Debt Relief Blog — Page 5 | The Debt Relief Company

Banks Can Be Severely Impacted by a Proposed 10% Cap on Credit Card Interest Rates

Jan 13, 2026

Banks Can Be Severely Impacted by a Proposed 10% Cap on...

The idea of capping credit card interest rates at 10% has been floating around Washington for years, but it picked up serious momentum in 2025 when Senators Bernie Sanders and Josh Hawley introduced the 10 Percent Credit Card Interest Rate Cap Act.

By Adem Selita

Jan 12, 2026

What is a Stock Option?

Options have a strike price which is the price that the contract executes at. At this price you can either exercise your option or your right to buy or sell 100 shares of your stock at a given price. So, if you pay $100 for a call option with a strike price of $150 of ABC Company you can either buy the shares at $150 (per share x 100 = $15,000) or sell the stock option.

What Happens If I Stop Paying My Credit Cards?

By Adem Selita

Jan 09, 2026

What Happens If I Stop Paying My Credit Cards?

The short answer is that stopping credit card payments triggers a series of consequences that escalate over time. Late fees, penalty interest rates, collection calls, potential lawsuits, and damage to your credit score. The process is predictable, it follows a specific timeline, and at every stage of that timeline you have options.

The Minimum Payment Trap: Why Paying the Minimum Keeps You in Debt

By Adem Selita

Jan 08, 2026

The Minimum Payment Trap: Why Paying the Minimum Keeps ...

The minimum payment on a credit card is the smallest amount your issuer will accept each month to keep your account in good standing. Paying the minimum is one of the most expensive things you can do with credit card debt. It's designed to keep you current, not to get you out of debt.

By Adem Selita

Jan 07, 2026

How to Pay Off Credit Card Debt Faster?

Before any acceleration strategy makes sense, you need to understand the problem you're solving. At 24% APR, a $15,000 credit card balance with a 2% minimum payment ($300/month initial, declining as the balance drops) takes approximately 27 years to pay off.

By Adem Selita

Jan 05, 2026

How to Balance Credit

"Balancing credit" means maintaining a healthy relationship with credit — using it strategically without letting it become a liability — and it requires attention to multiple moving parts simultaneously: utilization ratios, payment timing, interest rates, credit mix, and the total amount you owe relative to your income.

By Adem Selita

Jan 02, 2026

What is an Universal Default?

Universal default in its original form — where issuers could retroactively raise your rates because of what happened with a completely different lender — is banned. That's a genuine win for consumers. But the spirit of universal default lives on through credit limit cuts, account closures, and rate increases on future balances that can still create the same snowball effect.

Should You Stop Paying Credit Card Debt and Stop Worrying About It?

By Adem Selita

Dec 31, 2025

Should You Stop Paying Credit Card Debt and Stop Worryi...

This is a question people are afraid to ask out loud, so let me say what most financial advice won't: sometimes, yes, stopping credit card payments is the right move. In the debt relief industry, stopping payments isn't a reckless act — it's often the deliberate first step in a structured resolution process.

Why is the Buy and Hold Strategy the Most Winningest Strategy in the Market?

By Adem Selita

Dec 30, 2025

Why is the Buy and Hold Strategy the Most Winningest St...

It’s the strategy that generates the most returns in the long term. Why? Because many investors tend to make emotional decisions in the short-term (selling at inopportune times, etc.) and over the long-term good companies generates good returns for investors.

By Adem Selita

Dec 29, 2025

What Causes Stocks to Go Up and Down?

Every buy order generates demand which lifts the price of a given stock while every sell order does the opposite putting pressure on the given price of a stock. Although there are other factors that come into play like the number of shares on the open market and things like short squeezes, volume, VWAPs, etc., for the most part price action is based on a mechanism of buying and selling.

What’s the Difference Between a Stock Market Correction and Bear Market?

By Adem Selita

Dec 29, 2025

What’s the Difference Between a Stock Market Correction...

Markets typically tend to turn the corner during periods of low expectations. When expectations are lofty and companies begin to miss their target this typically tends to be denoted as a period where corrections can begin to occur, especially if this is broad-based missing of expectations.

By Adem Selita

Dec 26, 2025

What is a Default Judgement?

A default judgment is what happens when someone sues you and you don't respond. The court doesn't hear your side, doesn't weigh the evidence, and doesn't consider whether you even owe the full amount claimed. It simply rules in the plaintiff's favor — automatically — because you weren't there to say otherwise.

By Adem Selita

Dec 26, 2025

Credit Tips for 2026

Like everything in life, moderation is key to finding a middle ground where growth can flourish. The same goes for checking your credit. You shouldn’t feel the need to obsess over your credit score and constantly be checking its fluctuations. It’s important to be mindful of what’s happening and why it’s happening but you shouldn't let credit volatility get you down. Stay positive and stay focused on the task at hand and the rest should work itself out.

By Adem Selita

Dec 24, 2025

What Does Optimal Credit Look Like?

"Good credit" is a vague target. A 700 score gets you approved for many things. A 760 score gets you better rates. An 800 score gets you the best rates. But what does the full credit profile look like at its best — across all the factors that go into the score — and what's the practical path from wherever you are now to that profile?

By Adem Selita

Dec 23, 2025

What is Financial Freedom?

Financial freedom, at its most useful, means this: your financial obligations don't dictate your choices in ways that cause sustained stress or foreclose meaningful options. It doesn't require a specific net worth. It doesn't require the ability to quit your job tomorrow.

By Adem Selita

Dec 22, 2025

What is a Recession?

A recession is broadly defined as a significant, widespread, and sustained decline in economic activity. The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) — the organization that officially declares recessions in the United States — defines it as a decline in economic activity that lasts more than a few months and is visible across multiple sectors of the economy.

By Adem Selita

Dec 19, 2025

What is Credit History?

Your credit history is the complete record of how you've borrowed and repaid money over your lifetime. It's the raw data behind your credit score — the full story, not just the headline number.

By Adem Selita

Dec 18, 2025

What is Permissible Purpose?

Permissible purpose is the legal standard that determines who can access your credit report and under what circumstances. It comes from the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), and it exists to prevent random people, businesses, or entities from pulling your financial data without a legitimate reason.

By Adem Selita

Dec 18, 2025

What is a Credit Score?

Your credit score is a three-digit number — typically between 300 and 850 — that represents how likely you are to repay borrowed money based on your credit history. It's calculated by mathematical models that analyze the data in your credit reports from the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion).

By Adem Selita

Dec 17, 2025

What is a Credit Bureau?

A credit bureau is an agency that collects and stores consumer credit information. This information is typically sold for a fee to creditors so that they may determine a consumer’s credit worthiness and use the information to make decisions regarding approval of loans and other credit related activities.

By Adem Selita

Dec 16, 2025

What is a Debt Default?

A debt default happens when you fail to meet the repayment terms agreed upon with your creditor. For credit cards, that typically means missing payments for 180 consecutive days, at which point the issuer "charges off" the account — an accounting term that means they've written it off as a loss.

By Adem Selita

Dec 16, 2025

What is a Charge Off?

A charge-off is an accounting move by your creditor. When you stop making payments — typically for 120 to 180 days — the credit card company is required by federal banking regulations to reclassify your account as a loss on their books. That's the "charge-off."

By Adem Selita

Dec 15, 2025

What is a Credit Inquiry?

Every time someone asks to look at your credit, an inquiry gets recorded. But not all inquiries are created equal, and the confusion between the two types — hard and soft — causes people to make unnecessary mistakes.

By Adem Selita

Dec 15, 2025

What is a Late Payment?

Not all late payments hit your credit equally. Every 30-day late increment adds damage, but the jump from current to 30-days-late is by far the most destructive. Everything after that is managing a worsening situation, not preventing the initial hit.

By Adem Selita

Dec 12, 2025

What are Earnings Per Share?

For example, if you have Company ABC Holdings, and they have issued common stock and the company earned $40,000,000 throughout the year. If the company has 10 million shares outstanding, for every share in the market, the company brought in $4 in Fiscal year 2025 (for example). So, they brought in $40 million dollars and with 10 million shares outstanding EPS is $4 for 2025.

By Adem Selita

Dec 12, 2025

What is Financial Inequality?

Financial inequality has been around probably since money was invented and inequality is normal in many ways, things never even out perfectly—no matter how hard you try.

By Adem Selita

Dec 12, 2025

What is an Auto Loan?

Auto loans are secured to the automobile upon purchase. This way lenders are afforded opportunities to recoup a loss with the property if the borrower is unable to pay. Habitual failure to make payments can lead to forfeit of the property and repossession of the automobile.

By Adem Selita

Dec 11, 2025

Credit Tips for Homebuying

For most people, buying a home is the largest financial decision they'll ever make. And credit — your score, your report history, your utilization, your debt load — is one of the most heavily weighted factors in whether that purchase happens at all, and at what cost.

Is Ethical Banking Achievable on a Large Scale?

By Adem Selita

Dec 11, 2025

Is Ethical Banking Achievable on a Large Scale?

In this system the object of any business is always to achieve profit maximization, due to this, interests aren’t aligned with ethical banking practices by default. However, the trend appears to be heading in the right direction as banks continue to shift and adapt.

By Adem Selita

Dec 10, 2025

Investing Mistakes to Avoid in 2026

Consumers most often get into trouble when they overthink their strategy and don’t practice patient investing. This can really be detrimental in the long term and can lead to less than stellar returns. Great investments are made with patience in mind and great investors are those that keep patient, like the famous Warren Buffet.