Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with payments

Refi-filter: Lowering my monthly payments, but paying more in the long run. Is it worth it?

ericbop — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:45:18 -0800

I'm eight years into a 30 year mortgage, having paid off about 10% of the total amount of the original loan. Does it make sense to refinance now if I can get a rate that is about 5/8 of a point lower than my current rate? This would shave about $250 off of my monthly payments. But then I'll still be paying for this loan for eight additional years after the original one would have been paid off, right? How do I calculate how much additional $$ I'll owe overall, and how do I decide whether paying more later is worth saving money now?

Is there any way to estimate what a car & car insurance would cost me if I moved to San Francisco?

scazza — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:16:16 -0800

What are ways to estimate what a car and car insurance would cost me if I moved to San Francisco? I'm looking for what it would cost to have a reasonable, eco-friendly (not necessarily a hybrid, probably not a hybrid) car for 2 people in San Francisco. Something like a hatchback that's 1-2 years old. I live in NYC now so I have no idea how to go about estimating insurance and car loan payments. Resources? Thanks!

(There is a question about this from 2005, but I think things may have changed by now.)

Best strategy for paying student loans?

yeoja — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:37:41 -0800

I’m in grad school and work full time. I have several Federal student loans in deferment, all of which are subsidized or unsubsidized with different interest rates. I have an extra $500 each month that I'd like to use towards my loans. If I want to have lower monthly payments when my loans go into repayment, should I make extra payments now towards the interest from unsubsidized loans with a lower interest rate or the principal of subsidized loans with a higher interest rate? Or is there a better approach? Background info: I have 1.5yrs left for school, and I’m 90% sure I’ll continue to work full-time until I graduate. Other than my mortgage and these loans, I have no other debt (car and credit cards paid off). I have ~6 months of savings in a high (well, 1.4%) yield savings account.

My loans are distributed something like this:

Loan A: Unsubsidized, 1.8% interest rate, $5,000 balance

Loan B: Unsubsidized, 6.8%, $12,000

Loan C: Subsidized, 2.8%, $6,000

Loan D: Subsidized, 6.8%, $3,000

Right now, I make $150 monthly payments on the unsubsidized interest on Loans A & B. My lender will let me specify how I want to apply the $500 each month (Loan A/B/C/D, interest or principal). I know the usual advice is to target the higher interest rates first (as discussed here), but I’m unsure how this applies with subsidized vs unsubsidized loans. For example, Loan A has a lower interest rate than Loan D, but Loan A has a higher principal balance and is unsubsidized.

I want to make the smartest decision with these payments. My goal is to get rid of my loan fast, but I also want to minimize my monthly payment amount when my loans go into repayment. Should I focus on the principal of Loan B since it’s so high? Or should I spread out the money across the loans? If I have the money to pay off Loan D, should I go ahead and do that?

Fellowship Finance

Aanidaani — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 07:52:04 -0800

I recently started graduate school supported by a National Science Foundation IGERT Fellowship and I just received my first paycheck--without any taxes taken out of it. Am I exempt from paying tax (state and federal) on my fellowship stipend because it's from the government? I claimed two allowances on my W-4 and I don't think I would be subject to witholding because my income is so low. Another fellow's tax accountant said the fellowship was exempt, but I'd like another opinion. I want to be sure that I'm not going to get stuck with a large bill next April that I'm unprepared for. Thanks!

Payment schedule for dodgy debtor

southof40 — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:52:50 -0800

How to determine how much I'm owed by someone who's not going to pay regularly ? (in Excel preferably). I lent $x as a favour to a person I knew on the basis they would make six monthly payments of $y - the idea was they were paying me an interest payment of 7%.

It's pretty clear now that rather nice picture of life is not going to be how it is.

In the best case what's going to happen is that they're going to make more than six payments and they're not going to be monthly (the worst case is I get an expensive lesson in life).

I want a model I can use to show how much is outstanding at the end of each month and then add the interest onto the principal.

There's an awful lot of 'if you borrow this much how much will the bank charge' stuff out there but I need something which will cope with irregular payments and recalculating the principle based upon the interest received.

Something in Excel would be great but just a desciption of how it should be done would do.

Online Payments

AMP583 — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 06:13:35 -0800

I need to build something that allows a client to make credit card payments to my client. I want to use Authorize.net as the gateway but im not sure what backend i should use - a modified opencart or something similar. I DONT want to use paypal, blinksale, etc. as its not so much 'invoice' based but more of a method of sending funds. This thread is very similar but no dice. I think some sort of modified cart might work, but i was wondering if theres a better solution thats somewhat more streamlined and easier to implement. Also i'm not a developer by trade, more of a designer.

Can I buy my first car with zero or little down?

HonorShadow — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 14:43:56 -0800

Can I buy my first car with zero down and sub $300 payments? To be frank, I'm not even sure this is within the realm of possibilities.

I just moved across the country from California to Wisconsin for a job. Within about a month I will need to buy a car. I'll have a little bit of money by that point (likely a little over a grand), but not enough to drop much in the way of a down payment. This is coupled with needing to get car insurance for the first time. I'm 23, but I only got my license a year ago.

I've seen some ads for zero down (or very little), but I don't know much about cars, much less buying one. Is this sort of thing possible for someone with my history? My employer has offered to write a letter stating I am a new hire and my job is secure; they are also well known around these parts. I am most definitely not looking for anything fancy. I can manage monthly payments of around $300 or so.

Auxiliary queries: if it is possible, what sort of fees would I pay at purchase? What price range would insurance be?

Thanks for your help, MeFi. I have a sort of unique situation and my searches haven't lead to much.

Is Bi-Monthly Really Better?

Spyder's Game — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:17:27 -0800

Is it really that much better to pay off a mortgage in bi-monthly payments rather than once-a-month payments? TAKE *YEARS* OFF YOUR MORTGAGE!!! In the past, I've gotten letters from my mortgage company, telling me that I can shorten the length of my loan by X number of years and pay Y thousand dollars less if I just pay them in two smaller monthly payments, rather than one large one.

Of course, the first red flag is that my mortgage company itself is the one doing this.

Are there advantages to this? Disadvantages? Aside from having that money in my checking account for two extra weeks? I mean, heck, I'm not going to do anything with it in those two weeks anyway...

Let's hear it!

Do invoices have to be included in shipments?

DarlingBri — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 10:29:06 -0800

Are there legal requirements for sellers to include an invoice in a shipment to a customer? I'm in the middle of writing a guide for online retailers - the small, independent kind, not the big incorporated online giant kind. These are mostly WAHMs, artisans and casual crafters. Think casual Ebay sellers, for example.

Having ordered from The Ladies several times, I can tell you that it is a very rare event when one of them includes an invoice with the item when it is shipped. I have absolutely no problem with this; I know what I ordered, I am keen to save trees, and in the event of a rare mistake, we both have a record of the original order online.

My question, however, is if this is legally compliant with any regulations that may be in place. Is there a postal requirement or even specific state requirements for invoices to be included in items shipped after purchase?

If it makes any difference:

* They are unlikely to be any kind of incorporated or legally created entity or business;
* Payment is highly likely to have taken place via PayPal;
* Shipments are usually state to state and less usually, international.

I'm not looking for best practice here - I know why invoices are good. and if I need one for a business expense, I just print it off of PayPal.

I'd just like to be able to give The Ladies a heads up if there is, in fact, a requirement to include an invoice in their shipments.

Good Accounting Software Recommendation

deadparrot — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:23:22 -0800

I work for a billing company and we would like to use an accounting software that can process credit cards and deposit the funds into our clients respective bank accounts. Does anyone have any experience doing this or have any recommendations?

Moving somewhere affordable!

hamster — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 12:22:58 -0800

Can I sell my place if I'm on a repayment plan for its mortgage? I own a home, but have had trouble making payments on the mortgage--my parents talked me into buying it, but it's been too much to handle on my salary.

I worked out a payment plan with my lender to avoid foreclosure, and will be able to get things back to normal by May.

I'm planning to move across the country this summer, and want to list the place as soon as possible because I know the housing market's crap. How would this work if I'm not up on payments?

Also, my parents don't know that I've worked out a plan--this is a long story about family dynamics. They will be helping me to list the place, but I don't want them to find out what's happening. When will I need to come clean? When we have a buyer? Before I list it?

Thanks in advance.

They forgot to charge my card for 3 months. Can they now?

wflanagan — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:38:25 -0800

If a company had a "clerical error" and forgot to charge my credit card for 3 months, do they have right to charge it now? I took a class back in early October, which I thought that I had paid for in September. However, I received an email from the administrator that stated that due to an administrative error, they had forgot to process credit card payments, and were going to do it now. This was a "courtesy" notice.

I'm OK with paying it, but it got me wondering if they actually had the legal right to do it.

Hive mind, what say you?

How do I restore my credit in 2.5 years?

The Deej — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 11:12:09 -0800

Beyond the obvious (Google and MeFi searches have been done), what can I do to restore my credit over the next 2 and half years? I am recently divorced. My ex-wife had numerous health problems, not the least of which was hypochondria. Add to that her gambling problem, and her lack of desire to work, and, even after insurance paid their cut, I was left with more medical debt than I could keep up with. This resulted in scores of medical bills being turned over for collection. The bills will soon be totally retired, but meanwhile my credit is worse than bad. (Hint: I couldn't even qualify for a high-interest credit card that HSBC kept pestering me to apply for!) For the next 2.5 years, I am paying spousal-maintenance (don't get me started on the fairness of that), so I will have to get by with my current car for now (1992 Saab). At the end of the maintenance payments, I want to buy a nicer car, which will require getting a loan. So I want to take steps now to be ready to reward myself with a nice car in February 2010.

Random data: My salary is a little above average, plus I have additional income from freelance design work. My teenage daughter lives with me full time, and I receive no child support. I have no credit cards, car loans, or other loans. I rent an apartment (and have no interest in buying another house any time soon). 100% of my debt issues are medically related. No consumer debt. In the past, I have owned several homes. The medical debt was nearly all on behalf of my ex, even though I am the responsible party, if that matters.

So, I am looking for "beyond the obvious" insight, particularly your own tales of credit rehabilitation, or if you work in the credit industry. Any little-known hints, tips, tricks that can maximize my efforts? Thanks in advance.

In the UK, what's the usual redundancy payment?

Auz — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 02:51:44 -0800

I was recently made redundant from a job I'd worked at for 3½ years. Under UK law then, I was due a redundancy payoff of three times my weekly wage, up to a maximum of £290 weekly wage. From my reading though, an employer could be generous and pay three times the actual wage if it was over £290 - and I'd swear this was what happened the other time I was made redundant. But what experiences have others had? (And, not to worry: I start a new job Monday)

I will gladly give you a pound of flesh Tuesday for a hamburger today.

bingo — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 19:24:33 -0800

Will making a plan to pay off a creditor improve my credit rating...even before the whole balance is paid? Or do collectors not report to the agencies until the whole balance has been collected?

Tax payments?

ryanissuper — Sat, 04 Feb 2006 09:39:22 -0800

There is no way I can afford to pay my taxes in one shot this year. Is there a way to set up a payment pan with the IRS?

I looking for a code library that that implements the Fast Transact gateway in PHP.

SpecialK — Tue, 23 Nov 2004 13:45:49 -0800

Payment gateways ... A customer of mine is using Fast Transact as their merchant gateway. I would like to implement automatic payment processing through their gateway in PHP, but I can't find a code library that someone else has written that implements the Fast Transact gateway in PHP. Have you? Apparently EZIC is the parent company, but that doesn't turn up anything I can use either.

Online Ticketing

grumblebee — Mon, 08 Nov 2004 12:58:27 -0800

I run a not-for-profit theatre company. It's a 501(c)(3) corporation. We would like to take our own ticket orders online via credit card. We're currently using Smarttix.com, but they take a big chunk out of each ticket sale -- plus they charge us a $75 "setup fee" per show.

I'm wondering if there are other services I could switch to that would be more cost-effective.

Easy, Cheap, Reliable Third-Party Merchant Accounts?

brownpau — Mon, 12 Apr 2004 10:01:29 -0800

Suggestions for easy, cheap, reliable third-party merchant accounts? I've looked at 2CO and charge.com, but first I eagerly seek the voice of experience. BTW, I have very simple needs: I'm just looking to resell a couple of quaint domain-and-hosting packages for family and friends both here and in the Philippines. They'll have VISA and Mastercard and basic net knowledge.

Paypal, or anything else that requires US-residence or a registration, is not an option.

Automatic debit for mortgage payments?

languagehat — Fri, 02 Jan 2004 08:51:24 -0800

Having bought a house, I'm now faced with paying a mortgage. You save a few bucks (and the effort of remembering to mail a check each month) if you have the payments deducted automatically from your bank account; is there any reason I shouldn't do this (assuming I keep enough of a balance to cover it)?