credit

What's the Best Way to Get out of Debt?

Posted 15 weeks 2 days ago by Linsey Knerl

Personal Finance, Credit Cards

Debt is the hottest topic on personal finance blogs around the world. Why? I would venture to guess it is because so many people are drowning in it. The unfortunate truth is that few people care to read about debt until it has already had a negative affect on their financial situation. This can make the final solution to their debt problems even more difficult to hear about.

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Debt Discovery: The Ties That Binder

Posted 18 weeks 2 days ago by Jabulani Leffall

Budgeting

It's amazing how many of us are business people -- dealing with budgets, liabilities, profit, revenue and loss -- who make questionable decisions with our own finances. What's even more amazing is that we often don't approach our own money with the same cold meticulousness and objective impartiality that one needs to run a business. But in this case, you are the business. Get thee to an office supply store immediately.

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UK banks are blocking customers' credit cards. Will the USA be next?

Posted 22 weeks 3 days ago by Paul Michael

Personal Finance, Consumer Affairs

Axe the card

It was bound to happen. I just thought it would happen over here first. Today BECKY BARROW and JAMES CONEY of The Daily Mail broke the story that banking giant Egg, a household name in Britain, will block over 160,000 customers from using their credit cards. Is this a sign of things to come?

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Laws the Leg-Breakers Don’t Want You to Know About

Posted 47 weeks 4 days ago by Linsey Knerl

Consumer Affairs

baseball bat
Gone are the days when debt collectors only hassled the lazy, financially inept, or the completely downtrodden and hopelessly unlucky. More and more consumers are being contacted by debt collectors as part of an attempt to be paid for past due accounts, either for their own debt, debt inherited as a condition of a death in the family, or as a horrible consequence to an identity theft. Whether or not you actually owe the money, the rules are the same. Debt collectors acting as a third-party interest in past-due accounts are bound by the laws of the FDCPA. Learning what they can (and more importantly: CAN’T do) is vital to protecting your rights and preventing undue stress.

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Credit squeeze (formerly know as a panic)

Posted 47 weeks 5 days ago by Philip Brewer

Personal Finance

New York Stock Exchange
There used to be a particular financial event called a panic. There were two famous ones around the turn of the last century: the panic of 1893 and the panic of 1907. A panic worked like this: Everything would be going along fine until something produced a lack of confidence, at which point people would take their paper money to the bank to exchange for gold. The banks, after paying out large amounts of gold, would be unable to make ordinary loans. With credit restricted, business began to grind to a halt--manufacturers couldn't borrow to buy raw materials, retailers couldn't borrow to take delivery of goods for sale, farmers couldn't borrow to buy seed, etc.

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