How to be Debt Free in 6 Easy Steps!

A debt free is life not unattainable. It may seem an impossible and frightening task but it is possible. It requires patience and discipline determination and time. Given below is a run down of 6 steps that will help you in the journey towards a life that is free of financial stress.

Step 1 – Admit that you are facing problems in
managing your finances.The first step towards debt
free life is to come to terms with the fact that your
debts have become unmanageable. Leaving bills unpaid
and ignoring the problem does nothing to wipe off your
existing debts. It only makes the situation worse.
However the fact that you’re reading this article means
you have accepted that you are in debt and you are ready
to take the next step.

Step 2 – Take an honest look at your present financial
situation. Make a list of your debts. Next to the listed
debts include the name of the creditor,the total amount
you owe, the rate of interest you are being charged and
the monthly payment you make towards this debt, if any.
It will not only give you a clear picture of your
financial standing but will also help you in choosing
an appropriate debt solution.

Step 3 – Prioritize!
Decide which bills to pay first and which ones can wait.
Concentrate on paying off the debts that have a higher
interest rate. You will save more money in the long run
by ridding yourself of these expensive loans first while
keeping up the required repayments on the others.When
making the repayment remember to pay a little more than
the minimum as minimum debt repayments only covers the
added interest. It makes no impact on the capital amount.

Step 4 – Create a realistic monthly budget for your
outgoings. List all the essential expenses and
non essential expenditures.
The non essential expenditures can be completely
cut or lowered substantially until you become
debt-free. Evaluate your monthly balance by
subtracting monthly expenses from your monthly income.
This will tell you how much money you have at the
end of the month so that you can start paying off
your debts. Do not forget to keep some money aside
for unexpected expenses. As your debt goes down,
you will see a fall in your interest charges.

Step 5 – Refuse to take on any kind of new debt.
As you already in are in debt, adding
on a new debt will increase your debt and
will hinder your progress towards being debt free.
You must decide once and for all that you will
not add any new debt and stick to it!

Step 6 – If you are not able to manage your debts on
your own then you can opt for professional credit
counseling. You will be guided by financial experts
who will help you in taking a step nearer to a
debt free life. There are options you can take such
as taking out and IVA or even opting for Bancrupcy.
Recently there are companies who offer to write off
your credit cards legally.

What cause us to get into Debt? The Possible Solutions?

Debt

The British people’s personal debt exceeds 1.1 trillion pounds. They have surpassed the United States in personal debt. Mortgage payments are the cause for 82% of this debt. The uncontrolled house price inflation is the main cause for this. Next an unusually high tax rate and over the top University fees are the main culprits. Some other sources of debt could be divorce, medical expenses, not planning well enough or being put on the dole from your job. One good thing to help the British people is new consumer protection laws capping credit card fees at twelve pounds down from thirty-eight pounds.

A solution for the Scottish people is what is known as a Scottish Trust Deed. This is an alternative to filing for bankruptcy. This is an agreement between you and your creditors for three years. At the end of the time period any remaining balance is written off. This trust deed is legally binding on all of your creditors. The terms of the deed are tailored to fit your situation. Another solution for the removal of debt is to consult a debt management agency. There are many offices out there who can give advice tailored for your situation. They can be found online or locally.

One solution they can give the British people is like the Scottish Deed. It is called an Individual Voluntary Arrangement. This is a formal agreement between you and your creditors for over sixty months. In that time, you pay them what you can afford. After that period is over, the remaining debt is written off. These arrangements can help reduce your debt by seventy percent. Creditors cannot call you once this arrangement has been put in place.

Another solution they can offer is Debt Management. This is like consolidation in the United States. This involves making one payment to the agency and they take care of the bills. In some cases, you can also freeze interest rates. You will not have any more contact with the creditors as the agency will do that for you.

The last solution they can offer you is a loan or to remortgage your home. The last resort to debt elimination is filing for bankruptcy. There are two types: voluntary and involuntary. You go to court yourself to file and the district judge decides whether to grant it or not. It costs four hundred and eighty five pounds to do this. The fee may be waived if you are poor or unemployed. Involuntary is when a creditor petitions the court for your bankruptcy if you owe more than seven hundred and fifty pounds. The advantages are: you are protected from creditors, your stress levels go down; after a year, the debt left over is written off and you’ll be able to make a fresh start. The disadvantages are: your assets will be sold to pay the debts. This can include your home.

The bankruptcy is put in the local paper for everyone to see. This will affect your credit rating for six years and it will prevent you from working in certain areas of employment. The best advice any debt manager will give you is try to keep your debt at or below twenty percent of your income level.

There is another solution.

If you have credit agreements taken out before April 2007 there is a new unenforceable credit agreement claim which is becoming more and more known about here in the UK. It is possible to have your credit finance agreements –agreements such as credit cards, store cards, secured and unsecured loans, car finance agreements, and those with payment protection insurance ( PPI) ‘audited’. They may not comply with the terms of the 1974 Consumer Credit Act and if they do not they are unenforceable credit agreements. This means you can claim to have them written off. That is the balance completely cleared. For NO FEES a solicitor with handle your claim. This is on a no-win-no-fee basis so it is risk free.

10 Ways to Get and Keep Debt Out of Your Life! What is the Eleventh way?

Keep Debt Out of Your Life

1. Pay off your highest interest debt first. If you have a car loan that has a higher total of money owed to it that your credit cards, throw more of your monthly income at that first. Chances are it is a multi-year loan with a higher interest rate than your credit cards. And if you can pay that off sooner than is scheduled by paying more money towards the principal, you have a good chance of saving a lot of money that would have otherwise gone to paying interest on that loan.
2. Keep your credit card debt at a consistent level. This will require you to use your credit card less than you may be accustomed to, but it is a sound way to handle not building up more debt while eliminating debt in another area of your finances.
3. Use cash instead of credit cards. Budget in a certain amount of cash to be spent per week, and try not take withdraw more cash than that per week. By breaking it down into a weekly budget and only allowing yourself a minimal amount, you’re more likely to stick to your cash budget and not overspend.
4. Cut back on the vices. Whether its cigarettes or coffee, cut down and see how much you’ll save.
5. Put aside your spare change. You’d be surprised at the end of the year at how much that spare change will add up to.
6. Eliminate some of the expenses you already have. It might be a luxury that you enjoy but if you can do without it that money can be reallocated towards something more beneficial.
7. Don’t buy something unless you need it. It’s amazing how much money we spend on frivolous materials that are either hardly used or that we don’t even use at all.
8. Watch your energy bills. Using less electricity and gas can add up to a large amount of money saved over the course of the year.
9. Set up a weekly budget, a monthly budget and an annual budget. Be certain to check it often and see if you are staying on course. This is a way to hold yourself accountable and is likely to help you stick to your financial plan.
10. Be smart, control your impulses and make wise financial choices. They will pay off.

That is ten but what about number eleven? Read on.

If you have credit agreements taken out before April 2007 there is a new unenforceable credit agreement claim which is becoming more and more known about here in the UK. It is possible to have your credit finance agreements –agreements such as credit cards, store cards, secured and unsecured loans, car finance agreements, and those with payment protection insurance ( PPI) ‘audited’. They may not comply with the terms of the 1974 Consumer Credit Act and if they do not they are unenforceable credit agreements. This means you can claim to have them written off. That is the balance completely cleared. For NO FEES a solicitor with handle your claim. This is on a no-win-no-fee basis so it is risk free.

The Debt Crisis and How We Got Here. How you can solve your personal debt crisis.

We are in a state of crisis when it comes to debt we’ve accumulated. Many people are asking the question ‘how did this all happen?’ While you might think the answer is complex and difficult to understand it’s really not. Almost like a maths formula, the debt crisis that we now face played itself out in the form of an equation in which the final answer added up to less than zero and tons of debt. Here’s how it works. World wide companies and large corporations sit atop the global financial pyramid.

As most of the global economy is run on a capitalist idea of financial gains and large profits, those companies want to show just how well they are doing and how much money they are making so that investors will put even more money into those companies. So, they have a huge incentive to show the highest margins of capital profit every few months.

Unfortunately, there’s only so much actual physical money that they can make. In order to increase profits beyond a realistic number, they begin to loan money out and start counting the money that is owed to them as money that they have already made. Then, when they go to large money lending banks that lend money to big businesses, they produce the balance sheet that says they have the money, so borrowing more and more is okay because they have money coming in to pay the bank back.

The banks know how much they can profit from the interest on those large corporate loans, so they willingly lend out the money. But who are the businesses and corporations relying on to owe them these incredible amounts of money? Answer: the bottom of the financial pyramid – the overwhelming majority of citizens, like you and me who borrow money that they cannot possibly afford to pay back. It used to be that if you couldn’t show how you would pay back a loan, there was no way you could get a credit card or bank to lend you the money.

That changed when lenders not only lowered standards and but knowingly loaned out money to people even they knew could never pay it back. But it looked good on paper and on the balance sheet to have so much money supposedly coming in. So they did it. Now many of those citizens who borrowed more money in a year than they earn in 10 years are left drowning in debt. Everybody at the bottom of the financial pyramid owed money to the part of the pyramid that was immediately above them. When bottom couldn’t support the top, the pyramid crumbled. The enormous amount of money that was lent out should not have been, and most of the money that was eagerly borrowed should not have been either. What is the solution for you?

If you have credit agreements taken out before April 2007 there is a new unenforceable credit agreement claim which is becoming more and more known about here in the UK. It is possible to have your credit finance agreements –agreements such as credit cards, store cards, secured and unsecured loans, car finance agreements, including those with payment protection insurance ( PPI) ‘audited’. They may not comply with the terms of the 1974 Consumer Credit Act and if they do not they are unenforceable credit agreements. This means you can claim to have them written off. That is the balance completely cleared. For NO FEES a solicitor with handle your claim. This is on a no-win-no-fee basis so it is risk free. Many people like me, have found this to be the perfect solution to there debt problems.

My Debt is out of control. What can I do?

Once debt is out of control it can take over your whole life and is very confusing as to how to take control of the situation. You must look at how you got into a situation like this, no matter how difficult it may be. The majority of people overspend by one-half of their take home pay. Of course some emergencies arise and that cannot be helped. Sitting down and adding up your necessities is the first step; then what is left over must be added into getting control of the debt. Buy food, clothes and household items when they are on sale and clip coupons. There are numerous ways to save on your grocery bill. The more money you save the more you can apply to your debts. Once this is applied to everyday living you will see that money can be saved and you will see that there is light at the end of the debt tunnel. First thing to try is lowering your interest rate with credit card companies. This can be obtained by merely calling the company and requesting a lower interest rate. Lowering the interest rate will lower the monthly payments.

The same things apply with a home loan or personal loans, call around and find out the cheapest rates then switch (if possible). As for credit cards some credit card companies will lower your interest rate to near to nothing for only several months and some companies will extend the amount of time. But keep in mind once you do these things you can no longer use that credit card. Companies do not want to lose the money and most will work with an individual but you will have to pick up the phone and call them. The majority of these companies are more than happy to work with an individual. The companies get their money and your credit is not destroyed.

Also, a flaw has been discovered in the Consumer Credit Act of 1974 and in some cases the entire amount of credit cards debt have been written. If you have taken out your credit card prior to April 2007 there is a strong possibility that the entire amount can be written off. This could be well worth it if you owe a large amount on credit cards or loans. One company that will help you to understand the financial claims management industry is www.creditcardswrittenoff.com They provide information and advice about the services offered from the many companies appearing weekly in this new claims industry.They are not all the same so it is best to take advice from people who have had first hand experience of making claims themselves.

Call 0845 475 5435 for a FREE audit with NO back end fees at all!

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