finances

Principles for Buying Your First Car

5 fundamentals to help weigh your options and make your decision

So you’re in the market for your first (or third) car. So sorry. 😥

OK, not really. I just didn’t want to say, “Congratulations!” 🙄

Whether you buy new or used, whether you buy something to last a long time or something to get you by for now, whether you buy with cash or with credit — use these five principles to help you weigh your options and make your decision:

  1. Don’t buy more than you need
  2. Try to avoid debt
  3. Don’t presume on income in the long haul
  4. Beware of pride
  5. Dependable first, looks last

That’s kinda skeletal, so let’s beef them up just a bit… Read it all

Do You Know How to Trust?

I believe that my Heavenly Father will provide for me as His child.

I believe that Jesus the Good Shepherd will meet my needs as one of His sheep.

I believe that the Comforter will do exactly that for me.

I believe all that because the Bible tells me so.

But I still struggle against doubt and fear and…well, never mind.

What do you know about trust?

Do you believe this chapter (from a book my friend Steve H loaned me)?

He Always Provides for Our True Needs

Have you asked the Lord to fulfill all your needs? This mighty request requires no intercession from others, for God will provide for all of your needs in Christ Jesus without their asking Him to do so. He is your heavenly Father, and as such, He has obligated Himself to meet your necessities.

Any anxiety we have concerning temporal necessities issues from unbelief. We need never worry about what we shall eat, drink, or wear. These things our Father knows we need, and so we must not fret about them as do those who are not in living union with the Lord.

The reality is that if I do not have something, I do not need it. God is meeting all of my needs at every moment. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not lack. That is always true. Read it all

Don’t Use Your Debit Card There

unless you want fewer consumer protections -- #creditcards --

It’s too easy to use my debit card as I would my credit card, so this is a good reminder warning:

Sometimes reaching for your wallet is like a multiple choice test: How do you really want to pay?

While credit cards and debit cards may look almost identical, not all plastic is the same.

“It’s important that consumers understand the difference between a debit card and a credit card,” says John Breyault, director of the Fraud Center for the National Consumers League, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group. “There’s a difference in how the transactions are processed and the protections offered to consumers when they use them.”

While debit cards and credit cards each have advantages, each is also better suited to certain situations. And since a debit card is a direct line to your bank account, there are places where it can be wise to avoid handing it over — if for no other reason than complete peace of mind.

Here are the “ten” places the article goes on to expand on:

  1. Online
  2. Big-Ticket Items
  3. Deposit Required
  4. Restaurants
  5. You’re a New Customer
  6. Buy Now, Take Delivery Later
  7. Recurring Payments
  8. Future Travel
  9. Gas Stations and Hotels
  10. Checkouts or ATMs That Look “Off”

Source: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

Dear Credit Card User

For more than a week I’ve been planning to write to you about your credit cards.

Now I just read that Changes to credit card rules won’t perfectly protect consumers. The writer makes some of the same points I was planning to make, though mine are based on personal experience and not on research of the new laws.

Another change generally keeps lenders from raising interest rates on existing balances, though you still could see rates go up on new purchases, provided they send a warning of the change.

Consumers received a taste of this desperation in the last few months. Knowing that by Feb. 22 their interest income would be reduced, lenders raised rates, changed credit limits and dropped many customers.

Even people who paid on time were shocked by the changes lenders used to cut their risks and enhance revenue.

Now comes Phase 2. Analysts expect consumers to be hit with new fees, such as annual fees for holding credit cards and penalties for rarely or never using cards.

The law requires that people be notified clearly of changes, but many people ignore their mail.

“…lenders raised rates, changed credit limits and dropped many customers,”” she wrote.

Some of them certainly did for me!

A couple raised their rates.

Another dropped credit limits because of card inactivity. (That reduction was in the range of $10K.)

Yet another simply closed a had-not-been-used-in-a-long-time business card.

And all of the above were utterly unexpected. And none of the actions were because of some recent bad activity of mine. The card holders were just getting ready for the new law to go into effect.

Interestingly, though, Discover Card treated me quite differently on a personal card. First of all, they slashed my interest rate. And did so retroactively by a month or so. (I called them to ask for a reduction.) Thank you, Discover! You guys have been nice to me before; I appreciate that.

Safe Credit Cards Project

Is there an oxymoron in somewhere that tile? 😯

If you’e one of the millions of Americans holding a credit card, this isn’t necessarily news: Credit-card issuers are hiking interest rates, penalties and fees in full force ahead of stringent new laws that take effect in February.

In fact, 400 credit cards from the nation’s 12 largest bank issuers — accounting for 90 percent of the $889 billion in outstanding consumer revolving credit — are still using most of the same tactics that the Federal Reserve has called “unfair or deceptive” and that will be outlawed in fewer than four months, according to a new report from the Pew Health Group’s Safe Credit Cards Project.

[…]

Credit-card companies recognize the pain they are inflicting on many consumers. “We understand that customers don’t like price increases, especially in difficult economic times,” Citi said in a statement. “However, these actions are necessary given the doubling of credit card losses across the industry from customers not paying back their loans and regulatory changes that eliminate repricing for that risk.”

[…]

The Pew study also doesn’t include key changes that became law Aug. 20. Card issuers must now alert customers 45 days ahead of any increases and allow them to opt out, moves that eliminated the hair-trigger repricing and gave consumers the choice to say no.

In recent weeks, many cardholders have received those notices, some with pages of explanations. They’ve also been informed of new fees coming as card issuers look at ways to offset the loss of the hefty revenues streams they have long enjoyed from upping interest rates “at any time, for any reason,” as the disclosures generally stated, as well as late and transfer fees.

There’s a lot more at the full article here: Credit-card countdown: Banks gouge consumers ahead of new law

Above all, love God!
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