Debt problems can sneak up on you. Perhaps credit card debt has gotten out of control or an emergency came up that you were unprepared to deal with. There are many consumer consumer credit counseling services cccs that offer help for those unable to handle their debt problems on their own.

Non-profit credit counseling services, such as the National Foundation for Consumer Credit (NFCC), help many consumers who are having financial difficulty meeting their financial obligations. They provide services that include counseling, credit education, and budgeting and debt consolidation.

How To Choose A Consumer Credit Counseling Service

Many consumers are nervous about putting all their personal financial information out for scrutiny. How can you know if a service is trustworthy?

You should take your time and make your choice based on several criteria. You want to choose a reputable agency that is affiliated with a national association, such as the NFCC. Before you give out any information about yourself, make sure you know everything about a company. Check for licenses, certifications, affiliations and any complaints registered with the Better Business Bureau.

Meet with the counseling services you are considering for an interview. Ask about the services they provide. You will need to know what plan of action they would take for you. Don’t sign any paperwork or give your Social Security Numbers until you have reviewed all the terms thoroughly. It is suggested that you take the papers home and think them over before signing anything.

The counselor you meet with should be open, non-judgmental and easy to talk with. You are looking for privacy and discreet advice. You should be able to answer questions and ask them.

Credit counseling fees vary, but when you are using a well reputed agency, you can expect little or no cost. Non-profit agencies should be exactly that – non profit. They aren’t working for your money, they are working for you. If the cost or fees seem extreme, you should look for another agency. You can’t get out of debt if you are increasing your spending.

What To Expect From A Counseling Service

You should be taken into a private area to discuss your finances. Be prepared for your first detailed discussion by having all of your debt and income information with you. It is also a good idea to obtain your online credit report and scores. Depending on your debt situation, you may have forgot about an old account, so this is a good way to double check that there are no further outstanding accounts that you may have. The agency will advise you on what you need to bring with you. Your counselor should help you in planning a budget that covers both your living expenses and payments to creditors.

Most counseling services begin with debt management to pay down your debt. The counselor will negotiate with your lender for lower rates and the forgiveness of fees. If this isn’t enough to put your repayment on a steady path, you may be advised to consolidate your debt.

When you consolidate your debt through a credit counseling service, you are usually consolidating all of your monthly debt payments into one payment made to the service agency. The agency in return pays each creditor monthly.

In debt consolidation, your credit cards will be closed. You will not be allowed to apply for or acquire additional debt until you complete the program. Your participation in a credit counseling program may or may not be recorded in your credit report.

Don’t expect everything to automatically be fixed. Any negative credit issues you have will remain on your credit report for up to seven years, sometimes longer. Creditors are known for noting on your account that you are in financial counseling. The counselor will help you gain control of your finances, but cannot magically fix your spending.

The most important thing in entering credit counseling and debt consolidation is to make your choices wisely. Don’t opt for the easy way out, it can cost you more than you realize. There is no easy way out, but with credit counseling services, you can become financially stable and debt free.

Linda Meadley is very knowledgeable in the field of credit. Throughout her 20 year career she has worked as a mortgage and loans office, credit manager and financial advisor, assisting consumers in their financial endeavors. Her website is packed with great information and tips, including how to obtain totally free online credit reports and her recent book on debt elimination is helping millions of people take control of their financial future. Copyright © 2006 Ultimate Credit Report.

Consumer credit provides money so that a person can buy goods and services now, without their own money, by paying the price in the future over a period of time. Australians of the uses of consumer credit especially with credit cards. The deregulation of Australia’s financial markets in the 1980s has led to easy credit from the fiercely competitive credit providers such as banks building societies, finance companies, credit unions and non-bank card issuers like Virgin and mortgage organisations like Aussie home loans.

Consumer credit used to be regulated by different legislation depending on the type of credit including hire purchase, led by common moneylenders and bills of sale legislation. Modern consumer credit legislation now regulates all credit transactions. However this legislation was the product of the 1970s marketplace and although it did contain reforms, it was still very complex, inflexible and prescriptive.  The ends of unified simplified credit laws were supported by the ministerial Council on consumer affairs and agreement was reached in 1993 on the introduction of uniform Australia wide consumer credit laws, the necessary legislation was passed in the Queensland Parliament in 1994. All states and territories have applied the Queensland code as local law.

The uniform consumer credit code is a national scheme by states and territories administered by a different state and territory governments. There was for a long time no push at the moment the administration of UCCC to move to the Commonwealth, although some aspects of consumer credit growing were monitored by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Commonwealth agency.  However, in the last six months in Australia with the introduction of the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth) there has been a shift towards the regulation of consumer credit in the sphere of federal law and therefore the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.  If you have any questions about these laws, you can contact the author using the links below.

David Coleman is a lawyer in Sydney Australia with over 10 years experience in the legal industry. If you need legal advice or a access to a legal document click on the links contained here.

Rewards credit cards are the fastest growing segment of the credit card industry. Since everyone uses credit cards, it’s only natural to want the benefits of a rewards program from your everyday purchases. Rewards programs come in a variety of flavors; cash back rewards, shopping rewards, travel rewards, auto rewards, entertainment rewards are just a few of the rewards categories more prominent in the rewards program industry. Many of the major credit card companies in the UK offer rewards programs. Egg, Virgin, Sony, Barclaycard, American Express, Tesco, Sainsbury are just a few that offer reward programs that reward you for your everyday purchases.

Shopping Rewards – Many retailers offer discounts when you use selected credit cards to make your purchase. Rewards include instant cash back, discounted pricing, and additional merchandise savings. Shopping benefits including discounts are retailers like Sainsbury, Tesco, Marks %26 Spencer, lastminute.com, Virgin, iTunes, amazon.co.uk, Homebase, Molton Brown to name a few.

Travel Rewards – Credit cards that offer travel rewards programs are reasonably flexible and might provide airline miles, points that are redeemed for hotel accommodation, or both. You earn reward points or airline miles whenever the credit card is used for everyday purchases. Credit cards used for travel related spending such as purchasing airline tickets or hotel reservations, a greater number of reward points are usually awarded. Reward points can be redeemed for airline tickets, hotel accommodations, car rental, or special priority treatment or upgrades while traveling. To find out more about Travel Rewards Credit Cards

Air Miles Rewards – There are many credit cards that offer air miles points. These include bmi, Virgin Atlantic, and British Airways. You earn air miles with your everyday purchases. Most offer ‘sign up’ bonus air miles, and some offer companion tickets. The standard is 1 air mile reward point for every £1 spent. Yet there are cards that do offer more air miles per £1 spent, but you usually pay a higher annual fee. To find out more about Air Miles Rewards Credit Cards

Hotel Rewards – Use your hotel rewards credit cards to earn discounts on hotel reservations and stays, vacation packages, car rentals, cruises, flights and other travel-related purchases. If you have a favorite hotel chain that you prefer to stay at when you travel, you can earn additional points toward free nights with your everyday purchases. Some cards let you earn points towards stays at specific hotel chains, such as Sheraton and Westin. Other cards let you redeem points for airline travel, hotel reservations, or vacation packages.

Choosing a rewards credit card that fits your desires is what we are all about. We provide the tools and information necessary to make an informed decision on not only the rewards credit card that best fits your goals, but also the credit card that fits your credit history. The first step in choosing a rewards credit card is to determine which rewards you want. Rewards credit cards in the UK are broken into four main categories, Shopping rewards, Travel rewards, Air Miles rewards, and Hotel accommodations rewards cards.

The advantages of rewards credit cards are obvious, cash back, shopping rewards, travel rewards all from using your credit card for everyday purchases. The more you spend, the more reward points you accumulate, and the more ‘free’ stuff you get. But lurking in the background is some ugly facts that must be evaluated before you make the plunge into the world of reward credit cards. First of all, most rewards credit cards come with an annual fee. This fee can be substantial, and over the course of a few years can eat into the benefits that you might achieve with a rewards credit card. Secondly, not all rewards are equal. Air miles points earned on the British Airways American Express card may be worth more in terms of real savings than the shopping benefits of the Egg card. You need to be aware of the value of points, and how they are earned. And finally, rewards credit cards usually have a higher annual interest rate (APR). If you plan on carrying a balance on the card, you need to be keenly aware of the interest rate(s), and how much this increased rate is going to cost you on a yearly bases. This can easily offset the advantage you can get with the rewards point you earn. Bottom line, you need to be aware of all the costs associated with rewards credit cards. These costs can very early offset the advantages of rewards you earn. If you take the time to understand all the costs associated with a rewards card, you can make an informed decisions and benefit from your spending

The UK-Credit-Card-Centre unleaches the world of Rewards Credit Cards.

At the UK Credit Card Centre our primary purpose is to provide personal financial solutions. Choosing the credit card that is best for you is rather simple. What\\’s not simple is the effort that is needed. That\\’s where we come in, we provide the tools and information necessary to help you find the credit card that is right for you. Visit our site to find out more, UK Credit Card Centre

Evaluating franchise attorneys and evaluating franchise consultants can seem a daunting task. But the firm a company selects to assist its entry into franchising, refine existing franchise efforts or make franchise opportunity investment decisions will have profound consequences. While asking for a list of references is one approach (and when is anyone ever dumb enough to provide a bad reference?) there are more objective criteria that are not dependent on selectively disseminated information.

By addressing the nine Franchise Questions, topics and subcategories of information discussed below, you will eliminate virtually 95% of the individuals or firms you are considering. Then efforts can concentrate on evaluating the 5% cream of the crop (especially franchise attorneys) that truly merit consideration:

A. FRANCHISE EXPERT:
The #1 factor in evaluating so-called expertise – are the principals really franchise experts? There are objective criteria to determine this:

(1) Have they qualified and been allowed to testify as a franchise expert in court and arbitration proceedings? Being involved as a franchise expert in the franchise litigation process gives a sensitivity and radar for detecting and avoiding future franchise problems.

(2) How many books on franchising have been written by the principals?

(3) How many franchise articles have been published in journals or magazines?

(4) What is their franchise-related teaching experience? (see topics E and F below)

(5) What is their depth of experience in the franchise industry? (see next topic below)

B. EXPERIENCE IN THE FRANCHISE INDUSTRY:
(1) Length of time the firm has operated exclusively in the franchise industry?

(2) Experience on both sides of the franchise fence – working with franchise companies (franchisors) as well as with individual investors (franchisees) who have purchased a franchise?

(3) Past experience principals have owning and operating a franchised business? This factor is absolutely critical. If the principals have owned and operated a franchise, they bring a unique perspective and radar for avoiding future franchise relationship problems from disgruntled franchise owners.

C. COMPREHENSIVE TRAINING %26 ONGOING SERVICES; CONTROL SYSTEMS:
(1) Can (and will) the firm train your personnel to operate and manage your new franchise company? Remember, you’re entering an entirely different business, one requiring new skills and abilities. If this topic is not addressed in detail, you might as well earmark the franchise fees received when you sell franchises for a future franchise litigation war chest;

(2) Will the firm help you review and update operational (franchise operations manual) and legal documentation (franchise offering circular) on an ongoing basis?

(3) Has the firm developed, and will they help you put into place, franchise marketing, sales control and legal compliance programs during the critical implementation (start-up) phase of your franchise program?

The existence of these programs is essential to ensure only the cream of franchise applicants are allowed to enter the network, and to create a series of documented files should a dispute arise in the future. Most of the legal risk in franchising occurs during the franchise marketing cycle when franchises are sold. If your company’s done a good job here with these programs, then you’ve eliminated most of the risk.

D. LEGAL: FRANCHISE ATTORNEY
(1) Is the law practice devoted exclusively to franchise law?

(2) Total number of franchise disclosure documents (formerly called franchise offering circulars) drafted and reviewed?

(3) Experience filing franchise registrations and working with state examiners in all 14-plus franchise registration states?

(4) Experience represeting franchise companies as well as persons buying a franchise? Knowing both sides of the fence is a tremendous asset.

E. ACADEMIC: UNIVERSITY %26 COLLEGE
Experience teaching franchise courses at graduate and undergraduate university levels?

F. ACADEMIC: PROFESSIONAL
Experience teaching franchise courses to franchise attorneys and general practice attorneys?

G. BLEND OF BUSINESS %26 LEGAL SKILLS:
Specialist franchise attorneys and law firms produce tight legal agreements (sometimes overly so leading to future franchise relationship problems) and usually adequate franchise offering circulars. Setting aside the overly tight contract issue, the problem is most franchise attorneys – franchise lawyers are not capable of making sound, strategic business decisions and providing practical, ongoing advice. Some franchise consultants, on the other hand, have good business sense, but lack the requisite legal skills. Questions:

(1) Does the firm have the proper blend of business savvy and in-house franchise legal expertise? It’s always a big plus if the franchise attorney also has an MBA. You can do a Google search with these twin attributes (franchise attorney MBA) and narrow the field considerably.

(2) Can the firm produce good legal documentation (franchise disclosure documents) and help you edit (or create) consistent operational documents (such as the franchise operations manual, training program, etc.) If your franchise agreement says ‘x’ but your franchise operations manual or advertising materials say ‘y’ about the same issue, be prepared to pay hefty franchise litigation fees and deal with franchise litigation attorneys in the future.

(3)Can the firm provide competent and practical ongoing advice in critical areas like effective franchise marketing, media decisions, interviewing franchise buyers, adopting the best franchise organizational structure, implementing a franchise advisory council, etc? Mistakes made in these areas can easily cost the franchise company tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.

H. CONTRACT FAIRNESS:
Does the firm give you an option of choosing between:
(a) an hourly rate and
(b) a flat contract amount, where you don’t have to worry about accumulated hours and an unknown total amount?

I. RED FLAGS – BEWARE OF ANY OF THE FOLLOWING:

• Combination teams where one entity does one part of the project and another the other part. For example, a consulting firm does planning, and operational documentation, while an attorney ‘they know very well’ writes the legal documentation.

• Or, a variant of the above, the company in the “fine print” of its contract, requires your attorney (who you obviously have to pay) to review and approve everything they do because the company (it says) is not rendering legal advice. Actually, by providing documents that affect legal rights, they are rendering legal advice, but in an illegal manner. It’s called the unauthorized practice of law. You end up paying two attorneys – yours and theirs. Besides the expense, it sets you up for future franchise problems. Their attorney represents who? The franchise packaging group, of course, and definitely not you. He or she is typically a recent law school graduate who hasn’t figured out what they’re doing is illegal and could cause them to lose their license to practice law. Besides that, they represent the franchise consulting group, whose interest is to churn as many franchise packages per year as possible. You end up with a bad franchise disclosure document and sloppy franchise operations manuals. To save time, the franchise agreement gets watered down so it’s easier to push through some franchise registration states. Some of the ‘t’s’ may be crossed and some of the ‘i’s’ dotted, but not most of them. The end product are documents that set you up for future franchise litigation difficulties.

• Firms that advise you to franchise your business, and they’ve never seen your business! You’d be surprised how often this happens.

• Firms that say they’ll write your franchise operations manual for you. How someone, who knows absolutely nothing about your business, could ever come close to anything but a mediocre product at best, is a frightening thought. The use of boilerplate manuals produced by consulting groups is yet another future litigation time bomb. You are the true expert in your business. With competent guidance and editing, you’ll be able to produce a professional and workable operations manuals, if you don’t have these already.

• Pricing quotes that seem exceedingly high or low (especially ‘do-it-yourself’ franchise kits).

• If you are buying a franchise, BEWARE of any attorney recommended by the franchise company. Even worse, beware of franchise companies who say you don’t need to use an attorney. There are a couple of these online.

• Firms (or individuals) that have EVER been sued for fraud, misrepresentation, the unauthorized practice of law or violating any franchise law. DON’T FORGET TO ASK THIS CRITICAL QUESTION!!

©1990-2008, Kevin B. Murphy, B.S., M.B.A., J.D. – all rights reserved

For more informaton, consult the Franchise Foundations website.

Known in the industry as Mr. Franchise, Mr. Murphy is an internationally-known franchise expert, franchise attorney, author, and instructor. He hold degrees in Business Administration (B.S.B.A.) and Law (J.D.) from the University of San Francisco and a Master’s degree in Business Administration (M.B.A.) from San Francisco State University.

For the past twenty-eight years he has specialized exclusively in the franchise industry and owned a very successful franchise in the home improvement field. He has written over 30 publications, including four books on franchising and one book on trade secrets.

Mr. Franchise instructs franchise company personnel in best franchise practices and teaches franchise, licensing and intellectual property courses to attorneys. He has drafted, reviewed and negotiated over 500 franchise disclosure documents.

Mr. Franchise is a franchise attorney and Director of Operations for Franchise Foundations a San Francisco-based professional law corporation.