Hi orangecat, I am sorry that you've lost your loved one. That really hurts. And - how much more stressful it is when there are a bunch of money problems to deal with all at the same time. As for the (modest) insurance policy. Who is the named beneficiary of the policy? In almost all cases that person gets the proceeds of the insurance. If the designated beneficiary has died, quite likely the proceeds of the insurance will go to pay outstanding bills of that person's estate, or to one or other of his/her beneficiaries. It's important to find out whether the person dying has made arrangements for the funeral. Has s/he planned to donate organs to persons needing them? Or his/her body to a medical school? If arrangements haven't been made, it's the responsibility of the executor named in the will to make those arrangements and see to their implementation. Almost certainly the funeral home will want assurance of how they are to be paid before they'll agree to officiate. Do you have a Memorial Society in your area (look in the Yellow Pages, likely under Funeral Directors/Homes)? Or ask a local church, especially one (or a few) in a low-income area. They offer modest funeral services at a much reduced price. If the beneficiary of the insurance policy is a good-hearted person, perhaps s/he will allow at least part of the benefit to be used to pay for part of the funeral. If so, does that person or the deceased have a fairly strong connection with a religious congregation? If so, perhaps the congregation's ruling body would be willing to pass a contributon through to the funeral home. If so, when the beneficiary of the deceased's insurance makes the contribution to the church, s/he'll get a receipt, which in most jurisdictions is mostly tax-deductible. The congregation would agree to pass that money on to the funeral director concerned. That would mean that the donation would be tax-deductible rather than just a gift with no compensating material benefit to the donor. If you can't afford a funeral, most municipal governments can make arrangements to provide one. Does the deceased person have a will? One of the major provisions is to name an executor, whose responsibility it will be to collect whatever assets there may be, pay whatever bills s/he can, including income tax, of course, and if there are assets left, to distribute them according to the provisions of the will. The latter not a big problem in your situation, as you say. Most of us need one, but if there are no assets it isn't so necessary. Is there likely to be argument over the person's furniture, car, personal assets? If the person is still alive, it's important the s/he make a will. If there isn't one, dealing with the estate is delayed, gets quite complicated - and expensive, if there are assets. It would be helpful if they can let several persons (to forestall arguments later) close to him/her know whom s/he'd like to have which of her/his possessions - if it wouldn't be too traumatic to raise such a subject now/soon. Make a list - and have several persons have a copy (or know about the specific provisions, at least), if you anticipate having arguments. WHile these suggestions are generally true in many jurisdictions, I'd suggest that you check some people locally who are knowlesgeable in this area. Often religious congregations' leaders have some experience in it. My good wishes go out to you and your family through this trying time. ole joyful

I used to work in a bank; I ran credit reports daily, we looked at people's credit and scored it on our own system to determine their rates of loans etc we used to get two of the score then compute them with ours. Anyway, I learned a lot about credit reports. Here are things that affect your score: 1) too many open accounts. (it's a risk that you'll go off the deep end and start spending wildly or that you could be a victim of fraud) 2) address continually changes. Nobody looks at that but unless you're military, ability for creditors to contact you makes it difficult (part of my job was repossessing cars and also skip tracing people) 3) too many inquires on your credit. It's a red flag to creditors who think you are out to do a lot of stuff and about to become over burdened in debt you can't repay. So don't let every car dealer and dept store see if you're eligible etc for this or that deal. 4) too much credit card debt. What it is, is a balancing act. A good credit report will have say a mortgage, maybe a car and maybe one or two credit cards; if you have too much revolving debt, that's not good. 5) income to credit ratio should be balanced. In other words, if you make 20k a year, you should not have a very large amount of credit open to you (or debt to income ratio either) 6) charge off accounts. If you've not paid something and it goes into charge off status, you can bank on the creditor reopening your case and calling you just before the statute of limitations runs out. I HATE to say this publicly but I'm going to share a secret with you; do NOT pay it. Once you agree to pay back the debt, it goes back to open status and will remain on your credit report, for as long as it takes to pay if plus they can possibly (for a while anyway) see it was a charge off or delinquent. It's far better to NOT start payments again. 7) paying late - really, creditors will not judge you for a payment or two late. It shows up on there but they all know stuff happens. It's chronic lateness that's the problem. It's also 30-90 days overdue. We used to contact people at the 15 day past due mark to remind them and I used to give interest only extensions so they didn't go into 30 day and get reported to the credit bureau. So if you are late and can't pay, call the credit and arrange for interest only extension. You'll pay basically one month's interest extra and extend your loan an extra month. I hope that helps people. Oh and the longer you have credit but don't use it, the better. New credit is bad. And do NOT take out credit cards to save 10-20% one time. They have high interest rates, it's new credit, it's revolving, and it's a new inquiry... ding, ding, ding, ding... all bad.

YOu can call people on yahoo im for free with no magic jack. The catch is you both have have im downloaded on computer and then you click the call their computer button. There is an option to call their home or cell but there is a charge for this. Calling their computer is free and you talk over the computer. Not very convienent if you want to move around while you talk. I pay 65 amonth for one ATT cell, 13.99plus tax for my landline with no "free" long distance and another 20 for my dsl. I had a gophone b4 I went to contract and I was using so many minutes and having to pay up b4 a month was over it was better for me to go contract. :) Good luck on the jack.

Did I mention we got an energy report? We saw that our bills were comparable to the past tennants 12 month history. Our utility bill states we are using about the average amount of energy compared to other homes this size in our zip code. and the energy report came from utility company? of course your bills will be comperable. consider the source of info. utility info is biased to favor utility co. same with the audits they provide...10-15% savings max as compared to 30%+ with independent evaluation. my clients save 50% on average once my recommendations are completed and work is verified & tested. without blower door & duct testing...it is just a guess as to where the house/ducts/returns leak. air sealing is the best savings. cheap to do, immediate results..long term benefit depending upon the life of the sealant (use caulk..expands contracts unlike foams) duct sealing next best savings. average homes have 30% duct loss. a bucket of mastic & a morning spent sealing ducts also has long term benefit with immeidate results. beating the heat before it enters the house trumps changing windows & doors. awnings, plantings, and solar screens. once the heat is inside..then you pay to cool it. the down side to 'average billing' is that at the end of the averaged cycle, you pay the amount you went over the average. for some people this can be a real problem. never insulate before air sealing. insulation filters air it doesn't stop it. only foam insulation stops air leakage and insulates. not great stuff... best of luck.