Archive for October, 2007

When most people are short on cash and need a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, they walk down to the local bank and try to persuade the loan officer to give them a loan. If the consumer doesn’t meet the bank’s cookie-cutter standards for who can get a loan, they’re rejected and the [...]

When you start planning for your retirement and consider all of the different companies that you can open a Roth IRA, Traditional IRA, or other retirement plan with, you’ll find that there are two different groups of companies that will sell you a retirement account. There are stock brokers that receive a full commission for [...]

Have you ever received an email telling you that you had won a lottery in another country that you never entered into? Have you ever had someone offer to pay you more than the list price for an eBay or craigslist listing? If you had responded to any of those solicitations, you would likely be [...]

Some parts of the world just are not as safe as they used to be. This doesn’t mean we need to panic and take extraordinary measures to keep our families safe, but it does mean that we need to take a few extra precautions here and there to protect our loved ones and our possessions. [...]

During the Life Light Music Festival this summer, it was announced that Newsboys and Stellar Kart would both be coming back to my area relatively soon. They’re definitely up there on the list of bands I enjoy, so I figured I’d see if I could get a couple of really good tickets. A few weeks [...]

Leasing vehicles has always been a bit of a controversial way to own a vehicle. Consumer Reports argues that leasing a vehicle is the single most expensive way to operate a vehicle. Other consumers are perfectly happy with the leased vehicles they have. In most cases it does make sense to purchase your vehicle outright [...]

Credit card companies have rightfully gotten a bad rap for having very confusing terms and conditions in their card-holder agreements and charging inappropriately high interest rates for just about any reason they choose. Many credit card companies adopted universal default provisions which allowed them to raise your interest rate to whatever they please with just [...]

Dealing with the United States legal system is no small task when it comes to a civil dispute between you and a corporation. You have to find representation which can cost thousands of dollars, find all the appropriate evidence, come up with a viable case, call in witnesses, get a court date, and the like. [...]

It’s not a secret that many real estate markets are not doing so hot right now. Many homeowners who signed-up for sub-prime and exotic mortgages can no longer afford them and are facing foreclosure. The companies that offered these exotic mortgages, such as Countrywide, are now facing economic hardship as well. People who would otherwise [...]

When it comes to dealing with some parts of the debt collection industry, it can often be much more akin to dealing with a scummy neighbor rather than an actual professional business. A portion of the debt collection industry will do whatever they can, regardless of how immoral it may be, to get the money [...]

When you’re overseas making phone-calls back home, you’re essentially walking through a mine field. If you use the phone in your hotel room, you will likely come back with a bill for hundreds of dollars. If you use your regular cell phone, chances are you will be shocked when your next bill comes. In order [...]

When it comes to offers for free stuff on the internet, rarely is the free item or service offered ever actually free. There’s almost always a catch to the deal that makes it really not worth your while. Sometimes you have to sign up for a free trial of a service and then get charged [...]

Many consumers think they have it bad paying credit cards with interest rates of anywhere from 25 to 35 percent, however this fails in comparison to what some people are paying. Recently we’ve seen the trend of pay-day loan companies and car-title loan companies charging consumers interest rates of anywhere from 400 to 600% on [...]

Elderly individuals in the United States collectively have $14 trillion dollars in savings, and there are hundreds of thousands of con artists who would like to steal their little chunk of it. There are people in this country that actually teach classes on how to rip off elderly people through outright fraud and by selling [...]