What Happens If I Don’t Pay My Credit Card Bill
Some times I wonder, what is worst thing that can happen to me, If I do not pay my credit card bills. I can not make regular payments as I have to keep up with increased house payments. Earlier, I did write in detail about what would possibly happen if you do not pay your credit card bills. I am still of the opinion that mortgage payment should be first priority. It is better to pay mortgage than paying the rent.
If you recall that article, I said following things will happen is same order.
- Collection Calls
- Credit Card Cancellation
- Collection Agents on your Door
- Increased Interest Rates
- Bad Credit Score
- Legal Action
- Bankruptcy
By the way, If you don’t care much about your credit scores (due to current crisis they are worthless anyway), you should consider re-negotiating with your creditor. people have been able to get up to 50% weaver on their balances. Take a look at some of the articles below to find more credit related facts and advice.
How Men Decide About Their Future (Excess, Expense or Savings)
A man is dating three women and now he has to decide which one he wants to marry. Giving them a test, he gives each of the women a present of $5,000. Then, watches to see what each one does with the money.
The first does a total make over. She goes to a fancy beauty salon, gets a new hairstyle, new makeup and buys several new outfits and dresses up nicely for the man. She tells him that she has done this to be more attractive for him because she loves him so much. The man was quite impressed.
The second woman goes shopping to buy the man gifts. She gets him a new set of golf clubs, some new gizmos for his computer, and some expensive new clothes. As she presents these gifts, she tells him that she has spent all the money on him because she loves him so much. Again, the man is much impressed.
Read the rest of this entry
Economic & Political Systems Explained
FEUDALISM: You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.
PURE SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else’s cows. You have to take care of all of the cows. The government gives you as much milk as you need.
BUREAUCRATIC SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and put them in a barn with everyone else’s cows. They are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and eggs as the regulations say you need.
FASCISM: You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them and sells you the milk.
PURE COMMUNISM: You have two cows. Your neighbors help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.
RUSSIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk.
CAMBODIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. The government takes both of them and shoots you.
DICTATORSHIP: You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you.
PURE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk.
REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.
BUREAUCRACY: You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. Then it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.
PURE ANARCHY: You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors try to take the cows and kill you.
CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.
SURREALISM: You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.
(source of information is unknown)
10 Signs That You Are Still Rich!
Indeed these are troubled time. We are all feeling the financial crunch. Jobs are being lost every day. Prices are getting higher all over the world.
During all this we might think that we are not rich anymore. Think again!
As I stumbled across the web, I found inspiration from the following post. No one has ever put this point so beautifully before me. It really opened up my eyes. I hope you will find all or some of these signs around you. Enjoy the post.
- You didn’t go to sleep hungry last night.
- You didn’t go to sleep outside.
- You had a choice of what clothes to wear this morning.
Read the rest of this entry
Fed Cuts Rates by 50 Basis Points: Can It Go Below One Percent
Moments Ago Fed Funds Rate was cut to down to 1.00% bringing it down 50 basis points. It was expected as 25 basis was too low and 75 basis points were thought as too high.
This new kind of pushed Fed into corner. It is running out of Monetary options. few fiscal tools are left. It is very unlikely that Fed will lower the rates below One Percent. but some sources says that this option is still on tables. we did an article on Zero interest rate a few days back.
We at FLR don’t think that Fed cutting rate will ease the credit market. The current problem is about stinking balance sheets. Govt Bail outs Or Easy Credit from Fed can not do any thing but to inflate them by putting either equity or credit on these balance sheets. It does not take away the stink from the balance sheet. The problem with liquidity of commercial paper will not be solved unless all those toxic assets like sub prime credit are removed from them.
DOW and S&P 500 took a dip after rate cut. and 10 year bond yields rallied upwards….. watch Bloomberg for more details.
VISA and MasterCard Pay $2.75 Billion in Settlement to Discover
This Monday, credit card issuing companies VISA and MASTERCARD announced that they have settled the anti-trust law suit filed by Discover Financial Services. Discover accused both of the companies of entering in to exclusivity contracts with banks. Such contracts prohibited banks and other financial institutions to issue competing cards. Discover filed for $6 billion as compensation but settled for less than half that amount.
Visa has a larger credit card holder base and paid the major chunk of settlement amount. Visa Paid $1.8 Billion. While MasterCard with second largest penetration paid only $862.5 Million.
This amount looks big but it is peanuts when it is viewed in context of Total US Credit Card Market Size. According to Bloomberg
The value of U.S. credit card purchases was $2.17 trillion in 2007, up from $426 billion in 1993.
Previously, AMEX (American Express Company) sued both of credit card Giants and managed to extract about $5 billion in settlement.
So It is obvious that VISA and MASTERCARD have struck a great deal. Paying under $10 billion for un-restricted access to a multi-trillion dollar market is good business in every sense of word.
How these two play with each other is yet to be seen…
More on this story can be read here
New Economic Reality Changes Financial Language
New economic realities brings its own dictionary. Your Money Mogul listed new meanings of old financial terms. Forget the losses you made and enjoy yourself.
CEO — Chief Embezzlement Officer.
CFO — Corporate Fraud Officer.
BULL MARKET — A random market movement causing an investor to mistake himself for a financial genius.
BEAR MARKET — A 6 to 18 month period when the kids get no allowance, the wife gets no jewelry, and the husband gets no sex.
VALUE INVESTING — The art of buying low and selling lower.
P/E RATIO — The percentage of investors wetting their pants as the market keeps crashing.
BROKER — What my broker has made me.
STANDARD & POOR — Your life in a nutshell.
Read the rest of this entry
Forex Trading Fundamentals
I have started my journey into world of Forex. It is a learning experience and I will share it with you as I stated in this post on my Forex Blog. I will be posting as I learn and discover. here is an excerpt of what I wrote today.
Introduction to Forex (currency exchange)
Foreign Exchange Market is known with many names; Currency Market, Forex Market or FX Market. Obviously it is a market where people exchange currencies from different countries. Transactions are simple. People purchase a block of one currency by paying with a block of another currency. Naturally it is the most liquid market in the world. The daily volume of trade currently exceeds USD $5 trillion.
Major Players in the Market are:
- Large Banks
- State/Federal Banks
- Currency Speculators
- Large Corporations
- Governments
- Financial Institutions (Hedge Funds, Investment Firms, Brokers)
Major Forex Trading Centers
- London
- Newyork
- Tokyo
- HongKong
- Singapore
The Trading virtually goes on forever as the Asian trading session ends, the European session begins, followed by the North American session and then back to the Asian session. This 24/7 nature of market is only disrupted by weekends. So we can safely say that Forex Markets remain open from 5pm EST on Sunday until 4pm EST Friday.
Click here to continue and read more
PNC Bank Bids $5.6 Billion for National City Corp.
Before the Friday’s opening bell, PNC bank has announced that it will buy National City Corp. for $5.6 billion. National City has been in trouble for quite a while now. This news was not taken well by WallStreet and shares of both banks plunged even lower. Share value of PNC dropped almost 5%, while National City Corp dropped more, shedding 30% of its opening value so far. While all stocks are going down, It is difficult to stay that this sharp decline in share value is because of the Announcement.
PNC however expects to gain a lot from this deal. If successful, this bid will make PNC-National City 5th largest bank in United States.
CNN Reports Says:
Making the announcement before Friday’s opening bell, Pittsburgh-based PNC said it would also get a capital injection from the government by selling $7.7 billion worth of preferred stock as part of a federal program aimed at propping up the nation’s banking system.
PNC Bank posted a letter from chairman and CEO Jim Rohr on its Web site, saying the bank’s underlying business remains strong: “As we have reported in our public filings, PNC continued to be well capitalized as others in the financial services industry have faltered … and our operations and credit positions have performed as expected. PNC pursues a moderate risk profile and has minimal subprime exposure.”
In other news about this bank KY Post published pictures of an armed robbery in the PNC Bank, Covington, KY.
Best Commentary on Global Economic Crisis
Below is by far the best commentary on global economic crisis. Imagine you get up one morning and go to bookstall and find “The Economist” on display like this.
