December 6, 2008 By
Debt collectors calling to say you must pay a debt that you owe is a call that many people have experienced in the last few years. Most of the people that work for debt collection agencies are very respectful of the people they are attempting to collect from, but some companies are abusing the trust of people that they are contacting by trying to collect on past debts that the individual is not legally obligated to pay because the debt has expired.
Understanding Expired Debt
A debt that has expired is a debt that has existed for more than seven years and has not any type of activity on the account throughout that time. Legally, a person is not obligated to pay these debts due to a legal statute of limitations placed on collections of debts across the nation. These laws were put in to place in order to prevent the collection agencies from attempting to collect on debts that are virtually impossible to validate.
Even though this type of debt collection is illegal, there are some unethical debt collection agencies that still try to collect on these debts anyway. Why do they do it? Simply put, they are relying on a person’s lack of knowledge of the laws surrounding debt collection to collect money that they are not legally entitled to. These companies have nothing to lose due to the fact that all they have invested in the account that they are attempting to collect on is time, nothing else.
The debt collection companies do not have any affiliation with the original account holder as they have typically purchased the debt from the original company for pennies on the dollar or have been assigned the account from another company. This means if they can collect any portion of the original credit card debt it becomes nearly 100% profit for the debt collection agency. For this reason, many of these companies use highly aggressive collection tactics that a legitimate collection agency would not use for fear of being held accountable for the tactics in court. These unscrupulous companies want to achieve a level of fear that would get the individual to pay the debt more quickly without asking too many questions about the transactions.
Can I Do Anything About It?
Yes. If you know a company is trying to collect on a debt that is more than 7 years old and there has been no activity on the account, you can get credit card debt relief by simply informing the debt collection agency that is attempting to collect the debt that you are fully aware of the laws surrounding the debt, and any further attempts to collect that debt will cause you to report them under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. They will often try to get you into a debt settlement program, but you don’t owe them anything, so don’t consider pay up. Sometimes alerting these companies just is not enough, as there have been cases where they have actually changed dates to reflect current activity on the debt, so they can extend the period of time to make the debt valid. If you find this to be the case, report them under the Fair Debt Collection Practice Act without hesitation. If you need to you can even take the collection agency to small claims court and have them pay you damages for harassing you about an expired debt.
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October 6, 2008 By
If you own a retail business, it’s absolutely critical that you have some sort of merchant account for credit card processing. Merchants who only accept cash and checks lose out on a substantial amount of sales volume simply because many people do not carry cash anymore. They depend on electronic payment methods such as credit cards and debit cards to pay for their everyday purchases. Not having a merchant account is telling the increasing percentage of the population which doesn’t carry cash to not come into your store.
One company which offers merchant accounts is Encore Payment Systems. Encore offers premium merchant services including credit card processing, check conversion and gaurantee services, gift card programs, and total processing solutions, so whatever your needs are for credit card processing, Encore can help.
Their credit card processing system will enable you as a business to accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover, AmEx, Diners Club and JCB. You’ll be able to accept every major credit card and do so in a safe and secure fashion. Their credit card processing service captures signatures which help you reduce the amount of chargebacks, verify the age of the customer, prevent fraud, and provide very advanced reporting tools.
Encore also offers a unique gift card service which will help your business start offering gift cards to yor customers. They’re great for spas, salons, restaurants, and specialty retail stores. They allow merchants to make high-margin sales, and the full value is rarely ever used, this is essentially free money for the merchant. The costs for giftcards are also extremely minimal and a winning plan for most retail businesses.
Their total payment system is perhaps the last payment system you’ll ever need. You can use it to accept checks, gift cards, credit cards, and debit cards. It’s a great all in one solution that’ll help you take just about every type of payment that’s not cold, hard cash.
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September 17, 2008 By
Many people take vacations or short trips, and have just enough money available to fund the expenses. While this is a good technique to avoid overspending, it can also cause problems when you run into hidden travel costs that you hadn’t anticipated.
More often than not when you stay at a hotel now, during the check-in process you will be asked for a Travel Credit Card. The hotel is keeping it on file in order to cover any incidentals you may encounter. Incidentals include:
- phone calls made from room phone
- drinks and snacks from the room mini-bar
- internet usage
- room service
- room damages
This almost always results in a “hold” on funds available with your card. If you were hoping to use that card for all trip expenses, you could be in trouble should you be nearing your card limit. Here are some tips for avoiding the hidden costs on your next trip:
- When making your hotel reservation, find out how much money they place a hold on during check-in. It probably won’t tell you this on the hotel website or when you call the 800 number to reserve- but feel free to ask customer service and they will tell you. Knowing how much they’re going to hold will let you know how much extra to bring with you on vacation.
- Instead of using a credit card when you check in, pay with cash. They will probably try to tell you they need a credit card, but cash is an acceptable form of payment everywhere. Ask to speak to a manager. You can pay for the incidental deposit using cash and be billed upon check-out for anything that doesn’t cover.
- Choose a pre-paid credit card. There is really no way around the incidentals “holding” of funds, so one way to make sure it doesn’t distrupt your trip is to place just enough money on a pre-paid card to pay for that deposit and use other sources of payment for the rest of your trip. If it takes the hotel a long time to refund the money they “held”, you’re trip won’t be effected because you budgeted to cover these costs and have other methods of payment for the trip.
- Instead of staying in a hotel or resort, you could choose a campground, bed and breakfast, or hostel- these accommodations are not known for placing holds on funds for incidentals.
While there may not be away around the incidentals, if you know they’re there and you’ll likely have to pay for them upfront (and be reimbursed later) at least you can plan for them they will be less likely to ruin your trip!
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September 16, 2008 By
Sadly, on top of all of the other negative things that are going on across the nation and the world, such as an unstable economy, consumers also have to contend with acts of fraud and unsavory business types that can destroy lives.
One such notable problem that has been in the news lately is the subject of loan fraud. Uninformed or misinformed consumers have been victims of such fraud al too often and happens during times that should be of celebration, such as when buying a home for the first time.
There are a few things consumers can do to protect themselves during the loan process and even before, to help ensure that they do not become a statistic of fraudulent cash loans.
1. Contact more than one company to evaluate each of the pros and cons of the offer for the installment loans. If a loan company tells you that they are the only company that will give you a loan, walk away immediately. Getting several quotes can help you ensure you are being treated fairly.
2. Be very cautious about revealing too much information about your need for the cash. If a company understands such vulnerabilities, you could be facing an unfair advantage against the loan company.
3. Under no circumstance should you be told to lie or provide misleading information in order to get a loan. It should be a huge red flag if someone asks you to change information concerning your income, cash, or expenses. Walk away from any situation like that, no matter how badly you need the loan.
4. Never let anyone force you into borrowing more money than you are comfortable repaying. When an offer sounds too good to be true, it generally is.
5. Pay close attention to the terms of repayments. Balloon payments and interest only payments should be avoided. It is important you know and understand all of terms of the loan so there are no surprises. This includes repayment terms and all fees and penalties that can be incurred due to a late or missed payment.
6. Never, under any circumstances, sign a loan form or contract that is incomplete or has blank areas on them. Check each page for correct information and read over all documents, no matter how tedious they may seem. If you find any information that is not true, make sure it gets corrected immediately and entirely before proceeding.
7. During closing, make absolutely sure that you are signing exactly what was agreed upon and that additional information has not been added or changed without your consent.
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August 27, 2008 By
Because small businesses aren’t often well known by members of a community, most of them need to create a decent amount of print or marketing material to let people know about their businesses and associated services. Some of them try to print their marketing material internally and end up with poor quality printing, while others pay out the nose to make use of print shops. Neither of these options are ideal, fortunately there’s a better option – online printing.
Online printing won’t replace your day to day individual print jobs of just a few copies, but it’s a great option when working on marketing campaigns and any other print jobs that require a large number of copies of an item. It means that you don’t have to have an industrial printer in your office, and you don’t have to pay too much for a local print shop that doesn’t have very much competition.
Making use of an online printing service is a pretty slick process. You’ll find a provider that you like, send them the documents you like printed, specify how many copies you’d like, and they’ll ship it to you in a day or two. What’s great about online printing is that it’s really easy to compare different providers to see who can give you the best deal on your major printing jobs. With traditional print service shops, you have to stop in or make phone calls and try to get pricing out of them, with online printing stores, it’s all right there up front for you to see before you ever buy any online printing services.
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August 20, 2008 By
If you happen to turn on CNBC, listen to a radio show about investing, or read any financial newsletter or magazine, it’s not going to be long before you see and advertisement about some company which will show you how you can invest in silver or gold and other precious metals to make a lot of money by doing it. They have really come up with some great advertising, but when taking off the front the realities of investing in precious metals is that choosing to buy silver or gold is a good way to keep your money stable, but not necessarily the greatest long term investment
Companies which are hoping to get you to buy silver or gold as an investment will tell you all kinds of statistics which shows that the US economy is going on a path of self destruction. They will show you the massive trade deficit that the United States has, the massive Budget Deficit that the United States has, and argue that over the next few decades the US economy is going to take a major down turn, and that the US Dollar will be practically worthless and that silver or gold will hold its value. Here are the realities. In all of modern history, we’ve had a budget deficit, a trade deficit, and problems with the government. Our dollars still have value. Yes, the dollar has lost some of its purchasing power because of inflation over long periods of time; however by making good investments, you will stay several percent ahead of inflation.
They will tell you that precious metals are a great investment which keeps their value unlike the US Dollar which loses money to inflation. This statement is one hundred percent true, but the only thing precious metals do is keep their value. If you put your money in good mutual funds with long track records, you can easily make 12% on your money. There are many great mutual funds with ten and twenty year track records which have performed close to 15%. silver or gold has return barely above the rate of inflation coming in at 3% or 4% annually. Even if dollars are less valuable over time, investing in solid investments will give you a lot more purchasing power.
silver or gold investors will also tell you that during a disaster in which the economy collapses that you will be able to use silver or gold to buy goods and services. Let’s look at the example of Hurricane Katrina. Instead of trading small amounts of silver or gold, people bartered with goods which had use, such as bottled water and firearms, rather than a precious metal which did not do any good at the time. If you did chooe to buy silver or gold however, it’s likely that whenever a new fiat currency is established, silver or gold will still have a decent vlaue in the new currency since it’s prices are based on international demand, thus buying silver or gold is a great way to avoid the impacts of a currency collapse.
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August 7, 2008 By
Car insurance is a legal requirement in most areas, and by shopping around you will be able to find a deal to suit you, be it very comprehensive cover or extremely basic. Once you have insurance however, there are scenarios in which your cover would be invalidated and you would be unable to claim money in the event of anything happening. These situations are obviously to be avoided, for both financial and legal reasons.
1. Not declaring driving convictions
Research has suggested that around a quarter of drivers invalidate their auto insurance in this way. Not only is it a requirement to inform your insurers of penalty points on your licence or any convictions related to speeding or drink-driving, but it is also necessary to inform the insurance company of any recent points when it comes to renewing your policy. Dishonesty is frowned upon by insurers in all respects, and in the worst case scenario withholding information from insurance companies, or simply lying, could be considered fraud.
2. Not disclosing previous claims
When taking on a new insurance policy, it is also necessary to declare any previous claims that you have made. Again, not doing so is undoubtedly tempting, as a cleaner driving record obviously means a lower price for insuring the vehicle. Again, however, such course of action could land you in hot water if you ever had to make a claim on the policy. If previous claims are discovered, your policy will not be worth the paper it is written on and you could find yourself paying out of your own pocket or facing more serious action.
3. Letting somebody else drive
It may sound obvious, but unless clearly specified, an insurance policy applies only to the person whose name it is in, not simply to the vehicle. If somebody is not a named driver on the insurance policy, then anything they do while in charge of their vehicle is not insured. It does not matter how short a time they are at the wheel, if something happens, you will be unable to claim on your policy.
4. Not disclosing a change of address or job
Upon moving house, any quote from your insurance company immediately becomes invalid, and you must seek a new one. A change in postcode may affect your policy, in either a positive or negative manner. A change of job title can have the same effect, and must also be declared. The general theme is that whenever your circumstances change, let your insurance company know, as this will affect your policy.
5. Letting your MOT expire
Having an MOT is another legal requirement for any driver, and if one is due and the vehicle doesn’t receive one, then that invalidates the insurance policy. This is also true with life insurance. You definitely don’t want to let that expire if something were to happen. It is best to keep abreast of when your next one is due, both in order to keep your policy valid and also to make sure your car is safe to drive.
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July 31, 2008 By
Last week the Nationwide provided some long awaited good news for consumers in the UK, after announcing that it was cutting some of its mortgage interest rates. The cost of mortgage borrowing has remained high despite three base rate cuts since December of last year and despite a drop in swap rates according to a recent report. This has made it even more difficult for consumers to get a suitable mortgage product at a time when availability is already restricted and affordability is already low.
The Nationwide announced that it was cutting the mortgage interest rates on both its tracker and its fixed rate deals by up to 0.46%. However, there is a catch – customers that want to benefit from the lower rates will have to stump up a hefty 25% deposit to qualify. Rates have also fallen for those with smaller deposits but still remain high, with most in excess of 6.5%. Officials state that a number of other lenders have also been reducing interest rates over recent weeks on some mortgage products, but often the better rates are only available to those that have a sizeable deposit to put down.
One mortgage broker stated: ‘For far too long, the status quo of the mortgage loans market has been increasing rates and misery for most borrowers. The crunch has seen liquidity in the market all but dry up, but news from Nationwide that they are cutting both tracker and fixed rates will come as a huge relief for all borrowers. With one of the country’s leading lenders taking this welcome step, this should be a sign of things to come.’
An official from Nationwide stated: ‘For the second time this month, we are in a position to reduce the rates on mortgages, offering some of the most competitive rates in the market. As part of our commitment to rewarding customer loyalty we now have a Lifetime tracker mortgage offering a good deal for customers who are switching their Nationwide mortgage.’
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June 14, 2008 By
If you write a lot of letters, do a lot of mailing for your business, or have ever had a wedding, you know sending out mail can be quite expensive over time. It might not seem like a lot for someone who just pays their bills each month and doesn’t do much after that, but if you begin to do more than that, it ads up real quickly, real fast. It’s only going to get worse as the US Postal Service recently proposed an increase in the price of stamps to 41 cents. Don’t worry, just like everything else sold in the market place, postage stamps are sold at a mark-up, and you can get them wholesale.You can purchase stamps at about a 10% discount by purchasing them through custom rubber stamp dealers. This postage is perfectly legal to buy and sell, as well as use on all of your mail that goes through the US Postal Service. Hgitner.com, an online stamp dealer, explains why they can sell their stamps cheaper than the going rate, “The secret is that the volume of stamps sold to collectors over the last 50 years is enormous: often much larger than the demand from today’s collectors. When these stamps were purchased, the post office received full face value for them. Today, when large accumulations come on the market, our position as a one of the largest US mint stamp dealerships allow us to buy them in bulk at current market prices, often below face value.”
This is really an interesting result of capitalism. rubber stamps which have not appreciated in value and just aren’t collectible to anyone since there are so many of them out there have returned to being a commodity, that people can use to mail their letters.
The stamps that you will actually receive will not be a booklet of 39 cent stamps, but rather a mix of varying sizes that you can mix and match to make up 39 cents. It makes sending postage a bit more fun, because you can use a variety of different sized interesting stamps and give your letters a little bit of a different look than the traditional American flag.
The current price for a rubber stamp is going at about an 11% discount, you have to pay a fee of about $2.50 or $3.50 to have the stamps mailed to you, so unless you are ordering a large purchase of around $100 or more, it probably doesn’t make sense to get a discount for you stamps. But if you buy a year or two’s worth of stamps at a time, it might be a great way to get a discount on stamps.
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May 28, 2008 By
We’ve all seen images of people wielding a pair of scissors and slicing up their credit cards, promising to never go into debt 
again. However, truly canceling a credit card takes more than cutting up a piece of plastic. It may also not be a smart idea if you want to stay credit worthy.Here are ten important things to remember if you are contemplating closing your credit card accounts:
- Do not cancel an account that still retains a balance. Keep an account open until you have paid it off in full. Companies can raise your interest rate up to the maximum allowed in order to penalize you for closing the account if you still have a balance.
- If you plan on making any large purchases in the near future, such as a house or a vehicle, you may want to reconsider closing your accounts. It may decrease your credit worthiness. If you plan to cancel several cards in the same time period, you may reduce your credit score.
- If you just have too many open accounts, consider consolidating your card balances on lower interest cards and then close the remaining accounts.
- When contacting the credit card company, make sure you are prepared to write down the details of the conversation, including the date, the time, and with whom you spoke about closing the account.
- Ask for a written confirmation to be sent by mail. File the confirmation when you receive it in case there is ever any question about the status of the account. If you do not receive a written confirmation, follow up with the company to ensure your request has been honored.
- When you have canceled a credit card account, ask the company representative to report your cancelation to the credit bureaus as having been “cancelled by customer’s request”.
- Good customers may be connected to a special department so a representative can negotiate a deal with you to stay. They want to keep your business and might offer a lower interest rate or upgrade the level of your account to the best credit card they have. You may have some leverage in the negotiation process. If you current card does not offer something that you are interested in, now is the time to inquire.
- Listen to the offer details carefully. It may be worth your while to consider the deal if it beats other credit cards you have.
- If you decide you are not interested in the new offer, do not be intimidated by the sales tactics. Cancel the card without any hesitation.
- For those who have had problems with credit card spending, it may be worth it to close the accounts and avoid the temptation all together. Your credit score may take a slight hit but when you get back on track, you can then focus on rebuilding your credit.
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