There are different reasons why people get into debt. Just all of a sudden you realize that you just can not make your payments. Bills and credit card statements drive you crazy and it seems that you will never get out of this trap yourself. This is when debt negotiators step in. If you get online you will find a dozen of credit negotiation companies. They promise to help you with your unsecured debts through negotiating with banks. Some of them claim to be nonprofit organizations that simply work to help those in need. They tell you that they will be able to reduce your debt by 10-50%. All you need to do is to open a credit card debt negotiation account (for a small fee, of course). Then they might suggest you make only partial payments or stop making your payments to the bank and give money to them instead. Because the process of debt negotiation is not a very easy one you will be asked to wait for about six months. They promise that all the negative information will be removed from your credit report afterwards. And, of course, credit negotiation will not have a negative affect on your credit history. The truth is that those debt negotiation 'experts' are one big scam. First of all, even if the company presents itself as a non profit organization it does not mean that there actions are legitimate. If you follow their advice and stop making payments you will get even higher interest rates and late fees. Your creditors might not like the idea of the debtor making only partial payments. Thus your debt might double or even triple. The fees for those 'services' will also drain your purse. They usually include a fee for opening an account, a monthly service fee and a final fee. The amount of money you will pay as the final fee usually depends on the percentage of the sum you are to 'save'. Of course, some of their clients understand the trick before they get to the 'final' stage but the scammers still make a decent income. As for the promise to remove all negative information from your credit history you should remember that there is no legal way to do it! The bank has to report everything to all the three credit bureaus. All the information stays on your credit report for seven years and bankruptcy remains for seven. The only way to remove any information from your credit report is to prove that it is incorrect. Most of the time credit negotiation firms present there service as an alternative to bankruptcy. However, bankruptcy is a legal way to manage your financial situation. Debt negotiation will have no effect - if you are lucky. If you are not ? you will be even more in debt than you have been before. Do not confuse credit negotiation services with credit counseling and debt consolidation planning. The latter simply give you advice and help you to plan your budget. can be a great financial tool if used wisely. But if you can not make your payments do not fall into the credit debt negotiator's trap. Do not pay for getting your credit history ruined.
Credit card identity theft where your credit card is stolen, your PIN is stolen or someone opens another credit card in your name, can all be particularly damaging to your credit score. Unfortunately a credit score isn't so easily restored but there are a couple of things you can do to make the best of the situation and restore it as much as possible. In this article we will look at what you should do before and after credit card identity theft in order to best protect and restore your credit score.
The first thing you should do whenever you receive a new credit card is to make photocopies of both sides of the card and file these away in a safe place. This way if your credit card goes missing or you believe it may have been compromised you can immediately put a stop to it.
Regularly request credit reports on your name. These credit reports will show you whether any other credit cards have been opened in your name that you do not know about. The sooner you find out that a card has been opened in your name that is incorrect the sooner you will be able to put a stop to it and prevent any damage from occurring.
Only carry around with you those credit cards that you are going to be using and try to keep a minimum of credit cards.
If you discover that your credit card has gone missing or if there is any chance that your credit card information may have been compromised and used in credit card identity theft then the first thing you should do is to stop the relevant card or cards. Phone the card issuer and let them know that you believe you may have been a victim of credit card identity theft and if they could immediately put a stop to all purchases on the card.
You should also contact one of the credit card bureaus if you believe you have been a victim of credit card identity theft and report the matter to them. They can then put a fraud alert on your credit report which will make it more difficult for anyone to open another account in your name.
File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and with the local police station where the ID theft took place and give them a copy of your form from the FTC. For more info see http://www.preventidentitythefthelp.com/Identity_Theft_Protection on identity theft protection.
By following these preventative measures and taking action if you believe you have been a victim of credit card identity theft you will be in a much better place to restore your credit score if anything does happen and will hopefully be able to prevent too much damage taking place from the start.
Both Sharon W.henry & Wade Robins are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Sharon W.henry has sinced written about articles on various topics from Credit Cards, Free Credit Report Score and Credit Cards. Sharon W.Henry is talking about credit card problems in her articles. You will know a lot about or. Sharon W.henry's top article generates over 22200 views. to your Favourites.
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