Cash Matters

As we say goodbye to the years of affordable and simple borrowing that we experienced during the economic boom of the last decade, vast numbers of people are waking up to the fact that their credit card balances are too high to be maintained for long. Even if your fiscal status hasn't been harmed by the recession, many card issuers have been pushing up their APRs in defiance of the falling base rates defined by the European Central Bank. The result is that servicing the monthly repayments is getting ever more problematic.

And of course, many credit card customers have seen their income dropping during the recession, and so sizeable numbers of us now face the dilemna of not being able to pay our credit card repayments and getting into arrears. What is the effect of this?

The first thing to do is to not panic. Although a serious matter, credit card debts are not secured on property and so your creditors can't compell you to give up your home to repay the borrowing, nor can they have it confiscated from you.

Also, you can't be arrested or imprisoned for failing to keep up with your repayments. You can of course be sued, but this willl be a civil matter rather than a criminal one.'

In reality, most card sompanies would prefer not to take court action as it is costly, not particularly effective in recovering the debt, and bad for their reputation. Because of this, card sompanies are usually open to negotiating a reduced monthly payment that you will be able to cope with more easily. You may also ask for interest charges to be frozen so that you can get back in control of your debts, but this is less likely to be agreed.

The thought of telephoning your creditors and asking for assistance can be intimidating, but there is a lot of help available from debt charities who can counsel you on the best course of action, and may even take your case on and talk terms on your behalf.

So, if you find yourself unable to pay off your credit card accounts, don't try and bury your head in the sand: take some pre-emptive action and take advantage of the help that's on offer.

With credit card debts causing such financial stress for British people, it's not surprising that thousands of people are looking for any and all ways to get rid of these debts.

The most usual ways are the old standbys of debt consolidation and management programs, with possibly an Individual Voluntary Arrangement or even bankruptcy in extreme cases. Recently, however, a new method is becoming fashionable when it comes to solving credit card debt problems: the illegal credit agreement tactic.

This supposedly works by taking advantage of a loophole in consumer credit law that means that unless a credit card agreement abides by a set of stringent rules, then it is not valid and therefore can't be implemented in the courts. The upshot is is that any debt accrued under one of these agreements cannot be pursued by collectors, and so does not need to be repaid. There are plenty of companies claiming to be able to rapidly and easily arrange for your debts to be made uncollectable like this, but is this realistic?

Firstly, only agreement documents issued prior to April 2007 have the possibility of being declared unenforceable under this tactic. If this condition is met, there are a few reasons why the agreement may be uncollectible, including not being signed by both parties, the APR not being clearly expressed, or copies of the original papers not being available on requesting them.

Specialist solicitors will check over your agreements on your behalf to ascertain whether or not they are all binding. But here lies the gotcha: you normally are required to pay a fee before an agent will even look at your case, whether or not you have any chance at all of having your debts declared unenforceable. If you have two, three or even more credit agreements, this can make it a costly and possibly pointless exercise.

You should also consider that some less honest providers of this service exaggerate the chances of success, which many dispassionate commentators say are not as good as they are being described.

So what's the conclusion? By all means ask your credit card issuers for replicas of your agreements and look at them yourself, but before taking any further action talk to a free debt advisor. If you suspect you might have an unenforceable agreement, then look for an attorney willing to work on a no win no fee basis, rather than paying out at the outset in the maybe groundless hope of leaving your debt problems behind.

Source: No Win No Fee Credit Card Write Off

It's long been the unfortunte case that the foremost credit card deals are only available to people with perfect credit histories. Products providing the best of the best in terms of low interest rates, lengthy balance transfer offers, and notable rewards programs are in truth only for the wealthy creme de la cremde, and the rest of us have to make do with more run of the mill credit cards which offer less attention-grabbing features and cost more to spend with.

If, however, you have a tarnished credit rating rather than simply a medium one, you'll see that your alternatives are quite limited if you want to take out a credit card.

If you find that your attempts to be approved for middle of the road cards are being declined, you need to seek out one the cards aimed specifically at individuals with poor credit ratings. These cards will not have many benefits, and will also have some of the highest APRs of all, but that's the price you pay for having somewhat relaxed acceptance standards.

The advantage of these kind of cards is that not only do they let you experience the convenience of a general purpose credit card, they can also advance your credit rating. Steady and responsible use of the card, including keeping up with your repayments, will be shown on your credit file and over time will develop some positive credit history which will make it less complicated for you to finally trade up to a less expensive, more mainstream card with a lower interest rate.

Source: Credit Cards For Bad Credit