All About Credit Score

If you’re struggling with debt and looking for a way to improve your finances, there’s good news on the horizon: beginning Monday, September 27, new rules issued by the Federal Trade Commission prevent advertisers from deceiving potential customers about their ability to offer financial relief.

Here are some of the new protections the FTC’s latest consumer protection rule outlines.

More Honest Disclosures

While bankruptcy is a well-known debt relief option, many consumers try to avoid filing for bankruptcy by opting for debt settlement or credit counseling. While both options work well in many instances, in some cases, dishonest companies pitch too-good-to-be-true offers and consumers end up with more debt than they had before.

Now, advertisers will have to:

• Announce proposed fees & refund policies No longer will companies be able to get away with advertising how low a price might be (“as little as…”). Now, advert

Read full post…

Tags: Rule, Rule Means

Credit scores are considered important since they directly influence the buying power of a person. All financial advisors agree that a better credit score can help you save money since a better score means that you will pay less on interest rates each year. While many people opt for methods like debt consolidation to improve their score there are a few ways you can improve your score easily. The following paragraphs will elaborate about 4 ways you can improve your credit score without opting for external help.

Pay Off Your Lenders without Any Delay

On an average 35% of your scores are calculated on the basis of past dues and late payments. If you are interested in improving your score then you should pay off your old dues as fast as possible.

Read full post…

Tags: Credit Score, Score

According to excerpts taken from a news article posted in the San Francisco Chronicle, dated September 2, 2010 and written by Victoria Colliver, an Alameda County report showed home foreclosures were related to creating health problems. Colliver wrote, “The report found foreclosures have not only economic consequences, but create health problems for the people and families involved, and those effects can ripple throughout a community. In a survey of nearly 400 residents in two Oakland neighborhoods particularly hard hit by the foreclosure crisis, the Alameda Public Health Department and Causa Justa/Just Cause, a housing rights group, teamed up to look at how people undergoing foreclosure experience higher levels of stress and increased medical problems.” They discovered that “tenants living in buildings in foreclosure have similar problems. The s

Read full post…

We at Lakelaw have been saying this for years.  Debt settlement firms say “don’t file bankruptcy.”  We say steer clear of debt settlement firms.  And we’re not alone.  Here’s a great video from MSNBC which explains it in detail.

Do you want to try it yourself?  Go for it.  Try to settle those debts by yourself.  Or call Lakelaw.  We know what the going rates are and we’ll be glad to help.  If you have the funds to avoid bankruptcy, wonderful.  If you don’t don’t worry.  We’ll help you file bankruptcy and get the fresh start that you need and deserve.

For financial freedom in Illinois and Wisconsin, call us at Lakelaw – 1 866 LAKELAW.  That’s 866 525-3529.

Tags: Debt Settlement, Debt Settlement Firms, Msnbc, Settlement Firms

Recent reports from the Census Bureau show that the number of American families living at or below the poverty line increased in 2009 to a fifteen-year high of about 44 million, or one in seven Americans. So what does that mean for individual finances, including foreclosure , eviction, bankruptcy filings and more?

Here’s a look at what the rising poverty rate in the U.S. might look like.

Poverty and Bankruptcy

Many insiders have estimated that as many as 1.6 million Americans will file for bankruptcy by the end of 2010, up from even 2009’s 1.3 million. Even though that number represents an increase from prior years, some economists conjecture that more Americans would be in need of bankruptcy protection if not for:

• Shared housing: More and more extended families, it seems, are opting to live in single residencies in order to save money on bills. For

Read full post…

Tags: Year