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In This
Issue
 |
Cool Quote |
|
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11 Easy Ways to Cut Your Spending Without
Feeling It |
|
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STATISTIC: ID Theft Tops FTC 2008 Consumer
Complaint List |
|
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Credit Card Rewards Points: Use 'em Soon, or
Lose 'em? |
|
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Debt Trap |
|
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"Down From $35,000 in Credit Card Debt" |
|
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US House Bill Would Ease Credit Card
Timeframe |
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Household Math™: How Much Spending |
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The Top 10 Destructive Money Beliefs |
|
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Suze Orman and the New Rules of Credit Card
Debt |
Cool Quote
"The credit card companies have put the loan sharks out of
business."
--Elizabeth Warren, Professor of Law at Harvard Law
School
More cool quotes from past issues
It's clear from the DebtSmart Survey Results: Cutting
Spending vs. More Income that most people believe that cutting spending is the
faster way to reduce debt. Of course, this is certainly true to some extent. My
position is that there are three main points to be addressed when reducing debt,
specifically: (1) Getting organized financially; (2) Becoming more efficient
with your current debt and spending; (3) Generating more income.
Here are some suggestions to expand on number (2),
specifically as it applies to spending....
Finish reading the article
|
Rank |
Category |
Complaints |
% |
| 1 |
Identity Theft
|
313,982 |
26 |
| 2 |
Third Party and
Creditor Debt Collection |
104,642 |
9 |
| 3 |
Shop-at-Home
and Catalog Sales |
52,615 |
4 |
| 4 |
Internet
Services |
52,102 |
4 |
| 5 |
Foreign Money
Offers and Counterfeit Check Scams |
38,505 |
3 |
| 6 |
Credit Bureaus,
Information Furnishers and Report Users |
34,940 |
3 |
| 7 |
Prizes,
Sweepstakes and Lotteries |
33,340 |
3 |
| 8 |
Television and
Electronic Media |
25,930 |
2 |
| 9 |
Banks and
Lenders |
22,890 |
2 |
|
10 |
Telecom
Equipment and Mobile Services |
22,387 |
2 |
More credit card and debt statistics
Credit Card Rewards Points: Use 'em Soon, or Lose 'em?
Are some credit card companies taking away consumers' hard
earned rewards points? Are you one of those people who charges almost everything
on your credit card, even a cup of coffee at Starbucks, just so you can
accumulate reward points to get free trips or gifts?
It seems that some credit card companies are rewarding
your loyalty by canceling your card and taking back all those accumulated
points. We're talking about big companies, like American Express and Discover
card.
That's what happened to longtime American Express
cardholder, Jillian Ivey, a southern California attorney who says she always pays
her Amex bill on time. In January, Amex canceled her card and wouldn't give her
an exact reason. When she called to complain, Amex told her she not only lost
her credit card, but she also lost the 105,000 membership rewards points she'd
saved to take a big trip abroad.
In fact, the Terms and Conditions for...
See story here
Debt: The next big American crisis? Instead of
accumulating wealth, many are falling further behind on payments. Dateline looks
into a fundamental economic problem: the debt epidemic.
Chriss Snyder has $25,000 dollars in credit card debt that
she's trying to get under control. She describes a potential trap that could
cost you big money. The economy is in freefall, and no one's sure where rock
bottom is. And as the mortgage crisis and mounting job losses melt away the
American dream, another fundamental economic problem is being exposed: America's
debt epidemic.
Finish reading the article
Excellent! Why I've been there and done that. Scott, I
purchased your books and used them to great advantage. I've not had to pay any
interest on credit cards for two years now. I'm down from $35,000 in credit card
debt to $10,000 in 24 months. Thanks a bunch!
Rich Garay
Learn how to "Talk Your Way Out of Credit Card Debt"
US House bill would ease credit card timeframe
*Bill would give issuers at least 1 year to make changes
*Maloney optimistic president will get bill this year
*Full committee could vote soon after April break (Adds
committee vote, payment provision, Ackerman comment)
WASHINGTON, April 2 (Reuters) - U.S. House lawmakers
agreed on Thursday to give credit card companies at least one year to rein in
unfair practices, dropping an original proposal for a three-month timeframe.
In a voice vote, a House Financial Services subcommittee
approved a bill, called the "Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights." The chief
sponsor of the bill is U.S. Rep Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat who was
seeking to force credit card companies to change their ways within three months.
See story here
Jackie wanted to figure out how much money she actually
spent in this current month. She looked at all the checks she wrote and her
credit card spending. Jackie noted that she hadn't used her credit card for
purchases, however, she did write checks for: (1) $50 for cable TV; (2) $125
for groceries; (3) electric bill for $200; and (4) a minimum payment on her
credit card of $80. How much did Jackie spend this month?
Answer this math problem
If you're not making as much money as you'd like, then
you're holding onto some negative beliefs about yourself and how much money
you're capable of handling.
In this article, we'll go through 10 of the most common
(and most limiting) examples of how people hold themselves back financially.
Subscribers to my ezine, "The Abundant Mind," get a Money
Beliefs Quiz. From their results, I've compiled these Top 10 Destructive Money
Beliefs. How many can you relate to?
Finish reading this article
Suze Orman and the New Rules of Credit Card Debt
Personal finance gurus usually treat credit card debt as
the plague and urge consumers to pay it off--ASAP. But this week, Queen of
Personal Finance, Suze Orman, announced on The Oprah Winfrey Show that the old
advice is wrong. The recession has made job loss so prevalent, she says, that
consumers now need to make creating an emergency fund with eight months worth of
expenses their top priority.
"If you have an unpaid credit card balance [and] not much
saved up in emergency savings, I need you to listen up. My advice has changed. I
want you to only pay the minimum due on your credit card balance, and instead,
make it your top priority to build as much of an emergency cash fund as you
can," Orman said on the program.
See story here
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