After the mortgage dilemma a few years back, which caused thousands of people to go into foreclosure, the government initiated plans to assist those who were and are having problems keeping up with their mortgage payments.
The Making Home Affordable (MHA) was initiated to assist homeowners avoid foreclosure and help bring the country back to financial stabilization. HAMP is one of these programs.
Qualifications
You must be at least six payments behind on your mortgage loan (if you are up to date on your payments and just recently fell into hardship, you will not qualify).
You financed the loan before January 1, 2009
Your ...
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Has This Happened to You?
A typical Scenario of Financial Hardship
Todd is living a financially comfortable lifestyle, with a household gross income $85,000 per year. Todd is married and has two children. Both are attending middle school and they have made plans for a cruise vacation, which is coming next month. The travel agent has been fully paid in advance for the cruise.
In the interim, Todd's mother-in-law became ill and is hospitalized. The prognoses is that she will need to live in a nursing home, because she will need 24 hour care; however, they decide to bring her to home, as that would be the better option. After all, he has an extra bedroom.
Arrangements ...
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Navient Corp. Investigated for Consumer Abuse
More than a dozen state attorney generals have attacked one of the biggest companies for student loans in the US, Navient Corporation, citing abusive, unfair practices and violation of state laws. It is alleged by the high-ranking law officials that the company paid its call center workers based on their ability to end conversations as fast as possible with borrowers who were finding it hard to make ends meet.
The allegations are a result of over two years of investigations launched in 2013 by different states across the US. The findings of the report continue to be confidential, with the investigation taking a look at over 4000 complaints ...
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Email Scams and Phishing
Mary is 77 years old, but she is an avid email user and loves to communicate with others. She recently received a message that told her the sender was stranded in at a London airport because someone stole his wallet, which contained all his money, checks and credit cards. Now, he has no way to get home to the United States. The sender continues on that he needs to get back to America soon because his mother is in the hospital with cancer. He asks Mary if she could click the link below where she could put in her credit card to pay for his trip back.
John is 55 years old and not that computer literate. He recently got an email that said a ...
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Preventing Financial Loss Due to Internet Spyware
Spyware is one of the leading causes of identity theft across the United States and they are getting more sneaky and more sophisticated each day.
It is important for the consumer to know how to identify spyware, stop it from spreading and eradicate it; otherwise, you stand the risk of possibly having cyber criminals access your bank accounts and have your money stolen. In addition, your credit cards can be illegally used, as well as many other factors of fraudulent activity that can be acted against you.
Sounds scary? It is, but there are easy preventative methods that can be utilized to stop spyware from entering your PC or Mac.
What ...
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ATM Scams Can Leave You Penniless
When people think about ATMs and crime, they usually are looking at a scenario where a criminal would follow you into the bank and demand you give him the money via a threat of some kind. Although this type of robbery does occur, there are more sophisticated methods that criminals use whereby you could have your entire savings withdrawn, yet you would never be aware of it at the time you were in the bank.
In 2008, more than $1 billion was stolen in ATM related crimes
One of the most popular of these is the use of a skimmer. A sophisticated electronic device that reads your bank card. How does it do this? Hard to believe, but these devices are ...
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Beware of Private Student Loans
While many students look forward to college and graduate school, albeit, graduating school, they often miscalculate or are just oblivious to what could become an overwhelming accumulation of student loan debt.
Some students are lucky that their grades and SAT scores allow them the privilege of gaining scholarships; however, even these students become subjected to paying back the loans that were needed to compensate for the part of the tuition that the scholarships did not provide for.
Nancy, an undergrad in New York’s SUNY Binghamton University has received scholarships, but there was still a whopping $22,000 that she had to apply for ...
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How to Prevent Identity Theft
Did you know that every passing minute, about 19 people across America become a target of identity theft? That is an astounding 27,360 people who are affected by identity theft each and every day! Online scams, data breaches, and lost or stolen wallets/purses all contribute to this crisis that is plaguing our society. The consequences of these scams often result in substantial financial losses to the victims.
The good news is that there are preventative techniques that you can do to stop thieves from obtaining your money.
Stop Identity Thieves in Their Tracks
You may feel that there is no way to save yourself from identity theft, ...
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The ‘J’ai l’habitude’ of Spending
Studies have shown that many people who to try to maintain a comfortable lifestyle fall short of their goal. One main reason is that they tend to forget one thing - the unconscious habit of spending; hence, the French expression J’ai l’habitude - ‘I am in the habit’.
The act of mindless spending is a habit many of us are not aware of. For example, you are in a department store, with the intent to purchase a suit and a couple of shirts. After a few try-ons, you pick out your suit and then go to the Men’s shirt department. You immediately see two that you like and are on sale, so you grab them. But wait, there is a Tommy Hilfiger shirt that ...
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Bankruptcy in Long Island: 2016
According to the statistics by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York, the bankruptcy rates in Long Island fell 14.1 percent in 2015, with an average of around 411 bankruptcy filings a month from January to November.
The decline in bankruptcy filings in Nassau and Suffolk counties shows that people are generally doing better at handling debt. There is definitely a reason that Long Island is rated 79th on Forbes list of Best Places for Business and Careers.
Even if these statistics paint a happier picture, it is of course imperative that consumers keep up this state of being debt free. For those looking ...
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