The post How much do you pay to banks each month? Take a closer look! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.
]]>I ask because recently I’ve been particularly worried about this one credit card account I have. It was literally the first card I got when I decided to try reestablishing myself credit wise.
This means I had to pay an annual fee for the card and a pretty high interest rate. It was something I felt was necessary though since nobody would extend credit to me otherwise.
Well just the other day I got a notice from that credit card company about how the account terms are being changed. The annual fee is going up and so is the interest rate, big time. It’s been five years since I accepted that car and I actually forgot just how much I was paying them to extend credit to me!
Since accepting that credit card offer I’ve improved my credit tons and I now have several lower APR/ no annual fee cards that are a much better deal. I quickly decided that this first credit card is something I don’t need to be paying for any longer and am closing it.
Well, this all got me thinking about how much N and I are unknowingly throwing away on bank fees and interest charges each month. I was scared to sit down and figure out the exact dollar amount but I also knew that if I didn’t we wouldn’t truly see how much we can cut back and even save if we make some small changes.
Let me tell you adding it all up and listing it all really does put it in perspective folks! It also really helped me to see which accounts we wanted to focus on paying down first. Throwing less money away is always a good thing right? You gotta take those blinders off first though.
Plus, once it is all listed you can go through it and see how the interest rates and owed balances are looking. Available balances and interest rates are two very different things, just because you have the money available to spend doesn’t mean you should.
Listing your monthly interest and fees paid will also help you see if you are using high interest rate cards too often or if you have too much charged to them. It will help you determine if you should be paying more towards one card as opposed to another. It will also help you to see if certain cards are just charging you too much in comparison to all your other accounts. Ignorance is bliss… but it is bliss you probably can’t afford right now!
Are you convinced yet? If so you can use this free spreadsheet right now to plug in your own information. It will figure totals for you over a 6 month period, then you can print it out and keep it as a reference if you want.
I am also curious to see how much individuals are paying each month and how all my readers average so I made an anonymous survey I hope you’ll take.
It is just asking for your January 2009 numbers, no personal information. It’s all recorded on a spreadsheet and then I’ll share the anonymous values with you all in another post so you can see how you compare to other readers.
In these times of economic hardship everyone is looking for ways to cut back and to save money. Watching your monthly budget and spending trends is a simple and obvious way to find areas that you can cut back. How much interest and fees banks charge you is a big one many people overlook!
The post How much do you pay to banks each month? Take a closer look! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.
]]>The post Fair Credit Billing Act, do you know your rights? appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.
]]>Okay, I know what you are thinking. “Ditch the credit cards and just live off what money you have”.. the thing is that you need to have credit cards to build your credit and keep a good history. We are going to be buying a home soon and well, good credit is necessary for this.
So, back to my HSBC drama. They have this online payment system and I paid my bills through it all the time. This one time my payment comes back as “returned”, well the money is in the account. I call the bank, yep funds are there waiting to be withdrawn. Bank says it is a numeric processing error, a transposed number or something. The online payment system is set up so that you put your bank info in once and they use it to process all your future payments. My prior payments processed fine and so did the ones I made ofter the returned payment incident.
It kind of seems like this whole returned payment thing isn’t my fault so I research my rights as a consumer and find out the following:
Here is the good part!
If you live in the USA the Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA) is something you should know about and you will need to stand up for your rights as stated in this act. In my own situation HSBC did not respond to my letter within the time frame, they can’t make me pay the amount I disputed now- they forfeited their rights.
Many consumers don’t know what rights they are entitled to and often do not fight credit card companies. That is how they get away with so much!
Once I even had a credit card company holding my checks and depositing them weeks after they were sent causing me to incur “late payment fees” and bad credit reports. These companies will try just about anything to make a buck off of you. If you don’t pay attention and don’t fight they are screwing you.
I read a post over at Life’s Just Beachy that made me want to share my info on the Fair Credit Billing Act. She had a similar experience as a consumer and fought for her rights!
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