The utility and price comparison site uSwitch has warned that the credit card debt problems many people now face from spending thousands on tickets for the London Olympic Games in 2012 could take as long as 20 years to fully pay off.
Although sports fans will not find out for a few weeks just what tickets they have won for which events, credit card debts have been built up and payments have now been taken from the bank accounts of all those who were successful in the ballot.
Some people have been very disappointed not to win any tickets, whilst others who bid for thousands of pounds worth of tickets have been left in urgent financial difficulty after winning more than they can afford to buy.
The average spend on Olympics tickets was apparently £1,250 per person, and many purchases were made on credit cards.
Experts at uSwitch have predicted that the credit card debt for people spending the average amount on tickets could take as long as 20 years to pay off in full.
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Believe it or not: The housing market is recovering in most states. Home price indexes for 38 states ended 2011 above their early-year lows. And while prices arent yet up to prerecession levels, 30 states had more than two quarters of growth under their belts by the end of 2011, according to data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
But the national index is still falling, dragged down by pricing drops in the worst-hit states. Itll drop another 2% in the next six months before starting to climb in the second half of the year. There are just a handful of states dragging down the national average
Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada
all of which saw home prices drop by more than 50% from 2006 levels. T
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Credit cards have a politician problem.
Of course, nobody’s talking about that. Everyone’s discussing Mitt Romney, and how he has been getting a lot of grief for one of his advisers making a crack about political campaigning being like an Etch-a-Sketch. But since I write a lot about credit cards, I’ve been thinking about how frequently politicians seem to invoke credit cards whenever they want to make a point about the state of the country’s financial affairs, and it’ll probably just heat up as the national election gets closer.
I have a few examples of what I mean below, and then I’ll make my larger point.
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Generally, when you obtain a home equity loan or any other type of mortgage, both you and your spouse must sign the loan documents at closing. However, state laws on property ownership vary, and in some states you can get a home equity loan without your spouse signing if you take steps to have the home listed in your name only.
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Children may avoid getting into debt or other financial problems if they learn how to handle money skilfully at a young age.
This is the view of occupational psychologist and author of Taming the Pound: Making Money Your Servant, Not Your Master Kim Stephenson.
He said youngsters need to learn harsh lessons, such as not being able to use their mobile except for emergencies if they cannot pay the bill, or being made to go hungry until tea-time if they squander their dinner money on sweets.
“Children learning that the thing you do each month is save will end up doing it automatically – then the habit they have will be one that will help them.”
Parents may have a role to play by letting their children know how much things cost – such as spending on bringing them up.
Mums and dads carry out the equivalent of £32 billion worth of free taxi services for their offspring every year, according to research by Sainsburys Car Finance.