David Barensfeld's concerns regarding the source of electricity his company could be required to purchase might be premature.That, at least, is what one state lawmaker said after a letter from the Ellwood Group Inc. chairman appeared May 2 in the New Castle News. In that letter, Barensfeld warned that ongoing efforts in Harrisburg could produce a requirement for electric utilities to purchase power produced by nuclear plants.The proposed legislation — House Bill 11 and [...]
Source Business - poconorecord.com http://bit.ly/2Jpirwk
الثلاثاء، 7 مايو 2019
Credit Card Debt At Record $870 Billion: Latest Data Shows America's Love Affair with Credit Cards
According to the Fed, credit card debt in the U.S. reached a record $870 billion at the end of 2018. Discover which states have the highest and lowest average credit card debt.
Source CBNNews.com http://bit.ly/2YfeqyN
Source CBNNews.com http://bit.ly/2YfeqyN
Debt Spiral Method Of Paying Off Debt: Combine Benefits of the Debt Snowball and Debt Avalanche Methods
Are you struggling to pay off your debt? Learn how the Debt Spiral method can help you handle debt if you have high-interest rates and a low credit score.
Source CBNNews.com http://bit.ly/2H7cIty
Source CBNNews.com http://bit.ly/2H7cIty
Direct cremations - the no-frills way to go
No one likes to think about their own funeral, but it is important to consider the costs. Direct cremations – which dispense with the pomp and ceremony of a traditional send-off – could save your family money. Moneywise looks at the benefits of this increasingly popular option
Death is an expensive business. The cost of the average cremation using a funeral director is £3,247, rising to £4,267 for a burial, according to figures from life insurer Royal London. It’s a lot of money before you even consider additional expenses like the ceremony, flowers and the cost of food and drinks for mourners afterwards.
And costs have soared too, so much so that in May 2018 the Competition and Markets Authority launched an inquiry into the funeral market. Its preliminary results found that over a decade, funeral directors’ prices have risen by 68%, while fees charged by crematoria were up 84%.
This doesn’t leave the funeral market shrouded in glory. However, for those individuals who do not have their heart set on a conventional funeral there is an alternative, and cheaper, option. Direct cremation – or direct disposal as it is sometimes known – removes the most expensive part of the traditional process.
A funeral director is not required, nor is an expensive coffin, embalming service or hearse. After death, the body is collected and transported directly to the crematorium in a private ambulance where it is held in a simple casket. Nobody attends the cremation, but afterwards the ashes can be returned to family members should they so wish.
With prices starting at around £1,000, this is undoubtedly the cheapest way of dealing with a deceased’s body.
The practice is relatively mainstream in the US, where 38% of all cremations are conducted on this basis, but while it’s much less common in the UK, accounting for just 2% of cremations, demand is growing and fast. Between 2017 and 2018, Simplicity Cremations says it saw a 230% increase, while Co-op says one in 25 of its cremations are now done in this way.
“It’s being done because this is what the deceased wanted”
At first sight this ‘no-frills’ approach might not seem to offer the most dignified send-off for a loved one, but customers don’t view it this way.
Co-op Funeral Care launched its first direct cremation package last year after a successful trial. Kate Ablott, its proposition manager, says: “People were coming into our funeral homes and asking for a direct package. They didn’t always know what it was called but they knew what they wanted.”
However, she stresses that customers aren’t just requesting it because it is the cheapest option. “It’s not about money or emotional distance. It isn’t being done because somebody isn’t loved – it’s very much being done because it is what the deceased wanted,” she adds.
Mark Hull, group head of marketing at Simplicity Cremations agrees, adding that just because an individual opts for direct cremation doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t get an appropriate send-off.
“People choose a direct cremation for a variety of reasons, and often it’s not just down to cost. Some people just prefer the lack of fuss and formality that a direct cremation can offer, and the flexibility to choose how, when and where they say goodbye to their loved one. Others would prefer to spend their money on a later event where the loved one’s life can be celebrated by friends and family.”
Ms Ablott adds: “We had a customer whose family held a celebration of their life at a country house in the summer when the weather was better. In other cases, people gather together to scatter the ashes.”
Ring the changes
So-called ‘back to front’ funerals are also becoming more popular. “This is where the cremation takes place and then a church service takes place afterwards without the body,” says Ms Ablott. “Others just choose to have a quiet moment of reflection – it is all about personal preference.”
James Dunn, co-founder of Beyond, a website that helps people arrange funerals, including a direct cremation option, says that for some the service can be “cost-effective and dignified”, but he admits it isn’t for everyone.
“We do talk to some people about it and they decide to go for a full funeral. Direct cremation isn’t suitable if you want a service with a body there.”
However, if it is an option that appeals to you it is worth shopping around for the right package and letting your family know what you would like to happen after you die.
There is a big variety in both price and service offered, so it’s important you know what is included, but more importantly that the deceased is treated with dignity and respect.
A key difference with a direct cremation is that once the deceased’s body has been collected, loved ones will not be able to view it in the funeral home, as they would with a conventional funeral.
Taller clients may need to pay for a larger coffin
However, Ms Ablott explains that this doesn’t mean the deceased is treated any differently once the body has come into their care.
“For our colleagues this work is like a vocation and bodies are not treated any differently just because the funeral is lower cost. They will be in a simple coffin, which will have a name plate, and they will be dressed in a gown. Prior to cremation, our colleagues will pause for thought just as they would with any other cremation.”
Mr Dunn stresses, too, that though companies offering these services will be bound by health and safety rules, funeral directors are not regulated.
“Check out the business before you commit and make sure someone is there to answer any questions you might have. They should be able to help and guide you over the phone.”
Beyond offers customer support 24/7. It will also ensure that you know when the cremation is taking place.
In an unregulated market, he also advises potential customers to find out where the deceased’s body will be held. “Check that the business is using professional refrigeration facilities.”
Hidden costs
With many direct cremation companies promoting themselves as a low-cost option it is also important to ensure you know what is included in the price of the package and that you are aware of any hidden charges.
Not every provider will include the crematorium fee, says Mr Hull. “This can add another £500 if not.”
“Some services will charge more if collection is from home or if out of hours,” explains Ms Ablott. This can add another £150-£250 to your bill. The Co-op, however, can bring the deceased into one of their funeral homes at any time of day or night, from a home or a hospital, without charging an additional fee.
Check, too, if mileage limits apply. If the deceased needs to be transported outside a specific radius there could be additional costs.
If the deceased is likely to require a larger coffin you should also be sure this will be covered. Mr Hull says: “Are there charges for bariatric clients? Such clients often require larger coffins and specific facilities in order to accommodate their needs. You could be charged around £250 for this.” Taller customers may also need to pay for a larger coffin.
Another point for every customer to check is whether doctor’s fees for signing cremation forms are included. This will be a total of £164 (two payments of £82) for deaths in England and Wales. “Some companies may quote without and then charge extra for this,” Mr Dunn points out. This fee is excluded by the cheapest provider in our tables, Memoria, bumping up the real cost substantially.
However, if there is any uncertainty as to how the deceased died and the body goes to the coroner there is no need for these forms to be signed. So, if doctors’ fees are included in the price make sure that this money will be returned to you in the event that a coroner’s investigation is required.
Finally, you will need to understand what will happen to you or your loved one’s ashes. Most services allow for ashes to be collected from the crematorium free of charge but if you want them delivered there could be an extra fee. Co-op, for example, charges £95 for delivery by a specialist courier, but if customers prefer to pick them up they will make sure the cremation takes place at a local crematorium. Pure Cremations, however, will return them within 21 days free of charge.
If you don’t want the ashes returned there may be an option to have them scattered in a garden of remembrance.
Ashes and what happens to them can be an emotive subject. Mr Dunn says aside from delivery and collection arrangements it is worth finding out how they will be returned to you. “It can be distressing if they are returned to you in a way that is not expected.”
The ashes will not be given to you in a fancy urn, for example. Beyond provides ashes in a bio-degradable container while Simplicity says they will come in a ‘simple’ container.
If you don’t want a traditional funeral but aren’t entirely comfortable with a direct cremation, some firms offer a half-way house. The ‘Intimate’ package by Simplicity Cremations allows up to 12 people to attend the cremation and say a few words in the chapel before the committal. However, mourners will not get any say in the timing or location of the cremation.
This isn’t a direct cremation in the purest sense but as the market grows, services will adapt to customers’ needs. As Mr Dunn says: “There will be a blurring of lines as the market becomes more responsive.”
Changing attitudes to funerals
While lots of us have very clear ideas about our final send-off, Sun Life’s Cost of Dying report found we aren’t so great about sharing those plans with loved ones. Only 1% knew exactly what the deceased wanted, while 18% didn’t know any of their preferences.
The research also found that 98% did not want a lavish funeral while 31% of people wanted it to be as cheap as possible.
Close to half of people arranging funerals (47%) had not heard about direct cremation. However, once it was explained to them, 19% said they would have considered it for their loved one, and a more significant 44% said they would consider it for themselves when they die.
Shunning a traditional funeral leaves bereaved loved ones with more money to spend on their own memorials.
Some of the more unusual examples featured in the Sun Life report include:
- Turning ashes into glass
- Burying ashes on a football pitch
- Putting ashes into fireworks
- Using ashes in tattoo ink
- Requesting everyone at the funeral wears pink and drinks prosecco
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Source Moneywise http://bit.ly/2VPq8m7
Eight Big Financial Moves That People New to Frugality Often Overlook
When people first start digging into frugality, they often look at the simplest moves, the low hanging fruit that can save a little bit of money with little effort. Simple things like turning off the lights or keeping the thermostat a little higher or lower do save you money, but they don’t really provide a transformative effect to your finances.
Even big one-off moves like selling off a bunch of unused stuff from your closet can be useful, but they don’t make a lasting difference.
What really makes a difference are the changes that permanently and significantly reduce your monthly bills. If you have smaller bills coming in each month, then you have more breathing room to make better financial moves and start building some financial momentum in your life rather than just treading water.
Each one of these big moves can save you hundreds, if not thousands, a year. If you can take action on just a few of these, you’re going to see a rapid transformative effect on your finances. You’ll have hundreds more a month to work with, and then you can take that money and use it to pay off debts or start saving for retirement or other life goals.
Some of these are surprisingly easy – they just take some time. Some of them are hard. Some of them are going to make you say “Nope, no way” as an instinctive response. Don’t fall into that trap. Consider each one with care and ask yourself whether it’s something you could actually do in your life. Could you move? Could you bike to work? Could you make your food at home?
Pick a couple of these and put them to work in your life. The effect will be pretty powerful indeed.
Moving to a Smaller Home or Apartment
This move saves you money on housing expenses each and every month. If you’re a renter, you’re going to reduce your monthly rent significantly. If you’re a homeowner, selling your current home and buying a less expensive one will chop away a significant amount of your mortgage in one action.
Let’s say, for example, that your rent is $1,000 a month. You shop around and find an apartment you can live with for $750 a month. With the single action of moving to that new apartment, you’re saving $250 a month for as long as you’re in the area. That’s a car payment.
Or, let’s say you live in a $250,000 home and you identify a home on the market for $170,000 that you can live with. Simply get a bridge loan from your local credit union, make that move, then sell your current home, using the proceeds to pay off that bridge loan and a large portion of your current mortgage with one move. This will likely leave you with a much smaller mortgage payment (if you get a 30 year loan) or a somewhat smaller mortgage payment with a much smaller portion going to interest (if you get a 15 year loan).
Moving Closer to Work
Moving closer to work can significantly reduce the length of your commute, which saves a lot on gas and wear and tear on your car.
Let’s say, for example, that you drive a typical sedan for your commute. It gets 30 miles per gallon of gas and you’re going to replace it every 150,000 miles with a car that you put another $15,000 into after trade-in. Outside of commuting, you drive it 5,000 miles per year.
Your normal commute is 15 miles each way and you drive that distance back and forth 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year. That adds up to 15,000 miles. That means three scheduled maintenance visits just because of your commute (let’s say they’re $100 each, on average, given that you’re following the maintenance schedule, so $300), plus 500 extra gallons of gas at $4 a pop ($2,000). You’re putting 20,000 miles a year total on the car, so you’ll replace it in 7.5 years, meaning you’re losing $2,000 a year in total depreciation and $1,500 just due to your work commute. That’s a total cost of $3,800, and we’re not even including things like tires and batteries.
Let’s say you moved so that you now live 5 miles from work. That adds up to 5,000 miles of driving a year. You’re only doing one scheduled maintenance visit for work a year ($100) and 166 gallons of gas at $4 a pop ($664). You’re only putting 10,000 miles a year on the car, which means you’ll replace it in 15 years, meaning you’re only losing $1,000 a year in depreciation and only $500 to your work commute. That’s a total cost of $1,264, not including savings from less wear on your tires, fewer tolls, and so on.
In that example, that move saves you about $200 a month or $2,500 a year. Over the course of six years, that move alone pays for that $15,000 car replacement.
Obviously, your exact situation may vary, but if you can move and cut 50%-75% off of your commute, the savings will be in the thousands per year. Plus, your commute is much shorter, so you have more time than ever at home.
Commuting via Bike or Mass Transit
Another advantage of living close to work is that you can potentially get to work entirely without the use of a car, thanks to trains, subways, bicycles, and your own humble feet. This allows you to not only avoid all of the expenses of driving – fuel, depreciation, maintenance, parking – but it can actually open the door to eliminating a car and then eliminating a bunch of additional expenses, like registration and insurance. Even eliminating the mileage can potentially save thousands – getting rid of a car entirely can definitely save thousands.
If it’s at all possible for you to do so, consider switching to a means to get to work that doesn’t involve your car. Perhaps this means taking the subway or the train to and from work. Maybe it means biking there, or even walking there if you’re close enough. One good approach is to make this into a 30 day or a 60 day challenge – challenge yourself to do this for 30 or 60 days in a row.
If this process leads you to completely downsizing one of your cars, then you’ll easily save thousands of dollars a year. Even if it doesn’t, you’ll easily save hundreds a year in saved fuel and maintenance. As noted above, if you can eliminate a 10 mile round trip commute in your car, you’ll save around $1,200 a year in fuel, maintenance, and depreciation.
Eliminating Cable/Satellite
The average American cable or satellite bill is a little over $100 a month. Many people hang onto their service primarily to watch one or two channels, with occasional rare dips into other channels.
In other words, if you can simply cut out those one or two channels from your life and find something else to watch, you’re quickly saving $1,200 a year.
We cut the cord last year, sticking with just our already-existing streaming services, and it was much less painful than we expected. We either found other sources for the programming we missed or accepted that paying more than $100 a month for just a program or two just wasn’t worth it.
Again, a good way to see if this works for you is with a 30 day or a 60 day challenge. Simply choose to not watch your cable or satellite service for 30 or 60 days and see whether it really has a negative impact on your life. If it doesn’t, call and cancel the service.
Shopping Around for All Bills
For every single monthly, quarterly, or annual bill you have, spend some time shopping around for a better rate, then either switch services or use that better rate to negotiate with your current service provider.
This strategy works for many things: credit cards, cell phones, internet service, insurance, and so on. You just pick a particular bill, identify what it’s actually providing for you, shop around for offers from other providers, see how much you’ll save, and then call your current provider and negotiate a lower rate. If you get a reduction and you’re happy with your provider, stay put; otherwise, switch providers.
A good way of doing this is to choose one bill a week and do the homework on it. Perhaps this week you’ll look into internet providers in your area. Next week, you might look at insurance packages. Whatever it is you’re evaluating, look for competitors in that field who offer the same service that you need and get quotes from them. How much will they charge you per month (or billing cycle)? Get a few quotes from top competitors, then go to your current service provider and negotiate. Simply tell them that you have offers to switch providers at a much better rate, but that you’d like to stay put if they can match it. Often, they’ll match it or come close; if they won’t, then switch providers.
If you negotiate with five providers over the course of five weeks and each one saves you $20 on your monthly bill, that adds up to $1,200 a year in pure savings.
Preparing Meals Exclusively at Home Except for Special Occasions
On average, it is almost five times more expensive to eat restaurant food than eat similar food at home. The USDA estimates that a family of four on a moderate meal plan spends $239 a week on food, or $60 a person, or about $3 per meal. The average American household spends $3,008 a year eating out.
If you churn all of those numbers together, the average American family would save about $2,256 a year preparing all of their meals at home from basic ingredients.
In other words, if you want to start saving thousands a year, turn eating out into a special event that you do only occasionally for real social reasons and prepare every other meal you can at home.
For many Americans, that requires some real changes to their meal preparation routines, but it’s a change that can save thousands. My biggest piece of advice for doing this is to make it into a series of easy routines:
+ Make a meal plan, make a grocery list from the ingredients, and shop for them once a week.
+ Do a lot of your meal prep work for the week on Sunday afternoons, including banking a few meals into the freezer; you’ll find that you recoup this time on weeknights when you have meals basically ready to go that are often even faster than eating out or getting delivery.
+ Start assembling lunches the evening before when you’re picking up supper.
+ Master a handful of meals that you and your family like so that you can cook them almost on autopilot; this makes a huge difference.
+ Make those meals a little flexible, so that they taste and seem different even though they’re basically following the same recipe. A pasta meal, for example, includes just some kind of pasta, some kind of sauce, and perhaps protein and vegetables, but you can vary all of those elements with ease and create very different meals. Spaghetti with olive oil and garlic and roasted vegetables is very different than fettuccine alfredo with chicken, but a lot of the prep work is identical.
Switching (Almost) Exclusively to Store Brands
This one’s super simple and almost falls into that low-hanging fruit category, but it’s such a big win that it’s worth noting. For every product you buy that has a store brand version, you buy the store brand version unless the store brand version has shown you that it’s problematic in some way.
Does this really save hundreds a year? It absolutely does.
Let’s say you go to the grocery store once a week and this rule change causes you to buy ten items in store brand form rather than name brand form. Each one of those shifts saves you an average of, say, $0.50 – I think it’ll be more than that, but we’ll go with $0.50. You’re buying store brand flour, store brand ketchup, store brand trash bags, store brand pasta, store brand eggs, and so on. So, that store brand shift is saving you $5 per store visit.
If you do that over 52 weeks, you’re saving $260 on your grocery bill. That’s a car payment.
I looked at our last grocery store receipt and we bought 37 store brand items. I’m not exaggerating. We bought store brand canned tomatoes. We bought store brand frozen broccoli. We bought store brand diet cola. We bought store brand eggs. It added up to 37 individual purchases. If I assume that each of those actually saved $0.50 on average, that’s $18.50 on that weekly grocery bill. If I did that 52 weeks in a row, that’s $962 this year.
Restructure Your Debt
By this, I mean find ways to reduce the interest rate on your debts and, often along with that, reduce your monthly payments on your debt as well. The long term benefit comes from reducing your interest rate, though it may not always be reflected in your monthly bill right away.
For each of your debts, simply figure out if there’s a way to reduce the interest rate.
For example, shop around for refinancing for your home mortgage, seeking out a lower interest rate with the same term you have or a shorter term mortgage with a much lower rate. The former will reduce your monthly bill; the latter might actually see a small bump in your bill, but you’ll pay off the house years earlier.
If you have student loans that you haven’t refinanced yet, shop around for student loan refinancing options and choose one that represents a significant interest rate reduction without a longer term.
For your credit cards, look for balance transfer offers from credit card companies that represent a reduction in interest rates. Many credit card companies offer zero interest balance transfer offers. If those aren’t available to you, you can often negotiate for a lower interest rate by calling the credit card company directly and speaking with a supervisor, though there is some risk of them cancelling your card if you have a poor history with them.
These moves can significantly reduce your monthly debt payments and can also reduce the total number of payments you have to make on these debts. If you’re in a sufficiently difficult debt situation, the savings easily adds up into the thousands of dollars per year.
Final Thoughts
Small steps are wonderful because they’re easy to do and easy to incorporate into your daily life, but those small steps often don’t equate into big financial changes.
It’s those big changes that can bring about large financial changes in your life with speed. These eight strategies can save thousands of dollars per year for many Americans.
The best route is to apply some of these big changes to your life while still being mindful of the smaller things as well. Together, they can transform your financial picture.
Good luck!
The post Eight Big Financial Moves That People New to Frugality Often Overlook appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
Source The Simple Dollar http://bit.ly/2V8WJiy
Wondering if That Debt Collection Call Is a Scam? Find Out With This Letter
Debt might be scary, but debt collectors can be downright terrifying.
Those aggressive phone calls, the letters suggesting that you could go to jail — it’s the stuff of nightmares.
But wait, what if the debt collector made a mistake — or what if it’s a scam?
The best way to scare off would-be fraudsters — and save yourself from an embarrassing phone call at work — is by sending a debt verification letter.
Before you start grousing about the inconvenience of stamps and the post office, just remember: You may appreciate that hard copy proof if the debt collection agency escalates its efforts and attempts to garnish your wages.
Overwhelmed by what to ask for and what to write? We’re here to help — we even have a template that you can use. And since the best way to conquer your fear (of debt) is to face it, let’s get started.
What Is a Debt Verification Letter?
If you’ve heard of a debt validation letter — that’s the legal notice from the debt collector explaining how much you owe, who you owe it to and how you can pay it — then you might be wondering what the difference is between validation and verification letters.
Simply: A debt collector sends a validation letter saying what you owe, while you send a verification letter saying why you don’t.
Both letters are legal documents outlined in the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), a 1977 law enacted by the Federal Trade Commission that provides consumers with legal protection from abusive debt collection practices.
Pro Tip
According to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, you are legally entitled to request a validation of the debt from the third-party collection agency that claims you owe them.
Under the law, after the collector sends a debt validation letter, you have 30 days to respond with a debt verification letter if you want to dispute the debt.
What to Include in a Debt Verification Letter
The #1 rule for debt verification letters: Don’t overshare.
Craft your letter as a response to the specific information provided in the debt validation letter or from your other contact with the debt collector, according to Bruce McClary, vice president of communications for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling in Washington, D.C.
Pro Tip
Don’t be pressured to pay up on an old debt, or “zombie debt” — so named because if you make a payment on it, it restarts the statute of limitations and you’re required to pay it again.
“Include just enough details in the request and the timeline to effectively cover yourself,” McClary said. “Include your name, date of first contact with the debt collector, the result of that conversation in terms of the information that was provided by the debt collector over the phone and your request for official verification of the debt.”
If you didn’t get the information from the debt collector during your previous contact, you can also request the balance owed, the name of the original creditor and information about the debt collection agency currently managing the debt.
What Not to Include
Keep your letter as clear and concise as possible to avoid disclosing information that a debt collector could use against you or a scammer could use to steal your identity.
There’s no need to disclose why you want verification, particularly since your explanation may reveal identifying information to the debt collector that could be used against you.
“They can’t withhold the information because you didn’t give them a reason for your request — just the act of requesting is sufficient enough,” McClary said. “Focus on questions you want to ask rather than any additional info that isn’t relevant to your request.”
Pro Tip
If you feel a company’s collection efforts are abusive or threatening, maintain detailed records of each interaction and report the debt collector to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Something else you shouldn’t include? A demand that the debt collection company cease all communications.
You can request that the agency communicate stop calling a specific phone number or only communicate by mail, according to McClary. But no matter how annoying it may be, each contact with the debt collector can provide information that is vital to your case.
“Leave at least one channel of communication open that the debt collector can use to reach you with information about the status of the account and their attempts to collect it,” he said. “It may be a relief that you don’t have to deal with all the stress of their letters and phone calls, but if you shut down all channels of communication, what you don’t know could hurt you.”
A Template for a Debt Verification Letter
Once you have all your facts — and your documentation to back it up — it’s time to write your debt verification letter.
So long as you have copies of all documents, sending it via regular U.S. Mail is sufficient, according to McClary, although you may want to splurge for certified mail with a return receipt if you want to track delivery.
Pro Tip
Only provide documents that prove inaccuracies relevant to the debt in question, and completely black out any personal identifying information, like account numbers.
With McClary’s help, we came up with a sample letter you can use (the parts you should replace with your information are in bold):
Date
Your name and mailing address
The debt collection agency’s name and mailing address
I am writing to dispute the following information that debt collection company name provided to me during a phone call/in a debt notice on date. I have circled the items in dispute on the attached copy of the debt validation notice I received on date.
Specifically, I dispute the information for the following reasons:
- Disputed info is inaccurate/incomplete/outdated because of reason (Example: The amount listed in the validation letter was $460, which is outdated because I paid off the debt on 4/11/2014, as indicated in the attached credit card statement.)
I have enclosed the following documents to support my position: list of documents.
Please reinvestigate these disputed item(s) and send your resolution to my inquiry at the address provided above. In your reply, specifically address each disputed item and include details about the steps you have taken in your investigation.
Additionally, please contact the national credit reporting companies to have them correct the inaccurate/incomplete/outdated information as soon as possible.
I also request that you cease any telephone communication in regards to this account. Please send all communications to the mailing address I provided above. (This paragraph is optional and can be customized to your specific request for contact.)
Sincerely,
Your name
What Happens After You Send a Debt Verification Letter?
The good news: If you send your debt verification letter within the 30-day time period, debt collection efforts must stop until the agency responds.
The bad news: Interest and fees can continue to accumulate on a legitimate debt. But the debt collection agency must cease collection activity until it either obtains verification of the debt information or a copy of a court judgment, either of which must be mailed to you.
So what are your options when you receive the debt collector’s response?
“If they responded verifying that the debt is yours, either you accept the verification and proceed based on what you want to do,” McClary said. “Or if you still feel that the debt is not yours and you want to continue disputing the issue, it may then become necessary for you to consider consulting an attorney.”
Pro Tip
It’s worth your time to do some digging on a debt collector. In 2018, the FTC banned 32 companies and individuals from working in debt collection for engaging in serious and repeated law violations.
But what if you send the letter and … nothing happens? Then all your hard work may have helped protect yourself from a fraudster.
“If you don’t receive any response, it may be likely that the person who was contacting you was perpetrating a scam,” McClary said. “In some cases, people will send the verification letter, they’ll never hear back from the debt collection agency and they’ll never get another call, either.
“That just underscores the power of following these steps to ensure that you don’t become a victim of some kind of a debt collection scam.”
And with that kind of power, you can conquer your fear of debt.
Tiffany Wendeln Connors is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. Read her bio and other work here.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
source The Penny Hoarder http://bit.ly/2YbJpvG
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