Prepaid Debit Card Reviews, Complaints, Etc

Tag: Debt

  • Student Debt Remains Part of Economic Instability

    Student Debt Remains Part of Economic Instability

    After four years of university study and several more for a second or third degree, students are left with tremendous debt and a big hole in their pockets. Despite attempts to stay within a budget, find secure employment and start a payback plan, graduates find themselves stuck in the mire of financial obligations and bank loans.

    Not all graduates face the same fate and the type of degree can determine the ease of finding proper employment as well as the salary associated with it. For example, many educators today view a humanities degree as practically useless when it comes to procuring a job with any semblance of sufficient income and specialty degrees such as those in the medical, dental or engineering fields require extra years of study and hence additional loans.

    According to an article published in The Atlantic in March 2014, even those who continue on with their studies and obtain humanities Ph.D.s have job prospects no better than those who end their studies earlier. In the Atlantic article, English professor William Pannapacker suggested that a humanities Ph.D. “will place you at a disadvantage competing against 22-year-olds for entry-level jobs that barely require a high-school diploma.” Pannapacker went on to advise would-be graduate students to recognize that a humanities Ph.D is now a worthless degree and they should avoid going into further debt in order to acquire one.

    Andrew Green, associate director at the Career Center at the University of California, Berkeley has a different take on the situation. He admits that there is no doubt that humanities doctorates have struggled with their employment prospects, but he points to less widely known data showing that between a fifth and a quarter of these doctorates go on to work in well-paying jobs in media, corporate America, non-profits, and government.

    Paula Chambers, founder of Versatile Ph.D., a service that prepares graduate students for the non-academic job market, takes a positive view of the employment situation for humanities graduates. Chambers points to humanities Ph.D.s in many industries far removed from academia such as a Ph.D. in Greek and Roman history who landed a marketing job at a wine estate, a Ph.D. in British history who is now a branch chief at the National Parks Service or a Ph.D. in Classics exerting influence as a director at a hedge fund.

    But were these the goals set by humanity students when they started their graduate education? How long will it take them to repay the loans they incurred in order to reach the academic level they did?

    When it comes to graduates in other disciplines, the numbers aren’t much better. According to a research study conducted by UK specialist insurer, Endsleigh and reported in England’s Guardian in August 2014, only 34% of the then recent graduates had found full-time work in the career of their choice.

    The vast majority of graduates do, eventually, find work, but often it is in a different field to their degree. According to Higher Education Statistical Agency figures for 2012-2013, only 8% of the students surveyed were unemployed six months after leaving university. But how much were they earning? The Endsleigh survey found that almost half (48%) of them said their current wage was lower than expected, with 57% currently earning £15,999 or less with the average salary around £20,000. Certainly not enough to pay back all the debts accrued over the years of study.

    One of the solutions to the debt-study dilemma that has proven successful but which may not be appropriate for everyone is to work while attending school. Both small and large corporations are eager to employ students who will agree to a lower salary while attending classes towards their degree. On some levels it is a win-win situation. The student gains work experience and has some income towards his/her studies while the hiring firm pays less for a worker who, at the end the tenure, may well prove appropriate to the position and be taken on as a permanent member of the staff without the need of retraining for the job.

    In the above situation, although there no guarantee of employment upon completion of the student’s degree, at least an accumulated debt of untold proportions has been avoided.
    The most obvious direction to choose for avoiding education loans is simply to postpone studies altogether until the money is there. But this is a catch-22. No education, no job. No job, no money. What is a student to do?

    The problem of student debt is growing. Here are the statistics according to a report posted on CNBC in June, 2015, and the numbers are staggering: There is more than $ 1.2 trillion in outstanding student loan debt, 40 million borrowers and an average balance of $ 29,000. The high levels are serving to perpetuate or even worsen economic inequality and are undercutting the opportunity and social mobility that higher education should provide.

    Perhaps one way to avoid the debt altogether would be for students to plan to put away a small amount of money on a steady basis as soon as they are able and to learn how to invest their money early on in their lives. Opening an investment account with a good broker can be done at any age with the approval of an adult and as an individual from the age of 18. Investing can also be fun but learning to do it properly requires at least the minimum of training and education.

    With today’s precarious global financial situation accelerating, it appears that the question of student debt and its repercussions remains a large part of the economic equation.

    This article by Cina Coren first appeared on DailyForex.com and was distributed by the Personal Finance Syndication Network.

    Personal Finance Syndication Network

  • We’re Paying Off $47,000 of Debt. Here’s How

    We’re Paying Off $47,000 of Debt. Here’s How

    Steve and Jennie Silha ended up in debt the way a lot of young couples do: They had children.

    Steve, 44, is a realist, and says the problem was pretty simple.

    “It really came down to the fact that we decided that my wife would be a stay-at-home mom, but we spent like we had two incomes,” he said.

    And after 15 years of raising two children, the Chicago-area couple found themselves with $ 47,000 of unsecured debt – most of it credit card debt — last year. That’s when they made a commitment to make a change.

    “I’ll say that it came down to irresponsibility on the surface. We just made very poor decisions over the past 10 years,” Steve said. “We have decided to ‘grow up’ and take the debt on.”
    That was the first step. Step two involved Steve taking a new job with a higher salary. That helped a bit. Step three involved changes to the way the family spends money.

    “We cook at home more and haven’t taken a vacation like we usually do,” Steve said.

    But the biggest step of all was Jennie, 43, deciding to return to the workforce. With a 15-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter, the timing was right. She began this month.

    The couple has pledged that 100% of the income from her job in home health care will go toward reducing their debt.

    So far, they have paid off about $ 7,000.

    The new austerity measures haven’t left the family wanting more fun. Instead, their renewed commitment to paying off debt is a challenge that’s been good for their relationship, Steve said.

    “Steve and Jennie debtSince June, we have drastically changed our lives — in many ways. Getting our financial life in order is one big way we are changing everything. It feels great. Paying off the first (credit) card was amazing,” he said.

    The turning point came when the couple discussed declaring bankruptcy last year, Steve said. They had tried another debt reduction plan four years ago, but didn’t stick to it because they “hadn’t hit rock bottom” yet, he said.

    “I think that was where we said, man, we are either going to destroy our personal financial life or we are going to fix this once and for all,” he said.

    The key to success this time will be both increasing their income and lowering their spending, he said.   Doing only one or the other “is like trying to lose weight without lowering your intake of calories and working out to burn more,” he said. In addition to their new jobs, both Steve and Jennie have side jobs where they earn a little extra income. All that will go toward paying debt, too.

    Steve hopes the positive changes will help teach his children about spending wisely and investing for the future.

    “I talk to my kids every week — if not every day — about the dangers of personal debt,” he said. “While I hope they listen, I know the most powerful thing will be them watching Jennie and me pull ourselves out of this pit.”

    There’s a long road ahead. Right now, Steve and his wife hope her income boost will make them debt-free within two years. But that will require sticking with the plan. Steve says he’s ready.

    “I believe that so much of doing this … and anything else … is having the right attitude,” he said. “We finally decided that we had enough and are going to attack this debt with passion … we are both doing this as a team … this has brought us closer together. No doubt.”

    Carrying a high percentage of credit card debt relative to your credit limits can have a negative impact on your credit scores. The poorer your credit, the more you tend to pay on interest rates which can cost you a lot more money over time. As you pay down your debt and build your credit, it can be helpful to track your progress. You can do that by getting your free credit scores – which you can do every 30 days on Credit.com.

    Inset image courtesy of Steve and Jennie Silha

     

    This article originally appeared on Credit.com.

    This article by Bob Sullivan was distributed by the Personal Finance Syndication Network.

    Personal Finance Syndication Network

  • Consumer Financial Protection Report: Mishandling Credit Report Errors, Hassling Consumers and More

    Consumer Financial Protection Report: Mishandling Credit Report Errors, Hassling Consumers and More

    Harassing phone calls. Credit report errors. Payday loan company employees showing up at a customer’s workplace demanding money. These are just some of the more troubling findings in a recent report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which was set up in the wake of the financial meltdown to police financial products and services.

    The latest Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report highlights the agency’s regulatory supervisory activities between November 2013 and February 2014. According to the CFPB, which has a nationwide network of examiners whose job it is to review how well financial services companies are complying with the law, credit bureaus are not always properly handling credit report errors. This is important for a consumer’s financial protection because mistakes about how someone repays their debts can hurt their chances for qualifying for a mortgage or car loan or even nix their chances of landing a job.

    Although the CFPB didn’t name the credit bureaus in its report, it did note that at least one had not been properly processing documentation provided by consumers seeking to dispute an error on their credit report. The law allows consumers to provide documentation to correct credit report errors, information that the credit bureaus are supposed to forward along to creditors so that a dispute can be resolved. Because this was not happening, the CFPB issued a warning to the non-compliant credit bureaus.

    The CFPB also found some debt collectors egregiously violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). The FDCPA is an attempt to rein in abusive practices and harassment by companies seeking to recoup money loaned to consumers. Yet the agency found that constraints imposed by the FDCPA were routinely ignored. For instance, one unnamed company made around 17,000 phone calls to consumers outside hours allowed by the FDCPA. “In addition, the entity also violated the FDCPA when it repeatedly contacted more than one thousand customers, contacting some consumers as often as 20 times within two days,” says the report.

    Additionally, the FDCPA does not permit debt collectors to make false or misleading statements in their efforts to collect money they’re owed. Investigators from the CFPB discovered one company was routinely filing lawsuits riddled with factual inaccuracies about how much a consumer owed. “When the consumer filed an answer, the entity would dismiss the suit because it was unable to locate documentation to support its claims,” says the report.

    The CFPB also cited one payday loan company for sending employees to the workplace of consumers in order to collect debts. This was occurring despite the fact that consumers had specifically requested that it stop and the practice being in violation of the Dodd-Frank Act.

     

Prepaid Debit Card Reviews, Complaints, Etc