by admin | Bankruptcy, Credit Counseling
Bygones are not bygones in the world of banking and finance. What you do in the past, always comes around and determines the course of the future for you. In the world of credit, your worth is determined by a magic number called a Credit score. This is a mathematical way of expressing the creditworthiness of a person who is applying for credit approval. A credit score is determined by taking five elements into consideration.
- Amount you owe
- Length of time you have been using credit
- The credit mix you have
- New credit accounts you open
- Payment history
Every element has a different weightage when it comes to evaluating your credit score. However, your credit history takes the big chunk of it and has the most significant impact.
The first thing a creditor looks at is your credit history, to get an idea of whether you are good at keeping up your end of the bargain or not. Whether you made the payment at a time or not.
The type of accounts, which the creditors consider when checking your credit history, are;
- Primarily your credit card.
- The retail accounts you have.
- All the installments that are due every month including your car installment or any appliance you got on installments. And how regularly you pay them.
- Your history with other financing companies.
- Your mortgage payments history.
Your credit history is like a report card that a creditor sees. If he sees that you have made late payments, it will not immediately affect your score but if there are late payments for consecutive months, you will have to face some consequences and those consequences will then have an affect your credit score.
First, you will be charged with late credit fee. Then your interest rate will be increased. That increased interest rate is never a good sign. It shows that they have reservations when it comes to trusting you with credit. It will also make it more difficult for you to stick to credit then because it will become more expensive and therefore increase the risk of late payments or no payments at all. This stays on your report for a significant amount of time, maximum for seven years.
Other than this your credit score is also negatively affected by any foreclosures you have against you, any lawsuits that were filed against you, wage garnishments, or if someone has withheld any of your property till the time you pay them off. These all factors are also taken into account including bankruptcy in any form as well.
Credit history constitutes 35% of your credit score, thus a good credit history guarantees that you have a good credit score and more options of credit available to you. A low credit score lowers your credibility as it implies the presence of unfavorable information on your credit report.
by admin | Bankruptcy, Consumer Proposal, Credit Counseling, Uncategorized
5 Things You Must Look For in a Debt Consolidator
Tight economic conditions, inflation, and rising expenses can lead anyone to sign up for some loans. It is almost impossible in today’s times to spend a lifetime without ever getting a loan of any kind. The banks and other creditors know this very well and therefore, they compete with each other to provide different loan products catering to different areas of life.
You can easily find yourself applying for some of these attractive loans and before you know it, your loan bills go through the roof. In case of inability to repay those loans, you are left with a huge amount of debt and debt ultimately translates into financial crisis. Therefore, it’s important that you try to clear your debts as soon as possible using the services of a debt consolidator.
A good debt consolidator helps you get out of your bad financial situation and lead you towards stability. However, you must research well on what kind of debt consolidator is required to meet your needs.
While you are at it, we list here a few things that you must look for in a debt consolidator.
1. Financial and Legal Knowledge
A debt consolidator must be knowledgeable regarding all the matters of loans and debts. They must be able to direct you towards how you can effectively combat your specific debt issues. They use their knowledge to guide you to carry out better negotiations with creditors. This is definitely among the top qualities of a debt consolidator.
2. Empathy
Any debt consolidator who is arrogant, rude, or judgmental towards you while handling your matters will not be able to help you. Good qualities of a debt consolidator include empathy and understanding. Falling in debt is normal and a good debt consolidator knows this well. They will assist you on practical grounds after understanding the nature of your debt and other financial circumstances.
3. Ability to Be Reasonable With Plans
The first and most important thing your debt consolidator will do is come up with a repayment plan. It’s important that the plan your debt consolidator suggests includes an affordable interest rate. If those interest rates are still beyond your budget, that plan will fail. Therefore, the ability to get the full picture of your current and future potential finances while laying out a plan is among the most valued qualities of a debt consolidator.
4. Flexibility
A certain debt problem can be tackled through different approaches. For example, Canadians have multiple methods and options for consolidating their debt, such as Debt Consolidation Program, Debt Consolidation Loan, Home Equity Loan, etc. Not all options are available to everybody and that’s where a good debt consolidator will provide you with expert advice. One of the key qualities of a debt consolidator is that they are flexible with options.
5. Experience
Nothing can beat experience. A debt consolidator who is well-experienced in this field will give you better advice and lead you to the solution in a quicker and effective way. Do some research on how long that debt consolidator has been in the business and how effectively they have been able to help their clients. The economic cycle of the organization will give you an idea.
These are some of the qualities of a debt consolidator that you must consider if you want to avail the best of services.
by Ajay oberoi | Credit Counseling, Credit Repair, Debt Management
Online Shopaholics – Read This to Save Money!
As if being a conventional shopaholic wasn’t enough.
Online shopping has made shopping ‘cool’. This is an industry that is booming like no other. The idea is simple – why go to a mall to buy things when you can shop from the convenience of your home using your credit card? The convenience online shopping offers is commendable. There are countless shopping websites surfacing every day. Some are legit, some not. And they all contain a large variety of products for you to choose from.
However, convenience comes with a problem. People who were not so much into shopping are buying stuff regularly and those who loved shopping are turning into online shopaholics. The funny thing is that most online buyers are also the biggest critic of the system, as some products don’t turn out how they looked on the website, especially the clothing products.
Nevertheless, the craze is real and so is the compulsive spending of online shopaholics. If you are one of those people, you probably know that the craving for shopping costs you a great deal of money and when there is a mess-up (which is usual in case of online shopping), you end up losing money for no benefit.
That is where our guide will help you. Since your grandma probably won’t be able to give you some tips to save money while shopping online, let us do that for you. Here we go:
Know your battleground.
Not every online shopping website has your best interests in mind. Some of these websites are absolute scams and they tempt you with attractive packages. Online shopaholics sometimes tend to shop on whatever website they come across for a particular product. If the website is a scam, you will not only lose the money you have invested in that product, you can also face severe financial fraud as your credit card details and personal info you entered can be used against you.
Do not rush, do some research.
This one is among the most effective tips to save money – and even your grandma might have told you this. Compare the prices of the same product on different websites before putting it on the cart. There are some websites that only use the fancy portal to lure you into buying expensive stuff, while some other retail websites offer the same product at a cheaper rate. Some amount of research is only going to benefit online shopaholics.
Discount coupons are your best friend.
Look for the best discount coupons available and opt for a store that offers sale. This is among the most valuable tips to save money for online shopaholics. You are more likely to find sales on reliable online stores than actual retail shops in the mall. Still, make sure that the discount does not compromise the service or quality of the product.
Review your buys.
A lot of people check out from an online store in a hasty manner and then end up paying more for it. There is no lack of horror stories of people who received the wrong size or they clicked on “2” instead of “1” in the quantity section. Always be thorough with your review of the purchases.
Online shopaholics can cater to their shopping desires while also being smart. The above-mentioned tips to save money can be really useful. Happy (smart) shopping!
by Ajay oberoi | Consumer Proposal, Credit Counseling, Credit Repair, Debt Management
Budgeting For Holidays – Why it’s Important and How to Do It
Holidays are a great time to relax, retract and rejuvenate. These three R’s play a key role in anyone’s life and keep their sanity alive. That’s why the holiday season is considered as the happiest time of the year all over the world.
People leave no stone unturned while planning for the holidays. What they will do, what they will eat, where they will go, what they will buy and most importantly, what they will do to make these holidays different from last year’s. While all this seems pretty straightforward, it’s not all fun and games. Holidays come with a lot of expenses and no matter how strict you are with your money, you end up spending a little more than you would have liked.
Buying gifts, going for dinners, outings, picnics, and other things, all require you to spend a good amount of money. If you don’t have a plan to monitor your expenses during the holiday season, you will surely regret it later. That’s why budgeting for holidays is important.
Budgeting for holidays will require you to thoroughly assess your financial standing, including your debts if any, and your future expenses. If you are already going through a tough time financially, you should think about tossing the list of gifts out of your window.
Here are some effective steps that will help you in budgeting for holidays and be sticking to that budget.
1. Make a list of all expenses
The first thing you should do is make a list of all your likely expenses in this holiday season. This list will include all the gifts, traveling expenses, wrapping papers, donations, decorations, and holiday cards. You can also add the outings you have planned. This is a crucial first step in budgeting for holidays because it gives you an idea of what things you need to cover.
2. Set a spending limit
At this step, you need to determine how much money you can afford to spend on these holidays, especially Christmas. While budgeting for holidays, it’s important that you consider only the amount that you had as “extra savings” or the amount you had already set aside for Christmas.
3. Allocate money to each category of expenses
Once you know how much you have in hand, you can start dividing and assigning that money to different categories. For example, traveling can be counted as a separate category and the same goes for dining, gifts, and decorations, etc.
4. Make a shopping list
The next step in budgeting for holidays includes making a list of your holiday shopping. You must have some ideas in your mind about what gifts you want to give to specific people. The price range of these gifts should strictly not exceed your budget. Look for gift stores that offer sales.
5. Finally, monitor your spending
It’s time for you to shop according to that list and while you are at it, track your spending. You should carry your budget sheet with you, cross off the things as you buy them, and makes sure you are not exceeding your budget. This will also help you make adjustments if needed. Also, keep an eye on your budget sheet as you go about other expenses throughout the season.
Budgeting for holidays will help you a lot in keeping your finances in control while having the fun that you deserve this holiday season.
by Ajay oberoi | Bankruptcy, Consumer Proposal, Credit Counseling, Credit Repair, Debt Management
5 Tips on Avoiding Fraud with Better Financial Awareness
Every day, countless people around the globe fall victim to fraud. Identity theft, data breaches, online scams, and other financial frauds have unfortunately become quite mainstream. While new and improved technology has made things easier for consumers, it has also opened doors for fraudsters to design new ways to penetrate people’s financial details and rob them.
The fraud prevention authorities keep on working towards building a fraud-proof system, but they still haven’t been able to completely eradicate the scam mafia and frauds. To be fair to them, complete prevention doesn’t seem practically possible considering the growing reliance on money in today’s world.
However, even under these circumstances, better financial awareness and a sense of responsibility can protect people from becoming victims of fraud.
Following are some essential tips to avoid fraud and practice financial awareness:
1. Keep your financial information to yourself.
‘Phishing’ is a very common scam where fraudsters contact you via email or text claiming they are some retailers or government agencies and try to extract financial details from you. No matter what happens, you must not give out your sensitive financial information to anyone or any organization you don’t know. Your bank or a genuine credit card company will never contact you in this manner and ask for your information.
2. Don’t reveal your Social Security number.
One of the most crucial and yet less discussed tips to avoid fraud is this. A lot of people get emails or texts asking for their Social Security number for whatever pretended reasons. Some websites even ask you to enter that information. Don’t do it. These are mostly scams. An effective financial awareness involves the understanding of what information is confidential and what is the right place to use it.
3. Shred your ATM receipts.
One common mistake people do that puts them at risk of fraud is that they don’t shred their ATM receipts. Some people don’t even take the receipt out and some only discard it on the floor at the same ATM. Fraudsters can use these discarded receipts to carry out identity theft or account fraud.
4. Create strong passwords and change them frequently.
“12345” or “fluffy” is not going to do anymore. Today, when people are required to set passwords on a lot of websites and accounts, they usually go for a simple password and use the same everywhere. Cracking a simple password has become a lot easier and even the repeated passwords are easy to extract. Therefore, one important thing that shows financial awareness is keeping strong passwords that include a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters. Try to keep different passwords everywhere and also, change them often. This can be considered as one of the basic tips to avoid fraud.
5. Double-check the authenticity of an online shopping website.
Online shopping has become prevalent. Massive traffic on these websites has allowed scams to take advantage of it. There are a lot of fake shopping websites. Always opt for a reliable and well-established shopping website and before entering your personal information, check if the website is legit. No list of effective tips to avoid fraud can be completed without this point.
Scams will continue to operate and fraud will continue to affect people. But, you can still use your financial awareness to protect yourself. The above-mentioned tips to avoid fraud are surely going to help you.
by admin | Bankruptcy, Consumer Proposal, Credit Counseling
Love can really do go blind no matter angle you look at it. Though you do all to achieve financial stability, love prevails and eat you. The problem that you are facing is you are marrying your true love with the debts he/ she have. If you do not what to deal with his or her financial debts, both of you must work together to overcome her or his mistakes with finance in the past. Since that marriage is the union of two people that have the love for each other, you can both work with this burden. Nevertheless, that does not mean that you have to give all the wealth that you get when you are single.
If you are marrying in the name of love and her or his debt cannot be avoided, better to read the texts below so you will not find your marriage in a poor state.
- Know your liabilities with the debt of your spouse
Many are mistaken with the joining of assets and liabilities in marriage. It is not true that you will join all your financing and assets in a marriage. In contradiction, the assets and liabilities will only be shared when both of you are legally married. The assets that both of you acquire before the marriage will remain in your name. It will be left untouched even that you are married to her or him.
- Join credit or not
Before you made an account titled joint credit, you have to know the time your assets will be pulled by the debt of your wife or husband. Make sure that your finance in when you’re single will not be part of the joint account. Since you are married, any assets that you acquired during the period of marriage will be a property of both of you.
- Past financial responsibility
Before you say yes in the church or court, make sure that you know the financial part of your partner. Not you will leave him or her with the burden of debt, it called conservative. You just want to be prepared and since you are madly and deeply in love. Death does us part is the only thing that will separate you and not the marriage with debt.
- Wait a little time
Before you imprison yourself in a marriage that deals with the debt of your husband or wife, wait more time to decide. No matter how you love her or him and you are convinced that she or he is the one, it is not good that others see that marriage is the solution to pay a debt.
- Have a legal agreement
If you do not wish to take the burden of debt by your wife or husband but you are really on to marrying her or him, do an agreement. There is a prenuptial agreement that you can have to assure that you will not be responsible for the past debt of your spouse.
Marriage is a sacred joining of many people, and they want that the best person is standing with her at the altar. However, if you really love him and her, you marry in the name of love and debt is not part of it. Take the information above to be your guide.
