Debt advice – why and where?

July 27, 2010 – 8:30 am

If you are in debt, you may be thinking about seeking professional debt advice. But why should you seek debt advice, when you may be able to deal with your debts on your own? And where is debt advice actually available?

By seeking debt advice, you will get the chance to talk to a professional debt adviser – someone who knows what they’re talking about when it comes to dealing with debt (someone who has probably dealt with debt cases very similar to yours in the past).

If you don’t seek debt advice, you’ll be left to assess your situation on your own – which could lead to a misjudgement on how you should handle your finances. Read full article

Tags: Debt, Debt advice

Open Identity Exchange and Kantara Initiative to Collaborate

July 25, 2010 – 11:51 pm

Open Identity Exchange (OIX) and Kantara Initiative recently announced that they will begin collaborating on digital trust framework development to build and promote adoption of a robust online trust ecosystem. Digital trust frameworks enable trust in transactions such as logins, registrations, and online eCommerce by allowing digital identity credentials produced by one site to be accepted at other sites.

OIX executive members include AT&T, CA, Equifax, Google, PayPal, VeriSign, and Verizon.

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Tags: Identity Exchange, Initiative, Kantara Initiative, Open Identity Exchange

What Affects my Credit Score?

July 25, 2010 – 3:38 pm

From the day that you get a credit card you will start earning a credit score.  Credit scores are important and can help you get loans and show how financially responsible you are.  Certain things you do will affect your score either negatively or positively and will affect how good your score is.  What affects your credit score?  Continue reading below to find out!

Positive affects:

  • Your score will raise if you pay your balances on time each month.  They must be paid before or on the date that your money is due.
  • You should only use 25% of your credit.  The less you spend and less debt you have, the higher your score will be.

Negative affects:

  • Opening up too many credit card accounts.  The more accounts you have the lower your score is usually.
  • Paying your bills late even if it’s just a day.
  • Not paying at least the minimum balance on your accounts.
  • Going bankrupt.  This will just crush your score.
  • Being unemployed and not having an income.
  • Using almost all your credit and having large amounts of debt.  For example, if you have $10,000 worth of available credit and you use more than $7,500, you will lower your score.
  • Going into foreclosure can also hurt your score.

As you can see, there are a few things that can positively affect your score, while there are a lot of things that can hurt your score.  If you’d like to have good credit and reach your goal of getting as close to 800 as possible, you will need to avoid the things that will have a negative affect on your score.

Generally, if your score is 700+ you’re doing pretty good.  You don’t want to fall behind 700 too much.  Once you’re reached before 650 you’re starting to hurt your score.  Keep your score up by having discipline and by using your credit cards wisely!

Tags: Credit Score, Score

Credit Card Online Debt Payment Calculator

July 25, 2010 – 11:32 am

For those who make the minimum payment on their credit cards each month, it can often take ten or more years to repay that debt. Sometimes, it can take longer. The longer one holds debt, the more expensive that debt becomes due to compounding interest. With the aid of a credit payment calculator, you can clearly see how long it can take you to pay off the debt you have. These calculators work very simply. Just take the following steps:

  • Input the amount of your debt. This is the amount you owe on the line of credit.
  • Enter the annual percentage rate, or APR, of the balance. This information is provided on your credit card statement.
  • Type in the amount of your minimum payment.
  • Request that the system calculate your payoff date.

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Tags: Credit Card, Payment