With soaring oil and gas prices, record home foreclosures and the cost of just about everything else rising, it seems times are tough for everyone. Except maybe the repo man.

Business is brisk for repossession companies throughout the Inland area and nationwide that recover vehicles for lienholders after buyers default on their loans, industry officials say.

“Right now, I think it’s booming for everyone,” said Ray Radford, chief financial officer for Cal Recoveries Co., which has offices in the city of Riverside and in Orange and San Diego counties.

Radford would not say how many cars, trucks and other vehicles his company recovers daily. But he estimates that business is up as much as 400 percent, compared with the past few years.

And most of the rides his repossessors are bringing in are sport-utility vehicles and big, gas-guzzling trucks.

“These are the vehicles that are being picked up, because people can’t afford to drive them. They can’t afford to put gas in them,” Radford said.

Estimates vary on how great the increase in repossessions is, although industry experts nationwide agree the numbers have grown.

Minimum Requirements US resident over 18 years old No outstanding payday loans Active checking account $1,000 minimum monthly income

This service is not available in Illinois, Massachusetts, or Georgia nor is it available in any state where it is prohibited by law.
Some state laws limit the amount that you can borrow.

What Is a Good Credit Score…

The Michigan Supreme Court will likely decide whether Michigan insurance companies have the right to use credit histories to help determine a customer’s coverage rates. Either way, the decision will do little, if anything, to ease the problem of unaffordable urban insurance rates. Legislators, not judges, must drive the solutions.

Banning credit scores would raise rates for some and lower them for others, but it won’t solve the larger problem of affordability and equity in insurance. In truth, this change would hurt as many as it helps — in and out of Michigan’s great cities and across all economic lines. As many urban policy holders now enjoy good-credit discounts, amounting to 3% to 40%, as do rural and out-state residents.

Meet Amy, age 32. Amy needs an economic stimulus package of her own. By correcting her credit reports she will raise her credit score and qualify for lower interest rates, saving her far more money than any tax cut out there.

Amy is smart. And so are the 500,000 clients who have used Lexington Law Firm to correct their credit reports.

CollegeTimes
http://media.www.ecollegetimes.com/media/storage/paper991/news/2008/08/21/News/Stolen.Identity-3400627.shtml

The Federal Trade Commission’s recent survey on identity theft reveals that a third of all identity theft victims fall between 18 and 29, and many college students routinely exhibit behavior that the FTC warns against in preventing the crime.

Recent University of Colorado graduate Zachary Friesen can vouch for the statistics first-hand, as he himself was a victim of identity theft.

Friesen tells the story of how, when he was 17 and lokking for a summer job to help pay for college, was constantly getting turned down for jobs. Finally somebody told him it was because of his bad credit. He was considered too much of a liability for a summer job!

Now, if that kind of thing is happening to 17 year old high school students you can only imagine how important having a good credit report is for somebody moving up in a career. Credit reports are not supposed to be a proxy for character but common sense tells you that employers are doing it all the time.

It turns out that Fiesen’s social security number was stolen when he was 7 years old. The thief (or thieves) had been using it for years to charge up a mountain of debt - including a $40,000 tab for a motor home.

If you have kids - no matter what their age - go to annualcreditreport.com and get a free credit report to see if there has been any activity on that social security number. If your in a career path, even if still in school, do the same for yourself. Go to credit-repair-college.com to learn about how to repair your credit report.

Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121928017477058757.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

The immediate gratification of using a credit card to buy an iMac, tickets to a Coldplay concert and nights of bar hopping has a way of coming back to haunt college students after graduation.

Despite their lack of a credit history and sizable student loans, most college students can get their hands on credit cards with as much ease as a swipe. And they’re often lured into doing so with awards like free T-shirts. Along with the freebies, however, come some not-so-pleasant surprises: high interest rates and a range of fees and penalties.

One reckless night of spending or one late payment can leave students with overwhelming debt and a damaged credit score — which could hurt their chances of landing a job or an apartment after college.

Their average debt load: $2,169. That amount is nothing compared to the 10% of students who graduate with more than $10,000 in credit-card debt, according to a 2008 survey commissioned by credit bureau TransUnion’s credit-management Web site TrueCredit.com and conducted by market-research company Zogby International.

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Parent’s don’t talk to their college age kids about the impending disaster of starting out adulthood with a bad credit rating - because most parents don’t know enough about the subject themselves to provide any help. One hour with the Suze Orman FICO Kit FICO simulator would probably be enough to turn the abstraction of credit scores into the reality of don’t do to this yourself - and why.

Most Americans don’t know anything about credit reports and credit scores, even though they can get a free credit report every year - and don’t care. So long as they can get a car loan or a credit card then everything is OK and there is no reason to inquire any further.

That idyllic attitude may soon clash harshly with reality as the nation’s lenders tighten their belts and become more selective about whom they will loan money to - for any reason. Everybody has heard of the “sub-prime mortgage crisis” even if they do understand what it means.

Here is the 25 cent explanation about how the sub-prime lending crisis hurt the credit markets and will cause changes, and for the worst for most people, in how much money lenders will be able to make available to consumers in the coming several months or years, and how difficult it may become to get a loan for a house or a car or for almost anything.

An individual bank, credit union, finance company and other lender can only loan a certain total amount of money. That amount, which is for all the loans made by that lender to every borrower, is based on its capital. As more and more sub-prime loans stop being paid and default these lenders are required by law to write-off the value of the unpaid loans. Every unpaid loan is a hit or reduction on capital. The more unpaid loans that a lender accumulates the greater the hit on capital, all of which results in less money that lender can make available to other borrowers in the future.

When you consider that banks and other financial institutions loan heavily to each other, you can see how an unusual number of defaults in one sector, like sub-prime mortgages, can have a snowball effect across the entire lending industry. All this does not mean that the financial services industry is going to crash, but it will change.

What it does mean in practical terms is that loan officers will not risk their jobs by approving loans to “risky” borrowers. OK. So who is a risky borrower? Are you a risky borrower?

For consumer finance, which includes mortgages, cars, credit cards, and department store installment loans, a risky borrower was previously defined as somebody with a FICO credit score less than 620. That number is likely to change upwards as lenders become more intolerant of risk. Tomorrow’s risk for consumers is that a low FICO score may push them out of the credit economy altogether.

What is your credit score? If you don’t know your FICO score or credit score, it’s time to find out. Generally, credit scores are based on the extensive financial history that the three major credit reporting bureaus have already gathered on you from information provided to them by nearly everybody you have ever done business with involving the future payment of money. That probably includes your landlord and even the local library if you lost a book and didn’t pay for it quickly enough.

The higher your credit score the better. 850 is the maximum FICO score. The median FICO score in the USA is 723. Half the people are higher and half the people are lower. When money starts to get tight you want to be in the higher half.

You can get a free credit report from each of the three major credit reporting bureaus at annualcreditreport.com. You will have to pay for your credit score, however, which is conveniently (for them) not included in the free reports.

The absolute best time to get yourself educated about credit and money is right now.
Copyright 2008. Peter Boston. Learn what they never taught you in school about FICO scores and credit repair at credit-repair-college.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peter_Boston

Premiere Bank offers a variety of instant approval bad credit credit cards. Would getting one of these credit cards help or hurt your credit score - and is it worth it?

This what you get with the Premiere Bank Centenniel Gold credit card.

An initial $250 credit limit that is immediately reduced to $71 in available credit by $179 in Premiere Bank fees. On top of that you will pay a $7.00 monthly Servicing Fee. If you accessed your new credit card on the internet the first month that little bit of convenience cost you a one time Intenet Access fee of $3.95.

At the end of the first month your avaialble credit limit is down to $60.05.

If you were foolish enough to have used the card to charge $60 during that first month you would go over the credit limit triggering a $29.00 over limit fee. If you were one day late paying the bill you got whacked for another $29.00 fee.

Now your outstanding balance is $330 with a $250 credit limt. If you do not come up with the $87 plus interest (add the $7.00 service fee) to get that ourstanding balance back down below $250 you will get whacked for another $29.00 over limit fee. By now your are so pissed that you are late again, adding another $29.00 fee. You can see how quickly and easily a bad credit credit card can spiral into the kind of disaster that probably got you into trouble in the first place.

You would be much better off using your regular savings account for a secured loan from your bank or credit union, or if you want a credit repair credit card then get a secured credit card with the deposit money. You have a much better chance at actually doing your credit history some good with this option.

Many credit card companies are shortening their bill cycles and making due dates earlier. Also, check to see if your credit-card company has lowered your available credit limit. Even if you don’t normally charge up to your credit limit, your credit score could be affected if your available credit limit is lowered and the amount you charge stays the same. That’s because your percentage of what you’ve charged against your available credit has just gone up.

Learn how to find out how much your credit score would be affected.