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You’re not alone: Help with Bankruptcy & Debt

Finance

Debt managementFrequently regarded as an indication of personal failure, bankruptcy is still today widely considered a highly sensitive topic. Many will even feel uneasy speaking about their debt problems with close relatives and friends. If you, too, are facing serious debt issues and are in need of help, rest assured you are not the only one afraid of sliding into bankruptcy. In fact, thousands of households in the UK are threateningly close to insolvency and most are experiencing the exact same feelings of shame and despair. This perfectly understandable reaction has, meanwhile, unfortunately overshadowed the fact that there are hands-on practical steps especially designed to help you resolve your debt situation.

There is a good reason why addressing the issue of bankruptcy has an urgent ring to it. Recent statistics indicate a steady rise of individual company insolvencies in the UK, particularly since the 1990s. According to the British Insolvency Service, the rate of bankruptcy on an individual level has risen from a total of 24,441 in 1997 to staggering 106,645 in 2007 in England and Wales. Alarmingly, the peak doesn’t seem to have been reached yet. As  respected online-service ‘This is Money’ reports, ‘record numbers of people were declared insolvent in England and Wales’ in 2010, further noting that ‘an all-time high of 135,089 people were declared insolvent in 2010—0.7% up on the total for 2009.’ As you can gather from these numbers, you are certainly not alone with your debt problems: Around 140,000 adults are facing bankruptcy as a direct consequence of mishandling their debt issues, which translates to 385 new cases per day. It has already been pointed out that ‘the number of victims will be enough to fill both the London 2012 Olympic stadium and the Emirates Stadium.’

So, if you’re facing bankruptcy, there’s no need to feel ashamed. By taking an active stance and addressing your debt issues, you may even be able to avert insolvency altogether. With years of experience and several distinctions to our credit, the Debt Advisory Line have established themselves as leading experts in the field of debt management. We’ve already helped thousands of individuals and households who thought bankruptcy was their only option. Settling debt issues is our forte – and you shouldn’t settle with anything less.

This post brought to you by Debt Advisory Line.

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Identity Theft: What To Do When You’ve Been Victimized

Finance

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Image by Don Hankins via Flickr

Have you ever been surprised by having a credit application denied?  Or been told that you’re paying too much for your car insurance because you have bad credit?

There are 15 million victims of identity each year with an estimated loss of $50 billion.   That’s a lot of cake.    If you’re credit card gets stolen, you’re only liable for up to $50 of the theft, but what if your checking account is cracked or someone is opening accounts in your name?   What is the indirect cost coming form higher interest rates?

Identity theft happens.  It could happen to you.

What should you do if you become a victim of identity theft?

  1. File a police report.   You’ve been victimized, make sure you have some documentation of that.
  2. Contact any credit card company that has possibly been affected.   If you lost your wallet, call them all.    If somebody has opening cards in your name, call all of those.
  3. Call the credit bureaus* and have a fraud alert put on your credit report.   This will force any new creditor to take extra steps to verify your identity before opening a new account.  Ideally, your identity thief won’t be able to make the grade.   If that isn’t enough, look into an identity freeze.   That will stop a lender from even seeing your credit report without your explicit permission.
  4. Close your bank accounts  Depending on how severe the theft, you may need all new accounts at every level.   If the thief has a box of your checks, or even your account and routing numbers, you need to close the accounts to protect your money.
  5. Report the theft to the FTC at 877.438.4338.   You’ll get additional documentation of the theft, including an ID Theft Affidavit that can make it easier to clean up the mess.
  6. Hire a witchdoctor to curse the soul of your attacker.   No, he probably won’t actually turn into a warty toad, but what if?   Maybe the universe will wield the Magic Karma Hammer and beat him into a little greasy stain in the street.
The important thing to remember is to hurry.  The longer you wait, the more damage will be done and the harder it will be to straighten out.  As soon as you find out about the theft, start fixing it.
Have you had your identity stolen?  How did you deal with it?
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Delayed Gratification, Take II

Finance, Life

English: Zach Galifianakis as Alan from "...
English: Zach Galifianakis as Alan from "The Hangover" (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

How much would you pay for a kiss from the world’s sexiest celebrity?

That was the focus of a recent study that I can’t find today.   There is no celebrity waiting in the wings to deliver the drool, and the study doesn’t name which celebrity it is.  That’s an exercise for the reader.

This was a study into how we value nice things.

The fascinating part of the study is that people would be willing to pay more to get the kiss in 3 days than they would to get the tongue slipped immediately.

Anticipation adds value.

Instant gratification actually causes us to devalue the object of our desire.

This goes well beyond “Will you respect me in the morning?”

The last time I talked about delayed gratification, it was in the context of my kids.   That still holds true.   Kids don’t value the things that are handed to them.

The surprising–and disturbing–bit is that adults don’t, either.  If I run out to the store to buy an iPad the first day I see one, I won’t care about it nearly as much as if I spend a week or two agonizing over the decision.

The delay alone adds to the perceived value.  The agony turns the perceived value into gold.

If I spend a month searching for the perfect car, the thrill of the successful hunt adds less value than the time it took to do the hunting.

Here’s my frugal tip for today:  Delay your purchases.  While it may not actually save you any money, you will feel like you got a much better deal if you wait a few days for something you really want.

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