Filed under: personalfinancenewsss.wordpress.com | Tags: Career, Sabotage, Ways, your
True story.
A group of young workers were staying in an upscale hotel in the business district of a major city for a week of corporate training. On their first evening together, they all enjoyed a night on the town. Later, when they returned, one of them, in a drunken stupor, made a fatal mistake — a real career killer.
She set off the fire alarm. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Hundreds of hotel guests were evacuated into the street at 11 at night while, at the same time, a senior vice president, also staying there, wandered into the lobby from his own night out. He asked one of the trainees what was going on and discovered the perpetrator had been someone from his company.
Security tapes were reviewed, people were questioned. The woman who sounded the alarm did not show up at training the next day — or at her job except to clean out her desk.
Moral of the story? It can take only one really dumb decision to derail your career.
Major career meltdown moments aren’t the only ways to sink a career though.
“Careers are rarely sunk by a single incident and if they are then it is clearly something dramatic,” says Will Robinson, co-founder of VirtualJobCoach. “Most damage is usually longer term.”
Bash your employer in public
Forget about ever getting a glowing letter of recommendation if you tell the world how you really feel about your job and employer.
Lynne A. Sarikas, director of the MBA Career Center at Northeastern University in Boston, relates a story about a senior vice president who came into the office one morning obviously upset about something. “You could all but see the steam coming out of his ears,” she says.
“Apparently, he had been riding the T (a subway in Boston), and one of the employees was on the train talking to someone — in a loud enough voice to be overheard — bashing his manager and the company.”
The senior vice president relieved the employee of his misery. He was fired.
Employees are, of course, entitled to their opinions and can’t be forced to love where they work. But they’re also ambassadors for their company. Refraining from publicly trashing the organization or the people that you work with is just common sense.
Unfortunately, common sense is often anything but common. Compounding the issue for employees and employers alike is that the public realm has grown to encompass all of cyberspace.
Companies have begun to go online to research employees and prospective hires. Damning evidence online is a quick way to weed out candidates during the recruitment process.
Jennifer Mounce, founder of Coach Effect, a career coaching and consulting firm, recalls a client who found two candidates for a position, and ran a check on different social media sites.
“One of the two candidates actually had a video online talking about how they hate their job and their company. Suffice it to say, if something is going to tip the scale, having a video posted about how much you hate your company is it.
“That certainly is not going to fare well with a new employer,” she says.
Just changing the privacy settings on your MySpace or Facebook account may not be enough, warns Dan Kilgore, principal at Riviera Advisors, a human resources consulting firm.
“Although (online social media sites) are for members, some employers have been going in and getting into different accounts under fictitious names to throw off the candidate.”
Bottom line: “Don’t discuss anything about your current job or employment on the Internet in a bad light,” he says.
Mix pleasure with business
Commingling a work life and sex life can be inadvisable for most professionals. Although workplace restrictions on office romance vary from company to company, the wisdom of engaging in extracurricular shenanigans may call into question the judgment of the employees involved.
Such behavior lacks discretion “if, for a period of time, you’re prepared to prioritize an attraction over whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing,” says Alanna Fero, career coach and author of “Love Made Visible: Values-Driven Approaches to Work/Life.”
It goes without saying that downloading pornography on the job is the kiss of death.
Most companies explicitly prohibit downloading pornography to their work computers. Unless you’re involved in the adult entertainment industry, being known as the porn guy will never be good for your career.
“That is one of the really stupid things that people do. I guess people think they can never be caught, but charging $400 worth of pornography as a business expense…. No, you can not use client money to buy pornography. If you make a decision like that, it’s hard to recover,” says Robinson.
Fudge the truth
Everyone wants to look as good on paper as they know they are in real life, so some slight fudging on a resume is understandable, though not wise.
Out-and-out lying on your resume can be grounds for dismissal from a current position or can result in getting passed over for a job offer.
Interestingly, it’s not a rare occurrence. A sizable number of job seekers are guilty of stretching the truth or fabricating credentials.
“We actually have a 56-percent discrepancy ratio between what someone puts on their resume and what we find when we go to do an education or employment verification,” says Nick Fishman, chief marketing officer at employeescreenIQ, a background screening company.
Alittle fudging on salary or job dates is OK, but a lot of fudging can buy you walking papers, says Fishman.
An applicant who claims to have made $205,000 per year when in reality he earned$200,000 could be acceptable, he says. One who made $50,000 and claimed $150,000 will continue his job search.
Education is also a hot spot on resumes. The Internet has spawned a number of diploma mills where educationally challenged go-getters can order a degree. The companies have elaborate systems for verifying the degree to fool background checks.
Anyone with a computer and a phone could be tempted to set up a system to get by an unsuspecting employer.
One of Fishman’s clients wanted to promote someone, and had to do a complete background check on the employee. Long story short, the employee claimed to be a graduate of the University of Maryland, but the university had no record of the employee. The employer checked with the employee, who then furnished a name, phone number and e-mail of someone at the university who could verify the degree. The employer called and everything checked out.
“After a month going back and forth, we did a trace on the domain that was given to them, and the person had set up the phone number and e-mail address on their own and registered it to themselves. They had directed the phone number and e-mail to someone that would verify the degree,” says Fishman.
The employee was fired for lying. The worst part, Fishman says, is that this person wouldn’t even have needed a degree for the promotion.
Be real regardless of the culture
Not every company is the right place for every worker. Corporate cultures vary from highly formal and regimented to laid back and creative.
If visible tattoos and brightly colored hair are an intrinsic part of your personality, then an uptight corporate setting probably won’t be part of your career path.
Fero advises her clients to either get with the program or find a new job if it’s not the right fit for them.
“I had a client recently who was unhappy with her boss and felt like the job had become too constrained. So she pierced her nose,” she says.
“I had a conversation with her and said, ‘Is this that important that you are prepared to take a stand over it when you’ve already had three people at work say they really don’t think it’s working?’” says Fero.
The client lost the nose ring and the attitude.
In tough economic times, considering cultural fit may not be a top priority for job seekers, who might happily take a job shoveling coal in Hades just for the paycheck. In the end, it’s the employee who has to work to fit into the environment. Not fitting in may be enough to get canned.
“Performance is usually secondary to whether you think this worker is a good guy and you want to work with them,” says Robinson.
“How you interact, your communication style and what you say all have bearing. A lot of people want to believe that the workplace is a meritocracy, and they’ll be judged only on their work. But I can tell you point-blank that while that is a great environment to aspire to, it’s not found in the workplace today,” he says.
Even if the workplace isn’t your style, learn to fake it convincingly — at least until you have another job lined up.
Just say no to opportunities
Even though bosses may tell you they want honesty, the truth is they also want acquiescence. They want you to get ahead — but on their terms.
Depending where you work, you may have up to two opportunities to say no to a project or assignment. After two turn-downs, your career could become a layer of sedimentary rock — as in stuck at that level forever.
“If your employer offers you a project or assignment and you turn it down, you only have that option twice and then you’re dead in the water and will never get promoted again in your life,” says Don Asher, author of “Who Gets Promoted, Who Doesn’t and Why: 10 Things You’d Better Do If You Want to Get Ahead.”
In tech positions, you usually get one shot at the brass ring.
“In high tech, if you turn down any assignment, you’re dead. If people don’t know this, they naively turn down something, thinking that something will follow. The reality is that if they turn down these interim opportunities, they don’t come back to you,” he says.
Robinson agrees. But accepting a chance to get ahead may involve considerable sacrifice.
“(There was) one guy I saw who was a rising, up-and-coming star in management consulting. The leader of the practice wanted him to go to Siberia for a year and he, a family guy with kids under five, said no, very politely. He did not make partner the next year and that was the direct result,” he says.
Though the ramifications may not be as dramatic as not making partner, when plum assignments are being handed out, bosses will think of workers who succeeded with less appealing or less prominent projects.
React poorly to stress or fear
Especially during times of economic turmoil and rampant layoffs, fear can drive employees to behave in ways they would not normally.
“The single most common way that employees totally unintentionally torpedo their job is by hunkering down,” says Robert Capwell, chief knowledge officer, Employment Background Investigations.
“They think, ‘If I don’t stick my head up, they won’t see me.’ But the employee still exists and is still on payroll. If the only value they add is a great attendance sheet then when the higher ups say what else has she done, the answer is nothing,” he says.
Flying under the radar can be one career-limiting coping mechanism, but some other employees take a more combative approach when stressed.
Yelling and throwing things when things go awry are obvious career limiters but more insidious are the angry behaviors that slip out when people just can’t control their bad moods from seeping out into their interactions with co-workers.
“Anger in the work place is not really allowed, and it is not appropriate for us to be in the office and scream and yell. So we kind of suck that up and then it comes out in other ways. We start sniping, we get sarcastic,” says Linda Dominguez, CEO and executive strategist with Executive Coaching and Resource Network.
Everyone has stories of co-workers who couldn’t quite hold it together under pressure. They cry, whine, shirk duties, mistreat customers or throw temper tantrums that send co-workers running for job boards.
No one enjoys working with bullying co-workers, or the emotionally erratic or consistently angry, negative people. On a day-to-day basis, these kinds of behaviors can really wear down the goodwill of co-workers and erode office morale.
At the end of the day, if someone is just plain grating, annoying or intimidating, they might find themselves looking for a new job — multiple times throughout their career.
“Fifty-three percent of terminations, not layoffs but terminations at higher levels, are not due to quality of work but due to personal style,” says Dominguez.
To stay on track and moving forward, employees have to learn how to play the game. To some degree that requires drinking the corporate Kool-Aid but also keeping a clear enough head so that they can see where they’re going and navigate the field intelligently.
More from Bankrate.comMake the best of lower card limitsSeeking a share of an ex-spouse’s 401(k)What’s $29,000 worth after 18 years?What are your tax e-paying options?9 smart personal finance moves in 2009
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Filed under: personalfinancenewsss.wordpress.com | Tags: refund, What, Wrong, your
Most of us get refund checks at tax time. And most of the time, those refunds are just what we had been eagerly awaiting.
But occasionally, the amount on an IRS check is not what we expected.
In some cases, it’s less than we figured on our 1040s. Every now and then, it’s more.
Regardless of whether the refund discrepancy goes against you or favors you, some steps can be taken to resolve the matter. That way, even if you and the tax collector aren’t necessarily satisfied with the eventual amount, you’ll at least understand the mathematical misinterpretation.
Explanation en route
First, don’t panic. There’s usually a logical explanation for why you and the Internal Revenue Service came up with different numbers.
The IRS will send you a written explanation for the unexpected amount. The only problem is that the explanation doesn’t always accompany the check. Such coordination of cash and comment is particularly difficult with directly deposited refunds, which are likely to show up unexplained in your account first.
Why your refund might be an unexpected amount:Math errors made in computing your tax bill.Incorrect credit or deduction claims were made.Estimated tax payments not credited properly.Other federal debts, such as a student loan, are collected.
“Sometimes the letter comes first,” says Beth Wiggins, a CPA in Houston. “Sometimes it follows a few days later. If the check comes first, you can always call the IRS.”
The main IRS toll-free number is (800) 829-1040 or (800) 829-4059 (TDD) for the hearing impaired. You also can call or visit your local Taxpayer Assistance Center. The IRS Web site has an interactive locator page to help you find the nearest one.
Wiggins says she’s discovered the best time to call is about an hour before the IRS office is scheduled to close. “Mornings are not a good time to call,” she says. And during tax-filing season, you’ll probably be in for a wait on hold at any time of the day.
Cash or hold the check?
As you’re waiting for the explanation letter to clear up the refund issue, you also have to decide what to do with the more, or less, money you got.
“It’s usually not a problem to cash it, especially if it’s a smaller difference” says Bob D. Scharin, senior tax analyst for the Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters.
In fact, if the check is less than you expected and it turns out that you were correct, once you and the IRS resolve the matter in your favor, the agency will make up the difference (plus a bit of interest if it takes more than 45 days to correct the error) and send you another check for the balance due.
If, however, the difference is larger or your refund is much more than you believe you should have received, it’s generally a good idea to hold off cashing the check until the issue is resolved.
“Recognize that you could be asked to send it back if the amount is more than you expected,” says Scharin. That’s easier to do if you still have all the IRS’ mistakenly refunded money in hand.
Documentation of the difference
Once you get the official word on why your refund is not what you had expected, it’s time to figure out what happened.
A typical notice will show you some basic 1040 information: adjusted gross income, taxable income and total tax due. In each of these categories, the IRS will indicate what you entered and what the agency came up with. A major difference in one of these areas will pretty clearly show you where the problem lies.
The document should also note how much tax you paid and any over- or underpayment. Additional charges or credits, such as interest and penalties, also are taken into account.
“Get out your return and try to reconcile it that way,” says Scharin. If you used a tax professional to file your return, call that person for help in clearing up the matter.
In many cases, the notice will include a phone number. Scharin says a personal inquiry directly to the IRS could also help.
“You might want to call before sending documentation,” he says. “You might find in speaking with a person, any confusion is cleared up, for good or otherwise.” At least, you’ll know exactly what the agency needs from you to resolve the issue.
Common refund discrepancy causes
“Most likely it is an arithmetic error,” says Scharin. In these cases, the IRS simply corrects your calculations and sends you the proper refund amount.
Even tax software doesn’t make you immune to addition and subtraction issues.
Scharin recalls one individual who “did his taxes on a computer and forgot to press recompute. So even though he entered in everything correctly, he didn’t finish the process.”
You also might have claimed something that, based on your income, you’re not entitled to, says Scharin. “Income phase-outs, based on your adjusted gross income, affect several credits,” he says.
But it just as easily could be an IRS error.
“You may have made estimated tax payments, and one was not credited properly,” says Scharin. “From your records, you overpaid or paid properly, but the IRS doesn’t think so. So send them a copy of the canceled check.”
Wiggins also has found estimated tax payments to be a major culprit in divergent refund amounts.
“Usually, the tax due is calculated correctly, but the filer and IRS come up with a difference on the amount of tax paid,” Wiggins says. “You made $250 in estimated payments when it was only $225 on the form. We can match those up because they show those payments on the letter of explanation.”
Other numbers that cause problems are those nine Social Security digits. When any of those are wrong (such as transposed numbers, or they don’t match other records, perhaps involving name changes after marriage or adoption), problems with your tax return — and refund — appear.
“I’ve seen refund issues recently when names of dependents don’t match Social Security numbers,” says Wiggins. “Husbands and wives have different names, as do their children. For example, you’re Kay Bell, married to John Smith and your child’s last name is Bell-Smith.”
“If it’s just listed on the return as ‘Smith,’ in these cases the IRS disallows the dependency exemption because of the mismatch.”
Other debts collected from refunds
Your tax check also might be a direct path to other money you owe.
The government can go through your federal refund to collect if you owe money to other government agencies. The most common cases involve court-ordered financial payments associated with a former marriage or unpaid student loans.
“If there are any child or spousal support payments, then the county of residence can go and claim their payments from your refund,” says Wiggins. “And it’s not an issue here in Texas, but in other states, tax officials there can go after your federal refund for state income tax debts.”
The IRS will even make sure it gets prior federal tax debts that you didn’t clear.
“I also have seen cases where taxpayers have a payment arrangement in place with the IRS, and the agency collects from the filer’s current refund,” says Wiggins. “The agreement says they can apply any refund you have against what you owe.
“So even if you’re making timely payments on your agreement with IRS, they can still apply the refund to that prior debt.”
Self-correcting your mistakes
In a worst-case scenario, you might not even get a refund.
“You’ll get a letter telling you to refile,” says Scharin.
You also should refile your return and refigure your tax bill and any refund if you find a mistake that the IRS overlooked in processing. If the IRS does eventually notice the error, you’ll face penalties and interest on the amount you didn’t properly pay on time.
In these cases, file an amended return, Form 1040X, and send the original, incorrect refund check back to the agency.
The IRS says to include a letter of explanation with the check. The agency will issue you a refund for the proper amount when it processes your amended return.
On the back of the check where you normally would endorse it, write “void.” Send the check and your letter detailing why you’re sending back the check. Be sure to include your name, Social Security number, mailing address and a daytime telephone number in case an agent needs to follow up with you.
Send the check back to the issuing center; you’ll find that location on the front of the check. Before you drop it in the mail, make a copy of the check and your letter for your files. It’s a good idea to send the material with a return receipt for additional verification for your records.
You also can call the IRS’ toll-free number and ask to speak to taxpayer accounts. Explain that the original refund check has been returned uncashed so the agency will know why it’s issuing you a second refund.
It’s no fun to return tax cash, but by making sure you get your payment and refund records straight, you’ll know you won’t have to worry about unexpectedly hearing from the IRS in the future.
More from Bankrate.comMake the best of lower card limitsSeeking a share of an ex-spouse’s 401(k)What’s $29,000 worth after 18 years?What are your tax e-paying options?9 smart personal finance moves in 2009
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Filed under: personalfinancenewsss.wordpress.com | Tags: even, getting, Stiffed, Times, Tough
CHICAGO–How deeply has the economy cut into consumer spending? So much so that even Mom is getting stiffed this year.
Consumers will pull back their outlay this year on clothing, jewelry — even flowers — for their mothers when the annual day of admiration rolls around May 10, according to the National Retail Federation.
Spending on Mother’s Day gifts this year will fall to $123.89 a person, down some 11% from last year, respondents told pollsters at BIGresearch.
“No one will forgo celebrating Mother’s Day because of the bad economy, but they will put careful thought into what they buy and how much they spend,” said Phil Rist, executive vice president at BIGresearch.
Even mothers who are getting a gift — and 83.3% of them can expect their offspring to spring for one — won’t be seeing any blue boxes from Tiffany’s. More than 30% of respondents in the poll said they will head to a discount store to pick up Mom’s gift while only 5% will look to specialty retailers.
“Budget-friendly gift ideas will abound this Mother’s Day,” said Tracy Mullin, NRF chief executive.
High on the list of offerings this year — like most other years — are flowers. But the bloom is off the rose even there: The total amount of money expected to be spent on flowers this year is down 5% to $1.91 billion compared with last year’s estimate, the study found.
And Moms who are yearning for an iPhone are going to be disappointed too: Spending on electronics is likely to dive nearly 29% this year to a total of $857 million, according to the study.
Also falling considerably is the amount of money offspring plan to spend on jewelry, down 16% to a total of $2.28 billion — but that still will be the top spending category.
Meanwhile clothing and accessories expenditures will be down 12% to $1.23 billion from last year and spending on gift certificates will be off 5% to $1.5 billion.
We’ll still get Mom her card: Spending on greeting cards is expected to dip only slightly to $672 million and 85% of us plan to send one. But except for sentiment it’s likely to be empty: Even spending on gift certificates is set to decline 5% this year to $1.5 billion.
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Filed under: personalfinancenewsss.wordpress.com | Tags: auto, modest, offers, savings, Stimulus
Taxpayers who buy a new car in 2009 may be able to save up to $600 on their taxes.
However, some experts warn the new tax incentive will not single-handedly turn around flagging auto sales.
“This tax incentive is not going to be the tipping point for sales,” says Phil Villegas, head of dealership consultancy at Morrison, Brown, Argiz & Farra.
The Auto Ownership Tax Assistance Amendment, introduced by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., is part of the stimulus legislation known as the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The new tax incentive allows car buyers to deduct from their federal taxes the state and local sales and excise taxes levied on purchased vehicles.
The tax break will only apply to up to $49,500 of the price a car. The amount buyers can deduct will depend on the price of the car and the amount of sales tax charged by their state.
Mikulski’s office calculates families will be able to save between $300 and $600 on their taxes. To be eligible for the deduction, individual taxpayers must make less than $125,000. Joint filers must make less than $250,000.
The deduction is above the line, which means that it can be taken by itemizers and nonitemizers alike. Above-the-line deductions are subtracted from the taxpayer’s total income to get the adjusted gross income amount.
The end result is less taxable income and, therefore, less money shelled out to Uncle Sam.
For example, a car buyer in a state with 6% sales tax who drives off the lot in a new $35,000 car could be looking at reducing her taxable income by $2,100. The actual amount saved on taxes by the deduction will depend on her income and tax bracket.
Trade-in penalty
Bringing a trade-in to the table will reduce the amount of the deduction, however.
In some states, buyers who trade in a vehicle will get a sales tax credit against the appraised value of their old vehicle that can be applied to the sales tax charged on the new car.
“The sales tax on the new car is reduced by the credit. And the net sales tax that you’re paying is reduced,” says Sarah Marks, automotive writer and owner of Mycarlady.com, a car shopping Web site.
For new car buyers this year who do trade in a vehicle, the deduction amount will equal the amount of sales tax they paid on the sale.
Car buyers can deduct from their federal taxes the state and local sales and excise taxes levied on vehicle purchases.
Will the deduction help?
According to a prediction from analysts at R.L. Polk & Co., an automotive consulting firm, the tax deduction will give car buyers an average rebate of $330.
However, the analysts do not believe the new deduction will cause a surge in car sales. They predict the tax incentive will increase light vehicle sales by 94,000 units this year.
For some perspective, consider that the number of light vehicles sold in the U.S. for the month of January this year was 656,976, according to Auto Data’s Motor Intelligence Web site.
The previous version of the bill passed in the Senate — but not included in the House of Representatives bill — would have expanded the tax deduction to include the interest paid on a car loan in 2009.
The original auto ownership tax assistance amendment would have cost taxpayers $11.5 billion, but would have provided a much larger tax deduction to car buyers. The version that passed will cost about $2 billion.
Eliminating the deduction for loan interest dramatically reduces the amount of money car buyers can save, says Chas Roy-Chowdhury, head of taxation for the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
“Compared to tax savings of $1,500 or $2,500, it’s just a drop in the bucket,” he says. “I don’t know if they really thought through leaving it in there, because it’s going to be very minimal and yet it’s going to cost $2 billion.”
Stephen Spivey, senior automotive and transportation industry analyst with the research and consulting firm Frost and Sullivan, also questions whether the tax incentive will be enough to drive sales higher.
Spivey believes tight credit conditions and pervasive fears over the state of the economy may continue to keep buyers on the sidelines.
“Manufacturers are spending thousands on incentives for each car that they sell and states are going to lose money with this deduction that is not going to drive dealer traffic in a substantive way,” he says.
However, not everyone is pessimistic about the new tax break. Peter Kitzmiller, president of the Maryland Automobile Dealers Association, is hopeful the sales tax deduction will be enough to get people in showrooms.
“I think the ability to deduct the sales tax upfront is going to be a good incentive for people to take a look at buying a new car,” he says. “Depending on what kind of car you buy and the tax rate in your state, it can be a pretty significant deduction.”
Kitmiller hopes the new deduction will provide just enough incentive to bring wavering shoppers off the fence and into the showroom.
“There are unbelievable discounts and rebates right now, but we’ve just had a hard time getting people to come into the show room,” he says. “So hopefully this nudge will get them to come in.”
Extra credits
The stimulus legislation also includes a tax credit of up to $2,500 available through 2011 for the purchase of any neighborhood electric vehicle such as the Chrysler GEM.
Neighborhood electric vehicles are plug-ins that travel a maximum of 25 miles per hour and have a battery capacity of at least 4 kilowatt hours, or 2.5 kilowatt hours in the case of 2- or 3-wheeled vehicles.
In 2010, highway-speed plug-in vehicles will be eligible for a tax credit of up to $7,500. The tax credit will be a base amount of $2,500 and then will increase $417 for each kilowatt hour of capacity the battery has over 5 kilowatt hours, with a cap of $5,000.
This tax credit will begin to phase out for each manufacturer after a certain number of vehicles have been sold.
“When a manufacturer has sold 200,000 vehicles, the phaseout will start,” says Mark Luscombe, principal federal tax analyst at CCH, a provider of tax, accounting and audit information, software and services.
There is also a credit for converting a traditional hybrid vehicle to a plug-in. The credit covers up to 10% of the cost, with a limit of $40,000.
More from Bankrate.com2009 list of failed banksThe FDIC deals with mounting bank failuresQ&A with the FDIC’s David BarrFinding small business health insuranceVideo: Applying for tax filing extension
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Filed under: personalfinancenewsss.wordpress.com | Tags: CARD, Companies, Consumers, credit, raising, rates
Credit-card companies continue to raise customer interest rates and fees despite a record-low target rate from the Federal Reserve and billions of dollars in bailout money that has been pumped in to the financial companies.
Though the Federal Reserve in December slashed its target rate to a range of between 0% and 0.25%, and a cut at the Fed usually means a drop in credit-card rates as well, many credit-card customers are instead seeing increases as companies try to offset increased losses in their card operations.
The problem, the card companies and industry representatives say, is that the weak economy and job losses have left more people unable to pay their credit-card bills, leading to greater losses. The increased rates and fees are necessary, they say, to make up the difference.
But it also means that companies that benefited from infusions of cash from U.S. taxpayers are now turning around and charging many of those taxpayers more for their services.
Reports of increased rates and fees are coming from customers of the likes of Citigroup (C), which has received more than $50 billion in bailout money; Bank of America (BAC), which got $25 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program; JPMorgan Chase (JPM), which received $25 billion from taxpayers; Capital One Financial (COF), which took $3.56 billion from TARP; and American Express (AXP), which got $3.39 billion in bailout money.
Those are just some of the biggest players, but there are likely others raising rates as well — which impacts ordinary Americans, even those who have good credit, during one of the worst economic downturns in recent memory.
“I received notice that the interest on my Chase card will go up from 4.24% APR to 9.24%,” Chase customer John Biek said in an email to FOX Business.
Kathy Nassios, another Chase customer, said that her Chase card had always used the Prime rate, and now was using Prime plus 3.99 percentage points.
Gary Barrett told FOX Business that his Capital One card rate was going to increase from 14.3% to 17.9%.
“This is a card that normally I carry a balance of less than $800, and frequently it has no balance due, and I have never been late on a payment,” Barrett wrote in an email.
And Patricia of York, Pa., said in an email that her Capital One Visa will see a hike as well: “My current rate of interest is 5.37%. The notice states that [the] rate increase will go to 13.9% on purchases [and] 24.9% on cash advance.”
“Bank of America is doing the most dramatic changes I’ve seen,” said Emily Peters, a personal-finance expert for Credit.com. She said she has heard of cases where BofA card rates have been going up 10 to 20 percentage points.
Citi, BofA, JPMorgan, Capital One and AmEx all said that they have been evaluating customer rates on an individual basis, and noted that they give clear advance notice of all increases to their customers.
Nessa Feddis, vice president at the American Bankers Association, said that according to the most recent Federal Reserve data as of a few months ago, “interest rates on average have actually come down” and are historically fairly low.
But Feddis added that “in an economy where things are getting a little unpredictable, there’s greater risk” to the company to let customers borrow, “and that has to be reflected in higher interest rates.”
She also said that card companies rely on investors to give them money that they then lend to investors, and in such a climate the investors “want to be compensated for that risk” of sending money to the card companies because they know the situation is shakier.
A wide variety of consumers are being hit by the changes, too.
Peters said that people who have revolving balances and low rates are big targets; people who have long relationships with their credit-card companies seem to be vulnerable, especially if they have low rates. Also, she noted that people living in areas with high foreclosure rates seem to be particularly at risk.
So, what is a customer to do when confronted with a notice about higher rates or fees?
If the customer doesn’t want to accept the increase, it’s often possible to opt out. But, that means basically halting use of the card. It doesn’t mean the balance has to be paid off all at once — it can be paid down over time — but any further charges made on the card would likely be subject to the new interest rate.
Customers’ first instinct is often to close the account, but that might not be a good idea.
“If you close your account, it’ll hurt your credit score. It’s going to hurt you a lot more than it hurts them” Peters of Credit.com said. “You could easily see a 100-point drop” in a credit score” from closing an old credit card.
Peters gave the example of an old credit-card account that shows a longer credit history; if that account is removed, the credit history looks shorter and could damage a score. Also, customers who pay off their balances every month likely wouldn’t be affected very much by the rate increases, and thus wouldn’t stand to gain from closing the account
The ones who gain would most likely be people who keep large, revolving balances on their cards, for whom the decline in credit score would be offset by the better rate.
Also, customers “are always free to call and review their account,” noted Mona Hamouly of American Express. “We can see if there’s another product that makes sense for them.”
“Consumers have to remember that they’re still in the driver’s seat,” noted Carol Kaplan of the American Bankers Association. “There are 6,000 credit-card companies in this country, and if people aren’t happy, all they have to do is shop around.”
Consumers are supposed to get some relief from sudden rate increases and other credit-card term changes in the form of new Federal Reserve regulations set to take effect in mid-2010. But some lawmakers are already saying that isn’t soon enough. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, has already proposed legislation that would implement restrictions on card companies more quickly.
Dodd said in a press release that his legislation would “protect consumers from ‘any time, any reason’ interest rate increases and account changes,” as well as “protect cardholders who pay on time” and put in place a number of other consumer protections.
The release was dated Feb. 11, but the bill’s fate, amid the economic-recovery legislation and more, is uncertain.
As for the bailout money, Kaplan of the American Bankers Association says the TARP funds “provide a foundation” for companies to bolster their balance sheets, and aren’t meant to go toward things like helping credit-card customers directly.
“Funds are given to healthy banks to bolster their capital so they are able to lend,” she said. “Credit cards are a different subject. When the interest rates on credit cards are going up in certain cases, it is a reflection of the current risk in the market… Given that’s going on in the economy, you don’t want banks making imprudent decisions.”
Filed under: personalfinancenewsss.wordpress.com | Tags: Repair, Times, Troubled
If the shoe fits, repair it. That’s the slogan of the Shoe Service Institute of America and it seems people are heeding that advice in droves these days.
Take this recent letter to the editor in my local weekly newspaper, The Hoboken Reporter , written by the owner of the shoe repair shop, Giovanni D’Italia, that has been operating in town for 49 years:
Due to the extreme amount of work that has poured in over the last couple of months, some valued regular customers, and new ones as well, have had some problems with missing shoes, work not done on time or sub-par quality repair. Mamma mia che disastro!
Some “disasters” may have occurred for the customers, but the flailing economy has been more than kind to shoe repair shops around the nation and this one is no exception. Giovanni’s was so busy last week that my pre-arranged interview with 21-year-old Chris Argenal — who has been working there 10 years, do the math on that one — had to be adjusted from an out-of-store meeting to an in-store exchange that happened between customers, phone calls, a barking dog, and the television set blaring a Sopranos rerun.
It was worth it.
Argenal is smooth, but not in a slick salesman way. When a customer hands over a pair of shoes, he makes suggestions, asks how school or work is going, and tells them to come back in day or two for pick-up. He intuitively walks that fine line between making the customer feel heard and keeping the line moving. Customer Renee Cody seemed unfazed that her shoes were not ready even though she’d come from a neighboring town to pick them up.
“I lived across the street from here 47 years ago,” she said. “I used to play hopscotch with the heels.”
Truth be told, business at Giovanni’s has grown steadily every year since it’s been in existence because of loyal customers like Cody. There’s also a former Hoboken resident who takes the trip from Long Island twice a month and even one in Boca Raton who sends his shoes via UPS. The recent boom that prompted the letter to the editor, though, was due mostly to those in a crunch who had to cut back on their voracious consumption. They’re often the ones wearing top-of-the-line brands who aren’t in a position to replace the $500 pair with another $500 pair. The shop is seeing a lot more vintage as well
“Yesterday a young woman, mid 20s, brought in a Chanel bag that belonged to her grandmother,” Argenal said. “The chain wasn’t strong enough to hold all her stuff. I stitched it for her. It’s better than a new one.”
If it’s possible to stumble on your gift, Argenal has done that. His work at Giovanni’s began at age 11 because he wanted a “new pair of Jordans” and his mother wouldn’t pay for them. His brother, Joseph Pedragon, was already working there.
“It was easy,” he said. “I would run errands for the owner like getting his dry cleaning and walking his dog.”
But then it was on to cleaning suede and incrementally learning the rest of the business. Now he works 80 hours, seven days a week, and you can tell he has hit his stride, so to speak, overseeing quality control.
“Everyone wakes up in the morning and says they don’t want to go to work,” Argenal said. “Sometimes I do for a minute, then I slap myself, have coffee and go. I get paid pretty well and I like what I do.”
The work ethic runs in the family. Pedragon, who worked at his father’s gas station when he was nine, took over for his college-bound cousin at Giovanni’s when he was just shy of 12. He, too, started out as a go-fer and learned the business at the owner’s knee; he left for a short time to become a state corrections officer, but returned.
“I decided to come back to what I know, what I like,” Pedragon said.
Now, at age 23, he manages Giovanni’s new location in the Newport section of Jersey City while he goes to school to become an accountant. His father, who had been an accountant in the Dominican Republic, now has an accounting firm in Newark; his mother is the secretary there.
“When I finish school, he’s going to give me the keys and retire,” Pedragon said. “And I’ll still do [Giovanni’s] books.”
In the meantime, Pedragon gets to utilize his near-perfectionist tendencies, like trying to match a “weird” shoe or bag color, and see the satisfaction it brings to customers.
“John told me something a long time ago,” he said of the owner. “When you go on an interview or you’re meeting someone for the first time, people look at your feet. You can tell a lot about a person by their shoes.”
And you can tell a lot about a business by their customer service. Giovanni’s is currently offering a complimentary shine for anyone going on a job interview.
How’s that for averting more disasters?
Nancy Colasurdo is a practicing life coach and freelance writer. Her Web site is www.nancola.com. Please direct all questions/comments to FOXGamePlan@gmail.com.
Filed under: personalfinancenewsss.wordpress.com | Tags: Repair, Times, Troubled
If the shoe fits, repair it. That’s the slogan of the Shoe Service Institute of America and it seems people are heeding that advice in droves these days.
Take this recent letter to the editor in my local weekly newspaper, The Hoboken Reporter , written by the owner of the shoe repair shop, Giovanni D’Italia, that has been operating in town for 49 years:
Due to the extreme amount of work that has poured in over the last couple of months, some valued regular customers, and new ones as well, have had some problems with missing shoes, work not done on time or sub-par quality repair. Mamma mia che disastro!
Some “disasters” may have occurred for the customers, but the flailing economy has been more than kind to shoe repair shops around the nation and this one is no exception. Giovanni’s was so busy last week that my pre-arranged interview with 21-year-old Chris Argenal — who has been working there 10 years, do the math on that one — had to be adjusted from an out-of-store meeting to an in-store exchange that happened between customers, phone calls, a barking dog, and the television set blaring a Sopranos rerun.
It was worth it.
Argenal is smooth, but not in a slick salesman way. When a customer hands over a pair of shoes, he makes suggestions, asks how school or work is going, and tells them to come back in day or two for pick-up. He intuitively walks that fine line between making the customer feel heard and keeping the line moving. Customer Renee Cody seemed unfazed that her shoes were not ready even though she’d come from a neighboring town to pick them up.
“I lived across the street from here 47 years ago,” she said. “I used to play hopscotch with the heels.”
Truth be told, business at Giovanni’s has grown steadily every year since it’s been in existence because of loyal customers like Cody. There’s also a former Hoboken resident who takes the trip from Long Island twice a month and even one in Boca Raton who sends his shoes via UPS. The recent boom that prompted the letter to the editor, though, was due mostly to those in a crunch who had to cut back on their voracious consumption. They’re often the ones wearing top-of-the-line brands who aren’t in a position to replace the $500 pair with another $500 pair. The shop is seeing a lot more vintage as well
“Yesterday a young woman, mid 20s, brought in a Chanel bag that belonged to her grandmother,” Argenal said. “The chain wasn’t strong enough to hold all her stuff. I stitched it for her. It’s better than a new one.”
If it’s possible to stumble on your gift, Argenal has done that. His work at Giovanni’s began at age 11 because he wanted a “new pair of Jordans” and his mother wouldn’t pay for them. His brother, Joseph Pedragon, was already working there.
“It was easy,” he said. “I would run errands for the owner like getting his dry cleaning and walking his dog.”
But then it was on to cleaning suede and incrementally learning the rest of the business. Now he works 80 hours, seven days a week, and you can tell he has hit his stride, so to speak, overseeing quality control.
“Everyone wakes up in the morning and says they don’t want to go to work,” Argenal said. “Sometimes I do for a minute, then I slap myself, have coffee and go. I get paid pretty well and I like what I do.”
The work ethic runs in the family. Pedragon, who worked at his father’s gas station when he was nine, took over for his college-bound cousin at Giovanni’s when he was just shy of 12. He, too, started out as a go-fer and learned the business at the owner’s knee; he left for a short time to become a state corrections officer, but returned.
“I decided to come back to what I know, what I like,” Pedragon said.
Now, at age 23, he manages Giovanni’s new location in the Newport section of Jersey City while he goes to school to become an accountant. His father, who had been an accountant in the Dominican Republic, now has an accounting firm in Newark; his mother is the secretary there.
“When I finish school, he’s going to give me the keys and retire,” Pedragon said. “And I’ll still do [Giovanni’s] books.”
In the meantime, Pedragon gets to utilize his near-perfectionist tendencies, like trying to match a “weird” shoe or bag color, and see the satisfaction it brings to customers.
“John told me something a long time ago,” he said of the owner. “When you go on an interview or you’re meeting someone for the first time, people look at your feet. You can tell a lot about a person by their shoes.”
And you can tell a lot about a business by their customer service. Giovanni’s is currently offering a complimentary shine for anyone going on a job interview.
How’s that for averting more disasters?
Nancy Colasurdo is a practicing life coach and freelance writer. Her Web site is www.nancola.com. Please direct all questions/comments to FOXGamePlan@gmail.com.
Filed under: personalfinancenewsss.wordpress.com | Tags: Repair, Times, Troubled
If the shoe fits, repair it. That’s the slogan of the Shoe Service Institute of America and it seems people are heeding that advice in droves these days.
Take this recent letter to the editor in my local weekly newspaper, The Hoboken Reporter , written by the owner of the shoe repair shop, Giovanni D’Italia, that has been operating in town for 49 years:
Due to the extreme amount of work that has poured in over the last couple of months, some valued regular customers, and new ones as well, have had some problems with missing shoes, work not done on time or sub-par quality repair. Mamma mia che disastro!
Some “disasters” may have occurred for the customers, but the flailing economy has been more than kind to shoe repair shops around the nation and this one is no exception. Giovanni’s was so busy last week that my pre-arranged interview with 21-year-old Chris Argenal — who has been working there 10 years, do the math on that one — had to be adjusted from an out-of-store meeting to an in-store exchange that happened between customers, phone calls, a barking dog, and the television set blaring a Sopranos rerun.
It was worth it.
Argenal is smooth, but not in a slick salesman way. When a customer hands over a pair of shoes, he makes suggestions, asks how school or work is going, and tells them to come back in day or two for pick-up. He intuitively walks that fine line between making the customer feel heard and keeping the line moving. Customer Renee Cody seemed unfazed that her shoes were not ready even though she’d come from a neighboring town to pick them up.
“I lived across the street from here 47 years ago,” she said. “I used to play hopscotch with the heels.”
Truth be told, business at Giovanni’s has grown steadily every year since it’s been in existence because of loyal customers like Cody. There’s also a former Hoboken resident who takes the trip from Long Island twice a month and even one in Boca Raton who sends his shoes via UPS. The recent boom that prompted the letter to the editor, though, was due mostly to those in a crunch who had to cut back on their voracious consumption. They’re often the ones wearing top-of-the-line brands who aren’t in a position to replace the $500 pair with another $500 pair. The shop is seeing a lot more vintage as well
“Yesterday a young woman, mid 20s, brought in a Chanel bag that belonged to her grandmother,” Argenal said. “The chain wasn’t strong enough to hold all her stuff. I stitched it for her. It’s better than a new one.”
If it’s possible to stumble on your gift, Argenal has done that. His work at Giovanni’s began at age 11 because he wanted a “new pair of Jordans” and his mother wouldn’t pay for them. His brother, Joseph Pedragon, was already working there.
“It was easy,” he said. “I would run errands for the owner like getting his dry cleaning and walking his dog.”
But then it was on to cleaning suede and incrementally learning the rest of the business. Now he works 80 hours, seven days a week, and you can tell he has hit his stride, so to speak, overseeing quality control.
“Everyone wakes up in the morning and says they don’t want to go to work,” Argenal said. “Sometimes I do for a minute, then I slap myself, have coffee and go. I get paid pretty well and I like what I do.”
The work ethic runs in the family. Pedragon, who worked at his father’s gas station when he was nine, took over for his college-bound cousin at Giovanni’s when he was just shy of 12. He, too, started out as a go-fer and learned the business at the owner’s knee; he left for a short time to become a state corrections officer, but returned.
“I decided to come back to what I know, what I like,” Pedragon said.
Now, at age 23, he manages Giovanni’s new location in the Newport section of Jersey City while he goes to school to become an accountant. His father, who had been an accountant in the Dominican Republic, now has an accounting firm in Newark; his mother is the secretary there.
“When I finish school, he’s going to give me the keys and retire,” Pedragon said. “And I’ll still do [Giovanni’s] books.”
In the meantime, Pedragon gets to utilize his near-perfectionist tendencies, like trying to match a “weird” shoe or bag color, and see the satisfaction it brings to customers.
“John told me something a long time ago,” he said of the owner. “When you go on an interview or you’re meeting someone for the first time, people look at your feet. You can tell a lot about a person by their shoes.”
And you can tell a lot about a business by their customer service. Giovanni’s is currently offering a complimentary shine for anyone going on a job interview.
How’s that for averting more disasters?
Nancy Colasurdo is a practicing life coach and freelance writer. Her Web site is www.nancola.com. Please direct all questions/comments to FOXGamePlan@gmail.com.
