Finance Tips

A credit monitoring service is an annual membership service. This service typically gives you immediate access to your credit report from one or all 3 major credit bureaus. You will also receive access to your credit score. This could be the credit bureaus own score or possibly your FICO score. You may want to opt for a service that provides access to your FICO score. This is the score most lenders will use to determine whether to approve your application for a loan or credit card.

As you begin repairing your credit you will be able to monitor your credit score at periodic intervals. This will let you see if the changes you are making are having a positive effect. This can be a great benefit as you will be able to tell immediately what is working and what isn’t. Some of the services even offer tools to let you see what changes will benefit you the most, such as paying off a certain credit card, before you even make such a change.

This can be very beneficial in determining your strategy to repairing your credit.

By combining your credit reports from all 3 credit bureaus, you will easily be able to see the differences in your credit reports between all credit bureaus. Since each credit bureau maintains its own consumer credit database, don’t be surprised to find differences on each one of your credit reports. This is why it’s essential to get a copy of all 3 credit reports because you won’t know which credit agency in advance that a lender might check your credit with.

Alerting is a feature that allows you to receive email notices if any major changes happen to your credit report. Most services allow you to monitor changes from all 3 credit bureaus.

This can be an ideal way to detect Identity Theft. Also, if you are in the process of getting a home loan or auto loan, you will want to know ahead of time if something changes in your credit report that may hinder your approval process.

Many of the credit monitoring services even offer Identity Theft insurance. By being enrolled in their service, you entitled up to ,000 in damages if you are a victim of Identity Theft.

Credit Monitoring as a service then allows you access to your credit report at all 3 credit bureaus, and the ability to see the bureaus own credit score or you FICO score. Alerts can be setup to notify you of significant changes to your credit that could be Identity Theft.

James Nicholson is the author of this article on payment processing.For more information about the best merchant accounts.

These days it is hard to remain in financial security and stability. More and more people are facing the prospect of losing everything they have. You can even be a hard worker and not escape the scary storm of foreclosure. At times, even the best of efforts cannot prevent it. You just have to let it happen and hope that you come out of it on the other side. If you’re interested in a short sale package, pay close attention

Foreclosures are rapid across the country. All over foreclosure signs are plaguing yards of neighborhoods of all social classes. No one is immune from losing their homes today. Families everywhere are facing this horrible fate of losing their homes.

Having your home foreclosed is not an exciting situation to be in, but if you are looking for a way to keep from having to give your home back to the bank there is an option that you may want to consider.

You will still have to give up your home, but if you go the route of a short sale; life may be a little easier and you will be able to recover quicker.

A short sale might be ideal; if you want to save yourself from the pain of a foreclosure and still have some hope that this will be right for you. There are two main advantages that you could benefit from when you opt to do a short sale.

Prevents damage of your credit rating: Credit is hard to come these days. Having credit is like having gold nowadays. If you have pretty decent credit and do not want to take the chance of further damaging your credit then a short sale will help you do that.

Foreclosure can hunt your credit for about seven years. A short sale though will usually be reported as a “settled debt”, which will result in less damage to the rating of your credit.

A short sale will save your credit more so than a foreclosure. Not only that your FICO score will not be as negatively affected. This will allow you and your family to get into a new home sooner than later.

Downsize your financial liabilities: When a foreclosure occurs, the lender will sell your property at a discounted rate once they obtain control and possession of your house. This means that you may still be financially responsible to the lender. In a short sale this is the case as well, however, you are more involved in the negotiation process. When you contribute; this will allow you, the homeowner, to have more say over the sale price of your home. Doing this can reduce some of the accountability that you will have to the lender and you will have a better chance of coming out at the end of the tunnel.

Losing your home will be a difficult for you and your family to go through, but a short sale will help eliminate some of the stress that will come along with dealing with this type of situation.

Debt Negotiation happens in two basic ways: by a professional, or by yourself.

Here are a few strategies the professionals use when handling a debt negotiation on your behalf.

In this discussion, we are only looking at “unsecured debts”, which includes credit cards or medical debts most commonly. It simply means any debt which has no collateral, such as a car loan, home loan, boat loan, etc.

Before you start any debt negotiation, you should expect that you’ll take a “hit” on your credit score. Any creditor who lent you money is not going to just let you get out of paying any less than the full balance and let you retain perfect credit.

That said, all credit automatically repairs itself when all future payments are made on time. In many cases someone can suffer credit damage from a debt negotiation and within two years, provided all future payments are made on time, have an excellent “A+” 730+ fico score.

In addition, many people confuse credit “Score” and credit “ability”. If you have a perfect 850 fico score, but do not qualify for more financing because you are carrying too much debt already relative to your income, then you have zero credit ability. Frankly, the creditors have worked hard to make you believe these are the same, so that you keep paying. If you are looking for debt negotatiation, you are probably carrying too much debt. If you’re willing to stop using your credit cards for a while and don’t plan to buy a home or car in the near future, then it may save you many thousands of dollars.

The most common strategy the professionals use is to stop making payments, and instead save the money up so that a single lump-sum payment can be offered.

In addition to this, a debt negotiation professional will also prepare a specially formatted letter containing a legitimate reason why you could afford the debt before, but cannot afford it any longer, and if things continue, it will end in bankruptcy or charge-off. This usually contains a factual story, referred to by professionals as a “hardship”. This can include medical events, loss of job or income, dramatic increase in expenses due to some sudden unforseen reason i.e. divorce or adjustable mortgage changes, or a natural disaster.

There are a few reasons why a debt negotiation professional can reach a better, lower debt negotiation settlement offer than you doing it yourself.

First, debt negotiation companies deal with thousands of clients at a time, so they’re able to reach higher up the chain of command. A consumer will usually reach a lower-level technician, who is not authorized much leeway for debt negotiation. An attorney or non-attorney professional can speak with a vice president because they are offering sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars spread over many accounts based on certain status and net discount amount.

Second, debt negotiation companies know how to say and how to package what needs to be said, at the right time, to the right people.

Third a debt negotiation expert knows the system and averages for each company. A creditor has the legal right to sue you in court for non payment, which could result in a legal judgement, which can mean garnishment of wages directly from your employer, additional court fees, and more credit damage. A professional debt negotiation company can minimize the risk of being sued while still reaching a settlement around 42 cents on the dollar.

Last, because a debt negotiation company has either attorneys on staff, or non-attorney trained negotiators on staff (depending on your state’s laws, and your file), they know the creditor’s tricks. The credit card industry makes literally billions of dollars per year in profit, and they don’t make this by being nice. However nice the customer service representative may seem on the phone, they have one agenda: to get as much money from you as possible. Most typically, for anyone in a bit of debt trouble, the creditor will suggest “Credit Counseling”.

The dirty secret about credit counseling is that “Credit Counseling” was invented by the credit card companies. They want you to feel like they’re helping, but when you enroll in these programs, you’ll repay 100% of your debt plus interest, suffer credit damage, and they’ll often collect a monthly fee on top of it ($49 a month x 48 months, for example is $2,352 in fees, not including interest). They usually won’t tell you this, but they also get a 15% “fair share fee” from the credit card company, so the IRS has revoked the “non-profit” status of many of these companies.

Like plumbing, taxes, or fixing your computer, you can handle debt negotiation yourself, or you can hire a professional. Those willing to educate themselves to learn how to do it right can definitely save some money. That said, for the reasons stated above, often times the settlement amount offered on a debt negotiation you conduct yourself may not be as discounted as what a professional may get, and therefore the service in almost all cases pays for itself. For example, if you get offered $.80 on the dollar, but a professional gets $.42, then it’s actually cheaper even with the cost of service to have a debt negotiation service handle your case.

One dangerous byproduct of staying in debt is not having enough time to invest for retirement. Most people don’t know exactly how much money they’ll need to retire. Do you? The sooner you use debt negotiation to clear your debts, the sooner you can build your investments to ensure you can retire the way you want – instead of living your golden years as a burden on family, with lower standard of living, or working past retirement.

Poor credit or bad credit is not a hindrance for getting a credit card in today’s market place. There are several issuers that will guarantee a credit card in your name by simply applying on line. The first question that comes to mind is, “Where’s the catch?” The catch is that they want your business. There will be some limitations on the card that you will not normally see on a standard card.

Guaranteed issue cards will usually have a low limit on the maximum charges. Some of these cards may be as low as $200, while others will go up to $5000. If you are trying to rebuild credit this may be a good deal for your situation. Spending $200 a month on budgeted items is easy for most family units. Paying the bill on time and in full will help increase your FICO score and allow you to get a better credit rating and ultimately a higher maximum limit.

Going this route does take time and diligence but it can be done. If your bill is paid off each month there is no need to worry about the APR, (monthly interest rate). That rate will usually be over 10%, but it cannot hurt you if you do not carry a balance.

Some issuers may charge a hefty annual fee. Shop the market and find a card that makes an introductory offer of no annual fee for at least the first year. At the end of 12 months you have the option to renew or cancel to avoid the fee. Try not to take cash advances on these cards because they will charge you a higher interest rate. Since you are trying to restore a good credit rating this should not be a normal budget item.

Credit card companies make a large share of their income from interest payments. They play a numbers game and hope people do not pay off the balance so they can make money. Use your discipline and budget to beat them at their own game. Your priority is to have better credit and their priority is to make money. Use your card wisely, be on time with payments and do not carry a balance.

There are few more stressful things than dealing with dinged credit. Millions of Americans have experience with it, so there is a large pool of experience and options to draw from. The important thing to realize is that if you are determined to repair your credit, the right tools are available to help you. One option is The Orchard Bank MasterCard.

What to Expect in General

There is no “one-size-fits-all” explanation for choosing credit cards to fix up your FICO score. There are, however, a few general expectations across the category. Whether it is true or not, credit vendors consider lower FICO scores as higher risk. That pretty much means two things: higher interest rates and lower credit limits.

You can expect to see that for at least the first year of the rebuilding process. Initial credit limits will be anywhere from $250 to $1000, most likely somewhere toward the middle or lower end. The third feature to expect from this category, including Orchard’s cards, is an annual fee in addition to precessing fees. These fees are one of a few ways that banks mitigates the risk of default.

What to Expect from Orchard

Orchard Bank, a branch of credit giant HSBC, has an industry-wide reputation as a “go-to” card for those seeking to repair their credit. Orchard Bank offers a few features across its credit card products. Firstly, they promise an offer after the application process. While that may not mean an unsecured card, they do have relaxed approval restrictions to get almost everybody started. They offer an array of cards with different levels of obligations and credit requirements. Here are their primary offerings:

The Orchard Bank Platinum MasterCard – As the “Platinum” moniker might suggest, this is the top of the line option from Orchard. The Platinum MasterCard comes with every feature somebody recovering from bad credit could hope for. The Platinum MasterCard will offer a slightly higher credit limit and lower interest rate for its users, and nice features like hotel reservation and car rental service. The Platinum MasterCard has a $39-$59 annual fee based on credit worthiness. The Platinum card has the most (relatively) stringent credit history requirements of these four cards.

The Orchard Bank Gold MasterCard – The Orchard Bank Gold MasterCard extremely similar to it’s Platinum cousin. With a maximum initial credit line of $1000, the Gold MasterCard has the same features, but a slightly higher annual fee of $79, and a processing fee of $19. As far as relative strictness goes, the credit guidelines for the Gold card fall in the middle of Orchard’s lineup.

The Orchard Bank Silver MasterCard – You guessed it: Silver. It’s the logical next step. And just like the Gold and Platinum MasterCard, the Silver offers all of the same features, albeit with a $49 annual fee in addition to a $49 process fee. We expect to see more approvals on the Silver, but probably with higher interest rates and lower limits.

The Orchard Bank Secured MasterCard – The Secured card is the bedrock of rebuilding bad credit. If you have trouble getting approved for the other offers, the this is the way to go. Secured cards, as the name implies, require a security deposit prior to usage. Typically companies, including Orchard Bank, will ask for 100%-200% of the desired credit limit upon approval. The Orchard Bank Secured cards look and act just like a regular credit card, and with time, can lead to unsecured cards with increased limits.

In general, all Orchard Bank cards share some common features. If you stay on top of your payments and refuse to let yourself get behind, then these cards will help you rebuild your credit; they do so by reporting to the three major credit bureaus every thirty days. This gives you an opportunity to show that you can handle credit card debt. These cards are accepted at over 22 million locations, and can get you a cash advance on over 770 thousand ATMs.
Since it’s inception, HSBC has helped over 2 million Americans take the first step toward rebuilding their credit.

Copyright Ed Vegliante. Free online reprints of this article are allowed provided the resource box remains intact with a live link back to credit-card-surplus.com .