Hi sweet thing, When you have zero owing on the card, then buy something and pay off the balance owing in full after you get the statement and well before the due date, in order to avoid the problem of them not receiving it in time, there is no interest to pay. Supposedly, you're using their money ... at no fee. But they're not in a hurry to pay off the stores ... and the stores must pay a fee (which every customer, including the ones buying for cash, helps pay for). Not only that - the store owner has money in hand instantly from cash customers, doesn't wait for 6 weeks or so to see money. And his staff wouldn't like to recccceive a prommmmmis-sorry notttte, payyyyable in 6 weeeeeks, when paycheque is due tonight (or have the paycheque bounce)! When you pay only part of the balance owing by the due date and leave part of the debt unpaid till later, the credit card company begins to charge interest (at that high rate) beginning at the date of the purchase. I've heard that some charge it on the full amount that was owed at the time of purchase, through until the amount is fully paid off. A while ago I'd not paid off my balance owing by the due date, so had some interest to pay, and added an estimated amount to cover that. On my next statement, I was owing ... one ... red ... cent! That, if they were paying full rate, would have cost $0.52 for the stamp ... but, even at the reduced bulk rate, it was costing them a substantial amount to send the letter. I called ... to find out whether they were charging interest on the full amount that I'd owed, or only the unpaid balance, and the guy assured me that they charged only on the unpaid balance. Actually ... the gal that I'd talked to first cancelled the one cent owing! So ... don't tell me that credit card issuing agencies are *totally* heartless! If you transfer a balance, often there is a transfer fee. Sometimes the company into which it is being transferred will pay it, but not often. Be careful when you do - don't make any new purchases on the card into which the balance was transferred, for in most cases, the total amount that you pay monthly goes to pay off that transferred amount, on which they are not making any reurn. In the meantime, your new purchases are having nothing paid off on them, but are racking up interest every month (and interest on the unpaid interest) until the total amount that you transferred is paid off. Which results in you having a balance owing, with a good deal of interest added on, that has to be paid off (usually at a fairly high rate). So - when you transfer a balance, check before you transfer whether there's a transfer fee. And once transferred, make sure that you make no new purchases on the card into which the balance was transferred until the transferred balance is paid in full ... ... unless that card's regular interest rate is lower than that on other cards that you carry. Usually you make an application ... ... and when they accept you and send your card ... ... that's when you get to see the agreement. Be sure to read all of the small print. And it would be smart to ask them for a copy of the agreement before you sign the application ... if you're going to buy a pig in a poke, better make sure that at least it's not a wild pig! Good wishes to get your credit repaired. It's a lot more pleasant to boss your dollars rather than letting them boss you. Then, later, having some cushion on hand, to cover things in case of an emergency, helps keep blood pressure in check, as well! So it's smart to build up an emergency fund. More wiggle room in case of trouble. Unemployemnt and such unpleasant experiences. ole joyful

Greetings Eric ... and others, Prime plus 3 sounds attractive on a credit card, on an ongoing basis. I'd want to negotiate quite a lot lower on a fully secured Line of Credit, though. Though I recommended that clients have 3 - 6 mos. income fairly quickly available in case of emergency, once they got that established, and were safely established on a regular program of savings, sometimes I'd suggest my own plan. Early on, use a money market account or certificate of deposit maturing in a few months as repository of the money. Have a credit card(s) to use immediately for an emergency, paying off the balance from money market account or when one of the short-term instruments came due but the difference in interest rates meant that one didn't want the interval to be very long or the (taxable) interest earned would be totally eaten up by the (almost always non-deductible) interest on the credit card account. When they'd established some cushion like that, I'd suggest that they use current savings to get some equity-based mutual funds, having certificates issued for them, taking them to the bank to use them as collateral for a fully-secured line of credit. Then, as the interest-bearing instruments matured, I'd have them gradually buy more mutual funds, using the certificates to increase the limit on the line of credit available in case of need. My plan would be to allow this line of credit to sit unused, available when I have an emergency and use the credit cards, to borrow at low rate to pay off the credit card balance in full when the bill comes in. When one uses equity-based mutual funds as collateral for a line of credit, seldom will the lender agree to a credit limit more than 50% of the value of the underlying asset, e.g. $6,000. of mutual fund value, they'll lend up to $3,000. I don't want to borrow near that amount, for if the value of the equities goes down in a falling market, e.g. $6,000. drops 16% to $5,000., ... then the lender will only lend $2,500. If you've borrowed more than that, e.g. $2,700., they'll want at least $200. (usually more like $300. - 400., for some extra cushion) or more equities worth at least $400., (often more like $600.) ... and they want the extra by later today ... tomorrow at the latest. Markets often drop by 20%, fairly often by 25%, even up to 30% or so. No way do I want to put myself at such risk ... and even less do I want that for my clients! I think it best to buy investments regularly as one makes the savings. When prices are low, an equal number of dollars buys more, and when prices are high, fewer. After I've built an equity-based line of credit large enough that I think it's substantially more than double the amount that I may need in case of emergency, when I make some more savings, and buy some more equity-based mutual funds, I have the certificates issued. After I have a few thousand dollars' worth, then I may use them to establish a second line of credit. As I may borrow against this second line of credit to buy more equity investments, the reason for having it separate is that the interest cost is deductible when I use the proceeds of the loan for investing. When the market is low, I may draw on the line of credit to buy more assets, often agreeing to pay interet-only from month to month, letting the loan run for a period. As the market recovers, I'm inclined to use current savings partly to pay interest on the loan and partly to buy more assets especially early on. As the market gets higher, I'm inclined to use more of the current savings near home, paying not only interest month by month, but paying off some of the principal, as well. The idea is to get the loan pretty well paid off as the market is high, makes a top and begins moving down, with the intention of having it all paid off when the market has partly retreated to a lower level once more. Then using regular savings to buy more assets again, and possibly using the line of credit again when the market is low. As this program takes some time to become established, it is my desire that my clients may learn more about the markets and feel more comfortable in using them. Most mutual fund managers charge management fees of about $1.00 in average growth of the investor's assets of about $6.00. When one considers that about 85 - 90% of them do not manage to outperform the market averages, one feels that there may be a good possibility that the individual investor might be well advised to do his/her own managing, putting at least part of the management fee into his/her own pocket. As their knowledge grows, I hope that they will become able to buy Exchange Traded Funds, which are similar to equity mutual funds, buying a basket of a number of stocks in various segments of the market ... but at far lower management fees. In this area, they won't issue certificates for these. Later, as the investor's skill and experience grows, to choose to buy individual stocks directly: a fee to buy, a fee to sell ... but no fees during the intervening years. They can also be used as collateral, if the investor chooses ... but one would want to have them issued only for a stock where one had a substantial holding, for the brokerage charges $35. - 50. to issue each certificate. Good wishes for increasing skill at making your income achieve better results and making your assets work more effectively. ole joyful

The buyer is a 1st time buyer using USDA financing. I was told her lease ends June but if closing is July 1st, she'd have to be moved out by July 1st so I think requesting a June 1st close is reasonable? That's still almost 60 days out. My couch/loveseat were custom ordered after spending 2 months trying to find a set I liked. I spent 4 months with nowhere to sit. (prior set sold almost immediately) They go with me, period. Thank you for pointing out the privacy possibility. All except the sliding glass door do have blinds or roman shades but I created a home office for myself in the basement by hanging curtains from the ceiling and those may be the ones she really wants. The only curtains I really care about are the ones on two of my windows in the living room. It took me a good 6 months to find those curtains. However my new place has many windows with no blinds or shades of any kind so while it was going to be temporary, I was planning on using many of the curtains from here until I had blinds put in.

"I'm asking for a specific citation to one federal reg or statute. I know I've had a charges processed for specialty items and custom orders from several reputable merchants that have required at least a deposit to be charged prior to processing an order. If you can't produce the citation to the "federal law" that says a merchant can't charge a cc until the goods are shipped, I'm just going to assume you made an uneducated statement and are trying to worm your way out by going on the offensive and changing the subject. If you do produce it I'll be woman enough to apologize too. 'nuff said." It was originally based in the postal regulations for mail order merchandise. Special order items are exempted since the order is considered placed at that moment, and there are some other outs if notice is given for 'special order' type items and even things that are presented as 're-payment' required. The CFR is thousands of pages long, and while I am forced to delve through it occasionally (I deal with ITAR and the FAR on a painfully regular basis) I get paid to spend that time.