OFT drops bank account charges investigation
The OFT has dropped its investigation into bank account charges. Full Article…
Reminder: Bad Credit Can Affect Your Employment.
Bankrate.com’s Steve Bucci recently answered a question from a reader about whether bad credit can hurt your job prospects.
The reader’s roommate defaulted on 2 payday loans while he was out of work (ouch!), and subsequently relocated to Washington, D.C. (debtor’s capital of the world!). He managed to get a job, but two months into it his background check came back and showed the defaults. His employer then let him go. I can’t imagine why they hired him before the background check was cleared, but that’s just me.
The reader wanted to know if this is legal and how he can clean up his mess.
The short answer is that the employer can absolutely terminate his employment for the past delinquencies – provided he was notified of that possibility. Since the
Car insurance customers worried by wintry weather
Wintry conditions can put many people off driving. Full Article…
A Method to the Madness
Think you’re busy? The consummate multitasker? Well, meet Brenda Grigsby. Grigsby owns five businesses, and 6 a.m. finds her happily in bed, typing e-mail with one hand and working a cup of coffee with the other. “It’s my way of finding out what my day is going to look like and what I need to prioritize,” says Grigsby. “For me, it’s actually relaxing.”
If only we could all conquer the madness as serenely as Grigsby. Basex, a New York-based business research firm, estimates information overload costs the U.S. economy $900 billion a year in lost productivity and stifled innovation.
How’s Your Holiday Budget Looking?
We’re smack dab in the middle of the holiday season. How are you doing on your spending goals?
I’ve never been one to go on a huge spending spree during the holidays. Don’t get me wrong – I love to give and receive gifts. However, I just don’t see the point of wracking up credit card debt to do it. If I don’t have the cash to pay for something, it doesn’t go in my shopping cart.
Nevertheless, last year my partner and I went a little overboard buying presents for each other because it was our first Christmas together. This year my partner and I agreed to a very low spending limit for buying holiday presents. We agreed to limit the number of people that we bought gifts for, and we only spent $10 per person. For gifts for each other, we agreed to stay under $75 total, including stocking stuffers.
It’s been both a challenge, and a little bit exciting to stick to our spending goals. Lots of homemade presents are making their way to family and friends this year in order to meet our goals. We’ve baked a lot of cookies, and this weekend was a fudge-packing extravaganza (pun intended).
Here’s how we were able to stick to our budget:
1. We made a list of everyone we wanted to send a holiday card, then decided if we wanted to include a photo from our wedding. Since we kept the number of people we invited to the wedding to a minimum, we only needed to order a few prints to send out with holiday cards.
2. Just like Santa, we made a list of gifts that we were going to give, (checked it twice), then marked items off of the list as we bought or made them. It’s funny, but without keeping track of the gifts you’ve bought, it’s really easy to buy more gifts than necessary. For example, I forgot that I had bought a present for my aunty, so I made her some Christmas tree ornaments. In the end, it only adds up to a few extra dollars spent on crafting supplies, but just imagine how much money I would unintentionally be spending if I didn’t keep track of everything.
3. The dollar bins at Michael’s and Target are a g
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