Bank finance articles and tips

Imagine this scenario. As a small business owner trying to keep your company above water, or even just trying to start a new one, you go into your local bank looking for a line of credit or a small business loan. The loan officer reviews your business assets, credit score, and credit history. He tells you that you need to pledge your real estate holdings and half of your inventory. Reluctantly you decide to go forward because you think there is no other way to get the loan with out putting up collateral. Unfortunately your business hits a snag and within a few months you are no longer able to make the payments. Now you are unable to make the payments and the bank has a lien on your assets. What happens? Your business is no longer able to survive.

It's no secret that declaring bankruptcy certainly gave you control over your finances - and you're certainly eager not to end up back in the bankruptcy courts again. But thanks to a combination of the shrinking job market and the rising cost of living, you're worried that you'll end up right where you started: filing a petition in a bankruptcy court.

Even if you've got your bills under control now, it's always important to use the recession as an opportunity to make sure that your financial education is on the right track - especially if you're trying to avoid bankruptcy again.

Having a poor credit rating and being aware of your credit score, can be a good thing. In this article, we will discuss what makes a poor credit rating, how it affects you and what you can do to increase it. Knowledge is power and the power to increase your credit rating can make your life easier in many ways.

A weak or poor credit rating, also known as your FICO score, is a score below a 620. The 3 credit bureaus assign FICO scores that range from 300 to 850. The lower number represents a poor credit rating where the higher number stands for a positive credit score.

When you are drowning in credit card debt, sometimes it can seem as though bankruptcy is the only possible outcome. However, many card banks do offer alternative arrangements, including partial credit card settlement, workout agreement, or even simply a short-term bill reduction. These arrangements can make the difference between bankruptcy and keeping your finances afloat.

While these alternatives do sound like the perfect solution, there is a catch: credit card negotiation can be a long, arduous process. It is something that consumers can tackle themselves, but those in debt should expect to face a series of long phone calls and a frustrating search for random details of your financial history.

It's the age old question and one not easily answered - how to make money. There are as many ways to make money as there are people to make it - how you eventually go on to make it depends on you.

Nothing happens until something is sold

This oft repeated adage is the bedrock upon which economics professors have been teaching econ 101 upon since there were schools to teach it. In order to generate money, you need to give someone something they want, or provide a service they need. This is the consummation of a sale, and that is the beginning of how to make money.

Now that you have your Credit report chances are that there are accounts on there that are considered negative accounts. These negative accounts are the ones that you either paid late or didn't pay at all and they are the ones that are hurting your credit score.

There are some things that you need to know about these negative accounts. The first thing to do is to make sure that those negative accounts are actually yours. As I am sure you all know we are living in the times where identity theft and credit fraud are practically a way of life. It is not uncommon for people to have negative accounts on their credit reports for purchases that they never made or for lines of credit that they never took out. Both the credit reporting agencies and the United States Congress know this to be a fact and that is why legislative measures have been taken to give debtors a way to dispute these invalid debts. The first way is to contact the creditor directly. If you can convince them that you did not open that particular account you can get them to stop reporting that account as delinquent. If that doesn't work then you can file a dispute directly with the credit reporting agency.