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By Eric Olsen, Executive Director, HELPS Nonprofit Law Firm Recreational Vehicle (RV) loans last typically for 10-15 years and sometimes up to twenty years. Often a medical condition or simply a change in lifestyle makes the RV no longer necessary. Sometimes a high RV payment can become simply unaffordable. What are the solutions for seniors
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Do as I say, not as I do. Do you ever fall into that trap? New research from Debt.com suggests that you might have that attitude when it comes to budgets. Debt.com recently surveyed the budgeting habits and attitudes of Americans and found a wide discrepancy in following through on budgeting beliefs. A huge majority
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Congratulations! You’re worth a bit more this year than you were last year – at least in the eyes of identity thieves. The website Top10VPN recently released their 2019 Dark Web Market Price Index, a summary of current market prices for individual pieces of stolen identities. Last year, Top10VPN estimated that an identity thief could
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Watch Your Credit Card Debt Are you keeping your credit card debt under control? Recent data from Bloomberg shows that more consumers are having a hard time doing so. Credit card issuers reported a 3.82% charge-off rate on credit cards in the first quarter of 2019 – the highest percentage of written-off accounts in almost
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How much does your credit score affect a mortgage offer? In some cases, a credit score could make the difference between purchasing a home or being forced to rent instead. That’s especially true for millennials. Many entered the housing market at the worst possible time – amid the Great Recession. They dealt with a crumbling
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What do you plan to do with your tax refund? Maybe you have your eye on upgrading your phone, buying a new computer, or splurging on a long overdue vacation. Have you considered using your tax refund to build your credit? Granted, credit building doesn’t compare with lying on the beach enjoying the sunshine, but
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Beware of Credit Score Inflation America’s credit scores have improved along with the improving economy. Compared to 2006, there are approximately fifteen million fewer Americans with credit scores below 660 and a corresponding increase of fifteen million Americans with scores greater than 740. That’s good news, with a potential downside. Federal Reserve research suggests that
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You’ve reached a point where you don’t have to use credit cards anymore. Your home is paid off. You don’t have other outstanding debts. You must be an excellent credit risk, right? As strange as it sounds, creditors do consider you a risk when you’ve become “credit-retired.” If you haven’t been using credit for some
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If you’re in the market for a home, a high credit score is key to qualifying for a mortgage loan and getting the lowest interest rates possible. What do you do if your credit score is toward the lower edge of qualification? The March 2019 Chartbook from the Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center has
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It’s bad enough when someone steals your identity and opens accounts in your name. What happens if thieves steal part of your identity and use it to create a non-existent person? Synthetic identity theft occurs when criminals “synthesize” a false identity using made-up Social Security numbers and other personal information. Sometimes, synthetic identity thieves start
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Welcome to the 2018 Consumer Fraud Awards Show! We have a great show for you, with criminal activity galore. Tonight’s winners are chosen based on information from the Consumer Sentinel Network 2018 Data Book and brought to you by the Consumer Information Group at your Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Okay, there really isn’t a consumer
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Congratulations! You’ve made it through the home-buying process. You feel a great sense of satisfaction and relief. Will you feel the same way over time? According to a new survey from Bankrate.com, you have a decent chance of regretting something about your home purchase – especially if you’re a millennial. While 79% of survey respondents
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How many people like the IRS? According to Facebook, it’s almost 110,000! Does it bother you that the Internal Revenue Service is more popular than you are? If you regularly use social media outlets to stay in touch with friends and follow people or businesses that you find interesting and relevant, consider adding the Internal
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Can you eliminate debt by settling with a creditor to pay less than you owed and still come out on the short end? It is possible, based on potential tax liabilities. Not only that, but “…any time an account is settled for less than you originally owe, it’s going to hurt your credit scores,” cautions
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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
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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
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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
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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
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