5. When considering using credit enhancements to improve your transactions, use these guidelines: try to get a fair and objective assessment of your credit profile and inherent transaction risks from a knowledgeable credit person; take inventory of possible credit enhancements your firm can provide; evaluate cost of possible enhancements to decide whether using them will be worthwhile; if there is time and opportunity for a second chance to present your transaction to credit provider, present it first without credit enhancement or with minimum enhancement you think acceptable; of credit enhancements available to your firm, decide which ones will be effective and degree of enhancement necessary to achieve your objectives.

6. It helps to develop a credit enhancement strategy in planning stage of your transaction. Start by understanding transaction’s credit strengths and weaknesses. Decide which enhancements available to your firm will help strengthen risk profile of transaction. Try to assess credit provider’s sensitivity to various types and degrees of credit enhancement. Later, if credit provider turns down your transaction or proposes unacceptable terms, ask provider to suggest enhancements that will make a difference in decision. You may be able to negotiate further, once you have this information.

7. All credit enhancements have a cost. In many instances cost is opportunity cost of not having credit enhancement available for future use. Before offering or providing a credit enhancement, do a thorough cost-benefit analysis to make sure potential benefit is worth cost to your firm.

Though it is not always possible to enhance a credit to satisfaction of credit providers, you should understand value of credit enhancements and know when they may be useful. By carefully considering potential credit enhancements, you can often improve pricing and terms of your firm’s credit transactions. If your firm has a weak credit profile, use of a credit enhancement might make difference between obtaining financing or being rejected.

Opportunity knocking A lump sum of money can mean taking advantage of time sensitive opportunities. A home, a business, schooling, investments, made possible by cashing in a schedule of smaller payments spread out over time. It’s not always best choice, but sometimes it is right choice. Unforeseen circumstances lead to unexpected opportunities that with right resources could reap exceptional dividends.

After discussing 3 ways to win by cashing in future installment payments, it is proper to touch on a few ways you might lose by cashing out. No more regular payments, no more guaranteed payments, burden of properly handling a large lump sum of cash, and procedure for accelerating your payments are all considerable reasons to not cash out. When it comes to matters of money, what you do matters. You can cash in by cashing out, just take care that you don’t end up cashless.