Should I Cancel my Unused Credit Cards?

By Jakob Jelling
http://www.cashbazar.com

Should I cancel my unused credit cards? This is a question many people ask themselves and searching for a right answer. If you are one among them this comprehensive guide will help you how your unused credit cards can affect your credit scoring and some tips to be known before you cancel your unused credit cards.

Though having one or more credit cards with you is an easy way to get some money urgently, remember your unused credit card can affect your credit scoring. Many people are not aware of this fact that their unused credit card will adversely affect their credit score. Closing your unused card will not wipe out your past credit history with the account but it will help you to reduce your open credit. But before you cancel your unused credit cards make sure that you are going to cancel the cards which you think you don’t want anymore. There are several peoples who used to cancel their credit cards just to increase there current credit score. But remember that doing so won’t increase your credit score. That is it is not a good idea to cancel your unused credit cards just as a short term strategy to increase your credit rating.

Before you take a decision of whether to use your credit card or to cancel your unused credit card make a thorough study that you won’t need the credit card at a later stage in your life. That is, make yourself clear why are trying to get rid of a credit card. The next step is to check whether there is any balance to be paid for the credit card you are about to cancel. Don’t try to cancel your credit card while you are paying the balance. Cancel the credit card after you have completely paid the balance amounts. Get a copy of your current credit report and make it clear if your credit card is making any problem to your credit scoring. If not, then why bothering about canceling your unused credit card.

There are also several advantages of keeping a credit card with you. That is keeping a credit card will be an added advantages when you are applying for a vehicle loan or a mortgage. It is seen that most money lenders tend to check how much you owe compared with your maximum available credit. So if you think that you can use your credit card in some form or other it is advisable not to cancel your available credit card. Try to manage your credit card in a good way. After all, by canceling your available credit card you are closing your door for an available amount of credit.

Jakob Jelling is the founder of Cashbazar.com. Please visit http://www.cashbazar.com/credit-cards.shtml and learn all about credit cards.

Begin The Debt Consolidation Process Today!

If you are in debt, and tired of answering harassing call and mails from various creditors, it is time to take action. Do you have too many credit cards and are not sure how much you owe? If you are unsure of whom to pay and for how much, then this article can help you begin the process of liability relief. Today’s economy makes it all too easy to get seriously into debt; and the only way to get out of it is debt consolidation.

What exactly is debt consolidation?

Simply put, debt consolidation is a debt reduction system that allows consumers to combine their assorted unsecured debts into a single payment. Instead of sending out payments on six or seven bank and store credit cards, you simply make one payment to the debt consolidation company. the company in return will make your payments on all your bills for you.
This system of money management can be highly advantageous to you, the consumer. The debt consolidation company will make every effort to negotiate a reduced interest rate, reduced balance, a lower monthly payment and eliminates late fees. You will also be given a set time period when the debt will be paid off in full.

Mortgage loans and car loans are not subject to consolidation because they are secured loan Unsecured loans like bank credit cards affiliated with Visa and MasterCard and assorted department store credit cards are the typical items you will put in a debt consolidation program. And credit cards, with their typical high interest rates, are the one thing that usually causes the consumer grief.

Should debt consolidation be preferred to bankruptcy?

Most creditors view debt consolidation in better light than bankruptcy. This is because debt consolidation shows that you have a willingness to put forth a strong, good faith effort to take responsibility and pay off your debt. In contrast, when debtors file for bankruptcy, they opt to erase debt or pay little back, leaving creditors with very little from the debtor.
Although bankruptcy allows consumers to wipe out their debt and start fresh, it also destroys the consumers’ credit background. In this day and age of business done almost entirely on credit, this should not be an option for you.

With debt consolidation, you can greatly reduce your debt, merge multiple payments into one payment, and preserve your credit background by avoiding bankruptcy.
There are ways and means of going about debt consolidation Contacting debt consolidation companies and applying for debt consolidation loans is the first step towards financial security and debt relief. Searching the Internet lists many companies that are willing to help consumers begin the debt elimination process. Many companies are willing to work with the strapped consumer to help them with this situation. As this is a highly competitive market, the best advice is to shop around for the best interest rate.

Visit http://www.liabilityrelief.com for more information on credit card repair, debt consolidation, and debt consolidation counseling.Alden Smith is a published and award winning author who writes on a variety of subjects. To learn more about debt consolidation, visit his website at http://www.liabilityrelief.com.

Inheritance Taxes Explained

By Jakob Jelling
http://www.cashbazar.com

Reduce inheritance taxes by giving gifts!

The inheritance tax is the same thing as the estate tax in the United States, but with a different name depending on the country that you are talking about. The inheritance tax is a tax that is supposed to be levied on the richest people after they die, especially if they have a considerably large estate at that point in time. However, this is not always the case, and in fact, a lot of people find that they are being forced to pay an inheritance tax even though they do not have a particularly large estate. The reason for this is that housing costs continue to increase - and since your house is considered to be one of your assets, it is included in your estate.

The inheritance tax is considered by some people to be a highly unfair tax due to the fact that the people who owned the estate had already paid their taxes before death. However, the inheritance tax is still in effect, and it can cost anywhere between forty and fifty percent of your estate over a certain maximum amount. Depending on where you are, that amount will change. Essentially, anybody who has more than that base amount in their estate will be charged 40-50% of any assets that they owned over that amount.

One thing that you can do in order to reduce the amount of inheritance tax you end up paying is to check and see if there are any loopholes in the tax law that you can use to your own advantage. One thing that you should consider, for instance, is that some countries will allow you to give a large amount of money to a family member or survivor tax free. If there is anybody who you would like to have inherit a large monetary gift, then you should definitely consider doing this before you die.

This might even reduce the total amount of your estate to the point where you will not have to pay any inheritance taxes at all. This also goes for gifts. It is possible to give gifts to as many people as you would like before you die, just so long as the total value of each gift does not exceed a certain amount.

By planning ahead and making gifts, you should be able to reduce the amount of inheritance taxes that your estate will owe after your death.

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.cashbazar.com. Visit his website for the latest on personal finance, debt elimination, budgeting, credit cards and real estate.

Reduce Your Tax Payments

By Jakob Jelling
http://www.cashbazar.com

Reduce your tax payments by claiming an interest payment deduction.

If you are busy paying off your student loans, the last thing you want to do is to pay interest on the money that you're about to give right back to the government. Luckily, in a lot of cases you should be able to deduct the amount of interest that you paid on your student loans. Deducting interests on student loans is not very difficult to do as long as you make sure that you meet the requirements for claiming this particular deduction on your taxes.

First of all, you have to have the proper filing status - which in this case means that you can be of any filing status except for if you are married and still filing your taxes separately. There is no explanation given as to why this particular status is exempt, however, this is still important to take note of before you waste your time trying to fill out a deduction that you cannot claim.

The other thing that is necessary in order for you to claim that deduction is that you cannot have another person claim you as a dependent or a tax exemption on their own tax forms. For most people who have already graduated from college and are trying to pay off their student loans, this should not be too much trouble. However, you should still make sure that nobody in your life is still claiming you as a tax deduction.

Finally, you have actually pay the interest on your student loan before you can claim it as a deduction. This also only works if you are the only person who has an actual obligation to pay off the loan. Therefore, you will not be able to claim a deduction if you are paying interest on a loan that both you and your parents owe money on, or on a parent PLUS loan.

You can also claim interest as a deduction if you are paying off the interest on a student loan that is owed by your dependent. However, in this case you can only deduct the payment if you are actually the person who is obligated to pay off the loans. You also need to claim an exemption for that dependent on your tax return.

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.cashbazar.com. Visit his website for the latest on personal finance, debt elimination, budgeting, credit cards and real estate.

Credit Report -- 5 Secrets Credit Bureaus Don’t Want You to Know

If you've ever applied for a loan or credit card, chances are your lender acquired and examined a copy of your credit report before deciding whether or not to grant you credit.

Your "Credit Report" is a record of your credit history and it's prepared by agencies called "Credit Bureaus", or "Consumer Reporting Agencies." These are private organizations and have no affiliation with the United States (or any) government. There are 3 major credit bureaus in the United States (2 in Canada) and their names are Experian, EquiFax, and Trans Union.

Did you know that credit reporting is a multi-billion dollar a year industry? It's true! The credit bureaus are for-profit organizations that generate billions of dollars in revenue each year from selling copies of credit reports to creditors and mailing lists.

Your credit report affects more than your financial life. It could affect your education, career, and even your relationships. Your credit report is used not only by lenders and creditors, but also by auto, life, and home insurers, future employers, and even some educational institutions. It affects the interest rates you'll pay on everything!

So as you can see, your credit report can have a critical impact on many facets of your life. For example, because of a bad credit report you could be forced to pay tens of thousands of dollars MORE in loan interest over the life of your home mortgage. This is no exaggeration!

Since the credit bureaus prepare and distribute your credit report to lenders, they clearly wield a great deal of power over both your financial and personal life. But it would be a grave mistake to be intimidated by them, or to think that you have no choice but to live with the negative effects of a bad credit report.

In fact, there's plenty you can do!

Always remember; Knowledge is power! There're a few facts the credit bureaus would rather you don't know. Let's take a look at them, and you'll see why.

1. Credit reports are filled with errors!

It will probably astonish you to learn the percentage of credit reports that contain errors. While there seems to be some disagreement, estimates range from 1 out of every 3 (on the low end) to as high as 90%! Here's a "run down" on error estimates.

Percentage of Credit Reports Than Contain Mistakes

Attorney General of NY 1/3
Consumers Union 48%
US Congress 1/2
Charles Givens Organization 90%

So no matter who you believe, it's clear that way too many credit reports have errors. So even if you think you have good credit, it might be well worth your while to get a copy of your credit report and take a careful look at it.

2. The law is on your side!

In 1972 Congress passed the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to curb abuses by the credit bureaus. The FCRA is the governing federal law on the issue of credit reporting.

Under the FCRA, you have the right to dispute negative information in your credit report. The credit bureaus then have 30 days to verify the disputed information with the creditor. If they cannot (or do not) verify the disputed information within 30 days, it must be deleted from your credit report.

3. Even accurate data in your credit report must be deleted if it's not verified.

If you've done any research into credit repair you've no doubt run across statements to the effect of "Negative data in your credit report that is accurate cannot be removed." As stated above, the FCRA stipulates that any disputed information must be verified within 30 days, or it must be deleted. The "burden of proof" (in a manner of speaking), is on the credit bureaus.

4. Credit repair DOES WORK in most cases!

You'll hear all kinds of opinions as to whether "credit repair" (i.e. efforts to improve your credit report) can be successful. The truth is, credit repair doesn't always work perfectly. But in almost every case the process of credit repair will result in at least SOME improvement in your credit score, and most often that improvement is substantial. So credit repair does work!

Now you may be wondering why repairing your credit score would be of any concern to the credit bureaus. After all, don't they make money by compiling and distributing credit reports regardless of whether those reports are negative or positive?

Well, yes they do, BUT...they also make money (a GREAT DEAL of money) selling names of people with poor credit, to creditors who have a specific interest in those people.

So why would some creditors want to bother with people who have poor credit? Because they know they can charge higher interest rates to those people, because the "bad credit risks" have no choice but to pay those exorbitant rates or forgo credit altogether!

Besides, investigating disputed information costs the credit bureaus time, manpower, and money. They have nothing to gain, and plenty to lose, when people take the initiative and dispute negative information on their credit report.

5. It's perfectly legal to hire third party help to repair your credit.

There are plenty of "Credit Repair Agencies" who will help you repair your credit. But if a credit bureau even suspects you're using such an agency, it's likely they'll try to discourage you from doing so. In some cases they'll even go so far as to send you a letter stating that use of such agencies is illegal.

Such statements are (to put it as politely as possible) garbage! In fact there are laws that regulate such agencies. Now laws don't exist to regulate illegal activity, except to ban it! When was the last time you saw laws that regulate what cocaine dealers must do to operate within the law?

Once again, repairing a bad credit report just isn't in the best interest of the major credit bureaus. But unless you happen to be the CEO of one of those bureaus, the most important question as far as you're concerned is "What's in MY best interest?"

First of all, get a copy of your credit report and examine it. You can get a free copy of your report at http://www.annualcreditreport.com.

Secondly, take steps to improve your credit report. You can go about it in one of two ways.

1. Hire third party help.

If repairing your own credit report sounds too intimidating, there are plenty of credit repair agencies that will do it for you. But if you take this approach, there are three things you need to know.

First, they're not cheap. Expect to pay from $2,500 to $5,000 for an attorney or $795 to $2,000 or more for a credit repair agency. Secondly, they don't always do it right! Some will manage to get the negative data on your credit report removed while actually doing damage to your "credit score" (a calculated number used by creditors to evaluate you credit worthiness.) Finally, many are outright scams!

That's not to say you shouldn't hire third party help. If you do your "home work," ask for references, and carefully select a reputable credit repair agency, you'll be much better off than if you had done nothing. Still, if you're willing to do a little work, there's a much better alternative.

2. Repair you own credit report.

Anyone can fix their own credit report. If you can write a few letters, address, stamp, and mail them you can repair your own credit. There're plenty of good books available that can walk you thought the whole procedure, and once you're done a little study, you'll be surprised at how simple the process is.

Bad credit will cost you many thousands of dollars and limitless anxiety. Even if you have fair credit, fixing you credit could still save you thousands in interest payments over the years.

Get a good book on the topic of credit repair, and get started fixing your credit report today! And don't be intimidated by the credit bureaus. Remember, the law is on YOUR side!

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About the Author

Jim Eastman is support contact for ErasingBadCredit.com. For more information on repairing your credit report, visit http://www.ErasingBadCredit.com for a free mini-course on credit repair.

Interest-Only Loans Can Buy More House and More Trouble

They're spreading like wildfire--interest-only mortgages appear to be the panacea for rising home prices and the incomes that can’t quite catch up. You can buy "more house" and have a low mortgage payment and a big tax deduction. Who wouldn’t want one, right?

Well, a large number of consumers are getting into these loans when they shouldn’t. Interest-only mortgages work well for some individuals and are dangerous for most others, yet the number of interest-only loans is rising rapidly.

Take a look at San Diego. In 2004 almost half of the mortgages required interest-only payments in the first few years according to a study done by LoanPerformance, a San Francisco--based real estate information service. Could this have something to do with the housing market? You bet it does. Are home prices rising faster than salaries and incomes? They sure are. So how is one supposed to afford a house in such an expensive housing market? You guessed it--an interest-only loan.

Interest only-loans were originally aimed at more sophisticated investors who wanted to leverage their income by re-directing what would have been the principal portion of their payment to higher yielding investments that exceed the rate of their home appreciation. These types of investors typically have more assets and financial discipline than most and therefore aren't as likely to get in as much trouble with such a loan.

Today, interest-only loans are being utilized by borrowers who are trying to leverage debt. What they are doing is getting more debt for their buck; they're borrowing more money but keeping their payments low (initially) in order to compete with other buyers in sellers’ markets. Here are some of the potential dangers that face such borrowers:

- If the principal balance isn't being reduced, than no equity is being built, and if home prices are stagnant during the interest-only period and the borrower needs to sell, he'll need to be able to pay sales costs out of whatever equity there is in the house, if there is any. Remember, mortgage amortization is in the borrower’s control, appreciation is not.

- If there’s a downturn in home prices, the borrower could end up “upside down,” meaning the mortgage balance on the property could end up being greater than the property’s market value. In this case, the borrower would be responsible for sales costs and the remaining mortgage balance which could lead to foreclosure.

Interest-only mortgages make sense for borrowers:

- who have seasonal incomes or earn commissions and/or bonuses and have a desire to pay on the principal when it’s convenient.
- who are upwardly mobile and expect to earn more in a few years and want to buy “more house” early on rather than later.
- who intend on investing their cash flow in higher yielding investments or paying down high-priced debt.

Make sure you know what you’re getting into with an interest-only loan. Consult with your mortgage broker or lender to know what the possible repercussions could be, and be sure you’re getting the loan for the right reasons. Eventually, you want to own your home, and it’s better to be planning on that sooner than later.

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Brian Daniel is a loan officer for http://www.bendmortgagegroup.com/, a mortgage company in Bend, Oregon. He is also the company's marketing coordinator. For more articles visit http://www.bendmortgagegroup.com/Articles.

Interest-only mortgages have become so popular, they’re spreading like wildfire, but if borrowers aren’t careful they’re going to get burned.

Welcome to the Loans and Finances Blog

Here you will find wonderful, informative content on loans and finances. I started this web site because I felt there was a need. I was doing research on loans and finances and found many, many sites but they were all too big. It was hard to find information as well as personal feedback. Here at this blog, I hope many of you will share your experiences with certain loan companies so that we may all make wise and informative decisions.

To the left, you will see a list of loan opportunities I've pulled together from the web. If you have others you'd like to see listed, submit a comment to this message.