Financial Services

Has anyone noticed how much of a’ spend now pay later’ culture our society has become? Everything in our current society pushes as to spend. Glamorous advertisements, enticing sales, special promotions, and even reward credit cards. How can we say no to that ‘to-die-for’ pair of shoes that is now 20% off or that new PS3 that’s coming with every Sony television? We don’t even need to have money in our bank accounts! We can just pay on the credit card (get some reward points while we’re at it) and we can pay it off when we have the money. Simple, right? Wrong.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics the average family with a credit card debt owes $3,433 compared to the $580 owed by each household in 1998-1999. The more alarming thing is that these figures are growing. This is not surprising considering the ‘credit’ on the card often seen as actual cash just waiting to be spent. To add, the credit card reward programs are leading people to spend more than they should for extra points. Small wonder than bankruptcy rates are rising. Bankruptcy does c

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This personal bankruptcy story was posted on the internet in July of 2010 as a comment in a discussion on bankruptcy: “The reason I choose chapter 13 is because I was told by my attorney that after 3 years I would be able to walk away from my secured (2nd) and unsecured debt. I took a slow spiral down after divorce and was living beyond my means. I did hold a second job for several years just to keep my head above water. I am now in a situation where I am making minimum payments and have pondered over this for months and months calling mortgage modifications, debt counselors, etc. During the first of the year, the interest rates on cards sky rocketed and I was sinking in this deep dark hole. I think about my situation and I have done some homework on chapter 13 and 7 and for me I know its not without consequences but at least I will be able to sleep at nite. I made this ugly situation for myself, and now I will have to face the music in the next couple of months. I

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This personal bankruptcy story was posted on the internet in October of 2010 as a comment in a discussion on bankruptcy: “Short sell your home!!! The foreclosure process takes forever. The mortgage lender should be interested in a short sale over foreclosure. A short sale will most likely guarantee the lender(s) more money than if they have to auction the home. We did a short sale, and we will have to pay taxes on the difference between the sale price and what we owed, but there were homes in our neighborhood in foreclosure that were auctioned off for $5,000-$10,000 each, when the purchase price was in the neighborhood of $110,000-$145,000. The bank wants more money rather than less, so they should work with you wholeheartedly for a short sale. We had an 80/20 loan, interest only. In retrospect, it was a stupid way to purchase, but my husband’s residential home construction business was doing well until the bubble burst and the market crashed. We assumed, as did many others, that we would own the home for a short time until it increased in value, and then sell and move. Uh,

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According to the report released as a result of the study commissioned by Select Committee on Intelligence, getting involved in some online transactions or activities can put consumers at risk; risks that can affect their credit report and scores.

There are around 10% of consumers who make a purchase online or enroll in a service and this makes up ten million people making an online purchase everyday. According to the study, majority of online shoppers go ahead and proceed with their online shopping without even checking whether they came to a secured site or not an bravely navigates a site even if they don’t have a third party security tool to avoid frauds or identity thieves. The cases and number of identity thieves are very alarming indeed especially that the activities done online are increasing; the safety of consumers is getting compromised.

Security experts recommend that you check on the SSL policy or regulations. If you are on a site especially a shopping site which has no SSL protection, there is no reason for you to stay there. N

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Abraham Lincoln did not get his nickname of “Honest Abe” undeservedly.  The 16th President of the United States declared bankruptcy in 1833 and spent 17 years of his life paying off the money that he borrowed from friends to start his business. Even though he was not required, he paid back every penny he owed. In contrast, it took Lincoln 30 years to achieve his goal of becoming President of the United States. Lincoln, one might conclude, was a very determined but honest man, and when it came to bankruptcy, he took the honest way out.

Not too long before Lincoln’s day, going bankrupt was a very serious ordeal that involved debtor’s prison in the Old World. A creditor could force the debtor to remain in prison until either the debtor or someone else on his or her behalf paid off the debt. Often times when they could not pay,  the debtor died in prison. When Amer

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This may surprise you but the current economic slowdown may have its advantages for individuals that are in debt. The economic malaise has been non-relenting and many are still losing jobs and those that are out of work cannot find suitable employment. This has exerted great strain on many families were one if not two incomes were lost. The bills regrettably keep coming as well as the demand from credit card companied and other creditors.

This depressing picture has a encouraging side that can many start a new future. Many credit card companies quietly are approaching customers to negotiate and restructure current debt and in some cases just basically giving up on some debts, which they recognize are not collectible.

Their credit cards companies have been offering to restructure outstanding by reducing interest rates, monthly minimum payments, fees or changing the time for repayment and accepting partial repayment to settle the debt, depending on the circumstances They really have no option because it’s a situation of trying to save what they can. Read more…

I just experienced “Discount Domination,” where luck and skill combine for major savings. Right before school started, I visited a big-name retailer to help a friend buy an office chair. After bouncing in the seats and adjusting the knobs, my friend narrowed it down to just one. Alas, the floor sample was the only one and nothing else was in stock. The tag on the (empty) shelf stated $139.99. Hefty. This is where my useful tricks come in:

1) I asked for reductions because the chair was used. Even though this chair was in pristine and maximum knobby efficiency, others had sat on it. A 10% discount was quoted by the salesperson for the floor sample.

2) I pulled up the store’s official website and got a price quote. Joy! Website listed the same chair at $118.99.

3) I read the store’s policy about in-store pickup. This store had a free in-store pick-up policy. The fastest way to get this information is to add the item to the shopping cart, which will link to pick-up policies and estimated shipping costs.

Now, the trick with these three steps is to use them in the right order. In the

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The credit repair industry is an enormous right now. Companies are showing up in every corner. There are also online sites popping up all over the web about credit repair. A lot of them are designed to give you information for free to confuse so much that you’ll click on an ad for a credit repair company. But some actually do mean to give the public good help and good free credit repair info. The fact is that credit repair is not difficult if you understand it and if you have been dealing with credit as a profession. But to the layman, it can be confusing.

As someone who has done research on the topic I would like to offer a few recommendations regarding good places to check out for free credit repair info. The first source to check out is the FTC. Simply search “FTC credit repair” and their site will show up as the first link in Google. Review that page and read the PDF file too.

Another useful place to visit is credit repair forums. There are many on the web. The users often ask questions, and people with real experience, even credit repair professionals, will answer the questions. Read more…

Picture me a few years back, fresh out of UC Santa Cruz, decked out in my uber professional business casual outfit and strutting into a big publishing company in San Francisco for my first day of work. It was the kind of company us lit. majors dream about working for. Creative types lined the halls. You could choose which books did and didn’t see the light of day. And with no experience whatsoever, I had a desk waiting for me there.

So how did I swing that one, being a total rookie at the time? I’ll tell you: it was an unpaid internship I heard about, applied for and landed. Why, in this era of spendy gas and spendier groceries would anyone work for FREE? Because it’s an awesome way (sometimes the only way) to get experience and make contacts that you need to land the job of your dreams.

So from your been-there, done-that buddy at What’s My Score, here are a few handy tips for getting the right internship for you:

• First, make a short list of cool companies in your field that you can contact about interning. Think abo

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Managing their credits has always been one of the issues people in US have been working at for some time now. As a step towards this, there has been emphasis on checking the credit report and ensuring there are no errors in the credit history. People are encouraged to check their credit reports to make sure they are not paying excess due to errors in the credit history. To facilitate this practice, there has been news about companies in US offer “free” credit report to customers. These companies have now received a warning from the federal authorities here.

As per recent developments, 18 websites have been served notice for offering “free” credit reports to their customers. The notice mentions that the companies must let their customers know that the reports are made available by government agencies. The companies are also being told to inform that the government agencies issuing the reports have no strings attached to it which is the case with the companies providing the information.

As pointed out by Federal Trade Commission, the companies offer credit reports only when the customers purchases one of the services offered by the company. This de

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