Your rates of bank

Dear Terry,
My mom has a car with an upside down loan. After reading your articles, we know what we are up against, which is to turn it back in or keep paying until she owes nothing more. Are there ways to maybe swap loans as they do with leases on cars? Her loan is for $15,000. She has 45 months remaining on the loan.
— Mike P.

Dear Mike,
I’m not aware of any agencies that swap car loans. The biggest hurdle is that car loans are not usually assumable and require a new loan in order to change ownership. (more…)

Dear Terry,
My wife’s mother co-signed for a car. My wife drove the car for a year while making payments. Eventually, her mother took over the payments on good terms.
Her mother then went into bankruptcy without telling my wife. Her mother still has possession of the car and my wife’s credit rating has gone down for the last four months. What do we do?
— Cory

Dear Cory,
If possible, you need to bring the payments current. Your wife is ultimately on the hook if her mother defaults on the payments. Then, depending on how the car is titled, your wife needs to take possession of the car and make sure its insurance is up to date. (more…)

What if General Motors declares bankruptcy?

Aside from all the crucial issues of the thousands of people who may lose their jobs as a result, there are important questions for consumers.

While there are no fail-safe answers, here are some questions and answers to consider:

Assuming GM seeks a reorganization under bankruptcy law, as opposed to closing its doors forever — the latter an outcome few anticipate — should I still put a GM vehicle on my shopping list?

Under a bankruptcy reorganization, GM would continue to build cars and trucks. At some plants, the filing may not even slow down the assembly line. If a GM vehicle was on your shopping list before, there’s no reason to take it off because of a bankruptcy filing. (more…)

Dear Terry,
Is Costco gas as good as Tier One gas?
— Richard

Dear Richard,
As I have written before, a group of refiners and manufacturers have agreed on certain formulations for detergents and other additives in fuel and labeled the fuel as Top Tier gas.

According to the group’s Web site, retailers and refiners who produce Top Tier gas include QuikTrip, Chevron, Texaco, MFA Oil, Conoco, Phillips 66, 76, Entec Stations, Shell, Somerset Refinery, Kwik Trip/Kwik Star, Aloha Petroleum, Tri-Par Oil., Turkey Hill Minit Markets, Mileage Stations, Chevron Canada, Shell Canada, Petro-Canada and Sunoco Canada.

(more…)

The study says 44.2 percent of consumers will go online to shop at some point during this holiday shopping season, about the same as in 2007. On average, consumers will make one third — 33.6 percent — of their holiday purchases online, up from 30.2 percent last year.

Perhaps a sign of poor economic times, each shopper is expected to spend $832.36 on holiday merchandise, a paltry 1.9 percent increase over the $816.69 spent last year on average.

Maximize your spending power:

(more…)