More Help

If you own a home and are having trouble making the monthly payments you may be able to get your interest rate reduced to as low as 2% through the government mortgage bailout . To do this you will have to explain your financial hardships to your loan company. As a result of the bailout the government is subsidizing a lot of mortgage companies. So what happens is the government asks the bank to lower your rates if you are able to show you’re struggling financially. The government then pays a portion of your payment to the bank and you pay the rest. In the end, the bank is getting the same amount they would normally get from you; it’s just that some of the money is now coming from the government.

There is a list of qualifications for a loan modification that you have to meet to get your rate lowered. As mentioned, you need to show that you are struggling financially and unable to meet your payment. You also can not have a principal balance of less than $730,000. Additionally you have a mortgage that originated before Jan 1st of 2009.

If you need a loan refinanced instead of modified, you have to have a loan that is owned or guaranteed by the wonderful people at Fannie Mae or Freddy Mac. You also have to be current on your mortgage payments and be able to prove that you can afford the new payments.

The government also has a similar program for credit card debt. In this case you also have to prove a financial hardship. There are several companies out there who will set it up for you. In fact, you have probably heard a lot of their advertisements on radio and TV. What they do is act as the middleman for you and negotiate with the credit card companies to lower your payments. Then they will have the government pay the rest with some of the bailout money.

So if you are having trouble paying your credit card bills or your house payment each month, you might want to look into these plans the government has set up. Seafarer Sailing

On a similar note, all working Americans have already received some of the bailout in the form of a tax cut. So if you look at your pay stubs you will notice the government is not taking as much from you. It’s a very small amount but better than nothing I suppose.