Credit Card Debt

Credit Cards had been one of the greatest boons for mankind of this Century. Through Credit Cards buyer can buy goods or services, without having cash in hand. A Credit Card is only an automatic way of offering credit to a consumer. Today, every Credit Card carries an identifying number that speeds shopping transactions. Imagine what a credit purchase would be like without it, the sales person would have to record your identity, billing address, and terms of repayment.

But, today this boon for mankind has turned into curse. People are using their Credit Cards, just because they can avail the product or service of their choice, without thinking whether they can repay the amount with interest later. U.S. citizens are buying on impulse.

"Credit buying is much like being drunk. The buzz happens immediately, and it gives you a lift. The hangover comes the day after".

The major cause of U.S. population under debt today is Credit Card Debts. People are possessing more than one Credit Cards and using them extensively without making timely payments. This is increasing their interest rates and also their total Debt and people are opting for more and more credit card debt settlement .
Credit Cards were created for people's convenience where they can smoothly carry out their financial transactions, without carrying much cash. Now People are carrying the burden of Debt because of Credit Cards.

Below are some simple Tips & Advices for Credit Card users which can be or rather should be followed to avoid Debt like situations and lead tension free life:

1) Use Credit Cards when in dire necessity.

2) Stop spending on impulse. Check out whether you really need the product or service. Just because your neighbor is having it or it's the current craze you needn't buy it.

3) Do not cross your credit limit unless it’s an emergency. Banks charged a hefty 2% interest for all amounts in excess credit, in addition to the existing financial charges.

4) Every month allocate a portion of your income for Credit Cards. Try to pay more than minimum due amount.

5) Try to maintain not more than 3 Credit Cards.

6) Apply only for Credit Cards, when you are having stable source of income and can afford it. Otherwise you may end up in heavy Debts and even bankruptcy.

7) Cash advances are convenient BUT costly. Banks charged 18% per annum of cash advance amounts AND a 5% interest OR minimum of RM20 on the amount drawn. There is no interest-free grace period and the interest is accrued the moment cash is received.

8) Secure a list of your Credit Card numbers and report lost or stolen cards immediately. All banks have a 24-hour banking service and you’ll not be held liable for any purchases made with the card after reporting.

9) Inform and update your Credit Card issuer of changes in your personal particulars such as new mailing addresses so that billing can be mailed on time to avoid late payment charges.

10) Keep track and list out the things you bought with your Credit Card to cross-refer on the billing items to filter out misuse and credit frauds.

11) Be aware of the interest-free grace periods for settling outstanding bills. If your billing statement arrives ‘fashionably’ late every month, complain to your bank. Late mailing might be a contributing factor in the accumulation outstanding bills over the month.

12) When you want to cancel your Credit Card, it’s better to go straight to the bank to settle it rather than post to them. Call the bank and follow up closely on the cancellation status, as there have been many cases where banks still impose charges to consumers even AFTER they’ve canceled their cards.

13) Go for Credit Card Debt counseling, with professionals immediately, in case your financial situation is not manageable anymore by you.

Control your spending control your Debt.

"Credit Cards are for convenience and not for collection".

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Traffic Through Videos

Videos are a great way to create Traffic for your online Business. Visuals are more effective in promoting one's site than simple texts. Youtube, Slideshare are some good examples of online promotion through videos, which are visited by millions of people for different purposes. These are not just entertainment sites, but serve as strong promotional tool and that too FREE of cost. What more do you want, just getting traffic without spending a single penny!

YouTube is like any other Social Medium, and you can generate a lot of traffic.

Not only videos are the easiest medium to drive traffic but also easy create them.

1) Find a product or CPA offer with a wide general appeal like debts, dieting, mortgage, etc.
2) Go to the Google Keyword research tool and look for related keywords.
3) Search high volume terms with you tube videos on the first page of the search results and bookmark the videos.
4) Make a short video using PowerPoint, which is informative, but keeps the watcher curious for more (it should MAKE him curious) and suggest more information behind a link.
5) Upload the video under various names and respond to the videos you have bookmarked. Have an affiliate link in the description (as the first part of the description).
6) Repeat all the processes to upload couple of videos.

This is just one example of how popular content will create further promotional opportunities, and in turn send traffic to your website, all without spending a single cent. So, without further ado, here are some of the features and strategies that you can use to make sure that YouTube starts generating website traffic for you:

1) Create and Customize Your own Channel --> This is far from being a complicated procedure, as your channel is automatically generated for you when you sign up for a new YouTube account.

This allows you to: * Arrange your own and others content in a single location, with its own YouTube URL. * Create a profile for yourself and your content, and link back to your website URL. * Chance to start creating Playlists from your own and other people's content. * You can also select from your video selection 9 highlighted videos that will be prominently displayed on your channel profile.

2) Account Types - Choose Your Niche --> When you sign up for a new account you are given the chance to choose which account type you would like. While one of the options is 'standard', it makes a lot more sense to choose from the other possibilities. This means that in narrowing the focus of your channel, you automatically reduce the competition from other videos, and give yourself the chance to further promote your work. It is far easier to rise to the top of the pile within a particular category than it is to make the front page of the website, and in the process you help potential viewers to narrow down their search.

3) Create Short Form Viral Content --> In the vast majority of cases, your best chance of creating a highly-viewed video is to make sure that your running time is around the five minute mark or less.

4) Tag and Categorize --> Once you have created your video or imported it from elsewhere one important step to consider is choosing the right category and tags for your video. This is the stage that is most often rushed or overlooked, but if you take the time to check out the other popular videos in your niche, and see how they have been tagged and placed within the YouTube categories, it will finally pay off.

5) Create Niche-Targeted Playlists --> First of all, you can gather individual clips into a niche-targeted context so that viewers can find related content quickly and easily without having to search for the individual items themselves. Secondly, you can gather your own videos either by thematic relevance, or as part of a series. If you have a longer video, it makes sense to break it down into several clips, each with a clear title, so that viewers can opt to skip to particularly interesting parts of your movie.

6) Promote Your Video with YouTube Email and Bulletins --> People often forget that YouTube is a social community as much as it is a video-sharing site. As such, there is nothing terrible about reaching out to other users and letting them know about your content, your thoughts, or your admiration of their work. This is a great way of leaving quick comments on other user's pages, and in doing so you are likely to pique their interest enough for them to come and check out your profile and maybe even subscribe if they like what they see.

7) Leave Video Responses --> Another effective way of getting yourself seen is to leave a video response to another user's clip.

8) Join or Create YouTube Groups --> YouTube has a strong community of groups that exist for users to discuss and share videos. You can browse for groups to join by category, or create your own group from the YouTube Groups page. There are advantages to both approaches.

9) Chat in the Streams --> If you pitch the theme of your room just right, and do what you can to promote the 'live event', this could well be an effective way to bring new people into your circle of subscribers and friends.

10) Active Sharing --> A new feature, Active Sharing provides another opportunity to drive traffic to your profile. Active Sharing is aimed at trend setters and opinion makers, and makes it easy for you to broadcast the videos that you are currently watching.

Conclusion : Broadcast yourself, and promote yourself in for the bargain.

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Bankruptcy Revealed

Bankruptcy is the legally declared financial status of an individual or an organization, who is unable to pay off their debts. Generally, Bankruptcy is initiated by the debtor, in order to get relief from the creditor’s permanently, but in order to recover their substantial amount of debt the creditors as well can file Bankruptcy case against the debtor. The Bankruptcy case initiated by the debtor is called Voluntary Bankruptcy and the one filed by the creditor against debtor is called Involuntary Bankruptcy.

A Harvard Study reported that half of US bankruptcies were caused by medical bills. The study was published online in February of 2005 by Health Affairs. The Harvard study concluded that illness and medical bills caused half (50.4 percent) of the 1,458,000 personal bankruptcies in 2001. The study estimates that medical bankruptcies affect about 2 million Americans annually — counting debtors and their dependents, including about 700,000 children.



Bankruptcy is a federal court procedure that is designed to aid businesses as well as the consumers to wipe out their debts or repay them under the protection of the Bankruptcy court. Businesses don’t like it, but for consumers, it can be a life saver. Bankruptcy is the last option and should be the last option while trying to get hold of yours scattered financial situation, since it has a very negative impact on yours credit report and affect you in the future for all your financial dealings, as most lenders view this differently. But for sure it allows you to start over again.

Let's start by exploring the different types of bankruptcies. There are four different filings you can make: Chapter 7, Chapter 11, Chapter
12 and Chapter 13.

Chapter 7

Its the most common form of Bankruptcy in US. Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, sometimes call a straight Bankruptcy is a liquidation proceeding. As per this chapter, the debtors are allowed to keep certain type of property, this kind of asset is known as exempt property and the property they
must give up is known as non exempt property. The debtor turns over all non-exempt property to the Bankruptcy trustee who then converts it to cash for


distribution to the creditors. The debtor receives a discharge of all dis-chargeable debts usually within four months. In the vast
majority of cases the debtor has no assets that he would lose so Chapter 7 will give that person a relatively quick "fresh start".
One of the main purposes of Bankruptcy Law is to give a person, who is hopelessly burdened with debt, a fresh start by wiping out his or her debts.

Non exempt property may include:

1. Pricey musical instruments provided the debtor is not a professional musician.
2. Family heirlooms.
3. Collections of valuable items like stamps and coins.
4. Bank accounts, bonds, cash and other investments.
5. A second or vacation home
6. A second car or truck.

Exempt property include:
1. Household appliances.
2. Vehicles, up to a certain value.
3. Reasonably priced requisite clothing.
4. Reasonably priced requisite household goods and furnishings.
5. Jewelry, up to a certain value.
6. Pensions.
7. A part of unpaid but earned wages.
8. Equipments (up to a certain value) that are needed in the debtor’s profession.
9. Damages awarded for personal injury.
10. A part of equity in the debtor's home.
11. Public benefits, including social security, and unemployment compensation, public assistance (welfare) that is accumulated in a bank account.

If a debt is secured by property, such as a home mortgage or an automobile loan, then you get to decide how to handle that debt. For example, in the case of a vehicle, you could: Keep the automobile and the debt as long as you are current and continue keeps your payments current.

* "Redeem" the automobile which means pay it off at its current "fair market value"

* Return the vehicle, include any balance due in your Bankruptcy and pay nothing further on the vehicle. The choice is yours.

Essentially what the new laws ask of people who are filing a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy is twofold. First, they must take an approved credit counseling course within six months before filing. They must also complete an approved financial management course before any debts can be discharged.

What are the most common reasons given for filing a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy? Well, of course, it's the accumulation of excessive debt! But seriously, here are the most common reasons why people get into such debt:

* Medical bills
* Unemployment
* Divorce
* Overextended credit
* Large, unexpected expense

In 99% of the Chapter 7 cases, the person filing Bankruptcy keeps all of their property.

Chapter 11

Chapter of the Bankruptcy Code that is usually used for the reorganization of a financially troubled business. Used as an alternative to liquidation under Chapter 7. Chapter 11 Bankruptcy is available to every business, whether organized as a corporation or sole proprietorship, and to individuals, although it is most prominently used by corporate entities. Bankruptcy affords the debtor in possession a number of mechanisms to restructure its business.

Chapter 12

Chapter of the Bankruptcy Code adopted to address the financial crisis of the nation's farming and fishermen community. Cases under this chapter are administered like Chapter 11 cases, but with special protections to meet the special conditions of family farm operations and fishing.

Chapter 13

Chapter 13 is more commonly known as a reorganization Bankruptcy. Chapter13 Bankruptcy is filed by individuals who want to pay off their debts over a period of three to five years.This type of Bankruptcy appeals to individuals who have non-exempt property that they want to keep. It is also only an option for individuals who have predictable income and whose income is sufficient to pay their reasonable expenses with some amount left over to pay off their debts.

There are many reasons why people choose Chapter 13 Bankruptcy instead of Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. Generally, you are probably a good candidate for Chapter 13 Bankruptcy if you are in any of the following situations:

1. You have a sincere desire to repay your debts, but you need the protection of the Bankruptcy court to do so. You may think filing Chapter 13 Bankruptcy is simply the "Right Thing To Do" rather than file Chapter 7.

2. You are behind on your mortgage or car loan, and want to make up the missed payments over time and reinstate the original agreement. You cannot do this in Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. You can make up missed payments only in Chapter 13 Bankruptcy.

3. You need help repaying your debts now, but need to leave open the option of filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in the future. This would be the case if for some reason you can't stop incurring new debt.

4. You are a family farmer who wants to pay off your debts, but you do not qualify for a Chapter 12 family farming Bankruptcy because you have a large debt unrelated to farming.

You have valuable nonexempt property. When you file for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, you get to keep certain property, called exempt. If you have a lot of nonexempt property (which you'd have to give up if you file a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy), Chapter 13 Bankruptcy may be the better option.

You received a Chapter 7 discharge within the previous eight years. You cannot file for Chapter 7 again until the eight years are up.

A Chapter 13 can be filed if:

* The debtor received a discharge under Chapter 7, 11 or 12 more than four years ago.
* The debtor received a discharge under Chapter 13 more than two years ago.
* You have a co-debtor on a personal debt. If you file for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, your creditor will go after the co-debtor for payment. If you file for Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, the creditor will leave your co-debtor alone, as long as you keep up with your Bankruptcy plan
payments.
* You have a tax debt. If a large part of your debt consists of federal taxes, what happens to your tax debts may determine which type of Bankruptcy is best for you.

As of October 17, 2005, new Bankruptcy laws took effect for all three types of Bankruptcy. When it comes to Chapter 13, you cannot file this way unless the following conditions are met:

* The debtor received a discharge under Chapter 7, 11 or 12 more than four years ago.
* The debtor received a discharge under Chapter 13 more than two years ago.
* When a motor vehicle was purchased within 910 days (2 1/2 years) of the filing and a secured creditor has a lien on it, the creditor retains the lien until payment of the entire debt has been made.

The following debt is NOT discharged:

* Debt for trust fund taxes;
* Taxes for which returns were never filed or filed late (within two years of the petition date);
* Taxes for which the debtor made a fraudulent return or evaded taxes;
* Domestic support payments;
* Student loans;
* Drunk driving injuries;
* Criminal restitution;
* Civil restitution or damages awarded for willful or malicious personal actions causing personal injury or death.

All tax returns for the four years prior to filing Chapter 13 must be filed.

Disadvantages Of Bankruptcy --> Of course, there are disadvantages to filing for Bankruptcy. As per the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a record of this stays on the individual's credit report for up to 10 years. During the pendency of a Bankruptcy case the debtor is not permitted to obtain additional credit without the permission of the Bankruptcy court. Moreover, creditors may not be willing to risk lending money to such an individual.

There are some advantages to filing for Bankruptcy. By far the most important advantage is that debtors may obtain a fresh financial start.

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Life Saver: Debt Consolidation

The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.

Don't go in the sea of debt that far, that either you have to choose slavery or bankruptcy. Under the huge burden of debt, either one will go on paying the debt for years, due to increment in interest rates, or have to file for bankruptcy. Both the cases cause immense damage to the individual's credit score and makes mentally depressed. Don't drown yourself in debt ask for lifesaver, ask for Debt Consolidation. Debt Consolidation helps to save your money, so that you can swim out of debt. Debt Consolidation as a life saver not only helps you to swim out of debt with ease but also improves your credit score with time. Debt Consolidation helps the debtor by lowering the interest rates of consolidated debts and bills and lowered monthly payments. It provides lot of flexibility to the debtors so that they can easily swim to the shore.

Five Steps To Become Debt Free



1) "A hundred wagon loads of thoughts will not pay a single ounce of debt" - One has to accept the fact, at right time that he/she is in debt and act accordingly. If not attended properly the situation will worsen with time.

2) "A man in debt is so far a slave" - Stop being slave to your debtor and take professional help. Too many public opinions may confuse you. By seeing your situation (incoming and outgoing finance) they can better tell, whether to take financial help or not.

3) "There is something called Free Debt Counseling" - There are different kinds of Debt Consolidation program. One single kind of program can't be applied for all the debtors. The programs vary on the amount of debt, tenure of payment, debtor's income and various other factors. Various Debt Consolidation Companies provides free Debt Counseling to the debtors and suggests a program which suits best to their situation.

4) "Pay every debt as if God wrote the bill" - After you have enrolled in any Debt Consolidation program make the payments on time, to avoid any kind of late fees or fines. Default in payments should be avoided, in order to get rid of the debt soon.
In case you choose Debt Settlement, you'll have to stop payments to your creditors and make monthly payment to the settlement company. The payments accumulate into lump sum cash after months. The lump sum amount is then paid off to the creditors/collection agency.

5) "Never spend your money before you have it." - Put a check on your expenses, say no to any kind of fresh loan or debt unless and until its emergency. Any new loan would worsen the situation and delay the debt payment. Expense in control would lead to debt in control.

Hooray, there you are on the shore alive and safe, free from the clutches of debt!

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