Posted 4 days 22 hours ago by Xin Lu
Today I received an email from American Express that advertised a program where you can earn rewards by paying your Indymac mortgages with an American Express credit card. I do not have a mortgage, but I read this email and wondered, why would anyone pay their mortgages with a credit card?
Posted 19 weeks 6 days ago by Philip Brewer
When you think of people ruining their lives with foolish spending, it's easy to focus on the little things that add up--the meals out, the hefty bar tab, the daily Starbucks habit, and the retail therapy (whether for new clothes, new shoes, or the latest must-have electronic gizmo). The fact is, though, that these expenses (although they can make it tough to save for the future) are not the ones that ruin people's lives. It's the fixed expenses that do that.
Posted 30 weeks 5 days ago by Philip Brewer
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson gave a speech yesterday, talking about the administration's plan to "address the challenges" of the housing market downturn and related credit squeeze. Part of their plan is to freeze the low teaser rate on the mortgages of people who have been making their mortgage payments okay, but who would face foreclosure if the rate went up. If you have a mortgage with one of those low teaser rates, you might be interested to know how to keep that lower rate--perhaps even get it back, if it has already reset.
Posted 31 weeks 2 days ago by Philip Brewer
It has never been unusual for borrowers to run into difficulty, and sometimes it becomes clear that a loan will never be repaid in full. The lender's job then is to recover as much money as possible. Because foreclosures are expensive and the eventual recovery is uncertain, it's often a better bet for the lender to restructure the loan--settling for less than they are owed, but more than they'd get in a foreclosure. One of things that has made the subprime debacle go from bad to worse is that loan workout is much tougher when loans are securitized--sold, packaged, diced up, and sold again.
Posted 32 weeks 6 days ago by Sarah Baughman
What lessons can future homeowners take away from today's "mortgage crisis?"
Posted 33 weeks 11 hours ago by Philip Brewer
Early in the subprime lending collapse, Wise Bread posted a report from Americans for Fairness in Lending explaining how the subprime lending boom hurt everyone. Since it's a topic of considerable interest to Wise Bread readers, when AFFIL offered to make Jim Campen, their executive director, available to answer some questions, we jumped at the chance.
Posted 41 weeks 1 day ago by Philip Brewer
Among the Wise Bread community, I get the sense that there's a kind of "pox on both their houses" attitude to the problems in the subprime mortgage markets. People who worked through their own credit problems (or avoided having any) can't stir up much sympathy for people who bought houses they can't afford--and pretty much nobody has any sympathy for the mortgage brokers and hedge funds that lent them the money. A new guide from Americans for Fairness in Lending, though, shows that the damage actually hits at every level, from the individual borrowers (including borrowers with good credit), through the neighborhood, local economies, and the national economy. With their kind permission, we're presenting the guide here on Wise Bread.
Posted 47 weeks 2 days ago by Julie Rains
Recently, a reader with a 15-year mortgage and an interest in accelerated mortgage payoff asked if it was better to pay $100 per month extra ($1,200 per year) or make an extra payment at the end of each year? The short answer: it depends on your loan balance and interest rate though generally the higher extra payment is going to result in a faster payoff. There's more, but I’ll go ahead and put my disclaimer here and say that I am responding to an inquiry not necessarily recommending that you pay extra on your mortgage. Here are the detailed calculations:Posted 1 year 12 weeks ago by Andrea Dickson
Money, to me, is often something to just be tossed at problems. I don't look at my receipts after buying groceries. I don't worry about being charged too much, since I figure that carefully studying my receipts makes me look petty. In fact, this is an attitude that gets me nowhere. I don't protect my money. Maybe I would if I thought of it like a kitten.
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| Posts | Cmts | |
|---|---|---|
| Fred Lee | 3 | 19 |
| Julie Rains | 5 | 21 |
| Linsey Knerl | 12 | 31 |
| Margaret Garcia-Couoh | 2 | 6 |
| Myscha Theriault | 6 | 50 |
| Paul Michael | 6 | 15 |
| Philip Brewer | 11 | 31 |
| Xin Lu | 8 | 21 |
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