Investing In Bonds- How Is It Done And Is It Safe?
Stocks and bonds. You have doubtlessly heard of them, and if you have been reading my articles, you know what they are. If you haven’t, here’s a quick update: stocks represent a fraction of ownership in a company, and a bond represents money that a company “borrowed” and has to pay back on set dates. You may have heard that bonds are “safer” to invest in than stocks, but is this true? How are bonds traded, and what are the differences between a stock market and a bond market? Hopefully, this article can put these questions to rest.
Unlike the stock market, bonds markets do not usually have a centralized trading system. Instead, bonds will be traded in decentralized, dealer based over the counter markets. When an investor buys or sells a bond, the counter party to the trade is almost always a bank acting as a dealer. Another difference between bond markets and stock markets is that sometimes investors don’t pay broker’s fees to dealers with whom they buy or sell bonds. Instead, the dealers get their money by collecting the spread, which is the difference between the price at which the dealer buys a bond from one investor and the price at which he sells the same bond to another investor.
In terms of volatility, bonds are usually somewhat safer than stocks, especially short and medium dated bonds, but the value of stocks can definitely change. Bonds are liquid – it’s fairly simple to sell a bond investment, and the safety of a fixed interest payment that you will receive twice a year is attractive. Bondholders additionally enjoy certain legal protections: in the United States if a company goes bankrupt, its bondholders will be paid before stockholders because they are creditors.
But, bonds also come with their risks. Fixed rate bonds are subject to interest rate risk, which means that their market prices will shrink in value when the interest rates rise. Bonds can also be subject to other risk factors such as call and prepayment risk, reinvestment risk, event risk, liquidity risk, credit risk, inflation risk, yield curve risk, volatility risk and sovereign risk. Price changes in a bond can also affect mutual funds that hold these bonds immediately. If the value of the bonds in a trading portfolio has plummeted over the day, the value of the portfolio will also have fallen.
Finally, in the case of bankruptcy, because there is a hierarchy of creditors that must be paid that bondholders are not on top of, there is no guarantee of how much money will go to repay the bondholders even though the money will go to them first before shareholders. Bondholders have been known to lose some or all of their money when this happens.
Mallory Megan works for Rapid Recovery Solution and writes articles on nationwide collection agencies. Check here for free reprint licence: Investing In Bonds- How Is It Done And Is It Safe?.
If You Have A Debt Collector On The Phone….
If you owe money to a creditor debt collectors are permitted to report your debt to credit bureaus, file lawsuits against you, and should be taken extremely seriously. The best way to protect yourself and your financial situation is a methodical approach. First, know why you are being contacted. Know where the debt is from and exactly how much it costs.
Request the name of the person that is calling, the name of the agency, the name of the creditor, and the agency’s address and fax number. You have the right to tell a collector over the phone that you want all future contact to be in writing. Follow up all requests with a written request.
Keep in mind if you tell the debt collector that they are not permitted to contact you at all it the agency is entitled to contact you once more to inform you how it plans to proceed. Another request that can be made is that you are the only person that can be contacted. It might be a good idea to keep a file including dates and details of phone conversations and when you mail out or receive letters.
If you do send any correspondence to the collections agency you should do this by Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested. This means that the letter reached the collector, providing you with a signed receipt as proof that it did. If you negotiate a re-payment plan over the phone, ask for the terms of the plan in writing. Additionally, any promise to remove or adjust credit history should definitely be documented.
Make sure that you pay the right party; payments should be made to the debt collector, not the creditor, unless otherwise instructed to do so. Carefully look over the amount you are being asked to pay. Get an assessment of any interest, fees or charges that have been added.
If you feel that your collector is being abusive, be certain to complain to the agency and keep this complaint on file. Finally, never ignore a collector even if you feel that the debt isn’t yours; they will continue to contact you and it may mean more trouble and time in the long run.
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When Do I Call In A Medical Collection Agency
Do you know how much debt your medical collection agency collected last year? If you don’t, how can you evaluate their effectiveness or your return? How could you possibly be aware?
Most patient balances forwarded to a medical collection agency are often considered “lost causes,” there would be little point in using such services if that were always the case. Logic dictates this much. Some of the reasons are as follows: Some patients simply do not respond to practice statements or internal collection letters. They will, however, respond when a collection agency states it will report their failure to pay to credit bureaus. Collection agencies have a number of resources on their hands. If reporting a debt to a credit bureau does not work, there are attorneys on hand that can assist you with problem consumers who refuse to pay.
It is a given that most medical practices acknowledge the need for collection agency services but they should evaluate and manage this collection method just like any other. Practices should have a full understanding of the terms of the agreement with their collection agency and the results of such arrangements; they must also understand how their own internal processes affect the agency’s success. And internal processes do have an enormous effect on the amount of money that you can collect.
Here are six questions you should ask when evaluating your current collection agency.
What is the total dollar value of accounts placed with the collection agency last year?
What is the protocol for turning accounts to collection?
What is the average age of transferred accounts?
What percentage of transferred accounts had balances less than $50?
How much did the agency collect last year?
What fees does the collection agency charge?
What reports does the agency provide?
Rapid Recovery Solution is a third party debt collection company. Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service
Protecting Yourself Against Debt Collection Scams
The government is stepping up as debt collection scams rise. In recent news, Buffalo New York has been home to a number of unlawful debt collection practices, and authorities have arrested at least twelve people. Even though the vast majority of debt collection companies are good for the economy and very much legitimate, there has been a rising amount of deceptive and illegal practices.
In Buffalo, collections agents have been caught calling up people that owe money and posing as law enforcement. They have threatened to send people that owe money into jail, or even take child custody away from them. But it doesn’t stop there.
A recent civil case imposed a $675,000 penalty ever imposed on a debt collection business, for illegal and deceptive practices. This includes harassing and lying to consumers, cashing in on post dated checks early, and disclosing their debt to third parties. These tactics came by deceptive claims from agents saying they were lawyers or other figures of authority.
In addition to refusing to reveal the address or phone number of the “company” these agents even went as far as to call people who were not in any debt at all and attempted to collect money from them. Even though the owners of said companies alleged that it was individual workers acting fraudulently, the Federal Trade Commission went after the business owners and won a case that imposed the biggest penalty ever for debt collection agencies.
To skirt around the issue of being a victim to fraudulent debt collection agencies, it is crucial that you know your rights. A debt collection company is never permitted to seize a debtor’s assets, bank accounts, or paychecks. They are unable get a debtor fired from their occupation, and can’t make any kind of public disclosures concerning the debt, and they can definitely never threaten or engage in violent acts.
To be more informed, refer to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which will list the rules and regulations of collections.
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