Who’s Declaring Bankruptcy

Of the million Americans that filed for bankruptcy, an overwhelming majority of them were employed and making less than $30k a year.

28.Oct.09 Debt Free Comments (0)

Get Out Of Debt Seminar (For Free!)

This Wednesday, October 28th, at 7pm a MoneyDesktop Founder will be providing a second free seminar on personal debt elimination and home finances.  There will be no obligation to purchase anything or to endure any high pressure sales.

The public is invited to attend, the event is being held at on the ground floor of:  251 W. Riverpark Way, Provo UT, 84606.
photo credit: Rafiq Phillips

16.Oct.09 Debt Free Comments (2)

Debit Card or Debt Card?

The New York Times has run an excellent article on the usurious overdraft fees charged by banks.  Overdraft fees on debit cards earn banks more than all credit card penalty fees combined.  For this reason, they are increasingly being relied upon by banking institutions as a strong source of income.

Unfortunately, it appears that many banks are now using these fees as their only real source of income.  When a user of a debit card has a purchase that exceeds the amount of funds in its corresponding account, it results in an overdraft.  The bank still pays the charge, and then charges the consumer roughly $40 in fees for every day and/or transaction that takes place until the account is again positive.

Essentially, banks use these overfrafts as a form of offering pay-day style loans at extremely high interest rates.

The article in the New York Times points out that the elimination of these fees would likely result in the immediate closure of hundreds of banks and credit unions.  As a result, most flat out refuse to permit consumers to turn off ‘overdraft protection’ even for mentally handicapped or disabled users.

The Times also offers a guide to avoiding these fees suggesting that consumers find a different bank if they are unable to disable the overdraft ‘feature’ on their account.  One item which the guide fails to mention, most large banks are willing to forgive a single overdraft fee as a courtesy, and may forgive even more if provided a reasonable excuse.

photo credit: B Rosen

12.Oct.09 Credit Card Debt Comment (1)

Your Paycheck Compared to that of Professional Athletes

With recent announcements that the US unemployment rate is the highest we’ve seen in 26 years, it is likely little consolation to know that professional athletes are being paid much much more than the average employed.

The Miami Herald notes:

Since the recession began in December 2007, the number of unemployed Americans has risen from 7.6 million to 15.1 million. The unemployment rate has doubled to 9.8 percent – the highest since June 1983 – rising another tenth of a percentage point in September.

It was a lousy report from top to bottom, with the average workweek for production and nonsupervisory jobs falling slightly to 33 hours in September. That number should be going up in an economic recovery.

Fun times for the employed and unemployed alike.

02.Oct.09 Debt Free Comments (0)

Bank of America sued for $1.7 Billion-Trillion Dollars

Bank of America may be needing another bailout if it loses their latest lawsuit.  This time the bailout would have to be slightly larger than the $45 billion they already received, comprising 30-billion times the world GDP.

Dalton Chiscolm, became angered at BOA after they refused to deposit some of his checks claiming a problem with routing numbers.  According to NYDailyNews, “He seems to be complaining that he placed a series of calls to the bank in New York and received inconsistent information from a ‘Spanish womn,’” the judge wrote. “He apparently alleges that checks have been rejected because of incomplete routing numbers.”

The same judge issued an order stating that the suit was “incomprehensible”.  Chiscolm’s suit demands damages for his alleged suffering, going so far as to specifically request that”1,784 billion, trillion dollars” be placed as a deposit into his ATM account the next day.  Perhaps for good measure,  he also demanded an additional $200,164,000.”

Peter Cohan with AOL Beta Finance noted:

“Update. This is not his first lawsuit. In Janaury 2009, Chiscolm sued his landlord for $892 million billion dollars — or $892 quadrillion. In his January complaint, Chiscolm alleged that “Manerment nor mainterntmen had no atcuse’s to go in my apartment what so ever I had to keep a lock no the kichen cabernit.” The court dismissed his complaint.”

photo credit: pixthree

01.Oct.09 Payoff Mortgage Comments (0)