News To Know: Rate Cuts And You
So if any of you are like me, you've probably heard about the Federal Reserve Board cutting short-term interest rates by three quarters of a point and wondered: What does that mean for me? Well, when the Fed lowers the interest rate, rates also drop for things like credit cards, mortgages, and home equity lines of credit. Also, if you can get a loan for something like a car, you should be able to find bargain. However, these are only useful benefits with people who can get loans. With the credit markets so tight, anyone with less than perfect credit may find themselves unable to enjoy some of these benefits. While everyone might not be able to get into the party, lowering rates are definitely a step in the right direction as we try to pull ourselves out of this recession.
Comments
Ron says:
I didn't see credit card interest rates get lowered when rates were cut. Seems they raise their rates or come up with some schemes to charge the consumer higher fees, etc.
12/18/08 12:19 PM
Alfred Sherer says:
I think that the first $1000 of interest should be tax exempt. That would encourage savings. Presently interest is taxed at your highest tax rate.
12/18/08 3:37 PM
Mr. GoTo says:
I hope the lowering of the rates by the Fed means that more credit will be made available to profitable businesses who need credit to grow and create more jobs. I hope it does not mean a return to the abuse of consumer credit that we have experienced in the last decade.
12/18/08 5:03 PM
Norman E. St Louis says:
New Comment. Sometime in the last session of congress a law or change to the Medicare Program occurred that now requires Medicare eligible persons (Primarily that would be older AARP members) to pay a premium addition (i.e. tax) on IRS Tax exempt income. There is a table that shows individual IRS taxable income starting at $70,000 per year that shows IRS Tax Exempt Income amount and the added deduction to 5.8%
annual raise. Of course the quote "tax" increases with both the last years taxable income and the amount of last years IRS Tax Exempt
Income. They also have the authorization to go backfor the last three years if necessary. THe IRS is excluded by law from taxing tax exempt income,so the IRS has broken the confidentiallity of the Tax Returns to
allow the medicare program to tax tax exempt income. I'd like to hear AARPS position on this new development, thanks
12/18/08 10:27 PM
Christine Prescod says:
Thanks to our President ellect. I send an e-mail to him about the banks and credit cards. I was very happy to hear on the news, that they went after the banks, for them to stop the late charges and the high intrest rates, when you don't pay your bill on time.
The worst President of the United States which is Bush, let them have a field day with us, (the people) what a total disgrace.
Thank God it has come to a stop. All americans can know let the banks know, they have to carry down the intrests rates which they had before and, to remove all those late charges.
I wouild also like the President Ellect to remove the caps,which President Bush put on Law Suites,also the changes he did to the bankcrupt laws.
We have taken back our country and, it is our time now to get our country back on track.
12/19/08 11:22 AM
Charles says:
Chase Health Credit charged me a late fee for joining Consumer Credit Counseling Services when the due date did not correspond
with Chase Health. Chase requested a late fee check and a letter to change the due dates. Check was sent for the late fee with the letter that Chase requested. Chase cashed the check and lost the letter. Once again late fees were charged with higher payments amounts because they had no letter. Now I owe over $300 for Chase Health Credit's mistake and can not get caught up because of fixed income from retirement. Now loosing my telephone services and tv services, next will be welfare thanks to Chase Health Credit Company. Is there any sun in the cloudy credit debt sky anymore?
06/10/09 8:49 PM