With a sudden increase in phishing scams across the U.S., the American Bankers Association (ABA) recently offered up a detailed list of tips to help consumers guard against this type of modern-day fraud.
A typical phishing scam starts with either a phone call, text message or email to an unsuspecting consumer.
The consumer is then prompted and/or urged to offer up some kind of personal and/or financial information, which is then, in turn, used by the fraudsters to obtain credit, services or other goods.
Those consumers who do respond to these types of unsolicited requests, the ABA said, run the risk of having their information used for illegal purposes.
According to the ABA, a consumer can avert a possible phishing disaster by:
The tax criteria related to vehicles tagged as luxury cars are different from that of ordinary vehicles. From July, 2010, the law of the country suggests that any car having a price of $57,466 or more is designated as a luxury car. For knowing the tax to be paid for buying luxury cars, you will have to first subtract the car threshold from its sale price; next, deduct the Service and Goods Tax from the result obtained from the previous subtraction and multiply the result thus obtained with 33%. Avoiding the luxury car tax is not possible; however, the following tips can help you in getting around it.
- Buy a luxury car t
hat is fuel efficient; this is because threshold for fuel efficient luxury cars is higher compared to the ones that are not fuel efficient.
There is a lot of money invested in money market mutual funds globally. Let’s discover their advantages and reasons to or not to invest your money with them.
Let us first explain what exactly money market mutual funds are. They are mutual funds, which invest in low-risk securities with short duration, like for example Treasury Bills sold by the federal government. For you as investor, this investment should represent an alternative to money market saving account. Both investments are pretty much similar when it comes to their portfolio, which primarily consists of investments in corporate, government or municipal debt with maturities of less than 90 days. They represent safe, secure and liquid investment.
There are also some differences between MM savings accounts and MM mutual funds. For example, saving accounts are FDIC protected ($100,000 money market and $250,000 retirement), while you might get SIPC protection when you buy money market mutual fund via SIPC member firm – $500,000 portfolio and $100,000 cash (SIPC stands for Securities Investor Protection Corp.).
To steer clear of insolvency, you will have to own up your responsibility to clear current and previous dues as soon as you can to avoid the financial crisis and severity of penalty charges. There are many money lending institutes which often utilize the weapon of foreclosure by moving to court in the event of non-payment of dues of debtors. If you mortgaged your house to secure a loan, you will have to pay your money lender his fund to get back your house which has been given as a collateral deposit. However, if you are not able to satisfy your financial benefactor, your money lender can claim money framing charges against you. He will apply for the foreclosure of your property. Foreclosure process is a legal right enjoyed by money lender who can sell your property to collect proceeds. He will take back his principal amount plus interests. The rest of the proceeds will be handed over to the court for settlement with you. Read more…
The evidence is overwhelming that America’s rich are getting much richer while income growth for low- and middle-income earners has stagnated. The share of income and wealth concentrated in the hands of America’s superrich is high by both historical and international standards. These facts are hardly breaking news. But they take on new significance in light of the recent political developments that stress economic inequality. They include President Obama’s articulation of the “Buffett rule” as a guiding principle of tax policy, Senate Democrats’ failed push for a 5.6 percent millionaire’s surtax, the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the frenzy over Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain’s proposal for a system that taxes only consumption and wages.
We start off with the table below that makes a simple but striking point. As the U.S economy has grown over the last three decades, the superrich have gotten most of the benefit.
– The major U.S. index futures are pointing to a lower opening on Friday, with profit taking likely to generate some weakness following recent strong advances. Some doubts about the speedy resolution of the European debt crisis may resurface, as traders look past the euphoria of the euro debt deal. That said, some comfort could be derived from a domestic report released earlier in the day showing a bigger than expected increase in consumer spending in September.
Earnings news has been bordering on the positive. A consumer sentiment report to be released shortly after the markets may also give some direction to the markets, even as traders remain wary of the sustainability of the recent advances. The U.S. dollar is higher across the board and commodities are retreating, as risk appetite wears away.
U.S. stocks advanced solidly on Thursday, propelled by news of the agreement reached by European leaders to potentially resolve the regional debt crisis.