Debt Collectors Men or Menace

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Debt management tips
Debt management tips are easily obtainable from both online and print media sources. Nonetheless, these tips are not such that one-size-fits-all. You have to read and use this tips with a pinch of salt.

You have to see which stage of life you are in, what is your income level and what are your financial goals. You may want to consider paying off your student loan before think about reti... Read debt consolidation article



Joining a Consumer Credit Counseling Service for Debt Relief and Financial Freedom
Do You Need to Join a CCCS - Consumer Credit Counseling Service?

Are you in a "debt hell"? If you are unsure, ask yourself these questions:

Do you have bill collectors calling you and home and at work, leaving annoying messages?

Are you afraid to open the door in the morning because you are afraid that the Sheriff's office has left a court goody for you?
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Debt Collectors Men or Menace
Who are these people anyway? They viciously harass you and call you bad names. They embarrass you beyond belief by leaving detailed messages with your neighbors and at your workplace. In extreme cases, they have been known to stalk you!

Debt collection agencies are hired by your creditors to do their dirty work. If they get you to pay, the debt collector usually gets a percentage of what you owe, plus added fees. Some debt collection agencies buy your debt from the creditor for a low fee and attempt to collect double and sometimes triple what you owe on your original debt by attaching high penalties, interest and other processing fees.

Basically, debt collectors make a living trying to scare and intimidate you into paying your bills. They don't care that your finances are in limbo because you have recently divorced or that your employer informed you in the eleventh hour that you were being laid-off. All debt collectors care about is that they will get a slice of the pie - if you pay.

Debt collectors convince themselves that you are a deadbeat, sitting on a stack of cash and refusing to pay. By painting a negative mental picture of you in their mind, they feel justified harassing you into paying a delinquent bill. Most debt collectors are just downright mean, nasty, heartless individuals who make a living scaring "the pants off" of people who are simply broke and trying to survive.

One lady reported that after she vehemently tried to explain to an unrelenting debt collector that she was recently divorced, underemployed and didn't have the money to pay the $12,000 credit card bill her ex-husband left her, the debt collector replied, "Look, fat lady, it's obvious that you could stand to skip a few meals. Just send me your food bill for one week to wipe out this debt!" The lady was horrified - not so much by his remarks because she was accustomed to the debt collector being rude to her on the phone - but by his comment regarding her size. How did he know she was overweight? Had he been stalking her?

Debt collectors use many tactics to research you, especially if you owe a large debt. Remember, their livelihood depends on how many people they can get to pay overdue bills - the bigger the debt, the bigger their payoff.

Despite what debt collectors believe, most people are not faced with buying a ticket to Tahiti versus paying their credit card bill. People who are broke find themselves faced with real-life problems like putting food on the table versus paying a credit card bill!

Keep in mind that debt collectors are no different than you are. As the saying goes, "they put their pants on one leg at a time." They cannot physically harm you and the mental abuse they throw at you can be easily avoided (visit www.brokemansurvivalguide.com)

A.M. Harris is he author of The Broke Man's Survival Guide: 50 Clever Strategies to Use When You Are Unemployed, Underpaid or Just Dead Broke and Can't Pay Your Bills. Visit http://www.brokemansurvivalguide.com for more information.

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Cheap debt elimination solution

Ask a friend what resolutions they made for 2004 and your bound to hear them reply "Pay off my credit cards." Ask them how they planned on reaching that goal and many of them will not have a clear cut answer.

The obvious first step to paying off credit card debt or paying down credit debt load is to cut back or eliminate the use of your credit cards. For some people this first step can often be the most difficult. If you're used to spending freely with plastic and worrying about the consequences later, it's difficult to break free from this "buy now, pay later" attitude.

To gain control of their careless credit card spending habits, some people cut up their credit cards therefore making it impossible to use them. Others lock up their credit cards or hide them in a safe place and vow to use them only in an emergency.

The second step to paying down credit debt is to pay more than the minimum balance due. Most credit card companies require a minimum monthly payment of 2.5% of the outstanding balance. For example, if you have an outstanding balance of $1100.00 on a credit card charging an Annual Percentage Rate (APR) of 18.9% your minimum monthly payment would be $27.50. It will take you 66 months or 5.5 years to pay off your balance of $1100.00 making the minimum payments. The credit card company will make $676.94 in interest from your use of their credit card.

Monthly payments are purposely kept low by the credit card companies so that they can earn as much as possible from the interest rate charged to you the consumer. Paying just the minimum payment will keep you tangled in credit's web for years and years to come.

If you've been paying only the minimum due month after month, ask yourself this question, "Do I have an extra $10.00 I could apply to this month's payment?" I'm sure that most of us could find some way to come up with an extra $10.00 for the month. Try cutting out a few cups of coffee or lunches at your nearby fast food outlets and in no time flat you'll have saved up the extra money that you need.

Now, it's time to unveil "The Simple $10.00 Debt Elimination Solution." Take that extra $10.00 and add it to the minimum monthly payment above, therefore making a payment of $37.50. By adding just that $10.00 a month to your minimum payment, you'll trim 23 months or nearly two years off of that credit debt! On top of that you'll save $277.00 in interest alone! That's money you can put toward savings or paying off other debts. Imagine how much you'd be able to save if you applied this same simple strategy to each of your other credit card debts!

Paying down credit debt doesn't always mean having to make huge monthly payments or sacrifices. It just takes some basic planning and a simple effective strategy to make it work.

© 2004, www.yourfreecreditreportnow.com

About The Author

James H. Dimmitt. James is editor of "TO YOUR CREDIT", a weekly free newsletter to help you manage your personal finances. Subscribe to the newsletter by visiting http://www.yourfreecreditreportnow.com. He is also author of "Identity Theft - How to Avoid Becoming the Next Victim!" available at http://tinyurl.com/bc45; jimdim815@aol.com


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