Credit Repair Fix

Have you ever wondered why so many solid businessman drive cruddy, old cars from a dingy, run down offices to their palatial homes in the suburbs? Warren Buffet, perhaps the greatest investor alive is known for this. The reason they live this life style is not because they are cheap misers but because they have a high level of financial intelligence that you can develop as well.

They understand that if they have $90,000.00 that they could either put that money into:

1. reducing their debt

2. invest it into the stock market

2. selective home improvements

4. improve the appearance of their business facilities (I am assuming that this doesn’t have an appreciable impact on their profitability and believe me it almost never does despite excuse mangers make to blow money)

5. buy a new Mercedes Benz for themselves

6. buy their children a new car.

The first two choices increase your net worth (equity) which is always a good thing and equity is not taxed. The third choice increases your enjoyment (utility) of your home. If you remodel your kitchen or bath appropriately you may also increase your equity. So if you have spare cash in excess of your debts and a solid investment, savings plan than this can be a good choice as well.

The fourth and fifth choices are TOTAL wastes of money because your business sits there for you to suck money out of and nothing else. A car loses a quarter of its value the moment it is driven off of the lot and then continues its downward slide to nothing. Depreciating assets are not investments they are financially undesirable necessities if you can’t walk everywhere you need to go. An automobile is a financially undesirable necessity, nothing more, nothing, less.

The very last choice is the worst possible use of your money. Not only do you waste your money but you also teach and reinforce financial mismanagement in the minds of your offspring. Your children learn that they do not have to work for anything they want. Worse still they will mentally assign a value to the automobile relative to the amount of effort it took for them to acquire it and that is zero. For this reason, debt relief programs exist.

In Steven Silbiger’s book “The Jewish Phenomenon” he describes in other ways why this concept of being prudently frugal yet selectively extravagant is a major key to the extraordinary wealth of the Jewish ethnicity. He shows clearly how Jewish families use this wisdom to convert their income into lasting wealth. Don’t forget that this wisdom is not restricted to Jews and in fact is the underlying lying cause of financial stability in high income families of low income ethnicity. The most enduring wealth of course is a debt free life style with adequate passive income and the knowledge to recoup it all if lost.

Credit card debt is a major problem for lots of people who fail on their monthly payments. In order to cope with the situation, many take into consideration the various possibilities for credit card debt elimination. The reduction of the interest card rate or the consolidation of the loans may be possible ways out of a financial crisis.

Do not try to consolidate debt unless you are sure you’ll make savings. This kind of credit card debt elimination could work if you take up another loan against an asset such as the car or the house. After the consolidation, you will be able to close the older loans and transfer the balances to the new lender and continue repayment according to the newly negotiated conditions. The consolidation serves you well only if you manage to reduce the monthly rates.

Before trying any consumer debt relief program you need to research on any associated charges or fees. Some contracts are tricky because they have low introductory rates but huge penalties if you miss a payment. When consolidating multiple credit card accounts into one, there are two options, either to keep all the accounts open in order to improve credit scores, or keep only one so as to avoid racking up increasing balances.

Beware scams! The high demand for credit card debt elimination has provided the right background for illegal activities, and crooks keep diversifying their schemes. Besides consolidation they make you believe they can provide credit card debt elimination for a rather small fee. Without repayment, debt elimination is not possible! Such scammers will first ask you to pay some fee for the service. Ads do sound good, but why would you even imagine that debts should not be paid?

Do not start working on your credit card debt elimination from some email you receive. The programs promoted like this on the Internet usually hide all sorts of schemes that you don’t want to be part of. You may start working on a debt reduction plan by negotiating some better conditions for the accounts you have with the lenders. It may be possible to negotiate some lower rates so as to pay them more easily, yet, this could extend the debt a bit further.

In case you choose to consolidate credit card debt, you will need an evaluation of your assets as well as a careful analysis of your credit score. Depending on these two variables, you may get more favorable conditions on the unsecured debt relief contract.

In a world where more and more people rarely use cash and swipe debit and credit cards for almost every purchase they make, nothing is more annoying than the little sign posted by a cash register notifying customers of a 50 cent fee for using a debit or credit card. Customers feel that they shouldn’t be punished with higher expenses for trying to make purchases with a card that allows them to track their spending and avoid the risks of carrying cash. Merchants feel squeezed as the fees charged by banks and credit card companies allowing them to accept plastic as a form of payment as tripled since the year 2000.

The average fee paid by a merchant for a credit purchase is around 2% of the purchase price. Some of the biggest fees for using credit cards are at fast food establishments and convenience stores where there are high volumes of sales for low dollar amounts. The fees, called interchange fees, generated $48 billion in revenue for banks in 2008. Part of the increase in fees comes from greater costs associated with fraud prevention and protection, but most of the fee is purely profit to a financial institution. There are several ideas that would make these fees more manageable.

Standardize Fees Among Credit Card Issuers
Forcing all issuers to charge a standardized set of fees could lead to lower fees across the industry when card issuers stop competing for bank business by offering higher transaction fees. Fees are also higher in states with sales tax, since the fee is based on the amount of the purchase including all taxes.

Allow Businesses to Offer Discounts for Cash Customers
This is allowed in a few areas, but most companies are not allowed to offer discounts for cash customers. Customers feel that they shouldn’t be punished with higher expenses for trying to make purchases.

Fight for Greater Transparency
The National Small Business Association cites this as the top way to address concerns over interchange fees. If consumers knew how much merchants were paying in exchange for offering the ability to use credit and debit cards, they would be more understanding about paying a fee when swiping their card.