How to get debt free

If you’re like a lot of people, the goal for the coming years is to be debt-free, or at least, on top of debt. I’m with you, if there’s one thing in life that hangs over me, it’s debt.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s a mortgage or a couple of thousand in consumer debt, if it’s causing you to lose sleep, now is the time to start conquering it. A fresh start, a fresh approach. Onwards and upwards to a debt-free existence.

Here are some tips to get you on the way.

Know What You Owe

Want a good credit report? What better way than to pay off your debts more quickly than minimum, eliminate high interest credit cards and pay your bills on-time or early?

Sit down and start working out dates. This is the first step. When are your bills due? Write it down in your diary and put a coloured Post-It next to it so you don’t forget.

When are your repayments due, and what’s the minimum you can pay? Write down how much you owe in total, and keep a progress report.

Get Organised

Pay your bills on the same day every month. That way, you’ll never be incurring late fees or being threatened with any utility being turned off. Pay your bills with cash, not credit.

The last thing you need to be doing is paying off debt on one hand, and increasing it on the other. Then organise to pay off your debt on the same day of every month (or with a credit card, paying off a little every week). The routine makes it easier, and makes it unlikely you’ll forget and get yourself a nasty late fee.

Know What You Can Change

How can you start to pay back your debt faster? Is there an expense you can eliminate, or some extra income you can channel towards repayments? Start thinking about how you can get rid of chunks of your debt. Maybe start with eliminating credit card debt, or paying off your higher interest cards. Choose one debt you are going to aggressively attack. Once you’ve gotten control of that debt, move onto the next one.

The Bare Minimum


Paying the minimum on your credit card isn’t going to cut it. If you want to get on top of your debt, you need to be repaying over the minimum repayments. It doesn’t have to be an astronomical amount, just enough to get a handle on your debt within a sensible timeframe.

Once you start getting somewhere, you’ll start feeling in control and finding it easier to control your debt.

Budget

You need a budget if you are going to get on top of the beast. Work out expenses, and some savings. There will always be a couple of variables, so ensure that you’ve left some space for them. Then budget everything else into your debt repayments.

Rewrite your budget once a month to make sure it’s completely realistic and has taken account of all the changes in your income or expenditure. This is your decade. Make it a debt-free one, or at least, a decade that’ll make the decades after that much more pleasant.

source: bigpondmoney.com.au

Buying a Car with Bad Credit: Your Options

No matter how many times our mothers warned us to pay our bills in full and on time, some of us just had to find out for ourselves what the repercussions for making late and partial payments would be. Surprisingly, we’ve found that our credit cards weren’t cancelled and no one came knocking on the door to collect that brand new TV we bought and couldn’t afford. Nope, instead they hit us where it hurt the most. They lowered our credit score. And because they were so sneaky about it, we didn’t even realize it was happening until it was too late!

If you’ve got a broken down car, can’t get to work, and can’t get financing on a new car because of bad credit, don’t panic. There’s a way to drive yourself out of this mess, and while it may not be in a new Mercedes-Benz, no need to worry. You’ve still got that fancy TV.

First things first. Go online and get a copy of your credit report. Pay the extra fee to make sure the report includes your credit score. The score is reported by three bureaus, so get your score from all three (Equifax, Transunion, Experian).

Beg the Bank

Understand your credit score and decide the best way to proceed. Most banks won’t lend to people with scores below 640. However, if you’re within a reasonable range of that, many banks will still give you a car loan if you have a good history with that particular bank. If you’ve got $1000 cash, go to the bank where you have your checking account and see if that’ll do for a down payment. Depending on how close you are to 640, sometimes only $500 is enough. If they say no, don’t lose hope. Keep pressing on.

Buy in Cash

Depending on how mechanically inclined you or your friends are, you might want to check out what’s available within your cash range. $1000-2000 can often get you a decent 10 year old vehicle. Unfortunately, most 10 year old vehicles aren’t always in the best mechanical condition, so this is where knowing someone who’s good with engines will be of help.



If you don’t know a mechanic, usually it’ll cost you about $50 to have one accompany you to the dealership to do a thorough inspection on the car you are interested in. However, you should make sure he doesn’t have a connection to the dealership to ensure you’re getting unbiased advice. Older cars come with a lot of problems, so you might want to avoid this option and consider buying from a “Buy-Here-Pay-Here” dealership.

Buy from a “Buy Here Pay Here” Dealership

You know that annoying radio commercial? “Bad credit? No credit? No problem! If you’ve got $500 and job, you can ride away in a new car today!” These guys are what you’d call a “Buy-Here Pay-Here” dealership. “Buy-Here-Pay-Here” dealerships will finance a car purchase and keep the loan in-house, so you’ll owe them money, not some anonymous bank in Phoenix or Cleveland.

These dealerships get a lot of flak because they are in the business of selling loans, not cars. They’re taking chances on people with volatile credit and know that most of their customers will eventually get behind on their loans. Therefore, the cars they sell only have to last as long as it takes for the owner to default on the loan. If you buy from a dealership like this, make sure not to leave your mechanic at home. But not all Buy-Here-Pay-Here dealerships are dangerous. Some of the more reputable ones will offer mechanical warranties, so keep your eye out for those.

In sum, if you’ve got bad credit and you need a reliable way to get around, do your very best to obtain financing from a respectable dealership. However, if you can’t, purchasing from a Buy-Here Pay-Here dealer is a slightly better idea than paying for an old beater in cash, especially if you don’t have any mechanics in the family.

source: howisavemoney.net

Remember To Check Your Credit Reports!!!!

If you are not already monitoring your credit reports now might be a good time to start. I recently had a run in with someone who I advised to check his credit report. .He ordered his reports from annualcreditreport.com.…which gives you FREE credit reports from the three major bureaus every 12 months.



He found that everything on the report was what he expected with the exception of a newly opened credit card…at an address in a state that he had never been to.

The credit card had been opened about a year earlier and actually had a small balance on it that he did not know about. I quickly informed that person that he needed to notify the credit bureau so they could investigate the matter because he was sure it was not his card.

The sooner you find out about errors on your credit report the better it is for you. Early detection means you can get the problem taken care of soon and you can potentially avoid a big disaster later on.

source: howisavemoney.net