March 2010

Money Games For Kids

March 31, 2010

Our kids are growing up seeing the easy side of credit cards. They go to the store with Mom or Dad, they pick up the groceries, clothes, toys or whatever they are buying on that day and as they go through the checkout stand, they see Mom or Dad pull out a little piece of [...]

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Changing Tunes On Free Credit Reports

March 30, 2010

As we have reported here before, the only place that you can get a credit report for “free” as in completely free, no charge, no money changing hands, and more importantly, nobody trying to convince you to part with your money for some type of expensive credit monitoring service is at annualcreditreport.com. That’s it. That [...]

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Talking To Creditors

March 29, 2010

It’s a fact. Most people don’t have piles of cash or even big deposits in their bank account just sitting around ready to make large purchases. Need a car? Want a house? If you are like the majority of American’s you will have to use credit. And now, with online shopping and the way that [...]

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California Offering State Tax Credit For Troubled Housing

March 26, 2010

California has one of the most trouble housing markets in the country. Along with that the State of California, which is responsible for 13% of the United States gross domestic product or GDP, is also facing a $26.3 billion budget deficit for the 2009-2010 budget year. But in an effort to revive the lagging real [...]

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More U.S. Consumers Will Get Free Credit Scores

March 25, 2010

For quite some time it has been possible to get a copy of your credit report for free one time each year from each of the big three credit reporting agencies, TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. However, this did not generally include the credit score which is a fundamental part of your credit story. Getting the [...]

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No Credit Card Bailout

March 24, 2010

You may have seen or heard advertisements about a “credit card bailout” that is designed to help individuals with problematic credit card debt get some relief. These ads seem to be popping up all over and they must be successful because more and more of them are showing up. But here is a newsflash for [...]

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Credit Cards And College Students

March 23, 2010

One of the provisions of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act or CARD, is that individuals under the age of 21 must get a co-signor in order to get a credit card, unless they can prove that they have sufficient income or funds to handle credit card debt on their own. This is [...]

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Unexpected Credit Score Drop For Loan Modification

March 22, 2010

With the burst of the housing bubble, there are millions of people who are either in foreclosure, delinquent on their house payments or maybe just of the verge of having trouble. Someone who is in foreclosure or who is delinquent can expect that their credit score will drop but there are folks who have struggled [...]

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DOFD Or Date Of First Delinquency

March 19, 2010

If your old credit card debt has been charged off by the original lender but subsequently sold to a collection agency the new collection agency may change the last active date to the time that they procured the bad loan. However, that does not change the DOFD of the Date of First Delinquency. The last [...]

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Voice Your Opinion

March 18, 2010

The Federal Reserve wants to know what you as a consumer, think about the fees that lenders charge as penalties for late payments and other issues. The final phase of the CARD act, the part that deals with such things as late payment penalties will take effect this summer. Among the specific rules of the [...]

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