There are many questions that you are assuredly going to be confronted with when applying for a credit card. These questions are important to answer, and answer honestly because of the credit card companies need for accurate information. The information that you provide will help them to determine what credit card is right for you and what financial offerings they can provide you through their institution. Lying about this information is not only problematic but also fraudulent. Whether you are applying for credit through a large institution, such as would be the case if you were applying for a Lloyds TSB or Barclays credit card for example, or are just looking for more data for a future application, the following is some of the common information that you will most likely be asked during this process.

Income

Though personal, a credit card will assuredly be asking you what your income level is. They will want to know what your annual take home is and may want to know what the monthly is as well. This information is important to a credit card company for many different reasons. First, it will help to determine how much financing and credit they can provide you with. They do not want you to be at risk of being unable to pay so knowing how much disposable income you have can allow them to provide you with an appropriate amount of financing. They will also want to know what income bracket you fall within to better help determine the type of credit card that is right for you. An individual with a high level of income may be eligible for a bonus or rewards card, while those with less monthly income or annual revenue may not. This serves as a protection to both the credit account holder and the lending institution.

History

Before issuing a line of credit to an individual, the financial history of that individual will be assessed. This is done by doing a credit report. The individual applying will have to provide information on application that agrees to this assessment. If not, they may not be able to move forward in the application process. A bank or credit card company wants to know that their risks are worth it. If an individual does not have an established credit history or has one that is highly flawed, this can reduce the chances of them issuing a card. If the individual has a stellar report, they may be more inclined to accept the application and even to increase the amount of credit that is issued. Either way, it will be unlikely when applying for a credit card that you will be able to move forward without answering questions regarding your credit history.

Employment

Another way in which a bank or financial institution will seek information on an application for a credit card is to ask for your employment history. This is important because it shows whether an applicant has a consistent source of annual income as well as how stable their career is. This section may or may not be included on the main application, but you should be prepared to answer it just in case.

Laura was getting ready to apply for a Lloyds TSB credit card. To prepare, she wanted to gather all the information that she may have needed before beginning the process.  Then she created the above list to help others.

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Do you feel like your drowning in debt? If you answered yes, one of the most effective ways to get to the root of the problem is seek the guidance of a debt counselor. It is very difficult to look at your spending with an open mind when you are trying to take control of the spending and the debt without an unbiased professional’s help. The first step identifying where the problem lies is to schedule a debt consultation. During your appointment, an experienced debt counselor will help you come up with a plan to tackle your debt, but you must be prepared if you want the appointment to go right.

How to Prepare for Your Upcoming Debt Consultation

When you are being counseled about your debt, the counselor will give you personalized advice that is tailored to help guide you out of your current situation. To give you advice, the counselor needs to know exactly how much pay you take home, how much all of your living expenses cost, and how much you owe all of your creditors. Only you know who you owe money to and how serious your situation has become. While it is only natural to try and downplay the situation in your own mind, you should never try and downplay your debt to your counselor. Here are some things you can do to prepare for your consultation so that you have everything you need to come up with a feasible debt reduction plan:

• Do not accept any new credit card offers or loans. The key is to stop digging yourself into debt, and taking out new lines of credit will not help the situation.

• Gather documentation that the counselor will need to review your current situation. These documents may include: billing statements, past due invoices, recent receipts, judgments, all letters from your creditors, titles to your cars, property deeds, and credit card statements. If you do not have any of these on hand, access your accounts online and print the account summary page.

• If you love to make work easier for everyone involved, make a list of all of the credit cards you have. In the spreadsheet, you can put the current account balance and credit limit. This will help your counselor see which cards need to be tackled first to repair your credit.

• Bring pay stubs from the last two pay periods. If your income varies, try bringing at least three months worth of cancelled checks. This will help the counselor assess how much you are taking home and what percentage of your income can be used to payoff debt.

Debt counselors can help you choose the best debt relief option for your situation. What is right for one person may not be right for the next. Bring everything that you need to help your counselor assess your situation. With all of the right documentation and the right mindset, you can pay your debt down and put your mind at ease.

This post was provided by Heather Graham, a personal finance expert. He recommends the consumers proposal process for those facing dept problems. André Gabbay et Associés Inc. can help with debt consulations.

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The economy over the past few years hit millions of consumers hard and as a result, many are trying to fix the damage that was done to their credit reports. Without a good credit score, it can be nearly impossible to rent an apartment, get a checking account or even find a job.

Before you agree to work with any credit repair agency, there are five facts that you need to know.

Do Your Research on Credit Repair Firms

Be wary of any credit repair company that solicits you, whether it’s through email, direct mail or by phone. This is a multi-million dollar industry and unfortunately, you can’t automatically give a company your trust simply because they sound legit.

It is vital to do your own research on a credit repair firm before proceeding. First and foremost, you should never have to pay for this service until the promised work has been done. Avoid any company that requires you to make an upfront payment in order to “fix” your credit. Even if they claim they will be incurring expenses on your behalf in order to contact your bill collectors and the credit bureaus, you don’t have to pay anything before they do the work. In fact, the Credit Repair Organization Act has made it illegal for these companies to charge you in advance.

Another red flag to look for is a credit repair company that encourages you not to contact the three main credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax and Transunion. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you, the consumer, have every right to contact the bureaus and dispute any information that may be invalid.

Understand Your Rights

Before you work with a credit repair agency, it is vital to fully understand your rights as a consumer. The Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Credit Repair Organization Act both contain information that you need to know in order to protect yourself, both from debt collectors and from shady credit repair companies.

The CROA states that credit repair agencies must provide you, in writing, your legal rights and how they will go about repairing your credit, the amount of time they estimate it will take to accomplish this, and how much you will have to pay to complete the work. Any guarantees they make must be made in writing.

Promises They Can’t Keep

If a credit repair agency tells you that they can remove all of the negative information from your credit report, this tells you that they are not being honest with you. Only negative information on your report that is invalid can be removed. Even if you pay off your debt, the entry will remain on your credit report for a period of up to 10 years.

The dispute process provided by the three main credit bureaus is designed to ensure that all of the information on your credit report is accurate, whether or not it is positive or negative to you. You cannot dispute a debt that is legally yours and have it removed from your credit report. If this was true, no one would have any negative entries on their credit reports.

Creating a “New” Identity

Another common “promise” you may run into with some credit repair agencies is that you can create an entirely new credit identity and you won’t have to worry about your past mistakes. This is completely false and fraudulent and you may end up facing prosecution as a result of this tactic.

If a credit repair agency urges you to apply for an Employer Identification Number (EIN) or encourages you to falsely claim identity theft in order to get a new social security number, this is your best indication that you are dealing with a scam artist. Unfortunately, many consumers find this out the hard way, after they are already in legal problems due to lying on loan applications or misrepresenting their social security number.

Understand Your Options

Don’t get disheartened. Just because there are a lot of wolves in sheep’s clothing doesn’t mean that all credit repair options are bad. There are reputable credit counselors out there who can assist you in legally repairing your credit and getting your life back on track.

The author who contributed this article is Chase Sagum, Financial and Business blogger. Check out more of his content at www.lexingtonlaw.com.

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Personal loans can be acquired from a whole assortment of online lending companies (-and financial institutions) that offer unsecured and secured personal loans. If you require a small, unsecured personal loan or a large personal loan tolling in the thousands of dollars – There are numerous loan options available from various online loan providers. Online lending institutions that specialise in personal loans can provide fast, convenient and proficient service through online application- and approval procedures. Individuals can obtain personal loans for any reason, without being questioned as to why you require the loan.

An online personal loan can be obtained even if the individual taking out the loan has bad- or no credit history. Subject to the kind of personal loan one applies for, collateral is not required for certain personal loan types. Smaller personal loans (-under $1000) are typically easier to acquire with no collateral requirements. Secured personal loans in larger amounts (-more than $1000) are also attainable, depending on the terms and conditions of the online lending company. Also, researching numerous lending institutions in order to find the appropriate personal loan type for your situation – is imperative. Online lending institutions provide application forms for the various types of personal loans they offer. These online application forms should also answer many of your loan related queries as you apply.

Unsecured personal loans on the other hand are loans that are offered at a higher interest rate, because the lack of collateral adds a risk factor to the lending institution. Generally, these online lending institutions favour loan applicants that have good credit. In other words, anyone with a clean/good credit history should easily find personal loan providers that will approve their personal loan application. Personal loan providers do typically offer loans for people with bad credit, but then again – the interest rates on these loans are usually higher. The financial risk is more pronounced in these loans, and therefore lending institutions are obliged to charge more for extending loans to clients of high risk.

A secured personal loan is usually easier to obtain, since collateral is put up to secure the loan amount. As a result, lending institutions are guaranteed of their investment in case the client defaults on a loan, plus consumers can easily acquire a personal loan if they have collateral to offer. Things like houses, property, cars, jewels, and any other valuable asset can be provided as collateral for a personal loan.

No matter what your financial necessities might be, there are legitimate lending institutions all over the internet that can help you to determine which loan type best suites your financial situation.

This article was provided by food lover and financial guru, ScribeZA, for an online financial institution that provides unsecured and secured personal loans.

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Debt Settlement

Debt can be really scary! You worry about creditor calls even when they aren’t calling. Wondering what you will say, how you will tell them that you lost your job, your income is not what it once was, or you simply got in over your head. You lose sleep and work and still don’t have a solution. This may be the time to consider debt settlement.

What is Debt Settlement?

This is a program offered by experts in finance and negotiations. When these services are contracted an experienced debt settlement professional will act on your behalf, call up your creditors and work at reducing your debt, your late fees and penalties to lower your total debt substantially. If you owe more than $10,000 then this is an option you should carefully consider.

How Does it Work?

In most cases, you are already in a debt collection situation and creditors are already contacting you and aren’t being very nice in their collection efforts. When you decide to contract debt consolidation services, the creditors stop calling and you stop making any payments you are currently making. Instead any payment you make is placed in a savings or escrow account set up by the debt settlement company. At that point they begin negotiating with your creditors and use the account funds to settle a certain amount of your debt. When these funds don’t cover the negotiated settlement amount then they work with you to get a loan to pay off all the creditors and leave you with the one loan payment.

 The Advantages

With debt settlement services you could satisfy your debt for far less than what you actually owe. It is not unheard of for a reliable debt settlement company like http://tridentdebtsolutions.com/debt-settlement/ to reduce debt by as much as 50% to 60% and sometimes even more. This gives you the opportunity of becoming totally debt free within a 12 to 24 month period. Once the settlement is agreed upon and you fulfill your part of the deal these debts will no longer be subject to legal action or collection pursuits. Additionally, most people who undergo the process feel financial relief as their monthly debt payment is often reduced substantially, giving them more disposable income.

The Disadvantages

Debt solution is not a “get-out-of-jail free card”. There are consequences and one of these may affect your credit score negatively. For a while a debt settlement process could give you a negative mark on your credit history. Still, this negative hit is not as dire or as far-reaching as that of bankruptcy. Additionally the forgiven amount of the debt will be reported on your credit score. Even so, by following your credit consolidation agent’s advice you can turn this negative mark around and pull your credit score back up.

Still a Solution

Even with the disadvantages debt settlement can be a good option when your credit bills are out of hand and you can barely make the minimum payments – never seeming to get ahead. Just make sure the debt settlement service you choose works in your best interest and helps you get fair offers you can actually pay. Once creditors agree to your offer get letters in writing that the account is settled and keep these in a safe location. You never know when you have to prove these as having been settled.

Jonathon Blocker is an expert on information regarding legal matters. Jon searches online for debt settlement to find firms that offer legal advice and assistance.

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