What is Debt Validation?

If a collection agency or attorney (CA) continues any collection efforts prior to validating the debt, they are in violation of the FDCPA. And, if they violate the FDCPA in this way, you can sue them for statutory damages. The court must award you an automatic win of $1000. To see how to do this read the section "Prove a Debt Collector is in Violation and Win $1000".

CAs often practice unscrupulous and aggressive tactics. For this reason, DV has become a popular solution to reduce and even eliminate debts. In fact, it has been successful in stopping collection activities about 80% of the time. The only time DV will not work is if an assigned debt collector gives the debt back to the original creditor (in which case, you cannot use DV) or if the CA validates the debt with adequate proof.

DV is distinct from other debt-reduction strategies such as debt settlement and Chapter 13 bankruptcy because DV allows the consumer to establish an affirmative stance against particular debts right from the beginning. This is important for two reasons: a) it strengthens a consumer's position when negotiating and settling a debt in the future; and, b) in the event the consumer is sued by the CA, it gives them an affirmative defense to possibly have the case dismissed. We'll discuss this more in "The Debt Validation Process."

Call 1.800.442.1591 - Gaining Financial Stability with Intelligence and Integrity!

At BANCO Capital Corporation

,we help educate and repair damaged credit.

 We know that in today'A tough economy,

 it can very difficult to qualify or a mortgage, loan, or even a credit card. 

We  specialize in helping our clients achieve their short-term and long-term financial goals. 

Seventy percent of credit reports contain information

 that is inaccurate, incomplete, unverifiable, misleading or obsolete. 

Our vast knowledge and experience in the laws related to credit repair allows us to get these negative items deleted from your credit reports.

Set a budget

Putting a budget in place allows you to take control of your money. It’s just a record of the money you have coming in and what you have left to spend each month.

Once you’ve done this you should be able to identify areas where you can reduce your spending.

The money that you save can then be put towards repaying your credit card debt.

Credit reporting agencies

There are three credit bureaus: Equifax, TransUnion and Experian.

They maintain files on millions of borrowers. Lenders making credit decisions buy credit reports on their prospects, applicants and customers from the credit reporting agencies.

Lenders and other businesses use the information in your credit report to evaluate your applications for credit, loans, insurance, or renting a home.

Do I have enough savings for a secure retirement?

My husband and I are retired, but aren't sure whether we have enough in savings to see us through retirement. Is there a specific amount we should have? How can we tell how much is enough? --Diane

I think you need to frame this issue a little differently. The amount you should have is pretty much a moot point right now as you've already retired. So the more pertinent question is how much can you withdraw from your nest egg each year to cover your retirement living expenses and still have a reasonable level of assurance that you won't deplete your savings too soon?

Your first step toward answering that query is to determine how much you're actually spending each year, and the best way to do that is to create a retirement budget. You can make a budget with pencil and paper, but I think you're better off using an online budgeting tool likeBlackRock's Retirement Expense Worksheet, which allows you to enter some 50 separate expense items in eight categories, including household and medical costs as well as expenditures for discretionary outlays like travel and entertainment.

nce you have a decent idea of how much you're spending each year, you can move on to seeing how likely it is that your nest egg will be able to support you the rest of your life if you continue your current level of spending. An online tool like T. Rowe Price's retirement income calculator can help you estimate that likelihood.

The calculator employs Monte Carlo simulations to estimate the probability that income from Social Security plus withdrawals from your nest egg will be able to generate enough income for you to maintain your expected spending for the rest of your life.

(The tool's default assumption is that you -- or in your case either you or your husband -- will live to age 95. You can choose a different age, but I consider 95 a reasonable assumption given today's longer lifespans. If you like, you can get a more nuanced take on how long you might need your savings to last based on your age, sex and state of health by revving up the Actuaries Longevity Illustrator tool.)

If after going through this process you find that the chances that the combination of Social Security and draws from your nest egg are uncomfortably low -- I'd say you want your chance of success to be at least 70% to 80% -- then you can re-run the analysis and change a few assumptions to see how much your odds of success improve.

Not surprisingly, you'll find that scaling back your spending will boost your odds of success the most. You may also be tempted to invest more aggressively in hopes of earning a higher rate of return on your savings that, in turn, could support a higher level of withdrawals from your nest egg and more spending.

But be careful. Devoting a higher portion of your savings to stocks can leave your nest egg morevulnerable to market downturns and potentially increase the risk of running through your savings too soon.

And even absent a serious market setback, investing more aggressively may not boost the chances of your money lasting the rest of your life as much as you might think.

Besides, there are other moves you can make that can be more effective than taking on more investing risk. For example, you might check out sites like RetiredBrains.com andRetirementjobs.com for part-time work that can generate more income. If you own a home, you might also consider tapping into the equity by taking out a reverse mortgage or downsizing to smaller, less expensive digs to come away with a chunk of extra cash that can supplement your nest egg.

If you're really worried that you might run through your savings while you've still got a lot of living to do, you could also think about converting a portion of your nest egg to a guaranteed lifetime income stream via an immediate annuity or a longevity annuity.Related: Are you behind on retirement saving?

It goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that no tool or calculator can actually predict the future. So what you're getting when you go through the analysis I outlined above are estimates, not promises, of how long your nest egg is likely to last given different levels of withdrawals based on forecasts of how the financial markets are expected to perform.

Still, by going through this process and running a few scenarios, you can get a pretty good sense of how your chances of your money running out go up and down given different levels of withdrawals.

If you're not confident about doing such number-crunching on your own -- or you want a more comprehensive assessment of your retirement prospects and how you might improve them -- you can always hire a financial adviser to do the analysis for you.

Finally, this isn't the sort of exercise you can do once and then forget about it. Lots of things can change -- market conditions, your spending needs, the value of your nest egg, to name a few. So you should re-assess your situation every year or so with updated information about your expected spending, how many years of retirement you estimate are still ahead of you, your latest account balances, etc. You can then make adjustments, if necessary, to increase the odds that your savings will last as long as you do.

How Long Does Credit Repair Take?

Getting negative, inaccurate information off of your credit reports is one of the fastest ways to see an improvement in your scores. Since credit bureaus have to respond and resolve a dispute within 30 days (there are a few exceptions that may extend this to 45 days), it’s a short timeline that can help consumers who want to buy a house, get a new car or open up a new credit card soon and don’t have the time to wait to build good credit in other ways.

But that doesn’t mean a credit restoration company can tell you exactly when your credit score will improve since some consumers’ credit issues are much more complex than others.

“Since every case and credit report is unique, no professional firm can ethically predict an exact outcome for your Credit Scores, especially without first seeing the credit reports. “When picking a credit repair company to fix your bad credit, don’t ask about the future, but instead ask about what real clients have seen in the past and if the items return.” ~Janell Jones-Travis; BCC President/CEO

Credit Histories Restoration

Are you suffering from bad credit problems? After that read on to learn the best methods for credit restoration; you need not spend great amounts of cash with financial experts in order to get your credit back on track. There are various things that you could do to assist yourself to restore your credit. Self credit restoration is a long yet satisfying process, and one that really works. Don't trust exactly what you learn about magical credit restoration software that you can run on your personal computer, there are no wonderful cures to bad credit, and you cannot buy yourself a great credit rating.

Self credit restoration starts at home; exactly what you need is time, patience and a copy of your credit report from the three major credit bureaus. With these in hand and the correct frame of mind that you really desire to restore your credit. The 1st step to credit restoration is to sit down and carefully analyze your credit reports and check for any discrepancies that could be present. These could be due to computer error or perhaps old debts that you have already liquidated.

The next thing to credit restoration is to write credit dispute letters to lenders, wherever you've found difference in your record, write a transparent letter to the money lender describing the problem and request your bad credit to be eliminated; you'll receive an answer from the money lender, and if you're not in complete agreement you'll have time to challenge the letter.

There is really only one way to restore your credit history, and that is by paying back any bills due as well as determining your spending.You have to assess your position carefully and see exactly what changes you need to make in your life to not fall back in bother later on.

A consolidation loan will help you to group together all your debts, but it must be coupled with self repair techniques in order to really get your credit score back up where you desire it to be.