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The Liberty Tax 2015 Annual Convention was fantastic!!!
Sunday, May 31, 2015
2015 Liberty Tax Convention Nelson Phillips 2
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The Liberty Tax 2015 Annual Convention was fantastic!!!
2015 Liberty Tax Convention Nelson Phillips 1
The Liberty Tax 2015 Annual Convention was fantastic!!!
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Reluctant To Be Rude
Respectfulness and politeness — they’re valued in many close-knit communities. But when you’re dealing with a scammer, those values can backfire, as we’ve heard during our ongoing effort to fight fraud in every community. Scammers try to take advantage of your politeness to get you to hand over money or personal information.
Here are some situations when it would be just fine to interrupt, hang up, and not give a caller the time of day:
1. They want personal information. Never give your personal or financial information to someone who calls you unexpectedly. If someone claims they are from a government agency or organization, find the number for the agency yourself and call to verify their claims. If you have already given someone your financial information, call your bank or credit card company to stop any transactions.
2. They want you to send money right away. If someone calls and asks you to wire money — like on MoneyGram or Western Union — or buy prepaid debit cards — like Green Dot and others — stop. That’s a sure sign of a scam. Even if the caller says you won a prize, you owe a fee, or your grandchild is in trouble, talk to someone you trust before you pay anybody your hard-earned money.
3. They keep talking. The more questions they ask, the more likely they are to get personal information from you. If someone won’t take no for an answer, just hang up.
4. They’re threatening you. Government agencies won’t call and threaten to arrest you. Debt collectors can’t threaten you. If a caller starts threatening you, it’s time to hang up. If you’re concerned about your safety, call your local police.
1. They want personal information. Never give your personal or financial information to someone who calls you unexpectedly. If someone claims they are from a government agency or organization, find the number for the agency yourself and call to verify their claims. If you have already given someone your financial information, call your bank or credit card company to stop any transactions.
2. They want you to send money right away. If someone calls and asks you to wire money — like on MoneyGram or Western Union — or buy prepaid debit cards — like Green Dot and others — stop. That’s a sure sign of a scam. Even if the caller says you won a prize, you owe a fee, or your grandchild is in trouble, talk to someone you trust before you pay anybody your hard-earned money.
3. They keep talking. The more questions they ask, the more likely they are to get personal information from you. If someone won’t take no for an answer, just hang up.
4. They’re threatening you. Government agencies won’t call and threaten to arrest you. Debt collectors can’t threaten you. If a caller starts threatening you, it’s time to hang up. If you’re concerned about your safety, call your local police.
Read the complete article from the Federal Trade Commission here: http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/reluctant-be-rude?utm_source=govdelivery
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Saturday, September 6, 2014
How Closing a Credit Card Affects Your Credit Report and Score
By credit expert: John Ulzheimer:
http://www.johnulzheimer.com
If you follow credit scoring to any extent, you're probably familiar with the concept that closing credit card accounts can potentially lower your credit scores.
The idea that closing a credit card will always have a negative impact upon a person’s credit scores is untrue. There are some scenarios under which closing a credit card is completely benign. Let’s explore the issue in depth.
The Never Ending Myth:
The idea that closing a credit card automatically lowers a consumer’s credit scores due to the fact that the age of the account will no longer be counted is false. FICO® and VantageScore® credit scores still consider the age of closed credit card accounts when determining a consumer’s credit scores. In fact, closed credit card accounts even continue to age as time passes. Keep in mind, however, that closed accounts will eventually be removed from your credit reports 10 years after the closing date and at that time you will lose the value of the age of the card.
Why Closing a card can actually hurt scores:
Credit scoring models are very concerned with a consumer’s revolving utilization (or debt-to-limit) ratio. Revolving utilization is a fancy way to describe the relationship between the balances on all of a consumer’s credit card accounts with the credit limits on his open credit card accounts. Closing a credit card can cause your utilization ratio to go up and, therefore, your scores to go down.
If Joe Smith has 3 credit cards, each with a limit of $2,000 ($6,000 total available credit) and a balance of $1,000 per card ($3,000 total debt) then his aggregate utilization ratio is 50% ($3,000/$6,000 = .50). If he were to close one of the cards his total available credit would be reduced to $4,000 while his total debt remains at $3,000.
Closing that one card just shot Joe Smith’s utilization ratio up from 50% to 75% ($3,000/$4,000 = .75) within the space of a single phone call. This is the one reason your scores would go down because of you closing a credit card account.
Closing Cards Strategically:
Smart consumers know that carrying credit card debt from month to month is a bad idea. Revolving a balance on credit cards is not only bad for a consumer’s credit scores, it is a poor financial decision as well because of expensive interest. The best way to use credit cards is to spend only as much as you can afford to pay off, in full, by the due date. But, if you are resolved in your decision that credit cards are no longer for you, there are a few smart ways you can do this.
Learn more from credit expert John Ulzheimer at: http://www.johnulzheimer.com
http://www.johnulzheimer.com
If you follow credit scoring to any extent, you're probably familiar with the concept that closing credit card accounts can potentially lower your credit scores.
The idea that closing a credit card will always have a negative impact upon a person’s credit scores is untrue. There are some scenarios under which closing a credit card is completely benign. Let’s explore the issue in depth.
The Never Ending Myth:
The idea that closing a credit card automatically lowers a consumer’s credit scores due to the fact that the age of the account will no longer be counted is false. FICO® and VantageScore® credit scores still consider the age of closed credit card accounts when determining a consumer’s credit scores. In fact, closed credit card accounts even continue to age as time passes. Keep in mind, however, that closed accounts will eventually be removed from your credit reports 10 years after the closing date and at that time you will lose the value of the age of the card.
Why Closing a card can actually hurt scores:
Credit scoring models are very concerned with a consumer’s revolving utilization (or debt-to-limit) ratio. Revolving utilization is a fancy way to describe the relationship between the balances on all of a consumer’s credit card accounts with the credit limits on his open credit card accounts. Closing a credit card can cause your utilization ratio to go up and, therefore, your scores to go down.
If Joe Smith has 3 credit cards, each with a limit of $2,000 ($6,000 total available credit) and a balance of $1,000 per card ($3,000 total debt) then his aggregate utilization ratio is 50% ($3,000/$6,000 = .50). If he were to close one of the cards his total available credit would be reduced to $4,000 while his total debt remains at $3,000.
Closing that one card just shot Joe Smith’s utilization ratio up from 50% to 75% ($3,000/$4,000 = .75) within the space of a single phone call. This is the one reason your scores would go down because of you closing a credit card account.
Closing Cards Strategically:
Smart consumers know that carrying credit card debt from month to month is a bad idea. Revolving a balance on credit cards is not only bad for a consumer’s credit scores, it is a poor financial decision as well because of expensive interest. The best way to use credit cards is to spend only as much as you can afford to pay off, in full, by the due date. But, if you are resolved in your decision that credit cards are no longer for you, there are a few smart ways you can do this.
Scenario #1
If a consumer has no credit card debt, ever, then he can close a credit card without any impact to his credit scores. Closing a credit card with a high annual fee, for example, might actually be a wise decision. Remember, if the consumer has a $0 balance on his credit card across all of his accounts then his utilization ratio is 0%.Scenario #2
If a consumer has several credit cards with high limits and wants to close a credit card with a much lower limit, then doing so will probably have little-to-no impact on the consumer’s credit scores, depending on how much debt he’s carrying on other cards. However, unless the card with the low limit has a high annual fee or perhaps a high interest rate, it’s probably a better idea to keep the account open.Scenario #3
Consider not closing any of your credit cards, ever. Unless your card has an annual fee, it costs you nothing to keep it open. If it has a high interest rate, just don’t use it or use it for minimal purchases, like a tank of gas, so that it can be paid in full easily by the due date. This way you won’t ever have to worry about the potential damage of closing credit cards. Furthermore, having several different cards can actually come in handy; learn more about the value of carrying multiple credit cards.Learn more from credit expert John Ulzheimer at: http://www.johnulzheimer.com
NEXT POST: What to do when you get a 1099c for an old debt:
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
What To Do When You Get a 1099-C For An Old Debt
By Gerri Detweiller.
Earlier this year, questions poured in from readers grappling with how to deal with 1099-Cs they received from lenders reporting “canceled” or “forgiven” debt. I wrote a number of stories addressing the issues they raised, and vowed not to touch the topic again until next tax season.
But the questions kept coming in.
One kept nagging at me: What should you do if you get a 1099-C for a very old debt? Though I had written one story already on that subject, the fact that I couldn't provide readers with a clearer solution bothered me.
Take Dave, for example. He told us that in 1997 he was in an auto accident. He was out of work for eight months and could not pay his auto loan. The vehicle was repossessed and the $15,000 balance was charged off. The loan was with Chevy Chase Bank. In 2006 – almost 9 years later – he heard from a debt collector but he ignored it. The debt was off his credit reports by that time. Capital One had acquired Chevy Chase bank in 2008, but didn’t try to collect from him. In 2011, he received a 1099-C from Capital One reporting $9,000 in canceled debt for tax year 2010 – about 13 years after he stopped paying on the loan. Now he may have to pay an additional $2,000 in taxes for 2010 as a result.
Read the rest of this fantastic article from it's source, Credit.com: http://blog.credit.com/2012/06/what-to-do-if-you-get-a-1099-c-for-an-old-debt-2-58670/
Next Post: 35 "Other" Credit Bureaus
Great Article: How Student Loan Debt Factors Into your Credit Score:
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