consumer credit counseling Friends Who Owe You Money Can Quickly Become Former Friends It’s pretty much common sense, or at least it’s been said a thousand times before, don’t lend money to friends and family. What is often missed in that warning is that you should also not sell things to friends and family. Here are a couple of scenarios. Your friends are over for a Christmas tree decorating party. Two of the guys know that you sell pre-owned designer men’s suits on eBay. They ask you if you have any new stock because they could use a new sports coat. “Sure look in the hall closet, see if you like anything.” After five minutes both men return, one wearing a Hugo Boss suit coat and the other is sporting a Zegna blazer. It’s the holiday season, you’re all friends, and even though you know you could get at least $80 each on eBay for them, you only paid $4.99, so you tell them you’ll sell them for $10 each. What the heck, it’s gift giving season anyway. Then they announce their checkbook is in the car, so they’ll pay you Tuesday when they see you next. Fast forward three months to March and they still haven’t paid you. Or perhaps you know a friend is looking with his teenage son to buy a car for Junior. You have another friend who is a self-employed mechanic and is always picking up older cars and fixing them up. You mention to friend #2 that friend #1 wants to buy a car for his son. Mechanic friend was going to sell the car for $900, but since it’s a friend of yours, he tells you to tell them they can have it for $600. You disclose all that’s right with it as well as all that will soon need repair. Friend and son drive the car, say they want it and will come over with money on Tuesday. They arrive on Tuesday with only $300 and tell friend #2 that they will have the balance paid off in 30 days and hoped he’d understand. Four months later and lots of pulling teeth, friend #1 dribbles in an occasional $10 here and $20 here toward their $300 debt. Yet they’ve had the car for months. So what went wrong in the above cases? The friends (now former friends) never asked to borrow money (to give you the opportunity to not lend them cash, as you’ve been warned). The seller-friends were blind-sided with the sudden convenience of no money after the transaction had already taken place. Because it was a friend, "c'mon what's little leeway among friends, anyway?" the sellers felt cornered and awkward to rescind the offer after they had already agreed to it. The only real solution is to never, as in never ever, sell anything to family and friends unless you have cash in hand, at that moment. And don’t feel obligated to give them a deal of a lifetime. If you could get a fair price for the item elsewhere, offer it to your friend at that price too. If you don’t, you could be losing out on a whole lot more than income. Friendships and families are often severed because of transactions gone bad. Don’t let it happen to you. It Takes Credit To Build Credit Using a credit card wisely is an important step in building a good credit rating. If you're trying to re-build your credit or if you're young and just starting out, pay close attention the next time you receive a new card offer in the mail. When you're trying to build a positive credit history for yourself, using the right credit card makes sense. Making small purchases and then making your payments on time each month is a simple, reliable way to build an outstanding credit report. What to Look For On a Credit Card Application If you receive a credit card application that appears to offer a low monthly interest rate, don't make a decision until you turn it over and closely examine the Disclosure Box. In it you'll find a more important measure of credit terms - the Annual Percentage Rate, or APR. By federal law, the Disclosure Box will also tell you whether or not the card has what is called a grace period - a number of days, usually 25, until your purchase starts to accrue finance charges. If a card has a reasonable grace period and you pay off your balance at the end of each billing cycle, you won't have to pay finance charges. It isn't difficult to find credit cards that offer these grace periods, so if the Disclosure Box doesn't declare one then throw the application in the trash and look for a better offer. If you don't have any credit history at all, a credit card company won't want to give you a very high credit limit, but that's probably best when you're just starting out. You don't want to be tempted to go into serious debt with your very first credit card. Calculate Your Monthly Finance Charges Ideally you want to pay off your balance each month to avoid paying any finance charges, but when that isn't possible it's important to know the actual cost of the items you purchase. The annual percentage rate, divided by 12 months, gives you the periodic rate that will be applied to your outstanding balance each month. You can estimate what your monthly finance charge will be by multiplying the periodic rate times the outstanding balance. It may sound complicated at first, but taking the time to learn this simple equation can make a big difference in how you use your credit card. When you're able to see how much you actually spend on an item that you don't pay off at the end of the month, it might help you to resist the temptation to over-use your card. An item that you want to buy might be on sale at the time you purchase it, but if you don't pay off your balance at the end of the month then those finance charges can dramatically increase the actual amount you'll end up paying. Use Your Credit Card as a Tool Credit cards are only one of the tools available to help you build a positive credit history. Making on-time payments for other forms of credit, such as rent and utilities, are also important. Depending on your situation, within 1-2 years your credit rating will be improved enough that you no longer need to use your card for new purchases to maintain your good credit. Use these tools wisely, and they'll help build your financial future! Save Time, Money, and Frustration and Get the Right Credit Score You go into a lender's office prepared to apply for and receive a loan. After all, you've done your homework, you've pulled your credit reports and you know what your credit scores are--you even got one score from each of the three major credit bureaus: Equifax. Experian, and TransUnion. You are shocked when your loan is denied, or maybe you were approved, but the interest rate is much higher than you anticipated. How can that be you say? My credit score is good, I know I checked. Maybe it's not as good as you think. It all depends on there you got it and what kind of credit score it is. The fact is there are several different credit scoring methods. Credit scores calculated from the same credit reports can differ substantially from credit scoring method to credit scoring method. So how can you ever know what your credit score really is? Well, luckily, 75% percent of lenders use FICO scores exclusively and you can purchase FICO scores yourself--you just have to know where to go. (www.myfico.com) FICO credit scoring is a numeric method of scoring your credit worthiness developed by Fair Isaac and Company. Your credit score is a number between 300 and 850 that tells creditors how likely you are to pay your bills. The higher the number, the better it looks to potential lenders and creditors. The three major credit bureaus each have their own version of the FICO score: Equifax uses the Beacon system, TransUnion uses the Empirica system, and Experian uses the Experian/Fair Isaac system. Despite each credit bureaus' use of their own versions, all systems are based the original Fair Isaac FICO scoring method, so each credit score calculated with these systems are generally called FICO scores. However, although most lenders do use FICO scoring, some lenders may have their own scoring methods. There is only one place where you can get your FICO score from all three bureaus and that is at www.myfico.com. If you order your credit score from anywhere else, again be aware that these scores are "FAKOs" (or "fake") and can differ considerably from your FICO credit scores. Adding to the confusion is the credit bureaus themselves. Recently, Experian revealed that the national average credit score of its consumers is 678. This is very misleading to the average consumer. When you buy your credit report and score directly from Experians website, you are getting what they call the "PLUS Score," which is NOT a FICO score, and is NOT used by lenders anywhere. (Equifax is the exception--you can buy your FICO score directly from them at their website; however, the only place to get all three scores together is at www.myfico.com.) The 678 PLUS Score reported by Experian is actually the average of consumers' PLUS Scores, not their FICO Scores. Clearly, the PLUS Score (and all Non-FICO scores) are useless. Not only that, but such hype misleads consumers into purchasing their PLUS Score thinking that they are getting the same credit score that their lender will use. Non-FICO scores are worthless not matter what the credit bureaus or any website selling non-FICO scores claim. Even a few points difference in your credit score can mean confronting the reality of the loss of thousands of dollars out of your pocket--a loss that you probably didn't plan for. The next time you want the most accurate credit score available, do yourself a favor and get the industry standard: the FICO credit score. Strategies for Dealing with Problem Debt Honorably and ethically rid yourself of burdensome debts using the little known Negotiation Strategy, without having to experience the loss of control and privacy associated with filing for bankruptcy, consolidation, or credit counseling. The inability to reduce debt and saving money are the two biggest obstacles preventing Americans from living financially sound lives. National statistics show that money problems play a role in 80 percent of all divorces. One in 54 households will declare bankruptcy. Debt is at an all-time high, particularly credit card debt. The total amount of consumer debt in the United States is nearly $1.4 trillion. If you are one of the millions of Americans burdened with debt and have trouble making those never-ending monthly payments, help is available. You don’t need to go it alone. If you are a typical American family, you have $25,000-$30,000 worth of credit card debt (excluding mortgages, car loans, and student loan payments), and you’re paying $500 to $900 every month in endless minimum payments. Like you, many people continue making their minimum monthly payments believing that they are making progress. They are living in a state of denial saying "Someday, somehow, something will happen. Things will get better, and my debt problem will be gone." Then years go by and they only find themselves in a downward spiral getting nowhere. They have paid their creditors thousands of dollars but their debt load never gets lighter. For example, if you were to continue making minimum payments on a $9,000 debt, and not add any more debt, it will take you over 10 years to pay it off. You will end up spending many thousands more than the original amount and 80% of the money paid will have gone to interest and fees. Most people add more debt as they go, so the reality is this - Without an aggressive approach to terminating debt once and for all, you will NEVER get rid of debt. Today, people have options. There are four strategies for dealing with problem debt you will see advertised: Debt Consolidation, Consumer Credit Counseling Services (CCC), Bankruptcy, and Debt Negotiation. Each strategy must be considered carefully! Practicing Realistic Spending Get out of debt and stay out of debt, are words to live by for Editor Lisa Laskey and her family. "By the time I met the man who would become my future husband, I was in more debt than I could handle. After a few years together, my husband's thrifty ways and his parent's great financial modeling helped me learn the importance of living within our means and not planning to pay it off "next month." This may sound unexciting and not spontaneous to some, but it has gotten us through many lean years and insures that we will enjoy the extra income of the non-so-lean years."