Citi Announces Plan For Homeowner Assistance to Avoid Foreclosure
November 12, 2008 by Erik Folgate
Filed under Banking, Real Estate
For those of you who own a house with a Citi mortgage, you might be interested in this announcement made by Citi Group to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.
Citi Group will reach out to a group of 500,000 homeowners to help them stay current on their mortgages, and it could result in a $20 billion dollar workout on existing mortgage balances. They will also extend their foreclosure moratorium to those homeowners with sufficient income to pay a restructured payment plan and work in good faith with Citi to stay in their home.
Banks Are Tightening Up On Extending Credit
September 25, 2008 by Erik Folgate
Filed under Banking, Credit and Debt
One of the biggest changes you will see from the fallout of the Wall Street meltdown is banks severely tightening up on their lending practices. Not only will you have a harder time getting a home loan, but you’ll have a much harder time getting a car loan, line of credit, and home equity loan.
Here is an excerpt from a CNN article:
Consumers whose credit rating teeters between ‘good’ and ‘not so great’ are the ones getting squeezed the most, added Carole Merchant, a fellow Bank of the West executive vice president in the company’s indirect lending business.
The Easiest Way to Insure Your Bank Deposits Beyond $100,000
September 22, 2008 by Erik Folgate
Filed under Banking, Consumer News, Investing
You know that the economy is on shaky ground when the hottest topic in personal finance is making sure your bank deposits are insured. Many of us never think about what would happen to our money if our bank closed its doors. Almost all traditional commercial banks insured their deposit accounts up to $100,000, which is enough coverage for the average citizen. However, some of you are blessed with an abundance of money and $100,000 might not be enough. Many small businesses carry bank deposit balances over $100,000 as well. Traditionally, the only way to make sure you are fully insured is to spread out your money to multiple banks in $100,000 increments. In fact, Clark Howard suggests that you spread it out in increments of $90,000 to account for the interest you’ll accrue on the money. So, if the worst happens and your bank closes up shop, you’ll insure your interest as well.
Watch Out For Sneaky Overdraft and Bank Fees
August 20, 2008 by Erik Folgate
Filed under Banking, Spending and Saving
Yahoo Finance has an article courtesy of Smart Money describing five sneaky overdraft traps that banks use on customers.
Times are tough for banks right now, so they’ll do anything to increase revenue, and bank fees are the easiest way to fatten their bottom line. According to the article, banks collected over $17.5 billion dollars in overdraft fees last year! That’s sick. It’s money thrown down the toilet on unnecessary bank fees. I have never paid an overdraft fee in my life. I’ve had it happen to me before. One time, I had three overdraft fees all at once, because of one of the traps that I will discuss later on. I just call up the Bank of America customer service, and they always end up taking off the fees. It pays to have an account with one bank for eight years.
