5 Signs You Need to File for Bankruptcy

Most people see bankruptcy as a bad thing. No one wants to have to file for it unless they absolutely have to. In fact bankruptcy is there to help people and businesses get their finances under control (Source: Abakhan &Associates Inc.). It may not be fun, but sometimes bankruptcy is necessary. There are many signs that you are heading in the direction of bankruptcy. The following are five of the more common signs, but this list if not exhaustive. 

Borrowing to meet expenses

You may be living on credit cards just to buy food and other basic necessities. If not the use of credit cards, you may be taking out payday loans to get you through to the next paycheck. Whatever your particular situation is, part of your economic survival is dependent upon borrowing. This situation will usually get worse, not better, and the total amount you owe will keep growing. 

One or more debts are in collections

Regardless of how many debts you have, if one or more of these debts are currently in collections, then you may need to file for bankruptcy. This debt may be a car loan that is overdue that is putting your car in danger of being repossessed, or you may be receiving phone calls from debt collectors. Debts in collection are a sign you do not have control of your finances.

Behind in your mortgage payments

This is a bad sign. Once you get behind on your mortgage payments, it can easily lead to foreclosure. Home lenders are notorious for adding late fees and penalties to mortgage payments that make catching up difficult. Bankruptcy can often save your home. In some cases when you file for bankruptcy, some late payments or other penalties may be forgiven. However, it most cases the late payments and penalties are put on hold. The creditors will not be able to collect if at all until your state of bankruptcy has been resolved.

Your savings is gone

Hopefully if you manage your finances correctly, you seldom to never have to touch your savings. If you have a savings account and it depleted, this is a warning sign that you may need to file for bankruptcy. In addition, if your retirement accounts have also been cashed in or you are considering cashing them in, you may need to file for bankruptcy. A bankruptcy can protect your retirement accounts.

You can only make the minimum payments on your credit cards

If you have sufficient income to pay the minimums on your debt each month, you may not think you are on the verge of bankruptcy, but the fact is, you are not making any progress in paying down your debt. The slightest disruption in your personal finances can easily tip you over the edge and into a bankruptcy. If you have multiple credit cards, it is a smart idea to narrow it down to one card. This will help you stay away from the temptation of using too much of your credit to the point that you can’t pay it back. However, you don’t want to get rid of all of your credit cards because you want to try to maintain the best line of credit as much as possible.

There is no single sign that indicates you are ready for a bankruptcy. However, if you can recognize the signposts as you travel down the road to a bankruptcy, you may be able to make necessary changes. At the very least, you will be ready to file for bankruptcy at an appropriate time and not undergo needless stress in your life by delaying the inevitable.

Five Tips To Saving Money On Your Daily Needs

Being able to save money, in any fashion, can make you feel protected and secure, especially in shaky financial times. The easy part is the planning, because anyone can fantasize about building that nest egg. The hard part is the actual doing, because when the reality of cutting corners actually hits, you may begin to doubt your plan of action. The good news is, you can do this, it will just take some strategizing, and some iron willpower.

Dumping The Luxuries

One reason that many people wind up spending way more money than they need to is because of all the luxuries that they honestly believe they cannot live without. If you are serious about saving money every month, you will have to draw some lines, painful though they may be. To start, see if you can downsize to a basic plan on the following: internet, cable and phone. Some companies offer reduced price plans, as well as ways to bundle all three onto one bill, for less money per month. Miss the movies? Watch them online for less.

Develop Some Shopping Tactics

One of the biggest expenses in any household budget is groceries. As has been done by many generations before you, you will have to become familiar with your local markets, and their sale days. A sale day is usually mid-week, and will be the beginning date of that week’s sale list. Any stock that is listed as being on sale will be available on the first day, but may not be the rest of the week. Find out what will be on sale, and then see if there are any coupons available for them. You can get them off the internet and out of newspapers. Combine all of this with store reward cards, and you will rack up some considerable savings on things you buy on a regular basis.

Speaking Of Cards

There was a time when the reward cards offered by the major chains only gave you a discount on your total bill when shopping there. Those times have definitely changed for the better! Possessing those cards can now earn you discounts and freebies at other stores, simply by continuing to be a loyal customer. For example, one major chain of grocery stores offers their customers a discount on their next gasoline purchase at a participating petroleum chain, if they spend X dollars on groceries. Combining discounts is a wonderful way to save money on a daily basis.

Freebies

While you are surfing the internet, looking for coupons, check out some of the ads you will see touting freebies on a lot of the coupon sites. You can get everything these days from free samples to full size product packages, simply by registering your email address with these websites. Some of them are for consumer survey sites, while others are sites connected to the manufacturers themselves. With the freebies sent in the mail, you will also receive even more coupons to use on your next shopping trip.

Bring It

And, then, there is the timeless method of saving a few bucks a week: bring it from home! Pack a lunch, bring your own coffee, each and every work day, simple as that. On average, this will save you 8 to 10 dollars a day, depending on how much coffee you would have, or where you would go to eat.

About Author: Alisa Martin is a proficient author and writes articles on Finance. She regularly contributes for the website Dollarquick.com.

Simple Credit Card Tips for Everyone

Credit card services are a multibillion dollar industry in the United States, attracting a variety of consumers who are looking for some extra spending money, emergency lines of cash, and even those in debt looking to consolidate their payments through one single credit line with a low interest rate. There are many pros and cons in signing up for a credit card, and many of these will affect you differently depending on your financial circumstances. 

Obtaining a line of credit often depends on your credit score. According to CreditScore.org, “760 and up is considered to be excellent and requires a long credit history with on-time payments and the right types of credit combined with low amounts of overall dept. 700-759 is considered very good, while 600-699 is considered good. 620-659 would be considered “not good,” 580-619 is “poor”, and 579 and below is “very poor.” The lowest credit scores on the scale go to people with major negative financial events like bankruptcy on their records.” Consider these few tips if you have no or low credit, bad credit, or are just starting out:

No Credit – If you have no credit score, you will be seen by many companies and banks who offer financing (for a car or home, for example) as non-satisfactory. The cards are already stacked against you—by having no substantial lines of credit since financial services have no idea about how trustworthy you if they were to loan you a specific sum of money. This is where singing up for a simple credit card with a low interest rate can come in handy. By singing up for a basic $5,000 line of credit and making double-payments on time over a long period of months, a consumer’s credit score will rise. But it is important to be careful here: do not sign up for an amount of credit you cannot pay back in the long term. If you are trying to enhance your credit score this way but lose your job in six months, you can easily fall behind on payments and ultimately hinder your credit score. As such, it is important to consider what you can afford and ensure you have enough in savings to pay off the card quickly in the event of such an emergency.

Bad Credit – Consumers with bad credit can have a harder time obtaining a credit card, and if they do, will often have a high interest rate attached to their monthly payment. If consumers have enough money saved up to incur a high interest rate, they can start to rebuild their credit score by simply following the tips mentioned in the previous section. If this is not an option, however, there are other methods that those with bad credit can use. Consider the following:

• Get a secured credit card. Some credit card companies offer a secured line of the credit that requires a deposit, so that it will be easier for the consumer to obtain approval for a credit card. Deposits are usually given back to consumers who complete all payments on time and their credit card balance returns to $0 upon closing. 
• Don’t sign up or go with “junk mail” credit card offers, since these are the leading ways to ruin a credit score for a long time. The fine print is often skipped on these, and massively high charges, fees, interest rates, and other hidden costs are associated with these cards. Make them all your personal-finance kryptonite. 
• Explain your situation to a customer service representative. Sometimes credit card companies will allow you to call and explain why you incurred bad credit. Companies are more likely to allow a line of credit to someone who got laid off or incurred a large medical bill before someone who signed up for several cards and spent themselves into oblivion. In terms of the credit score, these two consumers look similar although their behavior is dramatically different. Trying to explain your financial circumstances might help you secure a line of credit from a company, but you have to take the time to call their customer service line and explain your debacle. 

Good Credit – People with good credit might be wondering why they should even consider a credit card. There are a variety of reasons.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

First, keeping good credit steady and current is more advantageous than someone who has a high credit score, but has not had any credit activity for the last five years. Second, a high credit score will be attractive for services who want your business. As such, high credit score holders will be able to shop around for high lines of credit with amazingly low interest rates and other benefits and gifts offered by credit companies. Finally, having a high score will help you obtain high-cost items easier. Obtaining a home or automobile will be easier, and you will often be rewarded with low interest rates and monthly payments for items in which you finance.

Angie Picardo is a staff writer for NerdWallet. Her mission is to help consumers stay financially savvy, and save some money with a World Market promo code.