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How should you deal with creditors so you can get through a difficult time? No one wants to deal with harassing phone calls, do they? If you’ve had to screen your calls and hope that when you see an ‘unknown’ or ‘private’ number that it’s not a creditor calling, you’re not alone. Dealing with creditors in an effective way can be helpful.
The first rule of thumb is to face the problem head on. Instead of hiding and dodging phone calls from your creditors who want to know when you’ll be making your payments, talk to them right away.
Honest and Open Communication
Be honest and direct about your situation and ask for help. If you have a good history with them, they will likely be accommodating…maybe more so than you’re expecting.
Keep Your Promises
Keep your promises. If you make a payment arrangement, keep it. It will bode well for you.
Know Your Rights
Don’t let creditors push you around. Become familiar with consumer rights for where you live and hold your creditor to that standard.
Tags: collectors, creditors
When you want to start reducing your debt, there are two options: reduce your expenses or increase your income. Most of the people prefer simplification because it can be easier to do, and brings additional benefits (Environmental friendly and consumerism talking).
Some examples of simplification can be:
- Instead of going to the shopping mall, take the kids to the park and have a picnic (with meals prepared at home).
- Taking the public bus instead of going by car.
- Using the bicycle instead of the car.
- Using coupons to buy groceries and save some money.
- Moving to a cheaper place.
- Saving electricity and water.
Simplification needs sacrifice and discipline, but is good to have a balance. Don’t become so stingy that your family doesn’t want to hear you anymore. At the same time don’t forget completely to increase your income, if you do both things at the same time, the journey to be debt free will be easier.
Tags: debt free, Saving Tips, simplification
If you change your financial habits for thirty days, it can change your life. Taking a one month long challenge will likely result in a new way of thinking of money. Challenge yourself to do this.
For the next thirty days, follow the following plan:
• Set a budget and stick to it
• Save all receipts and review what you are spending your money on
• Use cash instead of credit cards
• Every time you spend on something that’s not a necessity consider how many hours you need to work to pay for it to help you decide if it’s worth it.
Being aware of your spending habits and your debt will help you gain a new perspective on money and will have a very good chance of you meeting both short term and long term goals as well as helping you to become debt free.
And remember to download our free report on the right column to help you during this journey 
Tags: debt challenge, debt free
Every day the national debt of the United States is growing. A symbol and representation of this is located in the city of New York, in Manhattan. It is a clock with the current debt; and now it has no more digits.
So, what are you doing to stop debt in your home? Even if you don’t live in the United States their crisis is affecting everybody around the world. So go check your finances, start your budget, get financial education and start being part of the solution.
Is just a recommendation but if we act maybe we would be able to take away some numbers of this clock. You can also download our report and join our list of messages (to the right) with tips and advice to improve your situation
Tags: debt clock, debt help
Dave Ramsey is a renown author in the personal finance arena. I found an article from him talking about Debt Management and the truth about it. He says that a debt management program can trash your credit score.
I think that he is doing a big generalization on this article, as it is not always the case that this will happen. You can find a way to deal with your debts and a debt management company without this inconvenient. They can be of great support.
Anyway, the reason I’m commenting about it is because he also gives good advice about what to do. He recommends to learn how to manage your money, which can be the difference between having a lot of debt or not.
So check the article and remember to comment about it:
The Truth About Debt Management
And remember to download our report about debt management, it will help you to become a better money manager as Dave Ramsey recommends.
Tags: Dave Ramsey, Debt Management
If you’re smart enough to have already started an emergency fund, you might want to opt for two. You should have some emergency cash at home but you should also have an emergency fund in an account.
Try not to make that fund too easy to access. For instance, don’t have a debit card for it. If you have to go to the bank during regular business hours and stand in line to access your money, you’re much less likely to impulsively spend it.
If you want to start saving money in an account and don’t think you’re going to be militant and dedicated enough to go to the bank every pay day and put money in, consider splitting your direct deposit so that the money goes in automatically. If your employer doesn’t offer this option, consider talking to your bank about doing an automatic transfer for you on specific days of the month; preferably payday when the funds go right in.
For other tips download our free debt management report, is filled with tips, advice and help to manage your finances.
Tags: debt management tips, saving tip
Searching the Internet I found an interesting article with some question you can make yourself before choosing a debt management company, some of them are very obvious but is better to check it than complain later.
Some of the questions you can do to check are:
- What fees does the agency charge?
- Are the agency’s counselors certified and trained in basic money management services?
- Is the agency accredited by a reputable third-party organization?
- How long will it take to pay off a debt management plan?
- Are customer service representatives available to help clients?
Anyway, you can check the whole list in this page: How To Check Out A Debt Management Organization by Jon Burnstein
Or check the an expert on the matter: www.nfcc.org
Have a nice day and remember to keep improving your financial situation by taking the right decisions today!
I found an interesting article talking about the current situation and how debt management can be an option to deal with this uncertain economy.
Debt will be there now or in the future, the important thing is to search ways to deal with it, help ourselves to improve the situation and become financially educated. We are now slaves of our debts, so we decide to get rid of them or keep growing our stress levels and unease. Not all debts are bad, of course, but not knowing our options and how to deal with our situation is the problem.
So check the article:
Quality Debt Management Strategies
And remember that you can have our free debt management report, a step by step guide to get out of debt, stay free of debt and improve your financial situation now!
I found a great post from No Credit Needed blog, in a single post the author is putting together a lot of resources you can use to become debt free.
This resources can worth a lot of money and time for you so you can check and let your comments about them (if you liked them or not).
Free Spreadsheets, Tools, And Resources For Managing Finances
If you’re trying to reduce your debt, you might feel like you can no longer have any fun. Because you’re on a strict budget and not allowed to frivolously spend, you’ll need some fun and cheap ideas.
• Search your town’s website for free events. Believe it or not, there are loads!
• Take up exercise. It can be entertaining, free and healthy
• Rent movies instead of buying them. Better yet, borrow them from the library.
• Rediscover the library!
• Buy coupon books for discounts on local attractions
• Join a church. Churches offer many extra curricular activities that are free and enriching.
• Go to the drive in on carload nights or to the movies on matinees. This will save you money over peak periods
If you have other interesting cheap ideas, please let your comments, debt is easier when you share how to deal with it with other people
