Don't Do Debt.com

Credit card cos increasing already pricey penalty fees

Credit card companies are substantially increasing penalty fees, in some cases as high as $49. An article released by Cardweb.com details the increases in late payments, balance transfer fees and fees for payment by phone by some credit card companies. Click here for the story.

With these substantial penalty fee increases, it's more important than ever to to avoid these costly and often unnecessary fees.

More updates on the way...

Incentive happens: A vision and money

The holidays are now officially behind us. Okay, well actually, tonight marks the end of the holiday season for me as I had one more party to attend this evening. I declined at the last minute as I felt compelled to write about some questions asked of me while travelling around during the past few weeks.

One thing I'm frequently asked after the madness of the holidays comes to a screeching halt, is how to have more money. One person recently expressed concern about her inability to save money, another asked about how to have more money to get out of debt. A mother asked me how to teach her sixteen year-old about money as she recently took on her first part-time job. Other questions have come up, too, but here are a few thoughts I had in response to these questions:

I don't have the perfect answser for anyone. But one thing I live by for myself is this: I have a vision for what I want to do with my life and my money. I have things I want to accomplish:

Quick tips and your money

When I tell people that I write about credit cards, debt and money, I am inevitably asked about any "quick tips" I might have. So, I thought I'd take a minute to share these with others who might have this same question. Below are a few of these "quick tips":

1). Have a vision for your money (see blog entry below).
2). Be aware of the cost of being in debt: It is in fact very expensive to be in debt. When you break the costs down, you can see the incentive to begin seriously eliminating, or at least, reducing the balances on your high interest credit cards (see entry/article- "Quicksand: Debt's impact on budgeting").
3). Get organized with your money: Late/missed payments can be very costly to the cost of your debt-load and can seriously erode your credit report. It’s important to be organized with your money in order to avoid these and other unnecessary and costly penalty fees.

Updated info, new resource & more

If you're new to this webBLOG, don't forget to read through the blog entries in archived months. There is lots of information in this blog and just wanted to make sure you know to where to look for answers you may need. The month of October contained numerous blog entries about credit card use, credit report, basic money skills and more. Please be sure to dig around. Ask questions. Post comments.

FYI: Excellent resource to check out: www.HomeMoneyHelp.com. Don't miss it. Offers lots of resources for those in debt, working on budgets, trying to make the most of money and lots more.

Please be sure to tell your friends and family about this webblog and the website, www.DontDoDebt.com.

Thanks!

"Save 10%": A real savings or no?

As I checked out after a long day of shopping at SouthPark mall here in Charlotte, I was reminded of something I like to address every holiday season. Once the sales clerk totalled up what I spent, she asked me, "Would you like to open a Belk card and save 10% today?" "No," I said, "I'm not so good with those credit cards. I tend to get in trouble with them as a matter of fact." She asked more questions and continued to encourage me to open this credit card.

She was very nice and was just doing her job. But I remember wondering to myself exactly how many people this holiday season would be asked this very question and of those, how many would respond by opening an account.

This holiday season, think before you think you'll save. An upfront 10% discount is nice but let's look at how negligible that discount is if you don't repay your balance right away.

Article: Simple Steps to Happier Holidays

I love and look forward to the holiday season as much as the
next person, but I'll be first to admit that as much as this is
true, I simultaneously feel a great sense of anxiety when the
festive season approaches. I look forward to quality time with
family and friends but money is stressful every other month of
the year and it's intensified during the holidays.

Christmas parties, gifts and great times lend well to holiday
excitement and sadly, great expense. I want so badly to be wholly
excited, yet I find myself dreading the obsessive calculations
from the frenzied activity in my checkbook, more activity than
my checkbook sees all year.

Fortunately for those of us who experience a nagging anxiety
tugging at our heart and purse strings, there are ways to relieve
these feelings to make the holidays feel almost as joyous as you
remember before you had the burden of paying for them.

Unemployment & debt

Lay-offs, downsizing, cost-cutting. No matter how you say it, unemployment is unemployment and it has a number of consequences on an individual or family. The true consequences of unemployment really hit home with me when a friend described the impact of her husband's job loss on their lives, their little girl, their money.

My friend has a good job and earns about $2000/take home pay every two weeks. Her husband was earning $30/hour plus he frequently accrued overtime hours at time and a half ($45/hr). He recently lost his job. His company looked to cut corners and save money. The company did a round of lay-offs to meet this goal. Right or wrong, fair or unfair, the situation is what it is. Fortunately, this particular company put up no fight when my friend's husband and several other employees applied for unemployment.

He recently began receiving unemployment checks, which is helping their situation. But when my friend sits on my patio, I see in her eyes a stress that is far greater than she is letting on. Her concerns? Most of her first paycheck pays the mortgage. Her second paycheck pays all bills: cable, phone and power bills; the one outstanding loan they have and groceries. Her husband's income, now reduced by more than half, goes mostly to daycare. On this day she is sitting outside my house, she relates that their family has $28 to their name until her next paycheck, a week and a half away. Tonight she is going to her mother in law's to pick up diapers for their 6 month old.

WDAV Interview on debt, etc- download available soon

Today I'm at the INTV studios (www.INTV.com), which also doubles as an encoding lab. I'm so excited because we are currenlty encoding the 11.8.03 WDAV interview and it'll soon be available through the website (www.DontDoDebt.com) and hopefully here on this webBLOG as well.

My excitement stems from the content produced in this interview. Award-winning host Rachel Jeffreys asked questions that reached deep into the heart of the problems of credit cards and debt in society. Now in addition to the content you can find on the Don't Do Debt website and on this webBLOG, you can hear the interview and find out why exactly we are going to great lengths to educate consumers about credit cards, debt and financial literacy.

Thoughts: Credit in bankruptcy

Recent comment asked about getting/using credit in bankruptcy. Here are a few thoughts on credit in bankruptcy:

1. You can always get credit. There are credit card offers for people in bankruptcy. The offers given to people in bankruptcy, however, will come at higher interest rates, smaller balances, stricter and more rigid terms. For example, you might receive a credit card offer that announces a credit line for up to to $3000 but only guarantees a credit line up to $300. I've seen offers that cost as much as $170 to initially activate, so it cost the consumer $170 (a $50 annual fee and a $120 maintenance fee) to open the card and the credit limit is for only $300. This card would be at more than half the balance upon opening it. Check the fine print for all start-up costs before opening the account.

2. Once you file for bankruptcy, creditors know, in most cases, you have more disposable income. You're a good candidate for credit card offers.

3. If you haven't addressed your spending habits, you could end up in debt all over again, even while in bankrutpcy. The goal is to learn how to make good decisions with money so you're not constantly digging yourself out of debt. You want to get ahead with your money. Using credit cards, no matter what state your finances are in, can quickly deplete any extra money.

I'd think twice about entertaining credit card offers in bankruptcy. The last thing you want to do is end up in debt all over again. Take a hard look at your money and how you're spending it and where you want to be with your money in a few short years. The goal is to make your money work for you and a $29/fee to open a credit card could carry far greater costs in the long run. Again, decide for yourself if you to obligate your money so early in the game. With credit cards, that's essentially what you are doing.

Ameridebt: Friend or foe of consumers in crisis?

Recent reports announce that the FTC is suing Ameridebt for fraud: hiding fees and not educating consumers about how to get out of debt. I scoured resources for the full story and here's what I learned: The company bills itself as the friend of consumers in crisis and allegedly falsely calls itself a non-profit organization. Ameridebt charges upfront fees for debt-management plans, even though they do not advertise these initial costs. They collect money from consumers but the consumers' money goes straight to the bottom-line profit of this "not-for-profit" company.

A consumer's money is apparently NOT used to repay creditors. This is NOT GOOD. A consumer can spend thousands with Ameridebt only to find out in spite of that money spent, they are back at square one with their debt and a credit report in worse shape than before.

Keys to credit counseling: