Written by on Tuesday, January 30th, 2007 in General.
30.1.2007 - Home Credit B.V. (”HCBV”), the Netherlands registered holding company of the Home Credit Group, is delighted to announce recent changes to its Board of Directors.
Written by admin on Tuesday, January 30th, 2007 in The Housing Market.
You don’t always have to accept higher credit card fees
By Bridget Smith - Editor-in-Chief, Smart Borrower Center
Do you take time each month to read through everything you receive from your credit card company? You should! If you don’t, you could miss out on important information about changes that aren’t in your best interest. And you could miss the opportunity to do something about them.
If you’re like me, usually you weed through that bulky envelope you receive each month, pull out your statement and chuck the rest into the trash. But be careful, those extra sheets may be more than just junk mail. While it’s all very well to toss out the ads, you should read any information coming directly from your card issuer.
I recently received a “Notice of Change in Terms, Right to Opt Out and Information Update” from my card company. The fine print was somewhat confusing but the net result seemed to be a rate increase. So I called the toll-free number listed on the statement and requested to opt out. The representative on the other end of the line, however, tried to talk me out of it. She assured me the changes would benefit me. So I agreed to dig out my current card agreement and compare the two.
Sure enough, when I checked the proposed changes against my current agreement, I discovered most of the fees were increasing by $10, and the default interest rate maximum was going from 23.99 percent to a whopping 28.99 percent! So I called back a second time. Once again, I got through to someone who tried to prevent me from opting out. This person was more upfront about the changes, but warned me that if I chose to opt out, they would close my account.
Again, it’s important to read the fine print. According to my agreement, they can’t close my card “until the end of the year, or the expiration date, whichever is later.” Well, my expiration date isn’t until 2008, so I’m not worried about the card closing. And I have a hunch when the time comes, they’ll figure out a way to keep me as a customer.
I’d be tempted to close the card myself, but I’ve had it for just a few months, and opening and closing accounts can hurt your credit score. Instead, I’ve taken my chances and exercised my right to opt out of their proposed changes. And I plan to use the card only when absolutely necessary.
The lesson I learned from all this is that you need to do more than simply shop around for the best credit card deal. You also need to stay on top of that deal. Keep track of everything they send you. If you don’t, your low introductory rate or reward benefits may change without your knowing. As a consumer, you should question anything that doesn’t seem right. And you can fight back!
Written by admin on Tuesday, January 30th, 2007 in The Housing Market.
Where does our money go?
Life’s little “necessities” can really add up.
By Bridget Smith - Editor-in-Chief, Smart Borrower Center
Buying a home means reviewing your budget. And since my husband and I are shopping for our next home, we’ve been looking at our budget closely. It amazes me how all the little things add up - little things we consider “necessities.”
Adding up the necessities
Take the phone. Ten years ago I had one phone line, and I paid for long distance only when I used it. Now our landline phone bill includes call waiting, voice mail and long distance - and it has the price tag to match. We each have cell phones as well. My plan is $45 a month, my husband pays $70. So in total, we spend over $150 a month on the telephone. Does that sound crazy to you? It’s a little much for me.
Next is television. Growing up my family didn’t even have cable, so TV was free once you bought the box. But today, we have digital cable with HBO, Showtime and DVR. Each month we pay about $80 for television - even though nearly all the channels come with commercials. And that’s just the service. $500 used to pay for a high-end television. Now we’d be hard-pressed to find a nice flat screen for anywhere near that.
Internet access is another expense that is now a necessity - $40 out the door each month for that. In total we’re spending nearly $300 a month - that’s a car payment - for a new set of “utilities.” And we don’t have satellite radio, NetFlix, HDTV, magazine subscriptions or a cleaning service. If we were to add those items to our budget, it would be closer to $500 a month on all these little miscellaneous things.
What else do we pay for? Of course there are utilities like gas, water and electric. There’s the cost of groceries, eating out, gas for the car. Every once is a while, haircuts, manicures and pedicures. Plus a gym and golf club membership. (Golf can be a very expensive hobby!) We don’t think we live a lavish lifestyle - we live in a 1,300 square-foot ranch house and drive 6- and 7-year-old cars. But when I look at our spending, I feel like we’re living pretty large.
It all adds up - and so does your budget
How quickly it adds up is a little scary - and it shows why more people are going into debt. Many people - including me - view these things as necessities, when they’re not. So if you’ve got a $150 cable bill and $150 cell phone bill due but need to pay for groceries, you put it on a credit card. To keep car payments down, many people opt for 5 or even 7 year loans instead of 3. That may keep your car payment low, but it costs a lot more over the long run and you can even end up owing money for a car you no longer drive. That’s not smart.
Being smart about debt starts with being smart about spending - and I know I struggle with that sometimes, especially when we’ve got a wedding to go to and I want a $30 pedicure. It can be hard to live within your means (the secret to staying out of debt) when you feel entitled to DVR, broadband internet and new car every 4 years. Living like a miser isn’t the answer - but there are smarter choices.
Cutting the fat
So what are some options? For us, combining cell phone plans would likely save us $40 a month. We’ve already dropped the voice mail on our phone service and switched it to the local cable company. We used to eat out nearly every meal on weekends, now we eat in a lot more often. We’re not ready for more - the golf membership discussion was a short one. But at least we’ve started to realize that life’s little necessities can really make a dent in you budget!