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alreadybeen posted:FYI - I've had intermittent issues with Mint over the past month as well, but most have worked themselves out. Those that didn't I just re-entered my information and all works now. Hopefully it'll work out - it's been going on for awhile now and I think it's Schwab specific rather than having to do with their updates. It connects but all of my accounts show up as $0. The first time I saw it, my first thought was complete panic.
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Mar 6, 2011 21:04
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alreadybeen posted:FYI - I've had intermittent issues with Mint over the past month as well, but most have worked themselves out. Those that didn't I just re-entered my information and all works now. Because Mint has no access to the user/password that it stored with Yodlee, you have to re-enter your bank login to be switched over.
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Mar 7, 2011 00:59
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Credit card newbie here. When it's time to pay my bill, should I be paying the Billing Amount (not minimum payment, but the total balance at the time the bill was sent)or the Current Balance (billing amount + any transactions processed since receiving the bill)?
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Mar 8, 2011 19:11
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Billing amount is all you need to pay to avoid paying interest; there's no real reason to pay off your current amount. Can you set it up to autopay with your checking account? Usually there is an option like "Pay full amount" or something.
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Mar 8, 2011 19:34
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I always pay off the current amount because I'm OCD about carrying a balance and like seeing that number as close to zero as possible 
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Mar 8, 2011 20:26
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illcendiary posted:I always pay off the current amount because I'm OCD about carrying a balance and like seeing that number as close to zero as possible Your OCD is costing you money. Your payment is early and costing you the use of that money for up to 31 days. Also, if you return an item you bought with the card you would have paid more than the balance and you would end up having given them your money for more than a full billing cycle. Also, in the alternative, if you end up owing at least $.01 at the end of the billing cycle, you still need to make another payment and had you maid that payment after that point you wouldn't have had to. You are truly gaining nothing (no break in interest) and losing something (opportunity cost or some amount of interest and possibly even making it more likely that you would miss a payment) If it works for you, keep going, but just know that doing that is not a good idea for being efficient with your money and making recommendations for others.
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Mar 9, 2011 05:21
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KennyG posted:Your OCD is costing you money. Hardly. I doubt anyone of any significant net worth has ever looked back at how they did it, and said "It was the credit card float that put me over the top"
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Mar 9, 2011 05:54
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Zeta Taskforce posted:Hardly. I doubt anyone of any significant net worth has ever looked back at how they did it, and said "It was the credit card float that put me over the top" Yeah. There's no opportunity cost from paying it off early because paying off more on your card means you can charge more to your card later, and the difference between paying off $500 off your card a month early and putting it into a regular ~1% p.a. savings account is about 50c.
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Mar 9, 2011 07:29
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I always pay off my entire balance about once a week. Mind you I use my card to pay for everything so it doubles as a good way to track my spending and I can easily spot any unrecognized purchases. I prefer to keep it paid off (well there are always new charges pending) or as close to paid off as possible, so I am never charged interest and the balance on the card does not accrue while only paying the bare minimum. All it takes in that scenario is one late payment and the interest they charge you would wipe out any gains you get by sticking that money in a savings account. I treat my card like cash, when i buy something that money is gone, so i pay it off right away, and I don't buy anything that i don't have the funds for.
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Mar 9, 2011 18:55
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Why not just pay during your grace period and sock the money for the $.50 in interest. I mean if you are that anal...
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Mar 9, 2011 20:08
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LorneReams posted:Why not just pay during your grace period and sock the money for the $.50 in interest. I mean if you are that anal... I pay my card through my chequings account which doesn't give me any interest so there is no reason for me to try and get that extra dollar or less a month by playing with my savings account and get hit with transfer fees.
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Mar 9, 2011 22:23
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asmallrabbit posted:I pay my card through my chequings account which doesn't give me any interest so there is no reason for me to try and get that extra dollar or less a month by playing with my savings account and get hit with transfer fees. Same here, I'm not going to gain anything significant in the short term by putting (difference between pay period balance and current balance) in some investment vehicle because it's such a comparatively small amount, usually on the order of a hundred bucks, maybe a little more if I made a "big" purchase in that time period.
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Mar 9, 2011 22:29
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So one of the things I hear over and over is that the first investment you should make is in an emergency fund. I'm looking at my financial situation and trying to figure out what that means. My wife and I are looking at buying a new car (to replace our 230K mile, 1991 New Yorker), but I'm having a hard time figuring out if we can afford it. I'm 28. Current Assets: $6000 in savings/checking ~$20K in retirement (14K in a 401K, 6K in a Roth, if it matters) ~$(14)K in student loans at 5.0 and 5.6% putting $2-500/mo on these ~$0 credit card debt. We have 2 cards, pay em off monthly. Monthly take home: ~$5000 (Of which rent takes $1300) Right now we're putting aside $400 a month from checking to savings, and $400 a month into personal fun money accounts and doing just fine (we could be saving more, but we've been paying down student loan with extra.) We're pretty sure we could take a hit on the fun money and trim our food budget and afford a new car, but we'd take a big hit on the savings account. When people talk about having a 'safety net' are they talking about money outside of your retirement accounts? We feel pretty comfortable and secure right now, but you hear so many horror stories...
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Mar 10, 2011 17:18
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Pfhreak posted:So one of the things I hear over and over is that the first investment you should make is in an emergency fund. I'm looking at my financial situation and trying to figure out what that means. My wife and I are looking at buying a new car (to replace our 230K mile, 1991 New Yorker), but I'm having a hard time figuring out if we can afford it. First off, a retirement fund is not a safety net. That is money set aside for, well, retirement. And any early withdrawals from that tend to be taxed and penalized heavily. An emergency fund is typically a savings or other liquid account that gives you quick access to cash when you need it. I would post your whole budget if you really aren't sure if you can afford a new car to figure out what your income to expenses looks like. Also when you say new, do you mean brand new or just a "new" used car?
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Mar 10, 2011 17:34
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We're looking at a brand new car. Something in the ~$16K range, a subcompact commuter for me. Finances look like: $5000 minimum take home income. (Wife works variable hours, she usually makes more.) I've rounded these up to the nearest $10/$100 for easy mathing. $1300 on Rent $770 on Food (though we are on track to spend less) $300 on Utilities $400 to Savings $400 to Personal accounts $400 on Cars (fuel, repairs, etc.) $3-500 on Student Loans $200 on pets $200 on Wife's Retirement $400 on Misc stuff
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Mar 10, 2011 17:48
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Pfhreak posted:We're looking at a brand new car. Something in the ~$16K range, a subcompact commuter for me. Your food is expense is ridiculous for 2 people.
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Mar 10, 2011 18:14
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Pfhreak posted:We're looking at a brand new car. Something in the ~$16K range, a subcompact commuter for me. I don’t think you can afford a brand new car, but could easily afford a 3 to 4 year old, solid but not luxury car. But you will have to cut back other areas. Food is high, as is $800 for personal accts/misc. Zeta Taskforce fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Mar 10, 2011 |
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Mar 10, 2011 18:16
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|Ziggy| posted:Your food is expense is ridiculous for 2 people. Yep! We're working on it. We had some bad habits when we finish our degrees. We're breaking bad habits like crazy. It used to be much higher than this. We ate an absurd amount of thai food. Also, we tend to spend a little extra on foods that we feel morally important (cage free eggs, etc.)
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Mar 10, 2011 18:16
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Pfhreak posted:Yep! We're working on it. We had some bad habits when we finish our degrees. We're breaking bad habits like crazy. It used to be much higher than this. We ate an absurd amount of thai food. I can understand this and was the same way...once you see it, it's really easy to reduce. I went from like 700 to 250 almost instantly without changing much of anything.
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Mar 10, 2011 18:24
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LorneReams posted:I can understand this and was the same way...once you see it, it's really easy to reduce. I went from like 700 to 250 almost instantly without changing much of anything. Yeah, we've already cut $200 off it last month (it was historically at $970). The goals is to keep attacking it each month until it's much more comfortable. Although I have no idea how you could get by on $250/month for two people. Well, actually I have some idea, but I think we'll end up setting the target a little higher than that.
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Mar 10, 2011 18:29
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Pfhreak posted:We're looking at a brand new car. Something in the ~$16K range, a subcompact commuter for me. So fixed expenses total about $2700 (Rent, utilities, car, loans, pets) Non-fixed are $1570 (Food, personal, misc) and savings are $600 with a little extra left over + variable. That $6000 in your chequing and savings account I would leave as a float and emergency fund, so maybe 2k of that for a downpayment at best. That leaves the rest of the payment to come out of your food, personal and misc expenses. Could you fit it in? Probably, if you are comfortable with cutting back on the other categories, I don't know that you can afford it at the moment though. I would say try cutting back what you can from your expenses for a couple of months to save for a downpayment and then re-evaluate to see what your numbers look like then.
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Mar 10, 2011 18:47
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Pfhreak posted:Yeah, we've already cut $200 off it last month (it was historically at $970). The goals is to keep attacking it each month until it's much more comfortable. Although I have no idea how you could get by on $250/month for two people. Well, actually I have some idea, but I think we'll end up setting the target a little higher than that. My fiancee and I spend around $400/month on two people (and that includes things like laundry detergent, etc.) and we buy lots of high protein and high quality foods. It's totally doable, but you may have to think differently or shop at a couple of places to make it work.
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Mar 10, 2011 18:51
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Nocheez posted:My fiancee and I spend around $400/month on two people (and that includes things like laundry detergent, etc.) and we buy lots of high protein and high quality foods. It's totally doable, but you may have to think differently or shop at a couple of places to make it work. Well, I can see $400 pretty easily with some focus.
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Mar 10, 2011 18:53
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I spend just under $200 on groceries a month, $100 on restaurants, $200 at the bars, $20 on coffee shops, and $30 on fast food. My food budget by myself (well some goes towards my girlfriend) is $550 a month. Take out a alcohol a separate thing and I'm still at $350. I don't know, Food/Drinking is my biggest expense after Rent/Utilities.
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Mar 10, 2011 23:22
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Is this thread ok for some questions about personal credit ratings ? I looked at the megathread listing, and nothing listed seemed appropriate. I'm not in a sub-500 rating OH GOD HELP ME situation, I just want a sanity check/opinion on some stuff that happened recently that will affect my score.
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Mar 11, 2011 22:46
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MREBoy posted:Is this thread ok for some questions about personal credit ratings ? I looked at the megathread listing, and nothing listed seemed appropriate. I'm not in a sub-500 rating OH GOD HELP ME situation, I just want a sanity check/opinion on some stuff that happened recently that will affect my score. Like what?
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Mar 11, 2011 23:02
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Zeta Taskforce posted:Like what? Item 1: Back in January, I got a letter from the finance company that provides me with my one actual credit card. The card in question was a $10k limit @ 6.99% Visa with a balance of $2,690. The letter stated that they did, in their words, a "profitability assessment" of my account, and since i've always paid on time and usually 2x/3x the suggested minimum, my reward was me being told to  with a 14% rate effective as of Feb 22. I got pretty pissed off, and went down to my credit union. They pulled my credit report and after a few minutes of calculating and filling out forms, I was told the best I could get was a $5k limit @ 11.99% unsecured Master Card. I said fine, whatever. I was given 2 options for a balance transfer: 0% for 6 months or 2% for 12 months. While I am financially stable, paying this off in 6 months would screw things up for me, so I took the 12 month option. Since then, I have received my tax refund, and I immediately threw $1,000 at this balance. That and the one payment I have made has the balance down to $1,540 as of today, and i'm on track to have this gone probably in 8 months or less.From reading a little about credit scores, I know that opening and closing accounts, along with % of credit limit utilized can affect your score. Would the above scenario have a net positive or negative affect on my score ? Item 2: The lady at the CU was nice enough to let me peek at the report they pulled, and it listed 2 negative items. One was a $255 emergency room Dr. bill from exactly 2 years ago. I paid that off last month, and the collection agency said they post stuff to the Big 3 on a monthly basis, so it should be reflected on my score by now. Second item was a $0 balance Best Buy issued credit card from a long time ago. From what I can remember, I bought something at BB, and immediately paid that off with a loan from my CU. At that point I probably chopped up the BB card and forgot all about it. So why is it showing up as a negative item, and is it worth the hassle to try and get it off my report ? Lady at the CU said I had a 707 FICO at that point. MREBoy fucked around with this message at 01:25 on Mar 12, 2011 |
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Mar 12, 2011 01:23
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You can pull your own credit report, for free, yes for free, at annualcreditreport.com and see what it's about or even call the company that manages the Best Buy card and ask. As to Issue 1, I'm a bit surprised you had a 10k limit on a 7% Visa with an income so low as to not be able to pay a $2700 balance in a few months. Not a slight against you, but in case you didn't hear most of the financial institutions raised rates and slashed limits in 2008-2009 due to the credit crunch. Your score, if it's right, is pretty darn good and puts you in the upper 1/3rd and depending on your age could be even better. Do not close your old account as it will gently caress you more than it will gently caress them (assuming there's no annual fee). Put something on auto-bill pay on the card like your netflix or your water bill. You want to keep a transaction showing some utilization and then pay it off every month. Also if you're worried about your score it can be a good idea in the long run to have a few open. For god's sake, at least have one from MasterCard in case you find your self at a store that doesn't take Visa.
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Mar 12, 2011 05:44
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I don't agree that you have to keep every single credit card you ever opened up for the rest of your life like you are making a charm bracelet, nor do I think it irrevocably shatters your credit to close an account that you never intend to use again. Worry about your finances, save money, be able to pay cash for small stuff and have downpayments for the big ticket stuff and your credit will take care of itsself. Also, is there anywhere that takes Mastercard and not Visa? If you have a 707 score in spite of a couple small collection accounts on your credit, everything else must be really solid. There is nothing wrong with a 707. There is not much you can do with the doctor bill, but after a year it will barely count against you. The Best Buy thing, I don't quite follow. It was always a zero balance, yet they are reporting it as a negative? Dispute the thing. It is worth the hassle. It probably wasn't profitable for Chase to offer a 6.99% card. Kind of surprised they did. 14% isn't awful, but let that be a lesson as to how the big credit card issuers work. Your card comes with a 12 page card holder agreement that no one reads and you wouldn't understand it even if you did, and they can change it anytime they feel like it. They need not stop at 14%. Also, don't feel slighted that your credit union gave you a smaller limit. Every financial institution has different lending criteria and if they are more conservative, that probably means they are more responsible and will have fewer loan losses and better rates in the end.
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Mar 12, 2011 23:17
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Just to alleviate the  looks out there - i'm a 37 year old white guy who has been in debt in some form of another since 1993. Every single big ticket item i've bought or needed a loan for in the last 18 years was done through my credit union. Things like a PC laptop, Mac laptop, emergency loan to pay for backing into some lady's BMW with my '78 Chevy station wagon, occasional Best Buy purchases, things like that. I got to know a loan/finance officer lady on a first name basis after a while. Latest thing I have paid off was a 60 month term $13k used car loan, and I paid that off a full 8 months early. As of right now the only debts I have are the $1,560 and about $4,000 in student loans, which don't come due till early 2012 - and I already have $5k in leftover Pell/Stafford? grant $$$ to pay that off with.About a year ago my CU (lets call them Lighthouse CU) agreed to be acquired by another local CU. As part of this, their entire credit card portfolio got sold off to BlaBlah Financial Services. This is the card I mentioned in my above post. I got the card at least 5-6 years ago at Lighthouse CU when I was working 45-50 hrs/week @ $11.50/hr as a Burger King shift manager. I had that job from Oct '01 to Feb '08. Got fired in Feb '08, and I decided to go back to school. Since then I have been working part time (15-30 hrs/week) at a Subway for $8.50 an hr. So for the last 3 years, income = outlay with not a whole lot in the way of extra $$. I already did the annualcreditreport.com thing back in January, but I didn't save any of the info on the Best Buy entry. If I want to get a report on myself for the purposes of disputing the Best Buy thing, should I buy from all Big 3 or just 1 or is there some other way to get it free ?
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Mar 12, 2011 23:59
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MREBoy posted:Just to alleviate the I'm a loan officer at a credit union and you sound like some of our members. Some people I just hear their voice and know exactly who they are. Don't bother asking them their date of birth or whatever to identify them. That makes sense with the Chase credit card. That is a hot topic in the credit union world, to sell off a card portfolio or not. The big banks lust after credit union debt. It was responsibly underwritten, there's a relationship there, the default rates are very low. They will buy the entire card program for a premium. That sounds good for a credit union trying to open a branch or going through a cash crunch, but they risk killing the goose that lays the golden egg, especially when places like Chase start acting like Chase. You can only go to https://www.annualcreditreport.com once a year for the freebe, but there are tons of sites out there, https://www.myfico.com freecreditreport.com, etc that will give it to you for free, but then sign you up for a 30 day trial of whatever monitoring service they have. You just have to remember to cancel it. You have been living so frugally for so long since you have been in school, the temptation might be to slip back into old spending habits once you graduate and have more money. Credit Union debt is better than Bank of America debt, but you don't want to do what you have been doing for the next 18 years. Some of those first name basis members we have are in their 50's and 60's and you don't want to be that age and still depending on a loan here and there every time you want something. But that's my $.02.
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Mar 13, 2011 01:29
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This might not be the best thread for this but the bankruptcy thread has gone into the archives and I didn't really want to make a separate thread for this, but anyway... Could I get some pointers on how best to start rebuilding my credit since declaring bankruptcy? My Chapter 7 bankruptcy was discharged in October of 2010. The only thing I've done so far in relation to my credit was get a secured credit card with Capital One (they approved me for one where I sent them 50 bucks and I got a card with a $200 limit). I've been thinking about getting another similar secured card from USBank (though for theirs I'll have to pony up at least 300 for an equivalent limit). I have student loans still on my report that are in deferment right now and will be for 2 more years till I graduate. I want to rebuild my credit as much as possible in the next 2 years so that when I graduate I'll have a decent credit scores and it won't be a black mark for potential employers, and then maybe another year and I might want a small auto loan. My thoughts are to get the additional secured card from USBank with the 300 limit, then in about 6 months attempt to increase both card's limits to 500. Then about 6 months after that try for a regular unsecured card. Then let things sit for a year and then it'll be time for me to graduate and I will hopefully have decent credit. Also, I've been actually getting several regular credit card offers in the mail recently, basically ever since I started that secured card with Capital One (and they have to know I declared bankruptcy). I have no significant income right now having gone back to school (just 50 bucks in workstudy per week), however I have a decent internship lined up for this summer paying 12/hour. Should I just go ahead and apply for a regular card at the end of the summer? Also, I have about $1000 I could potentially throw at something like a personal loan secured through a CD, if that would help a considerable amount. I just want to do whatever would be most beneficial in the next 2 years.
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Mar 13, 2011 23:52
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I just pulled up my FICO score recently and discovered I have a pretty high credit score for some reason. My wife and I are in the process or prepping our house to be sold and purchasing a new one. There's some pretty major repairs that need to be done and I was thinking of getting an unsecured loan from my bank for around 20k or close as possible to complete the necessary repairs. We plan on paying off the loan immediately once our house is sold. We also have 2 auto loans for about 25k which we're thinking about paying off with the home sale as well. My question is, would having this loan out impact my APR on the new house more than not having this loan? We're looking to have somewhere from 60%-80% down on the new home with a 15yr fixed so I think we could get a pretty good rate to begin with. Also, my bank is with Chase, would it still be possible to talk to a credit union for a loan if I don't have an account with them yet? FCKGW fucked around with this message at 03:39 on Mar 16, 2011 |
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Mar 16, 2011 02:35
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Today at work, I received a call from a man claiming he was from my insurance company, and my Audi was repaired and ready for pickup. I was confused and he continued to verify my name but nothing else (no personal info). He then said he must have made a mistake and hung up before I could ask him what company he worked for. I know this sounds stupid, but for someone to call my work number at the location I work at (and not corporate) and have my full legal name kinda freaked me out. I do not own an Audi, no one in my family or my girlfriend owns one, and I have not reported any accidents ever. I'm just worried that someone got my info somehow, but I checked my bank and CC accounts, and I have Identity Guard and that didn't report anything either. I pulled my credit report a week or so ago and it was good, although I did notice my employer's information was on there now. Please tell me it's ok and I'm worried about nothing or what else to check.
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Mar 16, 2011 02:39
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If I had to guess, and it's a total guess, you have the same name as the person who owns the Audi? Is your name fairly common?
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Mar 16, 2011 05:08
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Edit: doublepost
maskenfreiheit fucked around with this message at 01:40 on Mar 13, 2017 |
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Mar 16, 2011 05:13
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This might be the wrong thread for this question, but do credit card companies actually verify how much you say you're making when you do applications for a card? Considering I have applied and basically been approved instantly it doesn't seem that way. Is this just an honor system thing?
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Mar 18, 2011 22:20
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RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS posted:This might be the wrong thread for this question, but do credit card companies actually verify how much you say you're making when you do applications for a card? Considering I have applied and basically been approved instantly it doesn't seem that way. Is this just an honor system thing? Yes, there is no way for them to verify this short of you sending them the documentation. Also as a side note, I have gotten three cards through Citi and each one has been 1/10 of the income I put on the application rounded to the nearest $500.
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Mar 18, 2011 22:30
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alreadybeen posted:Yes, there is no way for them to verify this short of you sending them the documentation. Also as a side note, I have gotten three cards through Citi and each one has been 1/10 of the income I put on the application rounded to the nearest $500. I can I don't think if you put down something like 250k or something crazy that they would give you a 25k limit, bit perhaps it holds anywhere up to 100k or some other unknown threshold.
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Mar 18, 2011 23:03
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Remember if you "exaggerate", it has the possibility of making the debt undischargable during a BK proceeding as that is a common (and easy) thing to check during the 341 meeting.
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Mar 18, 2011 23:14
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