I’ve gotten a couple of questions from readers asking whether or not a cell phone can hurt your credit. The short answer is yes, it can. Here’s how.
Applying for Cell Phone Service
First of all, let’s talk about getting a cell phone. You’re going to need good credit to get service. Almost all wireless providers check your credit before setting you up with an account. They want to make sure you’re “creditworthy” before “lending” you minutes of airtime. So it’s a good idea to check your own credit history before going to get a cell phone (especially considering that you may be asked for a large down payment or pay more for monthly service if your credit isn’t up to snuff).
This credit check by the wireless provider is the first way getting a cell phone can ding you. Anytime a company makes an inquiry into your credit report, your score suffers slightly. It’s really not a big deal as long as you don’t apply for wireless service from several different providers all at once. That could notably lower your score.
Reporting Your Payment History to the Bureaus
Once you have a cell phone, some service providers do report your monthly payments to the credit reporting agencies. Some, like AT&T, report both your on-time and delinquent payments; Others report only your delinquencies. Before signing up for wireless service, ask the provider it’s policy on reporting your payments to the credit bureaus. Since payment history accounts for 35% of your credit score, not paying your cell phone bill to the companies that report could significantly damage your score.
Other wireless providers like Verizon and Sprint don’t report any monthly payment history to the bureaus. But that doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. Almost all wireless providers will turn you over to a collections agency if you default on your account entirely. And this collections account will most likely show up on your credit report, dragging down your credit score. AT&T sends you three warning letters before turning your account over to collections; Verizon waits 120 days from the first missed payment.
The Catch-22
It’s important to have good credit to get wireless service, and it’s important to pay your monthly cell phone bill to maintain good credit. So where does that leave people with bad credit? Consider a prepaid cell phone if you don’t qualify for a traditional plan, or a provider is asking you to pay more for a traditional plan because of bad credit.
The downsides with going prepaid (besides having to pay upfront for your cell phone usage), is that the minutes are sometimes more expensive than traditional plans. Unfortunately, this is just one more example of a catch-22 in which a credit-challenged person is required to pay more for goods and services, making it even harder improve their credit situation. (For more examples of how the poor get poorer, check out this recent Washington Post article on the topic).
But prepaid cell phones aren’t all bad. In fact, many people out there actually prefer them. They come with no commitment, so if you have a problem with the service or cost, you can simply switch providers. And sometimes prepaid plans can save you money, especially if you only use the phone for emergencies, rather than long chats.
Check out 10 other useful secrets the cell phone carriers don’t want you to know. And remember that your cell phone can affect your credit, so it’s important to pay your bill each month.
Photo by KB35
Posted on 27 May 2009. Tags: Attributes, Bankruptcy, Best Interest, Clear Debt, Confidence, Consultation, Credit Cards, Credit Counseling, Critical Financial Situation, Debt Consultants, Debt Relief, Debt Settlement, Debt Situation, Debt Solution, Home Equity, Main Goal, Minimum Payment, Minimum Payments, Quality Services, Settlement Solution
Clear Debt Solution is offering comprehensive debt relief consultation by conducting ample analysis of your current debt situation. The debt consultants who are offering their quality services are highly skilled and you will be guided by them through all the available options that may relief you from the seemingly never-ending debt. The main goal of this company is to give the confidence to a person to decide an option what will be able to handle his or her financial needs effectively.
In order to escape from your critical financial situation, you will be considering 5 basic options. These options are minimum payments, credit counseling, home equity load, debt settlement and bankruptcy. Each option has its own set of advantages, risks and downsides and before selecting one, you must consider all the attributes that may negatively affect your debt relief procedure. All these options are not equally effective for every financial condition and you will get the best result only if you pick the right one.
Clear Debt Solution is offering a complete Debt Settlement solution which is being considered as the only option when someone cant even afford the minimum payment of their credit cards and also don’t want to file for a bankruptcy. Therefore, if you decide to go for a Debt Settlement, you must ensure an experienced and efficient company like ClearDebtSolution.com. Their IAPDA certified debt specialists are always working for the best interest of their clients with prompt response and quality services in every instance.
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Posted on 27 May 2009. Tags: Attorneys At Law, Bankruptcy Attorneys, Bankruptcy Chapter 7, Business Restructuring, Chapter Eleven, Circumstance, Collections, Counselor, Enterprise, Entrepreneur, Financial Institution, Financial Resources, Foreclosures, Frustrations, Hero, Legal Forum, Limited Liability Company, Median Income, Nerves, Professional Manager
With Chapter 7, the legal forum sells all company's financial resources and liquidates it. You must develop it clear to both your child and the manager that you see coming the professional manager to treat your child the same as any other worker. Yes, getting yourself into a bad financial circumstance can be tough on the nerves.
There are two types of limited liability company bankruptcy – Chapter 7 and Chapter eleven. To qualify for a Chapter eleven bankruptcy as an persons, your annual family income should be below your states median income for your family size. This will prevent the collections calls and the foreclosures right away. When I have gone this route, the cost has mostly been $3,000 to $4,000. Your rebuilding counselor looks like a hero to the financial institution. Your near-bankrupt business and the related frustrations may be depressing you right now, which is understandable. This closed-door session must be an opportunity for you to aid your report do a better job and increase his or her skills. When you don't staunch the bleeding cash, your enterprise is going to die on the way to the hospital. To get out of liability and turn around the enterprise, an entrepreneur should prevent being loyal to a fault and eliminate expenses. This will keep you out of lawful trouble. When searching out good Chapter vii bankruptcy attorneys-at-law, here are numerous things to look for. Thus take matters into your own hands before your company gets in too deep.
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Posted on 27 May 2009. Tags: Bankrupt Company, Bankruptcy Lawyers, Books Search, Chapter Seven, Corporation Bankruptcy, Counsellor, Debts, Decreases, Disposable Income, Financial Distress, Financial Institution, Headcount, Insolvency, Overhead Savings, Professional Organization, S Corporation, Step 3, Team Member, Travel Expenses, Turnaround
Insolvency is the only solution he or she knows to the troubles of a near-bankrupt company. Few of these businesses contact the financial institution about their difficulties. The remaining convesation here describes partnerships with company brokers since they work with most of the companies for sale. The courts can waive certain debts to relieve some of the financial distress. Additionally the headcount savings, you will furthermore see overhead savings such as decreases in your space expense, travel expenses and insurance. A company turnaround will be able to get your enterprise back on track financially. If your sales team is any good, they do not need a membership to a professional organization to locate sales leads. Before shutting your company down, conduct an extensive review of how you run your business.
Part 1: Is your disposable income from Step 3 less than $6,000, then you will be able to take S corporation bankruptcy. If a team member doesn't agree to the pay eliminate, then you must lay off her or him. The statistics on failed companies for the period 1912 to 1997 show that about 17 percent of businesses failed. Therefore, if you choose to take bankruptcy, I strongly suggest that you hire an experienced bankruptcy legal counsellor to make clear your options and keep safe your interests through the bankruptcy. If you leave the filing up to your people you owe, they may choose to file a chapter seven petition instead. Besides books, search for articles that are going to give you guidance for helping your small company with its financial problems. Searching for corporation bankruptcy lawyers.
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Posted on 26 May 2009. Tags: Adt, Alarm System, Apx, Brinks, Corporations, Dollar Bills, Family Memories, Fit, Great Eye, Home Alarm Systems, Home Security Systems, Household, Jewellery, Pinnacle, Sales Pitches, Search Engines, Security Monitoring, Security System, Selective Information
I have been browsing for a alarm systems for one month now and I finally ordered the system that seems to fit my pad, my husband and kids and our lives.
We looked through several different alarm companies to find the lowest cost selection as opposed to the most big-ticket choice. I must say, that I was bummed out with most of the web sites we saw at but one stood out above all the others and that was Family Home Security. Their monitoring info was great, eye opening and clearing up. I wish they were a company that installed security systems themselves because I know it would be done very well and with very much of attending to detail.
What made it a loose experience? Well, we received a breaking and enterings 5 weeks ago that wasn’t very fun. Fortunately, we were away of town and they simply took jewellery and dollar bills. Now there are kids in the household and a mass more precious stuff like figurers, electronics, and above all – family and family memories and pictures. We simply preferred to find the greatest alarm system that we could all apply and feel dependable with. It was emphatically time to get one this year.
So, how did we find the proper alarm system? We commenced by looking ‘home security systems’ on the search engines, then surfed through entirely of the sites on the first page. A lot of them were junk…and I was sad about that. Everybody I know says Ask is the nicest…at any rate, later on looking through those sites we couldn’t determine what we were waiting for. We aren’t looking for wish a difficult sales procedure and we didn’t want to guess a great deal about it. Nearly all of these websites were annoying sales pitches – I wanted information!
Most of the corporations we considered were GE, Brinks, APX, ADT and Pinnacle. Several of them look to use standardized alarm systems…and we at last ended up with a Pinnacle Security system after perusing the dependable selective information received at homesecurityguru and FamilyHomeSecurity.
It’s good to check tremendous educational web sites out there on the field of security systems.
I hope you find the right one for your family!
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Posted on 26 May 2009. Tags: Credi, Credit Card Debt, Credit Card Payment, Credit Card Provider, Credit Card Users, Credit Provider, Credit Risk, Damper, Default Rule, Department Store, Difference Of Opinion, Disagreement, Discretion, Economic Climate, Enough Money, Financial Institution, Mdash, Real Situation, Universal Default Clause, Unsecured Debt
Imagine that you were out with a group of your friends. While you guys were out, say that you had a disagreement with one of your friends over money. Nothing major, just a difference of opinion. The night out continued as planned, so you believed the issue had been resolved. However, the following day, much to your surprise, you find out that not just the one, but all of your friends have turned against you. That would put a real damper on your social life, wouldn’t it?
Now, what if I told you that the scenario is not imagined at all? In fact, it is a very real situation for a lot of credit card users and it may even happen to you. Your credit card provider has the legal right under the "universal default" clause to raise your interest rate and lower your credit limit for any financial discretion that you have with any financial institution.
How universal default works
Basically, universal default works like this. When the economic climate is bad, your credit card provider begins to get a little nervous. Credit card debt is a form of unsecured debt, so your credit provider knows that if your rent and your credit card payment were due at the same time—and you only had enough money to pay for one of the bills—you would probably opt to pay your rent.
In an effort to recoup some of the money they will surely lose to defaults, your credit card provider will begin to check the credit reports of their customers. They are looking for any changes (big or small) or proof that you paid one of your bills late. It could be a utility bill, a car note, department store bill, or even a gas card. As long as your payment was received 30 days late, you can be labeled a "credit risk."
Dig deep
The universal default clause is explained in greater detail in your written credit card agreement, though you’ll have to dig deep within the fine print to find it. To impose the universal default rule to your account, the credit card provider legally has to notify you in writing 15 days before the interest hike is enforced. If you believe the rate increase will create a financial hardship for you, you have the legal right to opt out of your credit card agreement. This means your credit card provider must allow you to pay your outstanding balance at the normal fixed interest rate. However, your account will essentially be closed at this point because you will never be able to use the credit card again.
"Mind your own business"
The government has taken action to put an end to universal default, in effect telling credit card companies to mind their own business. The new credit card legislation that passed through the Senate last week bans universal default, and hopefully will remain a clause in the version that makes it to President Obama’s desk.
The Federal Reserve has also issued regulations stating that the universal default clause can no longer be imposed or included in credit card agreements. Your credit card provider can only hold you accountable for in-house financial discretions.
Don’t get too excited, though. The new regulation from the Fed isn’t schedule to take effect until July 1, 2010. In the meantime, credit card providers are free to increase interest rates anytime they deem fit. To stay under their unscrupulous radar, try to remain current on all of your bills. By staying on the good side of each of your creditors, they’re less likely to rally against you.
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This guest post was contributed by LaShon Fryer. LaShon is a freelance writer and blogger for business publications. When she is not writing, she is busy in her children’s apparel store Bring-2-Fruition. In January she will return to her alma mater, Temple University, to pursue her M.B.A. in Financial Management.
If you are interested in guest blogging for SpendOnLife.com, visit our Write For Us page for details.
Posted on 26 May 2009. Tags: Address Validation, Adverse Credit History, Consumer Credit Report, Contractual Commitments, Credit Checks, Credit Solution, Criminal History, Employer Reference, Employment Screening Services, Financial Checks, Financial History, Fundamental Services, Guarantor, Lettings Agents, Record History, Reference Checks, Risk Ratings, Screening Tenants, Service Retailers, Tenant Checks
With the widespread of internet, almost all sorts of consumer products and services have become quite reachable to all range of people. On-line credit checks are the most innovative idea of using the functionality of the World Wide Web in a groundbreaking way to get your financial issues done. This package includes a wide range of services from screening tenants, consumers and employees to providing consumer credit report and all these quality services are available online. Moreover, through these services, carrying tenant checks along with monetary checks and overall risk ratings of landlords and lettings agents will become easier than ever.
On-line credit checks providing companies conduct financial checks, address verification, identity proof and criminal record history depending on the type of service. Retailers can get benefited from this service by carrying out checks to a customer’s identity as well as his or her financial history, where a tenant or a customer has defaulted; they can also get the service of finding out the debtors. Good consumer credit report providing companies offer various packages of tenant or guarantor report for the convenience of the clients. You will be able to pick the package that exactly meets your requirements and in this way you can save significant amount of money by not paying for a service that you may not need.
Many agencies offer a wide range of employment screening services that can meet the essential needs or almost any level of employer. These services includes 24 hour check fundamental services like address validation and adverse credit history, verification of qualifications, comprehensive previous employer reference checks, criminal history and many more. This consumer credit report check service providers are specialize in assessing the risk of a person with respect to monetary and other related contractual commitments and most of the services are provide on a pay as you go basis.
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