Financial News Features

"This is definitely a win for consumers,” Dvorkin said. "Consumers need a win right now with crazy prices and things going on in the economy.”

“The internet is a great tool to find information — the problem is most people don’t know how to use the tool correctly when it comes to financial advice,” said Howard Dvorkin, CPA and chairman of Debt.com. “CPAs like me talk all the time about listening to financial advice from experts with your best interests in mind — not their own — and if you don’t know what red flags to look out for, you may end up taking advice that will end up costing you.”

If you owe a significant amount of money on your credit card, your minimum payment will likely be around 2-3% of your balance, Debt.com resident expert and certified public accountant Howard Dvorkin told CNET. However, it could also be as low as 1%.

I’ve counseled too many people who bought more house than they could afford because they justified it as an “investment in our future.” Yet, they won’t have much of a financial future if they fall behind on their mortgage, their credit score tanks and they’re fiscally paralyzed because every dollar is going toward this “good debt.”

Howard Dvorkin, personal finance expert and chairman of Debt.com, says creditors don’t necessarily care that you’re feeling bad, but they do want to know the basics of what happened and a general timeline for resolution. “Never just run away,” says Dvorkin. “You can say, ‘I’ve been very seriously ill and can’t make my payments.’ ’They may be willing to work with you. If you have a doctor’s note, even better.”

But here’s the thing, it’s entirely possible that we’re already in a recession, and just don’t know it yet, according to Howard Dvorkin, CPA and Chairman of Debt.com. Economists define a recession as two consecutive quarters of negative growth – which means production drops and unemployment rises. There’s a problem baked into that definition: You can’t know for sure if you’re in a recession for almost six months,” says Dvorkin. “We can read the tea leaves and make educated guesses, but we can’t confirm those until two quarters are nearly over. By then, of course, it’s too late to prepare.”