“Debt consolidation.” It has such an alluring ring to it. It creates this fantasy that you can wrap up all your debts into one attractive, low interest package, and everything will be hunky dory with your debt. Sadly, the easy quick fixes are often rather bad for you, financially and credit worthiness-wise.
This glorious idea of an easy fix to being thousands of dollars in debt has been fertile soil (fertile with manure) for an entire industry with fabulous claims of lower monthly payments, low interest rates, and zero hassle.

You know what they say about something being too good to be true though…

So before you jump feet first into debt consolidation, be sure you’re aware of a few things.

• Debt consolidation companies are not nonprofit organizations, they won’t improve your credit, and they won’t do anything you can’t do yourself. Here’s the deal, from an industry insider: you gather all your paperwork and send it to them, they tell you how much to pay them each month, then they’re supposed to negotiate lower payments and interest with your creditors and make the payments for you. The reality is they are notorious for paying your bills late, destroying your credit, they take 10-20% of what you pay them each month for “administrative costs” (it’s not profit, they’re a nonprofit organization, remember), and they once again can’t get better rates than you can by spending some time on the phone with your creditors. Some of the worst of them will even purposely let your debts charge off so they can negotiate a better settlement on your debts once they’re turned over to a collection company, allowing them to take a portion of the money they “save” you. Believe me, with the hit your credit will take by doing that, and the resulting higher interest rates and fees you’ll have on everything after that due to your abysmal credit, you’re not saving anything.
• So what if you’re not going with a debt consolidation company, but are instead getting a debt consolidation loan? Well, that is a much better option, but it’s still not a good option. First of all, chances are good you’ve got some dings on your credit already if you’re looking for a consolidation loan, so the chances of you getting a loan are pretty slim, and if you do get the loan, your interest rate isn’t going to be better than the cards you’re paying off. So you get the convenience of one payment, but no monetary savings, and that’s what this is supposed to be about, saving money, not just convenience. So don’t believe the promises of easy money, it’s just a lure to get you in the door like a wide mouth bass.
• What about flipping your debt from card to card chasing the no interest balance transfers? Well, it’s bad for your credit, the banks will catch on and cancel the cards, it’s illegal, and there is the little thing of our failing economy and the fact that those zero percent interest cards just aren’t available anymore. This solution is so… 2007. Reality caught up to this plan about a year ago.

So what should you do?

• Get a home equity loan. This will have a low interest rate and the interest will be tax deductible. You’ll have the up-front costs of origination fees, insurance, and an appraisal. Warning though, this isn’t as easy as it once was before the mortgage crisis, but if you’re lucky enough to still have equity after the freefall of housing prices, this is an excellent option.
• Negotiate with your creditors on your own. Remember the credit card industry is “losing” tons of money right now because the impending enforcement of the credit card reform act, so they’re probably going to be more willing to bend to keep the paying customers they still have. This gives you leverage. They want you paying, and paying them, not defaulting or taking your business to another bank.
• Refinance your home, cashing out your equity. This is different from a home equity loan and will give you lower monthly payments because you’ll probably get a longer loan term than a standard equity loan. Keep in mind though; this is going to cost you more in the long run because you’re extending the length of your mortgage without lowering the price of the home. If you can get your credit cards debts paid off though, and then apply all or a portion of what you were paying the credit cards companies toward your mortgage, you can minimize or overcome the damage though.
• If you have somehow weathered this without destroying your credit already, a personal loan from a credit union might be an option. You’ll get interest rates in the 10-15% range most likely, but that’s still better than the 24.99-29.99% you’ll be paying on credit cards these days.
• If the situation is truly dire, you might also want to consult with an attorney. It’s sad, but true, that is some situations bankruptcy might be your best option. I strongly advise seeking legal advice before going down this route though.
• Last, but certainly not least, there’s the hardest, yet easiest option. Living within your means. Paying off your debts can be accomplished by putting more money toward them each month. That might mean cutting back on eating out, getting rid of the 300 channels of cable since you probably only watch 3 of them anyway, maybe carpooling to save gas, get a second job, etc. Make a personal budget, find where you can cut back, and put that money toward the bills. This doesn’t require loans or lawyers or anything else because it easy, but living within your means can be so hard. It takes self control and determination, but the rewards are great.

Part 2 of 2

How to protect yourself.

• Keep in mind the interest rate increases won’t affect you if you’re not carrying large balances.  Going from 9.99% to 14.99% isn’t going to really impact your wallet if you’re already living within your means rather than living on credit.
  • Be aware of the fine print on your credit cards.  If you know that the new card with the 0% introductory rate for the first 12 months is going to instantly jump to 24.99% if you’re even a day late during that time frame, you’ll probably be a little more careful about making sure the payment is sent on time.
  • Pick cards with lower long term rates rather than teaser rates that expire and then go up.  The longer you have a card the better it is for your credit score, so you want cards that will still be useful to you 2 or 3 years down the road.
  • Read the mail you get from your credit card issuers.  I too have been guilty in the past of just finding the payment due and ignoring the rest of the information stuffed in the envelope, and I’ve been burned by it.  The banks are notorious for slipping in information about rate changes or changes in your terms of service.  Stay informed, that way you’ll be able to change your spending habits before the card goes to 99.99% next month.
  • Cash advances…  just don’t do it.  The interest charged on cash advances is always significantly higher than the rate charged on regular purchases, and to add insult to injury, when you pay your bill each month the credit card companies are going to apply your payment to your normal purchases, not the higher interest cash advance balance, first.
  • This one may be obvious, but PAY ON TIME.  Don’t count on the postal service to get the payment to the bank in a timely manner, send the payment early to be safe.  Remember that until the new laws are being enforced you’re still subject to universal default, so that one late payment could cause the interest rates to go up on all your cards.
  • Along with the obvious pay on time, there’s also stay under your credit limit.  Over limit fees and the increased interest rates are only getting worse and worse, so do your best to avoid them completely.
  • Pay in full to avoid interest.  Credit cards should be used as a convenience, not a replacement for income, so if you’re spending within your means this should be easy to do.  If you’re not living within your means, it’s time to draw up a reasonable budget and figure out what it’s going to take to get your finances in check.
  • If you find yourself using your cards more than you should just to make ends meet, don’t be afraid to ask for help.  Feel free to give our experts a call at 1-888-WHY-FICO.  We can give you the unbiased advice based on our experience that will help you get on track.

Part 1 of 2

I’ve spoken a lot recently about what credit card issuers are doing before the Credit Card Reform Act goes into effect next February. They’re justifying their practices by saying that their revenues are suffering with the ever increasing unemployment and default rates. Sadly their solution is to penalize the paying customers. Here’s a list of specific things to watch out for in handy “10 things to watch out for” format.

• Increasing interest rates. The phrase of the day with the card issuers seems to be “any time any reason” price changes. This isn’t just happening to sub-prime customers either. One of the major banks just raised the interest rate on their low risk prime cards to 29.99%. Interest rates like this have been ridiculous in the past even on sub-prime cards. Rates for sub-prime cards are even worse.

• Penalty rates are going up. Those are the rates that are put in place if you’re late, go over your limit, etc.

• “Unprofitable” accounts are being shut down or getting their limits reduced. In other words, people that pay their cards off each month, denying the card issuers interest and penalty fees, are being closed down. The issuers want to keep the people that carry balances and are late here and there.

• Cash advance and balance transfer fees are skyrocketing to all time highs. The days of no cost, 0% interest balance transfers are long gone, and those “convenience” checks are going to significantly increase the real cost of your purchases.

• Annual fees are being added and increased. Last year less than 20% of credit cards had annual fees, but it’s predicted that by February nearly all credit cards from the big banks will have them. The cards that already had annual fees are seeing them doubled, tripled, even quadrupled.

• Fixed rates are being changed to variable rates. In the past with fixed rates meant that if the prime interest rate went up your rates remained the same, decreasing the profits of the banks, but now if the historically low prime interest rate goes up (which it will since it can’t really get any lower), your rate will go up. If prime is 3% and your rate is prime +24.99%, and prime goes to 6% your rate goes to 27.99% instead of staying at 24.99%. Oh, and the best part, there’s no provision for the rates to go back down. So if prime goes back to 3%, your interest rate doesn’t go back to 24.99%.

• The banks are changing the terms of their special fees to make them all inclusive. For example, banks charge a special fee for “international transactions” in other forms of currency, but they’re changing the terms so those fees apply even when the transaction is still in American greenbacks.

• They’re making rewards an endangered species. Cash back rewards are being lowered or eliminated while things like airline miles are getting tougher restrictions making it harder, if not impossible, for people to use them.

• The banks are getting creative and creating new fees in addition to the old ones. Not using your card? Here’s an inactivity fee. Not using it enough? Have a low activity fee.

• The banks are closing cards with no notice. That’s means you might not even know until you go to use the card and your transaction is embarrassingly declined.

I’ll follow this up tomorrow with some suggestions on how to protect yourself.

With the meteoric rise in credit card interest rates and the plummeting credit limits I often wonder why more people don’t turn to credit unions for their credit needs. There was a time when going through the big banks for credit cards made a lot of sense—back when they’d offer no interest on balance transfers for 12 months or more, or when their incentive programs were actually a savings compared to their rates. Those days are long gone though as the big banks offer less and less attractive rates and incentives by the day.

The advantage to credit unions is that they are, technically, nonprofits run by their members. This means they can offer interest rates and fee schedules far below those offered by the big banks (you know, the for profit ones). Many might contend that credit unions have membership limitations, such as you have to work for a certain company or live within a certain geographical area. In my experience, and I’m speaking as someone who has dealt exclusively with credit unions since I opened my first passbook savings account over 2 decades ago, the membership limitations they have always contain loopholes. If you go in and tell them you want to open an account, they’ll find a way. They’ve earned my loyalty over the years, and I’m not speaking of any one particular credit union because I have opened accounts at 6 different ones due to relocations, because they have universally offered me better interest rates on car loans, home loans, checking accounts, lines of credit, and credit cards. In addition they have just plain treated me better, like a valued customer and not just a number.

I found a chart in a recent Pew Report that shows clearly the differences in rates between the big banks and your average credit union. Look it over and keep them in mind if you’re looking to minimize the amount you pay in interest, fees, and penalties.

By Eva Norlyk Smith, Ph.D.

The Credit CARD Act signed into law in May of this year aimed to protect cardholders from unfair and abusive credit card practices. Unfortunately, as most all cardholders know first hand by now, credit card companies have been raising interest rates aggressively in advance of the enactment of the new law, in an effort to minimize the impact of some of its provisions.

Well, there may be good news. If your interest rate has been raised anytime after January 1, 2009, credit card companies could be required to lower the interest rate back down, once an important new provision of the new Credit CARD Act steps into effect.

Congress put a bit of a poison pill into the Credit CARD Act, a.k.a. section 101(c). The section requires credit card companies to regularly review interest rate increases they make on credit cards, and lower rates back down, if the cardholder’s risk profile or general market conditions have improved. The interest rate reviews will step into effect in August 22, 2010. Most significantly, the reviews are to include credit card interest rate hikes dating back all the way to January 1, 2009.

Credit card companies are further required to set up and maintain “reasonable methodologies” for the interest rate review, and undertake reviews at least every six months. Based on the review, if any risk factor has declined, the card issuer shall reduce the annual percentage rate previously increased. Card issuers will also be required to provide a written notice of future interest rate increases, including a statement with the reasons for the interest rate increase.

That is the good news. The bad news is that the law leaves plenty of uncertainties. Most notably, it says nothing about how much the interest rate reduction should be, or whether credit card companies will be required to reset interest rates to their previous levels. It also leaves out any discussion about which criteria card issuers should use to go about determining what constitutes “reduced risk.”

These specifics and other details of how 101(c) will be implemented are left to the Federal Reserve Board to determine, as the nation’s primary financial regulatory agency. The Fed is required to issue rules for how the interest rate reviews are to be conducted by February 22, 2010, six months before the interest rate reviews become effective.

Disturbed by the recent interest rate hikes on credit cards, Senator Chris Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, recently sent a letter to Fed Chair Ben Bernanke along with the heads of key regulatory agencies. In the letter, Dodd called on the Federal Reserve Board to provide tough, clear specifics for what would be required by the interest rate reviews. He further called on the agencies charged with enforcing the Credit CARD Act to hold the credit card companies strictly accountable for conducting thorough reviews and decreasing rates.

Dodd asked Fed Chair Ben Bernanke to immediately notify credit card companies that they will be held accountable for all interest rate increases since January 1, 2009, and will be subject to the review requirement once it takes effect.

According to Senator Dodd, the January look-back provision was designed expressly as a means to deter card issuers from raising interest rates before the provisions of the Credit CARD Act take effect. “However,” Senator Dodd states in his letter to the Fed Chair, “the look-back provision will serve as a deterrent only if it will be implemented and enforced effectively.”

In view of the aggressive rate hikes that have hit consumers over the last six months, Section 101(c) could turn out to be one of the more important parts of the Credit CARD Act. Whether or not the regular interest rate reviews will have any teeth, however, will ultimately boil down to the criteria the Fed Reserve Board lays out for conducting the reviews and determining how much interest rates should be lowered.

We won’t know the details about that until the Fed issues the guidelines for interest rate reviews, sometime on or before February 22, 2010. After that, there will be a required public comment period, during which the public—and that means you and I—will be able to weigh in on whether or not the rules for interest rate reviews deliver on the intention of the law: to protect consumers against arbitrary and unreasonable interest rate increases.