How to Get Student Loans When You Have Bad Credit

Having a degree is a high guarantee that you can have a better future, and money will be the least of your problems. However, the decision of going to college rests heavily on your current financial standing.

Attending college is more of a privilege for students rather than a right. Lucky enough for some high school graduates because they come from well-off families, or they are intelligent enough to be granted academic scholarships or they are scouted for sports scholarships. These individuals are spared the headache of finding financial assistance for their schooling. But what about those who are not very bright and have bad credit in school who also want to go to college?

Finishing with a degree is so important for some students that they sometimes stop going to the university to work and save for the tuition. Scholarships and financial aids are a great help in financing your college tuition, and sometimes, you don’t even have to pay them back until after graduation. However, often times, they are not enough to suffice your whole college application.

Banks can provide you with private loans to pay for college; however they give you a credit check first. The key to getting a student loan if you have a bad credit is to sign with someone who has a very good academic credit. But this is only easy if this someone is a close friend or a family member.

So, how can someone with a not-so-good academic standing get a student loan? Well, thankfully, there is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid provided by the government. This does not require a credit check; you don’t have to worry about your credentials. All you have to do is to file your application each year.

This student loan is called a Stafford loan which is allotted by the government through colleges. This money will pay for your matriculation fees and other fees and the extra amount will be given to you to pay for your books.

The requirements to get the FAFSA are the student’s income tax if he is financing his schooling or his parents’ financial tax returns if he is under his parents’ custody. This scholarship grant makes going to college a dream come true for many.

Credit Card Firm Security Breach Puts Canadians at Risk

A warning is given by Better Business Bureau that Canadian consumers might be affected by a security breach in United States.

According to Global Payments, a payment card processing company located in United States, its system has been hacked last Friday. As a result, both Visa and MasterCard are examining operations from the month of January to February.

Avivah Litan, a security analyst, said that the hackers could have possibly taken roughly ten million or more worth of cards.

According to Mark Fernandes, spokesperson of Better Business Bureau, B.C. consumers, especially those who shopped in the United States just this year, must check their financial statements during the last two months for any doubtful changes. If there is something you cannot recall doing, then it is highly possible that it is a false transaction.

Moreover, Fernandes said that it is still likely that the Canadians are in danger despite the fact that Global Payments is located in United States. This is because these types of firms are multinational and handle millions of payment transactions.

According to Andrea Woroch from Verizon Business, people must get in touch with their card issuers as soon as possible if they see something doubtful on their statements.

Based on an interview from the previous year, Woroch said that consumers often neglect little charges on their bills. Unfortunately, this is how others repeatedly take advantage of them.

Credit card scams are approximately just as profitable as the drug trade, warns the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. To avoid these scams, only give your card numbers through phone or Internet to trusted firms and always watch over your pin. Also, be cautious of emails that require account information.

Additionally, experts warn that the hacking of the Global Payments’ system could followed by another scam. Fernandes said that any emails allegedly from Global Payments concerning the breach might be a phishing attempt. On Monday, it is anticipated that Global Payments will give more information on the level and extent of the security breach.

What Employers Must Know Before a Background Check

An increasing number of employers believe they have to know as much as possible about their staff and prospective employees, thus, it has been common to perform regular background checks. Nowadays, in one way or another, almost all errors an individual commits are documented. This data is now accessible to the employer when performing background checks.

However, there are a few things employers must know before performing a background check.

Select a reliable company when performing a background check. A lot of the online firms do not perform in-detail searches involving local, state and federal criminal databases. To perform a detailed search, employers must also check county records, which will require a Social Security trace.

Some records cannot be used by the employer. It is important to note that employers can take action only when there is a conviction. For instance, a record shows that a prospective employee was arrested for a crime, but there were no filed charges, therefore, the record cannot be used against them because there was no conviction.

Criminal records, specifically convictions, must always be associated with the job description.

Moreover, credit checks must also be associated with the job. Credit checks have become a concern for applicants during hiring. However, there are very strict rules as to when an employer is authorized to perform a credit check and there are reliable background check companies that can help you during the process.

To be able to perform background and credit checks, employers must have permission from the applicant. This can be done by getting the appropriate form from your chosen background check service. Prior to starting the process, employers must offer employment contingent upon passing the background check.

Despite the feelings of invasion of privacy on the part of the applicant, firms must conduct background and credit checks in order to prevent hiring mistakes that will later on cost the firm a huge amount.

Housing Survey: Americans from Various Demographic Groups Dream of Homeownership

According to Fannie Mae, majority of Americans are still hoping that in the near future they can live in their own homes. The National Housing Survey’s latest quarterly report shows that many Americans from different demographic groups still believes that homeownership is better than renting it. They are optimistic that the economic growth will create more jobs, lower interest rates and stabilize house prizes thus enabling them to purchase a house in the future.

The main factors that motivate renters to own a house is the quality and safety of local schools. For most African-Americans and Hispanics homeownership symbolizes success. But they have observed that what makes it difficult to obtain a mortgage are poor credit, complicated process involved, and economic crisis. Another observation that they have is that African-Americans and Hispanics could not get mortgage easily regardless of their income level.

Other factors that play important role in getting a house mortgage are educational level, income stability and credit history. Groups with higher educational levels are more likely to obtain a mortgage compared to those who completed lower levels.

Many Americans are saying that due to lack of home loan information, they lose confidence in owning a home in the future. Because of this negative behavior, the homeownership rate has decreased over the last several years. In addition, the belief that safety is the primary reason why many are longing to have their own homes has dropped to 63% in the last three months of 2011. On the contrary, those with educational attainment and more than sufficient income believe that buying a house is a good and safe investment.

The National Housing Survey, in the last quarter of 2011, conducted interviews among 3,000 Americans. The interview was focused on the Americans attitudes between owning and renting a home, belief on owning a home as a safe investment, financial capacity to purchase a home, assessment on the U.S. support on housing programs and on the overall outlook on the economy. The survey was done by Penn Schoen Berland and Fannie Mae’s combined effort.

Lowa City Must Put a Stop to The Proliferation of Payday Lenders

The City Council of Lowa is concerned about the proliferation of payday lenders operating in the city. Through its zoning powers, the city council wants to regulate the number of payday lenders in Iowa City to protect the welfare of the people in the local community and to strengthen the city’s economic development.

The members of Iowa Citizens for Community improvement are strongly supporting the move to:

• Limit payday lenders to only one per 20,000 residents in the city
• Observe one mile distance away from churches, residential areas, schools and parks. The distance between two payday lenders should be two miles.
• Stop new stores to operate in pedestrian commercial districts

Lowa City’s payday loans are limited to $445 and to be paid in full within 14 days. The borrower is required to issue post dated check amounting to $500 or another option is an automatic withdrawal of $500 from his/her bank account. In other words, the APR for this type of loan is more than 400 percent which is higher than the 250 percent the Mafia was charging during its hay day.

Borrowers of payday loans are easily trapped to repeat borrowing money from payday lenders because their paychecks are not sufficient to pay in full a $500 loan in two weeks. In fact, 98% of the funds released by payday lenders go to repeat customers. In Lowa City, 76% of payday loans released every couple of weeks go to new customers.

Payday loans create more financial burden in families instead of helping them. And the companies involved in this business are not paying their income taxes to the city of Iowa. Approximately, Iowa is losing $36 million from taxes every year. The money goes to the bank accounts of the CEOs’ of payday loan companies instead of going to the treasury of Lowa City.

This is the reason why the Iowa CCI members are pushing for the Lowa City Council to use its zoning powers to curb the increasing number of payday lenders in the city. The council should give priority to the interest of the people and not on the corporate interests. People should be put first and not capitalism.