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Credit Card Interest Rates - Why It's Important To Understand How They Work
Einstein put it best when he said, "Compounding interest is the
greatest mathematical discovery of all time". Now the question
you need to ask is, "Do I want this force working for me or
against me?" If you own a credit card and you...
How Credit Repair Saved My Life
Once upon a time in my life, I was dead. Dead not in the physical sense mind you, but the consumer sense. You see, I had bad credit. Actually, bad credit would have been an upgrade. I even got a denied letter for a debit card. That's right, the...
Prepaid Credit Cards
Prepaid Credit Cards revealed
With the new bankruptcy laws in place, people are trying to find new methods of having credit cards without the bill at the end of the month. Not all prepaid cards are the same, so the consumer should be fully aware of...
Preventative Measures For Credit Card Fraud?
If you’ve ever been the victim of credit card fraud, then you know just how traumatic it can be. What’s more, if not detected early enough, it could leave bad marks on your credit report that could haunt you for years. The most commonly thought of...
Reversing Credit Repair
If you want to reverse your credit repair and land deeper in debt, let me show you how. Have you ever seen the advertisings that say you qualify for $10,000 in credit and your credit will increase once you accept the terms & conditions and also send...
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Credit Counseling – Get in Line Now to Avoid the Upcoming Rush
Credit counseling is a valuable service for consumers who have trouble managing their finances. A distinctly different service from debt consolidation, credit counseling assists consumers with problem debt by educating them about the basics of money management. Americans really don’t get the education they need about how to manage bank accounts, balance checkbooks, or pay bills on time, and credit counseling can provide these services as well as others. By educating consumers, counselors hope to reduce the number of debtors who are forced to file for bankruptcy. Anyone whose financial situation is such that they would benefit from credit counseling may wish to seek it out in a hurry, however. A number of different factors are coming together in such a way that the counseling industry may soon be completely swamped with more clients than it can handle.
Recently passed bankruptcy legislation, designed to reduce the number of consumer bankruptcy filings, will now make credit counseling mandatory as a prerequisite for a bankruptcy petition. Anyone who wishes to file for bankruptcy relief must first demonstrate that he or she has undergone credit counseling during the past six months. By requiring counseling as a condition of debt relief, Congress hopes to reduce or eliminate repeat filers. The counseling industry is preparing for the additional customers now, as the new law is set to take effect in October 2005.
Other factors will weigh heavily on the counseling industry, however. A 2003 law passed by Congress requires credit card companies to raise their minimum payments so that their customers can repay their balances more quickly. This has resulted in the near-doubling of
minimum payments, and the average American household, which has a credit card balance of $10,000, will see their minimum monthly payment rise from $200 to $400. Since many households can only afford the minimum payment now, the hike in the minimum due may drive more Americans into counseling and bankruptcy.
The increased reliance upon interest-only mortgages and low-interest adjustable rate mortgages could be a factor, too, if home prices either fall or fail to increase as they have. The sky-high prices in many markets have led homebuyers to purchase more homes than they can really afford, often using mortgages that are themselves riskier than the traditional 30-year loan. Should interest rates rise or housing prices fall, tens of thousands of homeowners will find themselves with loans that either exceed the value of the home or are unaffordable.
Those in the credit counseling industry say that this is a critical time, and the combination of new laws, fragile markets, and credit card industry overhaul could push a number of consumers towards bankruptcy and mandatory counseling. Anyone with problem debt who might benefit from counseling should consider doing so sooner, rather than later, as qualified credit counselors may be quite busy this fall.
About the Author
©Copyright 2005 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 debt consolidation and credit counseling, and HomeEquityHelp.com, a site devoted to information regarding mortgages and home equity lending .
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