DHP Financial post of the week: Credit Cards, do you abuse them or use them wisely?

[mhd]

Originally posted by Gman:
Something else to think about. Lets assume you have $5,000.00 laying around and you want to invest it. Where do you think you can invest the money and make an almost guaranteed 18%?, 14%? 10%? 6%? . It ain't easy to get those type of returns on "your" money let alone guaranteed. Yet we borrow money from the credit card companies and pay ridiculous rates on the money without even thinking about it. They make it so easy. Whip out the card and you can have it now. [img]mad1.gif[/img]

here is one way to get 18% return, bid your 5k on a tax sale property with a tax lien of 5000. if you don't get the property because the owner has redeemed you will get your 5k back at the rate of 18% a year later.

[Wild i]

Originally posted by mhd:
this is a constant problem, tell us what steps you took to remove the wrong data, i'm guessing providing the proper ssan cleared up the identity problem, were there any other problems that they corrected?

My credit report lists Julie as my spouse and me as hers. Go figure...

[darrow]

Originally posted by mhd:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by darrow:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by JMJ:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by darrow:
Another word of advice regarding credit reports/fico scores.

If you go to a site like Equifax's for instance (www.equifax.com), you'll see you can purchase a 3-in-1 credit score. Through Equifax's site, you can get a comprehensive credit report that includes data from Equifax, Experian, and Transunion in one package as well as your FICO score from Equifax (the other agencies also have FICO-like scores but they are not called FICO).

My suggestion...don't do the 3-in-1 deals.

I did a 3-in-1 from Equifax. The Equifax report was cool. The Transunion one was all F'd up and had some other guy's stuff (same name, different ss#) on my report. Typically if you see a problem on a report, you can dispute it through the reporting agency. Not so in this case. I couldn't dispute the Transunion stuff through Equifax's online site. I had to dispute it through Transunion's site. The problem was that in order to dispute it, I needed a Transunion credit report. That meant BUYING a Transunion credit report (though I already had one via Equifax's 3-in-1 product). I ended up having to dispute Experian's also, so again...I paid for an Experian one.

Had I just gone to each three and got the reports individually, I probably would've saved a lot of time and hassle as well as a bit of money.

Most banks and finance companies use Transunion reports when considering auto loans, so make sure yout Transunion report is current and accurate. Check it every six months. You may be able to obtain a free report once a year in the very near future.......JMJ </font>[/QUOTE]Transunion was also very responsive and had the three questionable items off my report in no more than two weeks.

For some reason Transunion wasn't used for my home purchase last year but was for my refinance this year. Go figure. </font>[/QUOTE]this is a constant problem, tell us what steps you took to remove the wrong data, i'm guessing providing the proper ssan cleared up the identity problem, were there any other problems that they corrected? </font>[/QUOTE]If you purchase your credit report online at one of the credit reporting agencies, you can view the report online and also dispute any items online. Disputing is fairly easy, at least in my experience with Experian and Transunion. Both have online web forms that will request things like the credit report number (your credit report has a unique identifying number) as well as other personal info (like the SSN). In the form you also identify what items you are disputing.

For instance, my previous address was wrong on my Transunion. It had me (well..my name) living somewhere I had never lived. There were also 2 civil judgments that were not mine. Also, the report showed that I had a 50K loan through a mortgage company I had never heard of. I indicated in the dispute form that these things were wrong and then basically waited. The agency must verify the disputed items and in my case, it was pretty clear that the items were all wrong. If they can't verify that the items belong to you, they have to be removed.

One thing I did do on my own though just so I was somewhat as informed as the reporting agency was do my own investigation. On your credit report, the contact information on all the companies that are indicated as creditors is listed. The account number (or in my case, court case number) associated with whatever credit item you have (or at least are reported to have) is listed also. I contacted each of the creditors and did my own little investigation, simply by giving them my name and the reported account number/case number. It was pretty clear through my investigation that someone with the same name was appearing somehow on my credit report, though his SSN was entirely different. I wanted to make sure I knew all that while my stuff was being disputed. If Transunion and Experian were going to be difficult, I'd have my ammo ready.

[darrow]

Originally posted by mhd:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Gman:
Something else to think about. Lets assume you have $5,000.00 laying around and you want to invest it. Where do you think you can invest the money and make an almost guaranteed 18%?, 14%? 10%? 6%? . It ain't easy to get those type of returns on "your" money let alone guaranteed. Yet we borrow money from the credit card companies and pay ridiculous rates on the money without even thinking about it. They make it so easy. Whip out the card and you can have it now. [img]mad1.gif[/img]

here is one way to get 18% return, bid your 5k on a tax sale property with a tax lien of 5000. if you don't get the property because the owner has redeemed you will get your 5k back at the rate of 18% a year later. </font>[/QUOTE]this is interesting. I had never heard of this stuff. I ended up doing a google search and came up with a somewhat informative site about this sort of tax lien sale.

I'll have to read up on it.

[julian_kelly]

tax leins are guranteed money and a good investment...i know a few people who have done them

Originally posted by darrow:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by mhd:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Gman:
Something else to think about. Lets assume you have $5,000.00 laying around and you want to invest it. Where do you think you can invest the money and make an almost guaranteed 18%?, 14%? 10%? 6%? . It ain't easy to get those type of returns on "your" money let alone guaranteed. Yet we borrow money from the credit card companies and pay ridiculous rates on the money without even thinking about it. They make it so easy. Whip out the card and you can have it now. [img]mad1.gif[/img]

here is one way to get 18% return, bid your 5k on a tax sale property with a tax lien of 5000. if you don't get the property because the owner has redeemed you will get your 5k back at the rate of 18% a year later. </font>[/QUOTE]this is interesting. I had never heard of this stuff. I ended up doing a google search and came up with a somewhat informative site about this sort of tax lien sale.

I'll have to read up on it. </font>[/QUOTE]

[imported_Gman]

Originally posted by mhd:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Gman:
Something else to think about. Lets assume you have $5,000.00 laying around and you want to invest it. Where do you think you can invest the money and make an almost guaranteed 18%?, 14%? 10%? 6%? . It ain't easy to get those type of returns on "your" money let alone guaranteed. Yet we borrow money from the credit card companies and pay ridiculous rates on the money without even thinking about it. They make it so easy. Whip out the card and you can have it now. [img]mad1.gif[/img]

here is one way to get 18% return, bid your 5k on a tax sale property with a tax lien of 5000. if you don't get the property because the owner has redeemed you will get your 5k back at the rate of 18% a year later. </font>[/QUOTE]

[formerly known as kenspank]

my wife and i don't even live extravagantly, but our cost of living is high compare to our income.
we made some improvements on some real estate with a credit card several years ago and because we didn't receive the pay off we though we would, we're still paying on that. also, my mom was unemployed for 24 months. she used a credit card to finance her living expenses. she's now employed and owns a house, but has had problems paying both her mortgage and the back credit card debt with the income she has now. that credit card was a joint account between her and i. unfortunately neither one of can pay on it.

the total debt is about $25k. pieces of which have different interest rates.

i live in a country that spends billions of dollars a day on war and i can't pay down a measley $25k.

there's people out there who rack up $80,000 or more in store credit card debt and other forms of credit card debt. in their households they will have like 4 kids and only one source of income.

i feel like there's a million and one ways to spend cash, but most people only know a hand full of ways to generate cash. most people work for income, but long hours of work debiltates your health and keeps you away from your family.

are there more sophisticated ways of generating cash excluding getting a paycheck from an employer?

[JMJ]

Originally posted by kenspank:
my wife and i don't even live extravagantly, but our cost of living is high compare to our income.
we made some improvements on some real estate with a credit card several years ago and because we didn't receive the pay off we though we would, we're still paying on that. also, my mom was unemployed for 24 months. she used a credit card to finance her living expenses. she's now employed and owns a house, but has had problems paying both her mortgage and the back credit card debt with the income she has now. that credit card was a joint account between her and i. unfortunately neither one of can pay on it.

the total debt is about $25k. pieces of which have different interest rates.

i live in a country that spends billions of dollars a day on war and i can't pay down a measley $25k.

there's people out there who rack up $80,000 or more in store credit card debt and other forms of credit card debt. in their households they will have like 4 kids and only one source of income.

i feel like there's a million and one ways to spend cash, but most people only know a hand full of ways to generate cash. most people work for income, but long hours of work debiltates your health and keeps you away from your family.

are there more sophisticated ways of generating cash excluding getting a paycheck from an employer?

Legally??......JMJ

[imported_Gman]

Originally posted by kenspank:
my wife and i don't even live extravagantly, but our cost of living is high compare to our income.
we made some improvements on some real estate with a credit card several years ago and because we didn't receive the pay off we though we would, we're still paying on that. also, my mom was unemployed for 24 months. she used a credit card to finance her living expenses. she's now employed and owns a house, but has had problems paying both her mortgage and the back credit card debt with the income she has now. that credit card was a joint account between her and i. unfortunately neither one of can pay on it.

the total debt is about $25k. pieces of which have different interest rates.

i live in a country that spends billions of dollars a day on war and i can't pay down a measley $25k.

there's people out there who rack up $80,000 or more in store credit card debt and other forms of credit card debt. in their households they will have like 4 kids and only one source of income.

i feel like there's a million and one ways to spend cash, but most people only know a hand full of ways to generate cash. most people work for income, but long hours of work debiltates your health and keeps you away from your family.

are there more sophisticated ways of generating cash excluding getting a paycheck from an employer?

Hey Ken, just a thought has your mother thought about refinancing her existing mortage down to a lower rate and incorporating the $25,000 credit card debt into the mortage assuming she has enough equity. ?

[ July 18, 2003, 01:52 PM: Message edited by: Gman ]

[kristibeauty]

It's really nice to have credit cards, but we must be sure to pay our debts. But nowadays, there are problems caused by credit cards, some of the credit card users were sacrificing from the debts which they didn't spend. This is because of identity theft, it is done when an impostor obtain pieces of personal identifying informations like your name, credit card number, Social Security number without your permission.

How do this thieves steal your identity?