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Newsletter to Your Friends (Use this link only if you receive this newsletter by email) Week of July 13, 2009This is an OPT-IN list ONLY! If you feel that you have received this message in error, please follow the directions at the bottom of this email to unsubscribe. Thank you.Click Here to view this newsletter online. Navigate This ColumnGrandpa Terry's Update Welcome to The Budget Stretcher! Become A Lifetime Premium Member - Why would you want to become a Lifetime Premium member when it costs $28.50 during my July Special? You can get this newsletter free... It's really simple. You can save a lot more than $28.50 by becoming a member. I can't go into every way you could save because there are just too many. But here is an example of what you can learn if you are employed in the US: This tip could put an extra $100, $200 or $300 per month in your paycheck and it's simple to do and it's completely legal. And, there are thousands more tips like this to Budget Stretcher Premium Members. You owe it to yourself to at least check out a Lifetime Membership at: http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/julsubspecial.htm This past week I received an email from a subscriber telling me that their credit card minimum payments would be going from 2% of the balance to 5% of the balance effective in August 2009. I hadn't heard about this so I did some checking on the internet and found out that hundreds of thousands of Chase customers had receive a letter changing their terms of service. From what I could learn Chase was targeting cardholders that had a low interest rate. Their reasoning behind this increase was to help their customers pay off their credit card early. Nobody's buying that! Continued in Grandpa Terry's Tip of the Week I received the below email from Karla: The "Tidbits From The Pantry" link on the left side of your newsletter Budget Stretcher Partner site section doesn't appear to lead to a regular website, just a links/search type page. Thanks! Love your newsletter! Karla I checked into this and found that Tidbits From The Pantry had gone off line. This is a real shame because they had an excellent web site with thousands of helpful money saving tips. If you aren't aware the Budget Stretcher Partners are, in my opinion, the best of the best. They have been selected because of the contribution they could make to my subscribers and visitors. Please, if you haven't already, check out this sites: I believe you would benefit by bookmarking the below links in the event you need them in the future: Money Instructor You need to see this site. They help you with everything from teaching your kids about money to Saving and Investing. National Foundation for Credit Counseling The NFCC promotes the national agenda for financially responsible behavior and builds capacity for its members to deliver the highest quality financial education and counseling services. National Association of Attorneys General This web site give you a current list of each state's Attorney General. This is valuable information to have if you ever want to report a company in your state that is giving you problems. That's all for now. Remember, I really enjoy hearing from you folks. If you have any comments, complaints, suggestions or just want to say Hi, please send me an email to tre2000@midwest.net If you know someone that may be interested in subscribing to our newsletter just copy and paste the below link into an email to them and have them subscribe: http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/confirmsubs.html Have a great week, Grandpa Terry Sponsor AdvertisementAre you frustrated trying to get by on the money you make? Would you like to get a good view to where all your money is going? Would you like to start saving your money, or save even more? Looking for something easier then software like Quicken or Money? Would you like to teach your children about finance? Click Here to check out My Budget Planner Today Grandpa Terry's Tip of the Week(Continued) You may wonder why I harp on getting rid of your credit card debt by any means possible. I think Chase's recent actions answers that question. While it doesn't affect all of their customers it does show what credit card companies are willing to do to their customers. Let me give you a couple of examples of the increased minimum payments these cardholders are facing: If they owe $10,000 to Chase their payment would go from $200 per month to $500 per month If they owe $20,000 to Chase their payment would go from $400 per month to $1000 per month. Why would they do this? Unless they raise the interest rate they won't benefit at all. In fact, if a cardholder can make these increased minimum payments they will lose money in interest because the balance will go down quicker. It's obvious that this will put many of their customers in a position where they can't make even the minimum payment on their card. This one action could take a family that is just getting by to a family that can't pay their bills and will need to take drastic action, maybe even bankruptcy. While Chase has full intentions of raising the minimum payment by 250% I don't believe all is said and done. Currently there are thousands of customers that have called them and said they will be transfering their balance to another card and will refuse to do business with Chase again. Hopefully this will eventually make Chase rethink their position. If you have an opinion on this or have received one of Chase's notices please let me know by emailing me at tre2000@midwest.net. Here is the email I receive and my response: Hi Grandpa Terry
I have just received in the mail a Change in Terms Notice from one of my credit cards. It changes the minimum amount due from 2% to 5%. I usually try to pay more than the minimum (although not always possible) but this is raising my payment to an amount I am not sure I can pay. I do have high credit card debt (at times when my husband was out of work that was the only way to survive).
Is there anything I can do to keep my payments at a rate I can afford?
Thank You
Teressa My Response: Hi Teressa, You are no doubt talking about Chase. They just recently sent out notices to hundreds of thousands of their customers increasing their minimum payments from 2% to 5%. These notices were specifically targeted to customers that have a low interest rate. According to Chase officials the reason for the increase in minimum payment is that some customer's balances are not being paid down and they are trying to help by increasing the payments. Everybody knows this is bull. I've put together some links for you to check out and inform yourself about what's going on and one link will give you ideas to fight this change: http://www.changeinterms.com/ http://credit101.wordpress.com http://www.consumeraffairs.com http://www.changeinterms.com/2009/03/15 http://www.changeinterms.com/join-the-fight/ Although other customers have hit a road block when trying to call Chase to complain I would recommend that you do just that. I would inform them that the increase may cause you not to be able to make the minimum payment and will seriously affect your finances. If they refuse to help I would also let them know that you will be working on trying to move your balance to another credit card. I'm going to put this email in the newsletter to get feedback from other subscribers. Maybe someone has additional ways you can fight this increase. I'm not going to let this drop. This is the worst case of credit card company consumer abuse I've come across. Something needs to be done. All the best, Grandpa Terry Sponsor AdvertisementDo you ever get stuck in a rut, preparing the same meals for your family week after week? I do! What's for dinner tonight?? The Creative Homemaking What's for Dinner? cookbook contains more than 250 quick, easy, family-tested dinner ideas plus a lot more. Click Here To Get Your "What's for Dinner?" Cookbook Grandpa Terry's EmailServeral years ago, you published an article from a lady that said she couldn't afford to pay for eye glasses. She gave a website address. Would you mind reprinting that article with the website address.Thanks, Erma My Response: Hi Erma, I searched all over my site and can't find that article anywhere. I remember it. I believe the site link was http://www.glassesusa.com I hope this helps, Grandpa Terry I am not sure where I located this information but all I know is that it is frugal and it works. At one time, it seemed as though all we did was purchase dishwasher detergent. I never seemed to have enough! I discovered, through the internet of course, that you could mix equal parts of Borax and Baking Soda and use it in the dishwasher. Borax can be found at Wal-Mart and here in the South at places like Piggly Wiggly and Ingles. Baking soda is always cheap. It cleans my dishes well and I have been very pleased how long one box of Borax lasts! Janet Hughes Hey,
I was just researching the legalities of vehicle repossession found your page at http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/BSNL061206.html. I wanted to suggest another resource that you could add to your page that may benefit your visitors. The URL is http://www.seriousaccidents.com/legal-articles/vehicle-reposession.php and its a great site that goes into detail about repossessing cars. I hope you find it useful too!
Thanks & keep up the good work!!
Cheers,
Ellie
Featured ArticleBy Jill Cooper http://www.LivingOnADime.com/
I have discovered the secret of saving money feeding babies, toddlers and preschoolers. Well, I can´t take the credit for it. My mom taught it to me many years ago but I didn't put it into practice until the first financial crisis we had when my husband was laid off. What I have been practicing now for many years has now become one of the new buzz phrases -- "portion control". Usually when we think of portion control it is in connection with dieters and not young children or saving money. Most American parents serve themselves and their children huge portions of food. Their families eat only part of it, and then they discard the rest. Next time you scrape those half eaten plates of food into the trash, think about this: 30% to 50% of the food and drinks we buy, whether we eat at home or out, get thrown away. If you don't believe it's true, observe your own family this week. How many half full bowls of soggy cereal do you throw away? What about half empty glasses of juice, milk or pop? It is easy to forget that children under the age of four have only about a quarter of an adult's body weight. Often, we feed them adult portions and when we do give them smaller portions, each portion is usually only reduced to about half an adult portion. Do you use that large serving spoon and dump a full spoon of food on your child's plate? Say you give yourself two spoons of green beans and your child one-- That means that you have given yourself about 24 green beans and your child 12 when in reality, that child needs only about six. When deciding how much food to give your kids, start small and work your way up. Remember, if they eat what is on their plates you can always give them more. Use the same method for drinks. Even a small sippy cup should only be filled half full. This not only reduces the amount that you throw away, but also reduces the losses from spills. Another great way to save a lot of money is to give children more water. In addition to serving children overly large portions, failing to give them enough water leads to obesity. At this point, many parents point out that young children need lots of milk and juice. That is true to a degree, but consider this: The USDA recommends 12 oz of milk per day for children under 4. That is equal to two sippy cups. Don´t forget that kids get milk from other sources too, including milk with their cereal and cheese. We think the more juice and milk they get the better, but once kids have had as much as they need nutritionally, the rest just adds calories. If you are ready to cut the waste from your food budget, here are a few more tips to save money and make your life easier: 1. Cut the crust off your child's sandwich before you give it to him. I have tried for years to get my children and grandchildren to eat the crust and have discovered that it is like trying to climb Mount Everest. It can be done, but I'm not sure if it is worth all the work and headache. So give in and cut off the crust. Throw it in a bag and use it for bread crumbs or croutons. Then the kids will eat their entire sandwiches instead of just that hole in the middle and you won't waste the sandwich filling that would have been tossed with the crust. 2. Cut kids' sandwiches into small squares or triangles. Their hands are smaller then ours. Imagine always manhandling sandwiches that are two to three times normal size and you can relate to kids with full adult-sized sandwiches. This goes for all their food. Cut anything they have to hold in their hands into manageable sized pieces. 3. Spills always happen, but they can be minimized. Try placing a paper doily at the top of your child's plate or someplace where you know a cup won't be likely to spill. Then teach the child that the cup belongs on the doily. 4. Start giving your little ones only half of items like candy bars, gum, and popsicles. When you go out to eat, split a hamburger or order of fries between two younger children. You can even ask for an extra cup and split milk shakes and drinks. 5. Control snacks. Don't just let the kids graze all day on candy and chips. Give children healthier things to fill them up, like popcorn or a piece of fruit at specific time intervals. 6. Feed toddlers and preschoolers your leftovers. They usually don't balk at them like older children do. All those two tablespoon leftovers that are hardly worth saving are usually just the right amount for younger children. Jill Cooper is the editor of http://www.LivingOnADime.com/ . As a single mother of two, Jill started her own business without any capital and paid off $35,000 debt in 5 years on $1,000 a month income. |
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