| Use equity for friend with credit-card debt? Be careful
My friend has several credit-card accounts totaling more than $35,000 in debt. My friend has a steady, well-paying job. But the debt-to-income ratio is too high for the banks, so a personal loan could not be approved and tapping into home equity is out of the question. I have considered using my home-equity line of credit to help, but am very concerned about putting myself into that situation. It's a close friend, but someone whom I have known only for a couple of years. I'm also concerned about how this might appear to family and other friends. I do trust my friend and I want very much to help. I am looking for advice that will really help my friend and still keep me in a financially good position. _ Dan Dear Dan, Your intuition was right on when you became concerned about risking your home and financial well-being to help a close friend.
Success for unfairly treated bank customers
More than eight out of ten people have successfully reclaimed money from their banks due to unfair overdraft charges, new research claims. According to Which?, 85 per cent of its 2,200 survey respondents had a portion of the money they claimed for refunded. But the consumer watchdog insists that the proportion should be closer to 100 per cent if customers persisted with their banks. Emma Bandey, personal finance campaigner at Which?, said: "Claiming back unfair bank charges is a simple process that won't take up hours of your time. "If your bank does not co-operate, you should refer the case to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) as so far the banks have chosen to settle all cases referred to FOS." According to Which?, more than two-thirds of Britons with bank accounts have been affected by unfair overdraft charges.
Ex-pastor accused of bilking member
HOLLY HILL -- About two years ago, Robert N. Riddle came to Ridgewood Avenue Community Church, a tiny congregation seeking stability and growth.
Parishioners were impressed by Riddle's charisma and energy. They even lent him $300,000 for a twin-engine plane.
Now, Riddle is in a Georgia jail, accused of bilking an elderly parishioner out of $80,000. The church's finances are a mess, and its bank accounts are frozen as an investigation widens into spending under Riddle.
The new pastor of the roughly 20-member church off Ridgewood Avenue doesn't even know how he will pay the bills.
His high hope for Easter Sunday service: raising enough to make ends meet.
"Right now, between past and current bills, we need $10,000,'' said the Rev.
Child-care lobby MIA
To give credit where credit is due, the Doer government has increased funding for child care significantly since its first budget in 2000. Annual funding has more than doubled to over $100 million -- well before any Liberal plan. About 4,500 new spaces have been fully funded since 2002. The increases were paid for, in part, by transfers such as equalization payments and the CST. And contrary to the partisan fearmongering made by the MCCA during the last federal election, child-care fees have not risen. There's no reason why the Doer government couldn't increase child-care funding further given the substantial hike in transfers announced by the Harper government last month. In fact, I fully expect the Doer government to boost child-care funding in today's budget.
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