Hey all of my faithful followers and new ones. I've got to share this information with you in the raw. Credit Card Companies (CCC's) are using some extreme measures to get your money and attention.
Many of us are spending less on creating more debt and more on trying to just get rid of it but CCC's are not making it easy for us. I'm Executive Director of a non-profit organization called S&C Financial Credit Resolutions Group recognized by the IRS under code 501 (c) 3. Let me start by saying we share all our information unfunded. If you've found our Literacy to be unlike any you've seen, know that we come to you at a great deal of energy and cost with no support from not one elected official or government entity. So while they may have good intentions on making a difference in our community with Financial Literacy, they can't seem to pull away from supporting the same organizations they've been supporting since they've been in office. Publicly I've gotten them to agree to talk and meet with us and tell us to our face this is good information that people need but when it comes to funding it we hear the same excuse across the board. There's not a lot of money in the budget and we have to fund the organizations we've been funding. What about what our community needs? There's plenty talk of change, but I ain't buying it. So if you have an opportunity to get this information for free you'd better charish it because you won't likely hear it quite like this again. Enough of that let's move on to these sneaky CCC's.
There are two things I want to point out, the first is CCC's changing your interest rate arbitrarily. Many people are trying to budget to pay off their debt and CCC's are turning around and increasing the interest rate so high we can't keep up with the payments which then puts you into a cycle of late fee's and eventually over the limit fees. Be Sure to pay at least that minimum monthly payment before the next payment is due. CCC's can not consider you late for not paying late fee's and over limit fee's. They never tell you that. In regards to those high interest rates, most of the companies will agree to take it back to your fixed rate if you agree to close the account. I suggest you CLOSE IT, but with a plan. Here's the thing even when you whack away at the amount you owe the next thing they're doing is reducing your limit to the amount you owe. That means if you had a $4,000 Credit limit and you only owed $1,500 you where using about 25% of your limit. This means you would carry a good number of points in your score. When the CCC comes along and reduces your limit to the amount you owe of $1,500 you are now using 100% of you limit which reduces your score by at least 30-40 points. So the CCC's that are playing hardball need to see we're not playing with them. There are some of those push aside credit card companies many of us would rather not deal with who charge high fees from the onslaught. Those are awesome cards right now if you're trying to save your credit. Now it's strategy time. See we at S&C try to teach something no one else can even fathom. Watch this.
It takes two accounts open for 6 months with 6 months worth of activity just to generate a credit score. This means you can start seeing an increase in your credit score after only six month of on time payments. the beauty in this is it does not matter what the limit is on the card. So a card with a $300 limit is looked at no differently then one with a $3,000 limit. The light bulb is going on now isn't it? Now pay attention. You do whatever you can to stabilize that high limit Credit Card even if it means you have to close it so your payment won't fluctuate, then you open a small $300-$500 card for every one you close (they're going to be mostly with secondary lenders). Use those cards to pay something small like your light bill or cable bill and then send the money you would have paid to your utility company directly to the credit card company immediately. Continue to pay off those bottom feeder CCC's as normal. Do this for 6 months and see what happens to your credit score. It will begin to go back up and you will have regained control of your credit. Now, be sure to keep those rinky dink, secondary cards and if they raise your limit keep your strategy in front of you. Don't tempt yourself to use up that limit unless you intend to pay it off before the next billing cycle and do it. Remember, you're trying to establish or maintain good credit not find yourself back in debt.
The strategies we teach are intended to help you overcome the bondage of Credit, not keep you in it. Once you are using credit to the point where it can't use you, you will be able to walk towards your future plans of Financial Freedom. Be clear Credit in itself is not a bad thing if we put it in proper perspective. It is a means to a greater means not a means to an end. In a nut shell you should not be using credit as part of you personal livelihood you should be trying to transcend it. That's the reward of Financial Freedom. Now add a little Faith to that and you'll really see your Finances in a whole new light.
Well that's another one of our contributions to helping fix this this Credit Crises Mess. Feel free to contact S&C at 773-383-0849 with any questions. If you're in Chicago or want us to come to you, call us to find out when our next workshop is or have us come do one for you and your organization.
As Always, Be Blessed,
CC
2 comments:
I actually had to cancel my card because they raised the rate to 25% and they wanted to impose a $150 annual fee. They also wanted to impose a $10 monthly service fee. To make matters worse, I would have to pay interest on the fees they imposed. I decided it wasn't worth the trouble and canceled it.
This is where you can replace that with some secondary card like Credit One Bank. They start with a low limit and possibly a high interest rate but you just use this card to pay a small bill then send the money you would normally send to pay the bill to the credit card money before interest canbe tacked on. It's worth it to replace the points you loose by closing the other account but it will save you the headache of dealling with those crazy terms primary lenders are trying to impose. Don't give up on your credit just because it seems to have failed you. As Always, Be Blessed. I'm not in the business of endorsing Credit Card Companies for free, but if you'd like their website, contact me at cherylcalvin@sandcgroup.com and I'll send it to you.
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