Stanley’s plan on Debt and Credit

…5 words resulted in a round of applause that lasted for some minutes. Yes, I am talking about the 1893 Parliament of World’s Religions at Chicago. Swami Vivekanada, an Indian monk, was at the center of attraction of the session and millions of Americans were moved by his simple words “Sisters and Brothers of America.”

Today the Globe is celebrating the 144th Birthday of Swami Vivekananda. Let’s not miss the opportunity to offer our gratitude to one of the biggest personalities of the world, who taught us to worship humanism.

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, news, india

Earlier job applications used to be denied because of poor credit. But now, in reality, your smoking habit can be the biggest obstacle in your way to get a better job. I am not joking. Employers do ask “Do you smoke?”

http://www.ectnews.com/about/careers.xhtml

Technorati Tags: News, Blog

Two threads in DebtCC forums compelled me to write this article.

• Payday lenders move online, try to bypass state laws

Confusions: Are lenders allowed to do business with citizens of the state where they are not licensed?

It seems they are not. Otherwise the Attorney General of the state of West Virginia would not have instructed payday loan companies to refund the overly charged fees? Read the full story.

• Misinformation about FDCPA Laws
  

Confusions: If a North Carolina consumer applies, through internet, for payday loan from a company that is licensed in Delaware, which state law the both of them should follow? Also, if the borrower defaults in such cases, what legal action lenders can take? Is there any law that supports the lender or the borrower?

Unless there is a strict law applied for Internet-based Payday Loan Companies, Stanley suggests some solutions:

For consumer: Read the very fine print very very very carefully. By agreeing to the contract you actually agree to follow the state laws where the company is licensed which create lots of confusions later on. If the lender is not licensed in your state, it’s better to stay away off them.

For lenders: Online business does not mean you would break local laws. There are several technical ways to locate the state/region of visitors. You should restrict your online business to the states where you have proper license only. Visitors from the states, where you are not licensed, should not have the privilege to apply for a loan. Tracking users’ IP is not that tough nowadays!

Technorati Tags: payday loan, no fax payday loan, payday loan online, faxless payday loan, payday cash loan, cash advance, payday cash advance, loan, news

After watching DebtCC Forum for so many days what I have understood is Payday loans could not come up as a helpful means to solve financial crises. Perhaps the business started with good intentions but not all the lenders associated with it were good and ultimately consumers suffered a lot.

While selling loan, payday lenders do not check if the consumer has understood the terms thoroughly and the consumer is able to pay it back on the due date or not. And consumers do not read the fine print and get in a trap.

Also I don’t find any law that can answer my query:

If an internet-based payday lender, physically situated in FL, loans money to a NC consumer and charges higher rates in terms of fees and renewal charges than what NC allows, then what recourses the consumer has. Also if and law is there that can protect the lender if this consumer stops payment?

Obviously I am not talking about the consumers from FL and NC only; this is a problem for payday loan consumers who go for internet-based payday loans.

The bad thing is, Third World Countries are going to recur same thing. Though the credit system is completely different there, still Spot Loan Shops are rising head like mushroom in the Third World Market. Lots of ads are posted in the classifieds that say: “Bring credit card and take home money” or “Easy Loans, Spot Cash”. I am afraid people won’t be able to find the catch. I really don’t know how to make them aware. I have some journalist friends; perhaps I will be contacting them soon.

Technorati Tags: payday loan, news, blog

Quite a few community members suffered a lot with their AT&T accounts. I am not familiar with the situation, but there are plenty of posts in forum that people had problem with paying their debts to AT&T. Moreover, there was an issue with Cingular too. I cannot remember it readily. Usually AT&T accounts were transferred to Palisade Collection; please go through the link below:

Palisades Collection and AT&T/Cingular consumers

Today, while surfing the net, suddenly I got stuck to a piece of NEWS. It looks that Yahoo! and AT&T have collaborated and offering something unique to consumers. Have anyone else have anymore info on this? Please comment here.

Have you ever heard of any creature that eats shark? Well I can clearly see the wrinkles over your forehead…ok ok, no worry, I am giving you the answer. It’s none other than human being.

Got surprised? Ok no more mystery. A guy has started robbing payday loan stores in Hampton and Newport News since July 8 this year. What a Headline indeed!!! Sharks are eaten by human being!!!

By the way, don’t think that I am a supporter of stealing, just trying to make some skits.

News Source: Dailypress.com

I thought they charge high interest rate, target military families and poor people to squeeze money, but that’s not all of their ill-activities. They also deprive their employees and do not pay them overtime.

After so many violations of state lending laws, now one payday loan company is under breach of Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Department of Labor alleged Quick Cash for not paying overtime to their employees. Q.C. decided to clear all the back logs. You never know, its time for them to adopt a more aggressive business method.

Source: HR.BLR.com

NUPGE, The National Union of Public and General Employees published a case details that shows how predatory payday lending sucking money. A OK Payday Loan Inc. charged 21% interest + $ 9.50 processing fee for every $ 50; surely it crossed the tolerance which is 60% interest rate per year. The class action lawsuit went against them.

The good thing is, A OK argued to differentiate the fees from the interest rate, but court rejected it. NUPGE has already started speaking against predatory lending activities. Obviously a good move!!!

Most of the credit card issuers are using Universal Default Clause in the terms of service that consumer agree to obey while applying for a new card. Universal default clause is included in the fineprint of the agreement. Unfortunately maximum credit card users ignore this part and remain in darkness.

This clause enables credit card companies to change the terms if the user fails to pay bills on time to any of his creditors. Say you have two credit cards:-

1. with ABC Credit Card Company
2. with XYZ Credit Card Company

Now if you miss a payment to XYZ Company; ABC Company identifies you as a risky consumer and increases the rate of interest for you. I have asked few people if they knew about this and I realized that people rarely care about what is there in the agreement paper.

Credit Card Companies check consumers’ credit report on a regular basis – monthly, quarterly or yearly and adjust interest rate accordingly. So the company charging less interest might turn up as extremely costly any day.

Get a library membership, take home books, read or just keep it in the shelf (its your choice completely) and return the book timely – your credit score will improve

Library System is Salt Lake City is going to bring a revolution. Unpaid fines would be recovered by a collection agency from September 18 this year. Hence if you return your books timely, your score goes up and if you are not regular with your return dates…you are gonna get collection item in your credit report.

Source: ksl.com