Eric Mitchell Real Estate

Steps to Take After Identity Theft Reacting quickly is essential after you’ve been the victim of identity theft. It can lessen the damage by thieves and lower the stress of having your credit card lost or stolen. You may notice when you get home that your credit card is missing. Or you may get an email from your credit card company that there is some suspicious activity on your account. Whatever alerts you to identity theft, here are some steps to take immediately after realizing it: Get on the phone Depending on the circumstances, you may want to first call the police to report a crime. If someone just grabbed your purse and ran away, the police are obviously the first agency to contact. Next, call your credit card company and ask that it cancel your credit card and send you a new one immediately. If any charges were made by the thieves, the credit card company should remove them. With anyone you contact about this theft, be sure to take notes of the names, dates, ...

How to Negotiate a Clean Credit Report A late payment on a credit bill or other debt such as a mortgage can have a significant impact on your credit score. And the higher your credit score is to begin with, the more it can fall after a late payment. Paying your bills on time is the best way to avoid this. If you don’t make your payments and your account is turned over to a collections agency, you won’t be able to get that account current again. Late payments can stay on a credit report for seven years. Before it gets to that point, there are four ways to remove late payments from your credit report so that your score isn’t affected: Ask for a Goodwill Adjustment Creditors can remove a late payment as a “goodwill adjustment” if you write a forgiveness letter explaining why you were late and asking that they forgive it and adjust your credit report. You’ll likely be successful if you have a good payment history with the creditor and haven’t asked for an adjustment previou...

What Is a Negotiated Debt Settlement? If you’re buried by credit card debt, a negotiated debt settlement with your creditor may be worth checking into. Negotiated debt settlement is a general term for discharging debt in a way that appeals to the credit card holder and the card’s issuer. It’s best to negotiate from a position of strength by not having submitted late payments or having missed them, which can cause a credit score to fall. If that happens, cardholders will likely have a harder time getting concessions in a negotiated debt settlement. Instead, they should start talking to their creditor soon after realizing they’re having trouble repaying their debts. -Forbearance There are a few types of negotiated debt settlements, and the simplest one is called forbearance. Banks offer these programs to reduce interest rates, waive late fees and extend repayment terms. Forbearance doesn’t forgive any debt, but offers better terms for repayment. Unemployed cardholders ty...

Credit Card Habits Your Kids Can Take to College Starting college is full of all kinds of new experiences. Students are left on their own for probably the first time in their lives, and it can be daunting. Using a credit card can be one of those “firsts,” and parents can help by explaining how credit cards work and instilling good financial habits in them. Here are some credit card habits students should learn before they get to college: Have a Job To get a credit card in their name, students will often have to have a job and a credit history. Both of those may be hard to establish; some credit card issuers will only require an income. Either way, it’s important to have an income for the basic reason that they’ll need money to pay for what they buy with credit. If not, and they still want a credit card, they can either be added to your credit card as an authorized user or apply for a secured credit card where they put down a deposit and can only charge up to that amount...