Archive for December, 2009

How much can you donate to charity and claim on taxes?


09 Dec 2009

A reader e-mails:

Hi there Brent,  Nice story in the Sundays paper. We will be looking for all the tax breaks we can get this year. One of those is our donations. We have donated a lot of stuff to Goodwill and we have the cards they gave us. We had a garage sale and took pictures of everything before boxing the stuff up.

My question to you is, what is the maximum amount you can donate dollar wise? Also, is that amount the total or is it that amount for each place you donate?

It’s Only Money answers:

Your total donations to charities — cash and noncash — can equal 50 percent of your adjusted gross income. Anything above that cannot be deducted in the year you donate. However, you can deduct your excess donations on next year’s return. In fact, you can “carry forward” excess contributions for up to four more years beyond the year you donated.

Remember, adjusted gross income isn’t your total income. It’s your income minus deductions that you don’t have to itemize. Full Article…

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Tags: Donate Donate Charity

Reality TV and Disability Insurance Claims


05 Dec 2009

Reality TV wanna-be’s seem to be everywhere lately, taking their search for fame and fortune beyond the bounds of common sense. An interior designer from California appeared on a home improvement show while collecting disability insurance. Sadly for him, an employee for the insurance company was a big fan of the show. He was convicted for insurance fraud and tax fraud and had to pay the private insurance company more than $150,000.

Moral of the story – when you are disabled and on claim, everything you do can and will be used against you. Insurers are going to all lengths to terminate or deny claims. By putting yourself out in the public eye, whether through a television reality show, live radio call-in show, Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace, or any public forum, can and very likely will have a negative impact on your claim.

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Tags: Reality Reality Tv

Scots credit card withdrawals to rise in December


05 Dec 2009

Credit cards could be heavily used at Scottish ATMs. An increasing number of cash withdrawals from bank and credit card accounts are likely to be made in Scotland during the festive period.

According to analysis from Clydesdale Bank, a total of £1bn will be withdrawn from the nation’s ATMs in December.

Transactions will average £40 a time during the month, 10% higher than in November.

The credit card provider also said that the value of cash machine withdrawals will rise by around 25% over the weekend before Christmas.

Steve Reid, retail director for Clydesdale Bank, said: “Christmas is always the busiest time of year for shoppers but they can avoid the rush at ATMs by starting early in the morning or picking up cash in mid-week when there are considerably fewer transactions.

“Those out to celebrate the season face less problems with queuing; they tend to stagger their withdrawals across the day and evening.”

Clydesdale Bank also urged customers to “take care” to protect themselves against the possibility of debit and credit card theft when using a cash machine at night.

Figures from the firm show that its five busiest ATMs in 2008 were those located in West George Street and Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow, in East Kilbride’s Olympia Arcade and in the Glasgow Fort and Silverburn shopping centres. < Full Article…

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Tags: Card Credit Card

How Does Debt Settlement Affect Your Credit Score (And More!)


05 Dec 2009

If you’ve ever wondered how things like debt settlement and bankruptcy affect your credit score, look no further.

MSN Money’s Liz Pulliam Weston asked FICO how these and other negative finance moves actually affect your FICO score.

The results are surprising (at least to me). The FICO company (Fair Isaac) is not crazy about giving away too much of its secret formula that determines a person’s FICO score, so Ms. Weston had them respond to a hypothetical situation where two people were hit with the identical situations, but started with different scores. Here’

Full Article…

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Tags: Credit Score Debt Settlement Score

Credit card customers hit by ski price rise


05 Dec 2009

The spending power of UK skiers’ credit cards has diminished. Many credit card users will face steeper costs during this year’s ski break, Santander Cards has said.

According to research commissioned by the credit card provider, the typical flight and accommodation package for winter sports holidays now costs £686, the highest price since the beginning of the decade.

The cost of staying at some popular resorts has risen by 15% this season, with the pound having weakened against the euro since last year.

Customers have the option to reduce their overall spend by taking out a credit card which does not charge extra fees on overseas transactions, such as Santander’s own Zero and the Post Office Platinum.

Prepaid cards also offer consistently lower charges on overseas payments and cash withdrawals than many mainstream credit cards.

Emma Roberts, director at Santander Cards, said: “Winter sports enthusiasts may well be tempted to try somewhere new this year because of the impact of the weak pound on prices for premium European skiing destinations.”

She added: “One way that winter holidaymakers can avoid unnecessary additional costs is to use a credit card that doesn’t charge them a fee on transactions made in a foreign currency.”

Recent analysis from Snowsports cited by Santander shows that the number of UK residents going on a winter sports break during the 2008-09 season fell by 6%. Full Article…

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Tags: Credit Card Ski

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