Debt Consolidation Blog

Already defaulted on debt and facing credit problems. Don’t worry in the resent economy many people are facing the same situation. If you are in such situation and have been for a long time not paying monthly repayments on time then you might have been in a position where debt collection agencies calling you for debt payments. This is the case because your creditors will turn your case over to collection agencies.

If this is the case then to protect you from collection agencies harassment, you need to know your rights against the collection methods. Here are those which your collection agencies are not supposed to do:

You collection agencies are never allowed to call at your work place. If they are doing then you can fight back against them.

• They are not allowed to call you before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. even at your home.
• They are never allowed to address you in an abrasive manner or speak to you rudely or harass you.
• Never make misleading statements that threaten you or add any unauthorised charges.
• They are not permitted to call you friends and family members and discuss your debt with them and try to collect it from them.

If you collection agencies is doing any of the above mentioned, then tell your collection agency to stop harassing you. In any circumstance if they continue to do so then make sure to take their name and address and report to better business bureau or federal trade commission or any state’s attorney office.

Before taking the complaint to legal offices, make sure to record the conversation over phone that you are making a request to collection agencies that they are acting against the law and request them to stop doing so. You can also make this request in written to collection agencies by taking their name and address. This can also help in showing a proof of your request to collection agencies. If they continue to do so even after making request then you must take the issue to legal authority that is dealing with this law.

You can know you right better by referring the fair debt collection practices act. It was instated to help the consumers who are facing financial hardship and unable to repay the debt even if they want to clear it. This law was brought into action by federal government that states they you can demand the collection agencies to stop contacting you, except to inform you that collection efforts were ended and unfruitful and the creditor will start taking against you and may sue you to court.

However you can not stop creditor calling you directly for collecting your debt because the fair debt collection practices act will not stop the direct creditor asking you to pay the debt that you owed to him. Therefore before acting make sure to know whether the direct creditor or collection agency is calling you.

Articles on this site have been acquired from a variety of sources.  No content on this site should be considered financial or legal advice

As a part of life, every person will take credit to fulfil their needs and wants. If you are not able to repay the debt on time, then it may ruin your credit score. If you are in such situation don’t worry, it is not the end of your financial life.

Even if you have bad credit, you can manage to obtain credit for buying home, cars or any other asset or appliances. There are many lenders like sub prime lenders, car loan lenders out there who deal with bad credit history as a part of their business and are genuine in providing there service. But there are few lenders who involve themselves in scams and take advantage of the people with bad credit history.

For this reason you must be careful enough when dealing with lender while having bad credit history because you will have less option compared to one who maintains good credit score. Having bad credit history and applying for mortgage loan or any kind of loan meaning you are going to pay higher interest and higher fee compared to borrower with good credit ratings.

There are many mortgage lenders for borrowers in Michigan with bad credit. They are:

Countrywide home loans: this mortgage lender offers mortgage loans to all type of credit history borrowers. They have many programs to choose from.

Eileen mortgage funding Inc: with this mortgage lender in Michigan you can manage to attain best mortgage rates even if you have bad credit.

Family first mortgage: this mortgage lender in Michigan offers mortgage loans for both people with good and bad credit also.

There are different types of bad credit mortgage loans available in the mortgage markets. One is 100 percent financing option where only one lender will offer you total loan, which is very easier option for you to handle your finance. But not all lenders will offer this type of loan. The other option includes 80/20 financing, where your mortgage is financed with two loans. These two loans can be offered by one lender only. This financing option is more common but it may involve some negotiation with lenders.

You might be thinking that having bad credit, how it might be possible. This might not be possible in normal case but during the present housing market, especially in the state of Michigan, which has so many foreclosed properties, government and banks are making it easier to get mortgage loans even if you have bad credit.

For getting approved by the mortgage lenders or any other type of lender, the main thing you should be concerned about is your ability to repay the loan. Remember that any thing you borrow must be paid back with interest. One thing that may prevent you from getting the loan is federal law because it restricts the lender to lend you if you can not afford monthly repayments.

If you can afford to monthly repayments then you must prove to your lenders your monthly income there by manage to get credit and start rebuilding your credit.

Articles on this site have been acquired from a variety of sources.  No content on this site should be considered financial or legal advice

I have been investing in foreclosures in California for last couple of years and successfully closed few deals in profit. I have been encountering questions from many forthcoming investors regarding the how to go about while bidding at foreclosure auction in California. For this reason I came up with this post about foreclosure investing guide.

Home owner faces foreclosure when he falls behind the mortgage payments to bank or lender who in turn tries to sell your property to recover his amount which you owe him usually at auction. Many look forward to take this opportunity of buying properties at foreclosure because of the substantial cost savings compared to one that is sold privately by home owner. One can manage to save with purchasing foreclosure properties as the bank or lender will only try to recoup the amount what is actually owed, which is significantly less that actual worth of the property. Hence determining the bid price at foreclosure requires much more research and knowledge of the local rates and state laws to make a good investment.

Here is the process to go through when you are looking to purchase the property through foreclosure process.

First, one should learn the foreclosure laws in your state to make yourself aware of the things involved. Almost all states require that the list of foreclosures is to be advertised well before certain time and that include the minimum amount for bidding.

Second, visit the foreclosure sales and know the process of bidding before you start to precede bidding. Generally, the foreclosures are listed at the courthouse located where the foreclosed property is present. These listings are also published in the newspapers.

To bid on the foreclosure auction, research the market value of the property which you are looking to buy. To know the market value of the property that is listed at foreclosure is by comparing the foreclosed property with other property in the neighbourhood where the foreclosed property is located. This way can help you a lot in determining the amount to bid.

Find out the minimum amount for bid if it is not provided at the time of listing. You can get this by contacting the individual listed in foreclosures. Then start researching the title of the property to find out if it is not subject to any second and third mortgages, taxes and lines against the property listed out for foreclosure or any other factors that might prevent the transfer of the property after buying the home.

Next, visit the property to examine the physical condition of the property and find out any physical or structural problems that might lead to additional expenses beyond what you actually bid at foreclosure auction. Make sure to find out all the necessary improvements and estimate all the additional expenses to repair the property and add that figure to minimum bid price. After doing so if you find that property after attaining at a total cost of the home to be feasible then go ahead and bid the foreclosure.

Articles on this site have been acquired from a variety of sources.  No content on this site should be considered financial or legal advice.

When a Oregon home owner facing foreclosure, he might be already in financial hardship and fall behind the mortgage payments for at least six month. If such is the financial position then it may be hard to hire a lawyer to defend the foreclosure process.

If you are facing such situation then you are at the right place as in this article I am going to explain you how to defend the foreclosure when you are facing it. My intention to take this article to you is not only help the home owners but also communities. Yes, we all are going to loss in any way when our communities lose home owners.

Before you know how to defend foreclosure process, it is important to know actual foreclosure process. Here is how the Oregon foreclosure process step by step.

In Oregon, the foreclosure process starts at the moment the notice of default is recorded under ORS 86.735 and advertisement for sale is issued as provided in ORS 86.740 to 86.755. After recording the notice of default and at least 120 days before the day of sale, the notice of sale should be served to home owner or any grantor facing the foreclosure.

If the trustee fails to give notice according to rule mentioned above then he posses the right to file a case against the trustee in the circuit court where the real property is located about the notice of sale is not served to him as required by ORS 86.740 and 86.750 saying that the omitted person could have cured the default under ORS 86.753 and sustained the damages that resulted the loss of property as a result such person had loss the opportunity to cure the default.

After the auction date is set, publication of sale is to be done in such a way that published once a week for 4 weeks where the last publication is no sooner than 20 days before the sale. Before the sale the trustee must submit the affidavits of the completed service and publication to prove the publication.

With in the period of 120 days time given after the foreclosure notice is given to home owner, there are many things that can happen. For example: the foreclosure auction may be postponed to another 180 days before the process restart or the defaulter may cure the loan or brought to current with no acceleration.

If you being a home owner facing a foreclosure feel that you have been treated unfairly, fight back. You can do this by following a produce the note strategy. In any state in US, you can sue the foreclosure by produce a note strategy. There are two types of foreclosure, non-judicial and judicial. Even if you foreclosure is non judicial you can ask the entity foreclosing your property to produce the note that you owe debt to them. It works because there is only one paper regarding your mortgage on which you had signed. If you don’t do this then you simply allow the foreclosure process to process and loss the home.

You can also defend the foreclosure process if any of the steps mentioned above were not followed and not served you with required notices well before the foreclosure process begins.

Articles on this site have been acquired from a variety of sources.  No content on this site should be considered financial or legal advice.

Buying a home itself is a long and complicated process and even more if you are buying a foreclosure home as the foreclosure process can be very complex. Many think that buying a home through foreclosure is almost finished once your submitted offer is accepted. But before submitting the purchase offer and after it there are many other steps that any prospective home buyer must take action to successfully complete the process. If you are one who is looking to purchase home then you are at the right place as this article will guide you through a series of steps to be followed in Texas during purchase of home.

Before submitting a purchase offer, you must find out different offers at place you are looking to invest and find a right one for you. Once submitted, after several counter offers your purchase offer may be accepted. Accepting offer is not the final step in your buying a home but thereafter, post buying actions should be taken care off in order to smooth the home buying process.

First step after your purchase offer at foreclosure is accepted is getting appraisal done. This is most important because in most cases, the lender will only loan you 80 to 90 percent of the home value where the remaining 10 percent must be arranged by the buyer itself which is called as down payment.

To perform this action, one must approach a licensed real estate appraiser but in most cases, the lender wish to use his own real estate appraiser in such case you will not have any option to choose the real estate appraiser. In the process of appraisal, the appraiser will assess the property with help of different set of criteria to arrive at value of the property. In fact the figure at which the appraiser arrived at is the opinion of the appraiser. In simple words it is the value of the property according to him but it is mostly considerable when dealing with lender for home loan.

In case the appraised value of the property is less than your purchase offer, then it is up to you to make use of the Texas home loan lender or move to other home loan issuer. If you decided to go with loan issuer, bank will still loan you, but only a percentage of the appraised amount, where the remaining amount has to be arranged by the buyer itself.

If you are unable to meet the remaining balance amount then you can decide to lapse the purchase agreement with the foreclosure seller. In case the purchase agreement is lapsed only because of the apprised value does not meet the purchase price then the buyer money will be returned back. Then you can start looking for the new offer that suits your need.

Hence, one must remember to include the appraisal condition in the purchase agreement as in such conditions mentioned above will you can make or break the deal depending on the appraised conditions.

Articles on this site have been acquired from a variety of sources.  No content on this site should be considered financial or legal advice.

The Foreclosure Rental Trap
The Dollar Stretcher Blog
by Gary Foreman
A record 2.8 million U.S. properties began the foreclosure process in 2009 (according to ForeclosurePulse.com). It appears that there’s no end in sight. And, while the focus has been on families losing their residence, there’s a subplot that’s gone largely unnoticed. Innocent renters are often hurt when banks foreclose on their landlords.

Nationwide it’s estimated that about one third of properties that are being foreclosed are not owner occupied. And, while some of those are second homes, many are rentals. It’s probably pretty safe to say that at between 25 and 30% of foreclosures are occupied by a renter. So about 750,000 renters were in foreclosed units last year.

What does foreclosure mean to the renter? If the bank forecloses on your landlord they take over the property. Their goal is to protect their financial interest. Sometimes that hurts the renter.

Historically, banks wanted the owner to vacate a foreclosed property. That meant the renter, too. So even renters who had leases were suddenly being thrown into the street. Without any legal recourse.

In May, 2009 the “Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act” became law. The main part of the law guaranteed that tennants could stay until their lease was up. Those on a month-to-month get 90 days.

Today, in part because of the law and in part because it’s bad business to chase away paying renters, banks are allowing more tenants to stay in foreclosed properties. Often they’ll use a management company. Some managers are more responsive to renter needs than others.

So what can a renter for protection? Unfortunately, even with the new law, their options are fairly limited.

It’s hard for a renter to determine if his current or potential landlord is in financial trouble. There is one website <RentalForeclosure.com> that can check an address for you. It’s not 100% certain. They only report what their records show. But, you’ll want to avoid any properties on their list.

In some counties, court records are available online. Checking your county’s website can be a real eye-opener. You can check your landlord by name (or by company name). Look for any pattern that shows financial problems. Make sure you look for liens and mortgages against the property you rent.

If the bank does notify you that your landlord is being foreclosed, contact the local housing agency. They’ll be in the best position to tell you which local, state and federal laws apply to your situation. Among other things you’ll need to know who should get your rent checks and who to call for a leaky faucet.

As a tenant you can sue the former landlord for lost deposits and rent. But the small claims process can take months. Plus you’re trying to get money from someone in foreclosure. The odds of getting your money back are pretty long.

The trickiest time for a renter is when the landlord expects to be foreclosed. Some will collect rent and make no effort to make their mortgage payment. They’ll also avoid doing any maintainence. This can go on for months. That’s why it’s a bad idea to prepay your rent in this economy. If you have next month’s rent available, better to put it into an insured savings account until the rent is due.

If you’re looking for a rental, beware of landlords who seem overly anxious to get you into their unit. Some are attempting to use renters’ first/last/deposit to keep themselves afloat financially. Reputable landlords will check your credit and references. Failure to do so could be a sign that they’re just after your deposit. Time to run!

Bottom line? It’s important for a renter to check out the landlord. The tools aren’t particularly good, but they can help you avoid some obvious problems. And, if you do find that your landlord is in foreclosure contact the bank and housing agencies to see what steps you need to take to protect yourself.

Keep on Stretching those Dollars!
Gary

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Gary Foreman is the editor of The Dollar Stretcher.com website <www.TheDollarStretcher.com> and various enewsletters including Financial Independence <http://www.stretcher.com/subscribe/subscribeFI.cfm> Financial Independence is designed to walk step-by-step with you as you take control of your finances and achieve financial freedom! Articles on this site have been acquired from a variety of sources.  No content on this site should be considered financial or legal advice.

Do you get irritated or frightened every time your mobile rings thinking it might be a call from collection department of your creditors? Yes, this is the situation facing by many American presently as many are seriously delinquent on debts. It is more frustrating when the debt collector calls you at work over your mobile or work phone. If this is the situation that you are facing then you are at the right place as in this article I decided to let the people going through this situation know how to stop the calls coming in from debt collectors.

As the number of people encountering debt problem during economy slowdown, American congress came enacted a legislation that regulates debt collectors and collection attorney actions and helps in protecting the rights of debtors.

It is very important for every consumer to know about fair debt collection practices act in order to stop the collection agencies from harassing you. Fair debt collection practices act states that debt collectors or collection attorney should not harass debtors by calling them repeatedly over mobile or work and home phones.

According to this act if you want the debt collectors not to call you, then you must request the debt collectors in writing specifying not to call you at home and at work. You should make sure to tell them this when they call you first time and under any circumstance you can not afford to make payments. If they do not stop calling you, then your request should follow up with a certified letter that is accompanied with acknowledgement of the receipt from lender.

After requesting the debt collector to not to call again and again until the time you mentioned in future, even after your inability to pay off the amount, then you can tell the debt collector that you will sue him under the fair debt collection practices act at FTC and the attorney general.

But one thing to keep in mind is that you can not stop the original creditor from calling you in an effort to collect the amount you owe them. The fair debt collection practices act does not apply to original creditors to stop calling you. In this case instead of mentioning fair debt collection practices act, quote state law that is governing original creditors and that has similar provisions to federal act.

Therefore to make them stop calling you further and harass, here are few things that you must that you must take care when you deal with collection agencies.

First, put everything in black and white – this is best way that can be helpful when you are dealing with collection agencies. If possible record your conversation with debt collectors and at the same time make sure you get an acknowledge for the request you made to stop calling you under the act fair debt collection practices act.

Second, if the debt collector does not stop his efforts, remind him that you can raise a compliant against him with FTC and attorney general.

This all is possible only when you have knowledge of fair debt collection practices act. So make sure to have an idea of act before dealing with debt collectors.

Articles on this site have been acquired from a variety of sources.  No content on this site should be considered financial or legal advice.

Debt is common aspect that everyone might encounter during their lifetime. Many people are aware of the fact that being in debt can lead to many problems and safe to be debt free. But there are also occasion where incurring some amount of debt of debt is important to build up credit score and solve cash flow problems but one must remember that it will be safe if the debt is under your control not debt is controlling you.

In this scenario, many people are under certain myths about the debt they are holding.

First, many people think that they are not the only people in debt and find excuses saying that most of the people are in debt. It is something that can not be avoided for almost all people during their life. But the thing is that even most of the Americans are mounted with debt, many are able to manage their debt responsibly. The main problem with debt actually arises when there is not control or irresponsible borrowing. In order to become debt free at least by the time one retires, need to have controlled spending habits.

Second myth, all debt is bad. Many people commonly think that any kind of debt will hinder your lifestyle. But this is not necessarily true because there are some kind of debt such as mortgage, car loans etc are necessary. For example, mortgage loan is comparatively cheaper than taking a home on rent these days and it can be treated as an investment for future. At the same time overdrafts are also necessary to maintain in order to avoid missed payments over your debt and avoid penalty charges in case of default on monthly payments.

Third, many think that credit rating once damaged with debt defaults can not the recovered and will be for life. But this is not the case because those debt incidences will be for only 6 to 7 years and removed thereafter. Therefore one must remember that bad credit records will be on report for only a period of time and at the same time there are many ways through which you can rebuild your credit ratings and maintain credit report within very short span of time.

Fourth, people think that seeking debt control is costly. But this is not necessarily true; if your debt is going out of your control then it would be better for you pay some amount for debt seeking and get rid of the outstanding debt with ease. There are many reliable debt relief services that help you in getting out of debt and will not charge much amount for their service. Finding a reliable debt relief service is a key to this because there are many companies that promise which is unbelievable and ask for huge fee for doing so. This myth is perpetuated for this reason and makes you go deep into debt further. Hence beware of those companies that charge fee for minute things that they advice.

Articles on this site have been acquired from a variety of sources.  No content on this site should be considered financial or legal advice.

Millions of people across America are falling behind debt payments because of reduced income or increased cost of living and interest rates that are charged on the amount you owe to creditors. The amount you owe can be secured or unsecured. Whichever type is the debt, but when the debt is cancelled, the forgiven amount is taken into consideration for taxation by IRS.

The cancelled debt by your creditors is required to be reported to IRS, one which is greater than $600 on form 1099. With this the IRS will get notified that you have settled the debt with your creditor for less than what you actually owe to them. The IRS views this cancelled debt as a taxable income and wants you to pay taxes on that amount you benefited.

In case of unsecured debt, many people who are unable to make monthly payments after strong efforts tries to settle debt with creditors to let the debt stress go away from their life. But, unfortunately after settling another debt, the borrower faces with other type of debt that is tax as they require paying tax on the amount forgiven by the creditor.

The other case where the forgiven debt is taxed is during mortgage forgiveness. People who had lost their home due to foreclosure because of their inability to be current on the mortgage payments will be in deep grieve as they lost their home. In such case IRS comes up with taxable amount notice for any amount that your creditors forgive during the foreclosure.

If you lost home to foreclosure, then there are two possible consequences you must consider as per the IRS:

Taxable cancellation of debt income. In such case, IRS views the amount forgiven as an income to mortgage borrower. Therefore, charges with tax on the amount the debtor got benefited. If the loan is non-recourse then the debt cancelled will not be taxed.

A gain that debtor enjoyed during the foreclosure. This is because the foreclosure is viewed as a sale in terms of IRS and if the home seller reported gain at the disposition of the home. But if the home seller reported loss during the foreclosure he can not claim the loss in tax returns and are not deductible.

While the borrower gets relief from financial stress from the amount that the lender forgives, it often triggers tax liability by IRS as under the tax law, cancelled debt is considered as an income to debtor and that is included as a part of income while calculating the income of the debtor.

As the American is facing hardship in meeting monthly commitments, many people are unable to pay out their tax on time. This is actually causing sleepless nights as going bankruptcy also will not manage to get rid of tax debt. This is the case especially when people do not realize that they have tax issues when their debt got cancelled and as a result the tax debt gets mounted leading to problems.

Articles on this site have been acquired from a variety of sources.  No content on this site should be considered financial or legal advice.

Undoubtedly, student loan debt is a perfect answer to any college education. But during the present economic slowdown, many out coming graduates from colleges are unable to find work. With no income after coming out of college resulting in more and more debt incurring and unable to make payments towards student loan debt.

Many graduates are therefore viewing bankruptcy as an option to get relief form student loan debt. Unfortunately, it could not happen because even bankruptcy will not discharge the student loan debt and don’t know any other approaches while dealing with financial problems.

As the students are getting into debt even before coming out graduate school and find a job, making it impossible to pay back what they owe especially when there is slowdown in economy. To help such people, government came up with new programs to help out coming graduate students.

Though it might not be possible to help each and every student in the country with grants for which huge number of people apply, many students are managing to get grants money from government to pay off these loans.

If you are the one who got huge debt in student loans and unable to weigh, federal government came up with two new programs that make it possible to forgive your debt by federal government. One thing to be noted is that as it is a federal government grants, then only federal government student loans are forgiven. Other student loans like private loans, military loans or any other type of student loan from other sources will not be considered under these programs.

The first student debt relief program that is eligible to get student loan forgiveness by fed is income based repayment plan. This program allows you to pay monthly payments at an affordable level based on your income and expenditure and forgives any debt and interest that will remain after 25 years. This program is totally depending on your income. If you are facing a hardship with low income or mo income then your monthly payments will go as low as $0 in case you are unemployed. It means your monthly payments are totally depended on you salary. In order to qualify for this program you need to owe more than what you earn in a year.  

The other program that federal government brought into action is public service loan forgiveness. Under this program, the federal government will forgive you student loan debt in exchange for services. For example, if you work in a government, non-profit or any other public service then you could have you student debt forgive only after 10 years of loan repayment under income based repayment program and those 120 months payments need not be in consecutive months.

These actions were taken by federal government in order to help economy to boost. These government programs to forgive student loan debt were in a right direction to help the needy people. If you are finding hardship to meet monthly student loan debt payments, then apply for the programs mentioned above will solve your hardship effectively.

Articles on this site have been acquired from a variety of sources.  No content on this site should be considered financial or legal advice.