Bank Blog

For instance a Rolex. You can find a Rolex or other select watches for $20,000.00. Is the high price originally at the manufacturer, or is the retailer creating a high mark-up? (There’s not THAT much difference in a watch function, so what drives a huge difference in price?)

By: MtR

I would like to buy a house, say for 100K. I want to put 20% down and I do have 20K in my checking account. But I would rather take 26K (20K minus tax and penalties) out of my 401K even if I can afford it.

JPMorgan and IRS say I can take out (Not borrow, you don’t have to pay it back) money out of my 401K under the “Hardship Withdrawal” for the downpayment only. Will I qualify since I could afford the 20K downpayment with my checking account? In other words, must I legally pay off my downpayment with my cash at hand before dipping into my 401k?

I can’t find any of these details online. I already know all the pitfalls of a Hardship Withdrawal versus loans etc.
Great answer Ryan M. You mention a 10% penalty off the bat…where does that come from? I called JPMorgan and they said there is no penalty under my plan. Just taxes

By: checkster2005

If Countrywide or any other bank raised their relatively low CD rates, i’m sure they would be flooded with deposits. Countrywide just announced a $11.5 draw on their credit lines. I’m sure if Countrywide upped their CD rates to around the same rate that’ s on the credit lines, around 6 1/2%, Countrywide could easily draw in $20+ billion in fresh deposits. In summary, I don’t understand the headlines screaming “liquidity crisis” while banks are apparently not hurting at all for deposits and keeping their savings rates relatively low. Countrywide’s highest yielding CD, for balances over $98,000, is 5.50%.

By: lucky_lenny_1964

Two years ago my house went into foreclosure. I was engaged at the time and put her name on the house also. When we broke up she wouldn’t talk to me about options on selling, so instead she left her father to do the negotiations.
I truly believe that he was out to get me, regardless of what it would do to his daughters credit score. They wouldnt budge to sell the house and when I found out I was able to get a court order to sell the property, it was too late and it went into foreclosure.
After it foreclosed I felt forced to file Chapter 13 bankruptcy, due to the fact that I was laid off and the house sold at auction for 40,000 less than what was owed.
Since then I’ve moved back in with the parents, been in school for the past two years, and plan on transferring to another university next year.
I’ve been able to save enough to put down 30-40k on a house or condo. I’d rather go that route instead of losing money in dorm costs or apartment rental.
Will a bank lend to me?

By: WAYNE P

I have about 5 credit cards, and a few checking accounts open with a few banks, needless to say, I always have bills/funds, etc and I’m constantly on the go, and make many purchases. Waiting a WHOLE month to me just to pay a bill is frustrating, and I’d rather pay at least twice a month to get my balance down to 0.

I don’t like to carry large balances.

Is this okay because we’re encouraged to just pay as the system generates our bills every month to avoid confusion I guess, but does it hurt to pay a credit card more than once a cycle? Does this help/hurt/ or doesn’t impact our score?

Thanks.

I was under the impression that the more we pay, or use our card, and establish a trust/ability to pay back the better our score/history looks.

By: Luke

I recently got an hp laptop. It’s got a 1.8 ghz Turion X2 processor, 2 gb of ram, a 667 mhz fsb, 1 mb l2 cache, and an NVIDIA Geforce 128 mb dedicated, 560 mb shared , graphics card, and my 4 year old acer 1.4 ghz centrino with 512 mb ram runs better than it.

I can’t help but feel that vista is involved, because a lot of the problems I am having, other vista users are having as well.

I want to know where the best place is to get an awesome new laptop with some form of xp on it for under $750. I know that a lot of places like newegg and tigerdirect have xp laptops, but most all of them are refurbished w/ a 3 month factory warranty, and that doesn’t fly with me. There was a gateway mx6961 on tigerdirect that looked very promising, but I am just skeptical on having the thing break on me on the 91st day, then I’m SOL.

Is there anything that you can recommend? I would stick through with vista if sp1 would come out soon, but that doesn’t look like that’s gonna happen.

Thanks.

By: Carson B

I currently have a 30 year fixed mortgage @ 5.75 (3 years into it, balance around $270k). Payment if $1678.

I have a couple of options - I can re-fi to a 15 year @ 5.15, but the fees are about $8k (which they would roll into the mortgage), and new payment is $2200.

I intend to be in this house for at least the next 10 years - my job is as secure as it can be in this market.

My question - should I re-fi, just apply $500 / month to the existing mortgage and pay it down earlier, or take the $500 /month and put it in a 5% GMAC Demand Notes account?

For all of those Dave Ramsey fans, yes, I have >6 months emergency fund, a chunk of money for my kids college, a healthy retirement account - I’m looking for answers or options that perhaps I haven’t thought of - and how to best do the break-even on the % decrease, fees or other ideas.

I would prefer answers that have some basis in financial astutement.
I’m in my mid 40’s, my kids are 6 and 9 - 15% goes into retirement, IRA fuly funded each year.

By: girlwhoknowsitstrue

i need a motherboard that will support a Core 2 Duo and a core 2 quad that spports a 1333mhz FSB and has at least one PCI-E x16 2.0 slot and 4 slots for RAM for under $100

links please

By: Andrew

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071024/bank_of_america_job_cuts.html
Bank of America Corp. said Wednesday it will eliminate 3,000 jobs, an announcement that came less than a week after the nation’s second-largest bank reported a huge drop in earnings for the third quarter.
http://www.bankofamericaboycott.com/
Who do you think that subprime mortgages were directed at?

By: Punkin

I have been a long battle with my ex. It’s a long story so I will try to make it short. I am working towards regaining joint custody. I lost last time over money. I was shocked when ex took me to court I didn’t even have attorney and couldn’t not afford one (which my ex made sure of) I never thought he would pull the stuff he pulled. Anyway in Aug. 08′ I hired attorney, she told me I would look better if I got married. I was dating a nice guy. Waited a year to introduce him to my kids. My kids loved him we got married. I have been in sales and I am terrible at it. I decided recently to go back to school. We bought a house and got married last year and served my ex papers for a remodification of custody. I am going to mediation first on March 12th. If that doesn’t work (my ex has been very difficult to reason with) we will have a trial at the end of March.
My new marriage has unexpectedly gone south very quickly. Two days after we got married he started talking about divorce! He talks about it alot. Now he wants to sell our new home. This person has done a 360* since we got married only 9 months ago. I think he wants out. Yet he says he loves me and he is very good to my children and spoils them alot. He has done alot for us. I think he might be maniac- depressive. His business (he in the mortagage biz) like most have gone south. He has never been honest with me about money. He says we have 50k in the bank one day and none the next. (I wish I was exaurating but I am not). He lies none stop about everything. This is not like a marriage at all. He stressess me out all the time. If we have to move out of our home that we have only been in for a year I am worried how this will look to the court and my children will be very unhappy. We may have to rent a home. Oh and he filed for bankruptcy. He told me he was getting this inhertance that was a lie.
I can never believe a word he says. I don’t trust him. However, I am starting school in the summer. I have about 3 years of school ahead of me. I am worried about making on my own financially. I don’t want to rush to divorce court after only a year. I am afraid of looking unstable to the court. I feel I will have only failed at marriage again.
Does anyone have any good advice for this situation?
I was told I may not get everything I want in my case the first time around. That I may have to go back next year also. That is also why I worry about divorce with my husband. Again, I don’t want to look unstable.
I got married after I hired the attorney. It is sad to say that even in America were we have over a 50% divorce rate that some idoit still thinks we look more stable married. I also live in the south and I always wonder if that has something to do with it.
I have done everything my attorney told me to do and then some. I also start a new job this week. It won’t pay me enough to live on my own. We did all of our discovery paper work before my husband filled BK. I know we look good on paper. (for now)
I really only want to hear from people who have been through this. So many are only speculating. I feel as though most of you are not really putting yourself “in my shoes”.

By: come closer