Search: pay

Slate from Chase No Balance Transfer Fee Card Review

This article was written by Flexo in Credit. 3 comments.

Not every credit card on the market today is out to provide consumers with great rewards, because not every card customer can make the most of those rewards. Credit cards are just tools, and depending on who is wielding them, they could have a positive or a negative effect on that person’s finances. Some people just use credit cards to habitually buy what they can’t afford. For them, a great rewards credit card might actually be counterproductive.

A good example would be someone who has made mistakes with credit cards in the past and is now looking for some way to get out of the debt hole. Rather than trying to rack up rewards with spending, this individual would be better off finding a low-interest card or a card with an excellent introductory APR on balance transfers that will allow him to save money while reducing his debt.

Issuers design some cards for people looking to save money on costly interest payments. Slate® from Chase – No Balance Transfer Fee has offers a 0% introductory APR on purchases and balance transfers for 15 months. This offer is for applicants with good or excellent credit; after the 15-month introductory period, the APR is 11.99% to 21.99% variable. Notably, Slate from Chase – No Balance Transfer Fee does what the offer says: It allows you to transfer a balance to the card with zero fees if you do the transfer within the first 30 days your account is open. (After the 30 days, balance transfers are assessed a fee of $5 or 3% of the balance transferred, whichever is higher.) Combined with the 0% APR period for purchases and balance transfers, this is a card that will likely save you money if you carry a balance and are committed to paying it down within 15 months. The Slate® from Chase – No Balance Transfer Fee card has no annual fee.

Slate from Chase includes a program that’s meant to help cardholders analyze and pay down their debt. The program is called “Blueprint,” and it allows cardholders to pick which purchases to pay off first. With Blueprint, customers have the option of designing their own plan:

Full Pay. Avoid paying interest by paying off full categories of your choice. Chase will separate all of your purchases into different categories.
Split. Inform Chase how much you want to pay and to what purchases you would like it applied to.
Finish It. Set up a goal and a timeline and Chase will calculate your monthly payment schedule for you.
Track It. Check out your spending trends and see where you stand with any goals you’ve set up.

It seems like a lot of work, and most people will probably prefer to just send a payment into a credit card and have it apply to the highest APR balance regardless of what the original purchase was. Psychologically, however, there is value in understanding exactly when a particular purchase has been paid off. That theory has been used to great effect by Dave Ramsey with the Debt Snowball, and this is sort of a similar application.

That’s about all there is to the Slate from Chase. For consumers looking for a great introductory rate with features to help you keep your debt in check, this card fits the bill. Remember to keep in mind that the best offer is given to excellent credit applicants only, so anyone with average or even above average credit should avoid applying. Here’s how to apply for the card.

Visit the secure application page for Slate from Chase – No Balance Transfer Fee.
Provide your personal information.
Wait a short time for a response from Chase.

{ 3 comments }

Debt Collections: Do You Have To Pay?

This article was written by Flexo in Debt Reduction. 6 comments.

People who borrow money generally understand that they will eventually need to pay borrowed money back to the lender. This understanding, whether codified in a contract or not in any particular case, makes lending and borrowing money work as an economic mechanism. It’s interesting that regardless of what’s written in a contract, most debt can be legally ignored. Borrowers may feel bound by their pride to honor commitments, but every state in the country has laws that prevent lenders from chasing after deadbeat borrowers after a certain amount of time.

Time-barred debts are subject to a statute of limitations. After a certain amount of time passes with a borrower unable or unwilling to pay back a loan, the lender will no longer be able to sue the borrower for uncollected debt. The lender can still contact the borrower and try to convince him or her to pay back the loan, but the lender’s legal rights to the funds are limited.

This doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea to wait for the statute of limitations to pass on all your debt in order to avoid your obligations. There are consequences if you don’t pay back debt. Most importantly, the three credit reporting bureaus will significantly decrease your credit score, and it could take a long time for that number to return to normal. This will affect your ability to qualify for more loans, mortgages, and credit cards in the future.

This is a dilemma many homeowners have considered recently; with the market value of houses sharply decreasing in the last few years, and the resulting financial reality of owing the bank more on the mortgage than the house is worth, some in this situation have considered walking away from the house and mortgage. In some cases, this could be a tactic that is more financially responsible than continuing to sink money every month into a depreciating asset. Families considering this option have to weigh the consequences, including not being able to qualify for a mortgage again for many years, against the emotion-based drive to honor financial commitments.

Although lenders are legally barred from suing borrowers after the statute of limitations for a particular debt has passed, they might still try. If you’re able to show a judge that the debt is time-barred and no longer legally collectible, you have nothing to worry about other than the consequences.

Credit cards and other open accounts like home equity lines of credit, written contracts, oral agreements, and promissory notes may have different statutes of limitations, and each differs by state, as well. Here’s a list by state of time-barred debts.

The clock starts ticking on the statute of limitations from the day you miss your first payment. The moment you send a payment to the lender, no matter how small, the clock resets. For example, if the statute of limitations on credit card debt in your state is seven years, and it’s been six years since you’ve made a payment, you may determine that it makes more financial sense to refuse to make a payment for one more year rather than negotiate with the lender. If you are in financial difficulty and don’t expect to ever be able to pay off the debt, paying even a small amount means you’ll need to wait another seven years after making the small payment before you’ll be legally protected from paying back the debt.

Not all debt is time-barred; student loans backed or issued by the government have no statute of limitations. Anything you borrow under any of the loan programs that qualify in this category can never be ignored. The lenders are often willing to negotiate the terms in order to help you make payments you can afford, but these students loans are, for the most part, legally stuck with borrowers until the lenders are satisfied.

A few questions for discussion:

Do you think it’s right that borrowers can avoid agreements by patiently waiting for the statute of limitations to pass?
Have you ever been sued for debt you didn’t need to legally pay back?
Have you inadvertently restarted the clock by paying a small amount to a lender when it might have been better to wait?
Are you dealing with the credit consequences of letting a debt expire?

Note: I am not a lawyer, and nothing written on Consumerism Commentary constitutes legal advice. Always check with an attorney before making any decisions regarding the law.

Photo: Dave Stokes
Federal Trade Commission

{ 6 comments }

Podcast 146: Buying a House In Your Early 20s

This article was written by Flexo in Podcast. 2 comments.

Today on the Consumerism Commentary Podcast, Tom Dziubek talks to MD, founder of the personal finance website Studenomics.

MD talks with Tom about topics such as his inspiration for Studenomics, how he got through college without having to pay off student loans, and also about things that people in their early twenties need to consider if they’re thinking about buying a home.

Consumerism Commentary Podcast
Buying a House In Your Early 20s: S06E16 / 173

Download – RSS – iTunes

[00:00] Introduction from Tom Dziubek
[00:36] Interview with MD
– [00:53] MD’s inspiration for Studenomics
– [02:22] The focus of Studenomics
– [03:14] MD’s college years
– [03:53] Starting off at a community college
– [06:00] The start of the blog
– [08:31] Paying for college
– [13:32] Buying a home in your early 20s: Income considerations
– [15:26] Considering your savings
– [16:37] Taking into account your relationship status
– [18:42] The need to be somewhat handy
– [20:51] MD’s current projects
[23:53] End

We always welcome feedback from listeners. If you have any comments for this episode or for any other, or if you have suggestions for future episodes, please leave us comments here or email us at podcast at this domain name.

Theme music by Mindcube.

{ 2 comments }

Are You Concerned About the Very Poor?

This article was written by Flexo in Society. 72 comments.

Whether you agree with it or not, the reason this country has supported programs like welfare, Social Security, the GI Bill, food stamps, Medicare, government-backed mortgages, FEMA insurance, and other social programs is because a modern society benefits when as many citizens as possible have opportunities to succeed financially. Social programs aren’t perfect and don’t always provide what they promise, and there’s always a small percentage who take advantage of the system.

The push-and-pull between the focus on the society and the focus on the individual existed even before the founding of the nation, and this particular Weeble that wobbles between left and right without falling down (yet) has allowed the United States to become the biggest economy in the world in a relatively short period of time, and that’s a good thing.

From an individual perspective, it might not be that intuitive that one needs to be concerned about the “very poor.” After all, with social safety nets, one might think that the “very poor” have little to worry about. Regardless of the existence of programs — both public and private — poverty is still an issue in this country, even if you don’t see it in your daily life as you shuffle in an office building from meeting to meeting or shuttle from city to city on business trips. It’s hard to be concerned about something if you aren’t faced with it every day.

If, however, you are concerned about the “very poor,” there are ways to help, even if you don’t believe that handouts are effective. The most popular rationalization for not caring about poverty is the idea that helping another individual teaches complacency rather than responsibility, interdependence rather than independence. The incorrect assumption is that families in destitute situations have no desire to work for their money like those who have built wealth for themselves and have earned the right to let their money do the work for them and receive income from dividends and interest rather than working in the middle-class and working-middle-class sense of the word.

The real problem is tied into that psychology 101 concept I turn to repeatedly, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. If most waking minutes in your day are spent worrying about your shelter, your food, and having a safe place to sleep, “income mobility” is a fantasy. You’re a victim of “class warfare,” but in your reality, you don’t have time or energy for political arguments about class warfare.

If you are concerned about the very poor, there are options. Helping bring attention to poverty can form provide opportunities to those without them without much sacrifice from those with opportunities.

Give money directly to organizations that run programs focusing on providing opportunities. The top-rated charities focusing on poverty according to Charity Navigator are Direct Relief International (although International is in the name, they also work to eliminate domestic poverty, particularly in disaster-stricken areas), SOME (So Others Might Eat, focusing on the D.C. area), and the People’s Resource Center (based in Chicago). If you prefer to give a hand-up rather than a hand-out, focus on organizations that provide job training and placement, programs that expand the reach of educational opportunities, and programs that present positive financial role models.
Volunteer with the organizations that run these programs. Build houses. Build schools. Help at a food bank. When you are actively involved, you get to experience the results of your work much more closely than if you were to send a check every month. No, you won’t get a tax deduction for volunteer work, but that’s not the point.
Become a community leader. When people from poor communities manage to succeed financially, they often don’t return to be the role model their community needs. This is the reason financial illiteracy is a problem that will continue from generation to generation, keeping low socio-economic status communities from thriving.

Are you concerned about the very poor? Does paying your taxes and being satisfied with existing social safety nets relieve you from any other possible responsibilities for how the country fares as a whole? Do we even have any responsibilities to anyone other than ourselves and our families?

{ 72 comments }

Top Ten Personal Finance Start-Ups

by Flexo

The financial industry has been mostly static for centuries, with companies doing business and offering services not much different from how the companies operated for earlier generations of consumers. When there is innovation in the industry, it generally comes from smaller companies and entrepreneurs looking to fill a need that isn’t covered by larger, less ... Continue reading this article…

11 comments Read the full article →

TurboTax 2012 Online Review

by Flexo

This is a relatively long review of TurboTax 2012 Online, software for completing tax forms and submitting them to both the federal and state authorities. I’ve updated the review to reflect the changes to the software in 2012 (for filing 2011 tax returns). Recently, the IRS began accepting federal tax returned filed electronically. Even before ... Continue reading this article…

62 comments Read the full article →

Local Currencies to Replace the Dollar in Communities

by Flexo

It may be illegal for states to print money for commerce, but local communities have no such restriction from the federal government. And in some communities, local currencies have been successful, at least in gaining the support of some retailers and consumers. There’s no law of nature that says that an economy functions best when ... Continue reading this article…

10 comments Read the full article →

Cash Back Rewards Stolen

by Flexo

Using cash back credit cards is rewarding in two specific ways. First, you’re earning money when you spend. That’s the obvious part. But when you know that you’re getting a rebate when you use your credit card, you also feel better about spending than you would otherwise. Feeling good can be dangerous, as you might ... Continue reading this article…

15 comments Read the full article →