Looking to reduce debt? Debt consolidation maybe the option for you. When excessive credit card debt has occurred debt consolidation should be the first option you look into. The term “debt consolidation” nowadays is universally used to describe many different processes. Technically, it is the process of obtaining one large loan to pay off lots of small loans with the intention of lowering your interest rate, your monthly payments, and the length of time till the debt is paid off. Although there are many ways to consolidate debt, 3 basics forms come to mind.

Balance transfers are one way to consolidate credit card debt. This is when you can obtain a new credit card with a larger credit limit and a lower initial interest rate, then transfer the balance from several other cards over to the new card. While this may lower your payments and help to pay off the debt sooner, it can also be a “role of the dice”. If your situation financial position gets worst, that consolidation method may hurt your ability to seek other debt relief options.

Taking out a personal loan is another way to go and is more recommended than consolidating with another credit card. Going to your local bank and/or credit union and applying for a small personal loan to consolidate can be a great option if you can qualify. What may people are seeing, especially nowadays, is that the debt they have is hurting their ability to qualify for additional lines of unsecured credit.

Lastly is refinancing a home mortgage to consolidate debt. This can be done through refinancing the principal loan or taking out an equity line of credit secured against the home, sometimes known as a HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit). This is a great way to consolidate excessive credit card debt; however (as with anything) there are always holes that can be poked in the process. Most importantly, and this only applies to people in a more severe trouble, you are taking an unsecured debt and turning it into a secured debt. One of the main reasons people are looking into other means of debt relief in today’s market is because housing prices have made it difficult (if not impossible) for many people to tap into the equity in their homes. Additionally, if you already have excessive credit card debt, you may be in a position where you need a subprime mortgage, and with the collapse of the subprime mortgage market your options have dwindled; if not disappeared.

The amount of debt solutions available these days seems almost limitless. If you are a home owner with equity in your property and have excessive personal debt, refinancing could be your best option. Interest rates have been low for years, but right now they are really low! Using a refinance as a means of debt consolidation can be extremely beneficial.

Picture this. You bought your home 10 years ago for $200,000 with a 7% interest rate and a 30 year note. Your monthly payments, not including your taxes and insurance, are $1,330.60. After ten years of making your monthly payments on time every month, your principal payoff balance on your mortgage should be at about $171,295. Over the years you have a couple of bumps and bruises (financial speaking) and maybe spent a little too much on some clothes or a vacation! As a result, you’ve amassed $20,000 in credit card debt. Your monthly minimums on the credit card debt should be around $400 per month (assuming a 2% minimum). Between your mortgage and your credit card debt, you are spending $1,730.60 a month.

Let’s assume that you qualified for a new 30 year loan at 5%. You were able to consolidate your credit card debt into your home loan along with your old principal loan. You’d now have a principal balance of $191,295, assuming that you didn’t role your closing costs into the loan. Your new monthly payments are $1,026.91, once again not including your taxes and insurance.

Now are you ready for the really cool part?! If you hadn’t refinanced, it would have taken you another 20 years to pay off your mortgage, and the credit card debt (depending on your interest rates) could have cost you upwards of $30,000 - $40,000 to pay off! Let’s assume that the $1,730.60 monthly payment was an affordable payment for you. If you were to pretend that you still had that for a monthly payment, and just put it towards your mortgage payment each month, your new 30 year loan would be paid off in 13 years and you would save tens of thousands of dollars! As you can see, when in the correct financial position, refinancing can be a terrific debt solution!

While there are many companies that offer real debt consolidation plans and debt settlement options, unfortunately there are also some companies out there that that outright scam customers. These companies offer to help settle your debt for a fraction of the debt amount. Then these companies have you pay all kinds of fees before they even start working to settle your debt. But in many cases these companies do nothing more than collect these fees. They never follow through on the debt settlement options, and you are left holding the debt!

So in response to the numerous complaints against these companies the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is attempting to set new regulations that would govern companies who offer debt consolidation plans. The biggest change proposed will limit, or completely eliminate, upfront fees and charges.

This of course would nip the problem right in the bud. The fly by night companies that are making money by charging these fees and then providing no service would have their business model destroyed. These unscrupulous businesses would literally disappear overnight.

But there could be another unintended consequence. The same new rules designed to help consumers could backfire. The new proposed rules could actually keep consumers from having any debt settlement options at all.

Companies that do offer genuine debt consolidation plans could be put out of business too. After all, these are businesses and any business needs to make money. These new rules would essentially mean that the legitimate companies would be prohibited from charging their customers for the services that they provide.

While the legislation is needed it does propose a Catch 22 situation. We're hopeful that these shady companies disappear, and are ready and willing to step in to help consumers with our debt settlement solutions.

At the root of economic theory is a simple principle; people make smart and responsible financial decisions. Given the choice to spend their money paying debt that is owed, or to spend it on let’s say going out to dinner, the responsible consumer will spend their money on paying down the debt. Unfortunately that is not always the case.

For those of you that choose to go out to dinner, you should begin to focus on what you’d like to accomplish in your life. With every dollar you earn, you choose whether to responsible or to be irresponsible. Responsible people do not spend money on non-essential items they cannot afford. Additionally, I am constantly amazed when people have hundreds of dollars in cash in their pocket, and a nice new cell phone with a custom ring tone, but haven’t sent any money to their creditors in 6 months. What’s more important, your bills or your ring tone? Do you expect to pay your bills or do you think you can magically make them disappear?

Don’t get me wrong, there are always people that are just in that tough of a spot. They just don’t have enough money coming in each month to deal with all their bills. That’s not the person I’m referring too. I’m referring to the person that makes the conscious decision to avoid their creditors and spend money on worthless items instead. What these people must understand is that spending their money on themselves instead of dealing with their bills will only injure them in the long run. This behavior hinders credit scores and can even cause depression because of financial instability. You are either in denial about your situation, or you should seek professional help.

If you want to be responsible, my recommendation would be to look into a debt consolidation program, a debt settlement program, or start to automate your bills. Create an income and expense budget to understand what you can afford. Possibly pay all your bills through your bank accounts. Set up an automatic deposit for your paycheck to go into your checking account. Total up your monthly bills for each month. Have that amount remain in your checking account and have the remainder of your funds be transferred into a savings account. Forget about your checking and allow yourself to use the money in your savings as you see fit. This will ensure that you begin to live within your means and your bills will get paid on time.

Arizona home owners who are already struggling to make ends meet may find themselves facing an unforeseen expense related to their mortgages. If you are one of these homeowners already stressed with money management woes, perhaps even to the point of exploring debt settlement options or debt consolidation plans, the state equalization property tax repeal bill might be a surprise you didn’t need. This is especially true right now with Christmas shopping right around the corner.

The repeal of the state equalization property tax means that even though the value of your home has been going down, your property taxes will go up. If you have a mortgage on your property, your property taxes are likely paid by an escrow account you set up when you took out your mortgage. You literally pay your taxes as a part of your mortgage payment which is then held in an escrow account.

In the event that property taxes go up you have the choice of making a higher monthly mortgage payment or paying the difference to the mortgage company in one lump sum when your tax bill is due. Many homeowners are surprised when they get a bill stating their escrow account does not have enough money to pay their taxes that recently increased. Will homeowners already having money management issues be able to come up with this extra expense?

Not likely. Most homeowners have to tighten their belts even more when it comes to discretionary spending as the holiday season approaches. Money management is on everybody’s minds right now, and unforeseen bills can ruin a family’s budget. Less discretionary spending means less money getting infused back into the economy. This of course refuels the recession. It is a vicious cycle.

Homeowners may not be the only ones who feel the pain from this property tax increase either. Businesses and utility companies who own large tracts of land will be facing very large property tax bill increases too. The additional expenses they incur will of course be passed on to you, the consumer already struggling to make ends meet.

Are you prepared for a possible increase to your property taxes this year? Thankfully, if you have excessive unsecured debt in addition to your mortgage problems, debt settlement options are available for these tough times.

Smartphones are becoming a necessity for many people today. Unfortunately these phones don’t come cheap. In addition to the initial cost of buying the phone, you have to pay for your monthly plan. People also frequently pay for additional accessories (such as improved battery chargers) and downloads from app stores for personalizing the phone. All of this can lead you into a situation where you’re spending more money than you should on a phone. If you find yourself in the position of reviewing debt consolidation plans and trying to settle credit card debt but you don’t know where your money is going then you may want to look at how much you spend on your phone each year. It’s good to know which smartphones offer the best deal in terms of their cost. Take a look at the differences between the iPhone 3GS and the Android G1 and you can see that some phones are better than others when it comes to cost.

The iPhone 3GS is generally considered a better phone than the Android G1. There’s a lot of hype about the iPhone and much of it is well-deserved. However the Android G1 is a highly capable smartphone and it may be a lot more affordable than the iPhone 3GS is. First of all, the Android phone is cheaper to purchase; it runs $50 cheaper than the iPhone 3GS when purchased with a contract and is a full $200 cheaper when bought without a contract. Moreover, the monthly bill on this phone is cheaper; the total monthly cost of an unlimited voice, messaging and data plan is approximately $35 cheaper with the Android than with the iPhone 3GS. If you don’t need an unlimited plan then you’re looking at a savings of about $35 per month when getting an average usage plan on your Android G1 compared to your iPhone 3GS.

But do you get more for your money when you spend the extra to get an iPhone? It doesn’t appear that that’s the case. The average usage plan for the Android phone gives you a full 100 extra minutes of talk time for a price that is $35 per month lower (and both phones come with unlimited data and messaging). Both phones have WiFi, GPS, voicer commands, cameras that are comparable to one another and similar battery life in terms of talk time. The iPhone 3GS does offer longer standby time before recharging is needed and it offers more on-device memory storage. However it doesn’t offer multitasking features which the Android G1 does offer. Both phones allow you to download applications from their individual stores. The iPhone store may offer more apps but it also offers more apps that cost money. The Android store is growing and can be added to by a variety of developers so costs for downloading apps vary and may be cheaper than iPhone apps depending on what you want to download.

So what does all of this boil down to? Even if you need a smartphone, you may not need the phone that you think you need. If you’re having trouble with debt then you should look into finding a smartphone that meets your needs without costing so much. There are a lot of modern phones out there that don’t have to cost as much as the one that you think you love. Plus you can further reduce what you spend on your phone by limiting the apps that you pay for and reducing your plan if you don’t need as much talk time as you have. Instead of trying to settle credit card debt later, try to reduce your spending today. Instead of looking into debt consolidation plans in the future, try to reduce how much you are adding to your debt right now. Being smart about your phone means you’re being smart about your money.

The holidays are a mixed bag of emotions for many people. On the one hand, we get excited about all of the wonderful things that we get to experience during the holiday season. On the other hand, the holidays can be a highly stressful time of year. A lot of that holiday stress comes from financial concerns that crop up during the holidays. Right after the holiday rush a lot of people have to start looking into credit card debt negotiation, debt consolidation plans and other ways to settle credit card debt because they spent too much money during the Christmas season. If you can avoid going in to debt this year then you can enjoy the holidays more fully. If you cut back on your spending in three areas – presents, travel and parties – then you should be able to minimize the amount of debt that you acquire during the holidays this year.

The biggest problem area for a lot of people is the problem of Christmas presents. There are certain people in our lives to whom we feel obligated to give Christmas presents. This ends up costing us a lot of money. If you can find a way to buy fewer presents this year then you will have found a way to minimize your need to settle credit card debt once the holidays are done. The key here is to talk to the people in your life with whom it’s reasonable to discuss the problem. Parents, adult siblings, friends and spouses are all people that you can talk to about holiday spending. Most of us are in the same position of dealing with financial difficulties and we can help each other out by relieving each other of the burden of spending a lot of money on presents. Agree to only buy gifts for the kids, do a holiday potluck instead of exchanging gifts with friends or do a “white elephant” party where each person buys for only one other person in a group. These methods reduce what you spend on Christmas presents and help you avoid the need to review debt consolidation plans at the end of the year.

Next you may want to reconsider your travel plans for the holiday season. A lot of people travel to their hometowns for the holidays. Some go for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Others go to both their own parents’ homes and their in-laws. Consider whether or not that’s a smart Christmas investment this year. Maybe you can plan one big family get-together in the spring instead when travel fares may be cheaper. Or perhaps you can go to just one gathering instead of several. Or maybe you can get with the 21st century and use the Internet and video conferencing to bring everyone together in one space on Christmas even though you’re in different parts of the country. Barring that, at least reduce your travel costs by looking for good deals on travel, keeping costly travel activities to a minimum and eating at home with the family instead of dining out in restaurants during the trip. All of these things reduce your holiday spending and help you keep out of debt so that you don’t have to look into credit card debt negotiation after the holidays.

Finally you’ll want to make sure that you keep your spending limited when it comes to holiday parties this year. Holiday parties are pricey whether you are throwing them yourself or just attending a variety of different events. Attendees feel the need to dress up, make sure they have fresh haircuts, bring a bottle of wine with them and even bring gifts for their hosts. To keep the costs down in this area you’ll want to limit yourself to the number of parties that you choose to attend. Make do with the clothing that you have in your closet already instead of buying dressy new clothes for the event. And stick to bringing an affordable bottle of wine or even a homemade dessert rather than a gift. These things all help to make sure that you don’t rack up a bunch of credit card debt by attending holiday parties and keep you from needing to settle credit card debt later on. And all of that makes it a lot easier for you to fully enjoy the holiday season!

The Credit Card Reform Act of 2010 is one of the best things that President Obama has done for the consumers of this country so far to date. Problems with credit card debt plague a large percentage of Americans. This new act will make it much easier for consumers to avoid some of the major pitfalls of credit cards which cause debt to get so out of control. It’s important to know what the act means for you so that you can be a smarter credit card user once the act’s regulations go into effect. It’s also important to understand that now is a really great time to look into debt consolidation plans and debt settlement options so that you can start with a cleaner slate when the Credit Card Reform Act regulations take hold.

What you need to understand about the Credit Card Reform Act of 2010 is that it is designed to hold credit card companies to higher standards. These standards are designed, in turn, to protect consumers from getting themselves into excessive trouble with credit card debt. The Act makes it so that credit card companies have to keep their rates fair (by prohibiting them from raising rates in the first year and putting strict rules in place about when and how rate reviews and increases must occur). The Act also makes it much easier for you to actually pay down your debt (by requiring clear information from the credit card company about the amount of time repayment will take, prohibiting certain fees and double billing and requiring credit card companies to apply your payment to the highest interest portion of your balance first). Finally the Act makes it a lot harder for people to get a credit card when they are under the age of 21 which is important because people tend to get into the most trouble when they get credit cards at too young of an age.

What all of this means for you is that you’re going to find it easier to understand what is going on with your credit card payments and that you should find it easier to pay off your debt on new credit cards. Additionally, you’ll be dealing with much fairer credit card practices once these regulations go into effect. However it also means something for many people right now. It means that now is the best time to look into debt consolidation plans and debt settlement options for your current debt. Many of the credit card companies have begun to arbitrarily raise their interest rates knowing that this new law is going to take effect. This proactive approach by the creditors has in turn caused financial hardships for many consumers. When interest rates on credit cards increase minimum payments typically increase as well causing people’s budgets to become negative on a monthly basis. If you can get a handle on your existing debt then you can start with a clean slate when these improved rules become the norm for credit card companies. That’s the best way to take full advantage of the benefits of the Credit Card Reform Act of 2010.