| Car loans on the spot | | Posted Sunday, January 21, 2007 1:06:04 PM by Blog57 Team | | ICICI Bank has announced car loans on the spot (LOTS) for its savings account customers. An ICICI Bank customer can walk into a showroom and choose a car. If that dealer has an Electronic Data Capture (EDC) machine, the customer can get his debit card swiped. The machine prints a slip, which states the pre-approved loan amount, along with a unique customer number. The dealer can use these details to get the loan sanctioned from ICICI Bank within one hour. In the first phase, LOTS will be available for car loans in 10 cities: Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. .... | |
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| | | Debate on minimum wage, tax-relief report are on tap | | Posted Sunday, January 14, 2007 3:19:19 PM by Blog57 Team | | The minimum wage, car title loans and health care reform are among the issues that Iowa lawmakers are likely to tackle this week. The House and Senate are expected to take another run at passing a bill that raises the state minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour by January 2008. The labor legislation is a top priority for Gov. Chet Culver and Democrats now in control of the Legislature. Its momentum has been slowed, however, by differences over key details. A bill sponsored by Senate Democrats would automatically adjust the minimum wage for inflation, which would ratchet up the wage beyond $7.25 an hour in future years. A bill sponsored by House Democrats provides for a lower "training wage" for new employees. "I personally favor indexing (for inflation), but I also want to make sure we get this done - and done quickly," said Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, a Council Bluffs Democrat.... | |
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| | | Cash-out refinance can make sense | | Posted Thursday, November 23, 2006 1:01:28 PM by Blog57 Team | | I am thinking of refinancing my home. I owe $64,000 and the home is worth about $265,000. My current interest rate is 6.625 percent. I wanted to get cash out and also pay off my car loans. I plan to borrow $140,000 at 5.84 percent. Do you think this is a good idea? Thank you, -- Mike Mortgages .... | |
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| | | Abu Dhabi s Taqa seeks up to $1.5 bln of loans | | Posted Tuesday, November 14, 2006 7:01:12 PM by Blog57 Team | | ABU DHABI - Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. said it would invite banks before April to bid on lending it as much as $1.5 billion to refinance debt, in what will be the second part of a $9.5 billion borrowing programme. State-controlled Abu Dhabi National, or Taqa as it is also known, will invite seven Gulf Arab and international banks to lend between $700 million and $1.5 billion to refinance the debt of one or two of its power-generating and water desalination units, Chief Executive Peter Barker-Homek told Reuters on Tuesday. He declined to identify the banks. Taqa, which controls six utility plants in the United Arab Emirates with partners such as Britains International Power Plc and Suez SA, is raising $6 billion to replace existing debt with cheaper loans and $3.5 billion to finance foreign acquisitions and joint ventures.... | |
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| | | Student Loan Bonds Rally as College Grads Get Jobs, Higher Pay | | Posted Sunday, November 12, 2006 3:01:41 PM by Blog57 Team | | Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Bonds tied to student loans may rise more than the U.S. asset-backed securities market this year for the first time as defaults by college graduates decline. The bonds, secured by school loans, gained 4.69 percent this year, compared with the 4.62 percent average for all asset-backed debt, securities consisting of payments on credit cards, car loans and home-equity loans, according to indexes compiled by Merrill Lynch & Co. The number of graduates who can't keep up with their loans fell to 5.1 percent in the year ended October 2005, the second- lowest since the U.S. Education Department started tracking the number in 1987. The median starting pay for a student with a bachelor's degree rose 20 percent in the four years ending in 2004, to $50,000, according to The College Board.... | |
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| | | India Oct Local Car Sales Up 16.3% On Year To 92,383 Units | | Posted Friday, November 10, 2006 7:13:22 AM by Blog57 Team | | NEW DELHI -(Dow Jones)- Local car sales in India rose 16.3% on year in October to 92,383 units from 79,407 units, data issued Thursday by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, or SIAM, showed. SIAM didn't give any reason for the increase. Sales during the April to October period rose 22% to 595,632 units from 489, 088 units in the same period last year. The easy availability of low-cost loans, launches of new car models and higher disposable income among the country's expanding middle class are boosting sales in India, according to analysts. Automobile sales in India are considered one of the key indicators of the country's economic condition. In the fiscal year that ended March 31, local car sales grew 7.6% to 882,094 units.... | |
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| | | Consumer Credit in U.S. Falls $1.2 Bln in September, Fed Says | | Posted Tuesday, November 07, 2006 11:03:13 PM by Blog57 Team | | Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Consumer borrowing in the U.S. unexpectedly declined for the first time in six months in September as Americans took out fewer car loans. Consumer credit, or non-mortgage loans to individuals, slid $1.2 billion, the most since 1992, to $2.37 trillion, the Federal Reserve said today in Washington. Credit declined at a 0.6 percent annual rate. In August, credit increased at a 4.7 percent rate that was higher than originally reported. Consumer borrowing and spending may slow as declining home prices leave Americans feeling less wealthy. The housing slump pushed the pace of economic growth down to its lowest in three years last quarter, and Fed policy makers are predicting a ``moderate'' expansion. ``We expect to see more moderate credit growth as consumer spending slows,'' said Elisabeth Denison, an economist at Dresdner Kleinwort in New York.... | |
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| | | Citibank sits on top in bank call center survey | | Posted Sunday, November 05, 2006 3:03:29 PM by Blog57 Team | | In a mystery-shopping survey of 15 banks' call centers, Citibank and Bank of America were among those who did the best job handling inquiries about opening accounts or applying for loans, while Washington Mutual and JPMorgan Chase were among the most passive. On average, banks asked for the business of the caller 48 percent of the time, and thanked them for calling 71 percent of the time. High achievers included Atlanta-based SunTrust, which asked for callers' business 89 percent of the time and thanked them for calling 96 percent of the time. Middling performers in the survey included Fifth Third and National City. O'Connor & Associates, a Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., research firm, conducts the survey of national and regional banks twice a year, monitoring each institution 100 times over 30 days.... | |
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| | | Good Debt, Bad Debt | | Posted Sunday, November 05, 2006 12:58:33 PM by Blog57 Team | | On our Investing Beginners discussion board last year, a Fool Community member asked a good question that sparked an enlightening conversation. Awmontville said: I'm probably not the first person to ask this question, but I would like to know what people think is good debt and what is bad debt. Specifically (and avoiding the obvious high-interest problems, e.g. credit cards), I'd like to know what you all think about school loans, automobile loans, and, of course, mortgages. My wife and I are on track to start investing in the near-term, but we want to ensure that we've made the right choices with respect to carrying certain kinds of debt while we invest. Permit me to share some of the responses, along with a little commentary of my own. Onparole offered his "skinny": "Debt is good when: 1) it is lower interest [than] what you are earning elsewhere and 2) the debt is tax deductible (school loans, mortgage)." Foolazis elaborated: Student loans: good debt.... | |
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| | | Preparing for tuition sticker shock | | Posted Friday, November 03, 2006 3:30:50 PM by Blog57 Team | | As the cost of college becomes increasingly like the sticker price of a luxury car, how do you deal with the shock of paying for it? You will need every tool at your disposal. Tuition and fees at four-year public and private colleges continue to outpace inflation, according to a recent report covering the 2006-2007 school year by the College Board, a New York-based testing and information service. Don't have that anxiety attack just yet. Deborah Fox, founder of Fox College Funding LLC in San Diego, said other than not planning early, some of the biggest mistakes that parents make in paying for college can be avoided. Perception is the first hurdle to overcome. Very few students pay "retail" for college, that is, the full tab for tuition, room and board.... | |
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