Tuesday 10 May 2011

Credit Card Debts

They say there is no positive side to credit card use. There is always the tendency to buy more when you have a credit card. Flashing and swiping the credit card on cashier counters is emotionally easier than getting cash from your wallet and using it to pay.

Although, spending on credit cards is not necessarily a bad thing, you will spend more when you use credit cards.

It becomes more of a problem if you do not control your spending and allow the monthly credit card bills to rollover paying only the minimum amount. This is a vicious cycle which snowballs until you are unable to pay even the monthly minimum.

If you do not pay your credit card debts on time or if you are unable to pay them at all, your creditors can force you into bankruptcy if you have debts of $10,000 or more.

Debt Problems

Being in debt can put you under a lot of stress. Many try to ignore the problem or fail to recognise the problem.

If you run out of money before the end of every month, does not know how much debt you have, hesitates opening bank statements, you may have a debt problem. This can be distressing up to a point that you dread knowing who's on the phone every time it rings and even lose sleep worrying about your finances.

Debts are urgent, grow rapidly over time, and speedily spiral into a big problem. The earlier you deal with them, the easier they are to deal with. As debt is not just a finance issue, but feeds into all elements of your life, solutions are wide and varied; from cutting interest costs, budgeting, or simply where to find free, non-profit one-on-one help.

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What is Bankruptcy?

In Singapore, bankruptcy is a process where the debtor is publicly recognised to be insolvent. The High Court makes a Bankruptcy Order against the debtor and he is declared a bankrupt if he is unable to pay his debts of at least $10,000 (IPTO).

According to Wikipedia, bankruptcy or insolvency is a legal status of a person or an organisation that cannot repay the debts it owes to its creditors. Creditors may file a bankruptcy petition against a business or corporate debtor ("involuntary bankruptcy") in an effort to recoup a portion of what they are owed or initiate a restructuring. In the majority of cases, however, bankruptcy is initiated by the debtor (a "voluntary bankruptcy" that is filed by the insolvent individual or organisation). An involuntary bankruptcy petition may not be filed against an individual consumer debtor who is not engaged in business.

The word bankruptcy is formed from the ancient Latin bancus (a bench or table), and ruptus (broken). A "bank" originally referred to a bench, which the first bankers had in the public places, in markets, fairs, etc. on which they tolled their money, wrote their bills of exchange, etc. Hence, when a banker failed, he broke his bank, to advertise to the public that the person to whom the bank belonged was no longer in a condition to continue his business. As this practice was very frequent in Italy, it is said the term bankrupt is derived from the Italian banca rotta, broken bank.

About this blog

This blog aims to gather available information on how people in Singapore deal with their debt problems, its known causes, the available options in solving this problem and where to get help.