Archive for May 25th, 2007
I am sick and tired of being in debt up to my eyeballs and want to gain control over my life. This is why I have set a goal to be debt free by April 2009.
Paying off $72,900 worth of debt is not going to be an easy task, my husband makes a very small salary already and I am a stay-at home mother of three children.
On top of that, my husband is losing his job in July 2007 after being diagnosed with severe epilepsy, which cannot be controlled by medication.
We also have our fourth baby due to be born that same month. However, in spite of how hard it will be to meet our debt free goal, we are determined and motivated to make it happen.
My debt payoff plan is to make money online through legitimate work at home programs. I have found a few great ones so far and have been able to start a small income, which I plan to increase over the next several months.
It takes a lot of work to be successful at making money online, I am putting in a lot of hours because we are in a sink or swim position in our lives right now.
When my husband loses his job in July 2007, we are moving in with his parents while we pay our debts off and work to save some money for a place of our own. My husband plans to do as many side jobs as he can to supplement our income and pay down our debt.
Our desire to be debt free is very strong, even to the point that we are willing to work like crazy and give up all the luxuries of life that most people like to enjoy.
We have no cable television, we never go out to eat, we only buy clothes for the children when they absolutely need them and we never buy clothes for ourselves.
We dont go to the movies, order pizza or do anything that costs money. Our kids do not get any new toys or games. Unless of course those come as gifts from grandparents.
I dont want to sound like we deprive our children. We do free things with them so they have some entertainment, such as go for walks and play at the park.
We dont eat any fancy meals. The staple of our diet consists of beans & rice and other inexpensive meals such as pastas, baked potatoes, and vegetable stir-fry.
We got ourselves into debt, so it is up to us to get ourselves out of it. We have to sacrifice in order to meet our debt free goal.
I invite you to watch our progress as we dig ourselves out of debt and towards financial independence. Any support or encouragement you can provide will be extremely helpful to our cause. I have set up a blog to track our progress towards our goal, which you can visit here- Working for Financial Independence.
May 25th, 2007
The demand for credit card debt management services is on the rise, just as the number of credit card users is increasing day by day. Not only is this number growing, but more and more people are having difficulty in wisely making use of their newfound financial freedom too. As a result of this, they are soon burdened with heavy debts, and paying them off, looks like an impossible task for most. This is where credit card debt management steps in. As the name suggests, it manages your debt and teaches ways to avoid the situation in future.
Credit card debt consolidation services offer great hope to debtors. They allocate credit experts and a consolidation procedure, especially tailor made for you. Next, a conversation takes place between the debtor and his counselor. This discussion is extremely helpful in doing away with the paperwork, which is otherwise a very lengthy procedure. Credit card debt management counselors assess your monetary condition by taking into consideration, the sum total of the debts on your credit cards, their respective rates of interest, minimum payments made, other dues and your income. They make use of a tool called credit card debt consolidation calculator to find out whether credit card debt consolidation will be the right option for you.
Credit card debt consolidation services also offer complete credit card debt management and budgeting. Credit card debt consolidation gives you a great relief from tens of bills mounting at your door each month. It negotiates with your creditors and consolidates all your bills into a single monthly payment. This further helps you in saving a lot of money, as you are no longer liable to pay high interest and other charges on your credit cards. You are only required to pay a nominal interest charge on your consolidation loan. The given time frame is also negotiated such that it enables you to completely pay off your debt within a time period.
You can choose from among various vendors offering credit card debt management, as many of them have some great offers for you now a day. They achieve the ultimate purpose of debt redemption with positive counseling, significant teaching and an approachable value service. They offer services such as consolidation, counseling, settling the debts, budgeting your income, etc. They simply suggest you the best course and it is up to you to select it or not. Debt consolidation companies also have a community of people, who have been through similar debt problems and have come out of it. Their experience can give you an insight into the depth of such financial problems and offer hope and courage to you.
Credit card debt management not only relieves you from debts but also saves the creditors the trouble of going through the complicating and costly affair of dealing with a debtor who announces his bankruptcy. So it achieves two goals simultaneously.
May 25th, 2007
Whatever sort of business you run, it can be difficult to ensure that your customers pay their bills on time. After all, late payment of debt can cause crucial cashflow problems and non-payment of debt has the potential to effectively cripple your business. But how can you make sure that your customers pay their debts on time? And, if they continue to renege on their payments, how can you go about recovering the debt?
To begin with, it’s important to set out clear terms and conditions for your customers to adhere to when they’re making their payments. For instance, offering discounts on early payments - and making customers aware of the consequences of non-payment - will definitely encourage bills to be paid on time. On the other hand, charging customers a fee on late payments is sure to encourage your clients to by the agreed deadline. Legally, if your customer fails to pay their bills within 30 days of being invoiced, the amount of interest you’ll be able to charge interest daily at the Bank of England base rate plus eight per cent.
Additionally, you’ll also be able to claim debt recovery costs when adding interest onto any overdue payments. Your customer is legally entitled to pay you rates of 40 for debts of under 1000, 70 for debts ranging between 1001 and 10,000 and 100 for late payments exceeding 10,000. However, if you choose to claim debt recovery costs, it’s vital to let your customers with unpaid bills know in writing than you plan to implement these extra charges.
While these efforts usually provide results in obtaining your payments on time, some customers repeatedly ignore reminders to settle their bills with your business. In this case, the best course to take is usually to employ a debt recovery agency to claim any overdue payments that are owed to you. Debt recovery agencies can offer a lot of advantages when it comes to collecting debts for you.
Firstly, debt recovery agencies have the time, expertise and specialist industry knowledge that are needed to effectively recover any debts that are outstanding to you - so you can concentrate on the everyday running of your business. Often, the agency will also be able to instruct solicitors on your behalf if the customer still doesn’t make their payment. Handing over these responsibilities to an external debt recovery agent will leave you free to tend to the everyday running of your business.
Ultimately, if you decide to opt for a debt recovering agency in order to collect any payments owed to you, it’s essential to check whether the agency is registered with the Credit Services Association by referring to the CSA’s website http://www.csa-uk.com. Choosing a reputable debt recovery agency, like Capquest for example, will ensure that you won’t be associated with any questionable practices and will guarantee the fast recovery of your debts.
May 25th, 2007
