Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with finance and loan

Where to hide the money?

odi.et.amo — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 07:15:22 -0800

How can I figure out the minimum amount to keep in my checking account? Basic financial stats: I pay for everything I can (including bills) with my American Express for the cash back bonus. A few utility bills are withdrawn from my checking account, as well as rent. I pay my CC bill from checking, and my paycheck is deposited there. Income > Expenses.

My only debts are student loans (at such a low rate that I have no intentions of paying it off early), and about 4k left on a car loan that I could probably pay off now if I wanted to.

I'd like to make the most out of my savings account, though, and even though I feel like this should be easy, I can't figure out how little I need to keep in checking. Is there an easy way to figure this out? I know I can move some money to savings now, but I'd love a formula to figure out how much that should be (in addition to the money that I have automagically transferred every month).

Side question - should I put this extra money towards my car loan instead so that I can start saving even more each month? The interest rate on the car loan is between 5-6% if I recall. Online savings is with INGDirect which is somewhere around 1.4%.

$20k Loan on $79k Home?

rougy — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:19:48 -0800

House loan advice needed. Should I take out a loan against my house while I'm trying to sell it? I need some help from some people familiar with numbers and money.

I'm between a rock and a hard place. The only good thing I have is my house, which is completely paid for, and recently appraised at $79k.

It's for sale, and I think it will sell within the next three to six months—twelve months tops—but I'll need some resources to keep me alive during that time.

I'm thinking of taking out a short-term, two-year loan for $20k and living on the money and using that money to pay back the loan until the house sells, but I'm not a money person and I don't know if that's a wise move to make.

I could really use some good advice. Thanks.

How can I get an emergency loan to pay the rent?

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:13:24 -0800

How can I get an emergency loan to pay the rent? About a year ago I quit a job to start a business. The business was a website and I correctly assumed that once it was built it would require very little effort to maintain. I figured I was a couple years away from it becoming particularly popular and planned on getting a job (even temping) after it was completed. I had enough money have to be out of work for about nine months after my project was completed. In the first three months I searched for a job and it was pretty hopeless. I got depressed and more or less gave up for a couple months. I, more or less, snapped out of it eventually and have been looking for a job, any job since my needs aren't that great. I just haven't been able to get anything together so far. I don't have any credit cards or any debt. My expenses are low probably just a thousand dollars a month so I don't need a lot and am willing to pay sort of usurious rates if I need to. Calling on friends and family is not an option. What sort of options do I have?

Implications of Iceland's putative international debt arrangements?

laumry — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:07:42 -0800

Can anyone comment on the sovereignty implications of the putative debt agreements that the Icelandic government is seeking to enter into with Britain and the Netherlands? Hello all. I am writing on behalf of a friend of mine, who is a very concerned Icelandic citizen.

At the moment, the Icelandic government is apparently negotiating a debt agreement with the governments of Britain and the Netherlands. Earlier today, these putative debt agreements were leaked onto the internet. Here’s a link to a newspaper article in one of Iceland’s newspapers of record, that in turn gives links to the loan documents at the bottom.

The loan documents seem pretty short versus what I’d expect – 20 pages each. Our question is: what are the implications of these loan agreements for Iceland’s sovereignty?

I would be delighted to get views from not just any financiers and international lawyers, but also anyone else who can spare some time and critical faculty to take a look at this.

My friend believes that since Iceland’s population is so small, there aren’t many home-grown experts qualified to talk about this – and what few there may not be credible commenters given their role in Iceland’s recent financial history. Hence this shout out to Metafilter – international, intelligent, and independent!

Is paying off an $11k auto loan with a credit card a bad idea?

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 07:31:28 -0800

Tricky car loan situation. I'm thinking about paying off the remainder of a car loan with my credit card. Is this a bad idea? My boyfriend and I have spent over a year trying to figure out the best way to get his car officially titled in his name. He's had the car since 2003 (new) and has been faithfully making (loan + insur.) payments on it. However the loan is completely in his ex-girlfriend's name (and he is listed on her auto insurance). The bank is the title holder, which means that the loan needs to be paid off in order for her to get the title and transfer it to us.

We both have really good credit (mine is over 800, his is above 675), but we also both have significant student loan debt. Consequently, we have repeatedly been turned down for a loan necessary to pay off the ex's car loan (so that she can receive the title and sign it over to us).

Here's the solution I came up with the other day:
1. Draft a contract stating that I will pay off the loan with the bank. When that occurs and the ex receives the title, she will sign it over to my bf (essentially selling the car to him for $1). We all sign.
2. I will draft a second contract, between bf and I, stating the terms of paying back the loan. We both sign.
3. Bf will register and insure himself and the car here in this state (CA), ex-gf will remove him from insurance policy, etc.

I am comfortable taking on this much debt ($11k at 11.99% APY). The car loan rates we were quoted were not any better frankly. My credit card limit allows for this purchase. Also, fyi, the car is not worth nearly that much, but its very reliable. He definitely needs to hold onto it for work, etc.

Leaving the situation as-is is not an option. The current loan is absolutely terrible. He is unable to register or insure the car in this state, or in his name. Its risky to have this situation go on with this sort of liability; I can't legally drive the car ever, and if anything happens to him or the car, it screws over his ex-girlfriend. We'd like to not make this her problem, and just get everything legit.

Is there anything wrong with this plan and/or paying off this loan with a credit card? I am worried about recent reports of people being 'dumped' by their credit card companies. Or other things, like random rate changes. Are these valid concerns, and is there anything else I should be worried about?

Fyi, I am most definitely not worried about making this sort of loan/$$ commitment to my boyfriend. We are in it together, for as long as I can foresee, and things are great. Also, he has borrowed significant money from me in the past and has paid me back on time, every time. This question is about any hidden drawbacks to paying off the loan on a credit card.

Wamu failure: Action items?

everichon — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 08:04:55 -0800

We have some money in a Wamu checking account, and an equity loan. Since the word is that Wamu is teetering, what should we expect to happen to the checking account money and the equity loan? Specifically:

* If they get bought up, will we lose anything?
* If they simply fail, will we lose anything?
* Does it make sense to yank our checking account?
* What happens to your loan when your lender folds? (I know you don't get off the hook, I just want to know if there are action items).

Shall I get greedy or follow my heart?

saxamo — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:15:20 -0800

It it worth it for me to put an amount of money into an immediate fixed annuity and take out a loan to pay for tuition, or is it alright to just pay off my tuition with the money available to me. Hello, yet another question on tuition unlike those in the past. I realize the best person to speak to would be a financial planner, but I don't think the amount is enough to warrant an independent planner.

I'm currently still in college and I have 34K in CD's that will mature very shortly. I have taken out a loan last year and I want to do everything I can do to prevent doing that again. I strongly want to minimize the amount of debt I graduate with.

I am being offered an immediate fixed annuity on the 34K which will lock up the principal for five years and give me a payout on the interest every quarter. If I do this, I will undoubtedly have to take out loans for my remaining years in school. I am weary of the annuity for this reason, along with the fact that they grant high commissions.

What I would like do is to simply use this money to pay for the rest of my education. No harm in that, right? Put it in a high yield savings account and take it one year at a time. Can anyone give me a reason why this would be a bad idea or otherwise work against me?

I've been told that this is not necessarily the best way of handling my money, and that I should try and gain capital off of it while I'm in school so that I can make a down payment on an apartment or car or whatever when I graduate. I feel that a large sum upon graduation that will probably just go to my loans would not help me much.

Is there any alternative? Is it imperative that I rapidly try to accumulate more wealth on this sum of money and dive further into debt, or is it okay to spend it on my tuition with less stress upon entering the "real" world.

Money money money, Must be funny

Bakuun — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:06:31 -0800

A noobie question on credit scores! I know raising your score is partly done by reliable monthly payments on credit cards and loans - and people who are just starting out to build their scores, are often advised to get a card and begin to responsibly pay it off, to catch the notice of the reporting agencies. Would that mean that if you can pay off a large credit loan (e.g., in the realm of $2k) immediately instead of sticking to a monthly payment system, you're missing out on chances to further raise your score? Or does being able to pay off such an amount in full give you an equivalent gold star sticker? I wish this was something that didn't need asking, but my 'financial tutors' have been virtually nonexistent while growing up. D'oh!

Student Loans and FHA Debt to Income Ratio

Dr. Zira — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:35:13 -0800

Does a student loan in deferment count as debt for the purposes of figuring debt to income ratios in an FHA loan? We're looking at applying for an FHA home loan. I had a lender tell me that my student loans, currently in deferment until graduation in May, then in grace period for six months after that, would be counted against my debt to income ratio now.
The lender says that in order to not have them counted against my debt to income ratio right now, I would have to provide documentation from the student loan lender that they would be deferred from one year of closing date of the mortgage. At best, I think I could only document the current deferment and subsequent grace period (six months after I graduate). As to applying for a forbearance, I don't think I can apply for that until I'm actually in repayment and even at that most lenders, apparently, only grant forbearances for 6 months at a time. It seems weird to count this as debt now, especially since my future income from my full time job which will kick in the future won't be counted.

Is this one-year deferment doc requirement a lender-specific thing or a HUD thing?
Anybody have experience doing this?

Help me find good options to help my sister get out of debt

Chuck Cheeze — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:02:27 -0800

My sister and her husband are in serious debt. My wife and I are going to act as their financial advisors to help them get it together. Can anyone recommend any programs/products we can look into? My wife is a financial genius and helped me get out of severe debt when we met. We need to do the same for my sister, KC. KC and her husband are totally on board and have seen the light once my wife laid all their bills out on paper for them. They are prepared to change their spending habits and work hard to get turned around. However, there are some challenges.

The tally was basically this:
- they make about $150K
- they put a lot into their corporate retirement plans pre-tax
- they have 3 car loans and a 5th wheel trailer loan that total $1800/month
- they have store and major credit cards totaling about $68K

They have about 50K put away that is liquid, of which 20K is available to use for paying off debt. The rest is untouchable for their own reasons. Unfortunately.

So the 20K will be used right away to pay off all the store cards and some of the major cards. I think the best course of action for the rest of the majors is two 25K debt consolidation loans. They already have a 2nd on their house that has basically been used monthly to cover about a $1500 monthly gap between their income and bills.

I know the best course it to liquidate the other $30K and not get one of the loans, but that money is off limits, this is their choice and its final.

So I am looking for other options, or, if you have a good source for these loans, point me to it. Their local CU can give them $25K over 4 years at 13.49%. Not bad - what else is out there?

They have good credit (~680), never missed a payment, but they just have a ton of debt. I'm looking for options here that may be better than what is above.

The catalyst for this was that KC said she was going to cash in $40K of her retirement, which would be a $27K net after penalties and taxes- but obviously that is a horrible cost and way worse than even the 20%+ rates they are paying on this debt. When I heard of this I decided it was time for help. Needless to say she has no clue where to start and was relieved that I offered.

The scenario is that they aren't selling any cars, the trailer, or touching the account with $30K in it. We have to work with this situation. I would do things differently, but since this is what we have to work with, I am looking for options given these challenges.

Should I refinance my auto loan

mgrimm — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 20:07:55 -0800

Is it worth refinancing my auto loan since the Fed made a cut? My current interest rate is 3.90%, can I do better than that, and if so, where?

Pay off second loan or enjoy tax break?

seinfeld — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 19:07:33 -0800

Finance Filter: I have a second loan on my condo at a rate of 7.75%.. I did this to avoid PMI. I have the cash to pay it off.. 35k or so.. Is it likely a good idea to pay it off and forgo the tax breaks I'm getting on the interest, to avoid the 7.75% rate? I'll take all responses at face value.. I'd like non-professional advice before seeking a financial adviser..

Thank you

Movement between credit card and home equity loan

tdabbott — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 13:27:28 -0800

Does this make sense? I'd like to use a credit card "convenience check" that is offering 1.99% APR for 12 months to pay down some of our home equity loan that is hovering at 8.25%. Assuming I am very diligent and do not miss any minimum monthly payments on the credit card, can't I just pay off the credit card balance in 12 months with the HELOC? That way I get 12 months of a lower interest rate? This seems so simple, yet I can't find good guidance via Google, etc.

Certificate of Deposits

benji — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 23:32:26 -0800

What is the best place to get a CD (Certificate of Deposit)? I am looking at getting a CD for about 10,000 for around a year. Anyone have any experience with this? How legit is eloan.com (who seems to have the best rates)?

Should we save for down payment or pay off our student loans?

esolo — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 12:20:28 -0800

Should we save for down payment or pay off our student loans? and what about retirement? My partner and I want to buy a house soon. He is a young professional and I am a grad student. We are both recent university grads and are working towards paying off our school loans. The interest rate on these is about 8% (it’s a private bank loan). I am confused as to how to divide up the little money we have between paying off the education loans, saving for retirement and saving for the downpayment. What is most logical money-wise? Not to save for either retirement or downpayment until we pay off the loans in full, because we are not likely to make more than 8% in anything else? But then it may take a while to pay them off (approx. $25,000 to go).

I heard that many people save for downpayment in ING savings account (if the purchase is less than 5 years away). ING savings account pays 3.5-4% in Canada, so it doesn’t seem to make much sense to do that, when we are paying 8% on our education loans. Is the better approach just keep paying off as much of education loans as possible, and then just take out the mortgage with zero downpayment? (The rates on the mortgage are low now, so we could get 5.5% rate right now).

One option would be to keep paying off the education loans, until we find the house we like, and then just take out a large mortgage and cover the education loans in one shot. This way, we will only have one large relatively low-interest debt. Has anyone done this? Any advice and suggestions would be appreciated.

Paying for graduate school

dead_ — Thu, 10 May 2007 08:17:45 -0800

Help me figure out the best way to finance graduate school abroad. This may be a bit of a premature post (as I haven't heard back from all of my institutions yet), but here it goes anyway...

I will be attending graduate school in Japan this fall (getting an MA in international relations). Though I already have some money saved up, it isn't nearly enough to cover everything (not just tuition, but living costs, food, transport, etc).

In all likelihood, I will be getting some portion of my tuition discounted by the university, and will also be able to hold a part-time job on campus in addition to some teaching assistantships. Regardless, this is only a minor amount of money coming in, compared with how much will be going out.

So I need to figure out the best way to finance this. I'm looking for advice on specific banks and loans, as well as advice on financing (international) graduate school in general. This is something that I really want to do, and I recognize the major amount of debt it will be putting me under, so any general comments on the matter (positive or negative) would be great. I'm basically looking for advice on financing graduate school. Help!

How can I estimate what the mortgage payment on a commercial building loan will be?

ignignokt — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 15:52:05 -0800

How can I estimate what the mortgage payment on a commercial building loan will be? I know that commercial loans are different from home mortgage loans. I'm just having a hard time figuring out what typical terms are for them. I was going to just fill out a lendingtree.com request, but they require your phone number. (I might end up doing that anyway.) I need this to figure out how affordable certain buildings are. Is there any good, fast way of estimating this?

Timing of home equity loan

I_Love_Bananas — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 14:40:02 -0800

How soon is too soon to get a home equity loan? We've been in the house one year. I am already getting home equity loan solicitations, practically every week.

How soon is too soon to take out a home equity loan? Yes, it's a lot of money. But we (meaning he) has OLD debt at sky-high rates I'd love to pay off, as well as some remodeling projects our house desperately needs.

I am aware that banks have rules about how soon/how much has been paid before they will allow a loan. I am just curious as to the conventional wisdom regarding the notion of borrowing against a house that we've only been in 12 months, give or take. Is it poor judgment?

Should my girlfriend cosign on my car loan? Or, how do I get a car loan?

arimathea — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 05:59:25 -0800

How do I get a car loan? What are the mechanics of cosigning? I have pretty miserable credit (HR, <500 on my FICO). On the other hand, i've now been in a cushy job for about a year and a half now, and I'm doing really well financially, such that my debt to income ratio is about 6% and i'm well over six figures in income. So here's my question. I know loan qualifiers won't approve me solo, since my credit is so bad. What are the mechanics of a cosigner? My girlfriend has great credit and is willing to help me out, but will having me on the loan hurt or help? She has median income in the 50-75k a year range, but she already has a loan. Also, how much upfront will influence a lender's decision? For instance, if I put 0k, 3k, 5k, 10k down, will any of those make a difference in the ability to finance me on my own or with her?

short term, conservative investing

luriete — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 19:37:14 -0800

I just got a $50,000 home equity loan to remodel our kitchen, but we might not pay the contractor for 3 months. Can I do anything with the money to make a little interest, at least to cover the 5.9% interest, before then? Right now it's in our savings account. I realize they start charging us the monthly interest immediately (although I don't know why they don't just wait for you to take it out before doing that, since they're making interest on it as long as it's in our account, right?). 3 month CD? Some kind of special short term blue chip account?

Help my friend stay away from the Loan Tree!

blindcarboncopy — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 11:48:51 -0800

I am seeking some unbiased advice on personal loan consolidation. Search engines are too spammed by commercial outfits of dubious value to be of any help. But MeFi knows everything! I am asking this for a friend (yes, really) who has fallen on hard times financially and is asking me for advice. I can certainly help her with things like budgeting and planning and so on; however I feel it may be in her best interest to get her high-APR loans consolidated. Problem is, I don't know very much about how this process works.

The situation in a nutshell is this: she has a new steady but not highly-paid job - for argument's sake, let's say $12/hour takehome - and maybe 10K of loans overall. I haven't seen the full financials yet so this is my guesstimating. Of that, about 3 thousand is ridiculously high-APR credit card loans that need to go; the rest is more reasonable but still way above market rate. She also has an immediate backlog on bills that she just doesn't have the money to pay (rent and utilities) amounting to something like $800.

The question is thus: what is the best way to get all her loans consolidated into one, with a reasonable APR? Also, is there a chance of taking out an additional personal loan (said $800) under the same rate at that time? I want to emphasize that my friend is overall fiscally responcible and I am confident in her ability to make timely payments once she gets out of the immediate hole. I feel confident enough about it to offer to put up some cash as collateral on her loans (which she's refused to accept so far but is still an open possibility as far as I am concerned). All advice is much appreciated!

mo money, mo money, mo money

stevyb — Tue, 30 Aug 2005 10:28:15 -0800

What are my options for getting a personal loan of about $25,000 to consolidate some cc debt and maybe remodel our kitchen? My wife and I live in an aparment on the same property as my parents. My credit is bad and my wife's is just OK. My parents just recently refinanced their home to lower their payments since they're both retired and have fixed incomes.

Which loan should I pay down?

letitrain — Thu, 12 May 2005 00:27:45 -0800

I have two loans, and an extra $250/month to pay them down, but I don't know which one to choose. *Bonus question: should I pay them down? The first is a student loan with a balance of $14,500 and a variable interest rate of 3.37%, and the second is an auto loan with a balance of $8250 and a fixed interest rate of 4.75%. Both have a $250 minimum monthly payment. I can pay an extra $250/month on top of the combined $500 monthly bill. Which one should I pay down first?

*Bonus: should I be paying the loans down or saving/investing the money? I pay about $40/month in interest for each account (of course, getting smaller every payment). Is there any reasonably safe investment that could beat lowering the interest? This stuff makes my head hurt.

I don't have any "portfolio" other than a two-month savings safety net and three small IRA rollover accounts.

Quick real estate transactions

jdroth — Thu, 06 May 2004 11:23:32 -0800

So yesterday my wife — Ms. We're-Not-Moving — found a house closer to Portland that she loves. We both love it. The only offer we can make, though, is contingent upon selling our home, which we hadn't even considered until yesterday. Help! Does anyone have experience with this kind of thing? What can we do to make a contingency offer more attractive? What about bridge loans? Anyone have experience with those? I need advice on hurried real estate transactions (other than "don't do them").