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The Truth About Credit

Credit can be confusing and tricky. Many claims that people believe about your credit are inaccurate or completely untrue. You can ruin your credit if you don’t understand how it works and having bad credit makes it difficult to get loans, buy a home or rent an apartment. Here are a few of the most common myths and the real deal about credit from the Online Trading Academy reviews:

Myth 1: You have to have a credit card to build up credit so you can buy a house. False. This is simply not true. There are other, more responsible ways, of building credit. While credit cards can certainly help, they can and often to make it more difficult to get a home loan.

If you attended school and took out student loans, these loans reflect positively on your credit so long as you continue to pay them on time, and with a much lower interest rate than credit cards they are a safer alternative. You can build credit by simply paying all of your bills on time. Timely payment of bills (including utilities) reflects on positively on your credit score. It may take more time, but it’s worth it in the end just to avoid the heavy interest rates on credit cards.

Myth 2: Bankruptcy solves everything. False. In fact bankruptcy can cause more problems, at least in the immediate future. While Bankruptcy allows you to get rid of most of your bills, you’ll still have to worry about any student loans because those cannot be clean slated with a bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy also makes it near impossible to get a loan for up to 10 years depending on the type of bankruptcy you file for. You cannot get an FHA loan for at least two years after you file for bankruptcy. While bankruptcy may feel like the only option, consider the negative impact a bankruptcy could have on your credit.

Myth 3: I can always take out a payday loan: FALSE! If there ever was a bigger false, I can’t think of it. Payday loans are dangerous and they are the worst option you can choose in regards to getting some extra cash. They are dangerous because most people don’t just borrow $100 one time. They borrow $100, plus a fee. And then roll it over; basically extending the time they have to pay it back. Every time you roll it over you are charged a fee. You could end up paying more in fees than what you actually borrowed.

While credit can be confusing, taking a few minutes to make an educated decision can save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Being responsible is the only way you can get your financial life in order.

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Money Making Tips

A few things you should know about selling your gold!

If you’ve been considering taking advantage of the escalating price of gold you should know more than just where to sell gold. There’s money to be made, there’s no doubt about it. But maybe just a few pointers wouldn’t be a bad idea.Just a few words to the wise

Below are some things to keep in mind when it comes to selling off your gold.

  • Just in case… get a receipt! One never does know if a future dispute will arise, though hopefully you did your homework in advance and checked out your gold buyer ahead of time. Still, it never hurts to have a receipt for any transaction. What should be included on this receipt? The date of the transaction, name of the precious metal purchased (gold in this case), fineness of the gold purchased, the weight of the gold, standard measures of weight and the prices paid for gold, signature, address and name of the gold seller and of course the address and name of the buyer.
  • When possible, watch the weigh-in. If you are sending away, just make sure you’ve done your homework. Research the company, look at testimonials and get unbiased reports off the internet.
  • The same goes for testing. But once again, if you’ve checked out the company and have faith in them, all will hopefully be fine.
  • Know your gold. Don’t just send off your stuff without having at least some idea of what you have in advance. There’s no harm in getting an estimate before you send off your gold.
  • Got a scale? Weigh your gold before shipping it out. Remember that the entire weight of a piece might not be all gold. You want me to meet you where? Do not meet someone somewhere even remotely questionable. The rear room of grocery stores, laundry mats and garages is not where you want to ‘do a deal’.
  • If you do your gold selling in person, never, ever let it out of your sight. There is nothing that buyer needs to do that can’t be done in front of you.
  • Would you buy the first car you see on the lot? Hopefully not. Research, shop around, compare. Don’t go for the first offer no matter how ‘generous’ it seems. And never fall for ‘this is a limited offer’, ‘one time only’ or ‘I can only offer this for another 5 minutes’. Puh-leeze.
  • How can you see the gold over the phone? Believe it or not, some buyers actually give phone quotes. How on earth will that be accurate?
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Money Saving Products and Services

Five tips on how to asses a precious metal dealer

There are many metal dealers in the market who offer precious metal services. Each one of them offers different types of services to ensure satisfaction to their customers. It is important to choose a dealer from whom you can get the best value for your money. Some of the things to look at when selecting a dealer include:

  • Experience.  An organization that has been in existence for long has skills and experience in metal deals. Knowledge comes with a long time of experience. There are many dealers pretending to have knowledge in metal investment. Always ensure that you get the right metal dealers with great skills to help you succeed in your investment.
  • Price.  Price is a really important factor in precious metal investment. A lower price value allows you to recoup your investment. A lower price also enables you to make substantial profit when you sell them at higher prices. Considering that dealers will charge you for their buying and selling services or even consultancy, you should compare rates offered by different dealers. Always ensure that you choose high quality dealers who will offer quality service at a reasonable price.
  • Safe transportation to the investor’s home.  Because of the value in these types of metals, the transportation process is usually risky. Choose a dealer who will ensure safe transportation to your house or premises. Other dealers offer free shipping services as a way of after sales service. Therefore, choose dealers who will offer such services to help you in cutting your transportation costs. These dealers also offer such services to ensure customer satisfaction.
  • Easy purchase.  Metal prices may fluctuate over some period of time when affected by factors such as political issues and economic climate. Investing in metals at the right time means that you should buy or sell your metals quickly. Choose an online precious metal dealer who offers an easy means of doing business. Their website should be available all the time so that irrespective of the time, you can buy or sell your metals with ease. A good dealer helps you to buy or sell your metals at a perfect time when you are going to make best returns.
  • Variety.  A good precious metal dealer should have a wide variety of metals to choose from. A new investor will require a dealer who offers variety of metals, thus giving you many options to choose from. A dealer who offers a variety of metals also helps investors anytime the market changes and there is need to buy different types of metals.
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Money Saving Tips

Don’t let yourself be harmed by your lenders

Are you someone who is weighed down by your credit card debt burden? Did you max out all your credit cards due to impulsive shopping with credit? If answered yes, you might think that the company that offers to erase your debts for pennies on the dollar is perhaps the right answer to your prayers.

But beware as this isn’t true! While seeking help of the debt relief services or debt service can certainly put an end to all your financial woes, at the same time if you blindly believe them, you might even face serious long-term consequences for your credit report that might affect your future ability to get new lines of credit.

A word of caution for the hapless debtors who are looking for seeking debt relief

Before you know the various debt relief services that you can get help from, you should know the dos and don’ts that you need to follow before seeking legal help:

  • Don’t work with a company that promises to reduce your unsecured debt for pennies on the dollar. The truth is that there’s no guarantee whether or not any creditor will accept the partial payment of a debt that is legitimate.
  • Don’t work with a company that asks for a substantial fee before even reducing your debt amount.
  • Don’t work with a company that asks you to stop making payments to your creditors as this will hurt your credit score. Ensure that the company that you work with, reports all your payments to the credit bureaus.

The debt relief options at your service: Look before you leap

Transfer your credit card balances: If you’re having trouble making headway with your overwhelming credit card debt due to the hefty finance charges, you can consider transferring your balance to a new card with favorable interest rates. If you have an excellent credit, you may even get a card with a nominal rate for an year. Transfer your balance to a new card so that you can reap the benefits of lower monthly payments and convenient charges.

Combine through a consolidation loan: You may also combine your debts through a consolidation loan that carries lower rates than what you were paying on your credit cards. You can effortlessly replace multiple payments with a single monthly payment and thereby save a considerable amount of your dollars every month. By making timely payments, you can get out of debt within a specific period of time.

A debt management program: When you need the genuine help of the expert credit counselors, you can get help from them. They will teach you budgeting techniques after assessing your finances. However if you still can’t get back a grip on your situation, they will enroll you in a DMP through which you can legally repay the debt in single outgoing monthly payments.

When you’ve tried all the debt relief options and you still don’t get a satisfying result, you might file bankruptcy after speaking with your attorney. Chapter 13 Bankruptcy is a government debt relief option that helps you discharge your debts and repay an amount through an alternative repayment schedule proposed by the Bankruptcy Court. Although bankruptcy hurts your credit score, you can yet start a new life.

(This was a guest post from a writer for Debt Consolidation Care.)