Archive for May, 2010

We Won The Cup! A Cricket Tale That A Captain Can Never Live Down!

Monday, May 31st, 2010

Sport is all about winning and when you win you have to celebrate. One year, back in the 1970′s, my village club beat our local rivals in a final at cricket and our team was presented with a big solid silver trophy that dated back to the early 1920′s. The trophy was called the ‘Comrades’ Cup and it was presented in memory of the soldiers in the First World War. Being solid silver it was worth a lot of money.

After the presentation our team headed back to our local pub to start the celebrations. Well wishers used to give the Captain money and the trophy was filled with a mixture of Whiskey, Port, Beer and anything else the landlord could think of. It was very intoxicating. You can imagine that everyone had plenty to drink and our team always had a rousing sing song to celebrate winning at the end of the night. They were great nights but this one was more memorable than most!

When the celebrations finished the Captain, who was responsible for the trophy, had to take it home with him. He staggered out to his car and he could not find his car keys. So he put the trophy on the top of his car whilst he fumbled around to find his keys. Eventually he located his car keys, opened the car door, got into the car and drove off. He forgot to put the trophy back in his car!

As he drove from the pub everyone could hear a loud clatter as the valuable solid silver trophy fell off the roof of the car on to the road. It bounced around a little and everyone feared the worst. Luckily only the lid of the trophy was dented so it did not cost too much to repair but the Captain never lived down the day he forgot to put the trophy in his car. :)

Robert Aconley runs the multi category Million Dollar Lake & Million Pound Lake websites. You can find them at milliondollarlake.com milliondollarlake.com and millionpoundlake.co.uk millionpoundlake.co.uk

This story is one of the North Yorkshire cricket tales.

Holiday Spending Tips – Ten Ways to Keep from Having a Holiday Spending Hangover

Monday, May 31st, 2010

Ah the holidays… a time for parties, over eating, and over spending. Americans routinely overspend during the holidays, often resulting in increasing credit card debt to go along with that increasing waistline from too much pumpkin pie.

The holidays are stressful enough. Don’t add to that stress by overspending your holiday budget. Here are ten tips to help you save time, money and stress this shopping season:

1. Make a list. Decide how much you can afford to spend this year and write it down. Decide who you want to buy for, and how much you want to spend on each person. Take this list with you when you go shopping to ensure that you don’t buy on impulse or exceed your spending limit. Also, don’t forget to include wrapping paper, decorations and shipping costs. These can add up fast!

2. Pay cash for your holiday gifts. It’s much harder to spend cash than credit, so this tip alone could save you hundreds of dollars this holiday season. Also, avoid credit card offers or store charge card offers that offer you a discount if you sign up. These cards usually have high interest rates, and could end up costing much more in the long run than the discount you receive when you sign up for the card.

3. Do your shopping online this year. Buying online could result in discounts not available in stores. Just remember to include the shipping cost when buying online. Even if you don’t actually buy online, the time you can save by doing comparison shopping before you go to the malls could be invaluable.

4. Have a Secret Santa gift exchange, where you put names in a hat and each person draws one name to purchase for. If you have a large family, this could mean tremendous savings! You should set a dollar limit so each person knows how much to spend. That way no one overspends and relatives with smaller budgets won’t feel bad about not spending a fortune on a gift.

5. Another alternative for those with large families is to do a group gift. Have several relatives go in on one big gift instead of each person buying a separate gift. You will probably all save money and you can buy the recipient one big, cool gift that they really want.

6. Start early! Shopping early allows you to comparison shop and to catch pre-holiday sales, which could mean huge savings. This also curbs impulse shopping, which can be very expensive. Another benefit to shopping early is lower shipping costs if you need to mail a gift. Waiting til the last minute can be expensive because you’re more likely to pay full price for the gift, and you may have to pay extra to ship it if you want to guarantee it arrives in time.

7. Make your holiday gifts. If you have creative talents, such as cooking, crafts, etc., making your own gifts can be very special. If you’re not very creative, consider giving your time. Offers to baby-sit or to do something special for someone can be very personal and appreciated gifts. How many parents do you know who wouldn’t love to have free babysitting?

8. Purchase wrapping paper, holiday cards and other decorations right after the holidays. Seasonal items are usually offered at deep discounts after the holiday, and they never go out of style. Stock up on clearance-priced items for next year, this year!

9. If you’ll be traveling this holiday season, book your travel plans early. Airline flights, train tickets and bus tickets usually go up significantly during the holidays, so booking your travel plans early can save you money and stress.

10. Start a Christmas fund in January for next year’s shopping. Many credit unions and banks offer special accounts just for this purpose. A CD is another great way to save for next year’s holiday expenses. It never hurts to sock away a little money every month between now and the next holiday season. You’ll earn a little interest and you’ll have cash to spend on your holiday gifts and other expenses when the holidays roll around.

Kristine A. McKinley, CPA, Certified Financial Planner®, and founder of Beacon Financial Advisors, teaches individuals and families how to invest and plan for retirement, college, and other financial goals. Kristine offers financial and tax planning on an hourly, fee-only basis.

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Bloated Tax Budgets and Self Employment Passover

Monday, May 31st, 2010

“Oh, and Honey, it’s tax time, do you have your paperwork done?”

That phrase probably starts more wars than terrorism or liberal politicians in a conservative election season. At the very least, the irritation and steam rising causes high levels of stress and anxiety on the home front.

However, it could be solved, if both parties realize the value of sharing the Tax Burden.

When one spouse works a W-2 job and the other is self employed, quarterly tax payments can be avoided by increasing the W-4 withholding of the W-2 spouse, saving stress, paperwork, and the sudden anxiety caused by ‘taxes due’. While this isn’t necessarily a recommended solution to the self employment tax issue, it is often the cheapest method of managing tax dollars with the least stress on cash flow.

The realization of reduced taxation with a home based business decreases overall tax liability due to additional depreciation and deductions for home office, home improvements, and other various options related to owning your own business. Reduced tax percentages offer advantages for the whole family income, while increasing family options for such issues as aging parent care, child care, after school care, and flexible work hours.

Benefits of working from home in a home based business, far outweigh the negatives, when the process is handled correctly.

By bloating W-4 tax withholding and cutting Quarterly Taxes, self employment becomes a viable means of operating a home based business for cash flow benefits. Keep good records of all expenditures to help both members of the family understand the importance of controlling cash flow and managing tax funds appropriately.

Jan Verhoeff promotes good tax planning and preparation during the early season of each year, helping consulting clients get the best bang for their buck the rest of the year. Her expertise in the field of tax planning and preparation is shared on her blog at taxprep101.blogspot.com taxprep101.blogspot.com

Chris Mihm To Undergo Ankle Surgery

Monday, May 31st, 2010

Lakers center Chris Mihm is set to sit out of the playing season after deciding to go for surgery on his injured ankle.

Last season Mihm sat out for 24 of the Lakers 25 games. It is presumed that Mihm will be out for approximately five to eight months following the surgery which will repair the ligament and tendon in his right ankle. The surgery is due to be performed in Baltimore by Mark Meyerson.

Mihm injured his ankle after landing awkwardly on the foot of Seattle forward Rashard Lewis in the final minute of the game played in March 2006. This resulted in Mihm tearing the ligaments on sides of his ankle.

In July 2006, Mihm underwent an arthroscopic surgery and was in such severe pain during his recuperation that he stopped training for nine days. After that he started with weights but continued feeling the pain and could not continue with his rehabilitation. Mihm visited two different doctors to get their medical opinions before deciding to opt for the surgery.

If the Lakers reach the playoffs, there is a slight possibility that Mihm might return.

Mihm, who is 27 years old, is in the last year of his contract that pays him $4.2 million for this playing season. The Lakers would still have to pay him even if they do not sign him up as the 15th player, the possibility of which is extremely remote. If the Lakers cut him, they will lose the right to allow a team to bid more than another to keep its free agents. The Lakers might re-sign Mihm only if he recovers completely and is 100% fit.

About the writer: Nigel Kerry is an American free lance writer born in
Los Angeles, California. Kerry writes among others for sportus.com Sportus.com
- Sportsbook reviews, usbookies.com UsBookies.com –
Sports Betting Online and get-best-mortgage-loan.com
Get-best-mortgage-loan.com – Mortgage lenders, get the best mortgage loan

How To Increase Your Credit Score Quickly And Easily

Monday, May 31st, 2010

If you have been refused loans or credit recently and think you may have a low rating, then you may be wondering how to increase your credit score. The credit report companies use a variety of methods to determine what your credit score should be. When you know how they work out your credit score, this can give you a greater chance of being able to repair it. Although it may seem very difficult to raise your credit score, once you know how it is calculated, it is really just a matter of being careful and reliable in your financial dealings. Then the credit report companies will see you as being more reliable and give you a higher credit rating.

How to increase your credit score, is really just working out what the problems are, and why the credit report companies are giving you a low score and then doing something to fix it. About a third of your credit score is based on whether you make your payments on time. If you have had problems with this in the past, then the best way improve this is to make sure your payments for bills, credit cards and debt repayments are made on time, or early. This will let the credit report company know that you are more likely to make payments on time in the future and this will increase your score for this part of the credit report and accounts for about 35% of the total.

They will also look at the amount of debt you have as opposed to your income. Another area that you should look at is that you have no more than 30 to 60% of the credit on your credit cards in use. If necessary, you can spread the debts over several cards rather than keeping a large amount on one card. If you’re wondering how to increase your credit score then this is one of the easiest ways and accounts for around 30% of the credit score. The rest of the total is made up from smaller items such as, how long your credit history is, whether you have applied for too many new accounts and also the types of credit that you currently have.

If you need to know how to increase your credit score, then there are a few simple adjustments that you can make to increase it. First you need to check the accuracy of the reports, to make sure that they have not made any mistakes. You also need to make all your payments, whether for bills or credit, on time. You may need to reduce outstanding debts and it may be best not to take on any new credit. This will help you to improve your credit score and make it more likely for the providers of financial products to view you as a good and reliable customer.

For more quick and easy free-online-instant-credit-report.info/article-10-credit-repair.html credit repair tips try visiting free-online-instant-credit-report.info, a popular website that provides credit repair tips, advice, and resources to include information on resolving a credit dispute, credit repair programs and how to obtain a free-online-instant-credit-report.info/article-11-good-credit-rating.html good credit rating that will increase your financial stability.

Secured Business Loan: Flourish Your Business with Low Interest Rates

Monday, May 31st, 2010

A security is required in the form of property, machines etc. for seeking a secured business loan from the lenders. It may be required for setting up a new business venture for buying machinery, constructing plant, the registration process and various other reasons. You would also require it for the expansion plans like setting up new plants, updating new technology, recruiting more people etc.

Apart from these purposes, you can seek a loans for working capital requirement for your business. The loan amount can also be sought for the purchase of raw materials, wages of workers, etc. You can pay off your earlier debts as well, with an unsecured business loan.

If you are a homeowner, then it’s a best way to seek a secured business loan. Availing a loans-park.co.uk/SecuredLoans_businessloans.html” target=”_new secured business loans is now easier these days. This is all because of the growing competition among the lenders in U.K. Since you have a lot of option to choose from many lenders you can easily get low and more competitive interest rates.

If you have bad credit history in your name then also you can go for a bad credit secured business loan .You would definitely get a business loan as it is secured but a higher interest rates may be charged. With a bad credit secured business loan you have a chance of improving your credit history as well.

The secured business loan has a flexible loan repayment terms depending on current revenue trends. It has competitive interest rates and loan is processed faster. You can seek a business start up secured loans where you can take loans for your small and big business enterprise.

So, seek a secured business loan and expand your business horizons because you have an edge as far as the rates are concerned.

The author is a business writer specializing in finance and credit products and has written authoritative articles on the finance industry. He has done his masters in Business Administration and is currently assisting Loans-Park as a finance specialist. For more information please visit us at loans-park.co.uk loans-park.co.uk

Guaranteed Payday Advance – Immediate Cash Loan

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

If there is a sudden need for money and your payday is far off, guaranteed payday advance loans can solve your problem forthwith. Life’s colors keep changing and you never know when urgency might strike you at a time when your financial reserves are simply non-existent. You might seek help from your relatives or friends but sometimes they might not be in a position to help or you might not be in a mood to seek their assistance. In such a situation, you can look for a lender who will give you a guaranteed payday advance loan so that you can tide over your difficult period.

Financial emergencies are things no one would expect, but when they arrive you have an alternative resource to look into. If what you need instant cash between $100 and $1500 then you can easily turn your head into a payday loan lender for quick money solution. The loan comes with an interest, which is calculated on weekly basis. The interest rate varies from lender to lender but generally it works out between $15 and $20 for every $100 loan amount.

Simple Qualification

Payday advance loans are short-term small loans that are designed to see you through your difficult period from the time you take the loan until your next payday. The basic criteria for getting this loan are that you should be at least 18 years old, have a steady monthly income and a checking account. Bad credit is not a deterrent for getting a cash advance as long as you satisfy the above conditions. No credit checks are carried out for approving the guaranteed payday loans.

Quick Online Application

Whereas, there are many lenders who give such loans, the best and most convenient way to look for the lenders is to search the Internet. It will not take you more than a few minutes to browse through the various websites and come up with hundreds of online lenders. All that you need to do is to compare the rates of a few of them and choose the lender with the best rates. If you satisfy all the requirements, you will get the amount of the loan desired by you the very next working day.

The amount of the guaranteed payday loan will be transferred to your checking account and when you get your next paycheck, this amount along with the finance charges of the lender will be automatically transferred back to the lender’s account from your checking account.

You can ezypaydayadvance.com/guaranteedpaydayadvance.html obtain guaranteed payday cash advance from many lenders online. Apply for an ez-loan.biz/overnight-cash-advances.html overnight cash advance and get the money directly transfereed into your account. Check out also paydayadvanceshop.com/bad-credit-paycheck-advance.html bad credit paycheck advance for people who have poor credit history.

Martina and Jennifer’s Mother-Daughter Bonding Trip – Cycling 1400 Km

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

Martina and I play tennis in the same league and funny enough she even looks a little like the other Martina (Navratilova), just prettier. Needless to say, some of her shots are quite like the other Martina’s too, and in our last encounter Martina and her partner won against my husband and me in a hard-fought 3-set match.

After the match we had a nice relaxing chat and Martina mentioned that she and her daughter did a fabulous 1400 km biking trip last year, which ended up being one of her most exciting travel experiences and an amazing mother-daughter bonding opportunity.

Originally from Germany, Martina is a very active Toronto real estate professional, probably in somewhere in her 40s, and Martina’s daughter Jennefer just finished her university studies and is off as we speak on another biking trip in Sweden. In the fall she’ll start another 5 years of academic studies in the Czech Republic.

Now you can read about Martina and Jennifer’s European biking adventure.

1. Please tell us a little about yourselves and your background. How did you come up with the idea for this biking trip? Please comment on the special t-shirts you both wore.

Jennefer had to do so some studying in a library. When we met for lunch she admitted having looked through the travel section and found routes for traveling in Germany and got the idea of biking bike though Germany.

For safety we looked for a buddy for her to go along. but while everyone agreed that it would be a great trip no one wanted to commit. One day Jennefer said: “why don’t you come along”? It was a nice thought but I was very hesitant. Packing light was not my strongest side and I was not sure if I could manage to bike such a great distance. But the idea grew on me and suddenly there was no turning back. We started to dream.

We informed ourselves about different bikes and found the best bike shop in Toronto where we bought our bikes and most of the other equipment as well. Over the following weeks we collected all the necessary stuff. We got the special Toronto bike shirt and wore it a lot during our trip, now it also serves as a constant reminder of our great tour whenever I wear it. We checked out web sites of bike trails, made our own training schedules and e-mailed a lot of thoughts back and forth to each other.

2. Please tell us about the itinerary of your cycling trip. From where to where did you go, how many kilometers did you cycle a day? How strenuous was it?

We started in Fuessen in southern Germany and rode for 14 days and 1400 to Flensburg. Some days we had to take it easy (heavy rain, food poisoning) but the last day we rode 180km. It was tiring; our muscles in our shoulders and legs were tight. Also we were not used to being on a bike saddle for such a long time and that resulted in some pain.

2. What type of landscapes, villages and towns did you ride through?

We started in the mountains and worked our way up north – where the terrain got a lot flatter. We saw the most beautiful places, and were so close to them all. Often we rode along rivers and could hardly believe that we were not dreaming. Every little village had a church in the centre, and the most beautiful flowers decorated the houses. At one point we encountered cows in the middle of the road. They were walking home from the field to the farm all by themselves. We were a little uncomfortable at first. Once the hills were behind us we encountered strong winds – especially around the “Nordsee”.

3. There were some mishaps with your luggage and your bicycles at the beginning of your trip. Please tell us about that.

The airline lost our bikes – they delivered them to us four days after we arrived– totally damaged. The bike store had little hope for us and thought we needed to order special parts which would take another three days But since the bikes were so new they managed to straighten out the wheels and repaired the other items as well.

The moment we biked our first meters we thought we were in paradise. The bikes felt heavy due to our lugguage and balancing them was something I had to get used to. At first my bike would tip even in standing position. But we got used to it so much that we could hardly steer the bikes once we took off the luggage. With time we became very efficient in loading and unloading our bikes. We had each two panniers and one bag on the carrier. We did not have a stand or holder to place our maps – which would have been a great advantage to have. Very early on our tour we encountered dirt roads and we felt sorry for our touring bikes. The first flat we got while pushing the bike towards a well to drink some water.

4. You also had other mishaps (flat tires, food poisoning] along the way. Please tell us more about that.

We had four flat tires in all. Jennefer was able to change them very quickly. But first we had a wrong pump that did not fit to our valves and we needed to find stores that would sell pumps. Other bikers were most helpful – as soon as someone saw us struggling they would offer help.

In a little village – we waited for a night tour – we ate some typical German food and Jen’s food must have been spoiled. At night she got terrible stomach pain. It lasted for over a day. The following day we could only bike 30 km. We found an accommodation with a nice lady who made us tea. Next day we continued and the lady offered us to call if Jen got sick again so she would get us with her car. We were amazed at this helpfulness.

One day it rained so badly that the rain dropped out of our shoes – that was a very cold experience. We needed to dry our clothes fast for the next day. Jen found out that hanging the clothes on the window was great – I was uneasy about the looks of it – but it was practical.

5. What was your daily routine? When did you get up? Where did you eat your meals? What did you do in the evenings?

We got up at around 6:00 a.m., wrote notes into our journals, and went for breakfast. The breakfast was always very good and we also took a sandwich along for lunch. When we found a great spot with a nice view we took a break for lunch and ate what we had in our bags. For dinner we would be in the next town and have a typical meal for the region. We really liked Spaetzle in the southern parts of Germany.

Twice we got in so late that we could not find any food – so we survived on power bars and some sweets that we had bought. The next morning we would have an extra big breakfast. We ate a lot of delicious cakes – no need to worry about calories – we would burn them off fast through biking. One town was celebrating a wine festival. Two bands played in the town centre, wine booths were everywhere and happy people were just chatting, listening to the music or moving with the beat.

In another town we wanted to take a guided night tour with lots of historic stories. We only survived half of the tour because we were way too tired. Often we would get some delicious cake from the local bakery and eat it on our beds while watching the Olympics, reflecting on the past day and making plans for the next.

6. What types of places did you stay in? How did you find those places?

Some accommodations we found through a book called “Bike and Breakfast” , these places would provide a safe place for the bikes and a healthy breakfast. Other times we went to the local tourist information and they found a room for us. One fellow who biked with us for a day offered us a room since a convention was being held in his city and we could not find a reasonable place to stay.

7. Please tell us about your encounters with local residents along your route.

We got lost way too often – adding to our driving time. People would steal the road signs as keepsakes. The moment we stepped off the bike someone would ask if we needed help. Sometimes people did not know what they were talking about and sent us in the wrong direction, but they were all most helpful. One lady offered us lunch at her place. We were so surprised how friendly the local people were. Kids would ask as where we were from and where we were going. We slowed down a little to tell them, and they would wave and wish us good luck.

8. Packing light is a key requirement for a long biking trip. Please tell us about how you dealt with that issue.

We made lists of things we would need on our trip. We wanted to bring as little as possible but still the mountain of stuff added up. We fitted everything into our panniers and backed them into a big duffle bag for the plane. We would save on space by just bringing one shampoo for both of us. We worked together as a team – one would carry all the cosmetic articles, the other all the road maps and so on.

The full interview with photos is published at travelandtransitions.com/interviews/martina_bike_trip.htm Travel and Transitions – Interviews

Susanne Pacher is the publisher of a website called Travel and Transitions( travelandtransitions.com travelandtransitions.com). Travel and Transitions deals with unconventional travel and is chock full of advice, tips, real life travel experiences, interviews with travellers and travel experts, insights and reflections, cross-cultural issues, contests and many other features. You will also find stories about life and the transitions that we face as we go through our own personal life-long journeys.

Submit your own travel stories in our first travel story contest( travelandtransitions.com/contests.htm travelandtransitions.com/contests.htm) and have a chance to win an amazing adventure cruise on the Amazon River.

“Life is a Journey ­ Explore New Horizons”.

How I Negotiated My Own Debt Reduction By Over 50%!

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

What you are about to read will shock many people and will be information that the professional debt companies do not want you to know! This is my story of my experiences of how I was able to negotiate a reduction in my overall debt by just over 50% without having to pay a cent to any professional debt settlement company!

My troubles began just over about 5 years ago. I got myself in some pretty serious debt problems. It wasn’t that I was being overly stupid about my finances it was just that I truly believed that I would be able to pay for my purchases because I was making good money. Well the fact is, I was making good money and would have been able to handle the purchases had I not run into some unexpected financial burdens including an injury that I sustained which meant that I had to take a lesser job that paid less than half what I was making. Yes, I was smart enough to have some insurance that helped cover some of the medical expenses but the insurance policy only paid a nominal wage and did not take into account the commissions I was making on my sales job. Soon it got to the stage where I was just making minimum payments on my 5 credit cards, three of which were maxed out. I also had to sell my car as I wasn’t able to make the lease payments any longer and since it was only the second year of a 5 year lease, I didn’t get as much on the sale as I owed the finance company. I had to take out a personal loan to cover the difference.

It wasn’t long before I started not being able to make the minimum payments. I was able to borrow some money from some relatives to help whilst my injury healed but I’m not the kind of guy to want to burden my family and so was committed to take care of things myself. It soon got to the stage where I knew I was in serious trouble. The interest and late fees on my cards were adding up and I started getting some nasty calls from the credit card companies as well as the bank about my personal loan. I tried to take out another loan to cover the credit cards but I was rejected by every bank I went to. They didn’t seem to even care that I was making good money at one stage, they just looked at the fact that I was struggling with debt at that moment and said no.

After selling a bunch of stuff on eBay, which helped for a couple of months, I had no where else to go. I knew that I had to look at some other way to help myself. I started looking at my options with my worst fear being that I would have to file for bankruptcy. I was determined not to go down this path as I knew this would impact me in the long run. I conducted some research on the internet and found a big range of options including debt consolidation, debt settlement, debt reduction plans and so on. There was also a huge range of different professional companies offering their services to help me with my debt problems. All the companies announced loud and clear that debt wasn’t something that an individual could get out of by themselves, and that I needed to use their services in order to get real debt help. So I researched a few companies and chose one that was in my area that claimed that they could give me a written guarantee of what they could do for me. They stated that they would reduce my monthly interest rates and would reduce my overall debt by up to 70%. I thought wow, that would be great, and so sought their advice. I met with a certified debt consultant and went through my sordid details.

At the time my debt overall debt had grown to a shocking $86,675! After a week or so, the consultant came back to me with some advice and told me that I had reached a stage where the only option was a program of debt settlement or debt negotiation, whereby the agency would act on my behalf and negotiate with my credit card companies and bank to reduce my loan and reduce my interest rates. They said that I would then pay the agency one amount each month and they would then distribute that amount to the various creditors. I asked the consultant whether or not I could do this myself without having to engage the services of the company. The consultant basically told me no – stating that it would be a waste of time as credit card companies and banks did not want to deal with the individual – that they didn’t trust an individual as they were a risk and that their agency knew what to say to get me the best deal. I thought to myself, that’s odd, what great power do these companies really have? I then inquired about the charges and they advised me that it would be a percentage of what they are able to save me plus an initial set up charge and some ongoing administration charges. I did the calculation and the total amount it would cost me would be somewhere around the $10,000 mark. I thought that this was a bit excessive so I decided to look at other options. Surely there was something that I could do by myself that would have some impact on my situation.

After searching around the internet I stumbled upon a program that guaranteed that I would save thousands of dollars with creditors by negotiating with them myself or I would get my money back in full. The program would cost me about $400 and I would also receive coaching from an expert. I thought to myself $400 versus $10,000 & with a money back guarantee, what do I have to lose.

I’m not going to go into great deal about what that program is about as its actually copyrighted so I will just tell you briefly that debt settlement is essentially like good old fashion haggling with your creditors. Just like you may haggle with a 2nd hand car dealer to give you a better price, you can haggle with your creditors to reduce your debt. At the end of the day, creditors know that bankruptcy has become an “easy” option for many consumers in serious debt. And they know that this means they can kiss their money good bye. So they would rather negotiate with you for a lower amount if they get some sort of level of confidence that they will get this money. What I learnt from this program was how the collection process works and therefore the right time to put through your settlement offers. I also got to understand what creditors would settle for and I worked hard to get the maximum reduction. The creditors will want you to sign some documents and they will hit you with a settlement letter. The program gave me some professional advice about what was in the letters and showed me how to even negotiate these. At the end of the day, I was able to dig my heels in with some of my creditors and was really surprised when they accepted an amount that was just over 50% of what I owed them in total.

Some words of warning before you think to do this yourselves. The process is not a pleasant one and creditors can become very nasty especially when they turn their debt over to a collection agency. The process is fraught with emotions and can get your blood pressure levels up! The collection agencies try to catch you out with their tactics as they are motivated to try to get the very most out of you. You need to be the type of person that can stay focussed on your goal to reduce your debt and it helps to have the coaching advice of an expert to help you.

At the end of the day, if you think you can do this, you can save yourself a lot of money both from not having to engage a professional debt company, as well as reduce your overall debt. The happy ending to my story is that I am now back in control of my debt. It is down to manageable levels and I am now in the process of repairing my credit report (which is a very important step in the process).

For more solutions to your debt problems visit debtsolutionsportal.com Debt Solutions Portal

Repair Your Credit Card Score With Credit Card Debt Consolidation

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

Do you feel stressed out while paying your debts? Are you unable to handle the prevailing expenditure? Several people are there like you, so you don’t have to worry much. You can take the help of the credit card debt consolidation services they might be capable of helping you out.

The credit card debt consolidation loans can help out the customers to move all the debts into one particular loan. By this you can unite different credit card loans into a particular loan that too with a low interest rate. The people who are sinking under debt for them this option is a very practical one. If you resort to the credit card debt consolidation then you will be able to shift all the balances of your different credit card loans for which already you are giving a high rate of interest into one sole credit card that too with a low rate of interest. This type of debt consolidation loan eliminates your tensions of handling the creditors along with their irritating phone calls; you also don’t have the headache of remembering the dates of paying your debts of several credit cards wit their various rates of interests.

Not only the economic load increases with the credit card debt but it also decreases a person’s credit score. You should be careful about the shortening of the credit scores. There are few lenders who need the credit scores for granting the credit card debt consolidation loans. Several reasons that are liable for the debt of the credit card, are as follows:

Having many credit cards

Using your credit card at a high rate of interest

Usage of credit card as a resource of earnings

Exceptional monthly fees

Thus, the amount of the loan must be just the same as to give the bills of your credit cards along with other debts that are unsecured. While making the payments if you decide to pay an extra amount every month than the minimal amount then the main amount will be cleared faster and the loan dues will also be cleared soon. Your credit score will also be surely raised, it will also become easier for you to get the credit along with good terms and conditions in the future. You must make sure that you should not carry on with irregular expenditure practices because that can end up with a worst result debt condition for you.

Now a day, there is a huge competition going on in the market of the credit card debt consolidation loans. So it has become very easy to get a perfect credit card debt consolidation loan in your favorable terms and conditions. The best thing for you will be if you can collect all the facts from all the different lenders, after that you can compare thoroughly about the different credit card debt consolidation loans.

Gibran Selman works for CuraDebtConsolidation.com CuraDebt, a company providing financial and creditor negotiations, settlement, and arbitration services on behalf of individuals and small businesses.

To get a CuraDebtConsolidation.com FREE Debt Analysis Online in Only 30 Seconds, simply go to our website at CuraDebtConsolidation.com CuraDebtConsolidation.com and fill out our simple application to see if you qualify and to receive a FREE, confidential consultation from an understanding counselor.