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Posted
Jan 06 2009, 05:22 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.
Credit unions exist to help their members. Commercial banks exist to enrich their shareholders.
You read that right. That's why credit unions often have better interest rates on both loans and deposits. Commercial banks are businesses. Their sole purpose is to figure out how to make more money from customers (you). Interest rates on accounts are often very low (or nonexistent), and they always try to sell you new products.
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Posted
Nov 14 2007, 11:01 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
A month ago today, I became debt-free – made the last payment to a relative who had lent me some money. This loan had allowed me to throw a big chunk of cash against credit card debt accrued during divorce proceedings. (Lawyers bill by the hour, you know.) Once the credit card was paid in full, I started repaying the family loan. As money came in through diligence or chance, I’d let it build to $300 and then write a check. I'm not sure why $300 became the magic number; it just sounded good. Now I'm debt-free: no student loans (I'm blessed with a scholarship), no car payment (please let it last another six or seven years), no credit card debt (and there won't be any more). It feels about how you'd think it would: pretty darned great. 'A perpetual grin' This relative wasn’t dunning me. But it bothered me to owe money. Some people count sheep; at night I would lie in bed counting ways to stretch available funds to reach the next $300. Reading some postings from a Smart Spending message board
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Posted
Jul 29 2009, 11:06 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from James Limbach at partner site ConsumerAffairs.com.
A new survey of overdraft fees charged by the nation's largest banks reveals that bankers are hiking fees, adding new fees, and shortening time limits to trigger fees when banks pay overdrafts and extend credit to families struggling to make ends meet.
The Consumer Federation of America blames the Federal Reserve for failing to protect consumers from escalating and multiplying overdraft fees.
Testifying before Congress recently in support of President Obama's proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency, the CFA said regulatory inaction in just this one area is costing hard-pressed consumers more than $17.5 billion during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
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Posted
Apr 16 2008, 06:43 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog The Dough Roller. As much good as he does, Dave Ramsey drives me nuts with his extreme views on debt. Ramsey, as he readily admits, did some really stupid things with debt. Leveraged to the hilt on bad real estate deals, he went bust in a way most of us could never imagine. As a real estate investor, my leverage and borrowing comes nowhere near the toxic level Ramsey went to. Why? Because Ramsey's personality is one of extremes. Much like an alcoholic, he could not control his use of debt. He got one taste of that leverage, and he was borrowing before noon ever day. Dave Ramsey is a recovering debtaholic Now he is a recovering debtaholic. Like a recovering alcoholic, he should never borrow again. Why? He just can't handle it. Put Ramsey and debt together, and something really ugly develops. OK, fine. But why should that apply to all of us? It's as if a recovering alcoholic were telling the rest of the world never to have a glass of wine. In other words, what works and doesn't work for Ramsey may not apply to everybody else. Of course, there are those who, like Dave, can't control debt and should avoid it just like he does. But debt, if used wisely, can greatly improve your finances, can increase your financial freedom in the long run, and can greatly improve your balance sheet.
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Posted
Oct 17 2008, 12:07 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Last July, a fellow driving an SUV called me a sucker for giving money to a homeless man. The incident upset me deeply, so I wrote an essay called "Why I gave a guy a dollar."
What I didn't mention in the piece was how I happened to be walking down that particular street. I was on my way home from the bank and the post office, having just mailed a cashier's check to a long-time friend whose home was about to be foreclosed upon.
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Posted
Jan 25 2008, 12:38 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Before his happy experience with CashCall, "Chris B." wrote at CashCall's "testimonials" page, "I have never dealt with a company who was willing to give the little guy a chance without feeling like I was selling my first born." Well, maybe not your firstborn this time, but how about the roof over your firstborn's head? CashCall's Web site advertises loans with interest ranging from 24.58% APR to an astronomical 141.42%. At CashCall, you can conveniently look up the interest rates available in your state. The highest in California, a 99.25% APR, applies to a $2,600 loan with a payment schedule of 42 payments of $216.55. So, after you subtract the $75 loan fee, you're paying $9,095.10 to borrow $2,525. In all fairness, we must mention that the site also lists a $2,600 loan at 26.88%, and, according to the Web site, there is no penalty for prepayment.
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Posted
Oct 23 2008, 12:44 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
When you lend money to a friend and he doesn't pay you back, what do you do? Enlisting the aid of the Soprano crew is not an option, so do you sulk, get mad, get even, or pester the person until he cracks? Fitz at Ready To Be Rich has some potential solutions, but first, let's examine whether you should lend money to friends at all.
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Posted
Dec 23 2008, 05:59 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
What would you think of a bailout proposal that rewards people who buy new cars? That idea is the basis of several bills introduced in Congress. Car buyers would get a $10,000 incentive in one form or another to buy a new car and, in the process, heal the ailing U.S. auto industry. It's certainly not the strangest car-related stuff we've read recently. (That would be an article about a Beverly Hills physician who powered his car with biodiesel made from liposuctioned human fat.)
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Posted
Feb 24 2009, 12:25 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
If you watched the Oscars, you know that Hyundai has sweetened its job-loss protection plan for those who buy or lease a new car.
Initially, Hyundai offered to take the car back without trashing your credit if you became unemployed in the first year of ownership/leasing. Now, in a limited-time offer, Hyundai will make your car payments for three months if you get laid off. You can return the car if you still can't find a job.
It's a clever device to boost sales when employment is uncertain for many. That's why homebuilders, home sellers, credit unions and other lenders are now offering job-loss plans.
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Posted
Nov 19 2008, 12:26 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
A mighty tough question is popping up in the personal-finance blogosphere: Should U.S. taxpayers give the Big Three automakers a $25 billion "bridge loan" to help keep them on their feet, or is this a bridge loan to nowhere?
A typical response is: I'm not sure what I think. But many believe the automakers have brought this mess on themselves. "The Big Three were once great; they just got fat and lazy. They need Jillian from 'Biggest Loser' to come whip them into shape," commented blogger "Miss M" (M is for Money and Where is my Ocean View?) after Free Money FInance posed the question.
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