Credit Card Payment Consolidation: is it Helpful?
Many people talk about consolidating their payments, but what are they seeking to benefit from it? There are several things you should know before you consolidate your credit card bills.
First of all, there are several ways to consolidate your credit card payments. One way to consolidate your payments would be to transfer your balances from several different cards to one card. This would allow the convenience of only having one payment, but low introductory rates don’t last very long. You also may be putting yourself in a bad situation if you have to find another way to lower your monthly payment. Another way to consolidate your bills is to get some kind of loan such as a consolidation loan or home equity loan. These loans may carry high rates that will not be beneficial, or require collateral that you could lose if you default on the loan.
Another way to consolidate your payments is to follow a debt management plan. This type of plan is not a loan, but it does allow you to pay one payment each month. When you sign up to a debt management plan, your creditors are more willing to work with you to lower your finance charges because they want to ensure that you will be able to pay them back the debt you owe. Often times you are able to pay a lower payment each month while still making reasonable progress to pay off your credit card accounts.
Another thing you should know before seeking credit card consolidation is that there are companies who offer things that are better than true, but are in fact not a type of debt consolidation. Some who advertise to clear up your debt are offering bankruptcy or debt settlement. Bankruptcy is certainly a valid option for some people, but make sure that you have tried less extreme ways of fixing your debt problem as it can affect your finances for quite some time. Debt settlement companies often charge you high fees to provide a service that you can do on your own. They also are not usually up front about the other problems with settling your debt such as the additional taxes you will owe and the harm that it does to your credit score.
While consolidating and lowering your credit card payments is convenient, make sure you are also finding a way to lower your interest rates or it will take you much longer to get out of debt. If you have a lower interest rate on your debt, you will be able to apply more of your monthly payment towards paying off your debt. This is what a debt management plan does which is why it can be helpful for so many different people.
If you take the time to seek the help you need, you should be able to find a way to consolidate your payments and spend less of your money on interest. Make sure that whatever debt consolidation option you choose works for you.
Watch the video related to credit card payment
lichelle.com How to add encrypted Paypal buttons to your web pages to accept credit card payments on your site.
March 4th, 2009 at 11:39 am
When you make the purchase you debit the appropriate expense or asset account for $1,000 and credit current liabilities. As you make payments, you debit current liabilities for the principal portion of the payment, debit interest expense for the interest portion, and credit cash for the amount of the payment.
If this is all Greek to you, consider a consultation with a CPA or EA who specializes in small business accounting and taxation to get set up on a bookkeeping system.
March 4th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
About your credit, if you've had this card a decent amount of time and have shown the unblemished history you report, you should calll their customer service and throw yourself at the mercy of the person who answers. Tell them honestly what happened, and ask them to look at your payment history and see that it is completely out of character for you. Ask that they accept another payment, and tell them you are cancelling the original check. If you can pay them immediately by debit or other means, do so. They really might take the blot off your credit rating if you do it once and never again. It worked for me. Don't forget to cancel that check at the bank. I feel for you, I have been there, but my credit card company was surprisingly nice about it. Good luck!
March 5th, 2009 at 3:05 am
No, not unless it becomes a habit and they can see a pattern in late payments. Your late charge fee wiped out your payment. I had a 10.00 min payment due one time and was late. I got charged 25.00 late fee.
March 5th, 2009 at 11:30 am
There are many things to consider in making that decision.
Do you have a shopping cart?
How fast do you want the funds into your acount?
Would you process the card over the internet or by phone?
You can get a complete package for the shopping cart and credit card processing. However, you need to consider a few things.
First. If you want the credit card sales to be automatically put into your bank account within 48hrs, PayPal is a bad option. It can take a few days for the transaction to hit your account and you must manually transfer the funds. A traditional merchant account will get the funds there quicker.
Second. PRICE. Make sure you are on the right pricing program. Will you be selling to businesses or individuals? You need to make sure and clarify the difference with the processor you choose.
Third. If you are taking your orders via the phone with just a informative website, all you need is a Virtual Terminal. Do not get a machine!
You can get more information here:
http://www.omnitranz.com
Good Luck!
March 5th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
How Payment Processing Works
Before being able to accept credit card transactions and other forms of online payments, a merchant will need to set up a merchant account with a bank. A merchant account is the industry term for a business banking relationship whereby you and a bank have arranged to accept credit card payments (usually, a local bank can suffice for this kind of relationship). Setting up a merchant account usually involves the bank understanding your business and working with a third-party processor to arrange a mechanism for accepting payments. For more information on setting up merchant accounts, we recommend you take a look through the http://www.card-gallery.com to get you started in the right direction.
March 6th, 2009 at 9:13 am
Call the credit card company and let them know that you realize you've missed two payments, but you're sending one in now. They'll be happy you called (if not, hang up on her) and even more happy that you now have to pay the added late fees and finance charges.
March 6th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Those other responses didn't directly answer the question.
First, it is correct that paying more than the minimum *won't* affect your score. What you are trying to accomplish is to keep from being characterized by the CC companies as a struggling payer. The strategy is to pay the min plus a little while paying down other cards.
My experience is that paying an extra percent above the min will keep the CC software from identifying you as a "minimum only" payer. To be safe since some companies are bumping the min from 2.5% to 3%, I suggest you pay 4%.
March 7th, 2009 at 12:23 am
You have a couple of options.
Many Internet providers offer a checkout system for free or at minimal cost for the sites that they host. Mine does, although I don't use it because I don't sell anything.
If you are selling as an eBay shop, or even if you don't, then you can use PayPal for checking out and PayPal automatically accepts credit cards including Amex.
You can use a proprietary shopping basket checkout system through Yahoo or otherwise. Here's a specimen:
http://www.make-a-store.com/site/category/Yahoo_Software_Web_Service_Shopping_Cart_Software
I found it by Googling <Yahoo shopping basket>. There are a number of firms doing the same thing.
You can probably do it cheaper, maybe for free, with Yahoo! directly. Here't the link for that:
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/index.php
I don't think you ought to deal with credit card companies directly. You could easily get scammed by fraudsters using stolen or fake cards. The professionals take some or all of the risk off your hands, and they can check online for bad cards, and check addresses and CVV numbers and expiration dates.
Be careful: I would be cautious about shipping anything abroad except to Canada. And don't give refunds — especially for overpayments — until your bank tells you the money is cleared "without recourse", meaning no chargeback is possible.
Google <nigeria 419> and learn a bit about Internet scams, how even certified and cashiers checks, US postal money orders and Wal-Mart money orders are faked. Especially from overseas.
March 7th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
As long as it is not 30-days or more late they will not report it as late.