Debts Beyond The Grave

Investigations by the United States’ authorities have found out something disturbing, nothing can make you safe from identity thieves, not even death. According to recent data, the new stolen IDs used the personal information and SS numbers of over 2 million people who have already passed away. These thieves use the identities to get credit cards and cell phone services.

Moreover, not all the perpetrators were intending to use the identity of a dead person, in fact, 1.6 million of the SSN they had no idea belonged to a deceased citizen. They only intended to use the numbers to create a phony name and a fake identity to manipulate dealers.

Every year crooks would use 2.5 million fake identities they have stolen from deceased victims. Investigations are able to match these stolen identities to about 100 million transactions from January to March of last year.

Dr. Stephen Coggeshall, ID Analytics chief technology officer says that these cases pose a large problem for organizations and businesses and most especially for the remaining family members of these deceased that would inherit the account and the liability. He further states that it is important that the living relatives should monitor the accounts of their dead loved ones, in case they were being used by these identity crooks.

According to data, these cases would happen at least 2,000 times in a day; criminals would purchase online and use a fake ID belonging to someone who has already passed away. The ID Analytics’ ID Network is now being used by authorities to be able to identify whether someone is using a dead person’s name to transact loans, credit card, cell phone purchases, rents and other financial businesses.

So far, about 800,000 of the identities have been identified to have been used knowingly by crooks.

Beat Bad Financial Habits to Boost Savings

Breaking a bad habit is not an overnight act; Heidi Beckman a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics says it depends on an individual’s eagerness and determination to make it work.

John Ulzheimer, the consumer education president of SmartCredit.com agrees with Ms. Beckman’s statement, and further explains that if changing bad habits was so easy then everyone would be richer and well off, no one would be struggling from debt and most especially, no one would be suffering from bad credit.

According to Beckman, actions would be the fastest and surest way to change a habit. To prepare yourself for action she gave these three tips: first, picture out in your mind what you wish to happen in the future, pretend you have got rid of the bad habit, and then use a more negative picture to keep yourself from being tempted to fall back into the bad habit. Second, recognize your good habits and stick by them, this will help boost your self-esteem. Finally, make rules to prevent yourself from spending or flailing back into a habit you already got rid of.

Impulsive purchases are a big no-no says experts, being unable to control yourself to pay with your credit card will be a sure setback for you. Spending with a credit card instead of using cash to purchase will increase your bills before you can settle the old ones you already incurred.

You should learn to say no to your spending reveries. Here are some ways that may help you with that: try to convert your attention, make a call or text. Do anything you can until the urge passes. Make a rule to purchase only with cash, be smarter with your purchases. Check if you have enough money to pay for your credit purchase, and double check the date if you can make the payment on time.

2 Bad Habits to Break to Increase Savings

Your power of will should not be held liable to pay for your important liabilities and monthly bills. Furthermore, also the choice of how much to deposit on your emergency savings fund should not rest on the same criterion. Willpower is not enough to keep you going with your financial duties.

According to David Bach the author of a book entitled The Automatic Millionaire relying on your willpower will just lead to the mismanagement of your life’s choices. Some people would try to reason out that their lack of organization or their lack of financial support that’s why they fall astray in their finances, and tend to pay late. Late payments mean you paying a more expensive debt; this is because companies would require a $39 fee from clients who fail to pay on time, not only that, there is also an additional interest charge that is added up in the debt as well.

Bach advices that important bills should be made on time and also, you should never fail to make a monthly savings deposit for your and your family’s future need. Automatic payment is the answer to avoid making late payments.

You should get on track on your payments, make a schedule of tentative dates you can pay your due, subtract the due date by a week and make that your target date to settle accounts. Another solution is to make automatic payments via online banking.When you break away from the bad habit of paying your fees late, you can just sit back and relax because you will only have to pay lesser amount of debt.

Ulzheimer has another concern, paying only the minimum amount on a credit card. This is not very good for the credit card borrower. Paying only the minimum will roll over about 97% of the remaining amount and will just be another addition to the interest you have to pay.

You should make sure that you set your automatic payments (if you decide to pay automatically) larger than the minimum amount.

Obama Calls for Lawmakers to Maintain Student Loan Rates

American President Barack Obama pushes for a pocket friendly interest for student financial aids issued by the government. This is part of his campaign for the coming elections.

The current president is addressing law makers to create a new law to preserve the 3.4% interest rates on education before they increase again on July. This will benefit 7.4 million student applicants. Obama believes that education should be affordable to citizens. This is a preparation for a possible demand for college graduates in the future. But as the demand increases so does the price of attaining this level of education.

According to reports, there are more unpaid student financial mortgages compared to credit card liabilities, this is discouraging less fortunate individuals from pursuing a college education. Getting into college is not a luxury for every American citizen, thus the president wants to somehow change this scenario.

To prove he is serious in his campaign, in the coming weeks, Obama will start visiting some colleges and universities in North Carolina, Colorado and Iowa.

This is also part of his strategy to convince law makers to take part of his vision. Some members of the Republican Party refuse to decrease rates because it would force them to impose higher taxes on citizens.

According to them, creating a “bad” policy for the sake of a presidential campaign is uncalled for.

The dilemma that they face is whether to grant the financial aid rates that would enable more citizens to step into college, and pile additional burden to tax payers. Or raise rates and save tax payers some slack.

Congress promises to look for a solution to fit the benefits of both parties. Hopefully, more citizens can enter college without imposing higher taxes. Obama believes that his solution will be beneficial for middle class citizens. The president explains that making interest rates higher for those who want to go to college will be just like cutting off the future of the nation.

If more people will not go to college because they cannot afford it, then it just means that America will sink because there are less people who will be professionals in the future.

Teens Should be Financially Literate

The month April has been declared as the National Financial Literacy Month. The purpose of this is to educate teenagers to be financially literate. It is very important for your young teenagers to know about credit rating before they are allowed to have credit cards. They have to know that lenders are investigating credit information before they issue credit cards. Educating teenagers to be financially intelligent would help them properly manage their finances in the future.

Avail of your free credit report. You can get a free credit report from the three big nationwide credit bureaus, Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. These three bureaus have a common website at www.annualcreditreport.com. The free credit report is provided once every 12 months. You can also link to the Federal Trade Commission website at www.ftc.gov for free credit report.

Review with your teen the credit report. Evaluate your own credit report with your teen. Discuss with him or her every detail of information reflected in the report so that he or she can avoid financial pitfalls in the future. Discuss   most especially the importance of paying on time.

Essential information you need to discuss:

The credit report compiles the following information: Payment behavior of consumers, current balances and other information related to consumers’ credit cards and loans. Bankruptcies and liens are also compiled in the credit report. This information is reported by financial institutions to the three big credit bureaus.

What is the purpose of credit report? Credit report is the basis of lenders in approving or denying a loan or a credit card. It is also the basis of determining the rate of interest. A good credit history allows borrowers to get a new loan at favorable interest while a bad credit history requires a higher interest rate or it can even lead to a loan rejection.

Pay your bills before the due date. Credit report records every payment made. Payment made on or before the due date is a major factor in building an excellent credit rating. When the credit rating is excellent, consumers get the best interest rate for future loans, credit card and mortgage.