USAinDebt

This 2-year old story came up on CNN again this morning: In 2005, Pedro Zapeta, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala tried to leave the country with $59,000 in his duffel bag. At that time, U.S. customs seized all of his money.

Pedro, who doesn’t speak English has worked illegally in the US for 11 years, earning about $5.50 per hour, being a dishwasher. The Guatemala native said that he didn’t know that he is supposed to declare any sum larger that $10,000. He did, however acknowledge that he was working illegally and has never paid taxes. “They are treating me like a criminal when all I am is a working man,” he said.

Zapeta had two attorneys working on his problems: one trying to get his money back, and the second one handling his immigration case. Federal prosecutors have offered Pedro to take $10,000 of the original cash seized, plus almost $10,000 of donations. He said “no”.

Last week, Pedro has given official status in the US. He can now work and reside in the country until his deportation in January of 2008. “I no longer feel good about this country.” Zapeta said of the end of his interview.

Tags: zapeta | cnn | illegal immigration

If you have missed the recent financial world news coverage, here’s an update on the “hot” topic: the U.S. dollar continues to lose value on the world market. How far will the depreciation go?

Since 2001, the depreciation of the US dollar against EUR and other currencies has been causing growing concerns in the world market. America’s currency is slowly but surely losing value: At the end of 2005, a record USD EUR exchange rate of 1.3623 was reached; For the year of 2006, the United states currency lost 11% versus EUR. USD value has been gradually declining for the current year. Depreciation reached 5.3% against the euro and 7.3% against the yen. Last week, since the Federal Reserve cut interest rates the dollar has been sliding even more. Yesterday, it fell to a record low, setting a record for the Canadian dollar, which was traded at $1.0091, hitting its highest in 31 years. British pound & Japanese yen followed the trend, jumping record high. Oil prices rose to a record $83.90 per barrel as well.

Tags: federal reserve | depreciation | eur | usd | yen

Silicon Valley Blogger posted a nice article on the million-dollar question “Should I rent or buy?”. Side-to-side comparison of your options and some good tips.

Rent vs Buy A House: How To Evaluate Your Options on The Digerati Life

Tags: rent | mortgage | digerati | homeowner

Fair Isaac & Co has developed FICO as a method of calculating how credit-worthy individuals are. It represents an individual’s “pay-ability” as a number, called a credit score. The FICO score is watched closely by lenders, insurers, landlords, employers, utility companies and other creditors. It helps determine credit interest rates, credit limits and credit eligibility.

FICO score is calculated on the base of credit history. Factors like income, race and gender are not taken into consideration in the scoring process. Different factory may affect the score: Amount of available and used credit; length of payment history; recent credit inquiries, quality of payment history (charge-offs, collection accounts & bankruptcy filings). FICO score ranges from approximately 300 to 850. A person with a 300-400 FICO will hardly obtain any credit. A slightly higher score, around the 500’s, will give access to credit, but still with high interest rates and fees. Individuals with FICO above 650 will have much better chance of getting good rates and larger lines of credit.

Some tips on raising you FICO score: Paying off credit cars & bills in full each month is your #1 priority. If you are not able to pay the cards in full at least pay a little bit more than the minimum payment.Reducing your debt will also help, since it will trim down your debt-to-income ratio. Not having sufficient credit can also reflect negatively, but be careful not to open too many accounts as well - try to raise the credit limit on your oldest credit lines instead.

Tags: fico | myfico | credit | interest | credit score

Defence Secretary Robert Gates is “inclined to approve” a nearly $3 billion investment, targeted to accelerate the Army’s growth plan. Army secretary Pete Geren is pushing the accomplishment of a planned 74,000 increase in four years rather than five, the total cost of which comes up to $2.8 billion in added personnel costs.

US Army Wants to Grow Faster at Forbes

Tags: army | robert gates | pete geren

0% on balance transfers! How many times have we seen the big “0″ on various flayers, TV commercials and posters? Probably a million. A lot of people get very excited when they receive a “0% APR on balance transfers” offer, because it can save them money with high-interest balances. Unfortunately, however, most of the time there is a “fine print”. And that is where it can get really ugly if you are not careful.

The first thing to watch for in a 0% AR transfer is the grace period. Usually you will be given a 0% APR for 6 or 12 months. This where you are saving - you won’t be paying interest for half an year or a whole year - it can spare you hundreds and even thousands on higher balances. But be careful - one missed payment on any of your credits (including mortgages, insurance, even a phone bill) can kill your 0% APR.

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Adam Pash at Lifehacker has published an interesting article with a bunch of tips on how to save some cash while shopping online. He also throws in some interesting websites to take a look at.

Become an Online Power-Shopper on LifeHacker.com

Tags: lifehacker | hackattack | save money | savings | online shopping

How many letters do you get in your mailbox per day? 2, 5, 10, 15? How many of them are the annoying “You are Approved” Prescreen Offers from banks, dealerships, cellphone companies, mortgage lenders et cetera et cetera? If you are really tired of getting tons of mail every day, there is this wonderful website, called OptOutPrescreen. Thanks to the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) you can opt-out of prescreen offers, which stops consumer credit reporting agencies from serving your information to the companies, that like to bombard you with junk mail.

You have a couple of choices: you can electronically opt-out for 5 years, you can permanently opt-out by mail or you can opt-in.

Visit OptOutPrescreen

Tags: prescreen | opt-out | pre-approved

USAinDebt just got updated with a whole bunch of new features added! You can now Digg every post by clicking on the big yellow “Digg it” button. On the bottom of each article there is a “BOOKMARK” button - if you mouse over it, you can add the post to your Yahoo, Google, Del.icio.us, Facebook and many more websites (if yours is not listed, just click on “more”). Comments now have the function to subscribe and be notified when a new comment is posted (valid email required, and check the box “subscribe” at the bottom). Smiles can also be inserted in comments - just click on the one that you want.

All RSS subscriptions are now handled by Feedburner, which makes is easier to subscribe trough you favourite reader. A spam-protected contact form is added as well. The Bogroll is currently expanding as we exchange links with other blogs, and more sites will be added soon. USAinDebt is already registered on many blog directories and it is slowly emerging in the search engines as well.

More updates and new features are to follow! You comments & suggestions a very very appreciated and helpful!

  Tags: usaindebt | update | digg | subscribe | rss | comments

Probably everybody have heard that there is something called 401(k), but a lot of you don’t know what it is. Well, 401(k) is a voluntary retirement investment plan, and in simple words that is money you save for retirement.

There are two types of 401 plans. There is a 401(k) and also a 401(k) SIMPLE (Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees). What makes them different is their allowances:

The SIMPLE plan is generally for companies that have 100 or less employees. Employees with SIMPLE can contribute maximum of $10000 per calendar year, or 12000 for individuals of age 50 and up. Employers are also required to contribute 2 to 3% employee contributions if SIMPLE 401(k) is offered.

Regular 401(k) plans (for companies with 100+ employees) allow workers to contribute up to $15500 per year, or 20500 for employees of age 50 and older. Employer matching is not required but most companies do match certain percentage.

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