Merchandise cards worth paying for to boost credit score?

Feb 232011
 

I been cruising the internet for Credit Repiar podcasts that I listen to at work. I got all pumped up after listening to a show talk about adding a sub-prime merchandise card to their credit. The high credit limit will boost a consumer’s credit utilization, you just have to be able to accept all the high fees.

 

Is there any merchandise card that is worth the expense? Do any actually report to more than one bureau? I only ask because I am in the market to buy a new car this summer and could use a nice boost. I would be willing to pay some high fees in order to get a better loan.

 

Anyone know of a real worthwhile card? Or are they all scams?

 

Thanks.

Re: Stocks Slide over Egyptian Concerns

Jan 282011
 

Unrest leads to uncertainty, uncertainty leads to anger, and anger leads to the darkside. Yoda says uncertainty is bad for the market, making investors pull their money out, when they pull their money out, the market goes down.

The Feds are economic idiots!

Jan 072011
 

       Nothing will improve without job growth, to get job growth we need to raise our GDP, stop out-sourcing, and bring back made in the USA, Wall Street is in a bubble, and politicians need to stop using Wall Street and Banks as indicators of the economy. It’s just not real. Look, the banks are all better Wall Street is rising, yet people still have not regained the homes, jobs, or money they lost in the last 5-7 years. 

 

      Politicians keep saying, “We need to cut spending.” How about you stop bailing out every jerk off who bankrupts a Nationally Traded Company, then allow himself to give him a self a fat bonus for doing so. I keep screaming, where are the **bleep** lawyers. The young guns, who want to make a name and a reputation for themselves. Indict a couple of these Wall Street **bleep** clowns, on Fraud, racketeering, laundering, mis-leading the public, or any other statute you can find. File a couple class actions against those who negligently and erroneously gave loans to those whom they knew were ill-equipped to pay them back.

 

    Lobby your Congress person. Change the bankruptcy laws to pre-bush era rules. Let the Market experience true risk. I know we are hated world wide, but do we need to spend that much on “Defense.” Better safe then sorry, but talk about Mac Aurthors Military Industrial Complex. What is it… We spend like 80% on defense. How about taking 15% of that to R and D, to create the new thing that will get us off oil. Hell, put it under Defense, as they are most definitely related.

 

When will people make sense in Washington?

Why do we need financial reform? Didn’t the free market operate just as it should have during the housing?

Jan 022011
 

bubble?

And now Obama wants to regulate the financial industry and stop people from making money.
I have a friend who was a mortgage broker and he made over $ 2,000,000.00 between 2004 and 2007. During this time he purchased two Mercedes, one for himself, one for his wife, a BMW Roadster for his daughter and a Lexus for this “secretary”. In addition to that, he bought a home in Miami and one in California.

And he was just one of thousands of mortgage brokers. The Wall Street Bankers made billions selling the loans he and others originated and fueled the economy, employing thousands of carpenters and Joe The Plumber.

Why does Obama want to monkey with a system that works so well?

My hubby and I spent two weeks in Miami, FL and loved it! We’d been talking about moving out the NY metro area (too expensive and we hate the dreadful winters) to California for quite some time, but Miami seemed wonderful and is much cheaper than CA. He has a union job that will transfer him wherever, but I would have to find something in my field before we make the move. I would love to continue what I’m doing here down there, but I am willing to go into another field if the pay is the same or better.

We also have a mortgage here and I’m pretty sure, with the current housing market, that our place has depreciated in value. We would love to rent this out and rent something in Miami until we found a place in Kendall, Coral Gables, etc.

Has anyone recently moved several states away? How did it work? Were you able to find a job in your field? I hear folks in Florida will hire New Yorkers quickly. Is this true?

(I work in marketing and we do not have children.)

Central San Diego Real Estate Market – Mid Year Snapshot Of Median Prices (2006) – Single Family Homes

Dec 022010
 

Central San Diego Real Estate Market – Mid Year Snapshot of Median Prices (2006) – Single Family Homes

As of this writing, the San Diego real estate markets appears to have shifted from one that favors sellers to one that favors buyers. However, this premise may not hold true for all communities within San Diego, as median prices for some communities continue to rise while others fall.

While there are many metrics to evaluate the real estate pricing trends of a community, one commonly used parameter is to evaluate the median price of homes from one point in time against a prior point of time. The median price reflects the point at which half the homes are above a particular price point, and half the homes are below a particular price point. The median price metric provides one method to analyze the direction of home prices, but should not be used as the sole source of data from which to form conclusions.

The data below is a comparison of median prices for various communities in central San Diego County, comparing data from June 2005 against data for June 2006. This information is only one metric at a particular point in time, and other metrics or data from future months may support or dispute the pricing trends noted below. For some of the San Diego communities presented below, very few homes sold during June 2006, which diminishes the usefulness of the median price metric.

COMMUNITIES WITH INCREASES IN MEDIAN PRICE – SINGLE FAMILY HOMES – JUNE 2006

The data below pertains only to the sales of single-family homes, and does not include condominiums or townhomes. The data is organized by the magnitude of change in median price, with the highest change in median price presented first.

For the Coronado real estate market, the median price was ,775,000, which represents a 14.7% increase from the same time last year. Approximately 15 homes sold in June 2006 (21 homes sold in June 2005).

For the Point Loma real estate market, the median price was ,024,068, which represents an 11.4% increase from the same time last year. Approximately 20 homes sold in June 2006 (14 homes sold in June 2005).

For the University City (UTC) real estate market, the median price was 0,000, which represents a 10.6% increase from the same time last year. Approximately 5 homes sold in June 2006 (19 homes sold in June 2005).

For the La Jolla real estate market, the median price was ,692,500, which represents a 10.3% increase from the same time last year. Approximately 28 homes sold in June 2006 (38 homes sold in June 2005).

For the Logan Heights real estate market, the median price was 5,000, which represents a 7.6% increase from the same time last year. Approximately 13 homes sold in June 2006 (14 homes sold in June 2005).

For the Paradise Hills real estate market, the median price was 7,500, which represents a 5.7% increase from the same time last year. Approximately 8 homes sold in June 2006 (16 homes sold in June 2005).

For the Mission Hills real estate market, the median price was 7,500, which represents a 3.1% increase from the same time last year. Approximately 11 homes sold in June 2006 (12 homes sold in June 2005).

For the Scripps Ranch (Scripps Miramar) real estate market, the median price was 9,250, which represents a 2.8% increase from the same time last year. Approximately 34 homes sold this month (43 homes sold in June 2005).

For the San Carlos real estate market, the median price was 3,000, which represents a 2.4% increase from the same time last year. Approximately 12 homes sold in June 2006 (16 homes sold in June 2005).

For the Del Cerro real estate market, the median price was 7,500, which represents a 2.1% increase from the same time last year. Approximately 13 homes sold in June 2006 (30 homes sold in June 2005).

For the Normal Heights real estate market, the median price was 6,250, which represents a 1.7% increase from the same time last year. Approximately 20 homes sold in June 2006 (19 homes sold in June 2005).

COMMUNITIES WITH DECREASES IN MEDIAN PRICE – SINGLE FAMILY HOMES – JUNE 2006

The data below pertains only to the sales of single-family homes, and does not include condominiums or townhomes. The data is organized by the magnitude of change in median price, with the highest change in median price presented first.

For the Old Town real estate market, the median price was 0,000, which was a 19.1% decline from the same time last year. Approximately 5 homes sold in June 2006 (14 homes sold in June 2005).

For the Golden Hill real estate market, the median price was 1,000, which was a 16.4% decline from the same time last year.

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Scourge of US companies

Oct 152010
 

The scourge of US companies now days and part of the reason for a dysfunctional economy is……..the shareholder. Public companies spend all their time and resources trying to appease the shareholder instead of trying to build a stable profitable company that is an asset to the economy and the community. With the explosion of individual investment we’ve moved from a “Rational Market” driven by facts and investors with actual business knowledge to an “Irrational Market” driven by speculation from the Nuvo Investor/Pseudo Intellectual who has no idea about business. With the influx of capital to the markets in the past 20 years companies have become more beholding to investor desires instead of doing what’s best for the company. It has become an atmosphere where it is all about the stock price. We are in an era where companies can post a profit but have their stock price take a hit because investors or analyst OUTSIDE the company thought it should have been a bigger profit. This leads to captains of industry doing boneheaded things to keep the stock price soaring, i.e.. ENRON, AIG, GOLDMAN SACHS. A little history lesson, the last time the markets say a large surge of investment…… the roaring 20′s and remember what followed. Investors need to quit trying to get rich overnight and invest in companies for the long haul. Until this “Irrational Market” moves back towards a “Rational Market” we are doomed to move from one bubble to another.

Sallie Mae Student Loan Questions

Oct 132010
 

So I’m sure a few people here might have a few things to say about Sallie Mae.  I am pretty capable of paying the min payment even though its about 900 bux.  It will pretty much cut into my budget and keep my spending at a minimum.  Right now I am working to pay off my credit cards from my spending during the time I didn’t have a job and stuff I bought when I was a student.  If I can put my loans into forbearance which I should be able to since I am completing a one year residency.  So my questions are…

 

1.  Until I can get it into forbearance.  Should I make my minimum payments because I heard people getting 30 and 60 day lates because the account said forbearance but yeah?

 

2.  Should I still try to pay as much as I can and pay it off within a year or 2?  Or should I make the payments less and enjoy some extra money and pay it in 3 – 5 years?

3.  I do have a condo thats on the market waiting to get sold.  Obviously its money being tied up right now so I can’t assume its sold until it is esp with the market the way it is.  I could use this to pay almost 3/4 of the student loan.  I think I got the idea to keep some of it for rainy day fund and use the rest to pay the loan off.  Or should i try to invest and try to yield more than the interest on my loans which is a nice variable of 6.8% right now.

 

I think that’s about it.  I am lucky they’re all owned by Sallie Mae, if you can call that lucky.

last 2 derog

Sep 152010
 

I’ve been working to clean up & build up my credit. I’m in a bad situation and need to get my own place soon.  I want to buy a house and now is definitely the market for buying, but my combined score averages out to 603 and I need to be at 620. I have 2 more derog items (both are cc’s) left and they are due to drop off in Nov & Dec.  When they drop I will be left with one cc that is good but is only 9 mths old.  Will my score drop because of the short time of credit history on that card?

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trader’s figure it out

Aug 312010
 

trader’s figured it out, no more lay-offs for them like the last three years,: they can make more money on, not for,  the average joe, by controlling the dow flunctuation, or rate of change of  the market, meaning long-term hold investing doesn’t work anymore, you need to pay for active buy and sell portfolios……

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trying to get a new home loan

Jun 022010
 
My wife and I are going through a very difficult time with obtaining a pre-qual due to our credit scores.  Our current home is on the market and the house we want to purchase will need to be built.  We live in Austin, TX and the housing market is on the up.  Our area is a hot spot right now so we feel confident that we will be selling soon.  I have been doing very well in my job/career and this home was our first.  Now that our finances have improved and we have 2 children, it’s time to move up and into a better neighborhood. 
 
When we bought our first home in 2005, the rules were a lot different.  Now it seems next to impossible to get a home loan.  I have a friend of mine who is a mortgage broker and he’s been helping us but I’m really starting to worry.  The biggest hurdle we have right now is credit.  We hired a credit repair person last August and all he’s done is dispute items and was successful in removing a few old items.  Since lenders need the disputed items removed, we’ve had to go back and personally request them to remove the disputed status…so the credit repair person was not much help.  For the last 9 months, we’ve been shooting for a 620 score because that’s what our mortgage friend advised us to aim for.  Well we just found out last week that with a score of 620-660 we’ll need a 20% down payment + closing costs, with a 660 we can do a 80/10/10 (10% DP) and with a 680 or better we can do a 80/15/5…5% being our DP.  Just to get personal for a bit; I gross $108K per year, excluding bonuses, etc.  My wife works part time and brings home about $12K during the school year.  We have never been late on my wife’s $500 car payment…that will be paid off in October.  We’ve never been late on our home loan…we have some credit card debt; 3 cards with a credit line of $300 (yes, 3 hundred dollars) each.  Those have been paid down to a 10% balance.  There were a couple of old collections on our reports; maybe 2-3 with a combined total of $300….again these were all old and have been paid off.  The last time we pulled credit was in March our scores were: for me - 584, 531, 525; my wife’s – 621, 588, 571.
 
Again we’ve paid everything down or completely off.  We left the 10% balance on the credit cards because we were advised to.  My wife and I both use myfico.com score watch and her score on the fico site is 617 and mine is 603.  These should be going up again soon but we just don’t know how much it will increase. 
 
I’m sorry to keep rambling but we have nowhere to turn.  No one can give us any hard information or lead-times.  Everything is a guess or a vague assumption at best.  Our house is on the market and will probably sell soon and then we find out last week that we need our scores to be much higher than the original 620 goal.  It’s simply sickening and my wife can’t get any sleep.  What should be a fun and exciting time has turned into a frustrating one.  No one will think outside the box for us.  No one can look at our credit and say…”do A, B, C and you’re there”….no one can say “you’ll be there in 30, 60 or 90 days if you do A, B, C”.  No one takes into account that we make very good money and have no debt, that we have never been late on our home payments, our auto loans, we’ve paid off 2 cars in the past 4 years.  It just blows me away that we can do all these things and make good money and still have a horrible credit score.
 
I don’t know what to do…seriously we’re completely lost.  I would love to visit (email) with someone that has more answers for us; perhaps some creative suggestions, ideas outside the box…we need some positive hope.  I apologize for the long post.  I’m thankful if you have time to read it and I’m even more grateful if you’re able to reply.  I hope you all have a great day!!  Thanks again.
 
 
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