Credit Card Management 101

The other day, I heard in the news that the average American household owns 10 credit cards and owes more than $ 10 000 to credit card companies. Now, many lenders are pulling back by curtailing credit card offers and credit lines. At the same time, lenders are also increasing the APR of many credit cards. The APR of one of our cards for example was recently increased to 28 %! If we had debt on this card, it would be extremely tough to pay it off.

Lenders are pulling back because they fear that more people will default on their loans. In the first half of 2008, they had to write off about $ 21 billion in bad credit card loans.

Texas public accountants now offer 5 tips for consumer squeezed by credit crunch:

Tip No. 1: Check your credit limit (because it may have been lowered recently).
Tip No. 2: Call your credit card issuer and negotiate for lower rates.
Tip No. 3: Read the fine print on future offers.
Tip No. 4: Consider using year-end bonuses and holiday gift money to pay down credit card balances.
Tip No. 5: Stick to your holiday shopping list and pay for gifts with cash.

Read more details

If you want a crash course in Credit Card 101, read the Federal Reserve information on Credit Cards

Boston: Street performer

This weekend we made a trip to downtown Boston. The Quincy market/Fauneuil Hall area was just brimming with locals, tourists and street performers and everyone seemed to enjoy the bustling athmosphere:

Immigration News

There have been recently good and bad news for US-immigrants:

Let's start with the good news: Foreign students, who are getting degrees in science, engineering, math, and technology will have it easier in future to stay in the USA. If their future employers comply with an 'immigration verification program' of the Homeland Security Department, the student worker will have 29 months until they must have received an H-1B-Visa. Until now, the time frame has been 12 months, which was often not long enough for the paperwork being processed.

Bad news: Rhode Islands's governor Donal Carcieri ordered recently State Police, prisons and other state agencies to help enforce immigration laws and to turn identified illegal immigrants over to federal authorities. According to the Boston Globe some illegal immigrants, who live in Massachusetts, are now afraid to visit friends and relatives in Rhode Island, fearing a traffic stop could result in deportation.

A few numbers: According to the US Census Bureau (www.census.gov) , there are 22 millions immigrants in the United States (total population: just under 300 millions). A recently published study about foreign workers in Massachusetts showed that immigrants now make up more than a quarter of the workforce in the health care field in MA. According to the study, in 2005 approx. 40 % of pharmacists and almost 30 % of physicians and surgeons were foreign born.

Getting started

So, this is now my first posting on the new blog. I'm planning to write here about typical issues expatriates, who are new to the US, are dealing with.

I remember like yesterday how it has been for me and my family when we first arrived in Massachusetts almost 9 years ago. It was a completely new world, and my two sons, 7 and 4 years old at that time, didn't speak any English. My husband went to his office every day, and I spend the day in our small, rented apartment with the boys. I felt sometimes lonely - nobody there to help me figuring out even simple stuff of life like where to buy rubber boots for the boys.

Today, I'm a professional Life Coach and my passion is to help other newcomers to the United States designing their new life in this country. I hope this blog will become a useful tool.