-lasting as a bankruptcy. "She’s young enough to recover from that," Phelan says.
• Negotiating a settlement may be unsettling to consumers, but Phelan points out that "settling your debt in the range of 35% to 50% is not out of the ordinary for these companies. It’s just part of the business of debt and credit."
• That doesn’t mean settlements come easy. Colleen could call her banks, explain her situation and make them an offer — but the situation might take months to resolve. "Success has a lot to do with the timing of your offers," says Phelan.
• Communication is key, he emphasizes. "Be forthcoming about the nature of your financial hardship, and that your intention is to work out something that works for both sides."

Last, he notes, get everything in writing. "It’s not a settlement until you do," he says.

 Debt Settlement information can be found at our blog or by clicking on this debt settlement link

 

 

It may not be your debt, but it could be your problem. Collection agencies are bullying blameless consumers into paying debts they never owed. If what you are about to read is happening to you, please contact as soon as possible! We have 20 years experience fighting debt collectors that are not playing by the rules. Let go after them and stop them from destroying your credit!

By Liz Pulliam Weston
Lisa Burk isn’t Lisa Sterns, but Allied Interstate refused to believe her.

The Minneapolis collection agency repeatedly called Lisa and her husband, Michael, according to a lawsuit filed by the Minnesota attorney general, and demanded that the couple pay a debt owed by one Lisa Sterns. The couple, just as repeatedly, told the collector they didn’t know any Lisa Sterns and asked the company to stop calling.

Allied ignored the couple’s requests. At one point, the collector insisted that the Burks were lying or, if Lisa Burk were not Lisa Sterns, that she knew Sterns and could tell Allied Interstate where to find her. It took intervention by the attorney generals office for the calls to finally stop.

The Burks’ experience with abusive collection agency tactics was annoying. Paul Alappat’s encounter with a collector was expensive.

Alappat said he was called two or three times by Buffalo, N.Y., collection agency Capital Management Services about a Chase Bank credit-card debt. Alappat told the collector he had never possessed a Chase Bank card and asked them to stop calling him.

When he applied for a home-equity loan two years later, however, the collection showed up on his credit report. His lender told him that if the $394.74 debt were not resolved, the loan couldn’t be made.

"Since I was in a hurry to get the loan approved," Alappat said, "I paid the full amount, including the interest."

Bullying the innocent
Alappat’s got company. Regulators say collection agencies increasingly are harassing innocent people and badgering consumers into paying money they don’t owe. More people complain to the Federal Trade Commission about debt collectors than about any other industry, and consumer attorneys say a booming trade in old, poorly documented debts is fueling the problem.

Consider: The FTC charged that as much as 80% of the money collected by Capital Acquisitions and Management (CAMCO), a large debt-collection firm, came "from consumers who never owed the original debt in the first place." These consumers typically paid the company to stop its harassment of themselves, their families, their friends and their co-workers. CAMCO agreed to a $300,000 civil penalty in March 2004, but in the ensuing eight months the problems continued. The FTC received more than 2,000 additional consumer complaints about the company — three times more than the agency received in the two years prior to the settlement. The FTC eventually succeeded in shutting CAMCO down.

In July 2005, the FTC won a record $10.2 million court judgment against National Check Control after accusing the debt collector of illegally threatening consumers with arrest and wage garnishment. Again, many of the consumers targeted by National Check Control didn’t owe the original debt, the FTC said.

Allied Interstate, the company that contacted the Burks, was sued by the Minnesota attorney general for repeatedly calling innocent consumers despite requests to stop. Allied eventually agreed to a settlement that prohibits it from contacting such consumers after being orally told that they don’t owe the debts in question.

Applied Card Systems hassled relatives, neighbors and employers with repeated phone calls in its efforts to track down debtors, according to the FTC. The company ignored requests to stop calling, and its representatives sometimes used obscene language when its hapless targets protested that they didn’t know how to contact the debtors. The company agreed to a consent decree that prohibits it from harassing consumers.

Collectors cross the line
Debt collectors protest that most firms are ethical, law-abiding and provide a needed service that helps reduce borrowing costs for all consumers. But the new economics of debt collection can encourage belligerent campaigns, including dogged pursuit of innocent consumers.

As I discussed in "Zombie debt is hard to kill," there is now a booming market in the pursuit of debts so ancient that they used to be considered uncollectible. This year a whopping $110 billion of such debt is expected to be sold to collection agencies, up from virtually nothing 10 years ago.

Because the old liabilities cost collectors as little as 25 cents for each $100 in face value, companies can make a profit if they can get debtors to repay even a tiny fraction. Along the way, some collectors realized they also could squeeze money from people who didn’t even owe it.

Some consumers pay because their finances are so disorganized they don’t realize the debt isn’t theirs. Others are coerced into paying by illegal threats of lawsuits or ruined credit. Some, like Alappat, pay rather than risk losing a desired loan.

‘Why are they allowed to do this?’
The collectors are nothing if not persistent. Mary Kitzmann of Alexandria, Minn., endured four months of calls from Allied Interstate over a debt she didn’t owe before the state attorney generals office succeeded in getting the company to admit it had made a mistake. Five months after that admission, Allied called Kitzmann again, trying to collect the bogus debt.

Some consumers endure collection attempts from a string of different companies as one collector sells its uncollectible debts to another.

A collector tried to dun Phyllis Maurice of Whittier, Calif., for more than $23,000, saying she owed the money in advertising services for two businesses: a detective agency and a psychic consultancy.

"I have been a preschool teacher for over 30 years and have never owned (either business)," Maurice said.

Maurice enlisted the help of an attorney friend who wrote the collector a strongly worded letter, demanding proof that the debt was Maurice’s. Maurice hasn’t heard from that collector, but later she got a call from another collection agency about the same debt.

"Why are they allowed to do this?" Maurice fumed. "What can we do to stop these scoundrels?"

Maurice was actually fortunate because she had access to an attorney who could advise her of the law. Many consumers have no idea of their rights in such situations, Cox said.

Your rights and how to use them
Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, collectors are supposed to advise consumers that they have a right to dispute the debt, but that if consumers don’t do so promptly — and in writing — the collector can assume after 30 days that the debt is valid.

Once collectors are notified that they’ve contacted the wrong party or that the consumer denies owing the debt, the companies are supposed to provide proof of the debts’ validity. If they can’t supply the proof, collections are required by law to cease.

Of course, some collectors simply ignore laws designed to protect consumers. But debt experts say your chances of getting a collector to back off improve when you know your rights and assert them forcefully.

 

If you’re contacted about a debt you don’t owe:

Know your rights. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse has prepared a fact sheet for consumers dealing with third-party debt collectors.

Get the name of the collector, its address and a telephone number. You can tell the collector on the phone to stop calling, but that won’t preserve your rights under federal law.

Send a certified letter, return receipt requested. Make it clear the collector has contacted the wrong party, that you don’t owe the debt and that you don’t want to be called again.

Contact regulators. If the collector continues to call, seek help. Typically, your state’s attorney general’s office handles complaints against collectors. You can also complain to the Federal Trade Commission, which typically doesn’t intervene in individual cases but may act if it sees a pattern of abuses.

Monitor your credit reports. If a collection agency posts a bogus debt on your credit report, dispute the item immediately with the credit bureaus. Include copies of the certified letter you sent the collector and any complaints you filed with regulators. Don’t wait until you’re about to apply for a loan to check your credit report; you’ll want at least a few months’ head start to dispute any errors.

Consider a lawsuit. Consumers can bring lawsuits against collectors that violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, either on their own behalf or as part of a class action. Contact the National Association of Consumer Advocates for referrals to attorneys who handle such cases.

Liz Pulliam Weston’s column appears every Monday and Thursday, exclusively on MSN Money. http://moneycentral.msn.com/

When it comes to controlling debt, or getting out of debt, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. There is, however, one constant when it comes to controlling debt and getting out of debt: knowledge. Learn the 8 things you need to know in order to control your debt rather than allow it to control you.

Contact us at http://www.totalcreditrestoration.com

1) Good Debt Exists

Despite what some people (coughcoughDaveRamseycoughcough) will have you believe, some debt is actually good.
Borrowing money to purchase a home, or to complete your education, is generally considered "good" debt; the asset you’re gaining - and education is an asset - continues to appreciate in value as the principal balance of your loan decreases. Add into that a generally lower interest rate and a tax deduction on your interest payments, and it’s win-win.

2) And Of Course, So Does Bad Debt

The average American household carries about $9,300 in credit card debt according to CardWeb.com.
Most credit cards carry an interest rate in the mid to high teens, so using it to pay for consumable items like meals or vacations that you couldn’t otherwise afford can rack up the debt pretty quickly, and leave you with little to show for it but a sunburn and too-tight pants. If you can’t pay for something over the next month or two, you probably can’t afford it.

3) Controlling Your Spending Is the First Step to Controlling Debt

If you don’t spend, you don’t owe, pretty simple, right? Most people spends thousands of dollars a year and have no idea where that money went.
Start by tracking your spending for a month using a small notebook to write down every cent you spend. At the end of the month, sit down and see where your money is going, and where you can cut back. If see that you’re spending $20 a week on coffee, put that money instead into a savings account, and by the end of the year, you’ll be $980 richer.

4) Pay the Debts With The Highest Interest Rate First

This seems like common sense, right? Some self-professed debt experts recommend starting first with the smallest debt, and ignoring interest rates all together. This can cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars in unnecessary interest payments.
Snowballing your debt is an easy way to get control of your debt and quickly eliminate it without going broke. Debts with higher interest rates continue to grow quickly, and by not tackling them first, it will take you longer to pay down your debt.

5) Plan for Emergencies, But Not At the Expense of Reducing Your Debt

Establishing an emergency fund is an excellent idea when you’re getting serious about getting out of debt. It’s important to remember, however, that emergencies may or may not happen, while your monthly bills, and their interest rates, are a sure thing.
Try to figure out how much you can afford to spend each month, and devote a small portion of that to savings, while you put the rest into getting your debt paid down to avoid paying more interest than you have to.

6) Don’t Pay that Mortgage Off Yet!

A mortgage is "good debt", so you want to hang onto that one until the rest of your debts are paid off, you have a comfortable savings account established, and you’re ready to start devoting some of your disposable income to paying off your house.
Interest rates on mortgages tend to be lower than on most other types of loans, including student loans, and the interest you pay is tax deductible up to $1 million. Consider putting that money into a mid-term CD instead to maximize your savings.

7) Never, Ever Pay the Minimum!

Sometimes you’ll have to pay only the minimum, but if you can afford to pay more than the monthly minimum on your credit cards, DO IT!
With the change in banking regulations resulting in an increase in minimum credit card payments, your debt likely won’t increase faster than you can pay it down. However, even an extra $10 a month on a $5000 balance at 18% interest can save you $4850 in interest and be paid off 262 months sooner.

If You Need Help, Get It

If you feel like you’re drowning in debt, get help. There are a number of ways to deal with debt and the sooner you can get started, and get control over your debt, the less control your debt will have over your life.

 

We are ready to help you over come the heavy burden of debt. Contact us at http://www.totalcreditrestoration.com

What is debt settlement?

Debt Settlement is a process to settle your debts with the creditors. With debt settlement, a third party or you yourself negotiate with your creditors to come up with a reduced debt that you agree to pay. The reduction is usually between 30-60% of the total original debt amount.

Attributes of Debt Settlement:

Debt Settlement programs gives you a lot of options to clean your debts. It reduces your principal debt amount, eliminates your late fees, lowers your APR, and provides you the flexibility to repay your debts within your chosen time span.

To learn more visit our debt settlement page.

What is debt settlement?

Debt Settlement is a process to settle your debts with the creditors. With debt settlement, a third party or you yourself negotiate with your creditors to come up with a reduced debt that you agree to pay. The reduction is usually between 30-60% of the total original debt amount.

Attributes of Debt Settlement:

Debt Settlement programs gives you a lot of options to clean your debts. It reduces your principal debt amount, eliminates your late fees, lowers your APR, and provides you the flexibility to repay your debts within your chosen time span.

Principal debt amount: Most debt settlement firms negotiate with your creditors and reduce the principal debt amount you owe. For example, in maximum cases 40-60% of the original debt amount is reduced.

Late fee charges: Some debt settlement firms waive off your entire late fee charges. It is sometimes seen that late fee charges club to form a major portion of your debt amount. Thus elimination of late fees can save hundred of dollars.

APR: Some debt settlement programs are done to reduce the high APR’s for a particular account. For example, some debt settlement company may notify that APR has been reduced to 8% for the proposals accepted after 10th September and reduced to 0% for all proposals accepted before 10th September.

Monthly installments: Debt settlement programs are also determined on the amount you pay on monthly installments. In this process you have to pay a single monthly amount to a debt settlement firm in order to settle your debts. The more you can pay the lesser period of time you take to settle your debt. The amount of your monthly installment is fixed by the debt settlement company based on your present financial status.

Annual time frame: Debt settlement is also chalked out on the basis of extended time periods. In such cases you have the provision to extend your time period from 2 years to 4 years or sometimes even longer. This is helpful for people who cannot afford to pay at one go.

How long does a debt settlement process take?

A normal credit card debt settlement case might take 3-9 months. If someone wanted to speed up the progress it could be shortened to 1-3 months. Someone wishing to stretch things out could find the time extended to 12-18 months. Some special debt management and debt reduction firms can even lengthen the process to 4 years or more.

How much do these firms usually charge?

Most debt settlement companies are transparent about their fee structure but you are advised to check out if there are any hidden fees involved in the settlement process. On an average the charge of debt reduction firms range from 8%-15% of the total outstanding debt.

The advantages of debt settlement:

Debt Settlement is one of the quickest and best ways to improve your Credit Report.

Avoid being harassed by the abusive creditors.

Many collection agencies will settle a debt between 40%-60% of the original debt amount. In this process you can save thousands of dollars. You will only have to make a single payment every month.

With debt settlement your time will be saved and your debts will be eliminated within 2 to 4 years. It is also less likely that you will have to fight the creditor later to actually delete the negative listing.

The disadvantages of debt settlement:

Your credit will be affected in a negative manner. This will be reflected on your credit report for the next 7-10 years. However, despite this fact consumers still opt for debt settlement and avoid bankruptcy.

There is a probability that creditors will continue to harass you throughout the process of negotiations and may even sue you or garnish your wage. However, only one creditor may garnish you at a time, and in some states, you may not be garnished at all. Some debt settlement companies will only accept you, if you have $10,000 or more in credit.

7 attorney tips for debt settlement:

• Be honest but represent your financial position to be unfavorable.
• If considering bankruptcy, say so. But do not incur any other debt after saying so.
• Never disclose where you work or bank.
• Don’t hire a lawyer if you are not sure that you are in good standing when compared to your creditor.
• If you are contacted more than one creditor for the same debt, be sure that your account is sold off to a second creditor. This indicates that you have avoided the first creditor really well.
• If the creditor agrees to settle for full then make sure that your account status also shows "satisfied in full".
• There are high chances that you may have income tax on the debt owed after settlement. The creditor might send you a 1099-C at the end of the financial year. You are then required to report the amount listed in the 1099-C as income.

When negotiating the terms of the settlement, make sure you cover all the important terms:

• How payment is to be made.
• When payment is to be made.
• Where payment must be sent.
• That payment does not constitute admission of liability for the debt.

That the agreed settlement is in full satisfaction of the debt.

In addition to the above terms, it’s important to consider the credit reporting implications, and to address them. After seven years most debts may no longer be included in your credit report. Be aware that paying a debt can "re-start the clock" for reporting purposes, so if your debt is several years old, you will want to negotiate how the debt is dealt with for credit reporting purposes.

It makes sense, therefore, to require that the debt be reported as "deleted" to the credit bureaus as a condition of the settlement of the debt. This will ensure that the debt is not essentially "re-aged" by your settling the debt. If you are unable to get the collector to agree to simply report the debt as "deleted", insist that it be reported simply as "paid" with no further wording, such as "paid-charge-off" or "paid collection".