by admin | Consumer Proposal, Credit Counseling, Credit Repair, Debt Management
Counselors act as mentors, guides, advisers, and teachers. Similarly, credit counselors can give you valuable advice and teach you the ways to manage/ lower your debt and improve your financial health. Credit counselors can help you to improve your financial situation even if your debt has reached the tipping point. For many people, financing an automobile or securing a home loan is extremely difficult. Know why? If you answered a poor credit rating then you’re a zillion percent right.
In order to determine whether we’re capable of making timely payments, creditors look at our credit history. A good credit history open many doors for you while bad credit closes most, if not all, of them. Generally, future credit offers depend on how a person uses his or her first credit card. If you make timely payments, your credit rating will improve and you’ll become an attractive borrower.
Generally, people with good credit rating pay lower interest rates than those with average or bad credit. In fact, in some cases, people with good credit may qualify for loans with low interest rates. Moreover, they don’t have to pay annual credit card fees. In short, over the long run, people with good credit can save thousands of dollars. On the other hand, people with bad credit will experience higher interest rates and get fewer future credit offers. The good thing is that people with bad credit can improve their credit situation by taking help from a credit counselor. Who are credit counselors and what do they do? Let’s take a look.
If you’re sinking in a sea of debt then a skilled credit counselor is person you need to approach. Through counseling and education, a credit counselor will help you to get rid of the piles of debt you’ve collected over the years. To help solve your financial problems, a skilled credit counselor will do the following things:
- Advise you about money and debt management
- Assist you in the development of a budget
- Provide relevant educational material
There are many reasons to take help from a credit counselor including:
- Reducing the debt amount
- Lowering credit card debt interest rates
- Consolidating loans into one monthly payment
- Eliminating late fees and additional charges
Taking help from a credit counselor is a sensible thing to do if you want to maintain a good credit score, reduce interest fees, get new credit or simply manage your finances better. Some of the services provided by credit counselors include:
- General budgeting
- Debt free planning
- Bankruptcy counseling
- Student loan counseling
Credit counseling is for you if you want to repair your credit rating, pay off your debt, or simply learn how to manage your finances better. Credit counseling can benefit you regardless of your age or income level so get in touch with a credit counselor right away to lower your debt and improve your financial situation.
by admin | Consumer Proposal, Credit Counseling, Credit Repair, Debt Management
Are you thinking about buying a home? If yes then be prepared to get advice from individuals who last bought a home in the 1980s. Considering what’s just been said, it’s important for you to know that the mortgage landscape has transformed greatly in the past several years. Also, when mortgaging a home, do not believe everything you hear. Instead, do your own research or talk to a credit counselor.
If the mortgage process scares you to death then you need to know that you’re not alone! All aspiring homebuyers go through the same feelings. However, only those who are well informed about the mortgage-buying process prevent their fears from being realized. Want to be one of them? If yes then do your research or talk to a credit counselor to be aware of the mortgage myths making the rounds today. To get you started, following are three most common mortgage myths credit counselors want you to ignore.
A 20 percent down payment is necessary
This is probably the biggest mortgage myth making the rounds today. Therefore, you need to know this—you don’t necessarily need to make a 20 percent down payment. Instead, there are ways for you to secure mortgage financing with minimal down payment provided you qualify as a borrower.
Also, some people will tell you that paying less than twenty percent down payment can be damaging in the long-term. While there are some disadvantages of making less than twenty percent down payment, it is by no means a damaging act.
Pre-qualification guarantees the loan amount
If you’re looking to buy a home and want to get a general idea of your budget then getting pre-qualified is necessary. However, it’s important for you to keep in mind that pre-qualification doesn’t mean that you’re guaranteed the loan amount. In order to find out how much you can logically expect to be approved for, your lender considers your credit report and assets during pre-qualification.
However, the lender doesn’t explore your finances during this stage and therefore isn’t making any commitments to you. Instead, you’re guaranteed the loan amount once you’re pre-approved simply because pre-approval is a much more comprehensive process. Before approving you for a loan amount, the lender will find out everything they want to know about you.
Renting is a more cost effective option
Another common myth is that renting a home is cheaper than buying one. However, the truth of the matter is that, compared to renting a home, mortgaging a home is always cheaper. How? When you rent a house, maintaining the house is the responsibility of the landlord. However, what most people do not know is that the ‘cost’ of maintenance is included in the rent you pay. When you volunteer to maintain the house, the landlord charges you a lower rent. Either way, you’re paying to maintain a house which eventually, at some point of time, you’ll have to vacate. With a mortgaged home, that is not the case. Also, when you rent a home, you’re doing nothing but throwing away your hard-earned money every month. On the other hand, when you mortgage a house, you give yourself the opportunity to build equity.
In addition to the aforementioned myths, there are many others myths related to mortgage. However, the myths mentioned above are the most common myths about mortgage and ones credit counselors want you to ignore.
by admin | Bankruptcy, Consumer Proposal, Credit Counseling, Credit Repair, Debt Management
Want to meet your financial needs while keeping your debt to a minimum? If yes then short-term loans are a good way to achieve your objective. Short-term loans are something even credit counselors recommend. Why? Let’s take a look.
People utilize the aforementioned loans for a variety of reasons. The most obvious reason for anyone to obtain a short-term loan is minimizing the time they live under debt. Apart from forcing you to live under debt for most of your life, conventional or long-term loans make you pay back an amount which is significantly higher than the original loan amount. This is due to the interest involved in the loan: the longer you owe money to the lender, the more interest is added to your balance which of course means paying back a higher amount.
The best way to counter the aforementioned problem is a short-term loan. By allowing you to pay back everything quicker, a short-term loan minimizes the total time and amount of your debt including less accrued interest. You can save money in the long term even if the interest rate of the short-term loan is considerably higher than what you’d get with a conventional or long-term loan. There are a number of reasons to opt for a short-term loan. Following are some of those reasons.
Get money fast
Quick access to the money you need is what a short-term loan provides you. This is probably the biggest benefit of this type of loan. If you are in dire need of money and want to avoid a lengthy loan approval process then opting for a short-term loan is the best thing for you to do. By providing the money you need within a shorter time span than conventional or long-term loans, short-term loans allow you to get money fast. In fact, with some short-term loans, you can get access to cash within a few hours or the same day.
No collateral
Collateral is required to secure a long-term loan. Usually, borrowers use their home as collateral to secure the loan. Unlike long-term loans, short-term loans do not require borrowers to provide collateral against the loan. Though they are legally binding and must be repaid, the aforementioned loans do not cause a loss of a home or other asset used as collateral when there is a default in their repayment. In short, short-term loans allow you to get the money you need without risking any of your belongings.
Ability to borrow with a poor credit score
The majority of the conventional or long-term loans won’t be available to you if you have a poor credit score. Even if you qualify for conventional or long-term loan with a poor credit score, the terms of the loan are likely to dissuade you. Fortunately, this doesn’t happen with a short-term loan. Even if you have a poor credit score, you can secure a short-term loan easily without any dissuading terms.
Avoid long-term stress
When choosing a long-term loan, many people tend to ignore the long-term effects of the loan. Long-term loans force to you to commit to something for a long period of time. Usually, longer duration loans intimidate borrowers and cause stress in them. Your financial standing in the distant future is something no one can accurately estimate. Also, saying for certain what the economy will look like ten or twenty years from now is not possible. Regardless of what your financial situation is and what the economy looks like, you’ll still be responsible for payments ten or twenty years from now if you obtain a long-term loan. A short-term loan is the best way to obtain the money you need if you want to avoid long-term problems and stress.
Depending on where you obtain it from, a short-term loan may or may not result in all of the aforementioned benefits. If you want to know more about short-term loans, contact a credit counselor today at gtacredit.com
