With the act active, more and more people can make their debt Problems known, this way they can get help from a debt advisor. There are a variety of way the act helps. If you are in debt you can go up to the people you owe money to and ask them for an extension on your full amount, or your monthly amount.

In the event that you owe a big sum of cash to a company, the number one thing for you to do is get rid of your visa cards. Now, you may not wish to cut it up or thru it away, but you can give it to a friend or relation so that you don’t have access to it. Do not close any account when you are in debt, it is going to be a negative mark against your name.

One other way you can clear your debt is to take it one card at a time. Or at least pay more on one card and less on others, if you’ve got more than one. The card you pay more on should be the card that you possess more on, or the card that charges the most interest. Losing these cards first will help you in the long run.

Don’t stop payment on the smaller amounts. If you do, these amounts will get bigger, and they too will start to gain more interest. You do not desire that. If you are paying the littlest amount of cash, at least you are paying something. This way you are clearing all the amounts that you owe on your cards, and in virtually no time you’ll be out of debt.

Don’t let them push you around. They want their money and they want it now, so when you talk to them on the phone they will push you around a bit and demand that you make a payment of x amount. If that amount is too huge tell them what you are able to afford and stick to it. They will ultimately say that it is fine.

One other thing you don’t want to do when you’re clearing loans, is not using more loans. This is a mistake that a large amount of folk make – never take out a loan to pay back a loan. It’ll never work.

Also, do not go for any sort of debt consolidation. The reason is because you have to put your place down as security, and this is something that you do not need to do. The reason being because those companies will take you account and push the interest up until you are able to afford it anymore. This will leave them to take your house.

Post from: Obama's ForeClosure Plan Website

A Fresh Look at the Debt Settlement Act

The court injunction — which loan experts say appeared to be the first court-ordered stop for an entire state in the nation — stops judges in SC from finishing the foreclosure process on properties whose loans are guaranteed by Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae or any other mortgage company that has signed on to a federal assistance program.

RealtyTrac Inc., a foreclosure listing firm, says the ruling could affect up to 5,000 South Carolina homes facing foreclosure.

Read the full story on the AP Wire, or see if you qualify for a mortgage loan modification now.

Post from: Obama's ForeClosure Plan Website

South Carolina Homeowners Get a Stay from Foreclosure

Why did He Qualify for Refinancing?

Simple… his house payment was more than 31% of his monthly gross income AND he was a few weeks behind on the current payment (on purpose, to get refi’d)

He got a letter from Citi offering to assist and when he called them, they went gaga over helping him! He has a full time job and makes about 38k per year.

My question to everyone reading…

Did You Qualify for Foreclosure Assistance?

If so… tell us about it! If not, please tell us why!

Post from: Obama's ForeClosure Plan Website

Is the Foreclosure Bailout Working for You?

Anyhow – We got to talking about the foreclosure plan and one of the guys mentioned that his home is financed through Citifinancial, and they actually sent HIM a letter out of nowhere, telling him he may qualify for assistance under the new plan! He actually got 2 letters, so he gave me one of them to take a look at…In BIG BOLD LETTERS it said:

You May Qualify for Foreclosure Prevention Assistance!

As you can imagine, it even made me read the entire content in the letter… hell, if he could qualify, I might be able to also right?!

I asked my friend about his financial situation and here were his details:

• Single Homeowner
• Father of 1 – he pays child support and shares custody
• Gross pay of $38,000 +/-
• Mortgage payment of $1397 per month (!Gack!)
• Very little credit card debt.
• He has not made an on time mortgage payment in 6 months, and is usually 1-2 weeks late every month, but has never been more than 15-20 days late at most!

After hearing about his finances… I was not only shocked that he is living for his house, but wondered how the hell he could afford to play poker with us, let alone buy food and pay utilities!

Just a little basic math on my cell phone had me jumping at him, encouraging him to complete the foreclosure prevention form and send it in… Immediately! You see… his house note costs him more than the 31% qualifier in the foreclosure plan, as a matter of fact… his note costs 44%!

Filling out the Enclosed Form from Citibank

The form Citi sent was very straightforward and all on one page – which is friggin shocking for anything to do with a mortgage, but that’s another post!!

Basic info like employment history, paystubs, tax returns… the normal stuff you would expect to need on any application for credit, was completed in less than 10 minutes between poker hands, and he sent it in on Friday!

Have you received any forms from Citi? If so, share the results of the process with others here!

Post from: Obama's ForeClosure Plan Website

You Might Qualify for Help – Even if you Aren’t in Trouble!

New home construction fell in November by the largest amount in a quarter-century, as builders slashed production while facing the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression. However, a new blizzard of government money may be coming to your neighborhood, and it promises to be a true bailout for the masses, not just for those in foreclosure or real financial difficulty. Tight credit and lending markets, rising foreclosures, and surging unemployment figures have homebuyers on the sidelines, pummeling the fortunes of homebuilders such as D.R. Horton Inc. (DHI), Pulte Homes Inc. (PHM) and Centex Corp. (CTX)

“It is going to be a very cold winter indeed for homebuilders,” Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist for forecasting firm MFR Inc., wrote in a note to clients Monday, MSNBC reported.

And the numbers are grim.

Housing Starts at All time Low

The U.S. Commerce Department yesterday (Tuesday) reported that housing starts, where construction has actually begun, fell 18.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 625,000 units from 771,000 units in October, much less than the 740,000 starts Wall Street analysts expected. New building permits, predictive of future home construction, plummeted 15.6% to 616,000 units from 730,000 units in October. That was also way below analyst estimates of 700,000. Housing starts were down 47% in November from the rate in November 2007 and permits were down 48.1%, the largest year-to-year drops since January 1991. But on the bright side, any slump in new home construction could help U.S. housing market prices recover.

“The more we have less housing starts, the more we can shrink existing inventory,” Steven Goldman, market strategist at Weeden & Co. LP, told Reuters.

The news comes on the heels of a phalanx of trillion-dollar-government efforts and bailouts to banking and government agencies designed to shore up the housing industry. The economy has a variety of problems, but the housing industry is at the crux of any plan to return the U.S. economy to a healthy state.

Obama’s Housing Plan

Some economists are forecasting gross domestic product (GDP) to fall 8% for the current quarter, making the most drastic policy proposals increasingly palatable. And the latest plan to emerge from the inner workings of President-elect Barack Obama’s recovery team is a stunner, sporting an astounding price tag of $3 trillion. According to Bloomberg News, the so-called Hubbard-Mayer plan is being studied by Lawrence Summers, chairman-designate of the National Economic Council, and is already “on a fast track at the Treasury.” The plan calls for reviving the faltering housing market by providing just about everybody access to a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with a 4.5% interest rate. That’s almost a full percentage point below the current national average rate of 5.47%. The plan might even be available to existing homeowners who want to refinance their mortgages.

The bottom line: If you have a mortgage, this plan would put extra money in your pocket.

Assume a homeowner currently has a $500,000, 30-year fixed rate mortgage at 6.1%, the average rate issued this year, lowering the interest rate to 4.5% would lower the monthly payment by about $500. The thinking of the Obama team is that this plan might just be the magic bullet needed to turn the economy around. After all, if Joe Taxpayer’s monthly housing payment drops by $500, he might not be afraid to go out and purchase that new car he’s been eyeing. The effects from millions of subsidized mortgages like these could dramatically increase the number of homebuyers and help stabilize or even push property values back up. But the plan could be so expensive that the Treasury may try to limit it to new homebuyers, preventing homeowners who want to refinance from participating. That, however, might be impossible to enforce. According to one scenario sketched out by experts, creative homeowners could simply draft a friend into an deal under which each would agree to buy the other’s house, grabbing the new 4.5% loan to do so. Then they could quit, claim the deed back, or rent them to each other for the same price.

This mortgage plan is radical, and might just be powerful enough to help turn this troubled economy around. And a $3 trillion bailout would have something for almost everyone.

Post from: Obama's ForeClosure Plan Website

With New Home Construction Down, Obama Team Plans ‘bailout for the Masses’

Prepare Yourself for the Foreclosure Eligibility Test

Being prepared will save you alot of time and effort in finding the right answers! In order to prepare yourself, you should have the following information in hand, when you call your lender on March 4th for assistance:

• You need your current paystubs from all members of your home who will be involved in the loan process. If you are unemployed, ask the your local unemployment office for a print out.
• You must have most recent income tax return. However, having the previous three years will also help with deeper questions your lender may have.
• If you have a second mortgages or an equity line of credit on the home, find all your loan documentation and have it in hand.
• Credit card statements on ALL credit accounts, as well as the monthly payments you make on them.
• Payments made on other loans like Student Loans, Cap Payments, etc.

After you have all documentation in hand, its time to call your lender and find out if you quality for Foreclosure Eligibility.

Post from: Obama's ForeClosure Plan Website

Foreclosure Eligibility Test – Prepare your Documentation?

Well, this is great news to the average American citizen who is struggling in this economy. President Obama recently condemned the executive bonuses that were being distributed to the major players on Wall Street. Like many of us, he feels that individuals should be compensated based on their performance. With many of these financial institutes losing over 75% of their value, these CEOs cannot be performing well as leaders. The president said, “We’ve now learned that people are still getting huge bonuses despite the fact that they’re getting taxpayer money, which, I think, infuriates the public.” Executives of companies receiving federal bailout money will have their pay capped at $500,000 under a financial compensation plan that President Barack Obama announced.

Mr. Obama stated that the proposal will assist the housing crisis which will support credit markets so banks will start lending again. This will greatly benefit small business, car buyers, college students, and real estate markets. Thank you President Obama; hopefully this will work sooner rather than later.

Post from: Obama's ForeClosure Plan Website

Obama Promises to Lower Mortgage Costs