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Negative Net Worth…

Written on June 30, 2010 – 11:54 pm | by Adam Gomez

Buried somewhere deep inside my life insurance application is an awful question…

‘What is your total net worth?’

I calculated my mortgage debt, subtracted my tiny home value, added my student loan debt and my auto loan debt, and then subtracted my liquid cash. The total? An astonishingly huge negative number representing my net worth.

Not wanting to stop at the large, large, large negative number, I added the amount in our retirement accounts (though technically locked up for the next 27 years under mounds of government and ESOP paperwork).

I landed at a number closer to zero but still negative none the less.

I received the following question from my insurer:

PLEASE EXPLAIN WHY YOUR TOTAL NET WORTH IS A NEGATIVE NUMBER.

Yes, they wrote it in all caps. As if

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Credit card write-offs increasing

Written on June 30, 2010 – 9:31 pm | by Katie Perry

UK banks and financial institutions have increased the amount of credit card lending they are writing off. The Bank of England has released figures that show, in 2009, the amount written off by credit card lenders rose to a record GBP4.12 billion, which was about 10 per cent of all the money lent on credit cards in the UK. It also revealed that in the first three months of this year, write-offs increased to GBP1.25 billion, the second-highest quarterly amount on record.

However, with house prices finally on the rise and the number of homes being repossessed dropping, the amount of money that was written off on mortgages decreased to GBP160 million, which was the lowest quarterly figure for a year and a half. Read more…

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Consumers may benefit from new interchange fee regulations

Written on June 29, 2010 – 11:19 pm | by Alicia Ross

Americans may seen lower prices and savings at retail chains when new interchange fees go into effect

As the hot debate surrounding interchange fees begins to wind down in Congress, it looks as though retailers are poised to win a victory. As the House and Senate reached a compromise on a bill that will essentially lower interchange, or “swipe fees,” for credit and debit card transactions, consumers may be wondering how the new legislation will affect their wallets.

Once the bill is signed into law, merchants will feel some financial relief as the interchange fees – costs that the retailers must pay credit card issuers and banks for each credit or debit transaction – will decline. Read more…

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New Chase Overdraft Rules…

Written on June 27, 2010 – 8:34 am | by Adam Gomez

I bank with Great Western… oops, I bank with Washington Mutual… uh, no, I bank with Chase. Yeah, Chase. Sorry, my bank keeps getting bought out and I never know what to call it anymore. But each time the bank changes hands, I get a whole new set of rules and regulations.

I’m a nerd, therefore, I read the 7 million pages of information they send each time someone takes over.

One piece of information Chase customers couldn’t have possibly missed over the last month, even if they aren’t nerds and throw away 90% of the information, is the new set of overdraft rules. Unless cu

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Report shows consumer spending and personal income increase in May

Written on June 26, 2010 – 5:38 am | by Alicia Ross

Report shows that both consumer spending and personal income increased in May

Americans may be slowly improving their financial situation, new data from the U.S. Department of Commerce suggests. According to a report released Monday, consumer spending – a key indicator of economic health – increased by 0.2 percent in May after giving a flat reading in April.

Consumer spending accounts for nearly 70 percent of the economy and is often used to determine the strength of economic recovery. Read more…

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Customers Buy More On Their First Credit Cards

Written on June 25, 2010 – 10:33 pm | by Nicole Gutierrez

The first credit card that the consumers opt for is generally the one with the highest outstanding amount since they tend to use it most often as compared to the others. This can be perceived to be one of the reasons for most banks and financial institutions issuing credit cards to make the first move to lure youngsters and those fresh out of college to apply for the credit cards offered by them.

One of the recently conducted survey outlines that the card holders are most loyal to the first bank that offer them the card. It is this brand loyalty that helps the banks make more profits since they tend to use this card for most of their purchases.

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