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Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Introduction.

We’re never afraid at “fntn.com” of advising anyone with a large amount of debt to destroy all but one of their credit cards. However, is that also good advice to give to people without any debt or those with a manageable level of debt? The past 12 months or so have seen millions of people see their credit limit on credit cards that they don’t use, or use infrequently, lowered. Why is that and what might it mean to you in the future?

Using credit cards and credit scores.

Don't use your credit card and your credit score could suffer!

It’s a simple matter of fact these days that if you have a credit card but don’t use it, the credit card company may well reduce the credit limit or even cancel it. If you have several credit cards this won’t be a massive inconvenience, you can simply use one of the other credit cards you possess. However, if that was the only credit card that you owned or if you then wanted to apply for another new credit card – the fact that you’ve had one cancelled, or even the credit limit reduced, could well go against you! How can cancelling a credit card or having the credit limit reduced go against you? Well, as far as the credit card company is concerned their logic works along the lines of – you’re not using our credit card because you can’t afford to repay any debts on it, for good measure they’ll then lower your credit score too.

Maintaining your good credit score.

It might well sound a ‘topsy turvy’ old world but these days, in that to maintain a good credit score, you need to be able to almost constantly prove to the credit agencies that you can repay debts without any problems. Needless to say, using and repaying credit card debts is one of the things they look at for that. So, an inactive or cancelled credit card can be interpreted as potential credit trouble – as outlined above. Although you need to keep tight track on what you’re spending on your credit cards; do use them regularly, not forgetting to regularly and on-time pay them off. Also, don’t forget to keep track of your FICO credit score, and that you’re entitled to a free credit score report once a year from each of the credit agencies.

Introduction.

With the stakes being raised at the Climate Change Copenhagen conference, and there seemingly being even more imperative behind us all doing our bit to help ‘save the planet‘; now is that time to think about how you can fund some changes toward reducing your carbon footprint by making your home more energy efficient, and saving money at the same time.

Insulating your home.

If you haven’t already installed wall or roof space insulation - now really is the time to do it. Insulating your home is not only the least expensive thing you can do but it is also the one that you will most quickly be able to recoup your money by making savings on those expensive fuel bills. If you have a cavity, air-gap, wall then special foams can be injected into the gap forming an insulating layer, on single-wall buildings you could externally fit an insulated faux-stone layer or internally insulated rock sheets. In the ceiling space there are loose materials, foams and blanket like materials you can add. With wall insulation costing as little as $1000 and ceiling insulation only a few hundred dollars, you could be seeing the benefit of your lower fuel bills before you’ve even paid off the loan you take out for them.

Alternative power sources.

Wind, Solar and Geothermal alternative energy supplies could help you save money and the planet.

You’ll need to take out a slightly bigger loan for these options and be prepared to take a longer term approach to the savings you’ll make – but the following will really mark you out as being committed to becoming ‘greener’ when it comes to heating and powering your home. Depending on whereabouts you live in the USA, and how much land you have around you, you could alternatively fit solar panels, wind turbines or even geothermal units to produce ‘clean’ electricity for you and your family to use, without any CO₂ emissions at all. You’ll need to think in terms of a personal loan over $5000, which will take some time to recoup. However, if you’re planning on moving home soon you can add the cost to your selling price, whereas if you’re intent on staying put and not looking for a new mortgage – you can reap the rewards of your clean energy. Finally, don’t forget also that any excess electricity you produce you can sell on to the power utility companies!

Introduction.

With the Christmas season being truly upon us now and all the spending that it entails, it is also the time of year that you need to start financially preparing for 2010 to avoid those New Year money blues. On the basis that the New Year will bring with it all the bills for the money you spent on the Christmas celebrations – should you be worried that you’re probably not going to be saving any money?

Savers are losers!

Do you want to start 2010 with the New Year blues?

The immediate response to that question is that you really shouldn’t feel too bad about not being able to save any money in the first part of 2010. The Federal funds rate has been pretty steady since 2008 at 0.25% and it’s showing little, if any, sign of improving in the New Year. The net result of that is that putting your money into a regular savings account with a bank will not yield any interest of any significance at all. However, that low rate could be potentially very attractive to borrowers. By that it is simply the case that, if you have taken out a personal loan to cover the costs of Christmas, it will have a low rate of interest attached to it – making it easier for you to repay. So, why bother thinking you’ll save some of the spare cash you have and re-pay the debt, when you might was well simply use all of the spare cash to pay off the loan more quickly. Paying off the loan ahead of schedule may well help you to reduce the total interest you pay and could significantly help your credit score when you next apply for your free credit report.

Loans you’ve already got.

Another tip when preparing for 2010 is to think carefully about switching any variable rate loans to fixed ones. The longer term your variable rate loan has to run the more reason you have to switch it. If you can’t repay the current loan and the finance company won’t let you switch it to a fixed rate loan – talk to a financial advisor about taking out a new loan on a fixed rate to repay it instead.

Introduction.

There seems to be a new craze spreading through all sorts of companies that most of us ‘regular’ folk have financial dealings with – that of charging us for being good customers! If you’re the sort of person that always pays their bills in full, always repays your credit card balance in time, doesn’t have a personal loan from the bank etc; or in other words never owes money to anyone else, then be warned you could be in line for good finance penalties – just so the finance companies can get some money out of you.

They might as well ‘mug’ you.

You'll be shocked at some of the good finance penalties you can be charged.

In what amounts to little more than daylight robbery or being mugged, finance houses, banks and credit card companies are starting to impose ‘low use’ and ‘inactivity’ fees to accounts that are either not used or are very rarely used. Why? Well the answer is surely too simple – simply to boost their profit margins in the recession. The answer to this is, of course, also very simple. If someone tries to penalize you for not using an account, simply apply for a new credit card or loan account elsewhere. Some of the ‘dormancy’ charges being quoted at present are $50 on AMEX card accounts if you don’t use their Platinum cash-back credit card within a period of 12 months. Being charged non-usage fees by telecoms companies if you don’t make a certain amount of calls a month, not to mention stock-brokers slipping in exorbitant fees – even if you don’t ask them to do anything for long periods of time. However, the worst part of all this is that the companies concerned won’t send you a bill for these hidden charges – but will just add a few dollars to a bill here and there; so if you don’t scrutinize your bills for such covert charges you’ll never know you’re paying them!

Avoiding financial penalties for being a good customer.

Always read the small pint of any financial or loan agreements you enter into. Also, always read the small print on your credit card bills and other financial statements. If you only get your bills/statements online – always check them. Forgetting a user id or password is a poor excuse for not checking you’re not getting ripped off! Always read any letters or emails about changes to your account, if you don’t challenge any sudden changes you are in effect compliantly agreeing to them. Finally always remember, if your free credit report says you’re not in debt to them – you have no debt of loyalty to them either.

Introduction.

If ever you needed a reason for getting a free credit report, even if you believe you’ll have a good credit rating – then that time is probably now. Apparently it has been exposed that people who had genuinely good credit reports and credit scores can suddenly find themselves being able to access the best online loan offers.

Why you might need your latest credit report.

Apparently credit companies have been tracking who’s looking for online loans, then if someone repeatedly returns to one particular online loan offer, in order to consider it further or compare it to other online loan offers, when they do eventually apply for the loan they suddenly find they’re being offered a different rate to the one originally advertized. Needless to say the online loan companies are reluctant to discuss the way, or why, they track potential customers IP addresses – but they do and so you might well need proof of your good credit history, from your free credit report, in order to prove to them that you’re worthy of a better loan deal.

Getting a free credit report.

Without knowing your credit report - you don't know what elephants might be in the room?

If you don’t already know – everyone is entitled to at least one free credit report a year from each of the major consumer reporting companies – that’s Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Your credit report lists your credit history and status, by calculating what is known as your FICO score. Basically, the higher your FICO score the more credit worthy you are and the better you should be able to persuade a personal loan company that you will be a good, low risk, customer and get some favorable repayment terms from them. Your free credit report will also include all sorts of other information including your home address, banking details and employment etc, which along with details of all the loans you’ve had can help you to check that you’re not the victim of an identity theft scam.

Introduction.

If you’ve ever felt that you’re being ripped off over credit card payments – you’re probably correct! Many credit card users are unfairly being made to pay over the odds on their credit cards because the card companies insist that any repayments you make go to pay off low interest rate debts first, leaving the higher interest rate debts to carry on accruing more and more interest – meaning that you have to keep paying more and more to the credit card payments.

A typical credit card scam.

Everyone loves a deal and being offered 0% interest on credit card balance transfers is always a tempting one. These can be great deals – providing you don’t start to spend further money on the credit card, in which case it actually becomes somewhat of a credit card scam, perpetrated by the credit card companies! Consider this simple example; you transfer a $3000 balance to a new credit card at 0% interest, knowing you can repay that within say 6 or 12 months. But, then spend a further $2000 on it at an annual 20% interest. Every time you make a repayment you’ll only be reducing the original $3000 debt, meanwhile the new debt is rising $400 the first year, $480 the second and so on.

The government to the rescue.

Perhaps one answer to not overspending on a credit card is not being able to carry one?

 The procedure above and employed by the credit card companies is known as adverse order of payment or negative order of payment. The good news for anyone with a credit card debt problem like this – is that next year legislation will come into force in the US making credit card companies change from negative OP to positive OP; ensuring that high interest rate debts get paid off before lower ones. However, if you can’t wait until then there is another way around this credit card scam. If you do use a 0% interest rate balance transfer, do not use that credit card for other purchases; look for another low interest rate credit card for your all of your other purchases.

No point waiting until you're in this state to get health insurance!

Back home from his latest round of globe-trotting President Obama is turning his attention to one of his Presidential campaign pledges – health reforms and health insurance that makes “affordable healthcare for all”.  Not, of course, that he’s the first President to try and do this. After attempts by President Truman, other more recent and notable attempts include President Johnson in 1965, President Clinton in 1993 and another attempt spilling over into George Bush’s Presidency in 1997, whose own Presidency included healthcare reform plans in 2003 and 2007.

Healthcare insurance plans.

With the Democrats firmly in control of Capitol Hill, Barack Obama is leaving it up to the Senate to formulate the Bill, in the hope that they will achieve a consensus amongst themselves before any vote is needed. However; and this is of great importance to anyone currently wondering what to do about renewing or taking out healthcare insurance at the moment; a titanic battle is anticipated – especially from those Republicans who are firmly on the side of the well funded health insurance companies and pharmaceutical industries. The reason for this is that the plan President Obama prefers is one that would work in competition to private healthcare plans, rather than alongside them. A bigger headache for the president is, of course, how to pay for it anyway. Current estimates are that up to one sixth of the population could be eligible to benefit from any federal scheme, but at a probable cost of $1.2 trillion over 10 years – he’ll have a tough job convincing most Americans to part with their tax dollars to pay for it.

What do for healthcare insurance or bills now.

If you’re one of the approximately 45 million Americans in desperate need of healthcare insurance or help with paying medical or healthcare bills now, then you can’t really afford to wait to see what eventually comes out of Capitol Hill, let alone when – knowing the slow pace politicians seem to work at. Fortunately there are healthcare insurance companies that can arrange health insurance cover for you now, almost regardless of your current financial situation. Furthermore, should you have any major medical or healthcare bills that you need to pay off there are a variety of options open to you from looking for a specialist personal loan for healthcare and medical issues or possibly looking into releasing equity from your home, in the form of a home equity loan, to pay them off.

Those forex tax collectors just love their work!

Bad news for all Forex traders, if British Prime Minister Gordon Brown gets his way – a new tax is being proposed on all currency transactions to help raise up to $50 billion for global aid funds. The proposal also calls for a levy on all mobile phone calls as well as an international lottery to improve health systems in the poorer countries of the world.

What will the new tax be?

The proposal is for what seems a modest 0.005% new tax, which he refers to as a micro-tax; presumably hoping to dupe us into thinking it’s insignificant. He calculates that the annual international Forex trade is worth $1 quadrillion, that’s $1,000 trillion. But the main point is that on a $10,000 transaction you’d end up paying an extra $50 tax. Of course ultimately a lot of this tax could well get passed on to the ‘man in the street’ looking to exchange currency before going abroad on his vacation. Which raises a point that old Gordon Brown doesn’t seem to have thought through – that they’ll have $50 less to spend abroad, possibly in a developing economy – directly helping that local economy to grow and become more self-sustaining!

Global recession hitting global charities.

Whilst the principle behind the proposal might be all well and good, helping those less fortunate than ourselves, it is quite ironic that Gordon Brown and the British finance markets were one of the main reasons for the worlds economy being in such as mess; leading to western aid budgets being slashed. Interestingly Britain isn’t prepared to introduce it themselves to solely there own Forex markets – knowing that the international trade would just disappear abroad. But, Germany, France and the USA are hinting at being prepared to support the proposal – so don’t think the USA will be immune from this new tax, if there ever is international agreement on it.

It looks like some good news is here for anyone thinking of buying a new car in the near future. A report from Bloomberg says that one of the biggest auto loan lenders, GMAC LLC, has been cleared by the government to sell government backed debt, with an extra $7.5 billion of rescue funds; meaning that getting an auto loan should be that bit easier very soon. The other piece of news, which will hopefully soon be converted into a reality, is that the proposals for a government backed auto scrappage scheme has recently made some progress.

Easier auto loans.

Although this latest announcement brings the total ‘bail out’ to GMAC to 413.5 billion it does at least mean that anyone wanting to buy a new Chrysler or GM auto, but needing an auto loan, will be able to go to a show-room with reasonable confidence of being offered an auto loan that has lower interest rates and flexible repayment terms. This is, of course, not only good news for buyers, but also for the auto manufacturers; as they can now once again compete more effectively with Ford and Toyota for business. Which, in turn, should also help new auto buyers to get an even better deal themselves in the show-room.

Auto scrappage scheme development.

Could an old wreck like this really be worth at least $3500 under the scrappage scheme?

Although still some way from being finalized the prospect of an auto scrappage scheme, for anyone prepared to buy a new car in the USA, took a step forward this week. With the government and the auto industry both compromising slightly a tacit agreement has been reached. It looks like private new auto buyers could get up to $4,500 off the ‘shield price of a new car, so long as the mpg differential between the ‘scrapped’ auto and the new one is more than 10mpg. There are a few variations around this proposed scheme; such as being eligible for a $3,500 allowance scrapping a car doing less that 18mpg for a new one doing better than 22mpg. There’s also some provision for allowances when scrapping light-duty and work trucks.