Oftentimes, borrowers are left with little choice other than to file bankruptcy. There are many reasons why your finances might have gotten in such a horrible shape that you had to exercise your right to file for bankruptcy protection. Thousands of new bankruptcy proceedings are filed daily in our country.

Commonly, borrowers have either los their jobs due to companies that are folding due to the financial crisis and weak economy or they have suffered illness or injury that prevented them from working – and therefore got far behind on many financial obligations. Whatever reason you had for filing bankruptcy, you now have an opportunity to rebuild your financial picture and become a better borrower.

Your (Surprising) New Borrowing Image

Potential creditors that view your credit report post bankruptcy will have a different opinion of you as a borrower than they did just a few months ago before you filed your bankruptcy proceeding. You have shown the borrowing world that you are subject to turn your back on the creditors who have trusted you in the past and walk away from debt that you have run up. This is a negative image that will haunt your reputation for the next ten years with some creditors.

On the other hand, because you now have a clean slate upon which to write your financial future, other creditors see you not as a liability to be avoided, but Read more »

Does your credit report raise a red flag for lenders? If the answer is yes, then you know how difficult it can be to get cash quickly in case of emergencies. Someone with a low credit score may only qualify for a bad credit instrument, such as title loans.

How Lenders Calculate Risk

Lenders use a number of different factors to calculate the amount of risk a borrower presents. Your borrowing history and current credit status are both important factors. Learning how these are evaluated will help you understand why finance companies may only qualify you for subprime loans.

Lenders analyze many different factors in your profile to determine risk, including:

* Number of Hard Inquires: Every time you apply for a loan, the lenders check up on your borrowing history by requesting a report from the credit bureaus. This is called a hard inquiry. When they notice that you have a lot of queries against your name in a short period of time, they will get the impression that you are in a bad financial situation, and hence a riskier investment. Read more »

In these tough economic times, there is a lot of discussion about the state of the global economy in general terms. The credit crisis and the various plans to move the nation out of spiraling debt and into more thriving times is the fodder of every media outlet.

We can all be armchair critics of the mis-management of our taxpayer dollars, but at this time, a more productive step might be assessing the management of our own personal finances.

Let’s take comedian, Jeff Foxworthy’s well known sketch “You Might Be A Redneck If” in a new direction with “You Might Have A Personal Credit Crisis If”.

Here are 15 signs that “You Might Have A Personal Credit Crisis If”. Check the signs that apply to you. Read more »

Inappropriate lending and greed appear to be two causes of the credit crunch we face right now. Loans were granted to borrowers who should never have been allowed to add to their existing debt load. As these ‘bad loans’ began to turn sour, the banks and other lenders had a smaller supply of money to lend.

Suddenly borrowing became more difficult and expensive for everyone. Usually difficulty in borrowing would be due to a lack of confidence in a borrower’s collateral. With Lenders anticipating a decline in the value of the collateral provided by the borrower to secure the loan, guidelines for qualifying have become more stringent. Sometimes the issue may simply be a perception of risk regarding the solvency of other banks within the lending system.

With the law of supply and demand kicking in, as the supply or availability of money shrunk, the cost of borrowing rose. Most recently, some lenders stopped lending completely while others collapsed under the weight of the bad loans they had accumulated.

A Credit Crunch Gains Momentum Read more »

What is a “Reverse Mortgage?”

Also known as a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM)a reverse mortgage,is a popular way older homeowners (62+) can convert part of the equity in their homes into tax-free income without having to sell the home, give up title, or take on a new monthly mortgage payments.

Before explaining a reverse mortgage, let’s review the features of a Standard Mortgage:

With a standard loan or mortgage, your income stream is used to ‘qualify’ for the mortgage or loan. The lender will want to see that you have enough cash flow from your job and other sources of income in order to make the payments.

By securing this loan or mortgage against your house, the bank has extra security. After all, if you stop paying, they can take away your house.

As the years go by and you continue to make the payments, you will build up ‘equity’, which is the difference between what your house is worth, and how much you owe on the loan or mortgage What you owe will be continually reducing as you pay off the principal.

A Reverse Mortgage … Reverses The Process: Read more »

While our country is in the midst of a serious recession, families also face their personal financial crisis every day. Big business and banks are being rescued through government bailouts, but where does the main street consumer find his personal bailout?

This is not the time wait and see what the government can do for you. Quite frankly, we have to bail ourselves out. Some of the options may not be pleasant. Many choices are uncomfortable. But remember, expecting ‘the comforts’ before we could pay for them is what has got us into our financial crisis.

Assess Your Current Situation. Read more »

We all know the economy has seen better days. Banks are in trouble, insurance companies are getting hit hard, and the stock market is spiraling down the drain faster than you can say “FLUSH”. But the biggest question of all is: is it possible to still get a fast cash personal loan at an affordable rate? The answer, YES!

Why Fast Cash Personal Loans Are Still Useful

If anything, the fast cash personal loan has become more important now that it was in the past. Why? Because of the mess the economy is in: cutbacks, job losses, layoffs, pay degrades, benefit loses, etc. With so many different things bombarding you at once, it’s obvious that you may suffer from a few cash shortages at the worst possible times — that’s where the fast cash personal loan comes in.

Have Rates Skyrocketed Due to Tough Economic Times? Read more »