It's my guess that closing a credit card account with a zero balance is no big deal. I had a card once from a bank that went belly up. Hence, the card was closed, and it isn't a derogatory entry on my credit report.

The only time opening and closing activity may not be optimal is right before applying for a mortgage. They don't like to see any changes for six months to a year before an application. Voluntarily closing a card can - believe or not - lower your credit score because it changes that credit limit/balance ratio. And opening up new accounts looks bad because it appears to a mortgage officer that you are about to do some shopping.

Congrats on paying off a large medical bill in a year. That must have been tough.

I don't think it will be a huge problem, although credit unions are more picky than banks in approving credit cards in my experience. As far as your credit record goes, the WF account should just show up as closed, but not delinquent - you don't want a lot of closed accounts, but as long as you weren't late on payments it should look the same as if you closed the account. It will hurt your credit score a little, because now you're using more of your total available credit, but unless you've recently checked your credit score before this happened it's hard to see how much that was affected.

Your WF credit card was probably closed because you didn't use it very much. You were totally responsible about your personal finances, but banks have been closing inactive credit card accounts a lot the last few years - even for long-time customers with perfect credit. Banks generally don't give any notice before they do this - I would say protosaurus' example is an exception. It's a decision made by an algorithm, and whoever told you it was due to "mismanagement of other accounts" probably had nothing to do with the decision, and just wanted to get you off the phone.

If you do get another credit card, and you're not carrying a balance, you need to charge something at least once every month or two, and then pay off your balance monthly so you don't get charged interest. That way you're showing activity, and the lender is making a little money on the transaction fees. It also will look good on your credit. It doesn't have to be a lot - maybe $10 - $25 a month, something you would normally pay cash for. If for whatever reason you don't want to use the credit card like this, you might want to apply for a line of credit with your credit union - it's unsecured credit like a credit card, but is intended to be used as a safety net, like if you overdrew your checking account. You should definitely ask what happens in case of fraud, like if someone got access to your accounts - I think credit card accounts have more consumer protection for fraudulent charges than a line of credit account.

It's a good idea to check your credit before applying - you get a free report from each of the three credit bureaus once a year through annualcreditreport.com. (How to read your credit report at about.com is helpful for interpreting your report.) If you want to check your credit score, don't waste time paying for anything except your official FICO score - this is the score used by most lenders, and you can only get it at myfico.com. You can get it free with a credit monitoring trial, but don't forget to cancel the program before you get charged. You can get a rough idea of your FICO score for free through Credit Karma - they have a lot of helpful information about improving your credit, but they don't use the official FICO score. About.com has some info about how to Check your credit score online.

When you apply for credit, it probably doesn't matter whether you do it online or in person - it all goes through a program, and there's no opportunity to explain the circumstances. When I first joined BECU I applied for a credit card in person, and was denied; I got a letter with the reasons why, including an old delinquent account that was still on my credit report, and a phone number of a credit specialist at BECU I could call. I thought it was weird because I had a few credit cards from banks with great payment records for at least a couple of years at the time. I didn't bother calling, and then about a year later I was offered a line of credit with BECU and eventually a BECU Visa. They definitely pay attention to credit improvements.

It sounds like you've got a great recent credit history; I would be more worried about the past collection, because that will still show up. Make sure that it it shows up as paid on your credit reports - if it doesn't, get that fixed before applying with your credit union. If you do get denied, try calling and talking with the credit or loan specialist and see if they can help you. If you still get denied, try again in a year, or maybe apply for a credit card with a traditional bank.

I hope you are saving for emergencies - it's much better to have at least 6 months of living expenses saved up as a safety net instead of using credit cards. Even if you can't save very much at a time, save something every paycheck & keep it in a separate account, like an online savings account, if you're tempted to spend it. Once you save at least 6 months of total living expenses, keep saving & transfer money every once in awhile into another savings account fund for something like a dream vacation or health/dental expenses.

I'll let someone else speak to the financial realities but my guess is since you have other credit established and being paid off, opening a new line of revolving credit at your new bank won't be a big deal and your credit will be fine.

Having WF randomly kill your card is a yellow flag. Did you do a credit report on yourself? annualcreditreport.com gives you a free yearly one from all 3 places. You should double check WF didn't have other reasons for killing that card.

They should have, at bare minimum, sent you a bunch of crap in the mail about closing the account long before they actually did it. Even if you're totally paperless.

About 2 years ago I killed my WF checking/savings account but left a credit card open. After about a year of not using the card at all, they sent me a letter saying they were going to close it if I didn't use it within 2 months, but they'd give me 0% interest for a while if I did use it -- a little bribe.

No, they cannot. They can raise their prices, if they so choose, to compensate for and projected loss, but they cannot tack on an additional charge. Some businesses get clever by being "cash only" and installing an ATM, from which they actually make some money instead of losing it. Other ways they've been getting creative is by passing it off on their employees. For instance, I waited tables during college and my employer would deduct payment processing fees from my tips at the end of the night. Ridiculous, right? I also read recently about cab drivers in San Francisco (a city dear to my heart) having to cover the fees themselves, with many now saying they don't accept cards whatsoever and offer to drive riders to ATMS (which riders of course must pay for in mileage and waiting time) to cover the fare. Source: http://www.creditcardprocessing.net/san-francisco-taxi-drivers-upset-about-processing-fees/

Truthfully, I don't think Visa or Mastercard or whoever else should be making more than 1 cent per swipe. It's not like the technology is cutting edge or anything. Just a simple swap of digits.

While technically banks don't cash checks after 3 or 4 months, that is NOT always the case. So it's quite possible she COULD cash this check. But calling the old roommate first is definitely the courteous thing to do. Sadly, many folks do not balance checkbooks/keep good registers, and so just trust their ATM or online balance (eep!) and so cashing it without calling first is kind of slimey.

It would be best to call the former roommate and ask if she could trade her the old check for a current one.

Call the old roomate before cashing it , not everyone has alot of cash in their account if they're living paycheck to paycheck and if she forgot about it it might cause her account to overdraw which will cause way more drama. Be nice and explain that it had been lost but point out that it was for something that was covered if she throws a fit

The bank won't cash a check more than 90 (or 120, depending on the account or the bank) days past the date it is written.

I found two references to acoustigraphs online, but the authors don't seem to agree on what the machine does. The first (from a Google Books result that does not look terribly well researched) claims that an acoustigraph is set up underwater and can be used to search for "the telltale signs of sonar."

The second is a patent filed in 1929 for a device that looks like it might be an early teleprompter. The timing would be about right for your mystery company. Here's the patent: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/1985253.pdf

Standard & Poor used to have a service that provided books with every publically-traded corporation from 1904 onward and its fate (bankruptcy or merger). Ask somebody at the library.

Hit the tacoma library. They may have something on microfiche that hasn't gotten entered into databases. Also they probably know local historians. I would assume it has something to do with drawing sound ( like how seismic maps are made) you might also try contacting some people at uw or burke museum or mohi if the company got formulated into another company they may have some leads on where they were incorporated
You need to find the nerds with books not the geeks on the net for combing through old records

I know this might be contrarian, but you aren't required to purchase accounting software, especially if you are the sole proprietor for a small service-based business.

Right now I'm taking accounting courses at community college, and I've done some very simple bookkeeping in the past. Before you make any decisions in this area, find a good CPA - ask people you know with similar businesses for recommendations. They could help you decide what system would work for you. For example, do you want to learn how to do your own bookkeeping? Or do you want to just turn everything over to someone else? If you'd rather focus on therapy and building your business, it might be worth it to you to just turn everything over to a professional.

If you do turn everything over, the CPA (and/or their bookkeeper) will probably set up a company file for you on Quickbooks. They'll do all the data entry, reconcile your checking account, and give you reports on where the business stands. They can also do your taxes. It might seem expensive, but don't skimp on this. You'll probably only have a few hours of bookkeeping per month to begin with.

In the future, you could always buy a copy of Quickbooks, use the company file the CPA has been using, and do your own bookkeeping. Even though Quickbooks can be used like a check register, I highly recommend you learn some basic small business accounting before you take over. Look for a CPA who can provide training or give you recommendations. They'll still check your books, but you can send them an accountant's copy of your Quickbooks file.

If you want to take classes, you could take Acct 110 (Intro to Bookkeeping) and Acct 131 (Quickbooks) at either North or South Community Colleges. They are often offered online, or look for similar courses that focus on bookkeeping for sole proprietorships. You should be able to find classes tailored for people who want to start their own businesses; this is another good question to ask for recommendations.

I do agree with everyone else so far that Quickbooks is the most widely-used software, so if you do buy something get a basic version of Quickbooks. I find that it's easier to use than Peachtree - the screens and menus are less cluttered in Quickbooks. You could register for the 30-day free trial of Quickbooks Online and see what you think - I think you have to give them your credit card number though.

Good Luck!

We've been using Quickbooks for over a decade, and it has the largest marketshare of small businesses. This means that there are also tons of websites, youtube videos, and other businesses offering training/etc. Those with actual accounting backgrounds get annoyed with it, as it has a few quirks. But it's been around for so long, that any accountant knows how to work with it. And it IS pretty user friendly.

Regardless of what you choose, the most important factor is going to be initially setting up your company correctly. If you have any CPA or bookkeeping friends, I'd lean heavily on them for help. Otherwise, it may be worthwhile to pay someone to help. Although, if your business is just service based, and you've just got some basic hourly charges/etc, this may not matter as much (if you've got a variety of goods and services to sell, you need to make sure that you get things in the proper categories (expense, income, cost of goods, longterm liability, equity, etc). The initial Quickbooks tutorial/walkthrough is pretty helpful about explaining/helping you choose, actually. And if you're starting out small/low-volume, you'll probably be fine. So I guess I've changed my mind while typing this paragraph. While still helpful to have a professional assist you in setting up the company, you'll probably be okay without that. *smile* The more accurately you set it up, the more you can trust/utilize the built-in reports (profit & loss, balance sheet, accounts receivable, etc).

So, as I ramble/type out my thoughts, I think you'll be happiest with Quickbooks. And it's utilized so heavily, there will be many friends/acquaintances familiar with the system to help. Plus, there is a HUGE variety of websites and other resources for tutorials and help.

Intuit (the makers of Quickbooks) will want you to spend a ton of cash on a specialized edition (contractor edition, etc) but I'm guessing the basic will probably suit your needs. Also, check retailmenot.com for a coupon code before making your final purchase at the intuit website. Then price check that with some of the office supply stores. Often it's cheaper, but sometimes Costco can beat them.

Oh, Intuit likes to "sunset" each QB program after 3 years, and they lean heavily on you to upgrade. Many businesses feel forced to do this because they use the internal email system to send pdf files of estimates and invoices. But know that there's a great FREE program PDFCreator http://www.pdfforge.org/download that will set up as one of your printers. So then, you can choose the "printer" named PDF Creator and save each document as a PDF. Then you have the freedom to email your documents without having to buy new software within 3 years. (Doesn't matter now...you're welcome to use the free QB email service, but just wanted you to know for the future).

I don't consult in this area but our firm has folks that do, plus I talk to lots of businesses in my job including about what systems they run. QuickBooks is the most popular accounting product by far.

It works best when used in a very small org, doing one type of business. It isn't good at handling multiple company records (this could happen, you never know). It also has the ability to unpost transactions which can be a liability in a larger org as it makes it easier for someone in a larger org to be able to steal and cover their tracks .

There are a lot of Quick Books consultants available through the Ibtuit site, and courses should be pretty readily available for this product at community colleges I would think.

Microsoft also has a small business accounting package you could look into.

Look into services through XE.

I transfered a substantial payment of funds across different currencies using their services quite a while ago and thought it went smoothly and at reasonable cost. You may want to monitor exchange rates to secure the most advantageous time to do the transfer.

www.XE.com

Paypal? I use it all the time though never from Italy. Still, it ought to work.

When my wife bought a car 30 years ago, she specifically asked for a plan that would allow her to pay it off early without penalty. She frequently would pay more than the minimum amount, and as a result, cut two years off the loan.

When she made her final payment, she called for the payoff amount, and received the quote. She wrote a certified check for the amount, and printed "Paid in Full" on the check with the account number as instructed.

Sure enough, she received the clear title to her car from GMAC and was very pleased...until the phone calls started coming from various levels at GMAC asking her to pay the additional amount of interest that she had eliminated by paying off two years early.

She pointed out that they had cashed the final check, based upon their quote of the total amount due, and that the check was marked "Paid in Full". She refused to pay anything more.

The calls continued, with people trying to tell her, "don't you feel that you ought to pay us our money...", "Gee, you're putting americans out of work," and "You're violating the contract we agreed to based upon your paying this extra interest to finance the loan..."

Finally, she'd had enough and let the manager know that if they continued to call or contact her, she would go to the local media and file a harassment suit against them considering she owned the car free and clear, and what they were doing was basically unwarranted, illegal harassment to extort money from her. She said the next call would provoke legal action against the manager specifically unless he took positive action to stop the calls and cancel the account.

She never heard from them again.
I know this is not a federal student loan, but the point is people can and do fight the system and get what they deserve for living up to their obligations and paying their bills early. It's worth a try.

If i remember correctly if you are paying a federal direct loan there are two options in making additional payments one (default) is that the extra will be applied to your next bill, ie if your monthly payment is $50 and you pay $100 the bill for the next month should be $0 Or you can select an option to apply extra payment to principle.

Hope this helps

I haven't tried this myself, but I have heard that you should make any extra payment with a separate check, sent with a letter instructing the lender/administrator to apply it to the principle only. You should make sure that you're current on your monthly payment first, or they may ignore your instructions. So, if you pay on the first of the month, send your extra payment and instruction letter on the fifteenth.

If you give this a try, let us Qlanders know if it worked.

Assuming that you are working with a Federal Direct Loan (http://www.direct.ed.gov) it appears that they have a specifically defined set of repayment plans with interest rates related to the length of the repayment period. There are also some plans that can be used by a student repaying their own loans that adjust to income being earned (not available for parent signed loans), http://www.direct.ed.gov/RepayCalc/dlindex2.html

Because you would be in one of those defined repayment plans they are treating the extra money being sent against the overall interest you are scheduled to pay. If you continued like this, I assume, they would inform you that your payments would end earlier but you would still end up paying the original plan amount, just over a quicker time. In short, it doesn't appear that they are prepared to apply any over payment to the loan principal and therefore lessen your overall amount paid. Read the descriptions of the plans and see how your loan payment program is structured.

Most of the site is aimed at how folks can deal with not being able to meet their repayment schedule and not paying it off early, so a phone call is probably is your best source of information, http://www.direct.ed.gov/callus.html

Having said that I should warn you that my own experience in talking to call center folks with the Direct Loan program is that you cannot trust the information you get. Try calling several times and ask the same question and see if you consistently get the same answer before you believe it. I would suggest you ask for any specific information about early repayment in writing from them also (always ask for a printout to be mailed to you so you have proof in your files).

I bet that it isn't possible to just send in extra when you can and expect it to be applied directly to the loan principal. My guess is you can restructure your payment plan but it would require you to pay more each month consistently. There may also be a way to pay off a sizable lump sum off principal and restructure the loan as a one time deal (like if you got an inheritance).

Bankruptcy is meant for those people who find themselves in a whole so deep that they will not realistically be able to climb out of it given their current/future earnings.

Many bankruptcies result from medical expenses. This is tragic and an outrage and it is unfortunate that sometimes the only solution is bankruptcy. In these cases it's the best alternative and their should be no stigma attached.

Another source of bankruptcy is excessively easy credit. In these cases bankruptcy makes sense if you are so overburdened that there is no way to climb out. i.e. you are paying credit card companies huge interest over years. Unfortunately, we all end up paying for this kind of bankruptcy and better planning/discipline could often prevent it. This kind of bankruptcy should have some kind of stigma because easy credit is not an excuse for bad management. But it's also wrong for credit companies to provide this kind of access/temptation and then gouge people. Often credit companies will negotiate these without the need to go to bankruptcy - especially if that is a looming threat.

There is a penalty for bankruptcy and their should be otherwise it would be a get-out-of-debt-free card. Your ability to get future credit will suffer. You can get it, but it will be much harder. That's probably a good thing since it will force you to live within your means. But so much of todays commerce is credit oriented that it can be somewhat debilitating.

If your debt is based on circumstances that will not change and you are paying outrageous amounts of interest to credit companies who won't renegotiate then you should consider it.

Personal bankruptcy is unfairly stigmatized; there are many scenarios in which it is a very helpful option for serious individuals who wish to get their financial house in order.

A good way to learn whether it is viable for your specific circumstances is to attend the King County Bar Association's free "Make Change" clinic. I recently attended a session with a friend (true!) and can recommend it without hesitation as a tool for evaluating one's personal debt obligations, and specifically, identifying which of the multiple type of bankruptcy filings might be a good fit.

As an added bonus, my pal felt confident enough about one of the presenting attorneys to hire him for his case, and very affordably, I might add.

Don't let fear or shame get in the way of informing yourself about the options. A high percentage of personal bankruptcies are followed by a lifetime of responsible financial behavior. Good luck!

I've got a couple of WA GET plans for my kids. It used to be a great deal, but now it's not. The idea is that it appreciates at the same rate as school tuition of the most expensive Washington school (typically UW). If UW tuition goes up 30%, then the value of your GET plan goes up 30%. If you have enough money in there for one year of tuition in 2011, then you still will have enough for one year in 2025, or whenever your kid goes to school. It was also nice in that it was completely flexible for in-state, out-of-state, or vocational tuition, and could also be used for books, room-and-board, etc.

But, there's a catch. Thanks to massive state spending cuts, UW tuition has been going up at astronomical rates each year --- 20%, 30%, etc. Since there's no possible way for an investment fund to guarantee that rate of return (especially in this economy), the cost of paying into the plan is now much higher than what you can pull out. 

One GET unit (100 units is equivalent to a year's tuition) is now worth $102, but it costs you $163. This is a whopping 60% markup! Just a couple of years ago, this was more like a 10% markup, and you'd more-or-less recover that in a year or so, and you could count on a 7-8% per year average annual return thereafter. Now, it's more like 10 years before you recover the initial mark-up, which renders the entire plan useless. It's our fine state's passive-aggressive way of killing the program without actually killing the program.

So, now I'm shopping around for a different plan ...

I realize that I didn't really answer your question, other than squashing the idea of starting a GET plan. I'm curious to hear other answers.

Hi Grant. Have you tried contacting your creditors directly and negotiating a settlement? Debt consolidators and credit counselors can't actually do anything for you that you can't do for yourself right now. (Debt consolidators tend to waste everyone's time and accrue more interest for you without lowering your payments at all.) Cut out the middlemen and try to negotiate for a lower total payment or at least a schedule of smaller monthly payments. You'll have better luck doing this with medical bills and credit card debt. Student loans are going to be a tougher row to hoe.

Mr. Rickibot works in collections, and he always appreciates it when debtors call in with realistic settlement offers that his clients will go for. Offering to settle at 10 cents on the dollar is not realistic, but maybe 75 cents on the dollar is. Your bill payments will still hurt, but they'll hurt less. Be upfront about what you can truly afford, and you'll be more likely to come to an agreement over a reduced amount or a less heinous payment schedule. Ask about claiming hardship status if that applies to your situation. Otherwise, do as Dan Williams suggests and schedule a consult with a bankruptcy attorney. Contrary to popular belief, declaring bankruptcy is not a financial death sentence. It can be a relief just to know what your options are. Good luck, man.

529 Plans appear more complicated than they really are. First of all they are set up by states, so pretty much every state has one or more plans. WA has one, called GET and it's pretty lame.

The general rules with 529 Plans are that you can live in any state, get a plan from any other state and then use the proceeds for a school in any third state. Some plans require you be a resident, but most don't.

The key thing with choosing a plan is making sure it managed by a reputable firm with a good investment track record and that the investment strategy is adapted to fit the age of the child as she/he nears college age (i.e. reducing risk over time).

I ended up choosing Michigan's plan because it has an excellent track record over 1/3/5 years. Is managed by TIAA-CREF, has a very low fee structure (less than most), is easily transferable to other plans/states if desired (haven't tried that yet), and provides flexible/small minimum contributions which can be easily set up on a monthly basis if desired.

I know that both BECU and SMCU offer small business accounts and loans. I'm assuming that most credit unions also offer small business loans. Have you asked any credit unions if they can help you?

You have to remember that even the biggest credit unions, like BECU, are tiny compared to the big banks. They are generally geared to individual accounts, so I think they are more likely to help a current member get a loan to open a small business or buy a house or car. Also credit unions do not offer as much credit as banks in my experience, so I imagine the same would be true with business loans. If you have something to put up as collateral for the loan, I think you would have a better chance with a credit union.

As a credit union member, I'm glad they are more prudent than the big banks in extending credit.

Somebody else asked a similar question here a while ago, and I recommended they try Express Credit Union (see "Credit union for bad credit folk?" here). Maybe you could ask tournant directly if they checked it out.

I don't have any personal experience with Express, but part of their mission is to serve low-income people and help people who currently do their banking at check-cashing places save money. I would hope that they would be able to help you open an account and get some good credit on your history. They only have one branch in SODO, but once you open an account you can use shared branching/atms to do your banking.

There are a lot of credit unions around, so look for one or two that have branches close to you and go in and talk to someone. If you get turned down again, ask if there is anything you can do - opening a savings account like Tom suggested, or maybe getting a co-signer. But don't try every place in town - I don't know if trying to open a bank account is like trying to open a credit card account, but a lot of inquiries will make your credit score a little worse.

If you strike out with the credit unions you try, you might want to look at community banks. I know that Homestreet has really good customer service. Or you might have to stay at your current bank (I'm assuming you have an account with a big bank) until your credit improves. That might mean waiting a long time for the bill in collections to fall off your credit record (7 years, even if you pay it off). I had bad credit for a long time because I had a medical bill go to collections when I was 19; I was finally able to get a credit card as a student a few years later but I don't know how easy it is to get a student card these days.

At first, your situation sounded unlikely, but a quick google search turned up a few other people reporting that credit unions sometimes do this. However, it looks like the policy differs from credit union to credit union, so it's worth trying others.

I would try Watermark Credit Union first. If they deny you, ask if it's possible to get just a share account (this is the CU equivalent of a savings account). This would probably come with a debit card you could use for most transactions, and you could probably even use their online bill-pay system to pay for things that require a check. (Watermark's bill-pay system will actually mail a bank check to a payee if it can't do an electronic payment.)

If they let you start with just a share account, they might eventually let you open a regular checking account as well.

If Watermark denies you, try all the other credit unions.

We pay a flat rate for utilities in our rental unit; when calculating to see if we were going to be ripped off or not we found that:

With a flat rate of $75 per person per month we found that we would over pay in the summer but under pay in the winter.

Our flat rate includes Seattle City Light (electric bill), Seattle Public Utilities (water/garbage/yardwaste/recycle) Puget Sound Energy (natural gas bill).

This is just a generalization of 4 twenty-somethings living together. Our house has a full sized garbage bin and a full sized yardwaste bin (multi dwelling property with 9 people total). You guys could get the half sized ones to save money. You can throw a lot of your kitchen food waste into the yardwaste bin for municipal composting including raw meat and greasy pizza boxes.

If I remember correctly from back when the utilities were in our own names, our every two month electricity bill was only like $60-70.

Have you looked at apartment prices? Might as well try to rent a house. During the summer you'll love your yard.