Posts tagged: debt advice

Bad Credit Now Can’t Take Away All Your Options

Bad credit relatedIn these days of a worsening economy and increasing job layoffs, sliding down the slippery slope to bad credit is no longer only associated with careless, undisciplined spenders.  Careful, conscientious people are caught in situations they never choose which have led them to bad credit. We don’t have to look far to see the casualties of bad credit and those who are labelled as such, often feel mentally paralysed.

The Theft of Your Options

Perhaps the most confining aspect of bad credit is its stifling ability to rob one of life’s most precious commodities: options.  Why are options so critical?  Because without them, you are driven by the whims of others:  others’ schedules, programmes, interest rates, jobs, cars and on and on it goes.

Veggie Burger or Juicy Steak

An option can, for example, give you the choice between a healthy veggie burger and a scrumptious, juicy, thick steak.  For the health conscious, the choice may be easy.  For the carnivore reading my words, walking away from the scrumptious steak is tantamount to a mortal sin.  But the option to choose gives you power; power to rule over what you want and need in daily life.

Pull Up!

The downward spiral of bad credit does remove many options and although life’s emergencies or less than optimal financial choices may have slapped the “bad credit” label on you, although costly, it doesn’t mean financial death.  Quite the opposite – the vast majority of us have families and responsibilities to take care of and have no wish to fail in doing so.  It’s time to rise above the muck and wake up to your options, one of which may be a bad credit short term loan.

Experts Praise Options

The discipline of assessing your financial position is crucial to recovery with bad credit.  Experts recommend honest, careful listing of all your debts, large and small.  The step of making a budget cannot be overlooked as you list your income and how you spend your monies each month, both of which give you a realistic picture of next steps you can take in your plan to move ahead.

Now fast forward five years – every decision you make today will either put you in a better or worse financial situation then.  The option of leveraging cash today with what is sometimes called a bad credit payday loan may give you some breathing room financially for a short term in order to move forward tomorrow.

Freedom of Choice

Back to the veggie burger and steak illustration, which would YOU choose?  Say you were assigned one while your neighbour in the table next to you got his or her choice – feeling a bit cheated?

The truth is that, with your finances, you absolutely must be in control of your choices.  These choices include discipline, hard work, seeking out counsel if needed.  You may need the option of immediate cash to give you financial options in the near future.  Your bad credit doesn’t need to keep you from a short term loan.  You can use these monies for any purpose you desire, they are generally given with instant approval and with payday right around the corner, you can pay them right away.

Always read carefully the terms of any loan and experts caution against using short term bad credit payday loans to continue bad spending habits.

Gift of Time

The ability to pause and examine your options and best next financial steps require time to think; time to assess what your challenges are and how you will face them head on.  Now your less than perfect credit doesn’t call the shots, you do.  Your choice of tools in gaining more time may be best served with a short term loan before your next payday.  Here’s to your options!

Freelance writer Sarah Fox sees options as key to freedom in all of life.  She notes that bad credit payday loans are gaining increasing attention as option-based planning gains popularity.

How To Prepare For A Debt Consultation

Drowning in debtDo you feel like your drowning in debt? If you answered yes, one of the most effective ways to get to the root of the problem is seek the guidance of a debt counselor. It is very difficult to look at your spending with an open mind when you are trying to take control of the spending and the debt without an unbiased professional’s help. The first step identifying where the problem lies is to schedule a debt consultation. During your appointment, an experienced debt counselor will help you come up with a plan to tackle your debt, but you must be prepared if you want the appointment to go right.

How to Prepare for Your Upcoming Debt Consultation

When you are being counseled about your debt, the counselor will give you personalized advice that is tailored to help guide you out of your current situation. To give you advice, the counselor needs to know exactly how much pay you take home, how much all of your living expenses cost, and how much you owe all of your creditors. Only you know who you owe money to and how serious your situation has become. While it is only natural to try and downplay the situation in your own mind, you should never try and downplay your debt to your counselor. Here are some things you can do to prepare for your consultation so that you have everything you need to come up with a feasible debt reduction plan:

  • Do not accept any new credit card offers or loans. The key is to stop digging yourself into debt, and taking out new lines of credit will not help the situation.
  • Gather documentation that the counselor will need to review your current situation. These documents may include: billing statements, past due invoices, recent receipts, judgments, all letters from your creditors, titles to your cars, property deeds, and credit card statements. If you do not have any of these on hand, access your accounts online and print the account summary page.
  • If you love to make work easier for everyone involved, make a list of all of the credit cards you have. In the spreadsheet, you can put the current account balance and credit limit. This will help your counselor see which cards need to be tackled first to repair your credit.
  • Bring pay stubs from the last two pay periods. If your income varies, try bringing at least three months worth of cancelled checks. This will help the counselor assess how much you are taking home and what percentage of your income can be used to payoff debt.

Debt counselors can help you choose the best debt relief option for your situation. What is right for one person may not be right for the next. Bring everything that you need to help your counselor assess your situation. With all of the right documentation and the right mindset, you can pay your debt down and put your mind at ease.

This post was provided by Heather Graham, a personal finance expert. He recommends the consumers proposal process for those facing dept problems. André Gabbay et Associés Inc. can help with debt consulations.