Finance Blogs | Acnugrandmontreal.org

Your Credit Score is one of your biggest financial assets. If your credit score is high, your borrowing rates will be low and therefore save you hundreds of dollars. The big mystery is how to maintain a high credit score. Well if you want to either maintain or repair your credit score, you are in luck, it can take as little as two months to raise your credit rating.

Your credit score is based on a few prime factors, there is no particular order in which I will discuss them (Some of them have higher weights in regards to the score). Repayment history, current debt owed, recent credit checks, and registered income (there are other factors as well). In order to repair or raise your score you may follow a few of the steps provided below.

1.) Pay off all revolving credit cards. Revolving credit cards are like Discover card or any other monthly credit cards. Even though you might pay before the deadline, credit card companies report the debt owed on a monthly basis which may be before the deadline. On your credit score it will not show as bad debt, but it will decrease your overall score. The standard recommendations are as follows. If you have one credit card, pay it off before the months end. Second, if you have two credit cards, pay the minimum on both of them and work on paying in full one of them first.
2.) Registered Income. This is your official salary from work. Basically the numbers they crunch are matched with what you earn. If you debt is larger than what you earn, your credit score is lowered. So, if you are an independent contractor or your income is just a little too low get a part time job. This will rise your potential earnings and increase your ability to repay your debt and therefore increase your credit score.
Read more…

If you have received an offer recently for a 0 APR credit card, you may have been very tempted to send in the form signed and ready to go. You may have seen the words “0 percent interest” and jumped at the chance to shop for six months with impunity. You may even have thought that this was the answer to all your credit card or bank loan debt, allowing you to consolidate your bills and pay one low price with no interest. And all of these things may be true. However, there are some serious consequences that you need to know about before you blindly start spending with your new card.

1. Limited introductory period – Credit card companies who offer 0 APR cards cannot offer you this deal for very long or else they would not make any money off of you. So most deals last for six months, nine months, or even up to a year. This means that you will only pay 0 percent interest for this introductory period and no longer.

2. High interest rate – Very often, after the introductory period is over, the interest rate charged for use of your new credit card will be higher than the average rate. Usually, it is anywhere from nineteen to twenty-one percent interest, and perhaps a higher rate on cash advances and other transactions.

3. Penalty for late payments – If you pay your bill late or forget to pay it altogether anytime during the introductory period, you interest rate will immediately go up to a penalty rate. This could be as high as twenty to twenty-four percent on your entire balance.
Read more…

A child custody agreement can have serious implications on your tax filing and your taxes overall. This issue should be addressed with your attorney or with your accountant while you are going through the process of negotiating or litigating child custody or a divorce agreement. Waiting until after you have finalized a child custody agreement to investigate the tax impact is not adviseable.

State law on child custody does not dictate who gets the tax deductions. If your child custody agreement is entirely silent on this issue, the parent with primary residential or sole custody will have all of the tax benefits available through the children. That party will be able to claim the children as deductions, and so forth. This can be a significant issue. There are parents who simply assume that if they are paying thousands of dollars per year in support, they will be able to take the children as deductions. Not so. This is incredibly important when you consider that all child support payments are not tax deductible to the payor and they are not taxable to the recipient parent.

Thus, when negotiating your child cusody agreement, you must address the issue of how custody will be structured and who will recieve the tax benefits. This negotiation should be a part of an overall financial scheme that encompasses a consideration of all issues, including child custody, child support, property, alimony, and tax impact.
Read more…

Refinancing 100 percent of your loan allows you to cash out all of the value of your home. With no down payment required, you can use your money to pay off debt, invest in other property, or remodel your current home. When refinancing, make sure that you find the best lender so you don’t get stung on high rate and fees.

Understanding 100% Refinance

100% refinancing means that you take out the total value of your property. You will still need to pay for application fees and points, if you decide to purchase a lower rate. Those closing costs can add up to 3% or more of your loan’s principal amount. But with 100% financing, you can deduct the amount from your principal.

With no equity left, conventional lenders with their prime loans will require you to carry private mortgage insurance. However, subprime lenders don’t ask for such insurance, saving you hundreds a year.

Refinancing also has its tax advantages. For instance, closing costs can be deducted along with paid interest under certain conditions.

Refi Lenders Offer Instant Online Quotes

By refinancing your total home’s value, rates will be higher than with a traditional refinance. But you can find low rates by researching lenders online.
Read more…