We have selected our next President! Hopefully, things will improve for all of us financially. The only problem is that I ran across the contribution totals from credit card banks to all elected officials, and it's clear that both parties, and everyone in them, has been cashing in on bank favors. See for yourself. You can select the year and look at each recipient by amount received. And when you look throughout the years, you'll find that even the most prominent figures for "consumer rights" have been getting contributions. That's why WE have to take matters into our own hands by making banks compete for our business. I believe this is the only way to get them to change.

Check this out...I received an alert from MyFico that my credit score dropped 13 points! I logged in to find out why. Guess what? The reason is because my balance went up $11. It was $11 on a credit card that had a $0 balance, so it was considered debt on "multiple lines of credit." Come on--it's 11 bucks. That's case-in-point that you can never know exactly how your credit score will be affected by one specific strategy.

Last thing I want to mention is how much the banks are out of control--out of control with fees! There is a great news video about that here.

Best,
Scott

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In This Issue

	Cool Quote
	I am horrified--they want to know what I am going to do with the money!
	STATISTIC: Credit card direct mail is falling
	Counseling seen as little help in bankruptcies
	Big Money Problems
	"I can do this!"
	Banks Using $700 Billion Bailout To Buy Other Banks, Not Make More Loans
	Household Math™: Car Purchase vs. Car Repair
	How to profit from cash-back credit cards
	In This Economic Meltdown, Anything Goes: Allowing inmates to run the asylum

Cool Quote

"I will help you as long as you help yourself. When you stop helping yourself, I stop helping you."
--Aaron Kinney Sr.

More cool quotes from past issues

I am horrified--they want to know what I am going to do with the money! by Scott Bilker

Dear Scott,

I love your website and have passed the good word to others where I work. I play the zero percent game every year and never ran into this one. Yesterday, I did a balance transfer at zero percent to pay down my house.

They gave me $20,000, which I will pay back in a year. I was horrified that they asked me what I was going to do with the money. I felt that they did not trust me, and I always pay them back every year before the zero-percent rate goes up. They never asked me this before with the same amounts every year.

I had to say something but did not lead on that I was using it to go debt free and pay down the house, so I had to come up with something fast or else I would be denied the balance transfer. I told them I needed the cash to buy my neighbor's boat.

Scott, I have a great credit score, and I never pay a dime of interest to them in the past. The credit card company even let me open six cards with them and even let me transfer available credit to a new zero percent card. Why all of a sudden do they want to know what I am doing with the money?

Greg

Finish reading this article

STATISTIC: Credit card direct mail is falling

Big credit card banks send out billions of direct-mail pitches to land about 1 new customer for every 200 letters. The Fed said the volume of these direct-mail solicitations peaked at 6.05 billion in 2005, falling to 5.8 billion in 2006 and 5.2 billion in 2007. That works out to 26.7 letters per adult at the peak, sliding to 25.6 and 23 letters per adult more recently, based on a Census Bureau estimate of 226 million Americans 18 or older.

More credit card and debt statistics

Counseling seen as little help in bankruptcies

Elizabeth Sherman slouches in front of a computer tucked in the storage room of her bankruptcy attorney's office.

"Have you already decided to file for bankruptcy?" the computer questionnaire prompts her.

"Well, yeah. I'm already taking the test," she says to the screen.

The "test" is the credit counseling she must complete in order to file for bankruptcy, one of many changes enacted as part of the 2005 bankruptcy law.

See story here

Big Money Problems by Terry Rigg

Are you scared, worried, unsure of what to do, frustrated, embarrassed and humiliated because you can't pay your bills and put food on the table?

What happened? Did you lose your job? Maybe you are sick or hurt and can't work. Did an unexpected expense rip your finances to shreds? Maybe you just used those credit cards too much or bought a house that was more than you could really afford.

Whatever the reason you are experiencing Big Money Problems, you have to know that for each and every problem there is a solution. Notice I didn't say an Easy Solution.

If you have hit on hard times you are going to work very hard to find and implement that solution. You are going to do things that you don't want to do and give up things you want to keep. Your pride is going to suffer in the process.

But you have to do something to solve the problem. And, quite frankly, most people never think it can happen to them so they aren't prepared. When Big Money Problems hit, they don't have a clue where to start.

There are many actions that you need to take if you find you can't pay all of your bills. Below is a list of the most important...

Finish reading the article

"I can do this!"

Since my income was only able to carry household expenses and a few credit cards, I began searching for companies that help to settle credit card debts and fix your credit at the same time. They would only guarantee that they would settle at 65 to 70 cents on the dollar and would take you 3 to 4 years to fix credit. I would have had to pay $500 per month to get this taken care of. Part of my job as a Realtor is to negotiate short sales, and I've negotiated several at about 60 percent of the fair market value so I figured that there had to be a better way to negotiate with credit cards. I went to Amazon and looked up books on settling credit cards, and I found Scott's book. I read through the scripts and dialogs he had in the book and I said, "I can do this!" I do this all the time with major lending institutions. So far I've settled on $19k of debt, and I am working on about $25k more to be finished with this process.

--Robert

Learn how to "Talk Your Way Out of Credit Card Debt"

Banks Using $700 Billion Bailout To Buy Other Banks, Not Make More Loans

Washington told taxpayers a major rationale for us to fork over $700 billion to banks was to save the American economy by making loans more accessible, but it looks like, at least at Chase, they would rather use it to buy other banks, NYT reports.

Times reporter, Joe Nocera, listened in on a Chase employee-only conference call and one employee asked, "Chase recently received $25 billion in federal funding. What effect will that have on the business side, and will it change our strategic lending policy?"

See story here

Household Math (TM): Car Purchase vs. Car Repair by Scott Bilker

Janice pulled into her parking space at the local grocery store, got her cart, and did the usual shopping run. After she finished shopping, she packed the car with perishables, hopped in the driver's seat, started the car and put it in reverse. Nothing happened! She had to have the car towed to her local mechanic who then told her that the problem could be an adjustment or the transmission. It was the transmission.

The cost to repair it is $1,200.00. Janice estimates that if she repairs her current car, she can drive it at least another 25,000 miles before the engine gives out. Because of this, she's considering buying another used car, but she wants to be able to count on that car for 50,000 miles before requiring a major repair or it just dying.

After doing some research, she finds only one car that she feels will meet the 50,000-mile requirement. The total price for that car is $3,000. All other costs being equal, should she buy the used car or repair the transmission?

Answer this math problem

How to profit from cash-back credit cards by Curtis Arnold

A little extra cash in your pocket sounds wonderful, doesn't it? Maybe you could use it for a nice dinner out on your birthday, a movie night out with that special someone, a rainy-day shopping spree, college savings for you or your child, or even a way to help pay down your debt. For all these reasons, and thousands of others you can imagine, a cash-back credit card might be the perfect fit for your wallet.

Cash-back credit cards are fairly straightforward, and, in my opinion, they're the simplest type of reward card to use. You usually get a credit to your account, ranging from 1% to 5% of your spending. Some cash-back cards, like the one in my wallet, give automatic credits on a regular basis. A few cards send you an actual check in the mail.

Cash-Back Credit Cards Are Great If...

Finish reading this article

In This Economic Meltdown, Anything Goes: Allowing inmates to run the asylum

Take a gander at this paragraph from a Wall Street Journal story by Robin Sidel on Oct. 20, 2008:

"AmEx recently slapped a $1,100-a-month spending limit on John and Monica Bell's platinum AmEx charge card. The reason: AmEx customers who pay with plastic at the same places where Mrs. Bell shops and have the same mortgage lender have poor repayment histories, according to a letter sent by AmEx."

The couple pays $450 a year for the card--which promises "no pre-set spending limit." The couple routinely spent $5,000 a month--that's $60,000 a year--and has never been late with a payment.

If the data goons are allowed to start treating blue-ribbon American Express Platinum Cardmembers like chronic deadbeats, what will happen to the rest of us?

See story here

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