Your rates of bank

Dear Terry,
I’m still about 21 months from finishing up my car lease for a Mercedes S550 and can no longer continue the high lease payments. Right now, I’m behind by two months and planning to return the car before they send a repossession guy to my house.
Do I still have to pay the deficiency, which is about $59,000, if I voluntary return the car? How long would my credit be ruined by this voluntary return? Do they have the right to go after my personal savings?
— Joy

Dear Joy,
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Dear Terry,
I was leasing an auto for 36 months when all of a sudden my job closed up and I was left unable to pay for this auto. They repossessed it. Now they want to charge $15,000 for the remainder of the payments. What are my options?
— DJ

Dear DJ,
You have very few options, and they are as follows: Pay the difference, to which the lender is entitled; try to negotiate a lesser amount with the lender; or seek bankruptcy protection. (more…)

Switch banks? Some account holders would rather gnaw off a limb than sever the ties that bind them to their financial institutions.- advertisement -

Today, we are bound to our banks like never before, thanks to direct deposit and automatic bill pay, sweep accounts and CDs, credit and debit cards, and expanded brokerage and insurance products, not to mention online banking.

All things considered, even staying with a bad bank sounds better than the unthinkable hassle of moving on, right?

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Despite the wide-ranging knowledge that’s available these days to help car buyers be more savvy and better able to strike the best deal — whether they’re shopping new or used — most shoppers still make some basic mistakes that cost them money.

Part of the problem is that unlike most other purchases, buying a car is often an emotional rather than a rational decision — someone gets what is sometimes called “new car fever,” and it can’t be quenched until the old set of wheels is replaced by something that’s shinier and sexier. (more…)

The housing crisis, credit crunch and the reaffirmed backing by the federal government of the beaten-up housing giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae could provide an investment opportunity for those looking for better yields.- advertisement -

Sometimes the search for decent yields in a low-rate environment can lead to taking too much risk. Government-sponsored enterprises, or GSEs, issue bonds that can provide some intriguing yields and yet they’re close to top-tier investments when it comes to safety.

GSE bonds are not totally risk-free, but none have defaulted, and many people believe the government wouldn’t allow a default. We still don’t know if they’ll always be in the “too big to fail” category, but the government certainly appears to have put them there for the foreseeable future with the announcement that billions of dollars will be available to shore up the institutions, should they need it.

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Annual fees
Some rewards programs impose annual fees that could eat into the benefits of using the cards. For instance, airline cards branded with a particular carrier can have steep annual fees in the $80 or more range, says Curtis Arnold, founder of CardRatings.com. Typically, he says, you have to earn 25,000 miles to get a free ticket. Assuming you spend $8,000 a year on the card, and get a point for every dollar spent, it would take you more than three years to earn the free flight, and by then you’d have spent $240 in annual fees. You can get a round-trip ticket with a discount carrier for $250, Arnold says. (more…)