July 19th, 2010 -- Posted in Mortgage |
In recent years property values have soared, while investment returns have been modest. This has created a situation where a lot of seniors are finding themselves in the position of being house rich and cash poor. These cash strapped seniors are looking for ways to increase their retirement income while continuing to live in their homes. These retirees find that their options are limited, and in most cases require them to risk their home. Enter the reverse mortgage, which can provide many advantages over these other less desirable options.
No Payments With Reverse Mortgages
The biggest advantage of a reverse mortgages is not having to make payments as long as you continue living in your home. In fact, this is the number one reason that seniors choose to borrow reverse mortgages. Almost 80% of reverse mortgage borrowers use a reverse mortgage to pay off their current loans in order to eliminate their house payments. Let’s say you owe $50,000 on your first mortgage and borrow $80,000 with a reverse mortgage. This would pay off and eliminate the payment on the first mortgage and provide you with $30,000 to use as you please.
Live in Your Home as Long as You Like
The second advantage of reverse mortgages is the ability to live in your house as long as you like. The great thing about this is the amount you owe on the reverse mortgage can never be more than the house is worth. Let’s say you live to 115 and have selected to recieve a $300 a month payments for life from the reverse mortgage. The amount received from the reverse mortgage payments could be substantially higher than the value of your home, yet the amount owed will still only be the value of the home. In this situation, FHA insurance will cover the difference.
Reverse Mortgage Withdrawal Options
Another advantage of reverse mortgages is the different withdrawal options that a you are able to choose. These options include lump sum distributions, line of credit, monthly payments, or any combination of these three. So if you were eligible to borrow $100,000 on a reverse mortgage you could select to receive $30,000 up front to cover current expenses, and hold the rest as a line of credit that you can use whenever you need it. This flexibility of reverse mortgages can significantly improve you financial independence during retirement.
Tax-Free Nature of Reverse Mortgages
Another advantage of reverse mortgage is the tax-free nature of the loan proceeds. The American Bar Association guide to reverse mortgages advises that generally the IRS does not consider loan advances to be income. This means that all the money from the proceeds of the reverse mortgage end up in your pocket.
With these features, reverse mortgage are definitely an option to consider if you are looking for ways to supplement your current income. As with any financial decision, you should seek the advice of a trained professional, a reverse mortgage counselor, to evaluate and determine if a reverse mortgage is right for your situation.
July 15th, 2010 -- Posted in Credit |
With overwhelming use of credit cards, there is a need to keep check on the increasing credit card fraud that is dramatically rising on the internet. Internet users know that it is safe to enter their credit card number on a secure online form rather than giving it in a restaurant to pay off. Research shows that there is increasing number of fraudulent cases where purchases are made by mobile phones on account of credit cards of other persons that are higher than credit card fraud on the internet.
As a rule of thumb, you need to use some common sense and there are some tips that shall help you in avoiding credit card scams:
1. Always keep an eye whenever you use your credit card and get it back quickly if you have given it to some other person and try not to let your card out of your sight.
2. You need to be careful while you give your credit card to someone else and never give your account number over the phone unless you are sure that the company is a reputed one. Also it is not safe to give the credit card number over phone to any company who asks you for the same seeking excuses such as “computer problem”.
3. Don’t give any response to emails asking you to provide your credit card information and emails that ask you to go to a website and verify your personal and credit card information as these are known as “phishing” scams.
4. Don’t provide your credit card information over insecure websites.
5. You should sign your credit card as soon as you receive them and shred all the credit card applications when you receive.
6. You should not write your Pin number on the credit card or anywhere near your credit card.
7. Don’t leave your credit cards and receipts lying all around.
8. You should shield your credit card number so that others who are around you could not copy or capture it on a mobile phone or camera.
9. Always keep the list of your account numbers and expiry dates and phone numbers along with addresses of each bank issuing you a credit card at safe places. You need to update this list each time you get one new credit card.
10. Try to carry only those credit cards that you require and don’t carry extra credit cards that you need rarely.
11. You should promptly open your credit card bills and make sure that there is no bogus charge involved. You should also treat your credit card bill in the same way as you check your accounts and reconcile it monthly. Save your receipts so that you can compare them with monthly bills.
12. In case, you find any charges for which you don’t have a receipt or one you don’t recognize you need to report these charges to the credit card issuer.
13. You should destroy and void incorrect receipts and shred anything with your credit card number written upon it.
14. Don’t sign a blank credit card receipt and you can carefully draw a line through the blank portions of the receipts where there is chance to add any fraudulent charges.
15. Even though carbon paper is not much in use but if there is any carbon used in a credit card transaction you should destroy it immediately.
16. Don’t write your credit card account number in a public place for example a postcard or from a place that it is evident to others.
17. Its good if you carry your credit cards separately from your wallet.
18. Never lend your credit card to others and if you move from your existing residence, do notify your card issuer about the change in address.
July 12th, 2010 -- Posted in Debt Consolidation |
Debt reduction is definitely possible and all is not lost if that’s what you think about it. It is fair that the burden of debts might actually be more and more on you, but go bankrupt, is not the only way. There is a solution of this that is debt reduction. But this situation has been avoided is by reducing your debt. Everyone must understand the importance of debt reduction and try their best to reduce their debts. You need some basic fact about the debt reduction.
Credit card debt consolidation is considered the first step towards getting rid of credit card debt. Credit card debt consolidation loan is one of the ways of consolidating credit card debts. In addition, credit card debt consolidation loan, you can transfer the balance to another credit card to go. In fact, because of the publicity by credit card suppliers, balance transfers seem to more than credit card debt consolidation loans are spoken.
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