HAPe4me

It was a $3 bill, but I am having trouble spending it for some reason.

Ooops, Shortfuse's card came to me by mistake. I borrowed the cash but am forwarding the card on to you Lindy. Happy birthday, bud. ~HAP

whoops, never mind, I see that Jake died March 1st, peacefully it is said. Charges are still pending against the lady. http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?...&pst=674475

Since this story started back in early September 2006, does anyone know yet what the outcome was? Here is a link to an article back then in the area newspaper: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06264/723544-62.stm

I have a caution on rolling your debt into balance transfers. Make sure you have paid off the card completely before you transfer to it and then DO not use the card until the transfer is paid off or transfered to another card. Credit card companies apply all payments you make to the debt category you have with them that has the LOWEST interest rate. For example: You have $2000 of outstanding debits in "Purchases" which have a 15% interest rate. You then transfer $5000 to that same card which offers 0% for the first 12 months. All your payments for the next 12 months will go towards the transfer amount, and the original $2000 in charges keep accumulating at that 15% rate. (over $300/year, as the amount compounds each month). Also watch out for what their fees are for balance transfers. Most are 3% of the transfer, but some have $75 or $90 max fees and some have no limit to the fee they charge. If there is no limit to the fee, that $5000 transfer will cost you $150 to process. Try not to get cash advances with your credit card. They are the LAST category your payments get deducted from and usually have the HIGHEST interest rate, often 24%, not to mention the other fees they charge and the ATM charges also. Go to the grocery or bank and get cash directly. If you are not sure you understand your monthly statement, call the company toll free and ask for explanations. LOOK at how much the TOTAL of all your finance charges are each month on each card. Some statements might have three or more categories where they have charged you interest, and the highest-interest category balance does not go down until you pay the whole card off. I have seen emergency ATM cash advances go on for 5 years at 24% interest. 0% Balance transfers can be great things if used properly, and especially if you have the capability to pay them off when the 6, 9, or 12 month promotional period is over. You just have to stay on top of them, and if you are ever late even on some other bill, the promo rate often reverts to their standard rate. Great comments, keep them coming. As I said, I am no expert, I just think many do not understand the importance of maintaining good credit, nor how to do it. With the wide range of experiences here at the Cafe, there are many who can help you understand things better. ~HAP

Thanks for that information Washington. the idea of making half your payment every 2 weeks is that by the end of a year, you have actually made 13 monthly payments (26 payments made every 2 weeks) instead of 12 monthy payments. this cuts the number of years of your mortgage down, and saves sizable money overall. I think the score is even higher if you keep even lower percentages. I should point out, the reason to build up credit scores is because so much we do is based on it. Even if you do not intend to buy something on credit, your score affects your insurance rates and other financial matters. ~HAP

hehe I see the google ads have found this page already. "Pay off debt", "Credit card", Credit cards bad credit", Credit card debt"

Good Z, thanks. In my case, I have multiple credit cards for multiple purposes. Busines A, business B, personal, large purchase rewards, one for 0% balance transfers when needed......etc. I most usually pay off the balances, so this is not about me personally (except for the above rant). I do have my due dates set to spread through the month as I do not have a regular payperiod, being self employed as a remodeling contractor. You are correct that for many people it is wisest to not have too many cards. Other people's needs and abilities of course may vary. I am not one however that recommends having NO card. Renting cars, or emergency vet bills or whatever, make it helpful to have some available source for quick funds. You raise an excellent point about not paying minimum only of course. Depending on one's situation there are several plans that might help. the important thing being a PLAN. Perhaps start with paying twice the minimum, or paying at least the new charges and new finance charges. After successfully getting that habit under your belt, work on paying all new charges and say, 10% of the old debt. If you are uncertain of what your available funds will be come due date, go ahead and schedule AT LEAST the minimum due, and then when payday comes, make an additional payment. Nothing says you can only make one payment a month. One negative affecting a credit score can be the ratio of credit used to credit available. This can be a reason to have multiple cards also, if you carry a balance, to keep that ratio down. ONLY if you can trust yourself to behave and not use this additional "room" on your card. I understand it CAN be overdone, with too many cards or too much available credit that it is hard to keep track of or making you a risk to start usijng it. I have heard it is not good to cancel a card. if you feel threatened by it, just cut it up so you cannot access it. As Z-shot mentioned, it is a good idea, to keep an eye on your credit reports from the big three reporting agencies. In Colorado, we are able to get those once a year for free. I do not know about other states. I order one every 4 months from one of the companies at a time. This keeps me current and allows me to see what changes have taken place. Anyone else with comments? I am by no means an expert, all I know is what has worked for me to get my score to where it is. I am sure someone here has some more expert advice, and can correct me if I said anything incorrectly. ~HAP

Ok, allow me to vent............. For 4-5 years now, I have successfully concentrated on raising my credit scores, utilizing several techniques. One of the primary ones is to NEVER ever be late. I have been quite successful doing this by utilizing my bank's "Billpay" service. I know some are easier and more reliable than others, but mine has been VERY reliable. At times I go directly to the creditor's site to make a payment, but usually I sit down the first week of the month and schedule 30 days of bills to be paid at various times through-out the month. I schedule them at least a day before the due date. My bank guarantees receipt by the day I schedule it, and will not allow the date if they are not able to guarantee it. In 4 years they have not failed. I am glad not to rely on unknown postal time to send stamped envelopes. so my issue is not with the bank but with the credit companies themselves. 1. It seems that many of the due dates of bills, especially credit card bills, falls on a weekend. EVERY MONTH! Are they TRYING to make people late? Billpay automatically advises me that the date is not a business day, and asks me to change the date. I suspect if I changed it to the next business day, a monday, would the creditor consider it late? Some do! If I were mailing the bills, I would have to allow for no weekend delivery at the companies. what is the scheme? 2. Since that one does not catch me, due to billpay's diligence, try THIS scheme. Several of my credit cards seem to change their mailing address what seems like every 3-5 months. It is a waste of my time to have to go in and edit the biller's information each month. so far this has not resulted in the mis-posting of any of my payments, probably because things are done electronically in most cases, but STILL, WHY do they change so often? Often it is just a different PO Box in the same town, but not always. what is their plan? 3. Since credit cards are now very clear that they can raise your interest rates if you are late making a payment to them OR ANY OTHER CREDITOR, I have suspicions that what they want to do is force people to end up being late by not keeping abreast of these date and address issues. The bills themselves keep changing their design a couple times a year also. Some of them seem hard to figure out what is the minimum due, the new charges, the finance charges etc. One could easily I think pay less than the minimum amount due, just by misreading the bill. OK, vent over. Anyone work in the industry and know why these things are done? I just KNOW its Bush's fault, but other than that, what is the deal? This thread could also be a discussion on credit issues, and ideas for raising your credit scores also. Feel free to jump in with anything along those lines, I will add thoughts in another post on those later if any discussion begins. ~HAP

which is why I make a distinction between this lady's initial act of rescuing and caring for the dog, and her later callous disregard for anyone else's rights by no turning the animal over to authorities. The former due to its (apparentlly) urgent need, and the other being the (apparently) unlawful retention after the immediate crisis had passed. Ductape- I am wondering what your car window action might have been had the dogs inside appeared to be in more imminent danger where minutes might be crucial? (i.e. they appeared to be extremely disoriented or suffering from signs of heat prostration?) ~HAP

If indeed the "charges" (I still have not seen what they are), are related to her refusal to return the dog, then she is out of line, and COULD be charged I would think with possession of stolen property. Her simple remedy is indeed to turn the dog over to authorites, who indeed MIGHT return the dog to the rightful owner of the property, but likely not with out further investigation. The lady mentioned has NO right to the dog. If that is done, I am confident the animal control people, or whoever is responsible in this location, will keep a watchful eye on the critter in the future. I have rarely met such people who do not later do drivebys and "neighborly" inquiries. They are generally very dedicated people. I do not know anything regarding who the owners are, if there are kids at the home who are missing their companion or anything else related to the owners of the property. Nothing is mentioned about whether the actual legal owners of the dog have also been charged with an infraction. None of us know what might have been learned by them during this process, and it is possible there is no more danger to the dog at that home. Then again there might be, but the law should be followed and allowed to run its course. The lady has no legal right to KEEP the dog in ANY case. Basically, it seems to me that much has been made of this story without us knowing many of the necessary truths relating to it. I cna not make much of an assessment without that information. ~HAP

As a side note, in most places, pets are considered nothing much more than property, under legal definitions. While they do have more protection than, say, a couch, an owner has little that they can recover from a court if a dog is stolen, or negligently operated on by a veterinary surgeon. I learned this when we considered our options upon learning my son's dog was initially cut open on the wrong side of his pelvis during surgery to repair the other side after if was hit and rolled over by a truck. Seems the xray was mislabeled "left or right". Fortunately, that cut did not produce longterm difficulty, and the actual repair was done wonderfully and the dog has recovered. The mistake only added to the dog's discomfort during recovery. We learned that although we could sue for negligence and things, the award would be basically limited to the amount that was paid for the dog minus the amount the dog could be sold for after the negligence, just like anyother property. Since the dog was a "rescued" dog, that meant virtually nothing. We did make sure that we were not charged for the extra sutures and operating table time, and the hospital did give free followup care, xrays and labwork to somewhat compensate for their mistake. We are quite thrilled with the success of the procedure in the end, and this 80 pound dog is able to leap a good 2 feet of the ground again. Summer rockclimbing will still be his recreational joy. ~HAP

There are a number of people here who were pretty much spent their childhood in TWI. Lindyhopper comes to mind as one as I recall, perhaps Sirguessalot too? You might drop them a note and see if they can turn you on to some others. ~HAP

I dunno, while I am often known in here as one of the bleeding heart liberals, supportive of vegans, lover of dogs and other critters, the planet earth and worldkind in general, I do to some degree understand the points I THINK Ductape is making. Before I flap my jaws on this, there is something I need to have clarified. I did not watch the video posted, but I did read the links to the text articles. What is this lady charged with? I am under the impression from what I read, that the charges revolve around her NOT RETURNING the dog. Is that correct? Is she charged with anything concerning her initial rescue and care? ~HAP

If I were to do that I would violate my contract with American Idol and lose out on my opportunity at REAL stardom. ~HAP :lol:

I can't seem to find the other one

I never heard it either, but here is the first: (from)-http://www.kidsdomain.com/sports/camp/songs.html Catalina Matalina Catalina-Matalina-Oop-Scala-Wala-Wala-Hogan-Mogan-Logan was her name. She had two eyes, upon her head, One was blue and the other was red. Catalina-Matalina-Oop-Scala-Wala-Wala-Hogan-Mogan-Logan was her name. She had two teeth in her mouth, One went north and the other went south. Catalina-Matalina-Oop-Scala-Wala-Wala-Hogan-Mogan-Logan was her name. She had one nose upon her face, But it wandered and wandered all over the place. Catalina-Matalina-Oop-Scala-Wala-Wala-Hogan-Mogan-Logan was her name. She had two hairs on her chin, One grew out and the other grew in.

the plot thickens

ROFLPIMP! me thinks EVEN JL would have a little trouble accepting this almost Christ-like characterization of himself. spirit lives on, to inspire with wisdom, wonderful parrables, feeding with fish, hoping for his return ASAP? 'woe is us, we are lost without his personal guidance teehee. and he is gonna reappear in Maine? I thought maybe Salt Lake City, Utah instead! ~HAP

PFD- happy birthday. The truth is you are 29 with lots of experience at it. ~HAP

hmmm, looks like Sami needs to invite Geo to her place to replace her roof. Perhaps she can trade the work for some hair. Congrats and happy birthday Sami. and Charlie- do you know what you have gone and done now? ~HAP

EXPERT- (pronounciation: ex- spurt) definition: a "has-been drip under pressure" when given the choice between a title and a pay raise, I will take the pay-raise. ~HAP

I ain't trashing any of them, and this is the first I heard of GSC being an anti splinter board. Now that explains the new banner. "thanks" for the explanation. So I get it. we can trash TWI, splinters, people and politics but all other trashing is verboten . ok, got it. that wll help people to be motivated to leave TWI, and lets not anybody trash God, that might reflect real society. I am confused, deceived and stupid I guess, but well-meaning. This is too far off topic. kathy please start a thread on what we are allowed to say and what topics we are allowed to speak against here.

or people will get trashed. I still don't see what makes this difference. I see no consistency to your comment maybe its there somewhere but I don't see it.. CES can be trashed, TWI can be trashed, but the RCC can't? God is only honored when TWI or CES is trashed? oh well. I am trying to swear off posting on these forums, they are no longer healthy for me and people are beginning to bug the crapola out of me. sorry I brought it up, and now I am off topic, so nebbermind. ~HAP

Chatkat said: "How does going after each other like this subject always seems to do invoke those wanting to leave twi and coming to us for some answers to actually do that, leave twi. " and what makes this thread different than so many others, Kathy, that you would make make this hypothesis here? I am baffled