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Latest blog posts from Ask Jack About Debt Management

Debt Help Firms More Scam than Help, with One Exception.
If you have read anything on this site about companies that tell you they can help you reduce your debts, help you get out of debt, or help you fix your credit, you know we are very skeptical of these claims. There is only one debt help organization we recommend based on our experience, and...
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Published a month ago

Why foreclosure prevention plans aren’t working.
Even before the current “bail-out” bill passed, the government enacted a program (which took effect October first) to encourage lenders to “cram down” balances on mortgages (rather than foreclosing) by offering to have the FHA insure the new balance. The “bail-out” bill contains a...
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Published 2 months ago

Foreclosure Prevention: Time to do something that works.
The news keeps getting worse. The mortgage delinquency rate is up to 6.6% of all mortgages (as of the end of August). The delinquency rate is an astounding 25% for sub-prime mortgages. Even “Alt-A” mortgages (something between prime and sub-prime) have a delinquency rate of almost 11%; and...
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Published 2 months ago

Credit Card Debt Collectors have new tricks.
As credit card delinquencies rise (up to 4.5% in most recent quarter), credit card companies have become much more aggressive in their efforts to get delinquent card holders to pay up, according to the Wall Street Journal. The first thing many are doing is stepping up their dunning efforts,...
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Published 3 months ago

REFI not so easy any more. Good.
Refinancing your house became a way of life before the subprime mortgage market blew up. In the past, refi’s were done mostly to get a lower interest rate on a mortgage that had been written when interest rates were high. But more recently they became a popular as a way to get spending money...
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Published 3 months ago

Second Mortgage, first headache?
It seems so easy. Need to get some money out of your house? Make repairs? Buy a new car? Leave your first mortgage in place and simply sign up for a second mortgage. Nothing to it, right? Before you make that commitment think about some of the problems with a second mortgage. These...
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Published 3 months ago

Three Credit Reports: Pay or free?
There are three major credit reporting agencies (CRA’s) in the U.S. and you are probably recorded on all three of them. Each has different records and different ways of giving you a credit score. So, you really need to get all three credit reports to see where you stand. There are many ways...
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Published 3 months ago

Debt Elimination: “Walk aways” leave debt behind.
In many states, if your house is foreclosed or if you turn it into the lender and it is sold for less than the mortgage, you are still obligated to pay the balance of the debt. To cope with this, you can do a “short sale” in which you find a buyer, then get your lender to agree to settle for...
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Published 4 months ago

Foreclosure prevention: Judges getting involved.
The truth is that, in most cases, foreclosure prevention activity fails. The loan servicing company doing the foreclosure has no skin in the game. They do not care how much of the debt is recovered. Someone else owns the debt. They get paid only if they foreclose. So they refuse to...
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Published 4 months ago

Foreclosure Prevention: New law will help!
It looks like Bush will cave in and sign the compromise foreclosure prevention bill passed by the House and sent to the Senate. For those who are in foreclosure �" or who may be �" the main advantage of the bill is that it gives a big incentive to lenders to do a “cram down”�" reduce the...
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Published 4 months ago