Do you whip out your credit card to take care of every large purchase? Maybe you shouldn’t. A personal loan may be a better alternative – but when would it be best for you?
A recent finder.com survey explored the reasons why just over one-third (34%) of Americans took out a personal loan in the
Borrowing
Expand Your Horizons You’ve been searching for a long time for your new home, without success. Maybe you’re looking in the wrong place.
According to the Census Bureau’s 2017 American Housing Survey (AHS), 35% of people who had recently moved did so because they wanted a larger or higher-quality home – and that dream home
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could deduct your credit card debt from your taxes? For most Americans, that’s just a dream that will never come true. However, some circumstances allow you to deduct some credit card debt – all related to using your card for business purposes.
The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
You know you need to protect your accounts and personal information – but what is the best method? Should you use a credit monitoring service or subscribe to identity theft protection instead? What’s the difference between the two methods?
Credit monitoring services do exactly what they say they do – monitor activity on your accounts
Have you ever experienced that sinking feeling when you reach in your pants or purse for your wallet, and it’s gone? You’re not alone. According to an exclusive MoneyTips survey, 62% of respondents have had their wallets lost or stolen. More than 1 in 3 had suffered both from wallet loss and theft, while 36%
Another Use for Your Credit Score You probably know that your credit score affects the interest rates you’ll pay for credit cards and loans. Did you know that your credit score could also affect your auto insurance rates?
It can in all but three states (California, Massachusetts, and Hawaii). Those three states have banned credit-based
You’ve taken steps to avoid identity theft, and maybe even applied a credit freeze to your credit report. You can sit back and relax, right?Wrong. You may have prevented identity thieves from opening new accounts in your name, but have you kept your existing credit accounts secure?
As opposed to identity theft where your information
Would you know what to do if you discovered that you were a victim of identity theft? Given the massive data breaches over the last few years, it’s important that you understand your rights as an identity theft victim – because your odds of becoming one are greater than ever.
“If you find you
New Survey Shows Poor Credit Habits of Millennials Americans must love credit cards. As of the end of 2018, Federal Reserve data shows that we have racked up $870 billion in outstanding credit card debt on our nearly 480 million credit cards in circulation. However, generations vary in how they handle credit card debt.
Millennials
Chances are that if you have student loans, you need every bit of extra cash that you can get. Did you realize that your student loans might be able to generate some cash for you?
Under certain circumstances, you may be able to save on your tax bill by deducting the interest that you pay
How long have you been searching for your new home? The latest Housing Trends Report from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) suggests that you’ve been looking for a while and may be getting frustrated in the process. You may be coming down with the homebuyer’s blues.
Potential homebuyers are being squeezed in multiple
Have you missed enough credit card payments that your creditor has contacted you about your debt? If so, you aren’t alone.
According to survey results from the February 2019 PYMNTS.com Financial Invisibles Report, almost two in five (36.3%) respondents had been contacted by a creditor regarding an outstanding debt.
How did many of them resolve
If you need money and have bad credit, payday loans may seem like your only option. Payday loans are inherently risky – and expected payday loan regulation changes have been delayed, keeping the risk relatively high.
Payday loans are relatively small loans (often $500 or less) that are paid back in a short period of
No More Collegiate Debt Could the next drag on America’s economy come from student loans?According to StudentLoanHero.com, America’s student loan debt burden hit $1.56 trillion – more than any other kind of household debt except for mortgages.
Student loans are one of the most pervasive debts. The Department of Education offers assistance programs, but participants
Identity theft is rampant, with an estimated $14.7 billion stolen from Americans last year alone. Nevertheless, we don’t trust that the credit bureaus who hold all our personal data can protect our identities.
An exclusive MoneyTips survey reveals that we trust President Trump a lot more than the Equifax CEO or Facebook CEO
Tax liens are claims made on your property by a government entity for failure to pay your taxes. A lien doesn’t mean your property will be seized – it just means that the agency applying the lien has the first right to your property compared to other creditors.
A tax lien on your credit report
According to the New York Fed’s latest Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit, America’s student loan debt burden has reached a staggering $1.44 trillion as of September 2018. Has that burden kept younger Americans from buying homes?
A new Federal Reserve study suggests that educational debt isn’t the primary reason for the homeownership decline,
By Amy Beardsley
When it comes to student debt, more than half of borrowers are struggling to make their payments. Refinancing your student loan is an excellent option to lower your monthly bill or to pay less interest over the life of your loan.
Even though refinancing could make student loan debt more manageable, the
Be honest: How often do you review your credit report? Some sources suggest that the majority of Americans check it once per year or less.
If you ask us, that’s a problem. Why? Because unexciting though it may be, your credit report contains valuable information. If you’re an unknowing victim of identity theft, there would
Debt, Shmebt Do you pay off your credit card bill every month? If not, how often do you pay off the full balance? If you haven’t in the last year, you’re with the majority of balance-carrying Americans.
According to a recent CreditCards.com poll, over half (56%) of Americans who have balances carry them for over
We’ve all heard the scary statistics of identity theft. In the last year:
An estimated 16.7 million people were victims
Identity theft cost Americans $17 billion (compared to a whopping $21.8 billion in 2012)
The Federal Trade Commission took 371,061 reports of identity theft in the U.S., including 133,015 reports of credit card
When it comes to dealing with risk, America’s housing market struggles with balance. How can lenders offer affordable home mortgages for more Americans and still maintain proper safeguards?
The Great Recession was driven in part by overly risky loans that were packaged as securities and sold to investors who were unaware of the underlying risk.
You don’t have any financial issues to hide from your partner … do you? According to a new survey from CreditCards.com, almost 1 in 5 of us does.
The survey found that 19% of Americans have at least one financial account that they hide from their spouse or live-in partner – either banking or credit
Have We Finally Hit the Debt Wall? According to the old saying, the two certainties in life are death and taxes. Maybe we should add debt to the list.
The New York Federal Reserve’s latest Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit shows that household debt rose by $869 billion in Q4 2018 to hit
By Sandra Parsons
Debt is a major barrier to financial well-being among Americans. While we tend to think of debt as an issue affecting young and middle-aged people, the truth is that senior citizens carry debt, too. Among seniors approaching retirement, debt can be an obstacle to maximizing savings. Retirees living on a reduced income
Are you having trouble getting a date? Could be your rap, your looks, or your excessive debt.
According to a recent survey by Finder.com, 72% of respondents say they would re-think a relationship with a partner in significant debt. (That’s similar to the percentage in last year’s Finder.com survey, so don’t expect debt to
Survey Suggests Economic Overconfidence If the economy is so great and unemployment is so low, why do so many Americans live paycheck to paycheck? And why don’t we seem to care?
The February PYMNTS.com Financial Invisibles Report attempts to answer these questions, noting, “For three consecutive quarters, consumers have been optimistic about their financial futures
First-time homebuyers face many obstacles, but perhaps the most frustrating one is accumulating down payment money.
Traditional loans require a 20% down payment. Using Zillow’s $229,800 median home sale price for November 2018, that’s over $45,000 – and in many urban markets, a 20% down payment will easily top $100,000.
How long will it take
So Long, Free Credit Monitoring Were you one of the nearly 148 million consumers affected by the 2017 Equifax data breach? You may have taken advantage of Equifax’s free one-year offer of their TrustedID Premier service, extended to all affected consumers.
TrustedID Premier allowed consumers to lock their Equifax credit report, provided identity theft insurance,
First-time homebuyers face many challenges, but the biggest task may be coming up with a suitable down payment. Consumers in the early stages of their careers often face a fresh set of bills – and in some cases, mountains of student loan debt. A National Association of Realtors survey found that over half of
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 13
- Next Page »