hey, there. i'm virginia cha. the space shuttle "endeavour" is set to launch from kennedy space center just over 3 1/2 hours from now. yesterday's liftoff was pushed back sona is a could check for any lightning damage from the storm on friday. "endeavour" will bring the final component of japan's kibo science lab to the international space station. florida police are questioning two people connection of the murder of a couple known for adopti ining special-needs children. police are still looking for a third person to question. california lawmakers are working through the weekend to solve the state's massive budget mess. governor arnold schwarzenegger and state leaders say they're close to a breakthrough. talks center mostly on cutting

educational costs as well as social programs. i'm virginia cha. stay tuned. "your bottom line" with gerri willis star starts right now. hello. this is "your bottom line" the show that saves you money. be debt free. we'll tell you how to manage your credit card debt. fighting fraud. how to spot the warning signs and protect yourself from a scam. and fool-proofing your resume. tips and tricks to stand out from the crowd. "your bottom line" starts right now. we begin with the very latest on the troubles many of us are having when it comes to paying our bills. delinquencies on consumer debt, auto loans, credit cards, and home equity loans rose to a record level in the first quarter of 2009, up slightly from the previous quarter. now, that according to the american bankers association. even worse, the percentage of borrowers at least 30 days late

paying a balance is the highest since the group began keeping records way back in 1974. despite government efforts to get banks to lend more card issuers are lending less. in the first four months of the year banks issued 9.8 million new credit cards, nearly a 40% drop from the same time last year according to equifax credit bureau data. low-risk borrowers can still get credit but less than before. the average limit on a new card slipped this year to $4,594. now, managing your credit card debt may seem impossible, but you can do it by creating a plan and sticking to it. michelle jones is the senior vice president of counseling at the consumer credit counseling service of greater atlanta. michelle, great to see you. >> thanks. good to see you again, as well. >> let's get right to it. how do i handle this credit card debt? for the typical credit card holder it's over $10,000, and now the credit card issuers are

making it so much harder on me. how do i pay that down? >> well, there are several things you can do, jerri. one is if you have several credit cards, which most americans do, and you want to start paying those off, the first thing you want to do is look at how you can snowball those payments. by "snowball" what i mean is you take any extra money you have available and you put it towards one of your credit cards and just make the minimum payment on the other ones. >> how do i pick that card? a lot of people say you pick the card with the highest interest rate, but you actually have different advice here. >> you know, that is one reasonable way to pay down your debt, is to look at the one with the highest interest rate. but another thing that some people prefer to do is start making payments on the lowest balance card first, and the reason for that is that you get a real psychological lift when you pay off those debts. you can say okay, i had six credit cards. now i'm down to five. and you can really make fast progress that way. that's a good way to stay motivated. >> right. that's interesting. there is a great feeling when you get one of those paid off completely. really makes you want to go and pay off the other one. let's talk about debt

consolidation. a lot of people think about doing this. is it good news? is it bad news for people who have a lot of debt? >> you know, it really depends. you want to look at those offers carefully. if you have one credit card with a very high interest rate, it may very well make sense for you to transfer that to a lower rate card. you have to be aware that some credit issuers are charging higher fees now for those balance transfers. >> that's right. >> you want to be sure and do the math. that can take the bite out of it. >> right. i love that. okay. we had credit card reform. remember that? you know, the president signed off on that way back at the end of may and i thought life was going to get better but, clearly, the numbers are getting worse. it's obvious people are making mistakes with these credit cards. what are the biggest ones? >> well, the biggest ones are failing to stay current on your payments. i mean, that's when your interest rates can really go up and you can start to see extra fees. and we've seen some credit card companies that are lowering your available credit balance so that when you start -- you may go over the limit without realizing it. >> right. and that's always a disaster.

let's talk just a little bit here about the idea that credit card debt, guess what, is what they call unsecured debt. that means nobody's coming after your house, nobody's coming after your car if you fail to make a payment. knowing that, what advice would you give to consumers, michelle? >> well, i would say absolutely if you're considering consolidating your debt the way not to do that is to attach it to your house. so, do not take out a home equity line of credit or something like that where it would attach your credit card debt to your house. as you said, it's unsecured debt, there is no physical property they can take from you if you get behind on those payments. however, you turn that into a line of credit on your house and you've just put your home at risk for credit card debt. >> that is great advice, michelle. thank you for that. >> you're welcome. thank you. one of the few businesses that's flourishing during the recession is the foreclosure rescue industry. companies charging a fee for preparing loan modification documents say they're out to help consumers save their homes, but housing counselors say

that's not a promise you can take to the bank. >> we are writing this letter directly to you to explain our family's unfortunate set of circumstances. >> arroyo is asking for a mortgage modification. he's not alone. realtytrac predicts 4 million foreclosure filings this year. arroyo doesn't want to be one of them. enter chris mazillo, the brains behind a timely internet startup in phoenix called e-modify my loan dot-com. yes, that mazillo. he's the nephew of angelo mazillo of countrywide, the company that helped trigger the mortgage meltdown that forced millions into foreclosure. this mazillo says he wants to help victims of that debacle. >> it was a terrible business mistake the entire industry made and certainly he was in the center of that being ceo of the largest of the mortgage companies. >> his site walks homeowners through the modification process. it charges $97 to do that.

>> what we're trying to do is put those tools in the hands of the homeowner so they don't have to pay thousands of dollars for a loan modification. >> you do not need to pay for someone to help you facilitate a loan modification or a short sale. there are over 1,700 hud-approved housing counseling agencies. >> yet loan modification companies are thriving. even mozilo agrees his line of business needs a watchdog. >> it is ripe for fraud. there have been people arrested and taken to jail because they are taking advantage of people. >> arroyo, who found a free counseling service, says you don't get what you pay for. >> if someone is looking to modify their loan, i strongly recommend them not to pay a single penny. >> the arizona attorney general's office says it has already received a hundred complaints about the so-called foreclosure rescue industry this year and that it is the fastest growing scam in the state. and just last month new york attorney general andrew cuomo

subpoenaed information from 14 loan modification companies as part of a nationwide investigation. the ftc's bureau of consumer protection is out with a new fraud warning video. listen to what one former telemarketer himself convicted of fraud had to say. >> you never saw me in your life. you saw a commercial on tv. you got on the phone with me and spoke to me for ten seconds. i gave you some names to call and things to look up and you called me back three days later and you wrote me a check for $50,000. does that sound a little screwed up? >> up next, we'll tell you the warning signs and how you can protect yourself from getting ripped off.

just last week we had a story of an 86-year-old woman who lost her life savings to telemarketing fraud. lois morrow of georgia was defrauded of about $200,000. >> they called me and told me i had won a certain amount of money and different ways for me to acquire it. i would have to send money. i just kept thinking, when i talk to people, i believe what people tell me. >> so sad. well, lois, like many victims of fraud, says she feels pathetic and embarrassed. but she said she wants others to hear her story so they don't get taken advantage of. so, just how does this sort of thing happen and why? well, according to the ftc, scams are on the rise due to the troubled economy. take a listen to their new

public service announcement and just how much money one former fraudster used to pull in. >> i think the catalyst is money. in my best month i made $50,000. >> in 2005, jim vitale was convicted for his role in a business opportunity scam. >> there was ridiculous money being made. you could take down $20 million in eight months. >> he sold the american dream, the dream of being your own boss. >> it's basically learning how to listen and manipulate people. once you understand the dynamics of what you're trying to do, which is separate them from their money, that's it. >> let's get you armed to protect yourself and avoid these scams. karen hobbs is an attorney for the federal trade commission and joins us now from washington. i just get angry listening to that. i mean, these are people out to rip you off. with these business opportunity scams what are the red flags? there are legitimate opportunities out there. how do you find the fake ones? >> look. the tell-tale warning sign of a

business opportunity fraud is a guaranteed earnings claim or a guaranteed success claim. there are also other signs, which is the money-back guarantee. look, if you fail at a business, no one is going to give you your money back. that's another tell-tale sign. the other thing these scammers like to do is to make you hurry up with your decision. they don't want you to do your due diligence. >> right. all right. stay at home. you're guaranteed to make money. all of that means you're in big trouble if you get involved. of course there are documents that these people should give you if you're signing up. what are those documents and what am i looking for, karen? >> that's right. for a business opportunity, you're supposed to receive a disclosure form. and that has a lot of very good information in it. in particular, the history of the principles of the company. they need to tell you if they've ever been sued before. if they've been sued for fraud, in particular by the federal trade commission or other agencies.

and they should also give you a list of references that you can call and ask them about their experiences. they also need to give you a very extensive list of prior purchasers. >> well, karen, you talk about people who are references. in this particular fraud people did get references but they were fake. how far do you go in checking out the references? >> you need to go as far as you can. you need to meet people in person. you need to open their books and take a look, and if they're asking you for money up front you really need to do your home work first. >> all right. so i need to see those references, see their results on paper. one of the problems is these people try to rush you through the process. if you don't sign up today, karen, we'll move on to somebody else. is that a red flag? >> that's a huge red flag. if you're going to be investing $20,000 in a business and upwards you need to take your time and these folks should give you that time. this is a huge investment. >> and i should be getting some earnings numbers as well, right?

i mean, those documents that are disclosure documents should show me real results. >> look, if someone is making an earnings claim, they need to give you documentation that substantiates that earnings claim. if they say you can make a hundred thousand dollars a year with this business opportunity or i've made a hundred thousand dollars a year in this business opportunity, they need to give you the proof. >> and, of course, this isn't the only kind of fraud out there that people are encountering. there's these phony government grant frauds. i hear about this all the time. you've really got to be careful when you're picking up the telephone. >> absolutely. if someone is calling you on the phone and they are asking you for money up front for anything, you should be very, very skeptical. do your due diligence. >> do your due diligence and be careful. the fellow told us, fast nos and slow yess, the way to vet those projects. karen hobbs, thank you so much. >> you're welcome.

your resume is a great way to make a first great impression on a potential employer.

as the unemployment rate climbs and companies continue to

cut costs, workers are feeling lucky just to have a job even if it's one they don't like. this survey found more than half of workers with a job are planning to look for a new one as soon as the economy turns around. with even unhappy workers staying put, the job market is tougher than ever. in may there were nearly six unemployed workers for every available job. so, if you've been sending out your resume left and right and the offers are few and few between it might not be you. it could be your resume. our next guest says there are boilerplate resume phrases that can be killing your chances of getting that interview. liz ryan is a workplace expert in denver. liz, i want to talk about some of these phrases that you say are boilerplate. i think they're phrases we've all been using for a long time, like "team player." you name it. i think we use them all. what are those phrases, and why shouldn't you use them? >> well, you know, jerri, some of them we're so trained for us to use we don't think about

them. team player is a great example. bottom line orientations. strong work ethic. the trouble with these phrases is they don't carry any weight for us in a job search. >> what do you mean? they describe what i want to be. >> right. >> i want to be a team player. i want to have work ethic. i want to prove that to the employer, so why wouldn't i put it on my resume? >> great question. because they don't prove a thing. actually, what those boilerplate phrases are, jerri, are empty boasts. what we should be using that precious real estate on a resume for is to prove that we're a team player, to tell a little story about our work ethic to show that we have a bottom line orientation instead of just claiming that which anybody could put on their resume and they do. >> i think people got in the habit of using these phrases over and over again and it became a shorthand if you will. >> exactly. >> of course now a lot of people use those phrases because they feel like that's what they expect the employer expects to hear. they're pulling out phrases from

ads for these jobs and they know that there are computers looking at these resumes, and they want to be sure they're using the >> the reason the companies use that corporate speak language is because they've drawn it from hundreds of job descriptions, job ads they've written before. they don't have a way to ask us about what we've done specifically that gets to the heart of what they're looking for, but we have the benefit of our background and our experience, and we need to use that and bring more of ourselves, concrete, specific accomplishments, into the resume. kill the boiler plate. it's dead. it doesn't help us. >> but that long description, that's going to take me past a single one-page resume which so many recommend. >> you don't need a long description. two pages is perfectly fine for a person in the workforce seven

to ten years, two pages is standard. you don't need a long description. a resume exercise is a word exercise and i sit on thesaurus.com and find stronger words. better words. more human words to describe what we've done. >> liz, this is important. a lot of people out there, they're getting older, have been in the workplace a long time and have tons of experience, and because they feel like this you know, employer, trying to steer away from people in their age group, they're taking out words like manager. taking out words that show they're experience is that the right thing to do? >> it depends. the most important thing, gerri, is to be relevant to the job description. what people do is send out the same resume, the same cover letter for every job. that does not help us. we have to really read that job ad and make sure we're speaking of the accomplishments in our background that are the most relevant. if it's a manager job we'll talk about management. if it's not, maybe we don't need to emphasize the management in our background because that could obviously mark us as overqualified. >> thanks for your help. we really appreciate it. we love our pets.

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