Posts Tagged ‘harrassment debt collector’

Keep Them Handy: Budgeting Tools that Work

Budgeting your monthly expenses in order to get the greatest return on your income (and perhaps, even put aside some for saving!) doesn’t have to be extremely hard.

Various budgeting programs are available for use. Money management programs provide you with a usual package that allows you to enter your cash inflows and outflows, categorizes your expenditures, and at times, presents to you analysis of your spending behavior. Through these programs you can also input the various payments you have to make monthly, and subsequently track if you’ve paid your dues on time. Moreover, some programs also offer you a tax form draft that will help you make sure you’re not missing out on any dues or any deductibles, for that matter.

Another budgeting tool that you can utilize are coupons. Various stores and magazines contain coupons that you can use to get discounts on various products. Should there be a need to purchase a particular product for which you have a coupon for, you will end up saving a fraction of what you might have had to spend on a regular purchase.

Lists—whether on a piece of paper, on your cellular phone, or on your personal digital assistant (PDA) will help you keep focused on what you have to buy, and in effect, keep track of the purchases you make. A classic example is your regular grocery trip. Prior to making the trip, plan out the week’s entire menu and identify what food items and materials you need to purchase that are unavailable in your pantry. Then, make a list of other household items that you’ve run out of (or are eventually going to run out of before you can make the next trip to the grocery). Armed with these lists, you can go to the grocery and know exactly where to go and what you’re going to buy. Without these lists, you will walk idly along aisles, and will likely pick up various food items that you won’t likely need in the immediate future, or already have at home.

A filing system is perhaps one of the best budgeting tools you can have in your home. With simple, labeled file folders, you can put together your bills, your receipts, and whatever bank documents are issued to you when you save or pay. By putting together your bills, your credit card receipts, and the like, you are able to keep track of how much you owe and when your payments are due.

Effective budgeting tools are those that best address your needs as a consumer. Create your own budgeting tool or find a program to do it for you—just make sure it suits your lifestyle.

Wisconsin Blacks Don’t Have Bank Accounts

The largest survey ever of how many families in the U.S. have bank accounts revealed both good news and bad news for Wisconsin.

The good news: The percentage of households without a bank account is smaller in Wisconsin than nationally, 4.3% vs. 7.7%.

The bad news: The state fares worse than the U.S. average when it comes to bank accounts for blacks and Hispanics. The survey found that 30.4% of African-American and 32.6% of Hispanic households in the Wisconsin were “unbanked” – meaning no one in the family had a checking or savings account. That compares with 21.7% for blacks nationally and 19.3% for Hispanics.

The upshot, according to the FDIC, which released the survey findings Wednesday, is that banks and credit unions need to develop more low-cost ways to conduct transactions such as check cashing, educate more people about the value and safety of savings accounts, and offer reasonably priced alternatives for small-dollar loans.

“I think our challenge is to make sure banks have the appropriate range of products and services to meet the needs of all people, including low-income communities, and have the right fee mix that is cost effective,” Sheila Bair, chairman of the FDIC, said during a conference call Wednesday.

At 4.3%, the amount of Wisconsin households without an account at a bank or credit union was tied with Alaska for 11th-lowest.

The survey asked households without bank accounts why they don’t have any. The No. 1 reason was that they didn’t have enough money to need an account. Among other top reasons: They didn’t want or see the value of an account, the service charges were too high, they did not write enough checks, the minimum balance requirements were too high, they’ve bounced too many checks or did not trust banks.

The survey also looked at “underbanked” households – those that have a checking or savings account but still rely on alternative financial service providers, such as payday lenders. In Wisconsin, 16% overall were found to be underbanked, compared with 17.9% nationally. Among Wisconsin blacks and Hispanics, 39.4% and 15.6% were underbanked, respectively, compared with 31.6% for blacks and 24% for Hispanics in the U.S.

“What it shows is we still have a lot of work to do, but we’re up for the task,” said Deloris Sims, chairman and chief executive of Legacy Bank, which operates in Milwaukee’s central city.

Sims said in some cases, bringing people into the mainstream financial system means overcoming years of tradition.

“I think some generations of people have definitely been raised on check cashing outlets versus banks,” Sims said. “That’s the way they are raised, and that’s what they do. That’s how they take care of their business. They could do things differently if they were educated.”

Legacy and many other banks here have outreach efforts to show people the value of using checking and savings accounts.

Wisconsin’s biggest bank, M&I Bank, has two full-time staff members whose job is to conduct financial education and find ways to attract consumers into the banking system, said Ammar Askari, M&I community education administrator. He said immigrants, particularly Hispanics, often are reluctant to put their confidence in the banking system and prefer to deal in cash.

“They come in with a great deal of mistrust of financial institutions based on their experience back home,” Askari said.

Some consumers have had bad experiences with American banks, such as penalties for bounced checks, and find it easier to operate through other types of financial services providers, he said.

“I’m sure you could say that there’s always more that could be done, but I think we do quite a bit in terms of educating people about the benefits of bank accounts and traditional accounts,” said Rose Oswald Poels, senior vice president of the Wisconsin Bankers Association.

Is Legacy Bank Down For The Count?

from JSOnline Report
Milwaukee’s Legacy Bank, wrestling with losses on loans, has been told by regulators to raise capital or sell itself to another financial institution.

Legacy Bank In Trouble

The Federal Reserve has issued a directive that declares Legacy “significantly undercapitalized,” and gives the bank and its parent company, Legacy Bancorp Inc., 60 days to remedy the situation.

Legacy Bank, which was founded 11 years ago with the goal of focusing on lending in Milwaukee’s central city, has lost almost $6.4 million this year after losing $15.2 million in 2009, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data shows.

Last spring, Legacy entered into an agreement with the Fed that required a plan to strengthen the bank’s credit risk management practices and prepare a strategic plan to improve the bank’s earnings and overall condition.

Legacy Bank President José Mantilla said Wednesday that the bank hired an investment banking firm “some months back” to help with a plan to restore capital.

“We continue to raise capital, and we believe that prospects for us are still to move forward. Some work to do, but still moving forward,” Mantilla said.

The new directive also prohibits Legacy from soliciting, accepting or renewing deposit accounts paying higher-than-market interest rates.

Legacy is one of 20 Wisconsin banks that received an infusion of capital from the U.S. Treasury through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Legacy received a $5.5 million government investment in early 2009. At the time, the Treasury noted Legacy was one of the fastest-growing community banks in the nation.

But FDIC records show many types of loans have soured at Legacy. Through Sept. 30 this year, its ratio of non-current loans to total loans had grown to more than 23%, up from nearly 11% – an already high ratio – a year earlier.

According to the FDIC, 37% of Legacy’s home-purchase loans were delinquent through the end of September, and 34% of its credit card loans were in arrears.

“The loans that are problematic were loans that are right here in Milwaukee, in the community we serve, which was impacted by the macro events of this economy,” Mantilla said. “We are seeing some significant turnaround in that process.”

How To Get Through The Holidays With Less Stress and Less Debt!

The holiday season is suppose to be a time for joy and celebration…but all too often it can become Stressful for Families and Relationships!

During the holidays we have seen a rise in:
*Domestic Violence
*Stress
*Depression
*Debt
*Heart Attacks
*Stroke
*and many other illnesses

For A Limited Time…I’m Giving away
3 Free E-books To Help You Make It Through The Holidays With Less Stress and Less Debt!

CLICK ON THE IMAGES BELOW TO DOWNLOAD YOUR EBOOK.

Keep Reading…

A Little Goes a Long Way: Smart Secrets to Budgeting

There’s nothing more we want than to be able to efficiently manage our money. After all, the money that we want to manage is money that is oftentimes, hard earned. This is where a budget comes in. A budget executed properly, should help you see where your money is going, get more utility out of every buck, and help you save some extra for future use.

The first smart secret to a budget is to set a goal. What do you want to achieve? Do you want to correctly appropriate your income into bills payments? Do you want to put an amount aside for a big purchase or a huge investment? By having a goal, you will be able to shape your budget to best serve your interests.

Secondly, you would want to take note of where your money usually goes. This includes bills, major but regular purchases (like grocery costs, healthcare costs, and the like), and everyday miscellaneous purchases. Only when you list down where you know your money usually goes will you be able to identify which expenses you can do without. Once you’ve identified these regular expenditures, take into consideration what you can cut back on. How much do you spend on your daily caffeine fix in the morning? How much do you spend on newspaper deliveries to your front door? The measly $2 or $5 of these small purchases cumulatively translates to more than $3600 a year! Instead of buying your expensive latte or reading the newspaper on print, put aside the amount you would usually pay for these small routine purchases in a small container. You will be surprised at how much you’re saving out of your older budget.

Being indebted is a vicious cycle on its own. You’re talking about continuous payments, not to mention huge interest rates. The best way to deal with this is to pay the minimum on all of your debts in order to avoid paying extraneous late fees. Whatever cash excesses you may have, you can opt to add on to the payments you make in your biggest debt. This way, you are concentrated on getting the biggest debts first that cost you the greatest interest rates. Doing this progressively, you’ll be amazed at how much you’ll get off your huge debts.

The last and most important step is to jot down the amount you earn the sum you spend. You can make use of computer cash management programs, or make database sheets of your own. Make a system that works for you and will help you keep track of your monthly budgeting progress.

Here are the 7 Steps to getting your debtsolution.com/debtsolutionblog”>financial house in order…

1. Stabilizing your household situation – you’ll never be able to pay any debt if you can’t ensure that you and your family has a roof over your head, food on the table, utilities paid and transportation to and from work.

2. Set-up a budget – you’ll never understand how to management your money unless you know to the dollar what’s coming in and what’s going out.

3. Put together a debt elimination plan – when you have a budget you can put together a strategy to pay off your debt faster because you see what’s in front of you.

4. Establish an emergency fund – this is very important because most people use a credit card for an emergency fund and that’s a problem. If you have cash on hand more than likely you’ll rarely have emergencies and if you do have one you won’t have to go into debt to take care of it. I recommend at least $500 to $1,000 accessible cash with no penalties if used. While getting out of debt.

5. Review for acceleration of your debt elimination plan – once you have the other steps on paper there are several options that will open up for settlement offers on credit cards, automobiles, payday loans, etc.

6. Action + Action + Belief + Concentration = Tremendous Results – nothing will happen without you taking definite action with belief you can accomplish your goals and a high level of concentration to keep you focused on your goals.

7. Start saving for life experiences…Fun, Retirement, Generational Wealth

Before you sign up for any debt relief program such as bankruptcy, debt consolidation or credit counseling please read this FREE Consumer Guide To Getting Out Of Debt

http://therealdebtsolution.com/debtsolutionblog/getting-out-of-debt-consumers-guide-newly-released/

Federal Reserve Dumps $600 Billion Into US Economy

This week we learned that the Federal Reserve (a non-governmental agency) will be buying US treasury notes in an effort to stimulate the US economy. Many pundits have express concerns about this strategy. They are afraid that it will cause major inflation and weaken the US dollar more.

In my opinion the US dollar is weak because we need it to be weak. When our dollar is weak prices do increase some but we become cheaper to other countries to buy and produce our products and services. The US market is primed for a huge rebound. There have been several so called gurus such as Gerald Celente the Trends Forecaster and other that have been totally wrong about the US dollar collapsing. These so called trend forecasters are just gambling on the future and they don’t really understand what’s really going on.

I’m not hear to tell you what to do or what’s going to happen for sure. But history has shown that the US dollar will rebound and just about every other country will keep the dollar because America is everything they could ever want.

How Desperate Can A Person Be?

While working in my office this past Friday Oct. 29, 2010 I heard a strange noise from outside.

I parked my Land Rover on the street so I can see it out of my window from my desk.  My office is in a pretty good area also.  I’ve never had any problems with people or theft.

I heard that strange noise and I did take a look at my car but I only looked to see if it was hit by another car and I really didn’t look at my entire car.  From space I park at on the street I could only see the front half of my car.  I could have seen the entire car if I was to get closer to the window but I didn’t.

The thief actually ripped 1/4 of my license plate off as you can see in the photo.  This is not the first time something like this has happened to me.  There have been several times at various locations around the city of Milwaukee that this has happened to me, my employees or business associates.

How desperate can a person be to do this.  How much will they receive if they sell it and who is the dumb ass that would buy it.  Don’t they know that their car will not automatically become registered by the state when they put my 2011 sticker on their cars license plate?

I’ve also been running through my mind what would I have done if I saw the person doing it.  Would I have yelled out of the window?  Would I have ran downstairs to my car and punched the person in the face?  I don’t know what I would have done.  This person must have been very desperate and I’m thinking they must have drug problem.  This theft happened at about 2pm so it was nice and sunny outside.

So now I’m going to have to go to the DMV and get a new sticker and order new plates.  My plates are custom plates so I don’t know what the fee will be to replace them.  All of the other times the thieves have only taken the sticker off of my licenses plate.

Here are the 7 Steps to getting your financial house in order…

1. Stabilizing your household situation – you’ll never be able to pay any debt if you can’t ensure that you and your family has a roof over your head, food on the table, utilities paid and transportation to and from work.

2. Set-up a budget – you’ll never understand how to management your money unless you know to the dollar what’s coming in and what’s going out.

3. Put together a debt elimination plan – when you have a budget you can put together a strategy to pay off your debt faster because you see what’s in front of you.

4. Establish an emergency fund – this is very important because most people use a credit card for an emergency fund and that’s a problem. If you have cash on hand more than likely you’ll rarely have emergencies and if you do have one you won’t have to go into debt to take care of it. I recommend at least $500 to $1,000 accessible cash with no penalties if used. While getting out of debt.

5. Review for acceleration of your debt elimination plan – once you have the other steps on paper there are several options that will open up for settlement offers on credit cards, automobiles, payday loans, etc.

6. Action + Action + Belief + Concentration = Tremendous Results – nothing will happen without you taking definite action with belief you can accomplish your goals and a high level of concentration to keep you focused on your goals.

7. Start saving for life experiences…Fun, Retirement, Generational Wealth

Before you sign up for any debt relief program such as bankruptcy, debt consolidation or credit counseling please read this FREE Consumer Guide To Getting Out Of Debt

http://therealdebtsolution.com/debtsolutionblog/getting-out-of-debt-consumers-guide-newly-released/

Crystal Cathedral: Bankruptcy Owes More Than $43 Million Dollars

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. – Crystal Cathedral, the megachurch birthplace of the televangelist show “Hour of Power,” filed for bankruptcy Monday in Southern California after struggling to emerge from debt that exceeds $43 million.

In addition to a $36 million mortgage, the Orange County-based church owes $7.5 million to several hundred vendors for services ranging from advertising to the use of live animals in Easter and Christmas services.

The church had been negotiating a repayment plan with vendors, but several filed lawsuits seeking quicker payment, which prompted a coalition formed by creditors to fall apart.

“Tough times never last, every storm comes to an end. Right now, people need to hear that message more than ever,” Sheila Schuller Coleman, the Cathedral’s senior pastor and daughter of the founder, told reporters outside the worship hall decked with a soaring glass spire.

Here are the 7 Steps to getting your financial house in order…

1. Stabilizing your household situation – you’ll never be able to pay any debt if you can’t ensure that you and your family has a roof over your head, food on the table, utilities paid and transportation to and from work.

2. Set-up a budget – you’ll never understand how to management your money unless you know to the dollar what’s coming in and what’s going out.

3. Put together a debt elimination plan – when you have a budget you can put together a strategy to pay off your debt faster because you see what’s in front of you.

4. Establish an emergency fund – this is very important because most people use a credit card for an emergency fund and that’s a problem. If you have cash on hand more than likely you’ll rarely have emergencies and if you do have one you won’t have to go into debt to take care of it. I recommend at least $500 to $1,000 accessible cash with no penalties if used. While getting out of debt.

5. Review for acceleration of your debt elimination plan – once you have the other steps on paper there are several options that will open up for settlement offers on credit cards, automobiles, payday loans, etc.

6. Action + Action + Belief + Concentration = Tremendous Results – nothing will happen without you taking definite action with belief you can accomplish your goals and a high level of concentration to keep you focused on your goals.

7. Start saving for life experiences…Fun, Retirement, Generational Wealth

Before you sign up for any debt relief program such as bankruptcy, debt consolidation or credit counseling please read this free consumer guide to getting out of debt at CLICK HERE!

5,000,000 Household 60 Days or More Behind On Mortgage Payments

As predicted the Mortgage Modification and the so called Moratorium on foreclosures due to improper paperwork filings we just a stall tactic by the mortgage companies to buy time before the stock marketing 4th quarter reporting.

Here are the 7 Steps to getting your financial house in order…

1. Stabilizing your household situation – you’ll never be able to pay any debt if you can’t ensure that you and your family has a roof over your head, food on the table, utilities paid and transportation to and from work.

2. Set-up a budget – you’ll never understand how to management your money unless you know to the dollar what’s coming in and what’s going out.

3. Put together a debt elimination plan – when you have a budget you can put together a strategy to pay off your debt faster because you see what’s in front of you.

4. Establish an emergency fund – this is very important because most people use a credit card for an emergency fund and that’s a problem. If you have cash on hand more than likely you’ll rarely have emergencies and if you do have one you won’t have to go into debt to take care of it. I recommend at least $500 to $1,000 accessible cash with no penalties if used. While getting out of debt.

5. Review for acceleration of your debt elimination plan – once you have the other steps on paper there are several options that will open up for settlement offers on credit cards, automobiles, payday loans, etc.

6. Action + Action + Belief + Concentration = Tremendous Results – nothing will happen without you taking definite action with belief you can accomplish your goals and a high level of concentration to keep you focused on your goals.

7. Start saving for life experiences…Fun, Retirement, Generational Wealth

Before you sign up for any debt relief program such as bankruptcy, debt consolidation or credit counseling please read this free consumer guide to getting out of debt at debtsolution.com/debtsolutionblog/getting-out-of-debt-consumers-guide-newly-released/”>CLICK HERE!

Are You In A Perpetual Debt Trap?

Definition : Perpetual – lasting forever or for a long time. Continuing without interruption; constant.

While I was picking up my dry cleaning I saw a couple of advertisements that promoted buying new furniture with “No Payments For 90 Days”. This made me think of a constant debt cycle that most people including myself in the past would go through over and over again.

I call it a “Perpetual Debt Trap”. There are several types of debt(s) that we will have unless we make a concretive effort to rid ourselves of them. Because these types of debt(s) are usually based around a real need in our lives we are more apt to favor the “Perpetual Debt Trap” they place us into.

Some of the types of debts that keep us in a “Perpetual Debt Trap” are:

• Credit Cards – most credit card users start out paying off either most or all of their balance when they first get a credit card. But as time goes by most users start to carry balances and those balances get higher and higher as the years go by. But to dig a little deeper we really use the credit card for a lot of items such as computers, furniture and clothing that we really need but we shouldn’t have purchased with credit. So what happens is every time we need to upgrade to a better computer or newer furniture we continually use credit cards to or some type of credit to upgrade.
• Auto Loans – this is what 99.9% of American’s do over and over again because they have a tough time paying cash for a car. We need dependable transportation so we feel that it’s ok to either trade-in or purchase a car on credit. The larger problem comes when you constantly trade-in a car and never pay it off you’ll keep owing more and more money.
• Mortgage Refinancing – we currently see the effects of the mortgage refinancing market. People were refinancing to either pay off credit card debt, auto debt, to add on to the property or to get cash out. They never gave themselves a chance to pay down their debt and accumulate equity in their homes.

Are you in a “Perpetual Debt Trap”? Here are the 7 Steps to getting your financial house in order…

1. Stabilizing your household situation – you’ll never be able to pay any debt if you can’t ensure that you and your family has a roof over your head, food on the table, utilities paid and transportation to and from work.

2. Set-up a budget – you’ll never understand how to management your money unless you know to the dollar what’s coming in and what’s going out.

3. Put together a debt elimination plan – when you have a budget you can put together a strategy to pay off your debt faster because you see what’s in front of you.

4. Establish an emergency fund – this is very important because most people use a credit card for an emergency fund and that’s a problem. If you have cash on hand more than likely you’ll rarely have emergencies and if you do have one you won’t have to go into debt to take care of it. I recommend at least $500 to $1,000 accessible cash with no penalties if used. While getting out of debt.

5. Review for acceleration of your debt elimination plan – once you have the other steps on paper there are several options that will open up for settlement offers on credit cards, automobiles, payday loans, etc.

6. Action + Action + Belief + Concentration = Tremendous Results – nothing will happen without you taking definite action with belief you can accomplish your goals and a high level of concentration to keep you focused on your goals.

7. Start saving for life experiences…Fun, Retirement, Generational Wealth

Before you sign up for any debt relief program such as bankruptcy, debt consolidation or credit counseling please read this free consumer guide to getting out of debt at CLICK HERE!