I remember getting my first bike for Christmas when I was 6 or 7 and taking it out that morning and cruising around the neighborhood like a boss, feeling like the master of my domain.

Probably the one thing I remember more about that day, though, is crashing and burning when my shoe lace got tangled in the pedal.  I wish I could say it was a spectacular crash (the kind that gets filmed and put on YouTube, generating a million views and shaming me for the rest of my life), but I can’t.  I tripped over the bike and cut my chin on the pavement.

And then I got back up, dusted myself off, tied my damn shoe laces tighter, and rode back around the block.

Believe it or not, repairing your credit and achieving true debt relief is remarkably similar.  At some point in our lives, we all ride high and think nothing can stop us, until one little mistake trips us up and down we go.  The tricky part, much like riding a bike, is learning to pick ourselves back up and get on with the ride.

Many consumers need help in figuring out just how to do that, so I’ve put together 9 (relatively) easy tips for helping you wave goodbye to your debt:

1.       Create a budget. The best way to start getting a handle on your finances is to create a monthly budget for yourself.  This will help you not only get a fix on how much you’re spending vs. how much you’re making, but it’ll help you map out a plan for paying down your existing debts.

2.       Take a little off the top. Now that you’ve got a better look at your available finances on a monthly basis, you should immediately get to work on knocking your bills down a few notches.  A great place to start would be accounts that come with the highest interest rates.  Since those interest charges make paying down the actual balance more of a chore, you’ll want to knock them out as fast as you can so you’re paying your actual bill, and not just the tacked-on interest.

3.       All items 10% or less! Once you’ve got your high interest debts cut back, get ready to take an axe to the rest of your financial line-up.  We recommend you pay down your accounts to around 10% of their available balances.  So if you’ve got a Visa card with a $5000 available balance, try and keep the overall expenses on that card to no more than $500.  Yeah, that sounds almost impossible to do, especially if you’re used to breaking out the credit card at every opportunity, so you might wanna brace yourself for the next few tips…..

4.       All others pay cash. If you’ve been used to paying for everything from bills to a gallon of milk with your MasterCard, it’s time for a change.  While it’s a good idea to keep at least 3 cards open and to continue to charge on them, you should limit those charges to smaller, more manageable items (like groceries) and not overly ridiculous expenses so you don’t end up right back at step 1 in three months.

5.       No more shopping sprees. Speaking of totally awesome toys that you can’t afford, it’s time to take stock of your “flexible” income and reevaluate just how stretchable it is.  What I mean is, when you’re trying to get out of debt, it might be a good idea to cut the expenses that got you there in the first place.  From buying new and expensive toys, to eating out every other night, cutting down on these unnecessary expenditures can free up vast sums of money you never knew you had.

6.       Quit hitting people up for money. Avoid borrowing money to help you get out of debt, especially consolidation loans.  Not only does borrowing money to pay back money make about as much sense as a dog chasing his tail, but debt consolidation looks bad to creditors and lenders when it shows up on your credit report and drops your score.

7.       Start coupon clipping. We’ve talked about the insane money-saving potential in coupon-clipping, and if you still don’t believe in them, check out the video we posted on coupon clipping.  Check various websites for deals on just about anything you can find before you buy.  You’ll be surprised how much you can save on just about anything you’ll need or want.

8.       Look for other ways to save/make money. If you can, consider taking a second, part-time job for a few months to help reduce your debt.  Barring that, you can always hold a garage sale.  You’ll have more money to take down your debt and you’ll have cleaned out any junk you never used anyway.

9.       Call in the professionals. If you feel like your bills are piling too high and can’t even begin to think about taking care of all your bills yourself, consider consulting a credit repair service or debt settlement agency.  Many are skilled at negotiating your debts down to considerably more manageable balances and can make the road to financial recovery that much easier.

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So 2011 is here and for many people, paying their outstanding debts down is high on their list of New Year’s resolutions — about as important as working all of that holiday food out.

In order to help you stick to your resolution and reduce your debts for the New Year, we’ve put together 5 tips to help you find debt relief in 2011.

1. Figure out what you owe. Gather all of your outstanding debts and bills together, and figure out exactly who you owe money to, and how much you have left to pay.  Once you’ve done this, prioritize which debts require your immediate attention (usually those with high balances and/or interest rates) and set up a repayment plan.  More on this in a second.

2. Get a free copy of your credit report. If you don’t already have a copy of your report, you probably don’t know how your debts are affecting your credit history.  Order a free copy of your report from annualcreditreport.com, and go over each of your accounts to see if all of your accounts are reporting accurately, or if you may be in need of credit repair.

3. Draft up a repayment plan. Once you’ve got all of your accounts in front of you, gather your recent pay check stubs and use them to help you plot out what you can afford to pay each month.  Try and pay the full amount each month if you can afford it.

4. Try and negotiate lower rates with your creditors. You might be surprised how receptive your creditors can be in working with you on a payment plan.  Get in contact with them, explain your debt situation and ask if they’ll work with you by either cutting your monthly payments down or, more ideally, cutting your interest rates down.  This will make paying down any outstanding debt you have much easier.

5. Pay your bills on time. This last one’s kind of a given, but having too many late payments show up on your credit report can drag your score down and make getting your finances in order all the more of a chore.  If you’re able to keep paying more than the minimum balance each month, do so to insure your score doesn’t take any major hits as a result of your holiday spending habits.

If you’d like free help putting together a credit or debt plan for 2011; contact Mycreditgroup for a free consultation.

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that your creditors and lenders don’t really care about you, just the money you have on you.  I’m sure it came as quite a shock when you opened that initial credit card bill, and discovered that a good chunk of your bill was going to pay down interest rate hikes and other arbitrary fees.

The federal government isn’t really a fan of those practices either, and so stepped in on behalf of the rest of us and passed laws designed to protect from defaults, interest hikes and the like, creditors are devising new ways to take your happy buck back from you.  If you’re not careful, you’ll end up with a list of unwanted charges and find yourself in need of credit repair services fast.  Here are just a few of the methods to watch out for, so you won’t be too surprised the next time your bill comes in…

• The grace period. These vary by creditor and consumer, so while some people may have a little bit of extra time to pay off a purchase, others may be slapped with the finance charge almost as soon as they make the purchase in the first place.  Luckily, card companies are forced to send your bill early enough so that you can avoid the finance charge entirely – assuming you have the money in your account to pay the bill in the first place.

• Weekend/holiday fees. If you’ve ever paid your credit card bill over the weekend, or you received a bill with a due date over a holiday like Christmas, and paid it the following week (say the bill was due Saturday, but you pay it the following Monday), you may have been hit with an extra processing fee.  This can cause real headaches, especially around the holidays, when money flows like eggnog.  Luckily, this is also one of the easiest extra charges to avoid as well.  The Credit CARD Act of 2009 states that card companies are no longer allowed to charge you a late fee for paying the day after a weekend or holiday, but anything after that is fair game.  Avoid the charge by paying a day or two before the weekend.

• Using your card overseas (or not). Raise your hand if you’ve ever paid for anything overseas and been more than a little surprised at just how much higher the price was for a Coke and a sandwich.  Some card companies won’t even wait for you to go overseas; if you purchase anything online from another country, like some sweet rims for your ’95 Honda Civic from Japan, and your payment is processed in yen, you’ll be hit just as hard as I was.  The solution?  Don’t buy anything online from a foreign country if you don’t want to pay any more for it than you already are.

• Inactivity fees. Here’s a fee we’re all hit with at some point in time, assuming you’ve got cards that you stop using for an extended period of time.  Your creditors don’t like being neglected, and so start looking for ways to recapture your attention – which generally translates to charging you an inactivity fee as a wake-up call.  Thankfully, such charges are now illegal, but card companies already have a follow-up charge waiting in the wings if you fail to make a minimum amount of purchases by year’s end.  So either keep making those charges, or if you don’t plan on using the card ever again, close it to avoid the hassle.

The holidays are over; your extended family has driven or flown their separate ways, and you’ve got enough leftovers to feed you for the rest of the week.  All you really have to worry about now is returning that….interesting sweater your grandmother thought would look cute on you, and life will return to normal.  Until you get your credit card bill, of course.

If you’re not too careful, your holiday spending habits can get out of control fast.  Don’t feel too bad – it happens to the best of us, especially at this time of year.  But if you don’t want to spend a good portion of 2011 paying off the last month of 2010’s bills, you’ll want to take care of your holiday debt sooner rather than later.

In order to help insure your credit score doesn’t take a major hit over your holiday purchases, we’ve put together these tips to help you wipe out your holiday credit card debt as quickly as you can.

• Don’t forget that you have these bills. Some people get so wrapped up in the holiday mood that they don’t even want to think about all of the bills that are piling up.  Don’t let this happen to you.  Keep track of all your purchases in order to make sure your monthly statement won’t grow into something you can’t afford to pay off quickly.

• Pay more than the minimum. If you can afford to pay more than the minimum balance on your bill, do it.  Consider putting any extra money you got over the holidays towards paying off your bill if you let yourself go when shopping for presents.  The faster you pay your accounts back down, the less you’ll have to worry about them as you start the new year.

• Don’t add to it. Some people take a look at all the extra money they got over the holidays – be it a Christmas bonus, checks from relatives, or both – and decide to have a 2^nd Christmas, just for them.  While doing so seems like a good idea when you’re in the checkout line, it will only add to your growing debt, and will take even longer to pay off.  If your credit cards were already on a collision course with their limits, your added expenditures will only make your credit profile look worse in the long run.

• Try to combine your balances. If you spread your holiday purchases over multiple credit cards and are having a hard time keeping track of what you owe to whom, try to find a credit card that will let you transfer your balances over with a low interest rate to make repaying your debts easier.  Having your debts under one card is easier to keep track of, and can be paid off much sooner.

Remember to keep track of your progress as you pay each of these major debts down, and your holiday spending won’t follow you too far into the new year.  For more credit and debt information, contact a specialist at My Credit Group.

It’s that time of year again, the time to go Christmas tree shopping and stand in long mall lines for that one toy your kid just won’t shut up about.  The holidays are always billed as the time to spend together with friends and family – to eat, drink, and be merry – to give and let give, or something like that.  For a lot of people, the holidays are also all about adding a couple of notches to their belts as they help themselves to just one more serving of pie and eggnog. 

And while that’s all well and good (just promise to lose the extra weight as your New Year’s resolution, as the rest of us do), one area you shouldn’t overindulge in this holiday season is charging to your credit card.  This can be a little harder to do than it sounds (especially if you have a lot of people to shop for), so we’ve put together this handy guide of the top 5 tips to help you avoid overindulging your spending habits.

1.Set yourself up with a spending budget.  If you head out to go holiday shopping with a set amount of money you know you’ll spend – and not a penny less – you’ll be doing a lot to help yourself not overspend on gifts and end up with only a lump of coal for your own stocking.

2.Save your pennies.  If you really wanna do yourself a solid in the fight to maintain a respectable credit rating through the holiday season, you might want to consider paying for most of your purchases with real cash.  This way, you’ll be sure you won’t overspend on gifts and your credit doesn’t suffer either.

3.Take your shopping online.  Every year we see news reports of people getting trampled to death during the holiday shopping rush just to save a couple of extra bucks on a toaster.  If you want to avoid becoming a holiday statistic, take your shopping online.  Often, you’ll find a lot of online retailers like Amazon have the same gift ideas at a much lower price, so you’ll be able to do your holiday shopping without even leaving home!

4.Avoid BIG sales.  You know the kind – just about any major Black Friday or clearance sale might look enticing at first, but most of these items are on sale at a fraction of their original cost for a reason.  A lot of retailers also like to put these sales up only to entice you into spending more than you normally would at their shop.

5.Don’t buy it if you can’t afford it.  Remember, if you charge a lot of your gifts to your cards during the holidays, you’re still going to have to pay for them sometime down the line – which can be a real pain should anything unexpected come up that requires your full financial attention.  Avoid relying solely on your credit cards for your shopping to make your holidays a little merrier.

It’s been a long-held belief of mine that every high school in this country needs to start including classes to teach kids about credit and personal finance.  If they’d been offering these types of courses back when I was in high school, there’s a pretty good chance we wouldn’t be in the financial snafu we’re in right now, with half the country in need of a way out of credit card debt and the other half continuing on like nothing’s wrong (Okay, that’s generalizing things a bit, but you get the idea).

Back in my day, when I was a fresh-faced 18 year old out of high school, creditors seemed to be falling all over themselves for the chance to give to give me my first credit card, usually with a limit of up to $5000 (oh the ways I could spend that…) and some useless trinket as a sign up bonus.  Things are a little different now, the biggest change-up being that banks are no longer allowed to issue credit cards to anyone under the age of 21, unless the person applying has a cosigner or can provide proof of sufficient income.  

Now, I’m sure that probably sounded sensible to whoever came up with the idea, but back here in reality, it doesn’t make any sense at all.  Not only does it serve to stave off any experience a younger generation will have with credit cards, but with a decent percentage of your credit score (15%) made up of the length of items in your credit history, having to wait until you’re 21 to start building up your credit is like being held back two grades for no discernible reason.

So what’s a responsible teenager (responsible enough, anyway) to do if they want to get ahead in the game and start establishing credit before their 21st birthday?  Try out any or all of these simple tips:

• Get a secured credit card.  Think of a secured credit card as a set of training wheels; not quite a credit card, but more than a debit card.  You can get one from your bank after depositing some funds into the new account, and then use it just as you would a real credit card, making regular monthly payments.  Be sure to look for cards that offer lower interest rates than others; you don’t want to fall into the trap of barely paying the interest off this early in the game.

• Get a job.  If you’d rather jump head first into the pool, look for a decent part time job (or full time if you’re out of high school and want to wait a year or so before heading to college) to increase your chances of getting a credit card before you’re old enough to (legally) drink.  After all, being able to provide proof you’ve got a decent income that can be used to pay down a card balance is like doing extra credit assignments – it can only help in the long run.

• Piggyback on Mom and Dad’s card(s)!  Assuming either of your parents have credit on their own, and that it’s good, you can always try and hop onto their card and share in their good fortune.  Of course, if your parents start to slip up on their own credit, it’ll extend to you as well, so make sure your parents are better with money than you might be.

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