www.gladvisor.com In this presentation, GL Advisor highlights the advantages of federal loan repayment programs available to medical residents. These repayment strategies help lower the cost of medical school debt and maximize savings during residency. Strategies include: Income-Based Repayment (IBR) and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). Learn more at: www.gladvisor.com
If you’re thinking about using a debt consolidation or debt settlement service to help you get out of debt faster and save money on your monthly payments, make sure you do your homework before choosing a company. There are definitely shams and scams out there.
First let me say that debt consolidation is *not* the same as debt settlement/negotiation, which most people don’t realize.
Debt settlement companies charge hundreds of dollars as an initial “admin fee” to set up your account, plus a monthly service fee. The fees vary depending on the company and the amount of your debts.
Such companies take your money every month, but don’t make monthly payments to your creditors! Instead, they put it in a trust account, negotiate your debts with your creditors, then make a lump-sum payment when there’s enough in your account to pay a creditor in full.
That can take *years* depending on the amount of debt you have with each creditor. Meanwhile, you can be sued by your creditors and your wages can be garnished! (Or just don’t make payments to your creditors. You’ll end up in the same spot without paying someone to help you get there!)
Settlement companies don’t ask your creditors to stop all interest, late fees and overlimit fees from accruing. That means while the negotiations are ongoing, your bills will continue to grow! So if you’re sued and a judgement is brought against you, you’ll owe more money than before!
And shoddy companies, which there are a lot of, don’t tell you *any* of this up front. I call it “getting permission by omission” because they simply don’t tell you how their program works *before* you sign an agreement with them. Or after, for that matter. But if you ask the right questions, eventually you’ll figure it out. (Or when the crap hits the fan. Whichever comes first.)
Let me give you an example of how debt settlement works.
Let’s say you have $20,000 in unsecured credit card debt. You owe $10,000 to one credit card company, $6,000 to another and $4,000 to a third. You agree to a 5 year plan where you pay $250 a month to the settlement company. (After all, $250 a month for 60 months is only $15,000, so you’re saving $5,000 and you’ll be debt-free in 5 years, right?)
The admin fee will cost you $750. Your first 3 monthly payments go towards that and nothing gets put into your trust account until your 4th month.
The settlement company keeps $50 of your $250 payment each month for the service fee. That means $200 a month is being added to your trust account.
Most debt settlement companies claim to be able to negotiate your debt for about 50% of what you owe. So let’s use the lowest credit card debt as an example.
If you owe $4,000 and your creditor agrees to accept $2,000 as payment in full, it will take 10 months at $200 per month to have enough in your trust account to pay off just that one credit card.
But remember, your first 3 payments to the settlement company only paid the admin fee. That means your first credit card settlement is 14 months *after* you started sending them money.
So what’s the problem? It’s simple. Your creditor won’t agree to accept half of your actual debt unless, or until, it can be paid in full. Otherwise, you’re expected to make your normal monthly payments.
Since you don’t have $2,000 in your trust account, and you won’t have it until more than a year after you stopped paying your creditor directly, they’ll probably take you to court and request that your wages be garnished long before you have that $2,000 built up.
And what about your other creditors? Well, they’ll be waiting even longer to get their money from the settlement company. The $6,000 debt will take 15 *more* months to pay off, assuming your creditor waits that long and agrees to 50%. And that $10,000 bill? You do the math.
On the other hand, if you signed up for a 3 year plan with the settlement company, your debts would be paid off sooner. But, the question is, will your creditors wait that long? Probably not.
The facts are, you can negotiate with your creditors yourself. Most will agree to take a smaller monthly payment from you and stop all interest and fees from accruing. And, of course, you’ll save thousands of dollars in fees to a settlement company.
Before signing up for any service, please be sure you check out the company thoroughly. And don’t let the words “non-profit” fool you either. A lot of debt settlement companies claim to be non-profit.
Going back to the example above, if you pay them $15,000 over a 5 year time frame and they settle your debts at half of what you owed, they’ll make $5,000 from you. I’d call that a profit, especially since they might not have actually helped you in any way.
Most companies will allow you to cancel your account and get a refund of what you’ve paid, less the non-refundable admin fee and the monthly service fees. If you feel you’ve been mislead about their program, don’t hesitate to argue til the cows come home. File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau or hire an attorney if you feel you’re getting nowhere.
You can visit the Better Business Bureau’s website (http://www.bbb.org) and find reports on hundreds of companies. Here’s a small listing of companies that have poor reputations with the BBB:
National Consumer Debt Council LLC – Irvine, CA (A.K.A. NCDC, United Consumer Law Group)
Financial Rescue Services – Burbank, CA
Debt Legal Services – Anaheim, CA
American Debt Relief – Los Angeles, CA (A.K.A. A M Debt, American Debts Relief, Debt Relief)
Please be very cautious when choosing a debt help company and ask lots of questions before agreeing to anything. If you find they’re evading your questions, run fast and run far. There are reputable companies out there, so keep looking until you find one.
The global credit crunch, which has dominated financial news headlines over recent months, continues to wreak havoc across the UK. Since it made its way across the Atlantic last summer the credit crunch has taken its toll in all financial sectors, and has made things difficult for both lenders and consumers. Many lenders have been hit hard, because the crunch has resulted in increased difficulties in getting finance on the wholesale money markets and increased costs relating to inter-bank lending. This means that lenders are finding it more difficult and more expensive to raise the finance that they need to fund their lending.
Over recent months an increasing number of consumers have found that trying to get any form of credit has become more difficult and expensive, and this is because of the action taken by lenders to try and protect themselves as much as possible from the effects of the crunch. Lenders have raised interest rates on various financial products, including mortgages, loans, and credit cards, and have also tightened up on their lending criteria, leaving many consumers out in the cold when it comes to getting finance. Many have also taken various financial products off the market, and have changed their lending criteria, which has also affected many consumers’ ability to get finance.
The mortgage sector has been particularly hard hit by the effects of the credit crunch, and there have been many changes when it comes to mortgage lending, as lenders try to deal with the problems caused by the financial turmoil. Since last summer, before the credit crunch took hold, the number of mortgage products has plunged by two thirds, leaving consumers with very little choice. First time buyers have been badly affected, and this is as a result of lenders withdrawing 100% and 125% mortgages, which have always been popular amongst first time buyers with little or no deposit. The situation has been made even worse by lenders now demanding a far higher deposit than the traditional 5% in order to access their best deals, with some lenders asking for as much as 40% of the property value by way of a deposit in order to access competitive rates.
Those with bad credit have also been hit hard, as lenders are being far more cautious about who they will lend to, and those with damaged credit face an increased risk of rejection due to the credit conditions caused by the global credit crunch. A combination of these cutbacks and changes in both the mortgage and the general financial markets has resulted in severe difficulties for many people, and industry experts, including banking officials, have stated that the situation is set to continue over the course of this year.
There is a lot of expertise needed to achieve this when you have bad credit and you might want to consider looking for professional aid but if you feel confident, there are things you can do on your own.
Bad credit is always an obstacle when you need finance. Lenders won’t grant money to someone they think won’t be able to repay it and that’s what bad credit tells them.
Thus, further assurance of repayment needs to be offered in order to convince them. The key is to use the benefits of certain types of loans to your advantage and find a way out whenever a loan turns out too onerous.
Government Loans For Students Do Not Consider Credit Score or History
Those loans for students that are granted by the government do not consider credit score or history as a variable for approval. This is due mainly to the fact that those who apply for these loans have no credit history at all but also because these loans are meant for helping those going through underprivileged situations to pay their way through college and graduate.
Stafford loans (granted by the US department of education) and Perkins loans which are also granted by the federal government but are assigned according to the needs of the applicants and not on a first arrived first served basis are examples of the above. As long as there are no records of non-attendance of federal loans, your credit score and history won’t be an obstacle to obtaining a federal student loan.
PLUS Loans When The Money Granted Is Not Enough
PLUS loans are meant to fill a gap that turns federal loans into an imperfect financial source. Federal loans presuppose that the applicant will have aid from family members and thus, the amount of money granted usually doesn’t cover for all the costs of college studies. PLUS loans are granted to parents to let them help with their children college payments.
PLUS stands for Parent Loan For Undergraduate Students and are low interest loans for parents that let them borrow up to the full cost of their children education as long as there are no other financial aid in which case, the amount of additional aid must be deducted from the overall PLUS loan available amount. These loans require credit checks, but the credit report that will be verified is the parents’ and not the student’s.
Private Bad Credit Student Loans And Consolidation
Sometimes federal loans are simply not enough and you need to resort to private funding. PLUS loans are an option but are not always available if parents don’t meet the income or credit requirements. Bad Credit Private Student Loans are available as well as No Credit loans, only critical delinquencies like default or bankruptcies can prevent you from getting finance if you can afford it.
However, you need to bear in mind that the cost of financing will be higher with bad credit and that whenever possible you should consolidate your student debt if you can obtain a lower interest rate due to an improvement on your credit score and history.
Martin Lewis, journalist and consumer campaigner who created MoneySavingExpert.com, the UK’s biggest money website, speaks about the changes to the student tution fee system.
Questions surround feds’ raid of Stockton home STOCKTON, CA – A federal education official Wednesday morning offered little information as to why federal agents raided a Stockton man’s home Tuesday morning. The resident, Kenneth Wright, does not have a criminal record and he had no reason to believe why what he thought was a SWAT team would be breaking down his door at 6 in the morning. “I look out of my window and I see 15 police officers,” Wright said. As Wright came downstairs in his boxer shorts, he said the officers barged through his front door. Wright said an officer grabbed him by the neck and led him outside on his front lawn. “He had his knee on my back and I had no idea why they were there,” Wright said. According to Wright, officers also woke his three young children, ages 3, 7, and 11, and put them in a Stockton police patrol car with him. Officers then searched his house. “They put me in handcuffs in that hot patrol car for six hours, traumatizing my kids,” Wright said. As it turned out, the person law enforcement was looking for – Wright’s estranged wife – was not there. Wright said he later went to Stockton Mayor Ann Johnston and Stockton Police Department, but learned the city of Stockton had nothing to do with the search warrant. US Department of Education spokesman Justin Hamilton confirmed for News10 Wednesday morning federal agents with the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), not local SWAT, served the search warrant. Hamilton would not say …
www.facebook.com HR BINWALEE author of upcoming book Crisis: Student Loan Debt In America is set to release his shocking inside story about foul play at one of the world’s fastest growing college campuses. Billions of tax payer dollars have been used by Wall Street giant Career Education Corporation to enslave Americans to student loan debt. America’s student loan debt is at an estimated Trillion dollars. This new crisis could surpass the housing boom that nearly crashed the economy.