Tag: Tips

Categories
Credit Tips

5 Tips for Buying a House

Buying a home can be nerve wrecking and thrilling at the same time. This is especially for a first time home buyer. It is also difficult to know what exactly one should expect. The learning curve is obviously steep but the issues can be resolved by simply doing some homework on it. Some important tips have been explained as below.

1. Evaluate your credit

Your credit score is extremely important because it can be helpful for you to qualify for the loan. The standards are also higher in terms of what score you actually require and how exactly the cost of the loan is going to affect you.

2. Evaluate your liabilities and assets

This should be done so that you don’t owe a lot of money and all your payments are processed up to date. However the exact manner in which you spend your money must be taken into consideration. Any first time homebuyer should have a very good idea of what is owed and what is exactly coming in. Understanding a little bit about the monthly cash flows can also help you.

3. Organize all your documents

While you are applying for a mortgage, you must document all your taxes and incomes. Buying a home can take a long period of time but exactly knowing what you require and where you have to find it can help you to save time whenever you are ready.

4. Qualify yourself

As any first time homebuyer, you should know how much you can exactly afford to spend before any mortgage lender tells you how much you can qualify for. There is however no ratio of fixed debt to income that the lenders might require, but the old standard can dictate that not more than 28 per cent of the gross income will be devoted to housing costs.

5. Your down payment must be figured out

It takes a lot of effort to scrape together your down payment. There are also a variety of programs that can assist the buyers with qualifying situations and incomes. You can also speak with all the mortgage lenders when you are beginning the process. Check with all co-workers, friends and neighbors to find out the lenders they have enjoy being associated with. Take their advice to how to go about with it as it can help you to simplify the process. It is one of the important things to remember.

Categories
Credit Tips

3 Tips for Faster Medical Collections in Your Healthcare Practice

Talk with doctors or other practice leaders, and you’ll hear it again and again: one of the top challenges in maintaining a functional medical office is in collecting all the money that is due to the practice. Payer denials will become more pronounced with evolving reimbursement models, continuous payer coverage changes, and significant coding updates. Add in the mix that greater financial obligation is borne by the majority of patients because of high deductible plans, non-insurance, or underinsurance. More medical practices are implementing front end collection rules to better manage some of these obstacles.

Credit Card Authorization on File

When medical consultants look at what’s actually happening at practices, one of the big findings is that in many cases, the doctor’s office simply doesn’t have a solid and secure way of keeping a patient’s credit card information on file for delayed billing. That means that deductibles, co-pays and other amounts of money are walking out the door along with the patient. Experts point out how paper-based credit card systems have exposed providers to liability in the past. However, with new kinds of cloud hosted vendor systems, medical practices are sometimes able to keep credit card information securely to automatically bill a card after insurer responses are received.

To streamline this process, incorporate a credit card on file authorization in your financial policy. Spell out the exact terms, limits, and expiration that the authorization will cover. For instance, the patient’s credit card will be charged for an outstanding balance of $ 50.00 or less and no prior re-authorization notification is required by the practice. As with most everything in healthcare, the more transparency you can offer, the better buy in and cooperation you’ll receive from your patients.

Pre-registration and Verification of Insurance

Another very important element is to verify insurance before a visit. There is a core process of making sure that a patient has insurance, and then there are the other details of following up in making sure the insurance is effective, or will be effective on the date of service, and whether a certain procedure or visit is covered under the terms of the insurance contract. Many doctors already use hosts of people to go through these complicated details, but many practices could benefit from more staff hours put towards handling billing questions and revenue collection cycles.

By knowing if your patient has coverage before the appointment, you can better facilitate a conversation on his/her treatment plan course of action and financial responsibility. Some practices are installing kiosks with user-friendly step by step screens to capture insurance and demographic information, others offer a secure patient portal that patients access to complete their details online or downloadable forms from the practice website. Not only do these options assist with managing critical details but also speed the registration process.

For walk in patients or last-minute appointments, practice staff can easily look up benefits on a payer’s direct website or through a clearinghouse site. Some practice management systems have this feature built-in for convenience. Payers are required to give a response within 20 seconds of a real-time request.

Internal Monitoring

Another key that has helped some offices is to simply conduct a financial quality assurance audit on the processes around medical billing. This basically means getting an outside set of eyes to look at how well internal clerical workers are handling processes like registration and insurance certification as well as sending out claims to government or private insurers. This oversight can tighten up a revenue cycle and help a practice make sure that it is getting the money that it deserves for services offered, giving clinical professionals peace of mind about their financial solvency in the long-term.

Categories
Credit Tips

Five Tips to Avoid Identity Theft

Identity theft victims reported losing more than $15 billion in 2014. That’s more than the combined losses from burglary, motor vehicle theft and other property theft in the same period. While it’s no surprise that identity theft can leave you feeling vulnerable, there are things you can do to take some control.

Step 1: Order your credit report when you realize you’ve become a victim. You need to quickly find out about any errors showing up on your report. Go to annualcreditreport.com for free copies of your report from all three nationwide credit-reporting companies-Experian, Equifax and Transunion.

If you see any errors or fraudulent charges, report them to the credit reporting companies right away. They will investigate those items and then forward the information to the business that reported it. The business has 30 days to respond.

If the business providing the loan finds an error, it must notify the credit reporting company so your file can be corrected. If your credit changes because of the business’ investigation, the reporting company will send you a letter with the results.

Step 2: Place a fraud alert to make it harder for an identity thief to open more accounts in your name. Call any one of the three nationwide credit reporting companies and ask them to put an initial fraud alert on your credit report. They must contact the other two companies about your alert.

Equifax

1-800-525-6285

Experian

1-800-397-3742

TransUnion

1-800-680-7289

While there’s an alert on your report, anytime a business performs a credit inquiry they will need to verify your identity before issuing credit in your name. This may require contacting you, so be sure you’ve updated your credit report with your current contact information. The alert will stay on your report for 90 days and allows you to order an additional free copy of your report from each of the three credit reporting companies.

Step 3: Consider a credit freeze. A Credit Freeze, also known as a Security Freeze, gives you maximum control over who has access to your credit. It can stop a thief from opening new accounts in your name because lenders and other creditors won’t be able to get your credit report.

With a Credit Freeze in place, even you will have to take special steps to apply for credit. You can still open new accounts, apply for a job, rent an apartment, buy insurance, refinance your mortgage, or do anything else that requires your credit report. But businesses will need to verify your identity so they may need to contact you and you will have to call the reporting company to lift the freeze in order for the business to review your report. Again, be sure they have your most current information through your credit report.

A few things to know: Due to stringent laws, you’ll have to contact each reporting company separately to place a Credit Freeze. Also, placing a credit freeze does not affect your credit score. Finally, the cost depends on where you live. If you are 65 or older, or a victim of identity theft and submit a valid investigative or incident report, complaint with a law enforcement agency or the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), the fee will be waived.

Step 4: File an Identity Theft Report. An Identity Theft Report is a great weapon. You can use it to get fraudulent information removed from your credit report; stop a company from collecting debts that result from identity theft-or from selling the debt to another company for collection. You can also use it to place an extended fraud alert on your credit report, and to get information about accounts the identity thief opened or misused.

Filing an Identity Theft Report is simple: Submit a complaint about the theft to the FTC. When you finish writing all the details, print a copy of the report. It will print as an Identity Affidavit.

File a police report about your identity theft, and get a copy of the police report or the report number. (Make sure to bring your FTC Identity Theft Affidavit and attach it to your police report).

Some credit reporting companies may ask for more information or documentation than the Identity Theft Report includes. It depends on the policies of the credit reporting company and the business that sent the information about you to the reporting company.

Step 5: Report fraud on existing accounts. For any of your accounts that show fraudulent charges, contact the business right away. Explain that you’re an identity theft victim. Close the account and follow their reporting process. You can ask if they’ll accept your Identity Theft Report. Additionally, write to the fraud department of each business. By law, they have to review your letter, investigate your complaint, and tell you the results of their investigation. If the information is wrong, the business must tell the credit reporting company. Make sure to ask for a letter from the business confirming that it removed the fraudulent information.

On any credit card or bank account that remains open, take steps to protect yourself. Change your password and place code words on accounts that allow them. Code words are offered on some accounts as an added level of security. You can typically choose your code word. You might consider using something only you would know and is not public knowledge. Finally, continually monitor your accounts, keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity.

Categories
Credit Tips

Tips On How To Get Your Bad Credit Personal Loan Application Approved

In current times, the demand for bad credit personal loans has been on the rise. This can be attributed to the fact that the economy has not been very good. This coupled with the fact that commodity prices have been on the rise has led to most people having a bad credit history, which effectively locks them out of getting loans.

If you are in such a position, you should not despair. Even if you have a bad credit history, you can still apply for and get a loan. There are certain loans which are specifically meant for such a demographic, and it would be a good idea to make use of them when you need to borrow money.

A good example of a loan that you can take when you have a bad credit history is a payday advance. This is a kind of short term loan which is often paid within a month. As the name suggests, this kind of loan is often paid back when one receives his or her pay check at the end of the month.

One good thing about this kind of loan is that it is very easy to apply for one. If you need it, all you have to do is find a website run by one of the lenders. For instance, if you live in the United States you can simply use Google to search for payday advance lenders who have online sites. You can then fill out the form and then wait for the money to be deposited in your account.

When you apply for such loans, there are certain things that you need to do so as to increase the chances of getting approved. For instance, you need to know exactly what kind of documentation you need for the loan. For instance most payday advance dealers will require that you have proof of income, such as your pay slips for the past few months.

In addition to that, you may also need to provide details of your bank account. Most lenders will deposit the money in your account after approval, especially when you are applying online. Also, most of them will automatically deduct the amount you are to repay at the end of the month from your account, making it more convenient to make payments.

There are many people who are opponents of bad credit loans due to the fact that they seem to offer high interest rates. For instance, many payday advance lenders will charge a nominal fee of around $15 for each $100 one borrows. This may seem like a very high amount, but the fact of the matter is that they do this since they expose themselves to increased risk. In addition to that, the fact that such loans are often of very small amounts and are paid within a very short time means that the interest never accumulates to very large amounts, as would typical bank loans.

When all is said and done, getting bad credit personal loans is not as hard as one might think. There are many companies which offer these facilities, and all one has to do is find one that suits them. By following the guide above, you can do this with relatively little trouble.

Categories
Credit Tips

Comments: Credit Card Swipe RFID Security – 3 Tips to Avoid Credit Card Theft

Categories
Credit Tips

Credit Score Tips – Getting Your Credit Score to Work For You

This is a topic for those of you who often deal with credit cards or for the process of repayment and other loans.

Here will be discussed some things that are very important to know by you as the customers because it will relate to the future.

Nowadays it is not taboo if someone will try another credit after he has paid off the credit he already had.

But the question is, does what you propose will be easily accepted by the lender? On the other hand, if you have a good credit history then this will not be a problem.

Because your track record will be archived at the underwriter when you will use the services.

Thus this credit report will provide feedback to prospective lenders whether your submission is accepted or on a decline as well as a basis to provide interest on your loan.

From here the assessment will be done and the results are concluded.

Any data of yourself as a credit customer will have a value as a reference of the guarantor in providing assistance again at a later time.

The function of credit score here is certainly very clear. For lenders will greatly assist the survey process and the amount of loan to be approved.

Likewise, for the recipients of the loan (the customer), the credit score will assist in obtaining wider access to the lender by relying on their own financial reputation without having to depend on the ability to provide collateral.

For lenders, there will be certain criteria that become standard. The following are the credit scoring criteria determined by one of the banks.

  • Age
  • Place of Work (business field)
  • Number of self-financing
  • Marital status
  • Working period
  • Relationship with the bank
  • The number of dependents
  • Types of loan collateral
  • The husband/wife profession
  • Net income
  • Current credit status
  • Educational status
  • Other Income
  • Credit/debit card ownership
  • Job title

Any information from the above criteria has different weights. Important information such as the accuracy of your loan payments will have a higher value weight than others.

Like the previously mentioned credit score function, the credit score will help the bank determine whether your loan is approved or not, and also can determine the amount of loan you will get, how many terms you get and how much interest the loan will be.

If your credit score turns out to be small, you may still be able to get a loan but with higher interest, or you are required to provide collateral.

Have you had a bad history regarding this credit score? Don’t worry, we will review how to improve your credit score.

How to Increase Your Credit Score

1. Use Credit Cards Regularly

The great effect on your credit score level is the credit card.

So do not be surprised if you want to borrow or purchase on credit, the lender will ask if you are a credit card user or not.

The credit card itself is ideally a substitute for cash as a means of payment. So, if you never use your credit card, then there will be no data recorded in the bank.

You can use credit cards for payments, especially expensive items, such as airfare and hotel payments, or buying electronic goods.

After that, use a credit card for a smaller payment like eating in a restaurant. It can improve your credit reputation slowly.

2. Avoid Delinquent Credit Card Bills

In the use of credit cards, delinquent bills are strictly prohibited. The level of customer credit collectibility is one-way banks assess the quality of a person’s credit.

This level is divided into five criteria, ie smooth payments, special attention payments, substandard, doubtful, and bad credit.

Advice for you as a credit card user, try to pay monthly bills of 10% first. But if you are able to pay the full course would be better to avoid the high interest every month.

As with loan installments, make the same effort to pay 10% of the initial bill and pay as many bills on time as possible.

3. Reapply When Your Credit Approval is Rejected

When your loan or credit card submission process is denied, give the waiting period a few months before re-submitting.

During this waiting period, you can check what is wrong with you as a customer.

For example, you have applied for credit of more than 30% of income, or you still have other repayment responsibilities. Try to focus to pay off all your debts first.

Then after that, you can apply for credit card with low limit first. This can be seen as a positive indication to the bank that you are a trustworthy debtor that can help improve your credit score.

Conclusion

Remember that credit cards are just an alternative way of a payment process and not necessarily a habit. And even if you really need to use the credit system over and over again, it’s not a problem either. Keep your good credit score, a commitment to it, and consistently to live it. The higher your credit score the faster your credit application will be.

Categories
Credit Tips

The Fast and Effective Tips For Reducing Credit Card Debt

It is vital that you should try to pay your credit card debt within stipulated period of time and you should try to improve your financial situation by all possible means. Otherwise, if you have unrestrained credit card debt, then there is every possibility that it will haunt you from time to time. However, it is vital that you should take the help of a proficient lawyer so that you can handle this type of issue in the best possible way. Even if you are sued by your creditor, the lawyer can help you to handle it in the best possible manner. This article will highlight on a few important tips that you should consider in order to reduce credit card debt as quickly as possible.

Before you take the initiative to resolve this kind of issue, it is important that you should be able to know where exactly you stand. You will not be able to handle it if you do not know the exact amount of debt that you need to pay.

The next step is to try to talk to your credit card organization about your financial situation without any kind of delay. Once you explain your financial scenario, the next step that you should follow is to find out if you can get any sort of help from the particular organization in this matter. If you do so, there is every possibility that your credit card agency will reduce the rate of interest for a particular period of time or it can even waive the current late fee amount in order to provide you with ample scope to clear off this kind of debt.

Once you manage to reduce it in the best possible way, it is advisable that you should track down all kinds of costs as much as you can. All you have to do is to write down different types of expenses such as insurance, phone, mortgage and so on. If you track down these expenses, there is every possibility that you will be able to understand the exact way your debt is accumulated in due course of time.

Your next step is to find out the appropriate strategy that you should follow to pay your credit card debt. For example, you can invest a low amount of money to pay credit card debt along with high interest rates and at the same time, you should try to curtail all the other expenses as much as you can.

You should check out if there is anything that you wish to clear up in order to get out of this type of problem. For example, if you have purchased an expensive car or you have bought an air conditioned machine, it is advisable that you should give it a thought if you at all have the ability to maintain such expensive items for a long period of time. If you get rid of this expensive item, there is possibility that this type of debt will be reduced and you do not have to face financial hardship at any point of time.

Categories
Credit Tips

Credit Management Tips for Self Employed People

Being self employed you ought to be a better manager for plain sailing your business or service. You need to be the one who thinks clearly, objectively and loves to stay ordered and disciplined. However the more conscientious you are, the more grappled you could be with distractions all around.

Whether you are working as a freelancer or a part time worker, it is important to be financially prudent and manage your funds properly. For you singly need to manage the cash flow to work peacefully with all the stakeholders including suppliers, co workers, business partners and customers. Despite the issues or delay in payments you would need adequate annual funding for your personal as well as future business planning expenses.

To beself employed requires a lot of mettle and hard work. Here are some credit management tips to help you stay financially happy all the times. With too many things to manage, it would be wise of you to have a predefined plan for credit management.

Positive Cash flow

Cash is the king for running any business. And in the modern times, cash is not only the one you have as paper or plastic bills in your pocket, it is your credit worth that defines your real economic power. Most of the self employed individuals find it difficult to borrow at low rate due instable inflow of income.

When you are working as a self-employed business or a freelancer, the income is generally in lump sums and that too in uneven patterns. Many conventional lenders do not lend to self employed people due to this uncertain nature of their income. In the absence of adequate income proof you would remain dependent on private lenders for self employed loans despite having the loan repayment capacity.

Thus it is recommended to have a healthy cash flow all the times and ensure a good credit history to be eligible to borrow from unconventional sources. You can use a professional broker’s advice to assess your loan eligibility.

Estimate expenses

Most home based startups fail due to constrained estimates of expenses. Although your start up cost could be less due to your already set workplace at home, the operational expenses would not be as economical as the initial costs. Prepare a modest list of expenses before you begin the self employed business.

Learn to Keep balance

When you do not earn constantly month-to-month it is important to keep a balance to meet the shortfall on the dry income days. You need to save or keep aside funds to supplement money evenly throughout the year.

Limit the use of credit cards

Credit cards attract higher interest rate and charges. When you need quick money to fund a business plan you should consider applying for a small business loan for self employed instead. In face of shortage of available credit options, consider contacting a loan broker online. As you contact a loan adviser online, they will search all the available deals without any brokering fees.

Pay Taxes and Keep records

Most self employed people fail to raise loans due to lack of proof of their business age and income source. Paying regular taxes not only provide you a solid proof of your existence but also highlight your regular income. You should always keep copy of bills and receipts. Use professional help if you find it difficult to manage track of your expenses and income. Do not forget to use insurance and other tax relief investment opportunities.

Categories
Credit Tips

Tips on How You Can Improve Your Credit Ratings

It is possible to repair your credit standing these days. What you can do is to follow the general instructions and be able to apply for additional credit in the future. Most people will have to wait for a few years before they could recover from the credit damage. However, you can now make this faster since there are a few tips that you can actually do. Why do people have bad credits? There are so many reasons. One could be involved with financial anomalies. This happens for people who cannot pay for their debts. On the other hand, there are times when late payments could also mean credit damages. If you are frequently paying for penalties and charges, then you might have a degraded credit score. In this case, one should be able to fix the standing as soon as possible. This will be more convenient when you intend to apply for loans in the future.

To fix your credit score, you first need to balance your spending and earnings. Most people who apply for credit cards and loans do not have sufficient funds in their savings. They may have available jobs these days but their salaries might not be enough. Therefore, they are forced to come up with ways to get cash instantly. This is where credit cards are used. They can be utilized to pay for something that does not require immediate payments. Later on, the user may simply pay based on the minimum amount due of the card. However, when you do this, you care actually hurting your credit stranding. If you cannot fund the debts in full amount, you will give the impression that you are not able to come up with cash to cover your past expenses. Yes, the credit card company will earn interests but this is a bad thing for you. Therefore, you should always strive to pay for the full amount every time you pay your bills.

Having delayed or late payments of your credit card may also affect your credit score. The companies will know that you are out of budget every time you miss a payment. This will translate to your credit standing with a very low score. It means that you can no longer pay for the amount that you have spent in the past month, With late payments, you are simply letting the companies earn from your penalties and fees. Of course, it will also mean that you credit rating may become a little bit lower than before because you cannot really sustain your obligations in full.

Is there a way to get out of this problem? One thing that you can do is to discipline yourself. Do not purchase things that are not very important. If you have available cash, then use it instead of the credit card. Use only your card if there is a real emergency in your expenditures. Moreover, you should always make it a point to pay the entire amount that you loaned. You will stay away from interest rates, fees and credit downgrade.

Categories
Credit Tips

Credit Card Secrets: 3 Great Tips for Using Your Debt

Much like other financial investment vehicles, credit cards have a bunch of “secrets” that the average consumer never learns to take advantage of – and the companies like it that way. Indeed; if more people knew about and used these; lending via credit as an institution would eventually cease to exist as the margins shrunk.

In the following, we’ll uncover a handful of credit card secrets, so as to better position you to be able to take advantage of the many ins-and-outs of these ultra-competitive lenders. In just three tips, you’ll learn how to utilize credit cards in ways you might have never thought of.

Tip 1: Get Cards with a Beneficial Rewards Option

This may seem obvious. But the truth is, far too many people obtain credit cards that have rewards which don’t really apply to their lifestyle. After all, if you hate the cold, then what good is it to get a trip to Moscow as an end-of-the-year reward?

With this in mind, when you get a card that provides you with frequent flyer miles; make sure you don’t pay cash for things such as groceries, department store purchases or even gas – put it on your card!

Of course, in order to truly take advantage of this offer, you must avoid carrying a balance – head to your house and pay off the purchase right away. Then, the credit card companies don’t get to take advantage of the interest, but still, of course, have to pay out the promised rewards and points.

Fact is; this only works out so well for them because the majority of people carry their credit balances from one month to the next. Many people every year take advantage of this and get free trips to Europe or Canada, etc, at the end of the season, for their entire family. You can truly rack up the frequent flyer miles with this disciplined approach.

All card companies love it when you carry a balance – this is, after all, how they make money. If everyone followed this tip, then the companies would have to close down because they’d go bankrupt and couldn’t fund their operations.

Tip 2: Put All Business-Related Purchases on Credit

This next credit card secret involves some really high-level, bankers-type knowledge; as such, we’ll use an example of how to take advantage of it. Let’s say you want to purchase repairs on a home; it will be difficult to get a loan in the post-2008 housing collapse market.

There’s no way that lenders want to risk shelling out money after the subprime mortgage collapse, which happened, after all, because they sold loans to people that couldn’t pay them back.

So what do you do? Put the repairs on a credit card. Even if this card has a 12% APR, if you borrow $50,000 or so, and hold it for just a couple of months, then you actually only owe 2% on the total amount if you pay it back.

Of course, in order for this to truly work, you need to be in the business of flipping homes. In short, you’ll be paying a tiny fraction of the usual amount needed to fund business projects with the necessary capital.

Tip 3: Use Multiple Lines of Credit Wisely

If you’re like most people, then you’ve probably got several credit cards, right? If so, then you can use the competition that exists between bankers to your advantage with this next credit card secret.

First off; ask your bank if they’ve got a balance transfer option available. If so, make sure it’s a zero-percent balance transfer. For example, if you have a balance on a Capital One card, and then you sign up for a Bank of America card, then either email or call them regarding the terms of their balance transfer offer.

If it makes sense, then pull the trigger and move your debt. Plan to pay it off fully within the next 6-9 months (usually) to come out ahead.

Obviously, if a bank can get you to transfer your debt from the competition to their own coffers, then they get you to pay the interest on that debt for a long time. This means, in order to sweeten the deal, they often give you several months free of interest on that debt. It’s literally like giving away money!

So if you move your debt from one lender to another, receive a 9-month reprieve on interest payments, and manage to pay off your debt in those nine months, then you’ve effectively received a free loan from your new lender.

Using Credit Cards Wisely

In conclusion, especially with the last “secret”, you can move your debt from one bank to another for a period of several years! You’ll save the equivalent of several years’ worth of taxes on a sum that’s large enough if you manage to finally pay off the loan within the reprieve period.

Keep in mind that all credit card companies are in competition with each other; in the free market, this means they make the most money by providing the consumer with the better deal. Take advantage of it!