|
|
|
|
|
Newsletter to Your Friends (Use this link only if you receive this newsletter by email) Week of July 20, 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! I promise that if you will try Budget Stretcher Premium for 30 days I will refund every penny if you are not completely satisfied. I'm using Paypal to take the orders and they make refunding very easy and ensure that your credit or debit card or checking account is credited with the refund immediately. http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/julsubspecial.htm You now have the option of paying for your Premium Membership by Personal Check or Money Order. I've been reading everything I can about Chase and their apparent desire to alienate every customer they can. Whether it's raising their minimum payments by 250%, knowing many of their customers won't be able to pay that, or raising the interest rates out of the blue on customers that have paid on time for decades closing accounts without notice for reasons only they can understand. Customer service is king in the credit card industry. There is just too much competition to be pulling these kinds of stunts on the very people that have made your business. I recommend that you read the most recent posts and Consumer Affairs by visiting the below link: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/credit_cards/chase_credit_cards.html I received a lot of email this week mainly about Chase. Normally I would spread this out over a couple of newsletter issues but this week I'm going to list them all because the main topic will affect so many subscribers. To keep the size of the newsletter within managable limits I won't be publishing a "Featured Article" this week. Effective immediately I will no longer be listing the 30% off links in the left column. You can find these a your Subscriber Benefits Page. In it's place I'm going to be listing a weekly Special offer that will save you a lot of money over the regular price. 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 WeekI have to say it again. If you are paying off your credit card balances each month then this tip isn't for you. Use them and enjoy them. It has never been a good idea to have a credit card with a balance you carry from month to month paying those enormous interest rates. I don't care if you are getting free airline miles or free gas or any other kind of rewards, it just doesn't pay. The interest charges with eat up any rewards you get. But now with the economy being what it is and the credit card companies using that as an excuse to rip off even their loyal customers it's time to just pay them off and never get another card. But what about having a card in case of an emergency? I've been watching families stuggle with their finances for close to 35 years. In about 75% of the cases the emergency is caused by using credit cards. These families would normally have plenty of money if they didn't have credit card debt. Credit card debt is called unsecure debt for a reason. Mainly because you have nothing to show for the hundreds or thousands of dollars you owe. Think about it! Can you account for all of your credit card purchases over the years. Do you still have any of that stuff? Why do you use credit cards instead of cash? There is only one answer to that question. You want it now and don't want to wait. By getting it now you are willing to take on the extra cost. Some people believe that they can use a credit card to buy things on sale and are saving money. It doesn't work like that. It's almost guaranteed that you will pay much more than the retail price by using a credit card. Paying Cash Is Fun... If you walk into a store to buy a $300 TV and pay cash, it's over, it's done. No monthly statements, no interest charges that can be raised on a whim and no wondering when you are ever going to get out of debt. If you don't have the money now then save for it. If you can afford monthly payments on a credit card then you can surely put that money aside for a few months and pay cash. Don't get in a hurry. It will cost you! I strongly recommend that you do whatever you can to pay off your credit card debt. Next year the credit card companies will be more regulated in what they can and can't do. You can bet that they will try every trick to get your money before that law takes affect. 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 EmailCan you share some of the new tax credits and deductions for 2009. I just heard that purchasing a new car will give you a tax deduction for the sales tax and that there are some new things regarding education and refinancing and/or purchasing a new home. Thanks!Also,what is the difference between a credit and a deduction? Is there still a credit/deduction for adopting a domestic child? I appreciate your newsletter. I learn new stuff all the time. Joanne My Response: Hi Joanne, I didn't have to wait to answer your questions. I found a web page that explains everything you are asking about in great detail. Since there are so many energy, education, mortgage and sales tax deductions I won't be able to list them here. Here is the link to learn all about it: http://taxes.about.com/od/deductionscredits/Deductions_Credits.htm The difference between a tax deduction and a tax credit is enormous. A tax deduction is an amount that you can deduct from your income before you compute how much tax you owe. A tax credit can save much more because this is an amount deducted directly from the taxes you owe. An example of this is the Child Tax Credit. Currently it's $1000 per child. If you owe $2000 in taxes after all of your deductions and have 1 qualified child you can reduce that so that you only owe $1000. Normally, you can't take a Tax Credit for more than the amount of taxes you owe. If you have any other questions don't hesitate to let me know. All the best, Terry Hi Terry, I recently had a frustrating experience with Chase. So under your headline HAS CHASE GONE MAD I will put a sub-header I AM MAD AS HELL AT CHASE Here is the story. This was originally a Wamu Card and as you probably know Wamu was bought by Chase. Everything was going along just fine. I never had a late payment and my payments were always greater than the minimum. So I had wanted to raise a little cash and started to make quite a number of small transactions, this all went OK. This totaled about $100. Leaving me with available credit of about $250 Then Thursday, Madeline wanted to use the card for some theater tickets for a total of $18. When she returned she said the card was declined and it was very humiliating. Next day I chased down a representative (they like to call themselves customer sevice representatives) but that title in most card companies is a misnomer. She said the card had been canceled but didn't know why but I would be receiving a letter. I had read recently that they are monitoring card usage and if you are using your credit for necessary things like groceries which most of this was they they may take some action. The other thing is the card was canceled with no notice. I think they are required under current law to give at least some notice. So my feeling is this was an illegal action. Now I know there are some changes that will take effect in 2010 but as usual with the lobbyists buying off congress it will still favor the card companies. Ditto the FDA, the FED, the Federal Reserve,the bailout program and the whole thieving government. WE ARE SCREWED! Ken Hi, I am one of the people that got the 2% to 5% increase. I owe about 10,000 and will not be able to make the payment. This will probably force me into bankruptcy. Can you do an article about the step by step process of what will happen when I default on my for payment? How long will it take for them to catch up to me and what will happen when they do? I would rather use that money to pay down the balance on my other credit cards before I have to file bankruptcy. I could attempt to transfer the balance to another card but if I file bankruptcy I would rather Chase doesn't get the money. I made my payments, was never late and am actively looking for more work,(I am self employed), to pull myself out of the hole and not have to default. I can't say that Chase ruined my life, I did that, but they just pulled my last lifeline. Thanks, Janis I just wanted to let you know I looked over my Chase account for change in terms. I have a 7,400 balance on one of my cards. For me, there will be no change in the percentage of minimum payments. Balance transfer fees will go up to 5% but that's all I saw. I guess the true question is, why is Chase only targeting certain people? It almost seems like some sort of discrimination. I hope you keep us all posted on anything you may come across in this case. In these times, that's a low blow. Kristin Hello: i was reading your article and i am one of the ones who got the letter from Chase saying my 'minimum' payment was going from 2 % to 5 % . . . . i was astounded!!!!! i got it several weeks ago . . . funny thing is, we have 3 Chase credit cards . . . i haven't received a letter about THOSE!!! I called 3 x's, talked with several people, they told me it's a 'across the board action" which i didn't believe, and obviously, from your article, it's person to person depending on the bal ( this one has a high balance) . . . and i told them this card is in MY name, but the other 2 cards ( 1 in my husb's and the other in BOTH our names ) didn't get notices about those 2 other Chase cards, they said ' you will , in time' . . . well so far, it's been a month and no letters about those 2 accounts . I even told them this is discriminatory because the one i got a letter about is only in MY name . . . . .this is ridiculous. . . . . . i wasn't very nice to them on the phone, i ended up having a cust service rep AND A MANAGER on a 3 way call . . . . .and they said they couldn't do anything about it. My min. went from like $68 to $194!!!!!! i told them that's ridiculous . . . . . they said they were sorry, it's their 'policy' . . . i argued & argured with them, and finally hung up. I ended up transf'g about $1500 already to ANOTHER card i have with a ZERO 0% balance for a year ( even w/the 3 % fee it was much cheaper) . . . . . . and i already told them i would be tranf'g my balances to another card and NOT using Chase. . . But before i transferred the amt. . . i called my other comapny, Citi Bank, , andtalked to a supervisor there to see if THEY were going to do the same thing . . . . they told me they never heard of such a thing. . . raising your min payment . . . raising the apr, yes, but not the min. payment . . . . . they didn't know if that was 'legal' . . . i have yet to call the Fed Trade Commission, which i think is next. They were horrified and said they wouldn't do that , they'd NEVER done that and they weren't planning anything like that. So i trnsf' the 1500 over to Citi for the 0% . . for 12 mos. i have a few other cards that allow me ZERO % too, so i'll keep doing that . . . and i know how much i need to pay to have them pd. off before the ZERO percent goes up . . ( i do this alot i calculate it out , fig out how much to pay ea mo. and i have it pd, off before the apr goes up . . . they don't like me, ha ha, but i've been doing this for years, i'm NOT STUPID) . I also called Discover, and ran all this past them, again THEY told me they'd never heard of raising the min payments on people, they'd never done it, etc. etc. . . . i even told all these people that CHASE was doing this . . i didn't care. . . . they assured me that's not in their plans and they don't plan to raise minimums on people. . . . So I have both Citi Bank , AND Discover saying that didn't sound right, and wonder how they got away with it . . . . . . . . . . . so far, neither of THESE companies have 'upped' our min payments at all . And so, we're discontinuing using any CHASE cards in the future, i'm so mad i could spit. luckily, thru our good credit, i have other companies that reward us for being good customers by giving us these great ZERO PERCENT transfers . . . which is why i'm taking adv of those to pay down CHASE to get them wiped out. Thank you for reading this. Bev Grandpa Terry, I haven't seen anything from Chase but it fits with what they have done to us. When congress decided to "help" it about doubled our payments which made it next to impossible to keep up with .That plus the 19 + APR. I closed the account after they wanted to raise to 29%. I finally decided to turn it over to Trinity and saved $60 a month and we'll paid off in just under 5 yrs. It was going to more like 14 at the rate we were going. Dennis I also have had this problem with Chase. They raised my payment from $80.00 to $150.00. When I called and told them that that was more than I could pay, and reminded them that we signed an agreement on the terms when I applied for the credit card. I was told that there was nothing I could do, the decisions of have been made, and that it was necessary for them to help me pay off my account quickly, so that I would be out of debt. What a crock. Anyway, I told them to close my account, and I would just pay it off, and be their worst public relations person ever. However, don’t forget that O'bozo has signed legislature to make it possible for those of us who pay off our credit cards usually each month, to still pay fees, instead of adding those fees to the sluff offs who don’t pay their bills. The whole thing makes me want to refuse to pay anyone, as my own personal protest!!! Mrs. Kelly Hi Grandpa Terry, I haven't noticed if my minimum payment has gone up because I always pay my balance in full at the end of the month, however, recently Chase raised the interest rate on my business card from 9.94% to 16.99%. When I called to complain, I was told it was "because of the economy," and I shouldn't take it personally. Also, recently I was contemplating moving a couple of balances from other credit cards to chase to consolidate the debt in one place, and found that although I have extremely high credit lines, Chase is not allowing any balance transfers to their cards. I have never missed a payment and always paid more than the minimum when I did carry a balance. I would recommend to anyone carrying balances on Chase cards to move their balance to another card if possible (even though everyone is charging transfer fees, nowadays). I was able to get a 4.99% rate on an LLBean card for the life of the transfer, which will enable me to pay the balance down faster. Thanks for bringing this to my attention, I will definitely check it out on my next statement. Best regards, Karen J. Hi! We have a credit card with Chase and were contacted about the payment going from 2% to 5%. Yes, we were very stupid about money in the past. We wised up about 2 years ago and are really trying to work on getting out of debt. However, we had transferred most of our credit card debt (20,000) to the chase card. We are paying 400 a month now and there is no way we could afford 1000 a month. I did contact Chase and they were most helpful. They closed my account-which was no problem since we haven't charged to that account in 2 years. They gave me a new payment of 360 a month for 5 years and after 5 years that debt will be paid off in full. We can pay more than the 360 a month if we want and can pay off the debt early if we want with no penalties. My advice is to call Chase and tell them that you can't afford the 5%. I couldn't believe how easy it was and how nice they were. Plus, in 5 years we will be debt free. Hallelujah! Featured Article |
|
Copyright © 2000-2009 Budget Stretcher All rights Reserved. |
