Research recently collected by RealtyTrac Year-End 2009 Foreclosure Market Report indicates that 3,957,643 foreclosure filings were reported on 2,824,674 United States properties in 2009. Included in this research was scheduled foreclosure auctions, default notices and bank repossessions.

Your credit history. It could be your best friend, or your worst enemy. Most of the time it’s like a nosy mother in law coming to visit. You know that she’s coming, and that’s always bad news, but you are too afraid to ask or even consider how long she will be staying. Even though that was the worst analogy ever, read on to see how long negative marks stay on your credit history!

The fact of the matter is, the more time that passes between the time the payment was unpaid and the time the customer is contacted, the less likely you are to be given any sort of payment. If you’re serious about making a profit, there are three ways to handle collection on past debt; in house efforts, hiring a collection agency, or taking legal action.

Last article I discussed the amount of time that negative marks will appear on your credit score. Those ones weren’t so bad. Late Credit Card payments are way more dismal.

Credit card issuer Capital One Bank and four other companies were taken to court by West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw for underhanded and unfair practices and unethical business conduct. The complaint was filed this week in West Virginia’s Circuit Court and it alleges that Capital One hooked consumers into repayment plans by mailing out solicitations disguised as new credit offers.