Personal Finance Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of March 30, 2020 |
- Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of March 30, 2020
- Update on that $69k CAD car loan I signed up for
- I bought a house with a rat problem. Why didn't the inspector catch this?
- 24HR Fitness cancellation
- Should I stop investing in my 401k while stock market is crazy?
- My University let my financial aid refund go to a scammer...do I have any recourse?
- 29y/o feeling late to the party. Hoping to get things on track soon.
- [Investing] I'm 18 and I'd like to start investing but don't know how?
- How should I navigate a company-wide salary reduction?
- Chase decided to Close my account after depositing a check
- I didn't know about 1099-misc
- House construction done now I'm broke
- Mom opened up multiple lines of credit in my name which I am liable for.
- Are my 401k investments any good?
- Question regarding 401k, being laid off, and the current situation of the economy
- Platform available to loan money to friends without risk?
- What’s the best establishment for a personal loan with little to no credit history?
- HSA Contribution
- Credit One Credit card has NO customer service. How do I close this card with a monthly fee?
- Contributions to Roth IRA Right Now
- Fence destroyed by a hit and run(?) driver. We have filed a police report likely with proof enough for them to find who it was. How should we handle this insurance-wise?
- Variable or Fixed Student Loan in Today’s Environment?
- Wells Fargo deactivated an active bank account - should I be concerned?
- Hospital is charging me as "emergency services" but I went as an urgent care.
| Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of March 30, 2020 Posted: 30 Mar 2020 04:08 AM PDT If you need help, please check the PF Wiki to see if your question might be answered there.This thread is for personal finance questions, discussions, and sharing your success stories:
A big thank you to the many PFers who take time to answer other people's questions! [link] [comments]  |
| Update on that $69k CAD car loan I signed up for Posted: 02 Apr 2020 09:22 AM PDT Here's the link to my original post We did it guys! My fiancé and I managed to back out of this terrible loan, 5 days after signing. Here's the full story of how this loan was unwinded if you're interested: The day after signing, we went in and told them we'd like to cancel. We expressed our regrets with signing without giving it enough thought. I even told them how debilitating my anxiety can be, which contributed to me succumbing to the high pressure they give customers. They denied the high pressure and said that there was no reason for me to be anxious. I fought that point a little but but ultimately told them it was a mistake and that we'd be so grateful if they could void the contract. The sales manager seemed disappointed but okay to see if he can make that happen for us. He left to talk to his GM and came back 5 min later, saying that he would cancel but cannot because the loan has "gone through" with the bank. Apparently, there was nothing the dealership could do. Bewildered, we gave the bank a call to see if it actually works that way. After a 2-hour hold, we got to a CSR who told us that nothing would have gone through in less than 24 hours and that it is 100% not up to the bank to keep this loan in place. We went back to the sales manager and told him this. There was a lot of back and forth (obviously they were lying to us) and the GM came into the picture. The GM was very contradictory, going from saying "we made it clear to you that there's nothing in my power that can void this contract" to "legally I don't have to do anything for you." He also reminded us that he now owns the car that we traded in. He pointed out how great of a car we signed up for, highest trim, sunroof, etc. When we told him that it's not about the car but about the loan, he tried to convince us that we were doing the math wrong and aren't looking at the bigger picture (less interest payments). We expressed that we really don't want it. He gave us a deal: pay him $5k to get your old car back and cancel this loan, or keep the contract but receive incentives such as $2000 rebate, free oil changes for life, etc. We told him we'd think it over and come back tomorrow. We did not take delivery of the new car. The next day (Saturday), my fiancé went in alone cause I had work. Taking the advice from fellow redditors, we decided to go into offense mode. I had drafted a letter explaining our experience with them to be mailed to various consumer affairs agencies in our region. He went in with that letter. In the middle of the showroom, my fiancé told the GM that we are willing to take the $5k deal to get our car back (this was a bluff, just wanted to see where it would take us). He asked the GM if we could have this deal written on paper so that we can have it looked over by our lawyer and ensure that we will get our car back from this (we never actually had a lawyer). Taken aback, the GM said that he feels bad taking our money like that and went on to encourage us to keep the new car. By this point, my fiancé was getting pissed and raised his voice. He told the GM that in no way is this car deal good for us and that he'd like him to stop trying to shove it down our throats. He told him that a lower interest rate doesn't mean shit if we're getting ripped off $20k. He pulled out the letter, told him that we'll be contacting these agencies and that we will be going forward with a lawyer. He also mentioned that all conversations since the day before have been recorded. The GM chuckled and told him to do whatever he wants (all this was happening in the showroom with many employees watching in silence). The GM kept saying "let me figure something out for you, don't stress, man" and my fiancé stormed out. Outside the dealership, in plain view of the people inside, he took multiple photos of the new car and of a misleading ad sign they had for "one year of car insurance on us." The GM ran out to him and said "I didn't want to say this in front of them but I do want to cancel this for you. Just give me till Monday cause the banks are closed tomorrow. I gotta make some calls and pull some strings. Trust me, I'll do what I can. Don't stress" Fast foward to Tuesday morning. We went into the dealership expecting the GM to make up another reason to keep us locked in. To our pleasant surprise, we were welcomed by their finance director who took us into her office and offered us two options: keep the car contract but with biweekly payments reduced to $371 CAD biweekly (from $389) with a slightly lower interest rate, or cancel the contract but pay $1200 CAD for the new car restocking fee and servicing that had already been done on our old car. We paid them the $1200 and drove off in our old car, taking that as the price to pay for our bad decision. It was important for me to write all this out for anyone in the future who finds themselves in this situation. There is hope and if you stand your ground, you have a chance to get out of a bad car deal. I think it helped that we initially acknowledged our responsibility in this instead of putting all the blame on them. This was a big life lesson for us and I'm kind of glad to have gotten that lesson early in life (we are in our early twenties). My parents saw nothing wrong with this car deal. That was a big eye opener for me. Many older adults just aren't smart with money and I don't want to be like that. We will soon be looking into refinancing our current car, pay it down and not even think about getting rid of it before we break even! [link] [comments]  |
| I bought a house with a rat problem. Why didn't the inspector catch this? Posted: 02 Apr 2020 10:33 AM PDT As title states, we closed on a home and noticed our problem immediately during our first night. We heard rodents running around directly above our bedroom all night. I had pest control come out, perform an exclusion and trapping service. After sanitation, the total cost is going to come out >$1k. My question is why didn't our home inspection catch the clear evidence of droppings in the attic or multiple possible entrances? Also, do most people have specific pest inspection before buying? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Apr 2020 09:47 PM PDT I keep seeing all these posts about 24HR and cancelling your membership. As of today you can now cancel from the main page with just your membership I'd/ gym passcode and your birthdate! Hope this helps you guys out that are having the issue. [link] [comments]  |
| Should I stop investing in my 401k while stock market is crazy? Posted: 02 Apr 2020 04:56 AM PDT The answer is No, if you can afford to keep contributing, you should! This question has been popping up daily. I just read this and figured the graph would help people questioning this understand why they shouldn't stop. (If you need them money, you should stop) Otherwise, take advantage of the low cost! This is one of the few times average people can get a good deal [link] [comments]  |
| My University let my financial aid refund go to a scammer...do I have any recourse? Posted: 02 Apr 2020 06:19 PM PDT So I go to a public state University. Today my school notified me that someone somehow got access to my school username and password (that they have us use for everything, like school email, online class access, financial aid management, etc), and by just getting access to my username and password, some scammer was able to log in to the part of the school's .edu site where we manage our financial aid and they put in a different checking account and routing # than what I had previously inputted. This caused my federal financial aid refund $$ -- the money I was planning on living on for the next three months -- to go to someone else's checking account. Now I'm out $3000+ in federal aid money. I have no idea how I'm going to afford to live for the next few months, and my school so far is not taking responsibility for the error. They've told me I'm not the only student affected, but I have no idea who else is affected or how many others are affected...it's a massive school. I also have no idea if legally I'm on the hook for any grant/loan money that was taken. Do I have any recourse here? Can I legally demand that the school gives me that $$ that they lost so I have something to live on, and ensure I'm not on the hook to repay any loan money that was lost? Seems like a pretty big oversight that someone can just get a hold of my username and password -- who knows whose fault this was that they got it, mine or the school's fault? -- and be able to just put in a new checking account and routing # and be able to walk away with thousands of dollars in my fin aid money. I know fraudulent transfers like this can be reversed, but what if the money in the fraudulent account is already long gone? Not great timing with the worldwide pandemic and all either...my school basically has no offices open and no one available for a face-to-face chat about this, only by email or phone call with long hold times. So far they have only notified me of the error, and aren't offering any solutions :-( Any help is greatly appreciated :-( [link] [comments]  |
| 29y/o feeling late to the party. Hoping to get things on track soon. Posted: 02 Apr 2020 05:11 PM PDT Hello Personal Finance peeps! I have recently been wanting to get more serious about my finances and do some planning/investing. I already feel like I'm a bit late getting started with this and would like to get things lined up asap. I'm 29 years old, soon to be 30. I am fortunate enough to be debt free. I generally keep ~$5k in my checking account, after big expenses such as rent, utilities, groceries, insurance have been paid. I have questions regarding a number of different areas currently relevant to me. Savings Account My account currently has ~$50k in it. This feels wrong. Safe to assume I need to take some money out of here and do some investing with it? 401(k) This past year, I got hired on to a new job that offered 401k benefits; a first for me. I am putting in 4%, which is the max full match my company gives. I believe it is with Vanguard. Everything is in the default fund when I signed up; something like a Lifestyle/Pre-Mix/Target Retirement 2055...Should I re-allocate my investments for this? I recall someone suggesting that I should dump all of it into a large cap market like s&p500. Is there some merit to that? EE Bonds I have a slew of Series EE bonds from the 90's that are currently valued at ~$15,500 as of 04/2020. The oldest ones are about to reach their final maturity date in May. The bonds issued from 1990-1994 all have a 4.0% interest rate. The remaining bonds ranging from 1995-1998 have interest rates between 1.48 - 1.57%. Hoping to get some advice on what to do with these. HSA Started an HSA through my employer's at the beginning of this year. It is with Bank of America. At the moment, I am only contributing $1000/year and my employer contributes $500 which is the max. I don't believe I've set up investments on it yet. Thus far, all my investing is via employer programs. I have no personal investing funds and am rather lacking with knowledge/best practices within this topic. Should an IRA/Roth IRA be my first thing to look into? Should I start delving into something like Robinhood or Etrade and building a portfolio of individual company stocks? Thank you in advance for any pointers! [link] [comments]  |
| [Investing] I'm 18 and I'd like to start investing but don't know how? Posted: 02 Apr 2020 02:21 PM PDT So I'm 18 and I have just over $6,000 in the bank and I'd like to start investing my money, but I don't really know how or what kind of decisions are good decisions. I'd like to learn but I'm very skeptical of people on YouTube and other platforms as these "investing gurus" promote quick money for not a lot of work and if something is too good to be true, it probably is. I've put about $700 in cryptocurrency, which is tanking right now, thanks coronavirus. Other than that, I have made no investments as I do not feel I have the knowledge to just throw money around and see what happens. Does anyone know where I can learn some basic or even more in-depth instruction on how to invest? [link] [comments]  |
| How should I navigate a company-wide salary reduction? Posted: 02 Apr 2020 05:10 PM PDT Just received an email from the owners that everyone in the company will be taking a 25% pay cut due to financial difficulties from the coronavirus. This was after almost half of the company was laid off in the last 2 weeks. Should I ask for a written promise that my salary will be returned to it's normal value once we recover? Should I ask to be made whole again once we recover? I take a $1.5k/month hit now, you pay me $1.5k/month extra down the line until we break even? Is asking either of these questions trying to squeeze blood from a stone? Besides the owners, I believe I'm the second oldest employee in a company of over 100 (well, less now) and I would consider myself critical, but replaceable. I work in a higher level position, so finding a new job if this goes sideways will be difficult. While I do have over a year of emergency funds saved, I'd rather not use it if I can avoid it. California. Thanks in advance, stay safe out there. [link] [comments]  |
| Chase decided to Close my account after depositing a check Posted: 02 Apr 2020 12:28 PM PDT This is actually the second time this happened. Both times where business/payroll checks made out to me personally that were handwritten, but the money always clears their account immediately and Chase holds it. I deposit 5-15 checks a month, anywhere from $50-$5000, all different businesses, never had a bounced check in the 3 years I had Chase. The fact that they can just be like, hmm you know what, screw this person, lets flag this check for fraud and immediately close the account is ridiculous. My rent is late, my bills that were supposed to have been paid yesterday are late. I will have to pay late fees on all that now. I have spent 7 hours on hold to get this resolved. This is 100% a fault of Chase, and I am no longer interested in banking with them. I have a business account and I will be closing that as well. Any recommendations on banks in Chicagoland that will not try and screw their customers? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Apr 2020 07:26 PM PDT For last year I have been working in the restaurant. I just moved and didn't know about taxes and all this stuff. Than I realized that I am working as a contractor??? and they said I will have 1099 in the end of year. I'm not working in that restaurant anymore.They have my address and SSN, but don't have my work authorization. Now is April and I worry about taxes, because I still didn't get 1099 from them. They could send it to my old addres( I moved in December and they don't know about that). I tried to contact them few times but they ignore me. I don't know what to do with that. I don't have any financial documents from the job, I have no idea how much I earned. And I don't even know did they fill 1099 on me or they didn't. What is a best thing to do? [link] [comments]  |
| House construction done now I'm broke Posted: 02 Apr 2020 05:58 AM PDT My wife and I began building a house (USA) last December. It is 95% done and we are getting final bills now. We are short 11% (35,000) on our final bills not counting closing costs for the construction loan. What options do I have to get/save more money at this point. I will be meeting with my general contractor next week to go over stuff as our sweat equity wasn't all accounted for, and errors and unfinished workneed to be taken out. I hope to get minimum 3% knocked off. The shortfall was just low valuation on the house and surprises from utility installation. We hoped to make up the difference as we built but the construction interest payments got too large too fast and we were only able to save half the difference. Aside from the house and the property it is on we don't have much in the way of assets, but we also don't have any other debt. Two pickup trucks worth 6,000 and 30,000, both are paid off. Are personal loans against our vehicles ridiculous ideas? Could we negotiate with the bank for more money to finish? Should I just delay my GC or attempt to arrange a payment schedule? Monthly payments are the least of my concern, I am taking a new position were my income will increase significantly, and we already have been saving a monthly house payment each month while making our interest payment on the construction loan and buying our appliances. I am available for questions or more info. TIA [link] [comments]  |
| Mom opened up multiple lines of credit in my name which I am liable for. Posted: 02 Apr 2020 06:11 PM PDT She has opened multiple lines of credit open in my name without my consent since I was at least 18. Possibly before then. Currently there are at least 2 lines totaling over $8,000. This has dramatically impacted my credit score and when I confronted her about it she said "I will have them paid off by the end of the year" and "just remove your name". I went to 4/biz/ and they called me a cuck and told me to file a police report. Is this my only course of action? i don't even know where to begin. [link] [comments]  |
| Are my 401k investments any good? Posted: 02 Apr 2020 06:04 PM PDT Hello everyone! I recently started contributing to my 401k. I don't know anything about the where my investments are going, I simply used the auto investment selection tool provided by mass mutual based on my age. Every one of my returns are in the negative and I would like to know if there are some changes i should make. I know this is most likely due to the pandemic, so should I ride it out without any changes? I set my contributions to 10% from 5% today. I've attached a pic of my investments. Any thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| Question regarding 401k, being laid off, and the current situation of the economy Posted: 02 Apr 2020 07:11 PM PDT Hello all! I just got laid off from my first "real" job ever after a brief time, and I like many others am struggling with the unemployment cycle and lack of communication due to high volume (Michigan, US). In checking in on my 401k (which hasn't been touched since I started this new job in January), I took almost a 20% hit on it. I apologize in advance if this is a dumb question, but is withdrawing it and reinvesting when the market stabilizes a good idea, or should I just not touch it and leave it be? For context, I haven't touched it due to the new job, and have yet to to it over into a Roth IRA. With my financial future in question, and seeing the shocking loss o already took, I'm just trying to weigh all my options. The amount is not significant as I'm still relatively young (just turned 27 a few months ago), but seeing 4500 go down to 3800 while I'm unemployed was not an easy thing to stomach. Any sort of advice would be appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| Platform available to loan money to friends without risk? Posted: 02 Apr 2020 08:22 PM PDT I have several friends who just lost income and let's say I want to help them with a loan so they don't succumb to CC debt. I know I could write a check but 2 issues:
Theoretically- could I pay into an app/site backed by a bank where my friends could take out micro loan for x$ at 3.1% interest (bank gets 3% and I get .1%) Bank gets small capital paid upfront and I am guaranteed my $ back eventually? Might be dreaming but just thinking [link] [comments]  |
| What’s the best establishment for a personal loan with little to no credit history? Posted: 02 Apr 2020 08:14 PM PDT Looking to purchase a used car for 5000. Does anyone know where a 22 year old with a salaried job could get one? So far the only loan I've been approved for was one with 33% apr and I feel like I should be able to get lower rate. Can't co sign either. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Apr 2020 08:14 PM PDT Hello PF My wife no longer has the same plan her HSA account was set up under. It is $900 shy of a $2100 threshold to be able to invest, is there a way to contribute to this HSA to get to the threshold despite not having the same employer or plan when it was set up? [link] [comments]  |
| Credit One Credit card has NO customer service. How do I close this card with a monthly fee? Posted: 02 Apr 2020 06:37 PM PDT Credit One literally has 0 customer service. There is an automated machine but none of the options are to speak to a real person. How can I close my account? Is there someone I can report them? Is it illegal for them to have no customer service? A lot of people on Yelp say the same thing. [link] [comments]  |
| Contributions to Roth IRA Right Now Posted: 02 Apr 2020 02:49 PM PDT Hello! I just started contributing to Roth IRA, I just maxed out my 2019 Roth IRA just in time. Is now a good time to put money in Roth IRA? I have mine through Vanguard and all funneled through the Retirement Goal for 2065 which was the furthest out I can go because I understand it's stock heavy initially. Since stocks are currently lower in pricing, would that mean the money I put in now would grow a little higher assuming a strong rebound? Edit: Put money into my 2020 Roth IRA as I already maxed out 2019. Should I change where the funding goes? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Apr 2020 03:32 PM PDT I live in Washington State for what it's worth - Seattle. At around 1am 2 nights ago, someone (I assume a drunk driver) ran a car into our fence in our front yard, destroying half of it. It was a nice fence aesthetically with planters in it etc. Initially we filed a police report just with what little information we had (when about it happened based on us hearing a noise, an uncertain description of the car by a neighbor who actually saw the car drive away, etc) in case we wanted to file an insurance claim. Later that day we found that the driver's entire license plate came off when it hit our fence and was laying under a portion of the fence, so we know exactly which car did it. We updated the police report, took photos, and gave the license plate to an officer who came. At this point, I have no clue how to handle this in terms of insurance. Before we got the license plate, some people were telling us "If the repair will be over your deductible at all, definitely file a home insurance claim because it doesn't work the same way as your car insurance in terms of rate increases." and some people were saying "If it is a couple thousand over your deductible it isn't worth claiming because your rates will go up." I still do not know who is correct between those statements, but at this point I imagine that my home owner's insurance shouldn't go up regardless of whether it normally would since they would know who did it from the police investigation and could go after the driver's insurance. So my question here is:
It would seem silly to me that I could be at risk of my rates going up or being responsible for my deductible if the police know who did this from the license plate. I appreciate all advice. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Variable or Fixed Student Loan in Today’s Environment? Posted: 02 Apr 2020 07:38 PM PDT Hey y'all. My partner is pursuing a one year BSN degree with the goal to pursue a career in nursing. We are anticipating a $55k salary pretax. She is needing $52k in private loans to get this done. Discover has offered either a variable rate at 6.5 or a fixed at 8.5. We want to aggressively pay this off over the course of 3 years, so the monthly payment would be the same ($2k) with a total margin of $1500 between both rates. My question for you all is would you trust a variable rate to stay depressed during this market environment? I understand it might be worth the $1500 for peace of mind, but I'm wondering what your sentiments on the interest rates of the future might look like. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Wells Fargo deactivated an active bank account - should I be concerned? Posted: 02 Apr 2020 03:06 PM PDT So today I logged into my wells fargo account and got the message that it had been deactivated and the balance was being sent to some sort of escrow for collection. There was a button to reactivate the account so I reactivated it again. Went in and checked my balance and it was all there. Everything worked normally after that. Weird thing is that the last activity I had on my account was 3/23/2020 and I even have a direct deposit setup for this account that still deposits money every few weeks. Anyone ever had this happen and should I be concerned? [link] [comments]  |
| Hospital is charging me as "emergency services" but I went as an urgent care. Posted: 02 Apr 2020 08:55 PM PDT Hi Reddit. My case is not complicated at all but it's very frustrating, and I'm planning to get to the bottom of this and paid off my bill. I went to the Urgent Care section at a public hospital, the receptionist, nurses and the doctor, they all assured me that my visit was an urgent care and not an emergency. I was not in any way requiring emergency assistance. I got my bill this week, and I am being charged that I was in the emergency room, clearly they used a wrong code to bill me. To make things complicated and confusing to people who go to the urgent care, the billing rep said that the "urgent care" is an extension of emergency room. They refused to lower my bill. I even escalated it to the billing supervisor, and they even refuse to negotiate a discount because I use insurance (note: at the time of services, I didn't met my deductible). What are my options now? What bureau in Texas regulates and can investigate this? They definitely take advantage of people who go to the urgent care at this hospital, and they charge them as an emergency visit just because the "urgent care" is an extension of the emergency room. I feel like they are forcing me to enroll payment plans or send the bill to collections, ignoring the fact that the bill needs to be adjusted to an urgent care visit. I don't know if this applies as a "surprise bill" that is illegal in Texas. Any help is appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
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