David Bakke writes about credit and debt on Money Crashers Personal Finance, a resource dedicated to helping people get out of debt and live within their means. Your credit score could affect your credit card interest rates, insurance premiums and even your ability to get a job. Therefore, it is probably well worth your time to do what you can…

Many people believe that it’s the low-income consumers who most struggle with debt. While it might be true that this segment of the population has a hard time paying back what they’ve borrowed, they’re not the only ones who seek help from debt relief companies. The number of middle-income consumers seeking debt relief is on the rise, at least with…

Your credit report is filled with information that could help or hurt you in debt settlement. You’re not the only one who can access your credit report. Creditors and debt collectors are also allowed to pull your credit report – and they will likely make decisions about your settlement offer based partially on your credit report. Tool: Creating a Settlement…

You could theoretically deal with debt collectors, and other companies involved in the debt process, on your own. But, there are certain circumstances that you might need to get help from a professional attorney. Certain legal matters should be handled delicately, so getting advice from an attorney could keep you from making a big mistake. You’re considering bankruptcy. If you’ve…

If you only have just one or two accounts to settle, it probably won’t be that hard to keep up with what’s going on with the settlement: the balance, offers that have been made, etc. However, if you’re settling several accounts, keeping up with these details might get difficult. Here are some tips that might help you keep your settlements…

The penalty APR, also called the default APR, is typically the highest APR charged on your credit cards. If you’re intending to pay off your credit card debt under your original credit card agreement, then avoiding the penalty rate is generally imperative. Once your credit card penalty rate is triggered, it could be hard to get it back down. Penalty…

There are two main types of bankruptcy for individual consumers. You may qualify for both of them or you may be limited to the type of bankruptcy that does not discharge your debt. Explore both options to decide which bankruptcy, if any, you could file. Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Chapter 7 bankruptcy is commonly known as discharge bankruptcy. At the end…

What you can do about your debt could depend, in part, on how current (or how past due) your payments are. There could be a few options available to you when you’re up to date on all your payments. But, at least one debt relief option is only available when you’re past due. When you’re current on all your payments,…

The biggest part of debt settlement is probably negotiation. You want to pay the smallest amount possible to satisfy your debt (or nothing at all!) and the creditor would prefer if you paid the full balance of the account. Somewhere in the middle there’s an amount that could work well for both of you. Sometimes you could be the one…

People in debt often consider a credit card balance transfer as a method of debt consolidation. Through a balance transfer, you move one or more credit card balances to another credit card, usually with a lower interest rate. The good thing about a balance transfer is that the lower interest rate removes expensive finance charges from your balance, making it…