Debt Consolidation Blog

Archive for December, 2009

Debt is an issue many Americans are struggling with. Due to the recent financial crisis a lot of people are frustrated and don’t know what to do.  The truth is saving money has never changed.  It’s simply a matter of managing your money effectively. It doesn’t matter what the market does, those that stay out of debt are in the best position. Debt is more than uncomfortable, it’s costly.  Free yourself from fees and harassing phone calls. The best way to stay out of debt is to manage your money from the start. There are three basic steps to money management:

       Check out where you have been – Look at your receipts, bank accounts, etc and look over how you spend your money. You might be very surprised with what you come up with.

       Figure out where you are – Write a simple budget.  Take your expected income and decide how to spend it.  Don’t forget the necessities like mortgage, car payments, etc.

       Make Priorities. If you are in debt, make smart choices about where to spend your discretionary income.  If you have a high interest credit card, start by paying that off first.  Then move onto other debt like your mortgage or student loan payments.  Always pay the minimum on everything, but pay more to the debt that costs the most to keep.

       Dream where you want to go – Choose a vacation spot, create a fantasy of where you want to be in five, ten or twenty years.  Knowing your end goal will make a big difference in how you spend your money.

       Money management works best when you combine short and long term goals.  Putting aside a fifty bucks a week for a couple years might sound a little difficult until you consider that effort turns out to be over $5,000.  What could you do with that money? 

       Maybe you can’t afford 50 a week, what about twenty bucks.  Skipping a movie night or quitting smoking can quickly add up to some serious money.  Would you rather be an expert movie goer or have a decent down payment? 

       The biggest secret to money management is compound interest.  You could easily make a million dollars if you start early enough.  Even a hundred bucks a month, if put away in your twenties, will grow exponentially by retirement. 

       Haven’t you ever wondered how that blue collar worker can retire to the Bahamas?  He might have only made minimum wage his entire life, but he knew early on the true value of saving.  It won’t happen overnight, but it also won’t cost that much.  The true cost is time.  If you have that on your side than you are well on your way to accomplishing all your financial dreams. 

       When you take an honest look at what you’ve been spending and create a solid budget, you can make serious progress.  And more importantly, you can keep yourself out of debt. In this day and age it is so important to keep your finances in order.  As the market recovers, it will be those that kept a cool head that will reap the most rewards!

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 you are a parent, your job is never done.  Teaching the value of money to your children is one of the best ways to help them.  Shaping your children into productive adults is a daunting task.  The hardest road to walk is that between helping your children and enabling them.  The wisest course of action is to introduce the value of money early to your kids.  Here are a few ways to help your kids with the concept of money throughout their life.

       Under 7. When children are first learning about money, teach them the value by breaking holiday or gift money up into different envelopes or sections.  Explain the value of saving. Help them break their money up into spending, saving and giving.  Depending on their preferences, choose a group they can donate their money to.  You can even purchase an item with that money and donate that item to charity.  That way, when you are in a store you can make a learning moment out of spending.  Say things like, this item costs ten dollars.  Do you know how much ten dollars is?  Remember that stuffed animal you donated to the hospital, that was ten dollars. 

       Ages 7-12.  This is prime chores and allowance time.  Make a chart and decide with your children the value of their chores.  This is an important part of growing up and learning the value of money.  Don’t forget to stick with whatever agreement you made.  Unfortunately, this is also prime time for parents to begin enabling characteristics.  If you want your children to know the value of an honest days work, you must make sure they only get the benefit after they have proven themselves productive.

       Ages 12-18.  By far the roughest time in a child’s relationship with a parent.  They are growing more independent while you are trying to instill the last bits of all you have to teach them.  Continue with allowance and chores, but also discuss the future with your children.  Talk about careers and the type of lifestyle those careers afford. Build value in money by letting your child save up for special purchases.  Include the value of interest and matching by incorporating that into their personal savings program. 

       Ages 18 and beyond.  Once your child is out of your home, they have likely already developed their spending style.  The wisest course of action is to be clear and up front about your expectations and try your hardest to stick with them.  Obviously if your child comes upon hard times you will want to help them out.  The key is not to get in a cycle where you are enabling them. 

       Instilling a strong savings ethic is one of the very best gifts you can give your children.  As they grow up and begin to build a life on their own, they will appreciate you for your diligence in this area. For those of you who are stuck enabling your children with your finances, consider asking for help from your spouse or other people in your support system.  The quicker you cut this tie the better.  It might be a difficult transition, but teaching the value of money is a lesson for a child of any age.

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 major reason behind the current economic crisis is the extreme amount of debt Americans are carrying around.  People were taking out loans they could not pay back, or purchasing homes they couldn’t really afford.  Now millions of Americans are unable to pay off their debts.  Debt consolidation is a service by which you can pay off your loans by coupling or consolidating them together.

       Debt consolidation can take many forms but basically it is a lumping of all your debts into one, in an attempt to lower the rate you are paying.  Think about it this way:  Let’s say you owe 1200 dollars to 5 different people.  Each of those five people is expecting you to pay them back.  However, you don’t have the money to pay them all.  In fact, you don’t even have enough to pay them all 10% of the debt. 

       Debt consolidation is a service where an entity negotiates on all that debt on your behalf. They contact those people and negotiate with them to charge you less.  The people you owe would rather get $900 now instead of waiting around, especially when you might pay nothing at all. This really is a win-win situation all around.  When an entity negotiates a debt consolidation, you are using their reputation to lower your debt.  They tell the people you owe that they will make sure you pay this debt.  In some cases, they even go ahead and pay your debtors on your behalf.

       For you it is great because it ends the phone calls and letters concerning your debt.  Plus, you are no longer juggling which bill to pay, you only have one.  And, because you are using this entity’s reputation, you are charged a lesser amount of money.  The entity charges a small fee and the people you owe are paid something.

       Debt consolidation works a few different ways.  It can be in the form of a loan or a repayment plan.  Both work pretty much the same from your end.  However, the difference lies in how this entity transfers the money.

       When you use a debt consolidation loan, the entity pays your debts for you.  You then take a loan out straight from them.  Typically this happens when you are paying unsecure debt like credit cards, but it can work for many different types of loans.  When you get a consolidation loan it is secured.  Secured means there is some sort of collateral.  For example, your car payment or mortgage are secured loans.  If you default on this loan, your car or home will be taken away.

       For debt consolidation repayment plans, your debts are not paid by a third party.  The debt consolidation service simply negotiates a lower rate on your behalf and charges you the lump sum of all your debts per month.  You pay them and then they transfer the money to your debtors.  This typically occurs when you don’t have collateral for a secure loan.  This is how a debt consolidation service protects itself from you defaulting.  You still pay them a fee; they are still negotiating on your behalf. 

       If you find yourself unable to pay your bills, debt consolidation is a very smart move.  Whenever you have multiple types of the same sort of debt, i.e. student loans, mortgages, credit cards debt consolidation can save you a lot of money.  The most important thing is to find a reputable company that will actually work on your behalf.  Repairing your credit will take time and work, but it is well worth it!

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

Frugal living has become a very popular concept this past year. People are beginning to realize that the credit card crisis was mainly due to spending above our means.  For those of you that are new to frugal living, let’s go over some basic ideas.

       First, frugal living is not about going without.  It is simply being conscious of how you spend your money.  If you are going to spend it, spend it wisely.  Think of frugal living as stretching your money’s worth.

       Second, frugal living is not giving up all your extras.  It is chooses those extras that matter the most. If you are an avid movie lover, you still can enjoy your Friday night flick.  Just from  your living room instead of the theater.

       Let’s consider some very basic ways to start living more frugally:

       Food. This is probably the easiest way to stretch your dollar. Clip coupons and make a list when grocery shopping.  Pay attention to prices, you might even choose to shop at a cheaper store.  If you have the time, shop around for the best prices on your regular products. Cook your lunch at home and brown bag it to work.  Make a large meal and eat it throughout the week.  If you have a large family, plan out your meals a week in advance based on the deals at your local supermarket.

       Entertainment. Rent instead of going to the movies, use services like Netflix if you rent. As long as you actively use a service like Netflix, it is an amazing price saver. Other ideas for entertainment include having a couples night in.  Make a regular date night for couples you know.  Play fun games instead of hitting the town.  You will help your relationships while keeping your pocketbook full.

       Gas. Carpool, ride a bike, make a strategy about your errands.  Whatever keeps you in the car and spending gas the least is best.  If you need to go somewhere within walking distance, take a brisk walk instead of the car.  Your lungs, and the environment will thank you for it.

       Plan Ahead. Your car, your pets, your house all need yearly maintenance type items.  Plan ahead for things like flea control, a new car battery and the like.  You are going to buy them anyway, why not consider them early on and look for ways to save.  Research the best time of year to buy appliances, electronics or a new car.  Frugal living has been around for ages and there is plenty of information available for you.  Take advantage.

       Make it Yourself. The recipes and instructions are endless. Research online or at your local library how to make everything from your own cleaning products to furniture.

       The key to frugal living is to gain the support of those around you.  If you are a single person, find people in your neighborhood that are like minded.  If you are apart of a large family, grow a garden in the backyard.  Do whatever you can to incorporate frugal living into your everyday.  As you learn more and more about it, you will find the easier it becomes.  And remember, frugal living is not about going without.  It is about making the most of your money!

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

There are countless people stuck with credit card debt.  What started as strictly emergencies became everyday purchases. If you have more credit card debt than you can handle, there are a variety of options available to you. Here is a step by step guide for how to deal with credit card debt:

       Find out where you are. The most important part of tackling your credit card debt is knowing exactly how much of it you have.  Open those bills, and check your online statements.  Tally up your totals and look at the big, scary numbers.  You simply can’t take care of a problem without knowing how big it is.

       Examine how you got here.  Look over your purchase history.  Are you using your credit card for purchases that are realistic?  Remember that unless you pay off your credit card each month, you are paying interest on any and all purchases.  That means the $45 dinner and drinks tab from 4 months ago is now over $70.  If you had paid cash that night, you would have saved $25.  Look at what you are spending your money on and what you could live without.  Did you need a new sweater or television last month? 

       Make a plan. A budget is not a scary thing.  It is not even all that complicated.  Just pull out a blank piece of paper and make two columns.  Fill out one column for money coming in, one for money going out.  Living within your means is the only way to get out of debt. After you see what you have been spending your money on, you will have a realistic view of how much you typically spend on certain items.  Consider things you can get rid of while working off your debt. 

       Tackling your debt. This can seem overwhelming at first, but with some careful thought the whole process can be quite manageable.  After you listed everything in your budget, look at what money you have left over.  Look at which credit cards or loans have the highest interest rate.  After you have paid the minimum on each loan, use the extra cash toward your highest interest loan.  This is likely a credit card.  If you have defaulted on payments in the past, this could be up to 32%.  You can also consider transferring your credit to a lower interest card but make sure to read your credit card agreement.  This is not always allowed.

       Get Help. With so many people in debt these days, there are plenty of agencies out there willing to help.  Always make sure to research any business with the Better Business Bureau before handing over any money.  Scams are rampant, and especially with the current credit crisis, it is easy to turn to the wrong business.  Protect yourself, but don’t miss out on an opportunity to slash your debt.

       Hopefully this will be a lesson you take with you the rest of your life.  Living beyond your means is not healthy and can cause you many unwanted results.  Nobody likes harassing phone calls and nobody likes living without.  Consider a part time job for increased revenue or taking up a cheap hobby while you are working off your debt.  Having excess credit card debt is sometimes a necessary evil, but most of the time it is unnecessary.  As you are working off your debt consider paying for everything in cash.  Wait until you know you can use your credit cards responsibly, until then keep them in a cabinet or in the freezer!

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

Claiming unemployment seems like a crushing blow. The modern mindset is that a job is a vital necessity, because you must have money to pay for everything in your life. Those of use who have been unemployed for years due to the global recession have slowly come to learn a painful, but very valuable lesson.

Time is money.

I used to easily spend $10,000 in a month, and I thought that I was living fairly conservatively. I have reduced my expenses to nearly 10% of that amount, and I find that I enjoy my life today more than I did a few years ago. It took a lot of trial-and-error, though — trial-and-error that I’d like to spare you, by sharing with you four steps to turning your time into money without a job. Claiming unemployment is just the beginning of the “benefits” unemployment can offer someone with the right attitude.

1) Honest Expenses
When I first lost my job, I thought to myself “Oh, crap. How will I pay for…?” about every twenty seconds for about a week. Then, I panicked some more. Finally, a few months later, I realized that I was doing better than I expected — because my expenses weren’t really as high as I had thought.

I stopped paying for things that I didn’t absolutely need, obviously. My lattes went away, but more importantly, I started really carefully looking at what I could make for myself, and thus save expenses on. I switched from paper tissues to handkerchiefs, and from a laundry service to a bathtub and an old-school washboard which I used to clean those handkerchiefs. By looking carefully at every single thing you consume, and switching to renewable variants, you can save yourself a ton of pennies.

I got about enough to pay my rent just by claiming unemployment checks, the rest I did away with — or at least, converted into less-painful forms.

2) Learning to Make Stuff

It’s absolutely amazing how many products each of us buys every week that we know absolutely nothing about. You have time now — use it to learn about them!

I learned online how to turn some beeswax, lanolin, coconut oil, and a few other ingredients into chap sticks, shampoo, conditioner, and more — and then, I got those things cheaply or even free.

Super-ninja unemployed-person trick: learn how to make something out of industrial ingredients like the above, and then go to www.thomasnet.com, look up the companies that produce those basic things, and send them an E-mails that say you’re trying to start a company, and you’re looking to settle on a producer for the ingredients for your final product. About one in four of them will happily mail you “samples” — which are easily large enough for you to use in your personal lives for months if not years!

3) Volunteer

I cannot begin to overstate the value of using your time to benefit the other people around you. By volunteering, you not only start to heal the wounds that losing your job has dealt to your feelings of self-worth, you also prevent the ennui of listlessness from setting in.

More importantly, you meet new people. Did you know that 90% of jobs are acquired through ‘networking’ — which basically means, ‘knowing the right person’? So volunteer to do something that you already understand — even if you have to walk up to the HR department of a business and tell them that you want to work for free for ten or twelve or twenty hours every week. That way, you’ll meet relevant people, and you will instinctively begin to build relationships with them.

To quote someone wiser than me: ‘love is giving, and giving is love’. If you give a group your time and effort, you will start to love them. Love is your brain’s way of excusing the otherwise-illogical action of volunteering to work for no benefit — so your brain literally must love the place you volunteer for. And once you know people there, and you love it there, the likelihood that a job will follow is a thousand times greater than if you gave an already-overloaded HR lady another paper to skim on the way to the circular file.

4) Make money

“What?” you ask. “How can I make money while I’m unemployed? The problem is that I can’t make money!”.

Wrong.

The problem is that you have no job. But if you can claim unemployment checks, you can make money. It might be the opposite of everything you wanted to do, but there are “heavy lifting” options for every type of person. If you’re hands-on, be a day laborer. If you’re sedentary, go to www.odesk.com and sign up to spend a few hours a day creating forum posts for some marketing company or writing articles about smile-whiteners for some affiliate marketer.

The pay won’t be what you’re used to getting — but if you’ve lowered your expenses, and you’re creating your own stuff, you can easily spend 10 hours every week massacring Monster.com and all of it’s competitors, 10 hours per week volunteering for the people you REALLY want to work for, and still have a good 20 hours to spend making $8~$10/hour on Odesk, Elance, Getafreelancer, Rentacoder, or any of the many other freelance-work sites on the Internet.

I don’t see how anyone who actually applied this advice could fail to not only survive, but thrive right through claiming unemployment and get out the other side.

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 Dollar Stretcher Blog
by Gary Foreman

Surfacing this time of year are all kinds of forecasters, prognosticators and swamis. The temptation to join them is too much. But, in the interest of trying something a little different we’ll forecast things that will NOT happen in 2010.

The credit card company will not lower the interest rate they’re charging on your balance this year. Even though other interest rates are near record lows. New laws make it harder for them to raise rates on troubled accounts. So they’ll protect their profits. It will be harder to get a rate decrease even if you deserve it. So, if you get an unsolicited letter from your credit card company offering to lower your rate, check your calendar. It could be April fool’s day.

You will not win the lottery. Ok, it’s possible that one or two of you might win a sizeable prize. But, this prediction will be right for almost every reader. If you doubt it, check the odds on winning the lotto game you play (how many decimal places can you count?).
So, if you quit playing you’ll be ahead of the game in 2010. In fact, you could be the real winner.

Contrary to a popular request, your savings account will not grow magically. Unless you put money into savings and leave it there to accumulate interest, the amount that you have in savings will not increase this year. Feel free to make me a liar by regularly depositing money into your account. I’d be happy to have you challenge my forecasting ability when you tell me how much larger your account is.

Your spending habits will not change unless you take action to change them this year. You can spend months reading financial self-help books. Even make a hobby out of studying the various ways to save money. But, it’s all just head knowledge unless you specifically take action to change your spending habits.

Your take-home pay will not increase. This isn’t an absolute. A few fortunate workers will see increases. But the vast majority of us will be doing well to take home as much money in 2010 as we did last year.

The cost of energy will not go down. Right now your heating bills might be a little less (about 10%) than last year. But, expect them to be going up. Much of our energy is imported. Huge borrowing by the federal government is pushing the value of the dollar down. So it will take more dollars to buy foreign energy. Thus, higher prices for you and I. Ditto gasoline.

You will not sell your house for a big profit this year. There will continue to be many houses for sale. A continuing stream of foreclosures will put more homes on the market. If you do sell your house you’ll need to price it aggressively. (BTW, if you’re looking to buy, it might not get any better than this.)

Sounds like a pretty negative year. And, in many ways it will be tough financially for most people. But there is one final ‘not’ to consider.

You are not required to let finances ruin the year. There are things you can do to reduce your expenses or increase your income. Use the many web resources available with money-saving ideas (including TheDollarStretcher.com). Consider starting a home or micro business. Even small changes can make your financial picture better.

You also have the ability to focus on the things that you do have, rather than the things that you don’t. That alone will give you a different, happier mindset. In fact, it could also be the key to a happy new year!

______________

Gary Foreman is the editor of The Dollar Stretcher.com website and various enewsletters including Surviving Tough Times For some ideas on ways to raise quick cash to get you through 2010 visit

(end Dollar Stretcher Blog)

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

It has been reported by many studies that major cause of the financial troubles is credit cards. This credit card debt is what leads many people to file bankruptcy. According to review conducted, concluded that individuals who filed bankruptcy had some outstanding credit card debt.

Credit card debt is what you had borrowed from tomorrow to pay for today. If you do not pay off the balances every month then it mounts up and leads to bankruptcy.

Why credit card debt leads to bankruptcy? Generally when you use credit card to purchase at shopping mall or grocery store, the cost of the product is not the amount what you had paid to shop with your credit card but interest rate that credit card company charge also adds up. The cost of the product depends on how much interest rate the card issuer charges and how long does you take to pay off the loan.

It start mounting up if you pay only minimum amount every month then the interest is being charged every month which ultimately increases the cost of everything you buy.

In case if you want to lower the credit card cost then you can take the advantage of the cards that offer lower introductory interest rate. An average rate that card issuer charges is 18% but many card companies come up with great offers every day to market their services. Introductory interest rate offer is one among them; usually it is lower when compared to general rates which will last only for six months after that the rate of interest usually jumps to normal rate which is 18%.

Second, many credit card issuers charge with annual or monthly fee to your balance which increase you cost of carrying. For example if you are carrying 6.9% rate credit cards with an annual fee of $50 then it would be equivalent to 12% rate credit card with no annual fee. So one must choose a card that does not charge you with any other fee accept the interest rate.

Third, the other way to reduce the cost of carrying is choose a card that does not charge you for balance transfer. Beware that many card issuers charge balance transfer fees if you are transferring balance from one to other. Choosing a card with no balance transfer fee you can save around 2% of cost of carrying over a year.

Fourth, while using the credit cards you must be aware of the fact that card issuer’s charges different rate of interest on cash advance and purchase. And remember that introductory rate that is offered is applicable only to purchases but not to cash advances.

Under this circumstances if you want to overcome this financial trouble with credit cards and pay off the balance a little planning is required, first thing you must do is calculate the rate of interest you are paying on your credit cards and find the best introductory offers that came to you and choose the one that offers best interest and do balance transfer. This way you can reduce the cost of carrying and pay off the balance in an organised way.

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

Due to present crisis, one word that we hear from most of the people is debt. It is because decrease in earning capacity of the individuals by which they are not able to pay their monthly payments like mortgage, credit card debt payments etc.

The reason for this credit card debt is that the average American carries about five credit cards with an average balance of $10,000. There are around 650 million credit card in circulation of which around 50 million pay off their balances every month while 115 million do not pay their balances. The remaining are put unused.

The credit card industry makes their profit from the APR interest rate they charge on credit card purchases. Due to increased burden of debt many people have declared themselves bankrupt in USA. They do so because filling bankruptcy, people can clear all their unpaid expenses but unfortunately they fail to remember that filling bankruptcy will hinder the chances of getting credit in future again.

Fortunately, in this economic hardship time people should be aware of the facts that bankruptcy is not the only way to recover form the debt. Many credit card lenders offer credit card hardship programs to who is suffering from any kind of financial stress.

One might be thinking what actually this credit card hardship programs are? Basically this program is debt settlement agreement with your lender. In this agreement your lender may reduce the APR interest rate that they charge on your balances which leads to reduce in monthly payments which can be affordable to you.

But one must understand that credit card hardship programs will not completely eliminate your debt instead there are several downsides of credit card hardship programs. So, one must make sure to find out the terms and conditions of the hardship programs before availing them. Call your lender to find out the new terms of the programs and find out terms and conditions.

Before availing the credit card hardship programs, one must be aware of certain myths and facts about this sort of programs. This article will try to give out some information about common myths that many people may not have an idea.

One may think that debt which has been reduced by the lender will give you relief and forget about it but it is not the case. In this case you may receive 1099-C tax notice. It means any borrower who benefited by the debt settlement from the lender for amount more than $600 has to file the 1099-C forms with IRS as it considers this settlement as income to borrower. For this reason one must consult your attorney to resolve all the issues related to debt settlement.

Other thing many people think that choosing the credit card hardship programs will not affect your credit score, but this is not the case, as you try to settle the credit card balance you may default the payments for at least two to six months in this case the defaults will affect your credit score. So beware of these things when dealing with credit cards.

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

US housing crisis as a result of liberal lending terms, now lenders are tightening their mortgage standards there by allowing only creditworthy customers to take new mortgage loans and tap the home equity line of credit. In such case, leaving Americans make use of credit card debt to meet their needs – drumming pricey and potentially volatile debt that lenders continue to offer.

As a result Americans are turning towards credit cards, according to economic data released by the Federal Reserve shows the highest amount recorded ever before which is not a good news in the middle of economic downturn given already the accrual of credit card debt over past years.

However, this increase in debt cannot be taken by surprise. With cost of all needs on rise along with unemployment rate peaking up, Americans have to use credit cards for their daily expenses like gasoline, grocery etc.

During the boom of housing industry, American could mange the rapid increase in the cost of living by cashing the price hike of their home prices. But this scenario had reversed with sub prime crisis over past few years; lenders have tightened their lending terms leaving the Americans no option but to rely on credit cards.

Americans are deep in debt because credit cards have higher carrying cost than any other forms of debt due to high interest rate and other hidden costs. Still the credit cards are pushed by the lenders into the market and it has been reported that over 6 billon mails are sent to Americans every year.

An average American family holds around $10,000 in credit card debt. In the present condition, gone are the days when Americans were not supposed to think twice about spending on luxurious things. With new rule passed in senate about the credit cards interest rates tightening might once again go out of control of their spending habits.

Interestingly by the end of financial year march 2009, outstanding credit card debt fell down by $11.1 billon to $2.55 trillion and according to Federal Reserve, credit card debt fell for six consecutive months by $5.4 billion to $945.0 billion.

This decrease in credit card debt levels are as a result of Americans tightening their belts temporarily. For ex: consider residents of Florida where the metropolis has fully affected from real estate crash which resulted in 12% decrease in hotel occupancy, an increase in unemployment rate to 8.5%, and foreclosure rate to 9% for the first quarter of 2009. As a result Miamians owe more of their personal income to credit card companies compared to other states of US.

Equifax, one of the largest consumer credit reporting agencies conducted a research for 50 largest metropolitan statistical areas for the first quarter of 2009 and concluded that most places on the list are not too surprising. With housing crash and reduced tourism, consumers are still spending and digging their feet much deeper.

Despite the consequences of what is driving to spend, Americans are still in deep of debt.

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