Is business credit card helpful?

‘Yes’ –is the answer that’s comes out almost immediately. That is true at least for most businesses (especially small businesses). Before we delve deeper into how business credit cards are helpful, let’s try and understand what a business credit card is.

Put simply, a business credit card is a credit card that is owned by a business and not an individual. To understand this better, you can simply draw an analogy between the business credit cards and business bank accounts, which are in the name of the business as well. Other than that, business credit cards work in pretty much the same fashion as the personal credit cards; with a few exceptions. These exceptions are in the form of flexibility in credit limit, low APRs and some other additional benefits that are available to business credit cards only.

Even from just that, business credit cards seem a good proposition. However, business credit cards would be attractive even without those benefits because the main benefit lies elsewhere. The big-big benefit from a business credit card is realised in terms of business expense accounting. For most small businesses, business expense accounting is a big overhead. With business credit cards, this is handled very easily – you just have to ensure that you make all your business expenses on your business credit card and let the personal expenses be on the personal credit card i.e. segregation of business and personal expenses is all you need to do. So the bill for your business credit card will have all the business expenses on it and you wouldn’t need to collate all the various bills or sort out the items from your personal credit card bill. The key here is to make sure that you use your business credit card for all your business expenses (or as much as you can). Moreover, a lot of business credit card suppliers realise this need of small business and even organise the business credit card bills in a way that meets the accounting requirements of these businesses. So mostly, they will appropriately group the expenses on the business credit card bill so as to facilitate business expense accounting. In fact, some of the business credit card suppliers go to an extent of providing the bills in a format that can be downloaded and exported to an accounting system i.e. you don’t need to enter the data manually in your accounting system. In case the format is not suitable for your accounting system, you can hire a software professional to write a small quick program to convert it into a suitable format.

Thus just one reason - ‘facilitation of business expense accounting’, is enough to support the case of small business credit cards.

Many businesses run into financial trouble and look to financial advisors to help develop a business debt consolidation plan. Of course, just as with a personal debt consolidation plan, the key to the success of any business debt consolidation plan is to keep to it until you have got your finances back on track. If you have not already done so then you need to ensure that you take some extra steps to give your business debt consolidation plan the best chance to succeed. Some of these steps may seem harsh but if you want to save your business from going bankrupt then you will need to make some tough decisions.

The first step in any business debt consolidation plan is to assess just hoe many of your outgoings are essential to the business. The most important part of any business debt consolidation plan is to realise that you are going to have to cut back severely on your expenses to get your books out of the red and back into the black. Take a careful look at your levels of staffing. You should have already discussed the financial situation with your staff and informed them that you are going to be forming a business debt consolidation plan. Obviously, the staff will then realise that there are going to have to be some cutbacks, or a reduction in pay to give the business debt consolidation plan any chance of success. You may find that some of your staff decides to leave of their own volition which will have a positive effect on your business debt consolidation plans.

Don’t be tempted to try to replace every member of staff who decides to leave upon hearing of your business debt consolidation plan but give the remaining staff the option to take on more duties or longer working hours. If you explain the business debt consolidation plan to your most trusted staff members they may agree to work extra hours for less money, simply to help you focus on your business debt consolidation plan. This will not last forever, but it is a good place to start. You can always reward your staff once you have got your business debt consolidation plan underway. You may discover that you need to cut the hours of all of your paid staff to cope with the reduction in finances that you will have available whilst you are working on your business debt consolidation plan and this is where you are going to have to put in the extra effort yourself.

Lawyers often charge high fees to help individuals get out of debt. Credit repair clinics are available to assist individuals with debt relief, but only the absolute desperate would even consider these types of solutions. So, if this is not the solution for repairing credit, then what is? Many people that suffer from bad credit often wallow in a pond of self-pity believing there is no escape. Most people sit around waiting for the miracle that came to their neighbor’s door to hit their door. The fact is there are no miracles that happen unless someone takes the first step to eliminate the problem. We all suffer at times, and some of us more than others. It depends on the amount you owe, but for most of us getting out of debt is possible. Let’s consider Bankruptcy Chapter 7. Chapter 7 Bankruptcy allows families and individuals to erase many of the debts owed to consumers. Chapter 7 Bankruptcy will often erase medical bills, home mortgage, car payments, and credit card bills. The disadvantage with Chapter 7 Bankruptcy is that you will have to give up some of your assets in most instances. Once you fill out the appropriate papers you will then go into an ‘automatic stay’ which stops all your creditors from contacting you. This means that the creditors cannot garnish money from your checks each month to apply toward the bills you owe. It also means that the creditors can not deduct money from your checking, savings, money market accounts and so on. You are also protected temporarily since the consumers are not allowed to discontinue your electric or gas. The advantage of Chapter 7 Bankruptcy is that you have a degree of control over all assets and income that are available once the bankruptcy is in motion. There are debts that cannot be wiped out by filing Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. Those debts include child support payments, college tuition loans, criminal fines and costs, or other similar bills. The problem with filing bankruptcy is that new laws are coming that will make it more difficult for debtors to file. The new laws in motion are nearly prohibiting debtors from finding a solution. Another form of bankruptcy that is available is the Chapter 13 Bankruptcy. Chapter 13 Bankruptcy means that the debtor keeps their assets while making lower monthly installments on their belongings. This is a good solution for building credit. If you missed car or home payments it is a solution to help you repair your credit. The downside with Chapter 13 is that if you miss payments the courts has the right to change your plans. If the courts see that the delay is only temporarily they may issue you a ‘grace period’ until you get back on track, otherwise you might get a ‘hardship discharge,’ which means that your debts are dismissed. The best solution then is finding a solution for the problem that won’t lead you into the courtrooms. This is only a headache since you will have to make court meetings, be in someone else’s control, and so on. The first step to repairing your credit and building to a better future is put some taps on your spending habits. Setting up a budget plan is a great start to credit repair without hitting the courts. Before long the law is going to make it virtually impossible for anyone to go to bankruptcy court, so it is time to get started now. If you are not good at budgeting, there are Nonprofit Organizations that will help you set up a budget plan for little or no cost. Remember you are not alone, and there are people out there willing to help you get back on your feet. If you don’t want to bother someone else with a budget plan you could also purchase software programs that offer the tools for budgeting. Quicken and many other software programs have excellent spreadsheet programs, analyzing tools, and so on to get you on the road to budgeting your money in order to repair your credit.

Information is this email is for information purposes only. Always contact your lawyer if you need legal advice.

If you want to prevent credit repair procedures, you need to keep your payments up to date. Financial emergencies may come up, so it is important that you meet minimal payments on time. If you have utilities, house payment, car payment, or other dues try to knock them out to avoid complications. If you are in debt over your head and have very little income and assets it might be wise to do nothing, Sounds insane, but the reality is when you are taking to court most of the collectors won’t be able to collect a dime. This procedure is called ‘judgment proof.’ If you elect this procedure you won’t go to jail. There are advantages by acting on the ‘judgment proof,’ such as the Federal Laws protect you against creditors coming to your home and confiscating your belongings. The downside is you are not resolving anything and in the long run you won’t get credit. On the other hand if you want to face your credit problems, you can take several steps to build your credit. If you have an attitude “it doesn’t matter how much I owe, I am in debt and can’t get out.” Then you probably should take the ‘judgment proof’ method. However if you have an attitude “How much do I owe so I can work to resolve.” Then you are on the road to rebuilding your credit. Start by over viewing the current bills that you have received. You can also call the companies that sent you the bill to find out how much you owe. Once you have totaled your bills, and find an amount that you can pay each month toward all the bills owed. You can also get reports of your credit report from Trans Union, Equifax, and Experian, however unless you have recently applied for a loan and was turned down you won’t get these reports free. You can go online to check out the various sources that offer credit reports, and some places enable you to get all three reports for around $25. This is wise since the more you apply for loans or any source of credit, the more it goes against your credit score. The credit score is more important than the rating.

When it comes to dealing with credit repair or credit building, we have several options available. If you are in debt for more than $10,000 and your future doesn’t look promising, you can always file bankruptcy. Be alert that bankruptcy doesn’t necessary mean that you are out of debt, rather it means that the courts will decide on a monthly fee that you can afford to repay your debts. Some debts are dropped in bankruptcies, depending on your lawyer and what he/she can do for you. You could also apply for a consolidation loan, which is a little better than bankruptcy in the sense you promise to the lenders that you will pay a certain amount each month until the debts are paid in full. It pays to shop around if you are going this route, since some lenders charges fees to get you out of debt, as well as some lenders do not work hard to get you affordable monthly installments for repayments. The last thing you need is to be paying more than you can afford each month. If you have assets, such as a house or car, you might want to sell to raise money to get out of debt. This almost always works out in your best interest. If you can’t afford payments in the first place, you have nothing to loose. Once you sell your item then you can payoff any other debts you may have and work toward building your credit. The more effort you make in building your credit, the more opportunities you will have of reestablishing your credit rating and score. If you are struggling to get out of debt be sure to set up a budget for yourself so that you are not going in deeper. When you are in debt small sacrifices or even big sacrifices needs to happen in order to repair and rebuild your credit score and ratings.

Loans had been defined as an arrangement between to individuals (or groups) from which a lender gives property or money to the borrower.  The latter likewise agrees to repay the money or to return the property at a given period of time, usually with an interest.

Whenever an individual enters into an agreement for a loan or wants to secure a loan, the lender may o may not require the individual to pledge a collateral.

If the lender requires for a collateral, this is called a secured loan.  Collateral is defined as anything that has a value. This may include a house, a herd of sheep, a car, business assets, or anything that has a worth.

Usually, lenders require collaterals valued at a much higher price than that of the actual loan since its value could diminish over time.  An example may be a house that has been used as a collateral.  Its value may be lower in time if it
caught fire, had been flooded or simply damaged by unforeseen accidents.

Other lenders may not require for a collateral, this then is called an unsecured loan.

The following are the advantages of a secured loan:

These kinds of loans usually have lower interest rates since it is backed by a collateral.  The lender would feel more secure with the deal thus over a lower interest rate.
 
With the presence of a collateral, lenders may still want to lend money to borrowers who may even not have a very good credit standing since they could rely on the security of the collateral.

These though also have its own disadvantages:

The borrower may not fully enjoy the use of the collateral while the loan is still active.  For example, if a boat is used as a collateral, he or she may not be allowed to resell a part or the whole of it or make renovations to it since it could affect its value.
 
Even if an individual filed for bankruptcy, said collateral may still be seized from him or her.
 
Unsecured loans also have its own advantages and disadvantages.  Its advantages are as follows:

Applying for unsecured loans are relatively easier than that of a secured loan.  It usually requires less paperwork or documentation, requiring usually only the signature of the borrower and a given schedule for the payment scheme.
 
There usually are not restrictions on how the borrower may use the funds.
 
The lender has not right over the purchased goods with the loaned money or fund.
 
On the contrary, a loan may be both secured and unsecured.  If an individual enters into a secured loan agreement, say $10,000, and uses his automobile as a collateral (valued at $6,000), then his loan is secured only up to $6,000.  The
remaining $4,000 is deemed as unsecured.

For individuals who have bad credit standings, lenders usually offer the secured type.  This for their own assurance that the borrower will be forced to repay, and if not, the lender have the security of the collateral to fall back to.

Though some may still offer the unsecured form of loan to those with bad credit standings, these are usually backed with higher interest rates that they deem would be sufficient to cover the amount loaned even before its full payment.