Category — finance

I bought a TracFone over a year ago because it was cheaper to use out of the area when I had to drive out of state. I never gave out this number except to a couple of family members when I traveled. When I first got the phone, there were always lots of messages for a girl who didn't pay her bills, but I let the number expire because I forgot to get a new prepaid card. Those messages went away.

However, several months later I reactivated the phone with the same number and now I am constantly getting calls for a man who didn't pay his bills. They are calling from the same two numbers. I have told them that my name is not Anthony nor do I know any Antonios or Andys or any other variations, but they still call.

Can I get some money from a law suit if they keep calling?

What are our chances with 30% downpayment and annual income of about 20% of the loan amount? Is it even worth trying?

NYC had some very nasty rain the last few days and my parents informed me yesterday that they were flooded or had water damage. This happened in the evening on Saturday but they didn't tell me until Sunday. I came by and took pictures of the damage.

Facts/details

They live in a coop, in a 20+ story building, they have a balcony, but the water did not come from outside. The water basically came up from the floor. Due to the water damage about an inch or two up.
It happened in about half of the bedroom and some spots around the living room and guest bedroom.
They have insurance on the apartment. They didn't explain what kind and what it covered, but I'll find this out soon.
We think the water came from some kind of pipe in the wall or possible holes under the balcony which caused water to go into the apartment. Note that the damage is not just around the window side of the wall, but also along the full length of the perpendicular wall.

Damage:
1) They have parquet floor all around and a few of the squares swelled up in a pyramid, they tried their best to dry them with towels and put some weights on them to keep them down, but it is very likely the parquet will crack in some spots or possibly rot underneath.
2) They have carpet (fairly expensive hand crafted) on about 60% of the floor. (Carpets are required by the building to lower noise) The carpet in the bedroom is almost all soaked and water and carpet is not a good mix. We have tried to dry and get the water out, but could only do so much.
3) Few odd things that were on the floor were ruined/damaged by the water mainly:
A) Polished sheet of wood (they said it was about $300) still boxed with a tag from Home Depot.
B) Painting print - minimal value, I think
C) Financial papers from prior years (kept under bed) no real value, just annoyance
D) Misc clothes in a bad which got soaked.
4) Parents spent a ton of time cleaning and trying to minimize the damage to the carpet and parquet as well as ruined towels, rags etc.

What they did:
They called the emergency building number 7 times (over some time, not in a row) before a person responded
The super is sick, so the head porter is acting super. Apparently the porter may have had a drink or two, but it was Saturday and he was technically off work. He could not help.
One of the board members came by to see what happened and suggested we put some towels on it and kept saying the flooding came from the balcony (balcony floor is lower then floor inside) as well as saying some other fairly stupid things (she suggested parents relax and have a drink)
Parents spent a long time putting towels and absorbent cloth on the floor and wringing out the water, ended up with more then a few buckets full of dirty brown water.

Plan:
A) Research what the laws and options are.
B) Write up a letter of what happened including the damage for fixing and present to building management.
C) Find out what is covered in the insurance of the parents but avoid filing if not needed.
D) Prepare for building to say no, and research further action.

I would like some suggestions about where I can start looking as well as comments if you've been in a situation before and the outcome.
I can post images of the damage when I come home. Estimate of damage would be either carpet cleaning or replacement, based on extent of damage and parquet replacement (very difficult to replace a few, need to redo most of the floor in the room).

Appreciate any help.
Edit-Spelling

BankDirect.com

Anyone used this bank to get AAdvantage miles? Do they do a hard pull when opening the account? Pros & Cons?

Promotion Details:
All you have to do to earn AAdvantage miles at BankDirect is open one of our Mileage products -- Mileage Checking Accounts, Mileage MMAs and Mileage CDs. And you can earn even more AAdvantage miles by using other BankDirect services related to your Mileage account - like payroll direct deposit and bill pay. An AAdvantage member who banks with BankDirect could easily earn 10,000 AAdvantage miles a year with a Mileage Checking Account and could even earn 50,000 miles with the purchase of a single Mileage CD.

Earn 1,000 miles for yourself and a friend from our Refer-A-Friend Program
1,000 miles to convert your Regular Checking or Regular MMA to a Mileage Checking Account or Mileage Money Market Account
1,000 miles for each new Mileage Checking Account or Mileage Money Market Account*
5,000 miles for signing up for payroll direct deposit into a Mileage Checking Account**
2,000 miles for using BankDirect's bill pay service for 12 consecutive months from a Mileage Checking Account**
100 miles per month for every $1,000.00 of the collected balance in your Mileage Checking Account
50 miles per month for every $1,000.00 of the collected balance in your Mileage Money Market Account
1,000 miles for every $1,000.00 spent on a two-year Mileage CD purchase
500 miles for every $1,000.00 spent on a one-year Mileage CD purchase
250 miles for every $1,000.00 spent on a 6-month Mileage CD purchase

Should I be concerned or not?

I transfered a sum of money out of my Chase account on 3/11 (Thursday Morning).
I saw it hit my Wells account on 3/15 (Monday Morning).
So there is a 4 day Float time running around there.
(BTW Chase did STATE that it would do this)

Chase's transfer uses the Bank Routing Number / Account when you do this and Chase only allows Tranfer to a bank account you own.

So why is there a 4 day float time? If it leaves my Chase account on 3/11 I expect it to hit my other bank on 3/11 or 3/12.

Anything I should be concerned with? Is Chase playing with my funds? Can it get 'lost'? Or this just Par for the course.
When I transfer ACH funds from my work account to another bank account, it leaves and arrives on the same day. Why not the Chase funds?

I know that some companies don't respond to disputed inquiries and thus the inquiries are removed when disputed. Is there any penalty: financial, legal, or otherwise to disputing inquiries that I know are correct on my CR? Do companies that made the inquiry get charged if i dispute it, or if i dispute it and win? lets say i have a citi credit card and there is an inquiry from opening a checking account with them which i don't use, would they possibly do something to my credit card account with them? also, if they did for example close my account, would that be legal under FCRA (assuming the inquiry was actually a legitimate inquiry)?

Are there institutions that let you do that? I hate PayPal (it requires the recipient to actively do something to get the money) and Billpay systems that send paper checks to an address and don't let you specify account/routing numbers (safer/faster). Systems that require recipient verification are obnoxious too. I can wire money without the recipient's cooperation, why do I need it with ACH? The lack of easy individual to individual electronic money transfers in the US is appalling.

I am going to buy a house with my girlfriend and close before the end of June.
Here is my situation. Me and my girlfriend are going to buy the house together. We already had the binding contact 2 weeks ago. I am the first time home buyer while she bought and lived in her primary residency since 2004. According to "Business Week", "If two unmarried individuals buy a home, and only one of the individuals qualifies for the credit based on their income or past home ownership status, the individual who qualifies for the credit can claim the full credit." <<http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/hotproperty/archives/2009...

Is that mean I should be able to claim $8000 dollars tax credit although my girlfriend is not the first time home buyer? Can someone confirm that?

Thanks for your help!

They're up now - nvrmind.

Can someone else try to get to the login screen at just2trade.com to make sure it's not just my end here at work?

I saw a note that about 7 weeks ago someone posted on Twitter that the site was down and hacked.

Last week TradeKing had "technical difficulties" too and I couldn't log into my account there for awhile. Brokerages would definitely be high value targets for hackers, so I wonder if some of this is a denial of service or other attack on their sites.

I am doing my 2009 taxes, TurboTax shows a refund and then I get to the part where I enter my wife's income for 2009. It's a 1099-MISC. All boxes are empty except for box # 7. Non employee compensation. Now it looks like we owe $9,000 in Fed and state taxes!

Help please: how do I bring this down?