Have a delinquency budget?
Monday, Dec. 31Posted 2 p.m. EST
The consumer credit crunch may have caused you to join those Americans who created a "delinquency budget," which emphasizes paying off bills based upon how past due they are.
A provider of Web-based financial services uncovered an increase in this budget method based on the responses of the more than 1,000 U.S. households it surveyed.
A cross section of the corporation's clients, which include banks, credit unions, utilities, health care companies, card issuers, receivables management and mortgage companies, were also surveyed. They reported feeling a negative impact from the consumer credit crunch. Very few think it will be easy to collect payments in 2008, and 84 percent plan to spend more on collection efforts.
Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Greater Atlanta offers some tips to whittle away that credit card debt in the new year.
First, stop using your credit cards. I know this may be a little rough for some of you, so start off by limiting yourself to a couple of cards that have some perks, such as great terms, low rates, no annual fees and reasonable interest terms.
Don't even look at that tempting credit card offer. Just shred it. Better yet, limit the offers by calling (888) 5-OPTOUT or (888) 567-8688, or you can go online to www.optoutprescreen.com.
Set up a plan to repay and try paying off the card with the highest interest rate first.
Pay more than the minimum payment.
Consider recruiting the help of a credit counselor.
Beating Bankruptcy is a blog on bankruptcy and debt written by Brigitte Yuille. -- Posted: Dec. 31, 2007 | 
