toddkenefsky.com

You may have to kill old debts that resurrect and come back to life.  Zombie debt may include past debts that you owe, charged-off debt, debt included in bankruptcy, debt you may have never owed and even debts incurred due to identity theft. Zombie debt involves collection agencies purchasing debts for pennies on the dollar that original creditors have written off as bad debt and often times the statute of limitations has already run.

Debt buying has emerged into a multi-billion dollar industry in the past several years and from the looks of it, the industry will only continue to expand. Junk debt buyers can be small businesses to large, publicly traded Wallstreet companies and the characters involved in this lucrative business are banking on the consumer not knowing their rights. If you are contacted about an old debt or debt you are unaware of here are a few things you can do:

1. Do not acknowledge you owe the debt. Simply acknowledging the debt or agreeing to pay a portion of the debt can ruin your credit. Negative marks can stay on your credit for up to 7 years. By paying a portion of that debt you restart the 7 year clock. If you are nearing the 7 year mark it may be best to do nothing at all. Let it drop from your credit reports.

2. Ignore the phone calls completely.  Talking to them may open up a can of worms. Speaking with debt collectors may end up restarting or extending the statute of limitations on the debt in addition to restarting the time period a negative mark can stay on your credit.  Remember, if the statute of limitations has run on a debt you cannot be sued for that debt.

3. Stop the calls.  If the telephone calls continue, immediately write a letter, certified, return receipt, demanding the collection agency cease all telephonic contact with you. Make sure you clearly state in the letter that you do not agree you owe the debt nor are you acknowledging you owe the debt. Federal law dictates collection agencies must comply when you request they do not contact you via telephone.

4. Check your credit reports. Collection agencies will often stoop to low, illegal tactics to try to get you to pay a debt. Watch out for re-aging of the old debt on your credit reports. The collection agencies will report the old debt to the credit bureaus as a new debt and try to extend the seven-year reporting limit on negative items. Remember, negative items such as late payments and charge-offs can only be reported on your credit report for 7 years. Bankruptcies can be reported for 10 years unpaid tax liens can stay up to 15 years. 

5. Debt Validation. Request the collection agency validate the debt. Debt validation forces the debt collector to produce a copy of the original signed contract such as the credit card agreement and the account history of the debt. They cannot simply produce some printed copy of their bill or invoice, it must be from the original creditor. Also, request proof they are licensed in your State to perform debt collection. If the collection agency cannot produce proof you owe the debt, they are violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and can be sued. And, any negative entry they reported to the credit bureaus regarding this debt must be removed from your credit reports.

6. Negotiate cautiously. If you want to pay the debt, be very careful in your negotiations and get everything in writing. Remember the collection agencies purchased the debt for pennies on the dollar so anything you offer over that amount is all profit. You want to proceed with negation with intense caution because collection agencies are tricky. Debt collectors may settle for a smaller amount then turn around and sell the remaining debt to another collection agency or even worse, the collection agency could report the remainder of the debt to the IRS as “income”. 

7. False promises by the collection agency. Not surprisingly, some debt collectors use dirty, underhanded tactics to collect debt. Many simply lie to the consumer and promise to remove negative credit entries in exchange for payment. Know your rights and get everything in writing. Always negotiate a full deletion of any and all negative entries reported on your credit report of this debt. Cover your bases and make sure the debt collector is not going to sell the unpaid portion of the debt to another company.  For additional information on settling debts for pennies on the dollar visit: Debt Settlement

When it comes to securing financing for a small business, it may seem like there are many options out there, until you examine them closely. Many small financing opportunities are a great deal for the lender, but not for the small business. There are various programs that may appear to offer financing, but there are strings attached that make these programs a bad choice.

One method used is to offer small business financing that involves credit cards and limits. The lender offers your small business a credit card with a specific credit limit that can be used to make purchases. This option is not ideal for a few reasons. First of all credit card interest s generally much higher than a line of credit or loan, so your business can end up paying huge interest charges. Credit cards can not meet many of your small business needs, because salaries for workers, more space or a new building, and even equipment and supplies may not be purchased with these credit cards. This financing method benefits the credit card lender, because they receive high interest for the financing, and the small business is stuck paying exorbitant interest rates for credit that can only be used for certain things, many of which do not include helping the business grow and expand.

Another common small business financing options is to use a program that offers vendor credit. This is another common program available, and it is usually not that helpful for most small business owners. Vendor credit is great if the small business needs something from a specific vendor, but this credit is not versatile and can not help potential growth or expansion needs. This financing option can not help the business meet expenses, or make purchases anywhere but through the vendor offering credit. This financing option has a very limited scope, and is usually not very beneficial to a small business in these tough financial times.

The third financing option that many small business owners use, which may have not be very helpful, is to use financing programs that offer a low cash line of credit. These programs do offer cash financing options, but in very low amounts. For a small business, this may be as effective as not getting financing, because the amount may not be enough to keep the business going.

Instead of using traditional financing programs, there is a unique new small business financing programming option available. This program requires minimal documentation, offers cash financing anywhere from one hundred thousand dollars to one million dollars for small businesses, and requires no credit check, financial business documents, or tax returns. This financing program can help your business stay open without all the hassles and documentation that other financing options require, and you get the financing your small business needs in cash, which is how it can do the most good. This option is far better than the other choices, and can help you keep your small business profitable and growing instead of becoming stagnant and closing.

Please visit my web site at

<a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=”http://www.unsecuredcreditforbiz.com”>