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Week of August 24, 2009

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Grandpa Terry's Update

Grandpa Terry's Tip of the Week

Grandpa Terry's Email

Featured Author's Article

Grandpa Terry's Update

Welcome to The Budget Stretcher!

USA.gov is the U.S. government's official web portal to all federal, state, and local government web resources and services.

This is one of the most informative web sites you will find on the web regarding government contacts and benefits. It would be a good idea to at least familiarize yourself with USA.gov in case you ever need it. Click Here to visit USA.gov online.

Here are a couple of free downloads you may be interested in:

522T
Medicare Basics: A Guide for Families and Friends of People with Medicare

636T
Guide to Choosing a Nursing Home

Watch Your Medical Bills

I just received a notice from a local hospital for a medical bill that they say is 2 months past due. Problem is, I paid it over 2 months ago and I have a receipt proving it was paid. I've called twice and was assured the error had been corrected.

It appears that the medical billing for many doctors and hospitals is being overwhelmed and making a lot of mistakes in the process. Unless you pay close attention you could very easily pay a bill more than once.

I track my insurance copay very closely. I first receive a statement of benefits from my insurance company showing what they paid, what they wrote off and what I have to pay. I keep this in a folder and when the actual bill arrives I write out the check and attach my copy of the bill to the statement of benefits. I also write on the bill the check number and date paid.

Gas In Fredericktown MO - $2.37 a Gallon!!!

Which cards are ideal for students?

Answer: If the student can handle money responsibly then a low credit-limit credit card account is the best, since it will help establish a positive credit history. If you are unsure, then a secured credit card is a good bet since it provides some "skin" in the account. However, a debit card or a prepaid card is a sure bet for most everyone, since it is difficult to damage your credit history with these cards.

Compliments of Card Web.com

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

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Grandpa Terry's Tip of the Week

Eliminating Your Debts
Notice I didn't say reducing your debts! That's because just owing less shouldn't be your goal.

Every month you write out your bills, stick them in the envelope, put a stamp on them and in the mail they go. From my experience, there aren't 1 in 10 people that can tell you how much of their bills are interest and how much is going to pay it off.

I have a challenge for you. The next time you write out your bills look at the statements. It should say how much interest you paid last month and how much went toward the principle. Get a sheet of paper and write down in one column how much Interest you paid and in another column how much in Principle for each of your bills. You can also include late fees or over limit fees in your Interest column. Do this for your bills for the entire month.

Now study the figures. How long did you have to work just to pay the interest? What could you buy if you didn't have to pay that interest? How much money would you have if you could save that much each month for 10 years?

The only way to eliminate that interest is to eliminate your debts.

But if you are saying, "I need more money to pay off my debts", you are probably right. The fact is that in most cases that money can come from what you already earn.

There is only one way to get money that you already have! (That doesn't make any sense!) Actually, it does. Every penny you save on one thing can be put toward your debts. It's that simple.

You need to pay attention to your finances. Know where the money is coming from and where it is going. Find out how you can cut your expenses so that you can put more money toward paying off your debts.

Eliminating debt is the dream of millions. You can make it your reality with some good organization and careful planning.

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Grandpa Terry's Email

I don't know whether you've covered "Cobra" issues before but I wanted to share my family's experience which has turned into a real nightmare.

A member of my family lost their job. Instead of the company providing the necessary information and forms, these had to be located by the member of my family (that's okay, but it should have been a hint of things to come).

A lot of us think the biggest worry is where (if you've lost your income) you're going to find the money to make the cobra payments. That's ONE part of the puzzle.

Payments have been made for several months (once they finally "accepted" the application. The nightmare began when picking up meds one day and found out the insurance had been cancelled. We contacted the billing company who said payments weren't made on time. We contacted the bank and they contacted the billing company who works for the former employer. The bank tried every way to resolve this. The demand was made to us, and to the bank for "copies" front and back of each check. As these had been made on time, and were through online bill pay there were no personal checks.

Demands were made for proof....such as check copies, bank statements showing our account balance before and after payments were made. They still would not reinstate the insurance.

The Labor Dept. was contacted and they began trying to resolve this. Again, copies of bank records, with what was paid, when, to whom, all information. Again, the company would not reinstate the insurance.

Now please remember, all payments were made and by the deadlines each month. Yet, they have claimed everything from payments were not made on time, to there were no payments.

No insurance....back to the Dept. of Labor who started contacting the former employer again. We now have been advised to send the money AGAIN for all the months we have already paid. And they put a deadline of a few days on this to "consider" reinstating the coverage. Also they once again are demanding the bank statements for each month and a hard copy of each check. These were provided the Dept of Labor who provided what was necessary to the former employer.

The last straw.....my family member has serious medical problems which require frequent monitoring by the physicians, medications to treat the problems (these are not optional meds, they are to give some quality of life and can be life saving once the condition worsens). We looked into "private" insurance knowing this wasn't going to stop, only to find out none of the pre-existing conditions would be covered at all. Insurance companies are recommending to continue with Cobra, and after that????

I'm watching the changes in health as medications run out. Doctor visits will have to be discontinued as there's no funds to cover them or lab work.

I realize this is rather lengthy. In desperation, we contacted the Labor Dept. again. They've tried to help, but the position is we should pay the payments again, send them certifed to the p.o. box and wait and see if they re-instate the coverage. Oh, and provide all the bank records, copies of checks (these payments go out from the bank in large batches, there is a number and payment records, but no individual checks. The bank tried everything from day one, including guaranteeing the payments were made and when and to who (and the payments were accepted.

All sources say it's up to the former employer to decide whether they will allow COBRA coverage or not. We thought it had to be provided, that was an employees/former employees right. Apparently, not. For the record, the former employer pays no portion of this insurance.

Before the physicians were able to determine what was causing we watched the illness run rampant not knowing whether we would indeed lose out loved one at some point, Once on the right track, we finally had hope. Now we just don't know.

Please feel free to edit this as it's so long, and I don't have any answers or advice to how to keep COBRA for those who may need it, just thought if others are warned, maybe they would have a better chance of keeping healthcare.

Thank you.

My Response:

Hi,

Thanks for a great lesson in the COBRA program. It will be in the newsletter. By the way, there is an excellent Questions and Answers put out by The Department of Labor that may be interesting reading. Here is the link:

http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq_consumer_cobra.HTML

Thanks again,
Terry

Featured Article

Fighting an Increasing Rate
by Scott Bilker

Scott Bilker is the author of the best-selling books, Talk Your Way Out of Credit Card Debt, Credit Card and Debt Management, and How to be more Credit Card and Debt Smart. He's also the founder of DebtSmart.com. More about Scott Bilker and DebtSmart can be found in the online media kit.

Scott,

I had a card that had a fixed rate of 5% on my balance. I closed the account years ago when I started taking control of my debt. Since this was the lowest rate of the cards I had, I was only paying the minimum and concentrating instead on paying off other high interest credit. I received a notice with one of my invoices that they would be increasing the rate to 20% and that I basically didn't have a choice in the matter (fine print). I transferred the balance over to other cards that would have a lower APR than the 20% they would be imposing; however, this severely limited my available credit for emergency purposes.

Just wanted to know if it is legal for them to increase the rate on a closed account and if there was any other option for me to consider. Obviously, this would be information for any future similar situations. Thanks!

Mike

Mike,

Do you have the original paperwork that gave you the fixed rate of 5%? I truly hope so because it's that documentation that could ultimately help you keep that rate. The only problem is that you did transfer the balance. But you did so because you thought they wouldn't keep the rate at what they promised.

I see this happen frequently. That's why I ALWAYS keep copies of the letter, terms, conditions, etc. in my files for just such a situation. I even photocopy applications!

If this happened to me, and I found evidence that they couldn't raise the rate, then I might even contact a lawyer and see what could be done. I would also contact the Federal Trade Commission and other consumer groups to see if they could help me make the bank honor their agreement.

For the future...get everything in writing and keep it in a file!

Good luck and please let me know what happens.

Scott