We Handle Debts

Joe answers:

No, of course not. We’ll just keep printing money, and bailing people out.

<<<<Typical liberal thought pattern

Oh, and while we're at it.. Isn't it time to raise the minimum wage again?

Joe answers:

Any additional payment she makes, 100% of the extra amount will go to principal.

Joe answers:

The truth. First you should go over your budget and see where it could be cut. If you can show it is possible to make a reduced payment, you may have a shot at modifying the loan.

Joe answers:

It really depends on:
- What your motivations are for going to grad school
- What you’ll end up making when you come out
- Whether or not you really need that particular grad degree to get where you want to in your career* (I want to talk about that later)
- The prestige of the program

For example, if the $35k per year was for Harvard Business School or Yale Law, then yes, it’s worth it to go, because the earnings potential coming out of those programs is amazing.

But if you’ll be getting a masters degree in social work, then it’s more complex. No, you won’t earn huge money just out of the program, but you do need that degree to be able to work at the level you want to in that field. So for some, that makes it worth it.

But for a masters degree in English? That’s a more personal decision. Most people won’t be using an MS in English to get a job. It’s not going to wow most employers in many fields. So it’s a more personal decision, in those cases.

* Here’s where I want to talk about whether or not you really need that grad degree. I see a lot of students go on for a masters degree in, let’s say, liberal arts, thinking that having a masters in any field will get them more $$$ and jobs. That’s not the case. You need to investigate what the specific masters you’re looking at will do for you in your field or in other fields. You need to look at the value of the subject you’re studying as well as the school you’ll be studying it at, and then judge.

In any case, talk to the school about applying for research and teaching assistantships, as well as any other sorts of aid/scholarships they may offer. Also investigate any independant, private scholarships for grad level study in your field.

But yes, for the most part, people pay for masters degrees (as opposed to PhDs) with loans. So the program really needs to be worth it to you, both in terms of your career and personally.

Joe answers:

As a graduate student you will be eligible for $20,500 of student loans per year from the fed. Government.

$8,500 of these loans can be subsidized (interest paid by the govt while you are in school)

To qualify for the subsidized loans you need to demonstrate financial need, which you probably will if you go into graduate school straight out of undergrad. As the person above me stated, as a grad student you can file as independent, and unless you make a lot of money while you are attending school (which i doubt haha) then you will demonstrate enough financial need to get the subsidized loans.

Joe answers:

Sounds like you skipped the class “Get A Life 101″
You need to get over yourself. Welcome to what we all are face in life at one time or another.
Go shopping!

Joe answers:

Find out your credit with those credit reports.

Get a big piece of paper and write all your debts on it, with the interest rate next to them. Rank them with the highest rate at the top and the lowest rate at the bottom.

Now, to pay them off, you need to pay extra on the highest rate debt and the minimums on the others. Do it in that order. When the highest rate debt is clear, move your money to the second highest, and keep paying them off til you are debt free.

Now, I would go get some financial counselling about the items in collections. Laws and rules differ wherever you live, so find out from an expert. Since they are in collections, they might not have any interest rate, and if that case, just pay the minimum on them you need to.

Get a cheap secondhand car. That will set you back less. Take an expert friend with you when you make the purchase, and get it checked out for roadworthiness.

You might have some serious trouble getting a loan if your credit is shot to bits right now. Work on improving your debt burden. Once it is clear, then you can get a credit card with a low rate or an interest free period, and make regular purchases with it. When you use it, pay it back the same day, paying extra. So if you spend $50, pay back $52. Try internet or phone banking for this. Doing this will improve your credit history over time. Be prepared for it to take months or even a couple of years for your credit history to come back up.

In the meantime, get your debt under control, and don’t overborrow for the car. Since cars go down in value, money borrowed to buy them is ultimately wasted. You don’t get your money back when you resell the item. So stick to modest vehicles. A smaller vehicle, perhaps ten years old, will give you good fuel economy and won’t cost you heaps in interest. I personally wouldn’t touch a car loan with a 12 foot barge pole, but then, I don’t mind driving a 30 year old car.

Best wishes

Joe answers:

Having a good credit score now is more important than ever so I’m glad to know you’ve taken an interest in fixing your financial viability!

Here are my 10 steps you can use to build your credit score quickly. I raised mine to well over 700 points fro 500 using these steps in less than a year:

1. Know and Track Your Credit Score (be sure to sign up for the free trial of your credit score monitoring listed below. It really helped my get my score up.)
2. Never Miss a Payment, Starting Today
3. Never use more than 20% of your Available Credit
4. Keep Credit Cards that Have No Annual Fees Open For as Long as Possible
5. Extend Your Credit Limit on Cards You Already Have before You Get New Ones
6. Get Credit Cards that Have CashBack Rewards to Contribute to your Balance
7. Transfer Your Balance to a Credit Card with a Lower Interest Rate and a Higher Available Credit-
8. If You Think You Are Going to be FORCED to Pay a Bill Late Ask for an Extension or Payment Plan
9. Take out a Small Personal Loan and Repay it Over a Year
10. Ask Someone With Good Credit if They will Account Shadow you

When you’re trying to build a solid credit score it’s important to get a comprehensive view of what is actually effecting it…

Your Credit Score (also known as your MyFico score) is calculated with the following breakdown:

* 35% -> History of Payments
* 30% -> Debt to Credit Ratio (available credit)
* 15% -> Credit History (length of open accounts)
* 10% -> New Credit (are you expanding your credit)
* 10% -> Credit Types in Use (varied credit types from loans to credit cards)

If you excel in one area and lack in another, only fixing the areas which you lack are going to improve your score.

You can read more about these tips on my blog: How Can I Increase My Credit Score

* http://millionster.com/articles/debt/increase-fico-credit-score/

Hope this helps!

Joe answers:

Let them read over this link, lots of useful information in there.

Www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/

Joe answers:

If the late payments are legit then they can’t be removed. Credit repair companies don’t do anything that you can’t do yourself. They will dispute the late payments. The marks will temporarily disappear from your report. The creditor has a set number of days to validate. Most validate within a few days to a couple of weeks. The negative payments will then begin to show again.

Your best bet would be to try a good will letter to the creditor asking them to remove the late payments from your report. It is your credit and you earned it so you will be asking a huge favor of them. Be polite.

Joe answers:

I agree with the poster above, why not have the clients pull their own accounts (they can do this for free three times a year).
Be ware however, that credit repair is a hard market to serve….most often they want YOU and your company to be magicians….
Is there another kind of business that you can run on the side…I really think that this business will be more trouble than it is worth.
With that said, I was of the impression that anyone can pull anyone’s credit with the subject’s permission. Work with a lawyer and have them create a consent form for you. I just checked my credit report and it was pulled LITERALLY 12 times in the past 7 months. 9 of these pulls were ‘soft pulls’ meaning that I did not initiate any of them.
Saying that to say that there is a way. I just dont know what it is

Joe answers:

If you are looking for the best credit repair site, check out this site

http://best-credit-repair-service.com/

Here you can improve your credit score rating and reduce your debt with the help of an expert.

Joe answers:

No. Only if repayment is causing you financial hardship, but in most cases, bankruptcy won’t get you out of paying them.

Joe answers:

Student loans cannot be discharged in a Chapter 7 BK filing. Student loans can be included as part of a Chapter 13 BK filing, which is a court supervised repayment of the debt.Chapter 13 does not discharge debt…it does make paying back the debt easier as it freezes interest rates at a low level. If he files for Chapter 13 then you can most likely include your credit card debt…this would simply be added to the amount that you’d have to pay back under the court supervised repayment plan.

Joe answers:

Call and ask financial aid, I had no problem with getting government student loans, but a couple of years had gone by and this has been 9 yrs. Ago. Unless your in serious debt, I would consider other options, there are also some new repayment options for your student loans as of July 1. 2009. Whatever you do, do not default your student loans. Of course bankruptcies will not do away with government student loans or IRS debt.