Thursday, February 19, 2009

Listen Live to the Brian Lehrer Show

Going on at 10:40 am. You can listen here. Afterwards, I'll respond to questions on my blog.
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i just heard that you said to keep in constant contact with your credit card company, but i a different story.

i have been unemployed for a year, and i have been keeping up with my bills and i have never been late for my credit cards, and i have enough savings for a few months.

i called up bank of america to see what i can do with my credit card, because my interest rate went up to 23% from a promotional rate.

i told them that i was unemployed. they told me since i don't have a consistent income, they cannot do anything for me, but THEN they cut off all my credit with them. even though i have not used the credit with them.

i do have a huge amount of credit card debt in general, but i haven't ever been late with any payments. i called back to get an explanation and that guy said he could even close my entire account down. i'm not sure what to do, but i don't necessarily think you should call you credit card company and tell them you're unemployed.

8:11 AM
Anya said...

I am sorry for the way you were treated, and I didn't mean to leave the wrong impression.

If you're never late paying a card, you aren't making any money for the credit card company. Therefore, their incentive is to close your account, not to keep you by lowering your interest rate.

People who are behind on their bills are a different story because they are constantly paying the company fees and interest charges. That's how credit card companies make their money. Their incentive in that case is to possibly negotiate in order to keep you as a customer.

12:34 PM
Anonymous said...

Hi Anya,
Good to hear your advice on NPR. I wanted to ask for your advice on my graduate school loans. I have close to a quarter million dollar debt (very anxiety provoking)from medical school and currently am a resident; therefore deferring my repayment due to economic hardship. My loans are locked in between 3-4%. As I am coming to an end in residency and will be starting fellowship, should I try to squeeze a few dollars a month to start paying back over a 30 year period, or should I apply for forbearance and pay over a shorter time once I actually have a decent income?

8:04 AM

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