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LorneReams posted:Unless the value decreses year over year, then you aren't building equity anyway. You're still building equity as long as you're paying your mortgage. You're simply paying a high premium for that equity if your house value is decreasing.
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Aug 31, 2011 20:55
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drawkcab si eman ym posted:I'm a 22 year old student who has a part-time job and I'm a full time student and I have two questions: Check and see if there are any fees associated with the card. There'd be no point in getting one that you aren't even going to use much if it has an annual fee. I do not think it'd hurt you to get another card and it probably would help your score, PROVIDED THAT YOU PAY IT OFF AT THE END OF EVERY MONTH. You say you have never had a late payment, which is good, but it's better to not carry a balance at all (which you may not be doing anyway; it's a little unclear from your post). Yes, being on time with your bills is good for you. Well, mostly, being late with them hurts you. Either way, you ought to pay them on time so you don't have to spend extra in fees!
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Aug 31, 2011 21:45
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baquerd posted:You're still building equity as long as you're paying your mortgage. You're simply paying a high premium for that equity if your house value is decreasing. If you bought a home in 2006 for 250K and you financed 215K, and it's worth ~150K in 2010 (which is VERY common in many areas), how much equity do you have in 2010? Now it's 2011 and it's worth $130K, do you have more equity?
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Aug 31, 2011 22:18
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baquerd posted:You're still building equity as long as you're paying your mortgage. You're simply paying a high premium for that equity if your house value is decreasing. You're still losing money. If a home was $250,000 when you bought it and is now $200,000, you've lost $50,000. And based on how mortgages are setup, you're paying mostly interest at the start of your mortgage. So you could be a few years in and barely have any equity in the home.
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Aug 31, 2011 22:26
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Is there an Apartment/Rental thread? Not sure if this is the best place for this. I'm about to sign the lease to my new apartment tomorrow (September 1), which is a 2 bed 1 bath. Heres the question: One room is maybe 1/3 larger than the other, and the apartment also comes with 1 underground parking space. I would like the parking space and wouldn't mind the smaller room. I figure having the parking space and the smaller room would allow us to split rent down the middle as usual. Either that or I get the space as well as the larger room and pay more. But how much more would the extra space and parking space be worth? The rent is $1400/month combined. Edit: Thanks Eggplant. Chinatown fucked around with this message at 01:38 on Sep 1, 2011 |
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Aug 31, 2011 22:32
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Edit: nevermind
baquerd fucked around with this message at 23:04 on Aug 31, 2011 |
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Aug 31, 2011 23:00
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Chinatown posted:Is there an Apartment/Rental thread? Not sure if this is the best place for this. Apartment thread is here. The answer is "talk to your roommate." Guys, drop the house thing. It's clearly irrelevant to the discussion since the options in question are not house or apartment, but trailer or apartment. Shut up.
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Aug 31, 2011 23:01
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Eggplant Wizard posted:Check and see if there are any fees associated with the card. There'd be no point in getting one that you aren't even going to use much if it has an annual fee. I do not think it'd hurt you to get another card and it probably would help your score, PROVIDED THAT YOU PAY IT OFF AT THE END OF EVERY MONTH. You say you have never had a late payment, which is good, but it's better to not carry a balance at all (which you may not be doing anyway; it's a little unclear from your post). Thanks for the advice. I always pay the full amount due on my card before the statement is due and I have never carried a balance or paid any interest fees on it. I basically treat it like a debit card.
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Sep 1, 2011 04:50
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I have a stupid question about credit/debit card refunds, not sure if it's better to post here or in the general A/T questions thread though.  Basically I paid for some tickets to an event back in March and now I can't use two of them, so I emailed the event organiser to see if it was possible to get a refund. He replied back to say that it would be totally fine, I should just call his mobile and give him my credit card details and he'd arrange the refund. I asked a couple of people about this because it sounds like a pretty scammy/dangerous thing to do and the general consensus from them was that it is about the same as buying stuff over the phone, like on a late-night shopping channel or something, so I shouldn't be worried. Anyway I guess what I'm asking is... if it's OK to give my debit card info to some guy I don't know.  That sounds really stupid, but I have no clue whether this is a common practice where he really does need my card info to arrange the refund. What details are normally provided in this situation?
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Sep 1, 2011 11:36
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naptalan posted:Anyway I guess what I'm asking is... if it's OK to give my debit card info to some guy I don't know. He does need the credit/debit number to process a refund. How else will he know what account to put it on? Generally it’s OK to give whatever personal information the other party needs if you initiated the call. If someone else initiates the call and starts asking for stuff, then red flags should go up. Even if it is a place you have done business with before.
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Sep 1, 2011 16:12
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5t1n6r4y posted:My options were limited. Part of my compensation is a $540/mo after tax vehicle allowance. In order to receive it, the vehicle must be: You make the same mistake that everyone makes with a vehicle allowance. You took the allowance and viewed it as your responsibility to spend all of it. You are comparing yourself to everyone else, and it sounds like everyone else did the same exact thing. Everyone else is broke. Based on those criteria, you could have gotten a truck coming off a lease for half that and still driven it for a couple years. It sounds like you do a lot of driving and towing for your job. You don’t need to drive a $30K or 40K truck into the ground. How about driving a $15Kor $20K truck into the ground instead? quote:I think I got a really good deal. I bought the truck for $34,500 and have kept it in excellent condition. Kelly Blue Book values it at $34,150 trade-in or $37,940 private party. If I can't use KBB, how should I value the vehicle? KBB always inflates values. It’s still a good website to do research and compare options, but it gives high values. Its like Prairie home companion, where all the children are above average. It allows every single dealer say they are below Blue Book. Check to see how similar vehicles are listed on craigslist and autotrader, keeping in mind that these are the listing prices, not what a buyer negotiated down. quote:I've heard that the rate may increase to $75/day. If that happens, I'll re-evaluate the trailer situation. Not at all. The point isn’t that you can skim $20/day off the top. All you can see is the upside. I’m telling you look at the downside. There is one way your deal will work out, and if it does, it will really work out. But what if it doesn’t? If you go out and borrow $20,000 and your job ends? Then you are stuck with a worn out trailer you don’t need and a big loan. What if they hire a new accountant who figures out it’s cheaper to put you up in an extended stay suite for $1000/mo than pay out $75/day so you can haul a trailer everywhere? If you had the cash or had a paid for trailer, I would tell you to do this yesterday, but you don’t. You already have too much tied up in stuff and you can’t afford the downside.
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Sep 1, 2011 16:49
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A quick newbie question. As the new school year starts, I'm getting my first real paycheck. Before the end of the year, I can either put 5k into Roth IRA or 5k into my emergency fund (6 months of living expenses). I feel like I can get away with putting it into my Roth IRA because if something extreme happens, I can ask my parents or boyfriend to dig me out. But I'm not sure this is exactly the most responsible thing to think. I just don't want to miss out on another year. For reference, I'm 24, in grad school, living at home (with no way I'm getting kicked out or anything). I do have to maintain a car to commute to school, which is my one thing that may go crazy. But this summer I had it maintained and a lot of things switched out.
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Sep 2, 2011 00:59
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I've posted here before about narrowly avoiding having unpaid phone contracts sent to collection agencies. I'm sort of at that point again. The actual overdue amount is pretty minimal, 800 dollars, something I would have never had an issue with if I could just find some legitimate work, but that just isn't working out for me. I organised a payment plan with my debtor, my plans all fell through and I'm left hanging with no money and not much time before I'm left dealing with a collection agency. I know there are plenty of resources available for dealing with collection agencies, but they're typically always aimed at Americans - I'm Australian and don't know how much of the advice I can find actually applies for me. I guess my big newbie question is: Collection agency gets my debt -> Credit rating damaged -> What happens now if I pay what I owe to my new debtors? Does this fix my credit rating?
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Sep 2, 2011 03:33
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Rurutia posted:A quick newbie question. As the new school year starts, I'm getting my first real paycheck. Before the end of the year, I can either put 5k into Roth IRA or 5k into my emergency fund (6 months of living expenses). I feel like I can get away with putting it into my Roth IRA because if something extreme happens, I can ask my parents or boyfriend to dig me out. But I'm not sure this is exactly the most responsible thing to think. I just don't want to miss out on another year. You're living at home, so your emergency fund isn't really that important if you're cool with your situation. You should definitely plan to have it before you strike out on your own. I'd go for the Roth if you can 100% rely on your parents to fix your car if it breaks.
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Sep 2, 2011 04:29
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baquerd posted:You're living at home, so your emergency fund isn't really that important if you're cool with your situation. You should definitely plan to have it before you strike out on your own. I'd go for the Roth if you can 100% rely on your parents to fix your car if it breaks. Yeah, asian family and all the cultural stuff that comes with it.
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Sep 2, 2011 05:39
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Rurutia posted:A quick newbie question. As the new school year starts, I'm getting my first real paycheck. Before the end of the year, I can either put 5k into Roth IRA or 5k into my emergency fund (6 months of living expenses). I feel like I can get away with putting it into my Roth IRA because if something extreme happens, I can ask my parents or boyfriend to dig me out. But I'm not sure this is exactly the most responsible thing to think. I just don't want to miss out on another year. You can take out the principle of your Roth IRA penalty and tax free. So in a way, it can be an emergency fund at the same time. I would definitely fund the Roth for that reason as well as the "use it or lose it" aspect of them.
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Sep 2, 2011 05:48
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Niwrad posted:You can take out the principle of your Roth IRA penalty and tax free. You have to be careful not to accidentally withdraw earnings and you don't get that year's contributions back (you withdraw $1000 of principal some time in the future and you are still limited to your $5000 contribution limit for that year) baquerd fucked around with this message at 05:57 on Sep 2, 2011 |
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Sep 2, 2011 05:55
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Niwrad posted:You can take out the principle of your Roth IRA penalty and tax free. So in a way, it can be an emergency fund at the same time. I would definitely fund the Roth for that reason as well as the "use it or lose it" aspect of them. Bingo. Put the money into a money market fund and it'll basically just sit there, but it can pull double duty as both an emergency fund AND Roth contribution until you need to pull it out or are in a position to move it into other assets.
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Sep 2, 2011 11:54
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Dick Danger posted:I guess my big newbie question is: Collection agency gets my debt -> Credit rating damaged -> What happens now if I pay what I owe to my new debtors? Does this fix my credit rating?
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Sep 2, 2011 12:28
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I just checked my credit score on identity guard and it tanked from 750 to 660 with no change in credit history from when I last checked it 2 months ago. And apparently using $650/$5000 credit limit is high usage, but eliminating that entirely would only put me at 700. All of my cards are in good standing, I haven't been late on any of them except for 1 card which I paid 30 days late over a year ago. I don't carry any balances. I have no collection items, no public filings. What happened? 
Rurutia fucked around with this message at 17:00 on Sep 2, 2011 |
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Sep 2, 2011 16:56
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Rurutia posted:I just checked my credit score on identity guard and it tanked from 750 to 660 with no change in credit history from when I last checked it 2 months ago. And apparently using $650/$5000 credit limit is high usage, but eliminating that entirely would only put me at 700. All of my cards are in good standing, I haven't been late on any of them except for 1 card which I paid 30 days late over a year ago. I don't carry any balances. I have no collection items, no public filings. Debt to income ratio may have gone over a threshold value, but $650/5000 is only 13% utilization and shouldn't be a negative. But that's not your real credit score but only an estimated one so who knows, they could have changed their formula.
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Sep 2, 2011 17:22
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baquerd posted:Debt to income ratio may have gone over a threshold value, but $650/5000 is only 13% utilization and shouldn't be a negative. But that's not your real credit score but only an estimated one so who knows, they could have changed their formula. How do they know my income? I've recently changed income level so can I update it somewhere? And I thought that was supposed to be the actual credit score? If it's not, then what am I paying for? Rurutia fucked around with this message at 17:35 on Sep 2, 2011 |
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Sep 2, 2011 17:32
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Rurutia posted:How do they know my income? I've recently changed income level so can I update it somewhere? And I thought that was supposed to be the actual credit score? If it's not, then what am I paying for? I don't know what you're paying for or where they get their income data. http://www.identityguard.com/faq quote:Q. Is my credit report and score the same as my FICO score?
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Sep 2, 2011 17:42
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baquerd posted:I don't know what you're paying for or where they get their income data. By they, I meant the credit bureaus. But I guess you're implying that it's the people who calculate the the scores who pulls income info? I was mostly being rhetorical when I was asking what I was paying for. I didn't realize you meant they used a formula other than FICO. IdentityGuard has just been the most recommended credit monitoring service from what I've seen. Is there a benefit to getting one that uses the FICO score? Thanks for answering all my questions. It was just a bit of a shock to see the drop.
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Sep 2, 2011 17:53
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Rurutia posted:By they, I meant the credit bureaus. But I guess you're implying that it's the people who calculate the the scores who pulls income info? Income seems to be updated when you apply for credit. I'm not 100% on this, but I know for example that if you would like a larger credit line, updating your income with your creditor can help them do that for you and this will then be stored and likely passed on to reporting agencies. quote:I was mostly being rhetorical when I was asking what I was paying for. I didn't realize you meant they used a formula other than FICO. IdentityGuard has just been the most recommended credit monitoring service from what I've seen. Is there a benefit to getting one that uses the FICO score? My understanding is that credit monitoring services are generally money pits and the protection they offer is marginal at best. I am unfamiliar with this company in particular. The benefit to getting your real FICO is that it is the number that most creditors will be looking at. It's probably not important unless you are looking to check it prior to major loan applications.
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Sep 2, 2011 18:07
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Rurutia, credit score changes of 30 or 40 points for no apparent reason at all are quite common. 90 is a bit unusual. I’m not clear if this is an actual score or if it is this identity guard’s interpretation of how they will think FICO will score your data. But it is still possible that they reconfigured how some part of their algorithm works. I see scores all day as a loan officer, and sometimes I see a high score that corresponds to what I consider lackluster credit. Sometimes it works the other way where a low score is assigned to credit that I don’t think is horrible. With a swing that much, its likely that you were never good enough to earn a “real” 750, but 660 might also be too much of a correction. But don’t obsess about your score and depending on how much you are paying for this identity guard thing, there may be wiser places to spend money. Your savings, income, or debt to income ratio are not factors that affect your score.
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Sep 2, 2011 18:20
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Zeta Taskforce posted:Your savings, income, or debt to income ratio are not factors that affect your score. What? That can't be right. Someone who has just maxed out all their credit lines gets the same score as someone with 0 utilization as long as their history is the same? If your income triples, your ability to pay back loans changes, but this isn't in the score?
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Sep 2, 2011 18:24
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If you're really concerned, I'd try and pull it directly from FICO. These other places have their own formulas that can sometimes be wildly inaccurate. I've also suspected some of doing things on purpose to upsell customers into something else.
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Sep 2, 2011 18:24
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If I saw an 100 point swing in my credit I would probably pull a report to make sure nothing had happened that I didn't know about. Is that paranoid? I feel like if I ignored it and then it turned out someone had opened a card in my name I didn't find out about until collectors started calling I'd feel pretty dumb.
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Sep 2, 2011 18:26
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I think the service he signed up for is setup to notify you of any changes to your credit report. It should send him an alert saying "New Account Opened: Chase Bank".
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Sep 2, 2011 18:29
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Ashcans posted:If I saw an 100 point swing in my credit I would probably pull a report to make sure nothing had happened that I didn't know about. Is that paranoid? I feel like if I ignored it and then it turned out someone had opened a card in my name I didn't find out about until collectors started calling I'd feel pretty dumb. Not at all. The monitor does show any inquiries etc. I've had 1 inquiry in the past year in May and nothing else really. All the accounts are mine. It's why I am so baffled because literally nothing has changed except my income level went up and so did my credit limits.  I did check my FICO score on myFico.com and it shows the same change so...  @Zeta: It's $15/month and I'm still on a 30day trial. I'll probably cancel it.
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Sep 2, 2011 18:31
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baquerd posted:What? That can't be right. Someone who has just maxed out all their credit lines gets the same score as someone with 0 utilization as long as their history is the same? If your income triples, your ability to pay back loans changes, but this isn't in the score? To calculate your debt to income ratio, you add up all your installment debt payments, loans you cosigned for, minimum payments on credit cards and your housing expense (rent or mortgage). You divide that into your gross income to form a percent. This ratio is something your bank will be very interested in knowing and calculating, but it there is no way it will affect your credit score. There is no way for the credit bureaus to even know it because they don’t know your income. You might be thinking of credit utilization, which they can measure and very much affects your score. But someone who has a $5000 credit card that is maxed out and a min payment of $150 and someone with the same debt, same min payment, but a $50,000 limit will have identical debt to income rations provided they have the same income.
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Sep 2, 2011 19:13
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I'd like to start putting $10 a paycheck toward something for each of my 3 nieces, to give to them when they turn 18. It'll be 8 years til the first one turns, what's the best thing to invest in a little at a time? Just create a savings account? Savings bonds?
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Sep 3, 2011 03:26
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Medullah posted:I'd like to start putting $10 a paycheck toward something for each of my 3 nieces, to give to them when they turn 18. It'll be 8 years til the first one turns, what's the best thing to invest in a little at a time? Just create a savings account? Savings bonds? There's nothing you're going to be able to invest in $10 at a time with nothing upfront except for a savings or high yield checking account.
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Sep 3, 2011 03:36
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baquerd posted:There's nothing you're going to be able to invest in $10 at a time with nothing upfront except for a savings or high yield checking account. Would I be better off just earmarking the cash then until I hit $50/$100? I figure I get paid twice a month, that ends up being $260 a year for each of them.
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Sep 3, 2011 03:55
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T0MSERV0 posted:Bingo. Put the money into a money market fund and it'll basically just sit there, but it can pull double duty as both an emergency fund AND Roth contribution until you need to pull it out or are in a position to move it into other assets. I don't like the idea of using a roth as an emergency fund. It's true that you can take out your contributions without penalty, but so much of finance is behavior and not just math. There it's a difference in how you view it if you put money in with the attitude you might take it out 3 months later.
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Sep 3, 2011 04:09
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So after a year in the US I decided to run my credit. This was partly motivated by the fact that while away on an internship I forgot to pay a $300 balance on a $500 secured credit card for two months and got an angry paper letter from my bank. Paid $100 into it and will take care of the rest this week since my paychecks and reimbursements are kicking in. From my credit score and credit report my findings were the following. I was only able to pull a score from Experian. Equifax either gave me a bunch of bogus verification questions which kinda freaked me out since they were talking about loans and stuff that I clearly never took out (so did Experian but they actually stated that if the questions meant nothing to me, I should click "non of the above") and ultimately locked me out. Transunion won't even let me get to the verification part as "for security reasons my personal credit report is not available online". I guess I'll call em Monday and sort it out. From Experian, my report showed one credit card account in good standing and "never late" which was also interesting since I was actually late. Then I pulled my VantageScore (loving $7.50) which 691 with a category of Non-Prime and a risk factor of D. The reasonings were: 1) Too few accounts (expected). 2) Too little available credit (expected, it's only $500 on a secured CC). 3) Late payments in the recent months (which is interesting since on my report it stated that the late payment wasn't actually reported :/) 4) Oldest account is too young (expected since I only got a CC last year being an international student) 5) The report shows inquiries on file. Now I have two inquiries from Bofa and Chase from back in 2010 when I tried to get CCs with them without a record. Those, I actually requested. Then I have some taht I didn't request from my bank and then a BUNCH from Capital One that keeps sending me preapproved CC offers in the mail. To my understanding, the second kind of requests don't count against your score, right? Regarding improving my score, I plan to take two steps. One is clear out my balance and ensure that I never carry one from now on. I admit I was misinformed up until I dug up this thread about the concept of credit utilization ratio. Number two involves getting a second card somewhere. Small line of credit (max $1000) that I can support on my monthly stipend and still pay out in full. On that point, can I stick with my current bank? They are a credit union with on campus stores and great service and they can offer me a student card now that I am registered for courses. Or is it better in terms of my score to also get a card with another company (if they will actually provide me with one). Comments goons? e: Apparently Transunion has a completely zeroed out social on record for me...I guess they have me in the system back from the time when I didn't have a social security number... shodanjr_gr fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Sep 3, 2011 |
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Sep 3, 2011 08:31
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shodanjr_gr posted:From Experian, my report showed one credit card account in good standing and "never late" which was also interesting since I was actually late.
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Sep 5, 2011 02:41
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shodanjr_gr posted:Regarding improving my score, I plan to take two steps. If anything, the passage of time will do more to establish your credit than anything else. It's pretty tough not to be maxed out, or close to it on a $500 line, but as soon as you pay it off, that part of your credit will bounce right back. You were dinged by missing the payment for 2 months in a row, but if you are never late again, its not going to be a huge blow to your credit a year from now.
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Sep 5, 2011 02:59
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Speaking of credit score and history, this moron(duxwig) is looking to figure out his credit history. I'm not so much concerned about my score, just getting a good history to see what's past due, what accounts are opened, what's closed and whatever else the reports are supposed to show. I used MyFICO about 2 or 3 years ago and from what I remember it was very basic in what it actually gave me to help decipher what was messed up....in addition I paid off a bank mess up about 10 years ago while I was in college and it's still apparently viewed as "open/unpaid" on my credit score(so says old apartment complex) and yet the bank account was never listed on any of the MyFICO reports the last time I did it. I know the apartment place wasnt yanking me around since I had muuuuuuuuch worse credit card past due stuff as a college student. If at all possible, not looking to pay an arm and a leg(how much is considered too much for a credit report to figure this stuff out?) Duxwig fucked around with this message at 00:29 on Sep 7, 2011 |
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Sep 7, 2011 00:22
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