For everyone who has to pay bills

Santa Rosa bankruptcy attorney Edmund Dechant suggests that the public be aware of the Federal Trade Commission’s warning of potential charity scams in connection with the recent floods and tornadoes that have caused damage in the Midwest.   FTC recommendations: 1. Ask for the name of the charity if the telemarketer does not provide it promptly; 2. Ask what percentage of your donation will support the cause described in the solicitation; 3. Call the charity to find out if it’s aware of the solicitation and has authorized the use of its name; 4. Do not provide any credit card or bank information until you have reviewed all information from the charity and made the decision to donate; 5. Ask for a receipt showing the amount of the contribution and stating that it is tax deductible; and 6. Avoid cash gifts. For security and tax record purposes, it’s best to pay by check – made payable to the beneficiary, not the solicitor. Full Story.

Clients of Santa Rosa, CA Bankruptcy Attorney Edmund Dechant has asked many times how to improve their credit score. If you’ve ever applied for a credit card, a personal loan, or insurance, there’s a file about you. This file is known as your credit report. The Federal Trade Commission can help. Your credit report is is chock full of information on where you live, how you pay your bills, and whether you’ve been sued or arrested, or have filed for bankruptcy. Consumer reporting companies sell the information in your report to creditors, insurers, employers, and other businesses with a legitimate need for it. They use the information to evaluate your applications for credit, insurance, employment, or a lease. Full story:

Late last month, the Congressional Budget Office published a little-noticed estimate that forecasts seniors will receive just a 2.8 percent increase in their Social Security checks beginning in January, 2009.
A majority of the 48 million Americans aged 65 and over who receive a Social Security check depend on it for at least 50 percent of their total income, and one in three beneficiaries relies on it for 90 percent or more of their total income. Since 2000, people 65 and over have lost 40 percent of their buying power. Necessities such as home heating oil and gasoline have more than doubled since the beginning of the decade, while food staples such as potatoes and butter have increased by 47 and 39 percent, respectively. Full Story.

You never have to pay for information about job vacancies or employment opportunities with the U.S. government or U.S. Postal Service. But some scam artists are victimizing many Americans by selling information about federal job opportunities. These scam artists advertise in the classified sections of newspapers and offer – for a fee – to help job seekers find and apply for federal jobs. In truth, federal agencies and the U.S. Postal Service never charge application fees or guarantee that an applicant will be hired. Some fraudulent companies even try to confuse consumers by using names that sound like those of federal agencies, like the “U.S. Agency for Career Advancement” or the “Postal Employment Service.” Full Story.

A federal report shows that American consumers lose more than $40 billion a year to telemarketing fraud. It’s no wonder that con artists in foreign countries want in on the action. In many cases, crooks are sitting across the border - just far enough away from U.S. laws and jurisdiction to reduce the chances that American victims will ever recover their money. These frauds include Credit Card Loss Protection Offers that “inform” you that you are no longer protected by the $50.00 cap on unauthorized use of your card. That’s simply not true. Another scam are the Advance-Fee Loan “Sharks” who offer you a loan on the condition that you make an up-front payment. When you give your credit card info, your card is charged and you never hear from the huckster again. Full story.

The Federal Trade Commission alerts mortgage shoppers to be wary of certain terms in mortgage ads.  For instance, a low “Fixed” Rate: Ads that tout a “fixed” rate may not tell you how long it will be “fixed.” The rate may be fixed for an introductory period only, and that can be as short as 30 days. When you shop for a mortgage, you need to know when and how your rate, and payments, can change. Full Story.

Home prices are falling at an alarming rate and the rate is accelerating. Full Story.

The shear number of homes on the market that have been dumped by speculators is just now being assessed. Many investors purchased multiple units with no money down and no documentation as to their ability to pay. As these empty homes are jettisoned, the prices of neighboring dwellings are depressed.

It’s going to take a year or two for this glut of abandoned homes to be assimilated into the normal mix of real estate investments. In the meantime, prices will continue to decline until the cost of the monthly mortgage is more in line with the cost to rent.

President Bush said Thursday that he first learned of the tapes’ destruction in a briefing this month from Gen. Michael Hayden, the CIA director. Full Story

Why is the top guy always the last to know what’s going on? Of course, what about the other tapes? There can’t be that just two were made.

The president also said he would reserve judgment on the controversy until investigations into the matter are resolved.

“Until these inquiries are complete, until this oversight is finished,” the president said, “I will be rendering no opinion from the podium.”

Bush said he was confident that the inquiries, “coupled with the oversight provided by the Congress, will end up enabling us all to find out what exactly happened.”

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission will not try to block Google’s acquisition of online ad-serving vendor DoubleClick, the agency said Thursday. Full Story.

Congressional Republicans and President Bush refused to offset the cost of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) fix by imposing new taxes, particularly on wealthy hedge fund managers some of whom make in excess of 1 billion per year and who have been sheltered by a tax code quirk which allows them to receive a 20% tax break not available to other citizens.

By not offsetting the cost of the AMT fix, the national debt will increase by $50 billion. Full Story.