September 26th, 2011 
Kevin Clark 
The best way to fight zombie debt is to ensure the collections agent or lender has a right to collect. By definition, zombie debt has been “dead” for a long time, maybe even years. This could render the original financing agreement or bills no longer valid. If you are contacted by an agent or lender regarding debt that is more than 12 months old, start by writing a request for the lender to verify its right to collect. If the debt is verified, repay it immediately, but ask the lender to remove negative information from your credit report. This can at least save your credit, even if you end up having to pay the bill.
Posts Tagged ‘Debt’
The Best Way To Consolidate Debt
Do you want to consolidate your debt but just dont know the best way to do it or how to do it for that fact? In todays post I will show you just how to do this but first before you do so you should consider the benefits.
First off, the best way to consolidate debt is to combine your lower interest debt with your higher interest debt, and the best way to do this is with your home mortgage. The reason I suggest your mortgage over any other way is because it gives to big benefits.
- Lower Fixed Interest Rate. First it gives you a lower fixed interest rate compared to credit cards. In fact if you have good credit you can get some extremely good rates right now.
- Tax Deductions. Secondly, by combining your debt with your mortgage you get the tax deduction on any interest you pay.
Now that we know the best ways to consolidate debts and how this can benefit us lets get started.
The first thing you need to do is contact your lender and let them know about your situation. At this point your lender will be able to see how much debt you have and compare it to how much equity is available in your home.
At this point youll be able set your debt consolidation program up in one of two way. First you can do a cash out refinance. This is were you refinance your home loan all together and pull a portion of the equity out of your home in cash to pay off your debts. However if your someone who has a really a good interest rate and you dont want to lose it you might want to consider the next option.
The second option is to set up a 2nd mortgage. This is also known as a piggy back mortgage that is separate from your first mortgage and carries a different interest rate altogether. With this method you wont have to risk losing your great rate and the fees a cheaper with a 2nd mortgage as well.
Next once youve considered the type of loan program you want to use to consolidate your debts you need to decide how much debt you will be able to pay off.
Depending on the amount of debt that you are carrying you may not be able to pay it all off. At that point you will have to make a decision as to which debts you wish to have paid off. My suggestion is that you pay off anything with high interest rates first such as credit cards. This also hap
5 Debt Management Tips To Keep You Out Of The Red
If you are struggling with debts, you may feel alienated and alone but for the sake of consolation know that you are certainly not alone!
In fact, lots of people the world over are living with debt, and this could be anything as simple as a student loan right through to a mortgage (home) loan. Acquiring debt is not actually a bad thing – its managing that requires the sensible approach.
In this article we are going to look at 5 tips which will help you to manage your debt situation, keeping you free from spiralling debts and helping you to stay in control of your money – and not the other way round!
If you are using a credit card intensely, you may not be aware that interest rates can fluctuate from time to time.
Plan for How to Get Out of Debt Fast
If you are like millions of other Americans, chances are that you are carrying around some debt on your credit cards. As of March 2010, U.S. revolving debt equaled $852.6 billion, 98% of which was from credit cards, and the average household carried $16,007 in credit card debt. That’s a lot of debt to have hanging over one’s head! With the economy the way it is, jobs being lost, and houses being foreclosed on, it’s a difficult time to try to get ahead and out of debt. But it’s vital that anyone who is in debt works to get out from underneath it, so I wanted to put together a list of things that could maybe help people get out of debt faster than if they were doing it without a plan. A long Read more…
Tags: DebtInspiration To Get Out Of Debt
The following resources both inspired me to get out of consumer-debt and keep me motivated as I strive to pay off my mortgage. Check out-
Financial Calculators -
A random search of the Internet lead me these debt calculators from over at Dinkytown. Once I plugged in my own credit card debt and automobile debt, and ran the calculations for various payment methods, I was off and running.
Radio Program -
If you have spent any time at all researching debt reduction, you have no doubt heard of the awesome Dave Ramsey radio program. Listening to Dave always motivates me.
Blogs -
I love reading Blogging Away Debt, Debt Free Adventure, The Happy Rock, Man vs Debt, and dozens of other personal finance blogs. It never fails – When I am tempted to slack up a bit, all I have to do is fire up the old browser, visit a couple of sites written by fellow bloggers, and I’m instantly re-motivated.
Blog Carnival -
Speaking of blogs, each week the Carnival of Debt Reduction, a selection of blog posts from throughout the web is published. (If you are a blogger and you write about debt reduction, be sure to submit your stuff to the CoDR!)
Bible Verse -
Romans 13:8: Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. That’s my ultimate goal – to owe nothing to anyone, and yet to love everyone.
Family -
I have an awesome wife and three awesome kids. Back before I began to organize my finances, I was constantly worried about their futures. Realizing that I wanted to do a better job of providing for them, I got serious about reducing debt and fixing my finances.
Debt Consolidation vs. Credit Counseling: Which Is Right for You?
If you’ve made the decision to get control of your debt (and possibly get rid of it), congratulations! Taking an honest look at your debt obligations isn’t easy. Neither is it easy to develop an effective repayment plan.
Over the last several years, two types of companies have emerged – both aimed at helping consumers manage and eliminate debt. Many people assume that “debt consolidation” and “credit counseling” are essentially one and the same, but they offer very different services and may not be right for everyone.
Debt Consolidation
Debt consolidation is exactly what it sounds like. All of your outstanding credit accounts are consolidated into one loan and one monthly payment. With debt consolidation, you take out a new loan and use it to pay off your creditors. It’s somethin
How To Get Out Of Tax Debt Yourself
Being in debt with with creditors and collection agencies is one thing but when you it comes to owing the government on a past tax debt they will do whatever it takes to get their money back. Even if that means going into your personal bank account and taking it from you without your consent, they will.
In this article I’m going to show some simple steps you can do to get yourself back on track with your finances and get you the tax debt relief you need.
Getting Started
To get started you first need to decide if you can really handle taking care of your tax debts yourself or if you’ll have to bring in some real help. If you have $10,000 or less of tax debt you’ll probably be fine tackling IRS tax debt relief yourself, however if you have more than this you may want to consider asking for the help of a CPA or a tax attorney. These are the only people who are certified to help you with your taxes.
Next you need to think about your old tax returns. The reason I’m saying this is you may be able to go back to your old returns and see if you could have qualified for some past deductions. For example maybe you bought a new home in that time and could have qualified for the $8,000 home buyers tax credit. To do this though you will have to refile and amend you taxes which will require the help of a professional.
Third, contact the IRS and talk to them about getting a payment plan in place to pay off the debt. If you don’t do this it will force the IRS to use more brutal actions like garnishing your wages. Doing this will also damage your credit history as well, and as long as you don’t pay them you will continue to have a black mark on your record for not paying.
Payment Strategies
So now that we’ve considered all the steps in the previous section we need to look at what type of payment strategy will work best for you. The first option to consider is an installment loan. This is a monthly payment plan the IRS will set up for you to pay them back. This is also the most typical plan people will get started in.
Now you might be saying what if I don’t have the money to pay back the IRS right now? In that case you might have to consider one of the following options. First, you cam ask for a no collection request were the IRS won’t collect on your tax debt for a year. However to get this you may have to be facing a hardship of some kind.
You could offer a compromise were you settle your tax debts with the government for less than you owe, and either pay them through a short term or long term monthly payment plan or a lump sum payment, but again you must be facing a hardship.
Finally, you could consider filing bankruptcy but the guidelines here are very strict and must be followed very closely in order to be accepted.
What You Should Do Now
Finally, now that we know how to get started and what kind of payment strategies are avaliable to you it’s time to get started. To do this get in touch with the IRS now. I should also mention their is no tax debt help formula that will make all of this easy for you but tackling the issues at hand head on.
What are the Benefits in Obtaining Debt Consolidation Services?
When debt problems have been causing we be concerned as well as unrest, it’s time to do something prior to things get out of hand.
Ask Yourself These 4 Questions
* Do we own mixed credit cards?
* Do we have superb balances upon any of a credit cards we have?
* Are we confused about a volume we owe as well as a due dates of remuneration with your credit label bills?
* Are we anticipating it formidable to keep up with all your debts?
If we answered approbation to any of these 4 questions, afterwards it’s time to consider about debt consolidation.
What is Debt Consolidation
What, we might ask is debt consolidation? Debt converging is a loan which helps we compensate off all your existent credit which we owe from opposite lenders. Thi