Tag Archives: history

How Credit Counselors Can Damage Your FICO Credit Score! (Page 1 of 2)

Credit Counselors and Debt Consolidators are dominating the Internet, newspapers, magazines, radio, and television with ads promising to give you a miracle cure for your poor credit history and your poor FICO credit rating. This appears to be great news. Let’s see if it really is good news.

Of course there are some credit counseling agencies and debt consolidators that can actually help get people out of debt. But there are many such services run by con artists who are after your money, money you probably can’t really afford to spend. And, sadly, they have no intention of helping you.

There are trustworthy companies and shady companies among the hundreds of credit counselors and debt consolidators, and, good or bad, all appeal to your emotional distress to get out of debt. Let’s consider the differences.

The Best Credit Counselors.

These services will actually help you clean up your credit history while improving that all important FICO credit score. They will help you realize where you went wrong with your credit decisions and then devise a plan to start correcting your bad habits.

Once your spending is under control, they will help you create a budget so you can change your money management style and stay out of debt and live a more stable financial life.

The Debt Consolidation Shell Game.

These companies operate with a slightly different agenda and my advice is: You should only consolidate your debts when you have exhausted all other avenues. It’s true that debt consolidators also help you get out of debt, but they do so by making deals with your creditors to combine all of your obligations into one large loan with one monthly payment.

The pitch they make is deceiving. Yes, the payment on the consolidated loan will total less per month than the total of your current payments but, usually, the interest rate on the consolidated loan is high because you are high risk. This means you will end up paying back more in interest in the long run.

Again, avoid debt consolidation and, if you need outside help, go with a debt counseling service instead. They will monitor you and keep you from falling back into the habits that damaged your credit history in the first place. Consolidators, on the other hand, will only be concerned about you making your monthly payments on the new loan for which they collect a fee.

The ‘ Fix My Credit ‘ Crooks!

These crooks are obvious. Any ‘ fix your credit ‘ offer that claims they can magically erase your debt without you lifting a finger (except pay them) is a scam. Think about their claim. Creditors would have to forget you owe them money. Why would they do that? Some of these scams are designed to force you into bankruptcy. Sure, your debts will be gone but the record stays in your credit report for up to 10 years and your FICO credit score will plummet.

How do you find a reputable credit counseling company?

Bad Credit Loans

For those with bad credit ratings or previous court judgements against their name, finding a loan can be tough. Sourcing a lender willing to provide finance for those with poor credit history is tough enough, but finding a lender willing to offer you a respectable rate is another thing altogether. Poor credit loans are often the most needed, particularly for those looking to consolidate their existing debts and monthly commitments, yet paradoxically they can often be the hardest to obtain at a reasonable rate. In this article, we will look at the best ways to go about obtaining a loan if you have a poor credit rating or bad credit history, whilst looking at some of the common ways to reduce the cost of borrowing with bad credit.

If you have a poor credit rating, or if you have previously had any financial decree against your name, borrowing money becomes a significantly more difficult and more expensive process. From the point of view of the institution lending you the money, you are more high risk than those with a more beneficial credit rating, and ultimately that risk must be reflected in the interest charged. Lenders are notoriously cautious, and if you have a poor credit history this can prove to be a major frustration in your hunt for finance. So how do you go about finding finance if you have a bad credit history? One sure fire way to make banks sit up and listen to your requests is to offer your home as security. Obviously this is not the ideal situation, given that you could lose your home if you fail to make the required monthly repayments, however it is probably the quickest way to ensure the banks and building societies take you seriously as a potential borrower. Unfortunately, for many this doesn’t solve the problem of the extortionate interest rates often required of those with poor credit history, which can make borrowing money a problematic affair.

Another way to try to find finance at a lower cost that that traditionally offered to those with a poor credit history is to shop online. The Internet provides a gateway for a multitude of lenders to offer finance, and if you’re looking to find a good deal chances are the Internet will have what you’re looking for. Again, it is important to remember that when you look online, you must specifically search for loans for those with a poor credit rating in order to see the bad credit loans each institution has to offer. That way, you can avoid wasting your time looking through loans for those with stronger credit histories, and focus more on the bad credit loans you require.

Finding bad credit loans that are cost effective can be tricky, but if you know where and how to find what you’re looking for, you should be able to stumble upon a rate that is attractive to you. Whether you have a poor credit rating or no credit rating at all, there are bad credit loans out there to fit your individual needs and circumstances.