Business

Saxton Associates Poor Review: Credit Card Consolidation

Published

6 years ago

May 11, 2020

Matthew Wiles

Saxton Associates and Credit 9 has been flooding the market with credit card consolidation offers.

Should you respond to Saxton Associates or Credit 9 and trust them with your debt consolidation process?

If you have been thinking about it and you just received a “too good to be true” loan offer in the mail from Saxton Associates or Credit 9 – follow your instincts. Do you really think you qualify for a 3.99% interest rate? Do you really think that reservation code is especially for you?

Credit card consolidation can help you in a number of ways to eventually pay off your entire debt. It can provide you with many benefits, such as reduced overall interest rate, lower monthly payments and simplified payments.

Credit card consolidation combines all of your credit card balances into one grand total. Thus, you have to make one payment each month rather than multiple payments. The right credit card consolidation option payment entails smaller interest expenses, which, in turn, makes debt repayment much easier.

Here are the 5 best credit card consolidation options that you can consider to pay off your credit card balances:

Credit Counseling

Working with a non-profit credit counseling firm is one of the best means of credit card consolidation. These firms first analyze your unique financial scenario and then suggest a plan that will help you to overcome your financial problems. Non-profit credit counseling firms can serve you in a number of ways. They can help you with budgeting, spending habits, debt management and money management.

However, before committing yourself to any credit counseling firm, you must do your research to ensure that it is a reputable organization.

The credit counseling firm will negotiate with your creditors so that you gain concessions to help you pay off debt. All of your credit card balances will be combined into a single amount so that you have to make a single monthly payment. You will make the payment to the credit counseling firm, which will then pay your creditors. Credit counseling firms negotiate with creditors to lower your interest rate, reduce the debt amount, waive fees or gain any other concession.

You may have to pay fees for some credit counseling services. You may also have to agree to certain terms, such as not applying for a new line of credit or using the credit cards that you currently hold.

Personal Loan for Credit Card Consolidation

Personal loans are another means of credit card consolidation. You can take out a personal loan to pay off all your credit card balances. When all your credit card balances are settled, you will need to make only one monthly payment to the creditor that extended the personal loan. This will simplify payments and save you time and effort. A good choice of personal loan may also imply a reduced interest rate.

If you have good credit, your chances of getting lower interest rates on a personal loan may increase. The advantage of personal loans is that many different kinds are available to borrowers. Each one of them has their specific terms and conditions. You can select a personal loan with terms and conditions that can help you with debt management. There are also lenders that submit funds directly to credit card companies to minimize the chance that the loan amount will be used for any other purpose. A prequalification option is also available with many lenders. You can take advantage of this to search for options without bringing down your credit score. This might be a good credit card consolidation option for you.

The biggest drawback to personal loans is that you will have to meet the lender’s criteria in order to qualify. If you have a low credit score, then you may not be able to get an interest rate that is substantially lower than your credit cards. You will also have to watch out for origination fees, which add to the cost of paying back debt. You may have to pay hundreds of dollars as origination fees with some lenders.

Balance Transfer Credit Card for Credit Card Consolidation

With the help of a balance transfer credit card, you can transfer all of your credit card balances into your new account. Most balance transfer credit cards carry a zero percent introductory APR that extends into several months. This zero APR time frame can give you the opportunity to pay back your credit card debt without incurring any interest. Debt payment will be much easier without accumulating interest, making this a viable credit card consolidation option.

However, to take full advantage of balance transfer credit cards, you must pay back the entire debt within the zero APR time period. Otherwise, you will have to pay interest on the balance transfers and the plan will backfire.

One key point to look out for is the balance transfer fee. Some cards impose balance transfer fees that increase the burden of debt payment. You cannot transfer an amount greater than your credit limit.

Take Help from Friends and Family for Credit Card Consolidation

You can also think about getting money from your friends or family members if that is possible. However, before obtaining funds this way, make sure that you work out the details of repayment terms so that there is no dispute later on about payments.

The biggest advantage of this credit card consolidation method is that you do not have to meet the eligibility criteria to qualify, as is the case with financial firms. The interest rate may also be likely lower.

One major drawback is that it can possibly strain your relationship if you fail to pay back on time.

Home Equity Loan for Credit Card Consolidation

Before going any further into the details, you should know that this is the riskiest method since you can possibly lose your home. Thus, you should think about it only if you have exhausted all options and are certain that you have the means of paying back the loan in time.

You can take out a home equity loan with your home as collateral. That is, your home equity serves as a security for the loan. There are two advantages to this. First, you are putting your home equity to use. Second, since this is a secured loan, the interest rate may be lower than your credit cards, which are unsecured loans. The lower interest rate may be a big boon for debt repayment.

The major disadvantage of this credit card consolidation method is that if you are not responsible enough, then you could end up losing your home. Defaulting on repayments will give your creditor the right to press for a foreclosure on your home to regain the amount that you owe.

Business

Ipsos Helps Brands Understand How They Get Customer Experience Wrong & Why It’s Costing Them Millions

Published

4 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Matthew Wiles

For brands looking to succeed in the modern business ecosystem, the customer experience (CX) is not something companies can afford to ignore. CX is a direct driver of revenue, loyalty, and growth for organizations.

Ipsos, one of the world’s leading market research firms, helps brands understand that failing to focus on the customer experience can lead to lost sales, which in turn can translate to not only millions in lost revenue but also lost trust and credibility in the market.

How brands still get CX wrong

“The customer decision and desire to do business with brands directly affect the bottom line,” says Brad Christian, Chief Commercial Officer at Ipsos – Experience Practice.

Customer experience may sound like a simple concept, but many brands still get it wrong. CX goes beyond surveys and feedback. Leaders who fail to connect feedback in a meaningful way to goals such as retention, repeat visits or purchases, advocacy, and operational performance fail to deliver on their service promises. The emotional and functional disconnect can spell trouble for brands. The most polished advertising campaigns cannot make up for a frustrating customer interaction or a promise that a business cannot fulfill.

According to Ipsos’s internal research, many customers today see service as too automated and impersonal. More than half report that their experience is worse than promised.

These findings don’t just result in disappointed buyers. They result in lost customers, negative feedback, and a long-term impact on the business as a whole.

“Brands have to manage the entire customer experience across each and every touchpoint,” explains Christian.

Poor CX can be expensive

Executives can often underestimate how expensive a history of poor CX can be. Global losses can reach into the billions while leaders wonder what went wrong. In an age of rapid social media communication, a single negative interaction can spell disaster for a company, leading to reduced customer spending or the entire loss of its most loyal customers.

Those losses are not just reflected in lost revenue, however. Customer acquisition and marketing dollars can also be lost as companies continue to spend money trying to retain their customer base, often skipping right over the experience part of retention.

Poor customer experience can be a deep operating problem that creates a domino effect, decimating businesses from the inside out. These poor experiences can impact not only present and future customer acquisition but also business leaders and employees.

CX matters more in today’s business landscape

The customer experience has always mattered, but it may matter more to brands trying to make it in a modern, ultra-competitive, digitally-driven business landscape. Good experiences encourage repeat purchases, boost loyalty, and increase the likelihood that customers will go online and recommend a brand to others.

“Customer experience isn’t an isolated function,” says Christian. “It’s ‌part of a larger system that ensures that brands measure and manage customer experience data and then act on that data to drive action where customer experience gaps exist.”

Brands also have to seek to understand today’s customers, who expect experiences that are seamless, authentic, and relevant. As more and more companies hop on the automation train, they will want to reassure their customers that the human element that many people consider important still exists.

At Ipsos, six drivers of strong customer relationships form the bedrock of the company’s CX platform, something that they refer to as the “Forces of CX”: certainty, fair treatment, control, status, belonging, and enjoyment.

Customers want to feel that if they have an issue with a brand, it will be handled and that their concerns will be understood. They don’t want the customer experience to feel like a battleground; they want it to feel fair and human.

“Customer experience isn’t just a nicer experience,” says Christian. “It ties directly to specific financial outcomes, whether that be increased sales, greater market share, or stronger brand loyalty.”

How Ipsos helps businesses deliver customer experiences that matter

Ipsos turns customer feedback into reliable, actionable, decision-ready information. The company goes beyond simple satisfaction metrics and implements voice-of-the-customer programs, journey analytics, relationship feedback, and quality research.

“Brands don’t just need data,” Christian says. “They need measurements as to how they are delivering on their brand promise and predictive modeling to tie financial performance measures to those measures to help them determine where to invest to maximize the customer experience and understand what financial impact those investments might deliver for the business.”

Ipsos measures the interactions that matter ‌most and shows brands how each interaction can affect retention, share of spend, and efficiency. For brands that are trying to reduce the guesswork behind CX, Ipsos helps them move beyond cosmetic fixes to achieve real, meaningful change.

Customer expectations can shift on a dime, influenced by society, social media, and even changing trends. Ipsos helps brands meet those rapidly changing customer expectations with hard evidence and comprehensive metrics.

Today’s brands need to understand how to get the customer experience right. Ipsos has the insights needed to drive home the deep importance of CX in today’s marketplace.