Finance Tips

There are serious problems with health care in America. The cost of medical insurance continues to increase 10%, 20% or even 30% each year. This is a much higher percentage increase than most American’s annual salary increase. For the past several years health insurance was one of the few items in the family budget that saw steep increases every year. Today, this is not true. Families are seeing increases in groceries, gasoline, mortgage payments, credit card interest rates and heating oil. Couple a stretched family budget with a poor economy and the future looks worse than the past. There are predictions that unemployment rates will rise. Another prediction is that more families will not be able to afford health insurance.

Studies indicate that people without insurance do not go to the doctor for checkups or for ailments that are not debilitating. Those with chronic diseases like diabetes that go without regular checkups usually end up in the emergency room. Often, people who go without regular medical care see treatable conditions progress into irreversible health problems like a heart attack or a stroke.

Perhaps a better description of our health care system would be a disease care system. There are government funded safety nets for those sick enough to go to the emergency room but in most cases there is not funding for wellness care or chronic disease management. This situation will only get worse as more Americans lose their jobs and their health insurance.

It is not just patients that are frustrated with our current system. Doctors are burdened by the excessive paperwork required by medical insurance companies. Most doctors today have one or more employees dedicated to processing insurance forms and following up with insurance carriers that do not pay in a timely manner. The set fees for Medicare and Medicaid patients are often far below actual costs for the service rendered. Politicians have been talking about reforming our health care system for decades and little has changed except the rising costs.

Doctors are also frustrated by laws that prevent them from charging patients without insurance less than Medicare and Medicaid set fees. Most doctors sincerely want to help their patients with little means by reducing fees so they will get regular medical care.

In the last few years, doctors in many cities across America have opted to discontinue accepting medical insurance and to change their practice to a cash only business. While some doctors do this on their own, in most cases a group of doctors work together and come up with a medical care plan. While these plans are not insurance, since they are a structured plan they are legal.

Doctor after doctor that has made this conversion to a cash only business has reported that they actually make more money. They are able to eliminate the staff personnel that handled insurance claims. They get paid as services are performed instead of waiting up to several months for payment. They no longer have to argue with the insurance company about needed treatment or tests. They are able to totally focus on treating their patients. Doctors report operating a cash only business is much less stressful and allows them to be more responsive to their patients needs.

Patients also like the Patients also like the cash only system. Since routine office visits are priced similar to an insurance co-pay more people without insurance are able to afford medical treatment. Some people choose to carry catastrophic medical insurance only and use the cash doctors for checkups and routine care. Since routine office visits are priced similar to an insurance co-pay more people without insurance are able to afford medical treatment. Some people choose to carry catastrophic medical insurance only and use the cash doctors for checkups and routine care.

If you are one of the growing numbers of Americans without medical insurance or if the cost of your insurance takes too big of a bite out of your budget, do some checking and see if your community has cash only doctors. If so, ask questions and find out exactly how they structure their fees. You may just find an affordable alternative to maintaining good health.

In modern America, it is difficult to get through life without taking on some kind of debt. Most people cannot afford large purchases such as a house or education early in their lives, and so they take out loans to help them acquire these things earlier. Not all debt is harmful to your financial health, but it is important to make good decisions early in your life about what kind of debt to take on and what kind to avoid. Taking on too much debt with high interest rates can permanently destroy your hopes for a rich life and good retirement.

Good Debt

Loans which help you to invest in yourself or develop assets that don’t depreciate are good debt. Student loans, mortgages and loans for necessary medical procedures are all examples of debt that provides future returns in heightened income or lowered expenses. Loans for these items can usually be found with low interest rates, and when used wisely, can help secure your future wealth. Of course, you should always make sure that you will be able to afford the payments when they come due before taking out any loan.

Bad Debt

Consumer debt with high interest rates and no future return is the kind of debt that you should avoid. A good rule of thumb is that if you can eat it or wear it, you will not have any future return to show for it. Some credit card interest rates run as high as 25%, and if you only make minimum payments, you might end up paying more interest than principal over the decade it may take you to repay the card.

Try to evaluate debts as you would any other investment. Make your money work for you, and you will have a comfortable retirement to look forward to. But if you fail to carefully consider the kinds of debt you take on, your hard work will go towards paying credit card companies rather than yourself.

Many people believe in buy now pay later, are you one of them? Are you spending money you do not have hoping one day you will catch up? Over 53% of people are afraid of have to budget their money and are constantly in debt because they feel that they are being restricted and deny enjoying themselves.

For many buying material things gives them a sense of worthiness because they have work hard and they deserve to go out and spent the money they do not have because it makes them feel happy. People buy with their emotions although they may not need what they are buying. In general, people are very optimist about their future and go out and spend their future earnings for they believe that they will be able to pay it off only to keep themselves in debt.

Many people are afraid to look at their credit card interest rate and are paying the minimum off which keeps them in for a long time and the credit card places are happy that people are not paying much off because they will go for your car or house to collect and keep you in debt for the rest of your life.

Most people have not put aside any money for their future retirement because they are heavy in debt between 10- 40,000 dollars and have over four credit cards. Is their ways to get out of this cycle?

Yes, one way would be to consolidate all of your bills into one if you can. If you are visual put it up somewhere in your house that you can see each step that you are making to bring down your debt. It is in your best interest to pay of the bill with the highest interest rate first. Start have 20% of your pay check taken out and put into a retirement savings account which can be put into a Roth account.

Don’t let them fool you. All those solicitations you receive in the mail for credit card applications are meant to reel you in and hook you. Big time. In addition, new bankruptcy laws in the US and higher monthly minimum payment requirements are in place to help stem defaults on loans and to force consumers to pay down debt quicker. All of this sounds great, but credit card companies want to keep you in debt as long as possible. Please read on for all the stimulating details.

If you have had problems in the past paying down debt, do not think for a moment that you will have it any easier in the future. Thanks to legislation introduced by Congress and signed by the president earlier in 2005, filing for bankruptcy to escape debt has become more difficult. Much more so. In addition, credit card companies have raised your monthly minimum payment levels, in some cases doubling the minimum amount you must pay. Consider this last step a side issue related to the new bankruptcy legislation; the credit card companies are not legally obligated to raise minimums but they were pressured into doing so in exchange for passage of the new bankruptcy law.

Do not even think for a moment that credit card companies want you to get out of debt.

For starters, credit card rates have been rising steadily for over two years. As the prime rate goes up, your credit card interest rate goes up. Unless, of course, you have a fixed rate and you have been paying your bills on time. However, one late payment and, uh oh, you are in big trouble.

If you are late making a payment, even just once, you will likely be hit with a one time late fee charge of $29 or $39. In addition, that “sweet rate” you negotiated last year may automatically disappear. Zero percent financing can quickly turn into an 18.9% interest rate in no time and enforced retroactively too. Even “lower rate” cards with annual percentage rates of 10%, 12%, or more, can suddenly reflect rates of 24.9%, 29%, 35%, or even higher!

This is all perfectly legal too!

Read your credit card disclosure agreement – as if anyone even bothers to do so – for all the boring details. Exceptions and rules are the name of the game; there is a trap laying wide open for you to step on.

The next area of socking it to you is an old one: annual fees. Yes, they are back; for years, credit card companies — in order to remain competitive — waived annual fees. Originally, it was one small way for them to extract some cash from you: you paid them something every year even if you paid off your card monthly.

If you are like me, the whole concept of charging someone to access credit is absurd. Companies make a mint off of high interest rates as it is; throwing another fee on top of things is both apparent and transparent! Now, annual fees are back. Oh, sure, credit card companies must notify you in writing of these changes before they are put in place, but they certainly hope you won’t cancel your account in response to the “new” fee or that you will forget the notice completely and simply pay the fee. Do they think that we are stupid? I believe so!

There are two other areas where credit card companies attempt to pull a fast one on consumers: your payment due date and payment mailing address.

Your payment due date, which may have been “static” for years, could suddenly have been moved up. This means that if you are used to paying off your Visa card on the 24th of the month, it may suddenly have been moved to the 16th the following month. Without notifying you of the change either!

The address where you send your money may have changed too. Is this a big deal? It certainly is if you mail your payments in. Let’s say that you live in New Jersey and your XYZ Bank card payment goes to a South Hackensack post office. If you mail your payment in five days before the due date, you probably allowed enough time for your payment to get to the bank. Warning: Watch out that their payment address hasn’t suddenly been moved to Ohio. Your next payment will likely end up being late.

Oh, so you pay online? Don’t think that the bank credits your money immediately either. I have seen it take five days for money to electronically leave my checking account and be wired to another bank’s account. The post office moves a live check faster than that!

A moved payment due date and a changed payment address are designed to make your payments late so that the credit card company can charge you a late fee and raise your rates.

This is perfectly legal as well. Is it ethical? Hey, we’re talking about the financial services industry. What else do you expect?

Financial institutions make money off of consumers through interest rates and fee services. Please do not think for a moment that any credit card company has your best interests at heart. They don’t; they are in business to please their shareholders. Get informed and take action when one of these “perfectly legal” practices is pulled on you. You can get fees canceled and have your credit card rate lowered if you complain; back it all up in writing in order to preserve your rights.

A savvy consumer is an informed consumer; learn what tricks credit card companies use and fight back. Annually order free credit reports from Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax to make sure that unfavorable reports from creditors have not been unfairly tagged to your record. Visit the Federal Trade Commission’s site at [http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/freereports.htm] for the best way to obtain credit reports.

If you’ve recently filed bankruptcy, you may be concerned about what interest rates you’ll receive on future loans and credit cards. This is a common concern. Though you may feel that the credit card offer you received in the mail has a ridiculously high interest rate, you’re not sure whether or not it’s the best you can get in your current situation. This article will offer some information on how bankruptcy affects interest rates on loans and credit cards:

Interest Rates on Credit Cards

In a perfect world, credit card interest rates would be comparable to those of mortgages. Unfortunately, credit cards are unsecured loans, and this represents a significant risk to the lender. For this reason, credit card interest rates will always be high, even for people will immaculate credit. After bankruptcy, you can expect the highest interest rates charged, which is generally between 25 and 29.9%. However, once you’ve established a relationship with that company and proven that you can pay your bill on time every month, they will most likely lower your interest rate. Compare credit cards from multiple companies in order to find the best rates and terms and choose a reputable lender. Make sure that they report to all three major credit reporting bureaus monthly so that you can start rebuilding your credit.

Interest Rates on Auto and Mortgage Loans

For a couple of years after you file bankruptcy, you’ll be stuck with sub-prime mortgage and auto loan interest rates. This can require that you pay a much larger interest rate than someone else with credit that allows them to get approved for a prime loan. However, if you can wait a couple of years, you will be more likely to get approved for a prime loan. This can save you thousands of dollars over the life of the loan. In order to ensure better rates after a couple of years, start with small credit accounts and pay them on time every month. This will allow you to build credit and present yourself as a responsible borrower. This is a lenders biggest concern after a person has filed bankruptcy — that they’ll become unable to pay their debts again.

If you can prove that you can pay your debts, you will become much less of a risk. This results in interest rates that are much lower than they would be if you applied immediately after your bankruptcy was finalized. Here is a list of recommended Adverse Credit Home Mortgage Lenders online. It’s important to use a reputable lender online to make sure your personal information is secure.