Dedicate some time to reading credit notices
With new rules making a major change in the whole credit market, there is some good news for consumers as a whole. The secret behind credit scores and how the decision making goes on will be revealed. However, not much good is going to come out if it if customers don’t take some time out to read their credit notices. There will be extra notices and paperwork, but for a change, they will be worth reading. Federal rules that have come into effect since the beginning of this year have mandated lenders to provide more details about the credit record of the consumers, so that the customers understand the reasoning behind them getting less attractive features compared to some of the other customers in the credit market. In fact, for the first time customers can actually see what leads to the lenders approving cards for some and rejecting it for others.
Knowing more about your credit scores can actually take you a long way when it comes to savings. W
Foreclosure – Maybe Not-So-Bad 4 Kids, Says Indiana Lawyer for Bankruptcy
A good part of my time as a lawyer for bankruptcy in Indiana is spent in efforts to help stop foreclosure. In offering bankruptcy services in Indiana I see many sets of parents – and many single moms. As a dad myself, I’m particularly sympathetic to both moms and dads trying to cope with financial problems and do the best for their kids. So, for all these reasons, I’m interested in research on how kids are affected by foreclosure and by bankruptcy.
Last fall, one of the Columbus bankruptcy lawyers who works in the Zuckerberg bankruptcy law offices there brought in an article she’dfound in MarketWatch.com, quoting a Federal Reserve officer saying that “Children could be prevented from realizing their potential in school, and, eventually, the labor force as consequences from the problem of home foreclosures.”
Then, just recently, in the course of my own reading to find important Indiana bankruptcy information to share with my Bankruptcy in Indiana readers, I learned that an Indiana University researcher has teamed up with three other universities in a study that will look at “why children’s grades often suffer when their families lose their homes to foreclosure. I.U. assis
Sharpen your pencils
I’ll be the first to admit, math is not my strong suit. Despite having a Tiger Mom and having taken years of Kumon I still have to reach for the calculator whenever I do math.
If you are mathematically challenged like me, you probably have no idea what your monthly payment is on a $10,000 credit card debt repaid over 5 year at 10% interest. How about 20%? 30%?
You may be surprised to learn that you would repay almost DOUBLE the amount you borrowed over 5 years at 30% interest.
Here’s the break down: Loan amount: $10,000 Repayment: 5 years
Interest rate/ Monthly payment/ Total amount repaid 10% $212.47 $12,748.23 20% $264.94 $15,896.33 30% $323.53 $19,412.04
To put these numbers into perspective, if you were to repay the same $323.53 at 5% interest, you would have repaid the ENTIRE loan after 34 months (that’s 2 years and 10 months). In another words, you would be done with debt 2 years and 2 months sooner just by a reduction in the interest rate.
This is the reason why credit card debt is so to toxic. You en
Document Your Receipts
Its the last week to file your taxes if you are going to make the April 18 deadline for the year 2011. And while many who were expecting a huge refund may have completed this onerous task clear back in January or early February, those of us who know that they will end up paying typically put it off till around the last minute. That turned out to be last Friday for me.
“Document your receipts” was the advice I received from my tax man. Being self-employed I need to and can take deductions for everything from my home office to paying my children for doing work for my business. And so I try to keep very thorough records and document every receipt for every ream of paper, the utilities for my home office and more.
But I could learn a few things from this guy. He is billed here as “The Most Tax Efficient Man in America”. It sounds as if he painstakingly documents every possible legal deduction and enjoys every minute of it.
And I admire him for it. I say “
Major credit bureaus, supports employers’ use of credit reports
TransUnion, one of the three major credit-reporting agencies, is making efforts to protect the use of credit reports by employers in their employment screening process. According to reports, this is in response to the counting number of states threatening to eliminate the said practice.
Legislators in Illinois said that TransUnion attempted not just once but twice to initiate dialogue regarding the then proposed Employee Credit Private Act, and the said dialogues would have made the law worthless.
According to a partner at Outten and Golden LLP, attorney Adam Klein, the use of credit reports as a screening tool will just make lesser opportunity to more people leaving poor people poorer. He stressed that the economy will not benefit in any ways in this practice and that the only ones gaining from this particular scenario are the credit reporting bureaus.
Credit reporting agencies, better known as credit bureaus, collect information from different furnishers, which can be a credit card company or other financial institutions.
My Personal Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Story
I had become depressed after all I was getting ready to turn 33 and at that point in my life; I should have all my financial circumstances in place. No one should be trying to decide whether or not they should have to file bankruptcy or have to begin looking for an alternative to filing.
It all began when I was trying to better my life and started a business. I had no previous business experience; however I thought I could make it happen. I did not want the distraction of my day job; so I gave them two weeks notice. I believed that I could make my business take off. Well long story short; the business failed and I had to get a part time job. However the part time job that I got did not pay anywhere near to the amount that my regular day job used to pay. Therefore I did not make enough money to pay my monthly payments. I took out my 401k to try to prevent from filing; that ran out and I had no other option.
I felt depressed and worthless after all no one wants to be faced with “what are the neighbors going to think?” What about my family? How