PRINTABLE: Message from the publisher 1/12/05 (cable)

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In the "Letter from the publisher" section, I have, in the past, created a video message instead of a written letter. However, the majority of readers prefer the text as well so, I'm trying to combine the text and video to deliver as much information as possible in a manner that everyone likes.

All text, and associated links, are contained below on this web page. Also, if you could, after the video, please click on the "article survey link" to let me know what you think about this new format--thanks!

At the end of last year, SmartMoney.com ran a detailed interview with me titled The Credit King. In this interview I talked about a few advanced credit card and debt management techniques so I would recommend that check out the article. The link is on this page.

Last email newsletter I started to promote, what I consider to be, the best information package that shows how to handle debt collectors. It's by Gerri Debtweiler and is titled Stop Debt Collectors Cold. You can find out more about it in this email newsletter as well. Funny thing is, just last week, I received a letter from a debt collector. My first debt-collector letter ever!

The debt is totally bogus. The debt collection agency claims that I owe some company in Massachusetts $87. I've never heard of the place and the phone number they gave me for that company was no good. In fact, there is no listing of the company in the yellow pages or online. This is definitely some kind of scam. I sent a dispute letter via certified mail so we'll see what happens when they attempt to verify the debt--I'll keep you posted.

Well, this issue of the email newsletter contains three new articles. One by me about how banks apply payments in their favor--gee, that's a shocker, you mean they don't apply them in our favor.

Gary Foreman, Financial Planner, answers a reader question about Bankruptcy. And lemon-law attorney Craig Kimmel shares his lemon list.

Oh, by the way, don't forget to give the Household Math question a try. That's all for this message from the publisher.

Please let me know what you thought of it by clicking on the article survey link. As always, I wish you the very best! Thanks again for reading the DebtSmart Email Newsletter!