Unclaimed Property Blog

Simply put, when there isn’t enough coverage from the health insurance for medical bills people are turning to bankruptcy to solve the financial situation they are faced with.

Illness and medical bills caused half of the 1,458,000 personal bankruptcies in 2001, according to a study published by the journal Health Affairs.

The study estimates that medical bankruptcies affect about 2 million Americans annually.

Another interesting fact, most of those bankrupted by illness had health insurance. More than 3/4 were insured at the start of the bankrupting illness. However, 38 % had lost coverage at least temporarily by the time they filed for bankruptcy.

Read on for some useful information regarding the way some people tempt others into being a victim.

Every day, American consumers receive offers that just sound too good to be true. In the past, these offers came through the mail or by telephone. Now the con artists and swindlers have found a new venue to pitch their frauds — the Internet. The on-line scams do not have national borders or boundaries; they respect no investigative jurisdictions. But, as with all scammers, they have one objective – to separate you from your money!

Most of us know about phishing. Now it is time to learn about rats.

Computer criminals have recently become much more sophisticated in their attacks against online banks. The Internet is now becoming infested with RATs “remote access Trojans”, these programs feed on online banking passwords.

Trojan horse programs have traditionally garnered their way onto computers by posing as desirable free software, such as electronic greeting cards or file-sharing programs. The malicious programs are hidden, and just like the Greek soldiers hidden in the famous wooden horse, they jump out to attack once they are safely inside. Sometimes they are pushed onto computers without any interaction at all, through various software vulnerabilities. If this is the case, you would likely have no way of knowing your machine has been invaded and infested.

Who wins in this situation? The consumer or “the system”? Getting credit is very easy today and many take advantage of the endless offers only to end up in a bankruptcy situation. Now laws on bankruptcy have changed and are more difficult for the consumer.

Often laws and regulations are implemented to address a situation that only the minority of people are involved in and does not take into account what the majority of consumers are actually doing. Then the law penalizes the majority for the minority’s errors or stupidity.

Here is a question regarding such a situation which was posed to the Bankruptcy Advisor at Bankrate.com

Have you ever thought to yourself , the little guy always seems to get it? Well, this time the IRS is changing its view. More corporations and wealthy taxpayers had their tax returns audited by the Internal Revenue Service this year, helping the agency haul in a record $47.3 billion in unpaid taxes.

IRS Commissioner Mark Everson said the audit rate of high-income individuals and families, those who report earning $100,000 or more, is “still too low.” “I haven’t set a specific target,” Everson said. “Our No. 1 area of emphasis has been to increase our work in high-income individuals and corporations. We do that because of the sense of fairness that resonates throughout the rest of the system.”

There are some subjects that you know you should discuss with your parents but just do not want to. Finances is one of them. There are some things you do need to know. Read on for useful information regarding this subject.

First is to find a comfortable time in which to talk to your parents and then approach the subject in your best unemotional manner. Here is the information you want to find out:

Consumers have often wondered what they did to earn high interest rates on their credit card. Below you can find out another reason for the increased rate and an explanation of “universal default”.

A growing number of credit card issuers are imposing high-risk interest rates on customers who miss any monthly payment — such as a utility bill, mortgage payment, bank loan or credit card bill.

Called “universal default,� the clause is used by about 45% of credit card issuers. The clause, generally spelled out in the fine print of the credit card agreement, says that if you are late on payments to anyone, the interest rate on your credit card could skyrocket while your credit score is damaged.

Some people are concerned that they will be audited by the IRS. Did you know that there are different types of audits?

Here are the four different types with a short explanation of each.

1. A correspondence audit.

A tax audit performed by the Internal Revenue Service through the mail, hence, correspondence. Typically, the IRS sends you a letter explaining any questions they have regarding your return. You send back copies (not originals) of any documents that support your return.

These are usually the easiest type of tax audit to deal with, mostly because you have plenty of time to collect your paperwork.

Gift cards are becoming an issue with state treasurers. Pennsylvania and New York recently voted on no expiration dates for gift cards. Now North Carolina is looking into where the money belongs.

North Carolina, like many states, has millions of dollars sitting in the state’s bank account that nothing is being done with. It’s called unclaimed money or unclaimed property. In North Carolina’s account there is more than $500 million dollars, of which more than half has been sitting there for 20 years or more. But better yet, the state believes more than $100 million will sit there and never be claimed.

Young America has responded to the State of Iowa lawsuit.

As posted on February 9th, the State of Iowa filed a lawsuit against Young America claiming that they are not refunding money to consumers who fill out rebate forms. Young America is now responding to that complaint.

Young America’s Vice President for Shareholder Relations, Roger Anderson , says a company called Affiliated Computer Systems (ACS) has been trying to find companies that are withholding rebates. He says ACS has represented about 45 states that have sought to audit Young America’s records. Anderson says his company has filed a lawsuit in federal court to try and stop the action of the states, saying they’re not a holder of unclaimed property.