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Zeta Buttforce posted:Well, I guess I will take you at your word. I work at a credit union and if we are doing a car loan or equity, we are already asking for so much, proof of insurance, appraisal, etc, that asking for a paystub feels like an afterthought. HELOCs usually have such low LTVs that VOI weren't neccessary before.
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Mar 7, 2012 19:17
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Zeta Buttforce posted:What does it mean your $10,000 student loan ruined it? Were you late or had it gone to collections? How long ago was it? Is the $4000 because they offered you a settlement? I am very late on the 10,000 payment. I incurred it in January 2010, and it was due immediately. Only recently have I begun getting aggressive about paying it off. The debt was in the hands of the collections agency for a while, but then was returned to the state school again. The gist of it is that it was a hosed up family situation which ended up with my being 10 grand in debt and not knowing it for a long time. My parents sent me to college and lied to me about handling the aid. For more information, see: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3468609 The reason it's $4000 is because my mother and I can combine our tax returns to make 5000, and I have 1000 I can contribute as well while still leaving 1000 in savings in case of emergency.
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Mar 7, 2012 19:42
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Anonymous Robot posted:I am very late on the 10,000 payment. I incurred it in January 2010, and it was due immediately. Only recently have I begun getting aggressive about paying it off. The debt was in the hands of the collections agency for a while, but then was returned to the state school again. The gist of it is that it was a hosed up family situation which ended up with my being 10 grand in debt and not knowing it for a long time. My parents sent me to college and lied to me about handling the aid. For more information, see: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3468609 Got it. Sorry to hear about your situation. You’re right that UMass has zero incentive to settle. Student loans are federally guaranteed, so if you don’t pay the US taxpayer will. UMass gets their money either way. You and your parents are sort of in this together. Are you working right now? Are they? You have nothing to lose by applying for a loan, but if you don’t get approved, or if you do at nosebleed rates, then you have to be OK with plan B which sounds a lot like you get whatever job you can get and you live on nothing and save $4000 and your parents do the same.
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Mar 7, 2012 19:57
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Tortilla Maker posted:I updated my CreditKarma score today and noticed that there was a hard inquiry on my credit report in the past 30 days. I haven't applied for any additional credit. Hey username buddy!  Just call whichever burea(s) the inquiry's at and ask about it, they should be able to give you additional information. Hard inquiries generally only show when you've applied for a new loan or something similar, so I'd definitely check it out if you don't remember applying for anything recently. Places that have all your financial information can (and sometimes will) apply for loans or lines of credit without your knowledge - this happened to me at my credit union recently.
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Mar 8, 2012 00:28
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I recently spent a long while out of work, before moving across the country for a new job. Extended lack of income and one-time costs tied with moving mean I'm now pretty deep in two overdrafts and have a fair ammount of credit card debt. Probably a total of £2000 overdraft and £4000 credit card. I've started looking at taking out a personal loan aroudn the £7000 mark (gives me some breathing room and anything less will be at a higher rate) need to look around more yet but right now I'm thinking of taking £7500 paid back over 2 years with Tesco. Is this a good way to go, making my repayments predicatable each month so I can budget and reducing the risks of charges for hitting limits on my accounts and the like? Or is it a terrible idea in a way I have yet to fathom?
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Mar 9, 2012 13:30
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I use a credit card for almost all of my monthly expenses (and pay it off every month). It has a lowish credit limit so I tend to have a high utilization percentage. I was thinking of asking for a limit increase so it looks better on my credit report, as I may be moving in a few months and I want to look good for potential landlords. Is there any particular trick to this other than just calling up the company and asking for more credit?
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Mar 9, 2012 15:33
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For some reason I thought overdrafts in the UK were 0% interest, is that not true?
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Mar 9, 2012 15:34
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Third Murderer posted:I use a credit card for almost all of my monthly expenses (and pay it off every month). It has a lowish credit limit so I tend to have a high utilization percentage. I was thinking of asking for a limit increase so it looks better on my credit report, as I may be moving in a few months and I want to look good for potential landlords. Is there any particular trick to this other than just calling up the company and asking for more credit? They might bump you up here and there, but not enough to matter unless you ask. One thing to be careful about is don’t start spending more just because you have a larger limit. I know this is obvious, and everyone says that they won’t do it, but be careful. A couple years ago I went to a Visa conference about how to make your card program more profitable, and one of the things they were pushing was bumping peoples credit lines up. There is very convincing research that each of us have a comfort level about how much debt we carry, and if someone is comfortable using 40% of their limit and they have a balance of $2000 on a $5000 limit card, and you increase them to $10,000, their balance tends to float toward $4000 over time. My guess is that if you have good references, your credit is at least average, you can demonstrate you have the ability to pay the rent, and you don’t smell bad and you show up in clean clothes, you won’t have any problems finding an apartment.
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Mar 9, 2012 16:30
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Harry posted:For some reason I thought overdrafts in the UK were 0% interest, is that not true? Varies, I had a 0% overdraft as a student, think it's around the 18% mark now on one of them, the other charges £1 a day for using it. I've also upgrades an account to have a £300 free overdraft, and then paying if I go over that.
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Mar 9, 2012 16:31
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Quick (should be easy) question: I'm receiving about 3500 back in school funding next week. I'm looking for smart things to do with the cash. The only debt I currently have is more car loan which I have about 12k left in principal. I had planned on buying a new iPad with the money since I've wanted a tablet for almost a year now. I have a 401k but have also been wanting a ROTH IRA as well. My emergency fund is lacking right now with only about 300 in it. So I was thinking... 550 for iPad HD (base model, cheapest) 1000 to open the roth IRA through vanguard putting in 100 monthly (not much, but its all I wanna commit to currently) Should I build my emergency fund back up to 1k and put the rest into the car? Sorry for the ugly post, my thoughts are everywhere this morning!
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Mar 9, 2012 16:34
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Zeta Buttforce posted:They might bump you up here and there, but not enough to matter unless you ask. Thanks for the warning, although I'm not really worried about my spending; I've never carried even a penny of debt from one month to the next except for my student loans, which are gone now, and I've always been extremely averse to debt in general. I use a credit card only for the extra layer of protection (i.e. if someone steals it they're not accessing my actual money).
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Mar 9, 2012 19:04
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Third Murderer posted:Thanks for the warning, although I'm not really worried about my spending; I've never carried even a penny of debt from one month to the next except for my student loans, which are gone now, and I've always been extremely averse to debt in general. I use a credit card only for the extra layer of protection (i.e. if someone steals it they're not accessing my actual money). You can call approximately every 6 months and ask for a credit line increase. Depending on your credit card they might even tell you on the phone (I know my BofA CC does) how much you can ask for. I have a calendar entry set to repeat every 6 months to remind me to call and have my limits raised. Haven't failed yet and have steadily marched them higher, giving me more flexibility and making my monthly spend on them a trifling % utilization.
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Mar 9, 2012 20:22
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I've got a quick question about credit cards. I have had 1 chase and 1 citi card for about 4 -5 years each. 3 years ago I used them to do some house renovations. They were maxed out at ~$6000 each for a while but now I am close to having them both payed off. Do I have to worry about them closing the account when I get the balance back to $0? Does it make sense to leave a balance of a dollar or something to make sure they stay open?
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Mar 9, 2012 23:27
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Dial M for MURDER posted:I've got a quick question about credit cards. I have had 1 chase and 1 citi card for about 4 -5 years each. 3 years ago I used them to do some house renovations. They were maxed out at ~$6000 each for a while but now I am close to having them both payed off. Do I have to worry about them closing the account when I get the balance back to $0? Does it make sense to leave a balance of a dollar or something to make sure they stay open? What possible reason do you think they have to close it?
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Mar 9, 2012 23:32
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BizarroAzrael posted:I recently spent a long while out of work, before moving across the country for a new job. Extended lack of income and one-time costs tied with moving mean I'm now pretty deep in two overdrafts and have a fair ammount of credit card debt. Probably a total of £2000 overdraft and £4000 credit card. Sorry to quote myself but I would really like at least some response to this before I proceed, feels like a bit of a big undertaking.
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Mar 10, 2012 00:24
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Dial M for MURDER posted:I've got a quick question about credit cards. I have had 1 chase and 1 citi card for about 4 -5 years each. 3 years ago I used them to do some house renovations. They were maxed out at ~$6000 each for a while but now I am close to having them both payed off. Do I have to worry about them closing the account when I get the balance back to $0? Does it make sense to leave a balance of a dollar or something to make sure they stay open? The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask / Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Newbie Personal Finance Thread: no you dont need to carry a credit card balance No, you don't need to carry a balance on your card. It's OK to pay them off. If you want to close them or leave them open is up to you.
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Mar 10, 2012 03:49
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BizarroAzrael posted:Sorry to quote myself but I would really like at least some response to this before I proceed, feels like a bit of a big undertaking.
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Mar 10, 2012 04:59
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moana posted:I have no idea how British things work, but for starters we'd need to know what the interest rates are on all of these things to make any sense of it. Well the loan I linked is a bit over 6% APR, my bank offers 8.8% I think. My credit cards are both around the 20% mark, one of my overdrafts is £1 a day, the other is a similar rate to the cards. BizarroAzrael fucked around with this message at 15:32 on Mar 10, 2012 |
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Mar 10, 2012 15:28
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My fiance and I are in the beginning stages of saving up for a down payment on a house, but she still has quite a bit of student loan debt left. She's got three different loans, a government loan, a perkins loan, and a Sallie Mae loan. The Perkins loan and government loan total about 30K with reasonable interest rates, while the Sallie Mae loan is about 11K with an interest rate of 9.25%. For whatever reason, I have a fixation on paying off that Sallie Mae loan before we do anything else. We already pay a total of $400 dollars a month on it (the payment is 120 a month, but gently caress that), and still have plenty of room to put money away after that and after all of our bills as well. My question is: Would it be wise to continue saving our money for a house (we'd have the funds we need within a year probably) and worry about the Sallie Mae loan after we get that done, or just pay the Sallie Mae loan off as quickly (within reason, obviously) as possible? The only concern I have is that the housing market is in the shitter right now, and I don't want it to correct by the time we would have saved up money for a house. Is time of the essence here, or no?
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Mar 10, 2012 21:09
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BizarroAzrael posted:Well the loan I linked is a bit over 6% APR, my bank offers 8.8% I think. My credit cards are both around the 20% mark, one of my overdrafts is £1 a day, the other is a similar rate to the cards. Tried applying for a couple of loans online but got rejected, said I had too many commitments as it was. One seemed to be including the credit cards I would be paying off as commitments, and I've made a spreadsheet of my in- and outgoings and think I should be able to support my outgoings, including the loan repayments, and have a decent amount of disposable income each month. What should I do? Surely someone will lend to me, since I have the means to pay it back whilst the provider collects interest?
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Mar 10, 2012 21:47
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BizarroAzrael posted:Sorry to quote myself but I would really like at least some response to this before I proceed, feels like a bit of a big undertaking. I also know very little about how the British lending system works. I don't know if you would be approved for a loan or not, and at what rate. That said, if you can get a better rate you should. But also keep in mind that interest rates are not your problem. If you are serious about paying this off, living on a written budget, living below your means, and going crazy on it, then you will pay it off. If you are interested in managing your debt, punting it around, not really changing anything, you can do that too. Either way, your rate is about 10% of the picture, your attitude about 90%.
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Mar 10, 2012 21:48
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ozymandius1024 posted:My fiance and I are in the beginning stages of saving up for a down payment on a house, but she still has quite a bit of student loan debt left. She's got three different loans, a government loan, a perkins loan, and a Sallie Mae loan. The Perkins loan and government loan total about 30K with reasonable interest rates, while the Sallie Mae loan is about 11K with an interest rate of 9.25%. I don't think there is a rush to buy a house. I don't know where it will be a year from now, but my guess it will be still somewhat sucky. No matter what kind of market, you can always find deals and you can always overpay, patience and knowledge of the market is always good. Personally, I would not buy a house if you were $30,000 in debt. Over the long term buying makes a lot of sense, but short to medium term most people pay more for their mortgages than they were paying on rent, and by buying now when they are that much, you almost guarantee that the student loans will be old enough to vote by the time they are paid.
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Mar 10, 2012 21:53
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Zeta Buttforce posted:I don't think there is a rush to buy a house. I don't know where it will be a year from now, but my guess it will be still somewhat sucky. No matter what kind of market, you can always find deals and you can always overpay, patience and knowledge of the market is always good. I wanted to clarify the situation a bit. I've been out of college and paying on those loans for a while. I've been living in a 1-bedroom apartment for $600/mo. Ozy has been keen on getting a house, because where we live (outside of Detroit), it seems like there are many bungalows for under $50k, and it seems that a mortgage would be cheaper than what my rent currently is. The student loans are a huge burden, especially Sallie Mae, but like most Americans, don't like the idea of "throwing money away" paying rent, versus owning our own home and building equity. I don't mind waiting for a home either way, just thought I'd clarify the scenario  .
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Mar 10, 2012 22:52
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anaaki posted:I wanted to clarify the situation a bit. I've been out of college and paying on those loans for a while. I've been living in a 1-bedroom apartment for $600/mo. Ozy has been keen on getting a house, because where we live (outside of Detroit), it seems like there are many bungalows for under $50k, and it seems that a mortgage would be cheaper than what my rent currently is. In that case, check out the House Buying thread. I know the subtitle is currently "post your house porn here" but the original sub was DO NEVER BUY. Take your time; if you save up for a 20% down payment and get the other loans paid off first then you'll be in great shape and can call the shots on whatever house within your budget you are comfortable with. Also, the reason buying a home now looks so appealing (it's cheap) is also the reason it should be looked upon as a lifestyle choice instead of an investment (the value gained is very slow).
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Mar 11, 2012 02:28
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anaaki posted:The student loans are a huge burden, especially Sallie Mae, but like most Americans, don't like the idea of "throwing money away" paying rent, versus owning our own home and building equity. Just because most Americans don't like the idea doesn't mean it isn't right for you. When you rent you aren't responsible for taxes (which many forget to budget into their mortgage), you need less insurance coverage, and your landlord is responsible if anything breaks or you just need someone to complain to. You don't have the same amount of day to day responsibility, such as keeping your lawn up, and you have a lot more freedom to move if you want to change jobs. There are pros and cons to owning, so you're not throwing your money away. Especially when you have loans to pay.
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Mar 11, 2012 02:42
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Can I get a recommendation for a decent credit card for someone with no credit history whatsoever? I'd have to get a secured card to start with, right?
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Mar 11, 2012 08:11
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Bank of America closed the credit card I had with them (without telling me) because I stopped using it years ago. That dropped my overall credit limit by like $6,000 to somewhere around $3,000. I kind of want to ask Chase, who owns my remaining card, for a limit increase, in case of emergency. Is this a good idea, from a credit score standpoint? I pay off my card in full every month.
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Mar 11, 2012 18:38
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nemesis_hub posted:Can I get a recommendation for a decent credit card for someone with no credit history whatsoever?
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Mar 12, 2012 01:18
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Can somebody recommend the best place to check my own credit online? I'm kind of overwhelmed by all the sites that offer the service and just want to do it with a reliable one. Edit: It's to show to potential landlords and I need it soon. Victorian Gentleman fucked around with this message at 23:22 on Mar 13, 2012 |
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Mar 13, 2012 23:20
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Victorian Gentleman posted:Can somebody recommend the best place to check my own credit online? I'm kind of overwhelmed by all the sites that offer the service and just want to do it with a reliable one. If you're in the US your potential landlord should handle this when you apply and pay an application fee.
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Mar 14, 2012 00:23
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Victorian Gentleman posted:Can somebody recommend the best place to check my own credit online? I'm kind of overwhelmed by all the sites that offer the service and just want to do it with a reliable one. https://www.annualcreditreport.com
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Mar 14, 2012 01:35
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Considering opening a Vanguard Roth target retirement fund this month and had a few questions. I know you can withdraw Roth contributions without penalty, but is this at any time or do you have to wait five years from that deposit? Also, say I put in $1000 in one year and the fund takes a drop and goes to $500. Next year I also put in $1000 and the $1500 total I have increases to $2000. Can I pull out $1500 (500 from 1st year + 1000 from 2nd year) or $2000 (total contributions not accounting for losses per year) without penalty?
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Mar 15, 2012 00:37
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Binary posted:Considering opening a Vanguard Roth target retirement fund this month and had a few questions. I know you can withdraw Roth contributions without penalty, but is this at any time or do you have to wait five years from that deposit? Also, say I put in $1000 in one year and the fund takes a drop and goes to $500. Next year I also put in $1000 and the $1500 total I have increases to $2000. Can I pull out $1500 (500 from 1st year + 1000 from 2nd year) or $2000 (total contributions not accounting for losses per year) without penalty? You can take out the money at any point. You don't have to wait any period of time. In your scenario you could take out $2000 without penalty or taxes. Suppose the money had instead grown to $2,500 and you wanted to take out all of it, you could. You would however be penalized and taxed on the $500 profit. Zeta Taskforce fucked around with this message at 01:18 on Mar 15, 2012 |
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Mar 15, 2012 01:16
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Zeta Buttforce posted:You can take out the money at any point. You don't have to wait any period of time. In your scenario you could take out $2000 without penalty or taxes. Suppose the money had instead grown to $2,500 and you wanted to take out all of it, you could. You would however be penalized and taxed on the $500 profit. Awsome, I had the impression that a loss for a given year counted against that year's contribution amount. So basically if any point in time the balance is equal or greater than my contributions I can take all my contributions out without penalty regardless of losses, right? I also heard that I can tap the Roth penalty free (up to some amount) for a first time home purchase or tuition. Is this also true?
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Mar 15, 2012 01:43
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Hey there, I have a quick question about 401Ks, since I read the Cornholio/zaurg threads and have been trying to be less ignorant about my personal finances. In 2010-11 I worked at a company where their payroll department automatically signed you up for a 401K with Fidelity, and you had to opt-out manually... however this process took a few paychecks so I ended up with about $500 in contributions ($1k after matching) that I never really thought about. A month or so after I got laid off, I got a notice in the mail saying the entire $1000 was "forfeited" and my balance was $0. From the very little I understand about these things, I have to be working a certain amount of time before I get to keep the company match (vesting?) but do I lose the money I put in too? Is there any way to get my contributions back?
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Mar 15, 2012 02:44
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Usually they don't match until you're actually vested (at least I've never heard of it). I have no idea how the company actually seized all your money from the 401k. You definitely need to find the letter to give us a better idea.
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Mar 15, 2012 03:25
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Binary posted:Awsome, I had the impression that a loss for a given year counted against that year's contribution amount. So basically if any point in time the balance is equal or greater than my contributions I can take all my contributions out without penalty regardless of losses, right? Binary posted:Awsome, I had the impression that a loss for a given year counted against that year's contribution amount. So basically if any point in time the balance is equal or greater than my contributions I can take all my contributions out without penalty regardless of losses, right? Once the money is in there, it all becomes fungible and it doesn’t matter what year you originally put it in. The only thing that matters is your basis. With a first time home purchase, you can pull out $10,000 of the profits/gain tax and penalty free. This is on top of you taking out the contributions which are always tax and penalty free. AgentCow007 posted:Hey there, I have a quick question about 401Ks, since I read the Cornholio/zaurg threads and have been trying to be less ignorant about my personal finances. It sounds like a clerical error more than anything. I would call them up and verify that before you do anything else.
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Mar 15, 2012 16:42
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Harry posted:Usually they don't match until you're actually vested (at least I've never heard of it). I have no idea how the company actually seized all your money from the 401k. You definitely need to find the letter to give us a better idea. No, most places match immediately but you don't become vested in the company's money for a certain period (usually grading up to 100% in 3-5 years). They shouldn't be able to forfeit any money that was actually taken out of your paycheck, so the $500 should remain. I would give them a call; it was likely an oversight because of the small amount.
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Mar 15, 2012 19:51
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I have a 10k emergency fund saved, this month will have 1k to start a Vanguard Roth IRA and I am already meeting my employer's 401k match. At this point I'm wondering where to put my excess money. I have about 30k in student loans at varying interest rates, the highest is 7k at a 7% interest rate. I also have a car note of 14k at a 2.15% interest rate. I should have around $800 a month extra now that the emergency fund is done. I was considering $100 a month for the Roth, $100 in series I bonds for medium term goals, and the rest on student loans. Any flaws with this plan?
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Mar 16, 2012 02:13
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I'd aim to max out your RIRA contribution ($5k/yr) and then plow the rest into your student loans, especially at 7%.
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Mar 16, 2012 03:15
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