Daily Archives: March 16, 2009

Bankruptcy, Debts, Financial Services, IVA, Loans, Mortgage

Tackling Unsecured Debt Can Prevent Repossession

Responding to the 2008 repossession and arrears statistics released by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), debt specialists Debt Advisers Direct have stressed the relationship between unsecured debt and mortgage arrears.

“As the CML reports, there were 40,000 repossessions in 2008,” said a spokesperson for Debt Advisers Direct, “and a further 219,000 mortgages ended the year more than three months in arrears.

“For many of those people, however, the problem lay not in the cost of their actual mortgage payments, but in the cost of servicing their unsecured debts. Charging significantly higher interest rates than mortgages, unsecured debts can easily ‘snowball’ to the point where borrowers simply can’t keep up with them – where their monthly payments barely suffice to pay off the accumulating interest.

“Unsecured debts can also be alarmingly easy to take on. Credit cards and store cards in particular allow significant levels of debt to accumulate gradually: people who would hesitate to take out a £2,000 loan can find they’ve acquired £2,000 of debt on a number of cards without even noticing it.”

This combination of high interest rates and ease of access has left many homeowners with unsecured monthly debt repayments that take up some or all of the funds they need to service their mortgage debt. Unless they take steps to address this, it can end up leading to repossession.

“There are ways of reducing the burden of their unsecured debts,” the spokesperson continued. “Many people successfully negotiate with their unsecured lenders – either on their own or through a professional debt management organisation – asking them to accept lower payments, freeze interest and/or waive charges, to ensure that servicing their unsecured debts doesn’t take up funds they need to stay on top of their mortgage payments.

Others find that their unsecured debts have passed the point where negotiation is a realistic option: “In 2008, some 106,000 people in England and Wales turned to insolvency (bankruptcy or an IVA (Individual Voluntary Arrangement)) as the only realistic path out of debt – and experts such as KPMG believe this figure could easily grow by 50% this year.

“For the majority of homeowners, an IVA offers distinct benefits over bankruptcy. Like bankruptcy, an IVA lets them write off the debt they can’t afford to repay, and will have a severe impact on their credit rating. Unlike bankruptcy, however, it will allow them to retain ownership of their property.”

This is what makes it a particularly interesting option for homeowners who worry that their unsecured debts could end up costing them their home: “An IVA requires substantial commitment, as they will need to make regular payments towards their unsecured debt for five years, but those payments are designed to be affordable.

They will be calculated to take up the individual’s entire disposable income – the money they will have left after taking into account their essential monthly expenditure, such as food, petrol, utility bills and (most importantly) mortgage payments.

“So a homeowner in an IVA will be required to contribute all their disposable income to their IVA for a full five years, as well as releasing some equity halfway through the final year of the IVA to maximise the amount they can pay their unsecured creditors.

“However, they’ll know they’re protected from any legal action by their unsecured creditors – including attempts to make them bankrupt – and they’ll know their outstanding unsecured debts will be written off at the end of that period. Most important of all, they’ll know the budget they’re following is specifically designed to ensure their monthly mortgage payments will be met.”

“The important thing is to take action in time, as soon as their unsecured debts reach unmanageable levels. An IVA is a legal procedure that requires the approval of creditors who collectively ‘own’ 75% of the debt in question – in general, the sooner an individual speaks to an Insolvency Practitioner about an IVA, the better their chances of gaining that approval.”

Via EPR Network
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Financial, Financial Education, Financial Services

The Incentive Group, Inc., Works to Assure Event Success and National Financial Recovery

Talk about full service: The Incentive Group, Inc., a Corporate Event Planner, not only provides comprehensive services for planning employee incentive programs or sales recognition programs, but now its activities behind the scenes are helping to put guidelines in place to ensure that your company’s incentive activities are conducted in compliance with new federal laws and to ensure that your company maintains eligibility for federal emergency funding. 

The Incentive Group, Inc. provides all-inclusive services in conducting a variety of corporate events, from 

routine meetings and conferences, to sales recognition programs and employee incentive programs. The Incentive Group, Inc. maintains that company productivity and profits can be sustained and improved, even in tight economic times, by improving relationships with two major sources that are essential to business success: good customers and good employees. Even the most successful businesses must regularly take external and internal action to maintain happy customers and happy, productive employees.

Sales recognition programs have long been deemed essential management tools, utilized by companies to motivate and boost the confidence of their sales employees. More recently, companies have recognized that employee incentive programs targeting non-sales employees also have a measurable positive effect on the bottom line. Well-informed companies now view both types of programs as necessary to nurture good relationships with one of their most valuable resources – their employees.

Why incentives? Why not cash? The Incentive Group, Inc. presents a compelling case in favor of Travel Awards Employee Incentive Programs. Independent studies support the position that such incentives work better than cash to create feelings of satisfaction and to produce a high level of individual motivation.

Why not just organize your own events? The Incentive Group, Inc. has the purchasing power and connections to negotiate the best rates on services. Minimizing costs helps maximize attendance, ensuring greater success. Letting The Incentive Group handle the details free up company personnel from the onerous obligation of struggling to complete all the tasks necessary to set the stage for these kinds of events. Your employees are then able to spend their time doing what they do best: Their jobs.

You definitely need to consult with a professional corporate event planner before hosting any incentive event if you have received emergency government lending for distressed corporations. Under calls from the Obama administration, as well as a bill proposed in the U.S. Senate, the Secretary of the Treasury would be required to “develop and publish corporate governance principles and ethical guidelines for recipients of emergency economic assistance including restrictions governing payments for conferences and events.” (S.133, “Troubled Asset Relief Program Transparency Reporting Act,” Introduced 01/06/2009). The bill also mentions travel accommodations, travel expenditures, entertainment, holiday parties, and employee recognition events.

The Incentive Group, Inc. is a member of Meeting Professionals International (MPI), one of a group of eight event industry associations that have stepped forward to voluntarily create a “Model Board Policy for Approval of Meetings, Events and Incentive/Recognition Travel.” Although the Model Policy will constrain the very corporations that use the services of member corporate event planners, it will also protect the uninterrupted, smooth operation of the event industry.

MPI members like The Incentive Group, Inc., have thus dedicated themselves to assisting economic recovery by taking action to protect the significant percentages of jobs, tax revenues, and travel-related spending generated by the event industry, and also by aiding client companies that receive federal emergency funding to avoid legal problems over its use.

About The Incentive Group, Inc.

The Incentive Group, Inc. offers comprehensive corporate event planning, from local, regional, or national meetings, to custom-designed Travel Award programs, to participant feedback reports, plus everything in between. All services provided by The Incentive Group, Inc., have a unified goal in mind: To understand your business and to provide what you need in order to obtain measurable results.

Via EPR Network
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