About 'writing off bad debt'|Steve Keen on HardTalk: Write off the Debt!
There are allot of things people do that don't really seem bad at the time. There are allot of things that people do that they don't think will affect them in the future. For instance, people don't often think about the consequences of making bad or impulsive spending decisions. But in today's day and age of instant information, credit can become a serious obstacle to the American dream. Remember that telephone bill that you forgot about when you moved out of your first apartment? Or the utility bill that you thought your deposit would take care of when you moved from your first apartment to a nice one? Well, believe it or not, those little nuisances can come back to haunt you years into your adult life. Many young adults do not realize how detrimental leaving a bill unpaid can be. Many others make the decision to let their credit cards roll over unpaid and just satisfy the minimum balance requirements in order to spend their cash on other things. Many people do not start saving for emergencies until it is too late. People often depend on their credit to help them through times of financial trouble. Unfortunately for many, they find out too late that those little forgotten bills and bad spending decisions have built up a negative impact on their credit score that it will take years to erase. What is credit? How does it work? It's a little more complicated than one might think. Credit is when someone lends you a service or a commodity in the promise that you will repay the cost of it with interest. The interest is what allows the company or individual to extend you credit because they know they will get more for the commodity or service than it is actually valued at. You are buying something at a more than market value rate in return for paying for it over a period of time instead of all at once. A credit score is how companies and businesses rate your reliability for having credit extended to you. This is where it gets a little more complicated. Business's assess your buying history, such as other credit that has been extended to you and how you have complied to the agreed upon plan of paying it back. They look at things such as your history of making payments on time, completing payment plans, and the kinds of items you have bought on credit to evaluate what kind of risk they will take if they extend you credit. Some companies require little or no history before extending credit. Some companies will take clients with high risk histories of credit in order to justify charging exhorbant interest rates and increase their profitability for allowing the transaction to be completed. Some companies require a well established history in order to purchase goods and services on credit from them. Due to the cost of large purchases such as a house, boat, car or other expensive commodity, few people can afford to have these things without having to use credit and a reasonable amount of credit history. The better your credit score or history of credit, the lower the interest rate or cost of allowing the item to be bought on credit. But how do you avoid bad credit to begin with? Check out this list of things that will cause bad credit before you know it and how to avoid them. 1. Never, Never, Never write a check that you know you don't have the money in the bank to cover. Even if you have an overdraft loan on your checking account, the fact that the check comes to the bank and they have to pay it for you shows up on your credit history as a negative mark. Though most people think this would never be a problem for them, lot's of people are guilty of writing that twenty dollar gas check a day before payday, crossing their fingers that their paycheck gets to the bank before their local grocery. AVOID THE TEMPTATTION. 2. If you ever do have a check that bounces, pay it off, IMMEDIATELY, with cash, then pay off the bank fee IMMEDIATELY. This will prevent the check from being returned again. Merchants can present a check to the bank for payment as many as three times before they actually consider it bounced and the bank will charge you for each return separately. 3. If you absolutely must have credit cards, get one that has a low interest rate, or none at all. Always make one purchase at a time unless in cases of extreme emergencies, and pay the complete balance of it off before your monthly billing cycle comes due. This goes down as a good credit mark and keeps you from racking up extra fees for extended interest. Also, try to save large purchases with it for emergencies only, smaller purchases are easier to pay off. 4. Avoid loans for trivial pursuits. Many banks offer small loans for personal usage. While this has often been touted as a good way to build credit at a bank by repaying it on time, it is not that great of a credit mark, other than to show a good payment history, which you can do by paying your utility bills on time. 5. Don't sign with the first mortgage broker that offers you what you think is a good deal when buying a home. These companies compete for your business. If you shop carefully, you will find a good broker that will work with you to make payments you know you can afford with a reasonable interest rate. Avoid predatory lending by checking out your broker thoroughly before deciding on which one your going to spend at least the next 10-20 years of your life dealing with on a monthly basis. 6. When moving, ALWAYS pay off your last utility bills, on time, just as if you were still living there and had to pay them. The deposit is separate and does not cover the bill. If it is eventually applied towards an outstanding balance, it will probably still not completely cover it and you will have marked your credit by not completing the payment agreement with the utility company. These guys really are petty enough to report a 15 dollar outstanding balance on your final bill. 7. Avoid any kind of personal tab at local establishments. Many small businesses will extend a courtesy tab credit to established regular customers or those who live in the local area. If something happens where you cannot pay these off on time, they become blights on your personal credit score and can even get you arrested just like a bad check. Do you really want to explain to the loan officer at your bank that you got 50 points taken off your credit score because you didn't pay your beer tab? 8. Open two checking accounts and a savings account. Make one account strictly a bill paying account for recurring payments such as utilities and rent or house payments and car payments. Many utility companies and loan companies offer electronic payment options so that you can have your bills deducted automatically every month on a certain date. Use the other account as a miscellaneous account. Use this account for impulse buys and non essential items. It works as a back up savings account as well as diverting your important checks from bouncing if you do have a clerical error. It also keeps you from impulsively buying things you want but don't need and don't have the money to pay. An extra tip, always put at least ten percent of every paycheck into your savings account and never touch it unless it is an extreme emergency. You can also open up a medical savings account which works as a kind of tax shelter and allows you to save for and pay for medical expenses as they arise. 9. Never buy anything on credit that has payments which exceed one third of your net monthly income. People run into credit problems when they buy items which have excessive payments that they may be able to pay, but cut really close to their margin of safety by shaving off of their cost of living income. If there is ever a problem with their income or an unplanned for expense, these payments become insurmountable obstacles, often get paid late and become credit soft spots on your record. Lending establishments will lend you credit based on your gross income, but your net is what you actually have as disposable, thus, one third of your net not gross income is probably a good rule of thumb to set as a maximum threshold for payments. If you're a cautious buyer and are more comfortable with larger savings, go with one forth of your net income as an extra failsafe. 10. Avoid garnishments from your paycheck. Even if you cannot afford to pay what your creditor wants you to pay to eliminate debt, give them something. A small effort to show good faith can persuade your creditors to be patient with you until you can afford to pay the monthly amount they would prefer, and if all else fails, this shows good faith to a judge should your debt ever go to court, which grants you a better chance of the court setting payments that you can afford and denying the garnishment the creditor is asking for. Most people find themselves in this situation after unexpected medical bills or sudden loss of income. 11. Don't buy those little advertisements that you get in the mail that offer free books, magazines, videos, cds etc. in exchange for paying a monthly fee without reading the fine print. Usually these offers give you one free item in exchange for a commitment from you to buy two or more products a month from them for a year. Can you account for forty extra dollars a month every single month for a year that you didn't plan on spending? If not, chances are, you won't bother to continue buying their products and will have broken a contractual agreement which will show up on your credit. 12. Don't cancel subscriptions before the contractual time has expired. Small subscriptions like to newspapers and magazines may not add up to a lot, but large commitments like cell phone services can carry a pretty hefty penalty for canceling a contract and will report it to a credit agency. 13. Don't break a lease on a rental property or vehicle unless you absolutely have to. Try to find any other legal means possible even if you have to sublet the property or find someone to take over payments on the vehicle. Breaking a lease, even after paying for the contract disruption shows up as a big negative mark on your credit and often lending agencies won't even consider an explanation of why you did so. 14. Make arrangements with creditors as soon as the you get the bill. Many medical creditors are quite understanding about how much you can pay and would rather come to an agreement with you about payments than take you to court for their money. Make arrangements as soon as you receive the bill for emergency or other services which were billed and stick to them. 15. Always notify creditors anytime a payment will be late or you need to change the amount you are paying them. Creditors of past due services are more apt to be lenient with clients that keep them abreast of their financial situations as opposed to having to waste man hours and other resources on trying to contact you and compel you to make payments. This also goes a long way towards keeping creditors from recording a negative mark on your credit history. As with any other relationship, communication is the key. Following these few simple guidelines can avoid a world of trouble in the futureand should keep you on the right track for a good credit score. |
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