As a wave of foreclosures sweeps the country, many people are giving up hope for owning a home of their own. They have good reason to turn their backs on the banks, but not on their dreams. In this revised edition of Mortgage Free!, Rob Roy offers a series of escape routes from enslavement to financial institutions, underscored by true stories of intrepid homeowners who have put their principles into action.From back-to-the-land homesteads to country homes, here is a complete guide (more…)

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Break into the brokerage business. Here is a step-by-step handbook to joining this elite group. Written by an accomplished mortgage broker with more than 15 years in the business and 2,000 deals to his credit, this book covers everything from whether or not real estate financing is the right career move to how to master the skills necessary to be successful. • Overview of a day in the life of a mortgage broker—including the pros and cons of the career • A self-test to (more…)

An in-depth look at the latest innovations in mortgage-backed securities The largest sector of the fixed-income market is the mortgage market. Understanding this market is critical for portfolio managers, as well as issuers who must be familiar with how these securities are structured. Mortgage-Backed Securities is a timely guide to the investment characteristics, creation, and analysis of residential real estate-backed securities. Each chapter contains cutting-edge information (more…)

If you have recently filed bankruptcy, it won’t be long before you are starting to ask yourself, “Ok, now, what do I do when I need a loan? Where do I got to get approved? Can I get approved?” Here are some overall basics about getting any kind of credit after a bankruptcy.

2-3 Years after bankruptcy discharge is the magic number – Once you have filed bankruptcy, even the next day you can still get a car loan and possibly a mortgage loan. But, getting an unsecured loan like a credit card or a personal is usually out of the question until you have some collateral or until 2-3 years have passed.

Most lenders will not approve any loan, auto or home loan included, until 2-3 years has passed from the discharge of the bankruptcy. This is just a basic rule of thumb for most lenders. If you are seeking a loan sooner than the 2-3 year mark, you will need to apply with a subprime lender (a lender who specializes in loans for people with bad credit). Even with a subprime lender, you may still need to have a down payment in order to get approved for the loan.

Credit Cards and Unsecured Debt Will Be Very Difficult to Obtain – The best way to combat this factor is to start rebuilding your credit. Apply for a credit card with a store that uses in house financing. This means that the same company that sells you the merchandise also finances it for you. These places are usually fairly easy to get approved with. They will usually start you out with a small credit limit like a $3-500 limit. If you make all of your payments on time, they will usually bump your credit limit up about every 6 months.

There are some credit card companies that will charge you a high processing fee, from $30-$200 or more just to have a $300-$400 credit limit. Maybe get just one of these card and make on time payments with this card too. After a while this company will start raising your credit limit as well. After a year or so of on time payments, you should see your credit score going up and you might be able to qualify for a small unsecured loan.

A bankruptcy can stay on your credit report for 7-10 years. However, after 3-4 years, you may start seeing your credit options open up quite a bit, almost as if you had not filed bankruptcy before. It depends, though, on if you make your other monthly payments on time, from the time your bankruptcy is discharged.

bankruptcy credit repair

The High-Income Mortgage Originator “The authors have produced a comprehensive guide to becoming a successful mortgage originator. The book will benefit both the entry-level and seasoned originator.” —Anthony N. Gugliotti, Vice President, Naugatuck Savings Bank “The High-Income Mortgage Originator is a must-read for anyone starting out in the industry or changing careers. I found that the book clearly illustrated the necessary information, skills, and knowledge needed, c (more…)

Businesses today are increasingly making use of business credit cards to transact, both as vendors and as buyers. This trend in spite, there are still a number of vendors who do not accept business credit cards from their business clientele. The truth of the matter is that if such a vendor wishes to achieve higher trading volumes and increase its client base, accepting business credit cards changes from being an optional, to a must.

Accounts receivable is not only a nasty trap, but also creates a vicious cycle. Vendors that do not accept business credit cards, often agree to extending credit to their clients in order to retain their custom. Although this may be a necessary business practice, it does place unnecessary strain on the business’ finances: Unnecessary, because by accepting business credit cards, you can retain your clients and mitigate your cash flow risk at the same time.

The benefits of accepting business credit cards are numerous and include:

Boost Your Sales: When your clients are in a position to purchase what they want immediately, most of them will. When they make that immediate purchase, your sales are boosted. A simple browse – either in your store or on your web site – may turn into a profitable visit if you enable your clients to make payments with their business credit cards.

Bolster Your Cash Flow: Many merchants who do not have sufficient cash flow with which to support growth, may be victims of high accounts receivables. One of the quickest ways to free your business from this trap is to start accepting business credit cards. Stop billing your clients and start billing their banks instead! When you accept business credit cards, the revenue from the sale will reach your bottom line much sooner than accounts receivables would.

Put Smiles on Your Clients’ Faces: Clients obtained their business credit cards for a variety of good business reasons and will want to use these. Don’t allow your clients to find alternative suppliers purely because your business is not able to process business credit card transactions. When business clients are searching for a supplier, and they want to pay by means of their business credit cards, they will search until they find a supplier who does. Accepting business credit cards places you in the running for their business – and that is a good place to be!

Put Smiles on Your Financial staff’s Faces: Your accounting department will be very happy when you decide to accept business credit cards as payment for purchases. They will be freed from the hassles of paperwork and the headaches of collecting all your accounts receivables on time. If one compares the collection of outstanding accounts from many of different clients to collecting from the relatively few merchant services that issue business credit cards, the latter is a walk in the park.

Accepting business credit cards may be necessary to enhance and grow the business relationship you enjoy with your clients. It affords your clients the opportunity to make use of their preferred method of payment and liberates you from the accounts receivable trap at the same time.

Affinity cards are a special kind of credit card which are linked into the cardholder’s lifestyle in some way, offering benefits of a more personalized nature than the typically available 0% balance transfer offers and the like. Examples of affinity programs are charity credit cards, where a donation is made to a particular charitable organisation whenever the card is used, or a travel rewards card which lets you build up points which you can redeem against a hotel chain or airline which you use frequently.

A further type of affinity card is becoming more and more popular: the sports team affinity card, aimed at supporters of a particular football team or other sporting club.

The most obvious difference between a sports card and a normal one is in the actual appearance of the card, which will generally feature the logo or badge of the team chosen. This in itself is a desirable feature for many fans, as it’s a very visible declaration of your allegiance to your team, and is sure to attract comment from other fans.

Perhaps the most important aspect of sports affinity cards is a financial one, however. In much the same way as charity credit cards work, a sports card lets you contribute to the financial wellbeing of your team with no direct cost to yourself. A small percentage of everything you spend will be donated by the card issuer to the team linked to the card account, and while this may amount to only a small sum in the case of individual cardholders, the money involved can mount up quickly if thousands or tens of thousands of people regularly use the card.

In many cases, the money raised by starting a sports affinity card program will be used by the team involved to fund the longterm health of the club, often by investing in youth academies and development. This means that by using the card for regular spending, you’re helping to secure the success of your team well into the future.

Not only can your card use benefit your team, it can also feature attractive personal benefits such as discounts on club merchandise, a rewards scheme where you can build up points to offset against the costs of buying tickets, or even priority access to big games, depending on the specific card involved.

So, are there any downsides? Like all credit cards that offer some sort of tempting carrot to entice people to apply, the benefits offered need to be paid for somehow, and this is usually in the form of a higher standard APR or interest rate. It’s unlikely that you’ll find an affinity card of any variety listed in the ‘best value’ or ‘lowest APR’ tables. If you use your card for borrowing rather than simply as a convenient payment method, the sports-related benefits may well be overshadowed by the increased costs of the card.

Having said that, unless you’re planning to carry a substantial balance on your card from month to month, the headline interest rate is perhaps not as important to you as the fact that your card will be showing your support for your team both visibly and financially.

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. As I write in February 2009, I am four months past due on my mortgage and bracing for foreclosure proceedings to begin. Thus begins this cautionary and critical examination of the housing crisis, a story that turned personal when New York Times economics reporter Andrews got caught up in the housing bubble after falling in love with a woman and a house. Bringing in $120,000 a year in salary—most of which went to child support and alimony to h (more…)

“Christmas Time, Mistletoe and Wine” How many times have you heard this so far and its only November? A few I’ll bet, but with Christmas seemingly becoming earlier to us each year, we will no doubt feel the need to get ahead with our present and food buying. This though only leads to us spending more than we should. This is because with the shops full of decorations and Christmas tunes, the stores are dictating to us that we have to buy our gifts now, which will mean by the time December has come and gone. We would have spent more over the 2-month period that the shops have been full of Christmas cheer.

This is not all bah! Humbug.

Personally for the occasion alone and seeing the kids faces when they open their presents on Christmas morning, as Christmas is a special time of year that for the day makes all the preparation and spending all worth while.

But that doesn’t mean that it comes without cost and in some cases more of a cost than folk can ill afford. For all of its pomp and occasion, Christmas can come at a heavy price to bear for a lot of people who, rather than let their children and family down, will turn to the promise of riches that credit cards and store cards offer.

Don’t get me wrong, credit cards and even store cards, have their uses. This is only true though, if you only use them to your advantage, to get the best out of them. If you are thinking of taking one or the other, then the only suggestion that I can make is to plump for the credit card, over the store card.

We all want to enjoy this time of year, so by getting all that you want to do this and in doing so, save cash and not to fall heavily into debt, will make the festivities all the more enjoyable. So by giving you a few advantages and disadvantages, which credit cards and store cards entail, will hopefully go a long way on helping you make the right decisions.

Firstly the advantages of credit cards:

• More favourable interest rates than a store card.

• Many offers on the market, which are giving you an interest free period.

• Some come with money back schemes that give you a percentage of your expenditure back to you. (Usually between 0.5%- 2%)

• Will protect your gifts, as soon as you have bought them.

• Lets you buy now and pay at a later date, only on what you have spent without incurring any interest charges.

Now the disadvantages:

• Can lead you to spend more than you can afford to pay back, which in turn will lead to the interest being charged to your account.

• They can come with a heavy hit in the pocket, with charges for late payments and going over your credit limit.

Advantages of the store card:

• Can use them as soon as you are accepted for the card.

• Initial discount (normally 10% off you first purchase) will give you a saving straight away.

Disadvantages:

• Overly high interest rates, which are well above those of a credit card. Some can be as much as 30%.

• Can lead you quickly to debt, if they are not cleared at the end of each month.

• Sold to the customer, by assistants who know absolutely nothing about what they are selling.