Search Results for: payday loans

Payday Loans for Times When Cash is Short

Payday loans are there to help a person make ends meet. The reason is simple. Many people simply have too much of the month left, or the week, when the paycheck is gone. For these people payday loans are a way of borrowing and stretching the budget a bit. With a payday loan a consumer will form a relationship with a payday loan company. This will involve filling out an application form and providing bank account information. Payday loans are paid back to the lender using a check, which is post dated, so the checking account information is needed. It … Continue reading →

Tax Refund Loans

Tax time is fast approaching. We have not filed yet. I’m starting to get antsy about it. I know we still have a month and a half. I know that we have an extra few days to file by April 18. I’m still feeling anxious that we haven’t bought TurboTax or started compiling our documents. I’m rather looking forward to it this year. I sold hardly any Avon, so I don’t have much to compile there and I’ve never made any money at it. About half my income last year is W-2 reported instead of all of it on a … Continue reading →

Payday Loan Woes

Posted on by

They are popping up all over the country like boils gone out of control. You’ve likely seen payday loan and check cashing stores at intersection corners all over your town. If not, consider yourself lucky to live in a community where consumer debt problems have not yet warranted the need for payday loan stores. These stores are becoming almost as common as grocery stores. Actually, at an intersection near my home there is a place to get payday loans at EVERY CORNER! There are many reasons why payday loan and check cashing shops are bad news for your community. The … Continue reading →

Debt and Denial

Facing debt is usually not a fun thing to do. As a result of that, many of us are in denial about how much debt we have, how much we actually owe. As one friend told me while she was writing yet another check for her daughter’s expensive extracurricular activities, “I just don’t want to know how much I’m spending. I know I’m in debt and probably won’t get out of it, so why worry?” Well, there are very good reasons to worry. First of all, if your debt gets too large, you could lose everything, including your home. Second … Continue reading →

K.I.S.S. Guide to Savings

Keep It Simple, Stupid or K.I.S.S. is a principle that can be applied to a variety of subjects, including saving money. Basically, the K.I.S.S. guide to preserving your household budget is to avoid overcomplicating matters. Instead, stick to basic concepts that are easy to execute, such as: Forget about brand loyalty: Sticking with a certain brands is not the best strategy if you are looking to line your pocketbook with extra cash. Consider experimenting with cheaper alternatives. NBC’s Today show recently did a test on the best dishwasher soaps and Wal-Mart’s generic brand scored as well as name brand Cascade. … Continue reading →

Balance Your Checkbook and Save Money

You can save money by balancing your checkbook every month and keeping a running total. The Center for Responsible Lending has just issued a new report “Out of Balance” warning against the high interest rates that the banks are charging to cover your items if you overdraw. The report speaks out against what it calls unfair banking practices that can cause the customers to accumulate more fees. The Center for Responsible Lending is supporting bill HR 946, which would put overdraft loans under the jurisdiction of the Truth-in-Lending Act. This could mean that the banks must notify you if you … Continue reading →

A Wolf in Banker’s Clothing

Posted on by

The Pentagon has just released a report that finally addresses a huge issue for military personnel and their families. The Report On Predatory Lending Practices Directed at Members of the Armed Forces and Their Dependents can be found in its entirety at (http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/pdfs/Report_to_Congress_final.pdf) Surely you’ve seen all those “Payday Loan” companies. They are everywhere but they are most concentrated just outside military bases. These companies will let you write a postdated check that they won’t deposit until your next payday and give you cash today in return. Certainly that can be very convenient for a young military person who is … Continue reading →

Making a Commitment to Live on Cash

Credit card spending, home equity and payday loans make it possible to spend more than we earn. While it can be great to have the flexibility ready access to cash or credit provides it is a sure bet that the convenience will eventually become a headache brought on by run away spending. Studies have shown that consumers tend to spend more when using credit than they do when using cash. It seems that credit makes it easier to disassociate ourselves from the act of spending and we rarely give much thought to the mounting costs of credit until the bill … Continue reading →

Avoid Prepaid Debit Card Fraud

Reloadable debit cards like the Green Dot MoneyPak can be a convenient way to pay bills or fund your PayPal account. Unfortunately, criminal minds have been hard at work lately creating a variety of scams whereby they obtain MoneyPak card numbers and then use whatever balance is left on the card. If you have a MoneyPak card or other prepaid debit card, protect yourself from fraud with the following tips. Many of the current scams involving MoneyPak cards closely resemble scams that have been around for some time, where wire transfers of funds are requested. Since smart consumers have caught … Continue reading →

Good Debt vs Bad Debt

You may hear people talk about good debt or bad debt. What type of debt is good and how can you avoid the bad debt? You need to read this. First of all, let me disclose that I personally think any debt is bad. The goal is to not have any debt at all. In our current society, this isn’t always practical, especially if we follow what most people do an never get really educated about debt. That said, while I would never qualify any debt as good, myself, there is debt that is…well, not as bad as other debt. … Continue reading →