| Avoiding the holiday debt hangover | | Posted Saturday, February 10, 2007 12:51:34 PM by Blog57 Team | | FRESNO, Calif. - The holidays are over and the hangover has begun. It's called a "debt hangover" in the credit counseling industry. It refers to the shock and depression starts sometime after Jan. 20, when the credit card bills start rolling in with the total charges of all those gifts. Business normally increases by 50 percent this time of year at ByDesign Financial Solutions in Fresno, said Executive Vice President Martha Lucey. But this year it's doubled, mainly because homeowners are struggling to pay their mortgages on top of their holiday bills, she said. Americans racked up $85.6 billion on major credit cards during the five weeks before Christmas, according to Cardweb.com, a credit card information service. The average household already owed $9,159 before the holidays, according to Cardweb.... | |
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| | | Holiday bills arrive, bearing credit woes | | Posted Friday, January 26, 2007 2:53:55 PM by Blog57 Team | | Many people feel great when they're buying piles of gifts for relatives and friends at Christmas, but they can be overwhelmed when that blizzard of credit card bills arrives in the new year. Credit counselors call it the "debt hangover." "We often see a rush of people in January and February," said Sandra Shore, a senior counselor with Novadebt, a nonprofit credit counseling organization based in Freehold. Some, she said, have greatly underestimated how much they've spent for the holidays and are shocked when the bills come in. For others, a lack of planning means that Christmas is like any other "unexpected" event -- say a big hospital bill or a necessary car repair -- that can skew their budgets. Shirley Gilbert of Waterloo, Ill., isn't exactly sure why, but she says she got "totally carried away" buy ing presents during the Christmas season in 2005.... | |
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| | | 3 On Your Side: Digging Out of Holiday Debt | | Posted Wednesday, January 17, 2007 12:54:05 PM by Blog57 Team | | (CBS 3) PHILADELPHIA Did you charge a lot of your holiday gifts? If you did, the credit card bills are probably arriving by now. But paying them off isn't easy for everyone. So 3 On Your Side's Jim Donovan has a few suggestions to help ease the pain of a financial holiday hangover.Charge it! Two words that were heard a lot last month as we shopped for gifts. And many of us tried to put the spending out of our minds.Well it's now January, the bills are here and many of us are wondering, "How am I going to pay off my card?""During the holidays, people went a little bit overboard," said Patty Hasson of the Consumer Credit Counseling Service.Hasson says paying off the balance in full is best, but you can still be financially smart if you do the right things.First take a look at the cards you have."Those with higher interest rates; make a phone call and see if they'd be willing to lower the interest rate," said Hasson.With so many credit card companies fighting for your business, if you have a good payment history and you're not maxed out, you might be able to negotiate a lower rate.A second option, a balance transfer to another card with a lower interest rate but, "Make sure you read the fine print.... | |
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| | | Be Smart About Homebuying | | Posted Monday, January 08, 2007 2:52:44 PM by Blog57 Team | | People buying a home should beware because home owning scams are everywhere in central Georgia. That warning comes from Reginald Bell, the executive director of the Macon middle Georgia housing counseling center. The organization is trying to teach more people interested in home owning what they should do to protect themselves. Bell also says make sure you know about what can help you. He says there are a lot of home owning programs in Georgia and the city of Macon that can help you buy a home. The housing counseling center is trying to let people know about all them. Once a month they have a first time homebuyers education class to help people learn how to get the best deal. They also introduce people in the class to reputable lenders to make sure potential homeowners get a good loan to buy a house.... | |
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| | | Don’t let bad credit choices leave you with a blue Christmas | | Posted Sunday, December 17, 2006 12:52:46 PM by Blog57 Team | | Studies show that consumers spend more money if they use a credit card. If you only planned on spending $30 on a gift for Aunt Hilda, dont buy her a $45 sweater! Keep a tight hold on your credit cards. The hustle and bustle in the stores makes it easy to forget your credit cards at the check-out counter. Losing your cards can cause quite a headache if they are fraudulently used. Track your spending. Its easier to spend more when using a credit card because you arent watching the cash physically leave your wallet. Paperclip an index card to your credit card and write the dollar amount of each purchase. This will give you a better idea of how much you are actually spending. Use wisdom when shopping online. The internet is a great way to avoid the crowds. When entering your credit card number, make sure the URL begins with https://, this will ensure the site is secure.... | |
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| | | Counseling Congress on Credit | | Posted Thursday, November 23, 2006 12:51:27 PM by Blog57 Team | | My policy proposal for the new Congress is fairly modest. I would like to see Congress repeal the requirement that consumers receive credit counseling before they are eligible to file for bankruptcy. This requirement has served little purpose other than to place an expensive speed bump in the way of consumers who wish to file for bankruptcy (consumers have to pay for this counseling themselves). Credit counseling agencies have reported that, in the vast majority of cases, they are unable to provide any useful advice to debtors. Apparently, there's not much you can say to people who got laid off or went deep into debt because they got sick and couldn't afford health care. To make matters worse, forcing all consumers to go through this counseling chews up the resources of the counseling agencies, limiting the assistance they can give to those people who could actually use it.... | |
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| | | New program at Ohio credit unions provides alternative to high interest rates | | Posted Wednesday, November 15, 2006 10:52:01 AM by Blog57 Team | | Getting into debt is easy; removing oneself from debt is an uphill battle that many people will lose. One major reason for this is the position they are put in by predatory payday lenders, according to the creators of StretchPay, a new program at many Ohio credit unions that offers small loans without the compiling high interest rates of many predatory storefront lenders. Payday lenders are storefront firms who make short-term loans, two to four weeks, to people who often live paycheck to paycheck. Predatory lenders are many payday lenders whose effective annual interest rates are normally over 300 percent. Because customers often end up renewing loans, large debts are accumulated which can lead to eventual bankruptcy. StretchPay is a reasonable alternative to payday loans, according to Bro.... | |
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| | | Haye picking up for Lennox? | | Posted Tuesday, November 14, 2006 11:05:38 AM by Blog57 Team | | CAN DAVID HAYE PICK UP WHERE LENNOX LEFT OFF? (From news release) David Haye gets the opportunity in London's York Hall on November 17 to live up to his potential and make his mark on the world scene by defending his European Cruiserweight title against Giacobbe Fragomeni and at the same time, winning a WBC final eliminator. The timing couldn't be better as the sport of boxing is desperately looking for a star or even a savior. Right now, with the heavyweight title belts being held by Eastern Europeans and an American who was knocked out in five rounds by Lennox Lewis eight years ago, Haye, a massive cruiserweight, is close to getting the opportunity to fill the very big shoes of the British superstar, whose retirement in 2003 left the division in disarray.... | |
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| | | NEWS SECTIONS | | Posted Monday, November 13, 2006 10:57:44 AM by Blog57 Team | | In the five years since his divorce, Eric Wagenhauser had moved on with his life. He had remarried and was sharing custody of their three children with his former wife. Then last year, he discovered a new wrinkle on American divorce: His ex-wife had used the children's Social Security numbers to obtain nine credit cards in their names. Wagenhauser's ordeal over the next year, which involved police departments in two Texas counties, banks, credit bureaus and the Social Security Administration, is familiar to many identity-theft victims: The crime often begins at home. Though most victims never learn who stole their identities, half of those who do say the thief was a family member, friend, neighbor or in-home employee, according to surveys by the Federal Trade Commission and Javelin Strategy and Research, a private research firm.... | |
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| | | Adjustable rate, home equity loans can confuse borrowers | | Posted Sunday, November 12, 2006 10:53:38 AM by Blog57 Team | | If you have an adjustable rate mortgage or home equity loan, do you understand its terms? Do you know how high your interest rate could go up and how soon that could happen? Are you sure? Researchers at the Federal Reserve say many homeowners with adjustable rate loans underestimate how much their interest rates can change or are clueless in the matter. The problem is worse for households with below-average incomes and education. "This research suggests the need for greater financial literacy and increased access to financial counseling," Fed chairman Ben Bernanke said in a speech this month. Education and counseling are needed, but I'd like to see a solution that starts with the mortgage industry. Lenders are creating confusing products and promoting them to people for whom they are inappropriate.... | |
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