nếu không như vậy, để biện minh cho một chuyển đổi. Nomura Securities, nhà phân tích Mark Adelson chỉ ra rằng các cơ quan xếp hạng như Moody và Standard & Poor cũng sẽ phải trang bị lại hệ thống của họ để chấp nhận VantageScores, như người mua thế chấp lớn của Fannie Mae và Freddie Mac. | Chapter 6 Coping with a Credit Crisis 87 Paying off the debt in the same three- to five-year period. In other words don t use the home equity loan as an excuse to stretch out your debt. Remember If you don t commit to these steps you ll ultimately just drive yourself deeper into debt. In the best-case scenario you d be able to retire your credit card and other unsecured debt in less than five years without too much strain. if you still have good credit scores you might even be able to convince your lenders just by asking to lower your interest rate so that you can get the debt paid off faster. Credit card companies are often eager to give their best customers a break rather than risk losing them to competitors. if not good credit scores typically mean other companies want your business you may be able to transfer your balances to other cards at lower rates. Check and for current offers. of course that particular door might be closed to you if you ve already fallen behind on your payments. Late payments to even one of your creditors can cause the others to raise their interest rates and get tougher about terms. Most credit card companies today periodically check your credit report and as soon as they notice trouble on any of your accounts take punitive action. They might jack up your rates by 10 percentage points or more or quickly lower your credit limits so that you start racking up over-limit fees. All this can make it that much harder to try to get your head above water. If things are bad when you re just late with a few payments you can imagine how lenders and your credit scores react when an account is unpaid for so long that the original creditor charges off the account. A charge-off is an accounting term that means the lender has given up hope of collecting. Accounts are typically charged off if they re unpaid for six months. Although some creditors then turn the account over to their internal collections .
