You know the debt collectors can't wait for this new service to become (your hellish) reality!

Postal Service Sees “Simplicity” in 31 Digits: The U.S. Postal Service is launching a 31-digit bar code that will permit business customers -- advertisers, catalogue and credit card companies -- to track their mail, from the drop-off at a post office to delivery at a home or office.  The project is called Intelligent Mail, and it holds the potential to let companies know if customers are telling the truth when they say the check is in the mail.

"Intelligent mail is like having a GPS system for mail," Postmaster General John E . Potter said when he announced the project last year.  Potter has pushed since the summer of 2002 for a way to track commercial mail as it travels through the postal network. The effort is on the fast track now, and the Postal Service plans to launch the system in January 2009.

You know who’s gotta be REALLY excited about this postal development?  The debt collectors...especially since their business is growing at exponential rates thanks to the economic nightmare our nation is enduring at this time.  Read more about this Orwellian development.....

If you’re depending on cash flow/cushion from a Home Equity Line of Credit (a/k/a HELOC), you’d better read this!

Homeowners Losing Equity Lines – As House Values Fall, Some Banks Withdraw Credit: Nancy Corazzi was told by her lender, USAA Federal Savings Bank, that her equity line of credit was suspended because her Howard County home had dropped in value. In one brief phone call, Nancy Corazzi's lender yanked away what was left of the $95,000 home equity line of credit that she and her husband took out five months ago.

The lender informed her that her Howard County home had plummeted in value and the company did not want the risk that she would owe more than the house was worth. "I got off the phone and I was shaking," said Corazzi, who was using the money to pay preschool tuition for her twins ."I was near tears. We needed this credit line to get us through some tough times."

Several of the nation's largest lenders, along with smaller ones, are shutting off access to home equity lines in areas where home values are declining. Read the rest of the article here...

Dover's cover-your-ca$h tip that'll preserve your remaining credit lines? Draw down the entire line and put it into the highest-yield account you can find, to offset the interest expense. Remember, any creditor can cut off or reduce your credit lines (in whatever form) at ANY time. Your payment record means nothing these days, so don't whine...you've been warned.

Are you in debt over your head? BEFORE you start biting on those “My prayers have been answered!” offers from companies or individuals telling you selling on their abilities to get you out of jam, you’d better do your homework, first! 

Check out this rather [yawn!] 'nice' take on the topic, via The New York Times...

...or there's always my scortched-earth view of the debt negotiation world. Now's no time to mince words folks: You'd be a fool to sign-up with one of these companies. I devoted an entire chapter to these clowns in my book Back Off!  Read all about 'em here...

Didja hear about the new, unlimited calling plans that the Big 4 cellphone carriers announced-and-matched last week?  If you didn’t and think you might have a shot at lowering your phone bill, then you need to read this story.  But even if there’s nothing being offered that sounds like it will benefit you, take a little time to visit your current cellular phone service provider.  Ask them to review your phone bill with you to make sure that:

• You’re getting the best possible pricing now available: After reading this story I visited AT&T Wireless to figure out if I was paying current market pricing for the services I’m using and found out that several of the services I subscribe to had, in fact, dropped in price. 
• They’ll never tell you that you could be paying more, so it’s up to us to monitor our bills closely!  Invest a few minutes to stop one of their retail storefronts and see if there have been some price reductions either in rate plans or specific features.  If you’re getting close to the end of your contract period, “hold ’em up” and see what sort of free phone or accessories you can extort negotiate from them as an inducement to keep your business with them.  You may will be pleasantly surprised to see what they’re willing to do to keep you as a customer! 

For those of you that aren't concerned with the imploding economy that's being fueled by the subprime credit crisis and million of foreclosures, then I think you'll change your tune after you see what I'm about to show you.

This mess will touch virtually every corner of this country because it affects all of us on virtually every macro-and-micro economic level, kids.  To help you get a handle on our generation's Economic Armageddon, it, click here.

Since I can't call you every day to keep you up-to-speed on all of the important stuff you need to know about, why don't you do us both a favor and sign-up for our [free] podcasts! To quote the great John Blutarsky, "...it don't cost nuthin'."  Click here to sign-up...

Didja like what you just read? E-mail it to someone in need...

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