Category Archives: Credit Cards

2010 IRA contribution deadline

June 29, 2011   admin   No comments

While 2010 is in the history books, you can still make your 2010 IRA contribution. The deadline is April 18, 2011. Normally, the final deadline for making an IRA contribution for any year is the due date of the tax return for that year, which is for individuals filing an annual tax return is April 15. However, in 2011 you have 3 additional days, since the District of Columbia is celebrating Emancipation Day on April 15, and April 16 and 17 are over the weekend. Thus, the 18th became the new tax filing deadline as well as 2010 IRA contribution deadline for both Traditional for tax-deferred earnings and Roth for tax-free earnings IRAs.

For those who needs to set up a new IRA account, the best way to open it online.

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  Tags: 2010 Ira, 2010 Ira Contribution, Deadline, Ira Contribution

Experian PLUS Score does not complete FICO

June 28, 2011   admin   No comments

Q: I got my Experian PLUS Score and it is 795. I understand that Experian is no longer offers its score through FICO, but was told that PLUS Score is the one the lenders look at when they pull Experian credit file.

A: Far from it. Experian PLUS Score is just another flavour of FAKO scores. This credit score was developed by Experian Decision Analytics, subsidiary of Experian. The PLUS Score has scale from 330 to 830 and while it is calculated using the actual data from your credit file, it has different algorithm from that of FICO. The lending decisions are based on Experian FAIR ISAAC VERSION 2, not PLUS.

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  Tags: Fico

Credit card limit lowered, credit score goes down

June 26, 2011   admin   No comments

If you have several credit cards and carry balances on more than one, it is important to stay proactive and pay attention to each card limit. Lowered credit limit on a card with balance increases the credit utilization rate and often makes credit score go down. If two or three issuers have your credit card limits lowered, the scores will likely go down quite significantly.

Who is the most vulnerable to such a scenario? Credit card holders who transfer balances at 0% percent interest on two or three cards and set up monthly automatic payments. And with banks lowering credit card limits, it is easy to suddenly discover your utilization rate is too high and credit score went down 50 or more points.

Check credit card limit often
Every time you login into the account, look at it carefully.

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  Tags: Card Limit, Credit, Lowered Credit

Gold price will rise in 2011

June 22, 2011   admin   No comments

The chart looks good and so are underlying reasons that will help gold price rise further. The main drive is the world wide growing demand for gold as an alternative to the paper currencies. According to the World Gold Council recently released quarterly Gold Demand Trends report, the strength of the global gold market is incredible. During the first quarter of 2011, gold demand grew 11% to just over 981 tons, which amounted to $43.7 billion US dollars at end-of-the-quarter prices.

Investors, looking to protect their assets from growing inflation, fueled the rise in gold volume and price, as it was up 26% from a year ago.

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  Tags: Gold Price, Gold Price Rise, Price Rise, Rise

Pain of student loans

May 11, 2011   admin   No comments

It does hurt. On average, 2011 graduates carry almost $23,000 in student loans each, the highest debt load ever, according to the Wall Street Journal. I would call this a giant debt avalanche. According to various sources, total amount of student debt is somewhere between $850 billions and $1 trillion. For the first time it has overtaken the total balance of credit card debt, and almost 40% of students are in default. And these loans are yours till death does you apart, with practically no way out. The outrageous tuition, higher interest rates and lack of employment because of ongoing recession are the three obvious reasons.

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  Tags: Loans, Student Loans

Chinese yuan, Walmart, home prices and economy

May 05, 2011   admin   No comments

As I mentioned in December 2010 in Economy is improving? I don’t think so, any economy two-thirds of which based on consumer spending has problems and big ones. And the US consumers will buy much less now as Chinese-made goods will get more expensive and gas prices are about to reach $5 per gallon. Both charts clearly show the Chinese yuan rising drastically in value against the US dollar in the last two to three weeks. The price of everything made in China will be going higher. And Walmart which caters to a huge number of US consumers and sells more of Chinese made goods than other retailers, seeing the problem.

CEO of Walmart, Mike Duke noticed something rather unsettling – Walmart shoppers, most of whom live quite literally paycheck to paycheck and shop in bulk at the beginning of the month when the paychecks come in, frequent the stores less and buying less.

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  Tags: Economy
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