Unclaimed Property Blog

There are many different views on this. Here is some useful data on how to determine for yourself whether credit counseling is good or bad for your credit score.

Craig Watts, Public Affairs Manager at Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO), has stated that it is not their goal to have consumers consider credit counseling to be detrimental to their FICO scores.

This is good news; however, if the credit counselor negotiates a lesser contractual obligation, it is the lender who decides how to report that new obligation to the credit reporting agencies.

Good on having a high credit score. Now you have to keep it high. Read on for some tips in maintaining your high score.

Life seems good at the top, lower interest rates, lenders requesting you get loans with them and of course higher limits.

It is understood that with this high score you do have financial know-how. Even if it is the most basic rule of paying anyone you owe money to on time. If you noticed it is pay anyone. This anyone includes the late fee on your library book and/or the traffic ticket you are contesting. Not all of those things are reported to credit agencies, but when they are, they can hurt. Even if they’re unjustified. If reported to the credit bureau, there isn’t much you can do about protecting your credit scores during the dispute.

You have now finished school and are looking toward building a credit score. How does your student loan affect your credit?

One of the first things to know is that the credit score used by most lenders divides loans into two categories. They are installment loans and revolving loans. Examples of an installment loan would be a car or home loan and yes, the student loan. This is because you pay a fixed amount every month. Credit card make up the majority of revolving loans where you control your monthly payment.

You have a debit card that can be used as a credit card. Have you ever wondered if there is a difference in the usage of this card for debit or credit purchases? Read on and you will discover there is a difference sometimes.

When checking out at the register the cashier will ask if it is credit or debit. Perhaps you do not really see that there is a difference in this since the money comes directly out of your checking account either way. Well that decision to debit, using your PIN number or credit by signature can effect your bank charges.

Ever go to a store and realize you do not have enough cash in hand for even that small purchase. Then to make it more embarrassing the clerk says you have to have a $15.00 minimum purchase to use your credit or debit card? Is this legal?

OK, let’s assume a lot of the smaller merchants don’t know the rules for accepting cards from Visa and MasterCard, rather than they don’t follow them.

Are you confused about what a home equity loan and line of credit are? Read on and you will find the difference between the two and perhaps other useful data.

First thing you should know is what home equity is. Equity is the difference between how much the home is worth and how much you owe on the home. What you owe is the amount left to pay off the mortgage or mortgages as the case may be.

Here is some math on that. You purchased your home for $300,000. At the time of purchase you paid $50,000 as the down payment. This left a balance of $250,000 (your mortgage). The equity amount at this time is the down payment amount ($50,000).

You may already know the most obvious reasons for debt and a few may surprise you. Here are some of the most common reasons:

* Medical expenses. You leave one company and do not start right away leaving a gap in coverage. Sometimes your coverage is not adequate and you have to cover the remainder. Medical bills add up and of course there is the demand for payment upon delivery of the service. Thus you put it on your credit card adding to your financial debt.

Parents would like their children to become responsible with money. Here are some things you can do to teach them about saving.

One way to encourage them to save is to give them a goal. Ideally this is to save for something that they really want and can be done in a short amount of time, like a CD or DVD rather than an iPod. This is a faster way to show them saving doesn’t have to take a long time.

Sometimes your deposit and your debit don’t quite make it onto your checking account as planned. You look up your balance on the internet and the deposit is there. Are you safe in spending it?

Here is the story of a man in Georgia who does online banking. He made a deposit and checked his account and found the deposit was posted. Nothing was noted stating the deposit was on hold or the funds not available, so he wrote checks against this money. Several days later his bank returned his checks with fees for insufficient funds; stating the deposit was on hold. This notification was after the deposit was posted on the online statement. To make matters worse for him were the fees that the bank charged for the “bounced” checks totaled $400.00.

Did you know that your credit card could carry accidental death insurance? Not many do, here are the details.

Your in line to purchase your plane ticket. Ever wonder whether you should pick up some insurance just in case? Well, not to worry, you may already have that extra insurance right in your wallet. Check your credit cards.

Each of the four major credit card brands (American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa) offer some form of coverage. This is what the insurance industry calls “accidental death and dismemberment” or AD&D coverage.

The benefits vary by brand and card type and can range in coverage from $100,000 to $1 million.