| Volume 10 Number 9 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
If you can't get a good interest rate, consider increasing the amount of your monthly payment. For a $15,000 loan at 21 percent interest, payable at $405.80 for 60 months, the interest charge you pay over the term of the loan is $9,348.02. Your total repayment amount is $24,348.02. By adding just $50 a month, you shorten your payoff term to 50 months and save $1,814.22 in interest.
Boom in Bankruptcy: Experts in Field Believe Business Cycle Will Soon Yield a Surge in Defaults
Business bankruptcy filings are down by 45 percent and corporate debt default rates remain near all-time lows. Yet bankruptcy pros are buzzing with anticipation. While they don't have crystal balls, call them cynical and firm believers in business cycles. Lawyers, consultants and financial advisers who work with troubled companies are getting ready for the next surge in business, which some predict may come as soon as the end of this year. Click here for more.
Good News For Parents About the Child Tax Credit
In the last few years, many families with kids received some welcome tax relief with an increase in the Child Tax Credit, which is a reduction in your actual taxes, not just a deduction from your taxable income. Click here for more.
Car Dealers' Biggest Lies
Pity the poor car salesman. Though he or she may diligently go to work every day trying to make a living like anyone else, the American people just can't warm up to him or her. When it comes to qualities like honesty and integrity, survey after survey has the auto salesman's knuckles scraping the bottom of the barrel alongside those of politicians, insurance agents and telemarketers. Click here for more.
Will Being Inactive Hurt My Credit Score?
I am and have been addicted to credit cards my entire life. I have over 30 of them, none of which are for department stores or gasoline. I have all MasterCard, Visa, American Express and Discover credit cards. They vary in credit limits from $800 to over $25,000, and there's no debt on any of them. I just had one creditor cancel their card due to "inactivity." Will this hurt my credit score, which varies from 722 to 765? I can't resist a "preapproved" card. Click here for more.
Your Money
Tax refund, save it or blow it? Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Patient bound by arbitration agreement. The California Supreme Court has ruled that an arbitration agreement signed when a chiropractor first treated a patient applied to a medical malpractice claim arising from treatment of a different condition two years later. Click here for more.