Archive for October, 2008
American Express paints bleak outlook in tough economic times – Lethbridge Herald
American Express paints bleak outlook in tough economic times Lethbridge Herald, Canada - 1 hour ago The New York-based credit card issuer has reported four straight quarters of profit declines as an increasing number of consumers struggle to pay off debt …
Business News – AOL Canada
Business News AOL Canada, Canada - 1 hour ago In its quarterly filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, American Express said it expects write-offs in its credit card portfolio to continue …
American Express paints bleak outlook in tough economic times – 660 News
American Express paints bleak outlook in tough economic times 660 News, Canada - Oct 31, 2008 The New York-based credit card issuer has reported four straight quarters of profit declines as an increasing number of consumers struggle to pay off debt …
Using Porn And Sex to Help You Get Out of Debt
At first I had ignored the new film Zack & Miri Make a Porno but once I found it the premise of the movie was that they had run out of money and were struggling to get out of debt, I had to go see it. Here is the review that really made me curious to see it. Smith returns to the kind of characters he introduced in his 1994 debut Clerks – sarcastic but chronically underemployed service employees. Zack (Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) have been friends since first grade, share rent on a shabby Pittsburgh house and mismanage their money. The rent is three months in arrears, and the water and electricity are about to be shut off, all on the night of their 10-year high-school reunion. Humiliation is the order of the occasion: Nobody interesting recognizes Zack. Miri, who’s surname is Linky, is given a badge with her high-school nickname, “Stinky” Linky, and she makes a fool of herself by coming on to the class hunk, Bobby (Brandon Routh, of Superman Returns fame), who, she discovers, is living with his arch porn-star boyfriend, Brandon (Justin Long). Then Brandon tells Zack and Miri that they are YouTube celebrities, thanks to a teenager’s videophone images of their backsides, taken at the coffee shop where they work, which have been posted online. What seems like the nadir of their shame turns into an opportunity. Zack decides they should exploit their notoriety by making a porno to get out of debt. After all, he says, porn is as much a part of the mainstream as Pepsi or Coke. Eschewing the default celebrity-porn route (handheld video camera, hotel room), Zack discovers his inner auteur. Globe and Mail So I’m just back from the movie. If you like silly and stupid sophomoric humor, you’ll love this movie. I don’t want to ruin it for you but it’s not real poo. If you see the movie you’ll know what I’m talking about. And I fell for the movie rip off again. A medium soda was $3.50 but the large was $3.75 so I went for the large. When will I learn that I only have a 75% movie bladder. Sure enough, 2/3 of the way through I had to make a quick run to the restroom which would normally be not worth mentioning but I did walk into the restroom, all the way down to the end and while I was curious that there were no urinals, it did not hit me, till mid event, that I was in the women’s room. Doh! That’s a first, even for me. Seriously, I think I’ve heard hundreds of stories from people of what they have done and will do for money and believe it or not, this movie premise, making a porn for money, is not all that strange. Generally the ‘wild things I’ve done to get out of debt’ stories fall into two categories, stealing and sex related. But probably my all time favorite story was a woman who lived in a single wide mobile home with her husband. She convinced her husband that his cards had lower credit rates and that it made more sense to do a balance transfer of all the debt on her cards to his. The day after the transfer occured she split with her secret boyfriend and left him with the kids in the trailer. A combination of the stealing and sex theme. Sad, but true. Source: Using Porn And Sex to Help You Get Out of Debt Other Related Articles to Read No Related Post
7-day makeover: Do try this at home – CanadianBusiness.com
7-day makeover: Do try this at home CanadianBusiness.com, Canada - 20 minutes ago From these assets, you will have to subtract your liabilities — the amount remaining on your mortgage, your credit card debt , other loans. …
Directed by Patrick Creadon – Exclaim!
Directed by Patrick Creadon Exclaim!, Canada - 10 minutes ago … inevitable as the credit card debt that the general public accumulates through their gym memberships, low fat lattes and unnecessary home renovations. …
Expert explains global financial crisis – Loyalist College Pioneer
Expert explains global financial crisis Loyalist College Pioneer, Canada - 44 minutes ago “I know that there are students that have basically financed a lot of their university on credit, and they have horrendous credit card debt . …
Candor, Innovation Keys to Sustaining Growth of Rewards Cards … – Stockhouse
Candor, Innovation Keys to Sustaining Growth of Rewards Cards … Stockhouse, Canada - 11 hours ago Credit card companies are responding to consumer woes by offering new cards with revamped rewards programs aimed at alleviating financial stress with novel …
Banks Agree to Wipe Out Up to 40 Percent of Credit Card Debt But Watch Out.
Credit card lenders include Discover Financial Services LLC, Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Capital One Financial Corp., American Express Co. and HSBC Holdings have finally come together with the help of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling , Consumer Federation of America and the Financial Service Roundtable to start the process of creating a debt solution, other than bankruptcy or credit counseling . That could be potentially really good news for consumers as it starts to make some major movement towards the perfect debt assistance program I outlined before. At the heart of this new initiative is the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency giving banks permission to write off up to 40 percent of the balance owed on credit cards on a case by case basis. If banks did this it would give consumers a possible solution to pay what they can afford without bankruptcy . That is good news. But with every good news story there is a catch, and pretty significant ones at that. Banks don’t want to book the loss on the loan until the consumer pays off the reduced balance through a payment plan. That will mask the true losses by the banks under this plan for years. But the primary reason for this is probably because the banks want to and will come back in full force and vengeance to collect the total amount due and then some, if consumers fail to complete the entire plan as scheduled. That could be very dangerous for consumers that have a slip or two during the long and difficult 60 months of repayment. Worse yet is that rather than in bankruptcy where consumers do not have to pay any income tax on the amount of debt forgiven, in this plan, they will. The group is asking that borrowers be able to defer payment of income taxes they will owe the IRS on the forgiven part of the debt until after the remainder was paid off. You have to pay income tax on forgiven debt, just as if you earned the money. That just puts the banks squarely ahead of the government and leaves the consumer with potentially years of additional debts payments to make after five years of paying back creditors. No Lingering Tax Liability – Unlike now, where any forgiven debt is taxed by the IRS as if it was earned as income, except for debt discharged in bankruptcy, the IRS needs to not bill consumers for the that amount owed that creditors may write off under this plan. Getting a tax bill for debt you already can’t pay is a strong disincentive for consumers to even bother with repayment. – The Perfect Debt Assistance Program And the forgiven debt tax issue is a big one. If banks write off a total of $60,000 worth of debt to help you avoid bankruptcy , depending on your tax rate you can wind up with an IRS obligation of $12,000, more or less. Finishing a long and hard repayment schedule over five years only to wind up owing the IRS and paying for another couple of years seems cruel and a huge disincentive. Scott Talbott, senior vice president at the Financial Services Roundtable is quoted as saying that under this plan “Both parties win”. I’m afraid that is an optimistic statements at this point and while we are potentially headed towards a good plan, we are not there. Right now I’d have to say the current plan heavily favors creditors. Currently, the only thing the plan does is potentially leads consumers into a five year payment plan that is not binding on the creditors under law, leaves the debtor owing the IRS at a latter date, masks the banks write offs until the reduced debt is paid. Since the plan is not binding, it will only take the actions of one creditor with excessive collection pressure, or arbitrarily changing their mind to conform with then current bank policy to continue participating to tank the whole repayment plan, maybe years into it. And creditor flip flops are not a worry of something that might happen, they happen now in a normal debt management plan , especially as creditors buy and sell portfolios of debts. If the plan fails years into the repayment plan, consumers will have wasted years of struggle and payments and potentially be in worse shape than if they just went bankrupt to begin with. In order for this plan to be effective it must be contractually binding, just like an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) in the UK is. Even though I once served on the board of directors of a consumer credit counseling office that was a member of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC), I have been hypercritical of the NFCC in the past, feeling as if they are not doing enough to defend consumers against bad creditor behavior and actions since they are primarily paid by the creditors. But for this effort of trying to create a new solution for debtors I’ll give Susan Keating, the president of NFCC, a provisional thumbs up for finally seeing the light that better solutions for problem debt need to be made available to consumers, other than the traditional debt management plan (DMP). I also see my old contact at Consumer Federation of America, Travis Plunkett, is quoted as saying that “In this case we have a clear common interest”, we do Travis but we’ve got further to go before this is a good plan for consumers other than bankruptcy , where no lingering tax liability exists and the plan is binding on the creditors. Keep up the good work Travis. Having spent the past few years in the UK and working with similar plans there, this new debt write off plan being put forward here could be something great but unless we tighten up some major issues, as I laid out in the perfect debt assistance program I’m afraid that it will not be as beneficial for both parties as it could be. A final sticking point is that this plan only address part of the consumers financial struggles and does not provide a single solution to address all debts, as bankruptcy does. Not mentioned in this plan is how consumers in trouble would be able to incorporate a failing mortgage into one single and coordinated solution handled by a third part in the time of monetary crisis. If a plan can be created that address all the issues and wraps things up into one package, then we’ve got a world class solution. Keep working on this guys, we are halfway towards a decent debt repayment solution for good people with bad debt. Steve Source: Banks Agree to Wipe Out Up to 40 Percent of Credit Card Debt But Watch Out. Other Related Articles to Read Catherine Asks If There Is Hope Or Help For Debt The Perfect Debt Assistance Program Credit Card Horror Stories: Tales of Credit Limit Reductions and Account Closures Lauren is Searching For Ways to Get Out Of Debt And Make Her Bad Credit Go Away Brenda Writes The Squirrel Asking For Advice. Is She Nuts!
Canadian credit card market seen stable – DBRS – The Gazette (Montreal)
Canadian credit card market seen stable – DBRS The Gazette (Montreal), Canada - 56 minutes ago TORONTO (Reuters) – As worries build about US consumer debt levels, analysts at Toronto-based rating agency DBRS say that Canadians use fewer credit cards …