Think Twice Before Gifting Your 18 Year Old with a Credit Card

Owning a credit card by an 18 year old brings in galore of feelings of freedom, power and affordability, but often the accompanied senses of responsibilities, sensible spending and financial maturity is underestimated and ignored, which results into the existence of several credit card debt relief options and credit counseling services. Thus it is but common for the maximum number of parents to worry about their 18 year old children and their growing wants and demands that undoubtedly include the possession of a personal credit card. The same thought perhaps have moved the lawmakers to make it much harder for young adults of age 18-20 to obtain their own credit cards, according to the Credit Card Act of 2009. Under this act, anyone falling under the age group 18-21 has to meet few extra requirements before being eligible to hold a line of credit. They either have to give evidence of their high monthly and regular income in order to pay off the bills, or must have someone over the age of 21 with sufficient income and credit who will co-sign the clauses and terms with the card holder.

This is where the decision and duty of the parents come into play. The new age teenagers and young adults have a heightened level of awareness and information about all aspects and sources of consumerism, and have gathered knowledge of how to harness and exploit the same for gaining material luxuries and finding hedonist pleasures. What can be a greater and easier way than possessing a credit card in this respect! Thus the parents have to take a strict call on deciding whether it’s the right time to consider gifting a credit card to their otherwise grown up children or do they still need more lesson and wisdom of handling this responsibility. Unless you are blessed with an extraordinarily hard working, sincere and ambitious kid who would not rake his income for credit card, you have the power to acquiesce or deny their request. The fact is that, if your child’s income fails to satisfy the requirements of regular credit card payments, and does not meet the standard that creditors deem as satisfactory for handling the expense, then probably he/she should not have any business owning a credit card, and you too as a parent should understand the situation without being rushed in with parental emotions which can harm your child in the long run. On other hand, credit card should not be denied to a child who has taken care of his/her financial responsibilities and is not dependent on parents’ money; someone who has the credibility to pay off the loans regularly and can take charge of his/her own wants and needs. 

So the parent can exercise their sense of judgment by denying and restricting their undeserving children from owning a credit card if they lacks maturity and financial stability to handle their money wisely.

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What to pay first: high interest or high balance credit card?

A very common question that comes up all the time when a person wants to start getting their credit card debt under control is whether to pay the high interest credit card first or to get rid of the high balance credit card first! This is a situation which does not fall under the domain of help provided by the debt relief companies by services like credit card debt consolidation or credit counseling etc. At one end if you are anxious about having high interest credit cards that costs you every month and compounds the monthly amount you owe, if you are not paying off the entire balance. For some the interest rate may go up to even 30% on the amount borrowed which basically means agreeing to pay one third more for everything you bought on the card or more depending on how long you owe. While on the other hand, you have a credit card, with such an overwhelming balance that no matter what are you paying, the balance does not seem to ever go down. Thus even if you have a low interest rate you may be paying a lot of interest because of your high balance. 

So deciding about which one to choose to pay over the other can be the trickiest question of the moment especially for those who are not particularly great in handling their personal finances. The card holder tends to feel whether he will lose out on picking the right option first! As every dollar counts and is to be used most effectively, however, sadly enough these thoughts of saving penny never occurs at the times of our frivolous spending sprees! Anyways, this is the situation when a consumer often feels most frustrated and puzzled about their personal finances. The answer actually does not exist in this particular condition as the decision varies to either choose the credit card with highest interest rate or to choose the card with the highest balance depends upon the financial urgency and situation of the card holder. For example for someone who is neck deep in credit card debt, it is most important to take an immediate action than choosing between the two options which actually have a similar consequences at either cases.

 

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What Happens If A Debtor Has To Deal With More Than One Collection Agency For The Same Debt?

Getting trapped in the dirty vicious cycle of debt and its equally painful consequences has become the part and parcel of every American’s financial reality. In many cases even the most efficient debt relief companies fail to provide a perfect debt solution to the debtor to whom none of the options like debt settlement, debt consolidation or credit counseling prove helpful. In such conditions, when all the major debt repayment plans decline, the debtors have to solely deal with the creditors or the collection agencies at his own risk applying his individual skills and knowledge in negotiating with the creditors and debt collectors. The process of debt collection is always associated with fears, harassments and financial insecurities. However, one has to be aware of few facts and information regarding original creditors, collection agencies and junk debt buyers who are also known as the secondary debt collectors.

As a matter of fact, when your original creditors realize it too expensive and time consuming to extract debt from you due to your financial deterioration, they think it rather profitable to sell your debt to a collection agency at a comparatively lower cost. Now this time the debtor faces challenges of confronting a debt collection agency and its extraction methods. Thus if you are contacted by more than one collection agency for the same debt, it implies that the original creditor has given up on you and have hired a secondary or even a tertiary collection agency. In many cases when even the first collection agency sells off your debt to a new or a second agency, it indicates that the second collection agency has paid even lesser than the price with which the first collection agency has bought your debts. Thus it is time for the debtor to use some brain and contemplate easier ways to settle his debts and reduce the payments in case the debts have travelled down from the original creditor and the first collection agency to the second or third one, in which case the debtor may find himself at the receiving end than the debt collectors.

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The Key Lies in Managing Your Money Wisely

As we keep on sinking more and more into our debts and monetary concerns, even the debt relief companies with their various debt consolidation, debt settlement and debt management options are falling short of debt remedies. It is like getting locked in a room which has caught fire and having difficulty in locating the right key out of a bunch of dozens, to open the door. Well, imagining the situation may help in focusing on the most apt and handy option wherein the key to all cash crunches lies. The art of wisely managing our money does actually solve numerous financial downturns in our life. First of all, set an amount aside in order to pay yourself first which should be deposited in your personal savings account, which can be considered as the first healthy step towards managing your money. The task then starts from setting wise and realistic short and long term financial goals for now and your later life. These generally provide enough motivation and encouragement for achieving financial strength and success. Next it is most significant to understand the difference between needs and wants, followed by prioritizing each requirement according to its importance in life and survival.

This is a vital step that determines the person’s sensibility and maturity in managing one’s money, desires and debts. Needs regarding housing, mortgage, rent, food, clothing, transportation and medical aid should be of top priority. Next, one should have an honest knowledge about what and how much amount to spend to acquire the things of significance apart from having a clear knowledge about how much amount is being paid for vital needs and utilities in each month. Make sure to have information about the total household income and the total household expense along with the difference between the two amounts. Make an estimation of amount spent for clothing, furnishing and other aspects and list all payments and contributions you make each month, as well as keep a track of what you spend on food, recreation and other items for a week. Create a budget and a spending plan and remember to use credit facility only for your financial advantage. It is advisable to make down payments in credit or to pay back as soon as possible. Lastly, don’t forget to keep the financial records which acts as a storekeeper of all your financial data and facts with proper evidences and information.

Achieve debt relief and a dazzling financial future through credit card debt elimination

Debt free existence has now become a dream to live, because of the increased expenses and financial exigencies that anyone can get trapped in virtually any time in life. For all those who are trapped in debts which may be of any kind, loan related, mortgage, late bills or even credit card debts, there are any such debt management companies out there that can offer help. One such aid, that such companies offer to all trapped in credit card debts is credit card debt elimination.

The outcomes you can get after adopting debt elimination is a life that is less stressful and more peaceful. With a goal of making their clients get debt free ASAP, the credit card debt elimination practice that these companies offer as a solution can help all clear one of the biggest outstanding loans of their life and thus get stress relieved to a great extent. With experts who are specialized in debt management and elimination, these credit card debt elimination companies out there will help you save huge by charging a very minimal fee for their service.

With a solution that will be ideal for your situation, you can trust them fully that the credit card debt elimination strategy that they will design for you will be the best that can fit in your interest. Offering a win-win situation to both the lender and the borrower they will save any dispute from surfacing up, which can very much affect your credit ratings and bring to your profile a bad name. So, in order to secure future reputation that is inevitable to not just succeed but survive in the market, practice credit card debt elimination strategies that will be the best possible solution for you to get out of the credit card debts trap.

With advices, suggestions and steps to help you pay off the balances easily, you can now get stress free about the one biggest tensions of your life after practicing credit card debt elimination. So, just search though the plethora of service providers for the one that can offer you the best of answer for improving your credit card ratings and helping you get a future that is more secured where the financial scenario is concerned.

A simple, secure and reliable way to consolidate and manage debt and eliminate the same from life and to regain the control of all the fronts of your life will now be a thing more achievable through the credit card debt elimination service.

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What you should know about Dividends

On hearing about dividends we often tend to imagine about an easy and relaxing life without having to slog to earn money, but the reality is far from imagination. Usually this is not the exact situation as far as dividends are concerned. Dividends can certainly fetch you a lot of money but when you have a large stock of investments for which you may have a handful of returns. In this edition we shall traverse through the bitter and better truth about the dividends.

Generally dividends are small sources of funds. There is a need to emphasize on the term small, for if you have planned for these dividends to be the only source of income for your retirement you should have a big amount of money invested to solely depend on this. Not only that, you also have to trim on your expenses early on for e.g. in order to achieve a return of around 10% within a year, you should have an investment amount of no less than $500K.

Getting into debts and trying to get out of the same clutches of financial complications has been a common phenomenon in US. Many have chosen debt settlement companies as a mode of debt relief, but even then dividends do not make much sense as far as investing is concerned. The option of dividends is used mostly by novice investors who have little or no understanding about the stock markets. Although it is not impossible to have high yielding dividends, it is advisable to have alternative investments to fall back upon.

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How to Hoard Cash during a Financial Emergency

Are we through with the after effects of recession? Supposedly not as yet, for there are millions of US citizens like us still drowning in deep debts and are urgently looking for debt care solutions. With the entire nation being victimized by the debt traps, the online debt consolidation programs have been in full fledged action to pull out the financially distressed lots. An economic meltdown also leads to a situation, when all of us are in dire need of cash; true that we have somehow created an emergency fund, but what if we are in genuine need of quick access to our funds and how safe is the place where the money is currently in. In order to tackle these suddenly erupted financial emergencies there are a few good solutions and in this edition let us have a brief review of these:

•Checking and Savings Account: A savings account is a relatively better option than a checking account. It is perceived as the quickest option to have an access to our money. It is not so safe after all and it is largely advisable for the debt ridden consumers of America to have a clear distinction between a day to day expending account and a savings account.

•Money Market Accounts: This is a good option for receiving quick cash as it is guaranteed my FDIC but the minimum amount of deposit is around $1000 but we are likely to get higher rates of interest.

•Certificates of Deposit: These loans can be secured through a bank against collateral in exchange of a fixed rate of interest on the principal loan amount, but these deposits will simply punish us for taking out the amount before maturity.
There are many resources for getting faster access to money, particularly when we need it the most, but we must assess the options carefully before arriving on a decision.

 

 

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Things to Know Before Going into Debt

Nevertheless before going into a small amount of manageable debt, one has to keep reminding oneself of certain important facts and knowledge that would guide the debtor safely out of debt in a considerably short period of time. One should also not forget the presence of various debt cure programs like debt settlement, debt consolidation, credit counseling etc, at relevant circumstances, as these debt relief options play a great role in making people debt free in an organized and legal manner. There are many cases where debtors have fallen into bad debt traps or have defaulted, when they could use the same fund much more wisely in other avenues. Thus few facts are necessary to keep in mind while handling debts that can assure financial up-gradation of the debtor.

• First and foremost, one should never get into any debts beyond means, as this wrong strategy rarely pays off. Depending upon your net income, the depth of debt should be decided, which can ensure that you can pay it off according to your convenience without harming your credit score. Keeping your initial debt less than your total of 3 months’ salary is a good rule of thumb for proper debt management. It suggests that your debt would not get over your head and would enable you to leverage your resources with the help of it.
• Secondly never go overboard with your credit card spending or loan borrowings as these are anything but free money. The high interest rates of almost 30% will cut through your neck at the time when you’ll find your debts increased manifold due to addition of interest rates and other fees and charges. Thus remember to use your credit cards and loans wisely to leverage your debt to start making money from it in future.
• Lastly, it is most crucial to ensure that you are capable of making timely and regular payment to avoid harming your credit scoring. It is always advisable to keep aside your six months’ salary in a savings account in times of any financial crisis and deficiencies. Next, one should always consider the other passive and alternative sources of income as well before going into any debt as the same can provide as a safety valve when you would need to repay any bill or outstanding.

Therefore going into a wise and financially promising debt would require a debtor to keep these considerations in mind to get the best out of this deal by following proper debt management skills. One needs to remember the right value and returns of his/her money so that it never falls short of use. Assess all the financial avenues and sources before indulging into any debt to assure a financially independent future.

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Reasons Which Are Less Obvious For You To Be In Debts

Americans are in deep debts but only a handful must have been able to dig out the root cause of it. Almost all of us are aware that holidaying and spending incessantly on credit cards can get us into debts especially during a financial crisis when it becomes more important to save money. However there may still be reasons which are less obvious and less imaginable to get you into debts. Let us explore these reasons for a change:

    Successful friends can give you a run for your money e.g. if you are moving with high earners in the same social circle you might be tempted to get into the same habits and later get into trouble. After all who will not want to share the taste of the best wine? People of higher professional qualifications sharing space with the ones who have minimal qualifications often encounter these problems.

    Spending too many nights outside partying with friends in order to maintain the social upkeep calls for more reasons to get into debts; during a financial crisis, spending one evening online and surfing eBay can cost you a load. You may have been particularly unaware of these reasons till now but they are reasons enough to get you into debts.
    If you have relocated recently to a place where the housing prices are high and soaring there is every reason that you should make your best attempts to select a low priced accommodation because spending a majority of your earnings on rent is similar to live beyond your means.

    Your irresistibly to bargain can leave you with a hole in your pocket. So before making purchases ensure that they won’t be lying in the junkyard only to be sold later.
    Never fall into the traps of balance transfer credit cards which may initially appear as an attractive mode to pay off your debts but on making purchases this card may push you into the track of negative payment.

Thus, instead of being a serial spender, ensure that your debts do not hit an insane level when it will be even harder to pursue debt management, rather find time to check where your money goes and how.

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The Importance of Being Calm in Economic Turbulences

Someone has said it rightly that anger is man’s worst enemy and if it is the result of stress related to debt or other financial crisis, it takes a deadly shape of destruction for both body, and mind. However we deny or dismiss the present situation of monetary dearth and deficiency, the overwhelming piles of debts are acting as steady creepers which makes a hole in our wallets and a deep chasm of financial insecurity and instability worldwide. The same has given birth to endless debt relief options and debt management plans. Thus losing one’s calm and composure in such a dire and grave economic environment is but obvious for any financially literate person, who is struggling hard to earn, save and to make ends meet for his family and their future. To add to our dismay, we have to keep paying those numerous bills and loans, which make our wealth flow away like waters, and then we face another blow in the form of huge credit card outstanding. Eventually we end up alone with heaps of debts to pay off, followed by continuous and repetitive reminders from creditors and harassments of collection agencies.

All these burdens of economic turbulences make our head spin with fear, insecurity and confusion backed with anxieties for future and our family. These are the times when a debtor faces the biggest challenge of holding his calm. He needs to work out a successful plan with the help of his wisdom, presence of mind and composed sensibility. The first thing that an angry and anxious person loses is his power of straight and rational thinking, which is the most needed weapon to fight off any situational trauma or dislocation.

In times of financial turbulences, a person should have a clear view of conditions and of his own financial state with a practical, realistic yet optimistic mindset. One must ignore all negative thoughts and emotions like anger, distrust, pessimism and loss to overcome the financial depressions. One can get back on track by focusing and looking for solutions together with the well-wishers rather than searching for more problems. Taking control of one’s mind and psyche is the first step towards taking control of one’s debts and money.

Claim Your Dues When You Are In Debt

With debt becoming a household name now, an individual is more likely to become a prey to it than he realizes. No doubt that we gain a certain amount of relaxation from various available debt relief options, debt settlement companies and credit counselors, but only to some extent, as we find ourselves helplessly sweeping in more and more debts with our uncontrolled financial habits and blunders. However, debt has become a vicious circle and thus many a times we find that we too can claim our dues from people who have earlier borrowed from us in the name of friendship or relation. For example there are people who hesitate to file a lawsuit or personal injury claim against an institute or organization which owes him/ her certain amount of money or payment, out of fear and humiliation from neighbors or fellow workers. At times filing a compensation claim, in case of an injury at workspace or outside, or for a faulty piece of hardware, is much easier for us than asking back our own money from a friend or relative who have once borrowed the same in their emergency.  
While being in debt is easier, claiming our justified dues is getting tougher, especially on personal levels, when people feel that asking it back would lead to embarrassments and hidden bitterness. But at times when the burdens of debts are becoming heavier, claiming back one’s dues from all sensible and legible sources is the most logical step towards relieving oneself of some deficiencies.

Without escaping the situation, try to sort out a diplomatic yet wise way out to talk to your friend about your present financial crisis which forced you to ask for the money back from your friend. It is better to be transparent and honest to your borrower than holding disregard and pretence for the same person for not remembering to pay back the favor at time of your need.

Why Is It Important To Organize Your Financial Documents?

We often waste a lot of time in hunting through piles of papers every time we need a receipt, an insurance policy or credit card statement. This not only frustrates us in time of emergency but in the course we also lose certain important information. In such cases it is time, you need to start organizing your financial documents. This will surely take some time to get classified, but the process and habit of regular organization will save your time, money and effort in the long run. Organizing and keeping records of your financial documents have manifold benefits like it can prove that you paid for a service or item, it saves time and eases the stress to locate records in time of emergency, it even helps you pay your bills timely, the records can update you about your insurance collection date and social security benefits, can be of help in solving credit card errors or producing banking statements and so on. Your financial documents also include certificates of marriage, birth day etc, which if misplaced can create havoc in time when you would need these to fulfill any financial requirements. Moreover, these documents act as witness of your financial status and stability and play a role in constantly providing you important facts and information essential to validate your financial statements and data.

Organizing these crucial financial documents and records thus make life hassle-free and easier by keeping family finances updated, by establishing ownership and by providing a basis for sound financial planning. The first step towards this practice is to understand the need and benefits of organizing one’s financial data and documents, followed by their situational requirements and needs in times of emergency and immediacy. This is the determining step towards organizing your financial future and thus one need to assess the importance of this process of meticulously keeping all small and big financial details according to their short, medium, long term and permanent effects.

Cut Your Expenses On Hobbies!

Hobbies have always played a wonderful and sometimes strange role in our life. Since childhood till today we spend a lot of time, energy and money to find pleasure from our leisure time. It is something that defines a strong part of our character and attitude towards life and its aspects. The possibilities to fill out the free time is endless, one just has to make a beneficial choice out of it. When we have nothing else to do, our hobby keep us from sinking into boredom, but the trouble starts when these hobbies take the shape of addictive obsessions and drowns us in unnecessary monetary crunches. As the saying goes that “too much of anything is harmful”, so is our unnatural drive and craving to chase our pleasurable pastime on the expense of our or our parents’ hard earned money.

It is fine when you find someone with a healthy hobby of reading books, or writing blogs or listening to music or playing video games, until you come to know that these hobbies make a person shell out an unnecessary amount of money to persist them. Funnier would be those people, who do not mind spending a fortune for regular expensive hobbies like scuba diving, recreational flying, mountaineering, yachting, expensive shopping spree, trying out top-class restaurants or clubbing. 

It looks pretty insensible to spend money just to pursue a flashy yet hollow set of hobbies, that too in the current phase of economic slowdown. Hobbies or any other recreational activities are considerably helpful in building creativity and productivity in a person, but one should not take this for granted to a limit of extravagance which fulfills no real purpose of character building.

Few Irresistible Money Saving Tips

Holding on money is becoming as tough as holding on a grip of sand in your palm. The difficulty one faces to save money by overlooking all temptations is quite understandable. Saving some bucks for your precious future is always a welcoming idea to avoid the pangs of debts in present financial hard times, however farfetched it may sound to today’s youth. Thus after a lot of observation, experiences and experiments, I am disclosing few undeniable money saving tips, that will not only make you financially more disciplined but would also teach you to curb your greedy materialist cravings.


     Check your extravagant attitude and eliminate your bad spending habits along with the tendency to compare, contrast and exhibit your material possessions with your fake friends. If possible stay alone or with few good friends, to avoid crowd around you that expect your financial support in lieu of their hollow expressions.

     Get rid of your impulsive buying nature. Ward off your fancies and addiction towards expensive branded outfits and accessories; instead go for street-shops that give away the same stuffs in lesser price. After all you do not show off the price tags while using them.

     Resist your unnecessary cravings to dine or eat in expensive restaurants, rather enjoy the process of experimental cooking and eating together with your loved ones, in the close comfort of your home. This does not only save your hard earned penny but also your health and hygiene.

     Stop buying books, CDs and DVDs. Cultivate the habit of taking help of your nearby local library which is always a cheaper means to indulge yourself, without hampering the quality of knowledge or entertainment.

And if everything that is written above fails, then be a monk , sell your belongings to enjoy a peaceful and meditated life , as this can be the most desirable outcome after being hit by debt.

Saving Money can make a Difference

Saving Money can make a Difference

 For all Americans, debts have been the single most reason to worry in the recent past; however, compared to that, efforts to avoid debts were little. Perhaps, there were not enough indications for consumers to understand the intensity of the economic downfall. But then as experts have rightly quoted that earning money is only one aspect of your financial health, the other part is necessarily to manage money, a policy often ignored by people, but recession has had a significant effect on paychecks and with increasing rate of unemployment and extravagant spending on credit card, a majority of people have fallen back on their repayment and incurred massive debts which became almost unmanageable and consumers had to depend largely on professional services such as debt consolidation to get rid of their debts. Some others have turned for bankruptcy options which have resulted in loss of property and a scarred credit report.In order to avoid debts and not to let your money go, it is important that you are aware of pitfalls:

·         When you are paying back a loan on credit card, you end up paying not only the principle amount but the interest and the taxes levied on that amount.

·         The more you delay on repayments the higher the rates of interests are accrued, therefore try and avoid delay or delinquency at all costs.

·         Furthermore if you are not sufficiently acquainted with debt issues, there are several credit counseling services to help you fix your debt issues but take care to select genuine agencies.

Thus, instead of leveraging on the reasons to avoid debts try to think of ways to save money by avoiding excessive usage of credit cards, to lessen your financial woes, and to eliminate added interests on credit card. Next is to have a money planner or a family budget to have a better orientation of cash outflow, cut higher expenses on dining outside or watching a film or may be shopping for your home furnishing. Occasionally you can also try to have a look at the backyard of your house to sell off junk; though it may not fetch you much money but it surely helps to add to your savings. So one thing is clear, it doesn’t actually take much to save, but to let go off your savings and your hard earned money is certainly painful so try to be judicious on your spending habits before getting into the complications of debt.