Hot Finance Tips

Filed under: Bank of America, Real Estate, Credit, Banking, Personal Finance

Bank of America representatives clad in red polo shirts manned the entrances to the Marriott’s 11th floor in midtown Manhattan on a recent Thursday. Tables were stocked with ballpoint pens and breath mints. Signage in English and Spanish pointed distressed New York City-area homeowners and their families to the registration desk, and onward through a flow of rooms that contained all the resources required to arrange a loan modification, get counseling, or make a plan to transition out of a home they could no longer afford.

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Filed under: Credit, Consumer Ally, Debt

The reverse mortgage was invented decades ago to help seniors facing economic hardship access the equity in their homes. Between 1990 and 2010, more than 660,000 reverse mortgages were issued, according to the AARP. Today, the products are aggressively marketed through ads featuring Boomer-friendly spokespeople such as Henry Winkler (the Fonz from Happy Days). But these products are complicated, expensive and ripe for abuse, which lead a reader named Fred to ask:

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Filed under: Insurance

So, let’s assume you did the right thing in getting insurance to protect yourself against those times when Mother Nature comes knocking. Your next challenge may be getting the insurance company to pony up the cash instead of trying to deny your claim.

“Families will have to dig deeper into their pockets, because insurers have been steadily increasing hurricane wind coverage deductibles and imposing other policy limitations,” said J. Robert Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America and former federal insurance administrator and Texas insurance commissioner, in a prepared statement.

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Filed under: Insurance, Video, Travel

Hurricane Irene’s swath through the Caribbean this week probably left many of the no-longer paradise-bound wondering: Should I have taken out travel insurance?

Gabe Saglie, senior editor for the deal publishing site Travelzoo, doesn’t often buy travel insurance, but this time of year makes him think twice, he told DailyFinance.

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Filed under: Economy, Insurance

In 1932, Wisconsin enacted the first state unemployment insurance plan in response to the Great Depression. Three years later, President Franklin Roosevelt established a program on a national level as part of Social Security legislation. Today, unemployment insurance available in all states, providing money for out-of-work adults and is funded by both federal and state taxes. Yet for most people who have lost their jobs, those unemployment checks are hardly enough to cover all the family bills.

This month, a private company, Assura, unveiled IncomeAssure, supplemental unemployment insurance designed to partially fill the gap between what workers receive from state unemployment and what they need. The policies add to what the state provides, bringing a worker a total of 50% of their lost income for up to 24 weeks.

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Filed under: Insurance

With Hurricane Irene poised to hit U.S. shores this week, memories of Katrina, Ike, Hugo and Andrew are made fresh.

Nor is Irene likely to be our lone reason for weather worries. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently updated its outlook for the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season (which runs through Nov. 30), raising the expected number of named storms to a range from 14 to 19, up from the 12 to 18 it earlier projected.

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Filed under: Insurance

Debbie Saathoff, 62, of Bowie, Md., says she heard a giant cracking sound first. Then the pictures flew off the walls and vases on shelves came tumbling down and smashed as her home moved back and forth. “It was the scariest thing I have been through,” she said hours after a rare earthquake rattled the Eastern Seaboard Tuesday. “I’ve never felt one before.”

Fairly strong earthquakes in two areas of the country where they rarely strike provided the nation with a seismic double whammy this week. Tuesday afternoon’s 5.8 magnitude temblor, based in Virginia, was felt in New York City and farther north, and on Monday night, a 5.3 magnitude quake struck southeast Colorado. The United States gets shaken by about 5,000 quakes strikes each year, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

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Filed under: Wells Fargo & Co, Banking

A new report emerged Tuesday that Wells Fargo (WFC) will begin charging some customers $3 every month to use their debit card — further indication that banks are putting on the squeeze as new swipe-card regulations are set to take effect.

Wells Fargo already sent letters to customers in Georgia, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon and Washington that the fees will begin Oct. 14, according to MyBankTracker.com. That’s just two weeks after Federal Reserve-mandated rules slash the amount banks can charge retailers for every debit card purchase. Regulators reduced the maximum bank take on each transaction from 44 cents to 24 cents.

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Filed under: Investing, Real Estate, Freddie Mac, Family Money, Personal Finance, Debt

Many homeowners who are refinancing their mortgages have been abandoning 30-year fixed-rate loans for 15-year and 20-year loans.

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Filed under: Real Estate, Ask an Expert, Family Money, Is It Worth It?, Personal Finance, Debt

Some homeowners in their 50s are taking advantage of historic low rates to refinance their homes and score themselves a mortgage-free retirement.

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