Finance Monster

Although seeking debt advice isn’t the only way to tackle your debts, if you choose to tackle them on your own, you may be missing out on other people’s (a professional debt adviser’s, for example) knowledge and experience.

For many people struggling with their debts, dealing with the money they owe on their own (without help) can be a stressful experience – in which they may end up making mistakes they could have avoided altogether if they had looked for the right debt advice before addressing their finances.

What sort of debt advice could I get?
An experienced debt adviser should be able to offer you tips on a number of financial issues that could help you improve your overall circumstances. For example, they may be able to give you a few pointers on how to budget more effectively.

They may advise you on how to:

• Write down the amount of money you earn each month, along with the amount you spend on essentials.
• Once you have done this, subtract the money you spend from the money you earn – this will leave you with your disposable income.
• This (disposable income) is the money you have available each month to spend on non-essential luxuries, such as nights out, movies… and so on.

Of course, your debt adviser will probably spend more time helping you and won’t just go over this – this is just an example to give you a rough idea of what sort of debt advice you could get.

If your debts are more serious, however, your debt adviser may point you towards a professional debt solution, such as a debt management plan or an IVA (Individual Voluntary Arrangement).

Investors and basic household finance managers know the demon of short-term cash needs. The best-laid plans for covering payments and holding back cash for market opportunities are often waylaid. Through the volatility and shortfalls of the past several years, people have become very savvy about finding solutions in a hurry.

Those solutions include everything from extending vendors’ accounts-payable dates to borrowing against one’s own paycheck with a cash advance loan. This latter solution has grown in popularity due to economic conditions but also because web-based lenders have made the process so simple and fast.

The features that most borrowers find useful in easy cash advance borrowing include:

Cash arrives overnight – You literally can apply for this loan at 5 p.m. on a Wednesday and expect to have the cash available for use by 9 a.m. on Thursday.

Processing time is minimal – Online applications require no more than 20 minutes of input, and for the experienced borrower it is about half that (the borrower supplies employment and bank account information). Loan approvals are confirmed in less than one hour.

Lowest cost when paid back in 30 days – It does not make sense to hold these loans far into the future. Instead, pay them off in one or two pay periods to minimize the cost of the loan.

Any concerns over privacy and security in Internet-based transactions have of course been dissipated. But what many users of cash-early advances cite is that their privacy is safest when borrowing online versus going to other types of lenders in retail locations. It is not necessary to take time away from work, and more recent versions of paycheck lenders require no faxing. With those restrictions removed, it is become as flexible and useful a tool as credit card borrowing.