"HI, MY NAME IS FRED, AND I'M ADDICTED TO CREDIT CARDS."
After years of free spending -- $200 jeans, a silver BMW and other grown-up toys -- Michael Wagner had racked up $25,000 in credit-card debt and was behind on his mortgage and car payments. Creditors called night and day. It was a "hopeless downward spiral," he says. Then, last November, the 34-year-old sales manager for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch joined the "Sunday morning breakfast club," a group of debtors who meet weekly over coffee and eggs to share money woes. Mr. Wagner says he is now...
> Consumer Credit
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TEN OF THE WORST NETWORKING MYTHS
Some people just have a knack for getting out and meeting many kinds of people and building meaningful relationships. They see the value of how interacting with others increases their knowledge and creates opportunities. Conversely, so many other people stifle themselves by creating excuses for staying in their shells. Here are ten of the worst myths about networking and their current, more sensible replacements that will help see the light to an important and valuable social activity.
> Articles
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DEBT COLLECTORS PUSHING TO GET THEIR DAY IN COURT
Cook County Circuit Court has been turned into a frenetic debt collections machine, a reflection of easy credit gone sour and a collections industry determined to get paid. More than 119,000 civil lawsuits against alleged debtors are clogging courtrooms, and at least half will result in judgments that debt collectors will use to dock wages, seize bank accounts and file liens against homes, compounding the woes of troubled borrowers.
> Collection Practices | > Laws & Regulations
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THE RECEIVABLES EXCHANGE'S MEMBERSHIP EXCEEDS $500 MILLION IN A/R TURNOVER
The Receivables Exchange, the world’s first online marketplace for real-time trading of accounts receivable, today (June 9, 2008) announced that its Charter Member program has surpassed $500 million in accounts receivable turnover since commencing its sales initiatives two months ago.
> Articles | > Financing Methods
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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PERSONAL BANKRUPTCY
Bankruptcy has become an epidemic. An astounding 91,214 Americans declared bankruptcy in May 2008, up 31% from the same month a year ago. More than 1 million Americans are expected to declare bankruptcy this year, a jump of nearly 50% from last year, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute. That means at least one in every 100 families will be affected by a bankruptcy. It's a sign of the times: a combination of the housing and mortgage crisis, consumer debt burdens and the strains that...
> Bankruptcy
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EXPERIAN AND VOICEVAULT TO CREATE BIOMETRIC AUTHENTICATION SYSTEM
Experian, the global information services company, and VoiceVault, a leader in voice-based biometric identity verification, have entered into a partnership to create a hosted, pay-as-you-go biometric identity verification service. The VoiceCheck service, secured by VoiceVault, will dramatically reduce the time and costs associated with validating contact centre callers.
> Identity Theft, Fraud, and Scams
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FIGHTING ON TWO FRONTS!
A suburban soldier fighting in Iraq has spent the last two years also fighting a battle to fix his credit over a mistake, he says, his credit card issuer started. The credit card "Military Star" is given only to service members and can be used only at military stores, and when La Grange native Peter Huetson was deployed two years ago, the credit company told Huetson to send in his orders and not to worry; his credit card payments would be suspended until he returned.
> Consumer Credit | > Articles
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WHEN PAYING DEBTS, DOCUMENT EVERYTHING
When it comes to receiving contact from a debt collection agency, nothing should be left to chance or doubt. Following below are some important pieces of advice when paying your debt.
> Business & Financial Advice
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UK MILITARY LAPTOP THEFT EXPOSES THOUSANDS TO IDENTITY THEFT RISK
The UK's Ministry of Defense (MOD) is conducting a review of information security policies in response to a serious data breach that transpired earlier this month. A laptop that was stolen from the car of a military recruitment officer contained information about approximately 600,000 people, most of whom were prospective recruits. The database stored on the laptop was not encrypted—a significant violation of MOD data handling policies.
> Identity Theft, Fraud, and Scams
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REALLY UNDERSTANDING CREDIT REPAIR — FACTS AND FALLACIES
There is lot of information available about credit repair, but so much of it is conflicting, it's easy to get confused. The credit bureaus themselves would like consumers to believe that there is nothing they can do to improve their credit ratings. In addition, there are unscrupulous credit repair companies that guarantee miraculous, instant jumps in credit scores… and then there are legitimate credit repair agencies that provide services that give consumers realistic and reasonable results.
> Consumer Credit
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EIGHT TIPS FOR MORE EFFECTIVE EMAIL COMMUNICATION
A recent report estimated that over 7 trillion emails were sent worldwide last year! Spam messages are jamming in-boxes across the globe and the average office worker now gets between 60-200 messages a day. While no one denies the obvious productivity gains we’ve realized from the efficiencies of email communication, many people find themselves drowning in all these messages.
> Business & Financial Advice
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POINTS FOR UNDERSTANDING YOUR CUSTOMER'S BANK CREDIT LINE
A bank credit line (also called a revolving credit facility) is a working capital loan. Your customer may have, for example, a $10 million line of credit with their bank. This means they have the ability to borrow up to $10 million and, up to that amount, may increase or decrease their borrowing on a daily basis. The amount borrowed under the bank credit line is included when calculating most leverage ratios.
> Commercial Credit
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EVERY CREDIT CARD PURCHASE LEAVES CONSUMERS AT RISK
There is a logical attraction to skipping the chaos of the shopping mall to shop online for post-Christmas bargains but every credit card purchase leaves consumers at risk. Internet fraud has grown as relentlessly as online commerce and an estimated 3.5 million people in Britain were the victims of some form of cybercrime last year.
> Identity Theft, Fraud, and Scams
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THE GOOD & BAD NEWS ABOUT THE BIG 0RDER
Scenario
A new customer has given you a purchase order for $1.5 million and wants you to ship about $200,000 per month on net 30 day terms. Although this company is not creditworthy for the full $1.5 million, you definitely could use the business, as this level of business is substantial for your company. Since your profit margin is thin your manufacturing department suggests to build one-third of the product at a time to make the production cost effective. As a credit manager faced with this
> Commercial Credit
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EIGHT TIPS FOR CHOOSING A COLLECTION AGENCY
Debt collection, whether commercial or consumer, is one vital part of a comprehensive credit risk management system. When we hear the words, "credit risk management", we may have a general idea of the meaning, but for the record, a comprehensive credit risk management system will use a wide range of "before and after" credit risk products, services, systems, and solutions.
> Articles
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