Showing posts with label San Francisco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label San Francisco. Show all posts

Sunday, October 12, 2014

INCREASE YOUR CREDIT RATING! AND OTHER HOMEOWNER HELP...

Successful Methods To Increase Your Credit Rating

If you knew exactly the amount and to whom you owed the money, you might not have been in debt to begin with. Now that you are seriously in debt, you need to work extra hard to repair your poor credit. The following advice can help you easily repair your negative credit.
When you want to fix your credit, you need to start somewhere. Have a realistic plan and stay with it. You can’t just make up a plan and not change how you spend your money. Don’t buy the things that aren’t needs. Ensure that you can afford everything you buy and that you really need it.

Secured Credit Card

If you can’t get a normal card due to low credit score, look into a secured card. These accounts are much easier to get as you will have to fund the new account ahead of time with a deposit to cover any purchases. If you open a credit card account, keep charges fairly low, and pay it on time, this will go towards improving your credit score.
With a good credit score, you can easily buy a house and mortgage it. By paying off your mortgage on time, you will even improve your credit score further.
Try to get a secured credit card if you are not eligible for an unsecured card. This will help you fix your credit. Secured credit card applications have a high rate of approval because you must fund a security deposit against your credit limit. Using this card responsibly will improve your credit rating over time, and eventually you’ll be able to get a normal credit card again.
You may be able to reduce interest rates by maintaining a favorable credit rating. You’ll be able to make your payments more easily and get your debt paid off quickly. Compare offers and choose the best interest rate you can find when borrowing money or subscribing to a credit card.
You should consider talking to directly with your creditors when you are trying to improve your credit. This prevents you from sinking further into debt or further damaging your credit score. Talk to your credit card company about changing the terms of your monthly payment.
An installment account is a great way to increase your credit score. Open an installment account that you can pay for and make sure to keep an affordable monthly minimum on it. If these accounts are properly managed, they can provide a quick boost to your credit score.
Before you decide to go through with a debt settlement, you should be sure you know how it will affect your credit. Do some heavy researching before starting an agreement with any creditor; there are other options that may not damage your credit score as heavily.
Stop spending more money than you have available. This is nothing short of a lifestyle overhaul. Getting credit has never been easier, making it just as easy for people to buy items they simply can’t afford. This, though, comes with a hefty interest price tag. Spend some significant time studying your finances, and set a realistic budget to which you can stick.

Credit Card

Shut off all but one credit card if you want to fix your credit. Then, try to arrange payments or transfer your balances to the one account you left open. Paying off one main credit card will be easier than paying off several cheaper ones.
Take the necessary steps to fix any mistakes that you see on your credit reports by filing an official dispute. A dispute letter should be sent to any of the agencies that are reporting the error. Be sure to include supporting documents. Your letter should be sent with a request for return receipt, so you can have a record that it was received by the reporting agency.
It will be easier to increase your credit rating if you only have one open credit card account. You should plan on how you will pay the remaining open balances, or how to consolidate them into one account.
Check your credit card statement each month and make sure there aren’t any discrepancies. if you find any, then you need to get in touch with the company right away so this does not become a blemish on your credit record.
Pay off your entire balance on your credit card in order to repair your credit. You should first work on paying down the credit cards with the highest balance or interest rates. This shows creditors you are responsible about your credit cards.
You need to read and understand the credit card statements you receive in the mail. You should make sure that the charges that you get are right, and that you’re not paying for items you did not buy. You are the only one that can verify if everything on there is the way it should be.
If at all possible, avoid filing bankruptcy. The record of the bankruptcy appears on your report and affects your credit rating for up to 10 years. Though the idea of ridding yourself of debt can sound appealing, the long term consequences just aren’t worth it. By filing for bankruptcy, you might have a lot of trouble getting a credit card or qualifying for a loan in the future.
These are ways of protecting your credit rating. Every late payment appears on a credit report, and could potentially hurt your chances at a loan.
Debt collectors hounding you can be very stressful. You can use a cease and desist letter to stop any harassment from collection agencies. The consumer still has to pay disputed debts even though these letters stop agencies from calling.
It goes without saying that if your credit is poor and needs repairing, you need to start from the bottom and build. Prepaid credit cards can help you demonstrate responsible use of credit without having to worry about missing payments or late fees. This will show potential lenders that you are responsible and credit worthy.
Determine a way that you can settle all overdue accounts using affordable time payments. While this will not remove the debts from your credit report completely, they will be showing as paid and no longer negatively affect your rating.
Lenders do not care about the reason you have negative information on your credit report. Having some positive credit history is the only way that negative reports can be counteracted when lenders are analyzing your credit liability. The statement will only draw further attention to negative reports on your credit history.
Debt collectors hounding you can be very stressful. You have the option of sending a cease and desist letter to agencies to stop them from calling, but that doesn’t mean that your debt vanishes.
If you are having budget problems, call a credit counseling organization. These organizations can help you by negotiating with creditors to resolve a payment plan. Using these organizations lets you learn ways to manage finances better.
Begin a debt reduction plan. When you apply for a loan, they take into consideration the ratio of your debt and your income. You will be looked at as a bad credit risk if your debt is too much for your income to handle. You are not likely to be able to pay off the debt in full right away, so you should make a plan to repay in a timely fashion and follow that schedule.
Fixing a bad financial situation requires common sense rather than monetary skills. Following this information can help you reach your debt goals.
It goes without saying that if your credit is poor and needs repairing, you need to start from the bottom and build. Prepaid credit cards are great for this, since you can get improved with a bad credit score, and there’s no way to rack up debt and late fees. This approach will indicate to others that you are serious about taking responsibility for your financial future.
Work with collectors to create a realistic repayment plan. Though they will still be reflected on all three credit reports, they will show as paid so the ill effects are less substantial.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

SAN MATEO BOARD OF SUPERVISORS ARE RESOLVED TO STEP IN FILL THE GAP THE GOVERNMENT HAS LEFT AND COMMUNICATE TO THE FEARS OF HOMEOWNERS


Official seal of County of San Mateo

Foreclosures rise in San Mateo County;
local officials try to help

By Stephanie Soderborg | 15 Oct 2011
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Like an obnoxious neighbor, housing problems did not wait for Rose Jacobs Gibson to settle in to her position on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors before they came calling. Her first two days in office, she remembers, the phone lines were flooded by elderly and low-income constituents who feared they would lose their homes because of changes to the federal Section 8 subsidy program.

Crowds wait in line to check in to the Oct. 1 San Mateo Count Foreclosure Resource Fair. (Photo: Stephanie Soderborg/Peninsula Press)
People did not understand how the changes would affect their lives, and the government was not doing enough to inform them, Jacobs Gibson decided.  She resolved to help get the necessary information to the public.
Twelve years later, her cause remains the same – only now her work focuses largely on the thousands of home foreclosures in the county.
Early this month, her office hosted a Foreclosure Resource Fair, bringing together bank lenders, housing counselors and legal advisers to provide free advice to the nearly 200 people who crowded into a community center in Menlo Park. At the fair, the supervisor’s office began to distribute a 28-page guide for homeowners and renters, titled “Foreclosure Prevention.”
The guide provides answers to frequently asked questions, offers tips for avoiding foreclosure, suggests when not to keep a home and lists more than 60 local foreclosure assistance resources. Those resources include counseling agencies, alternative housing resources, legal aid and nonprofits that provide related services such as mental health counseling and food programs.
“One of the challenges is that people have such pride, and when it comes to their home it is just so difficult to have to admit that you are faced with whatever the problem is,” Jacobs Gibson said.

Supervisor Rose Jacobs Gibson addresses the attendants of the 2011 Foreclosure Resource Fair. (Photo: Stephanie Soderborg/Peninsula Press)
As measured by per capita figures, San Mateo County has weathered the nation’s foreclosure crisis better than many areas of California. Of late, though, the trend is more ominous. In September, 788 properties were under notice of default, forced auction or bank repossession in the county, up from 498 in August, according to RealtyTrac.com, which tracks foreclosures. Counties in the rest of the Bay Area saw a decrease over the same month.
Foreclosures can have a widespread effect on a community by depressing property values.
Encouraging homeowners to seek help is an important step, Jacobs Gibson said. Residents who work with housing counselors are 60 percent more likely to keep their homes and significantly modify their loans than those who do not seek help, according to an Urban Institute study.
“A lot of homeowners feel that they have to come up with money to seek help, which they don’t. Some feel that they can resolve the problem themselves, when they cannot,” said Bob Kane, a lawyer who volunteers at the free Community Legal Service in East Palo Alto. “For a lot of them it is just that they are not aware of the resources out there.”
Many people who attended the Oct. 1 resource fair agreed to be interviewed under the condition that they be identified by first name only, explaining that the forced loss of a home is a highly personal matter.
A homeowner named Jeff said he drove 90 minutes one way to attend the fair. Due to lack of counseling, he said, he did not recognize the severity of his situation until too late.  Now he is facing foreclosure. “I thought we had a minor bump in the road,” he said.
The fair and resource guide also help governments and community service agencies because, in some cases, not everyone is aware of where to refer clients, according to Jacobs Gibson.
Martin Eichner, the director of Project Sentinel, a HUD counseling center, said large agencies coordinate with each other already. But until now, Jacobs Gibson said, it was hard to find a single resource listing all the available services. “There will be a little more assistance now that people can provide with out having to try and think, ‘who do I call and where do I go,’” she said.
Laura Fanucchi, the associate director of Human Investment Project Housing, a nonprofit dedicated to home sharing and self-sufficiency, explained another benefit of the resource guide: “We cannot focus our time on creating this type of resource, yet it is so valuable in case management.”
Agencies that provide assistance to the best of their abilities bring peace of mind to many struggling clients. For Jeff, the counseling advice he received at the resource fair provided a sense of relief.
“We came in scared to death… at the potential of loosing our house at some unknown date in some unknown process,” he said. “We are able to come out today… and we’re pleased. We are coming out happy.”

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Saturday, August 6, 2011

EMBRACE HOME LOANS NICER TO WORK WITH THEN WELLS FARGO. SURPRISE, SURPRISE.

I tried going thru Wells Fargo with whom I had my home loan and they refused to work with me, and were actually quite rude.

AURORA, CO - JULY 01:  Ricky Torrez, 3, raises...Image by Getty Images via @daylife
Honor All Customers as Our Guest
It was a pleasure working with John Andrews of Embrace Home Loans in getting myrefinancing done.  He was professional yet personal.  I tried going thru Wells Fargo with whom I had my home loan and they refused to work with me, and were actually quite rude.  And the fact I was able to close while on vacation was amazing!
Nancy Arnold – Anderson, SC

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