Posts Tagged ‘Credit Cards’

Tips To Stop Bank Foreclosure Process

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

The mortgage foreclosure process will begin right after you miss your first payment. You may not hear from the mortgage company right away, but you will soon. If you are late with your mortgage payment you probably also late on some other payments as well.

Some of your credit may be secured, such as your car or house and some unsecured. Also known as signature loans or credit cards. They pretty much the same, except on secured loans the creditor can collect the collateral. Have you ever had a car repo’ed?

If your ability to pay is about to change or has changed it is imperative you contact your creditors immediately if not sooner and explain your situation to them, in writing. Now is the time for crying in your beer or blaming your boss for a pay cut or a lay off. Just the facts sir. Your situation is changed, and this is what you can do and when you can do it. Short one page and direct to the point.

Crying is not good. Have plan made up to present to them and confident in your proposal and ability to recover or to maintain whatever it is your are presenting.

Talking with the mortgage holder about what you can do will get you big mileage when it comes to slowing down the bank foreclosure process.

You do not want to discuss your plans over the phone. Keep all communication in writing and keep copies for future reference if needed. People often misunderstand what is said in phone conversations. Simply tell them you will gladly answer any questions they have. Just send you a latter and you will answer them that way. Be polite but firm.

One of the first thing you will notice is how popular you are if you do not contact the creditor right from the start. You will probably find your phone ringing off the hook in a very short while.

You will find they are also really great at asking questions. Like, “Why are you late with your payment?” “When will you be able to catch it up?” “What is the problem you cannot pay?” It almost make you feel like your are back in school in the principals office and you are being chided because you pulled the girls pig tails who sat in front of you. It is not a very comfortable place to be.

We have all been taught in school to answer when asked a question. Now is not the time to answer questions. Now is the time to ask questions. Or at least to not volunteer any information. Remember, keep your communicating in letter form.

If you are in danger or think you are in danger of your home going into foreclosure you need to get help with foreclosure to protect your most valuable asset.

If you are and have been communicating with the creditors from the beginning you should not have any problem with collection agencies. These hired guns are not usually called until the creditor has given up on you. You want to keep it this way. In the mean time, get and become familiar with the Fair Debt Collection Act. It will prove to be of big help when dealing with the hired thugs if it ever comes down to that.

However, in regards to a mortgage you will probably be dealing directly with the mortgage holder, not some third party flunky. To stop the mortgage foreclosure process you will be dealing with a horse of a different color. This should be your first and primary concern as it is your home, unless you have already made the decision to let the home go to foreclosure.

Get timely tips about forex investment – welcome to your individual knowledge base.

 Mail this post

Technorati Tags: Bank Foreclosure, Bank Mortgage, Boss, Car Repo, Collateral, Credit Cards, Creditor Right, Creditors, Foreclosure Process, Hook, Mileage, Mortgage Company, Mortgage Foreclosure, mortgage foreclosure process, Mortgage Holder, Mortgage Payment, Mortgage Process, Phone Conversations, Proposal, Secured Loans, Signature Loans

Stop and think where you put your bag

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

Keeping your bag safe is sometimes something that is right at the back of your mind when out at a party at a friend’s house or even when out on the town. However even at close relatives it is possible that your bag could be stolen by somebody and that happy party night could be turned into a very bad night indeed. Not just your purse can go missing with a stolen bag. With one simple big swipe a whole identity can be stolen. When going out there a few important things to remember.

Firstly do not ever leave your bag unattended. it is quite a common thing for people to leave thier bags and coats and other belongings all in one room. Although this seems like quite a good idea the truth is a thief can make an excuse up if caught just saying they are looking for something will put you off suspecting them.

Something that it useful to hang your handbag on is a Chelsea clip. Using one of these if you see one is a good idea. It is very difficult for a thief to actually steal a handbag on one of these as it requires two hands to get it off the hook.

Hanging the bag off the back of a chair is pretty much you handing out the cash to them yourself. Making the bag look like it cannot be taken with ease is key, do not leave zips open, zip them up and close all compartments.

The final point is carry as little cash with you as possible. You can stop somebody from getting to your credit cards by of course getting them cancelled, cash on the other hand is nearly impossible to get back.

If the worst does happen then your home insurance is not going to help at all and unless you are at home neither is home emergency insurance. The best bet to take is either gadget insurance or personal emergency insurance. Both will help you out a lot in this situation enabling you to gain back any lost gadgets or cash.

 Mail this post

Technorati Tags: Belongings, Best Bet, Close Relatives, Coats, Credit Cards, crime, Excuse, fraud, Gadget, Gadgets, Handbag, Happy Party, Home Emergency, Home Insurance, Hook, Important Things, insurance, Personal Emergency, Purse, Swipe, Thief, Two Hands

Is PPI a Rip Off?

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

If you’ve ever taken out a loan, mortgage, credit card or store card, or bought something on credit, then the chances are you were sold Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) at the same time.  The idea is that PPI covers your debt repayments if you can’t work because you become ill or have an accident or if you are made redundant.

Beware!  Most policies won’t cover you for conditions such as back pain or stress and if you’re on a short-term contract or self-employed, you may not be covered for any redundancy claim. PPI linked to mortgages, credit cards or store cards usually pays out for a limited amount of time only. On some credit card PPI, the insurance only covers the minimum monthly payment, meaning your balance may never reduce!Most PPI policies only last for five years, so if your loan or finance agreement term lasts for longer than this, you are paying interest on insurance that has long since expired!

Aside from being ineffective, PPI is also expensive!   Adding PPI to a £7,500 five-year loan could cost an additional £2000-£3000.According to a recent Citizens Advice Bureau survey, Payment Protection Insurance can add 20% or more to the cost of your credit agreement and since it’s estimated that there are over 20 million PPI policies in force throughout the UK generating almost £5 billion worth of premium income for the insurers!

That CAB survey also found that 85% of people who had attempted to claim on their policies had been refused.  Worse still, in June 2008, the Competition Commission found that average insurance payout ratios were:  Car Insurance: 78%, Home Insurance: 54%, Mortgage PPI:  barely 28%, Personal Loan PPI: a depressing 15% and Credit Card PPI:  a miserable 11%!

So how do you know if you’ve been mis-sold a PPI plan and what can you do about it?The main difference between sales before and after regulation is that all sales before regulation were ‘non-advised’ because the ‘advised’ regime didn’t start until regulation was introduced.

But if you were sold PPI before 14th January 2005, most firms or advisers would be still covered by a code of practice set by the Association of British Insurers (ABI), the General insurance Standards Council (GISC) and the Finance and Leasing Association (FLA).All three codes of practice required advisers to provide information at the time the insurance was taken out to help you decide if the policy was suitable for you Even then, advisers and firms had to cover the same points as they must cover today according to the current rules.
There’s a good chance you were indeed mis-sold (and can therefore recover your hard earned cash) if you can answer ‘NO’ to one or more of these questions:

  • If the insurance was optional, was that made clear to you?
  • Did the adviser tell you about any significant exclusions under the policy (like pre-existing medical conditions) ?
  • Did the adviser make it clear that you would have to pay for the insurance up front in one single payment and did you know you would be paying interest on it?
  • If your loan or finance agreement was for longer than five years, did the adviser tell you that the insurance would run out before you had finished paying for your loan or finance agreement?
  • Did the adviser tell you that you would continue to pay interest on the insurance premium, even after the insurance had expired?

So it you think you may have a case, contact a specialist claims adviser to find out more and take action!

 Mail this post

Technorati Tags: Amount Of Time, Back Pain, Car Insurance, Citizens Advice Bureau, Competition Commission, Credit Cards, debt managerment, debt repayment, Debt Repayments, Finance Agreement, Home Insurance, Insurance claims, Insurance Payout, Loan Mortgage, Mis-selling, Mortgage Credit, Payment Protection Insurance, Payout Ratios, Personal Loan, PPI, Redundancy, Store Cards, Survey Also Found That, Term Contract