Extreme Makeover: Home Edition – Dream Homes or Foreclosure Risk?

For those of you that haven’t watch the show yet, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” finds worthy families that have faced some sort of recent or ongoing hardship and gives them a helping hand by remodeling their home (or replacing it entirely if its beyond repair).   The show is now in its 7th season, but a recent disturbing trend has been creeping up as strings of makeover homes faces foreclosures.

The Wofford family of Encinitas, California, whom got their house over 5 years ago (episode 15, season 2) are now facing foreclosure, after struggling to pay for their bills for two years, according to San Diego 10 News.

Though many times the audience may be lead to believe that each episode ends with happily-ever-after scenarios, realistically, many of the families may continue to face financial hardship with higher property tax and utility cost.

Beyond the Woffords are also the Harper family of Atlanta (episode 29, season 2), who famously faced foreclosure last year after taking out an unwise $450,000 loan using the makeover house as equity.

Critics have often contend that the makeover homes are too lavish to be supported by some of these financially strapped families (such as the 6-bedroom, 7-bath, and 7-television home to a family of 4).

Faced with foreclosure pressure, some families have also opted to sell their homes in order to avoid foreclosure or the excessively high property tax.  The Hassall Family (given a 3,298 sq. ft. home in episode 62, season 3)  did just that after they’re left with more than $100,000 to pay off on their mortgage.  After three years, the family decided to sell the home rather than faced the stress of increasingly high property tax and utility bills.

As homes across the country face foreclosure risk from the fallout of the recession, we may unfortunately soon hear more stories of yet-another makeover home being on the verge of foreclosure.  Perhaps with this in mind, the producers of the popular ABC show will adjust future makeover homes to account for any potential future ramification to the families’ finances.

Cyber Monday Online Deals: Real Bargains or Just a Marketing Ploy?

In recent years, as people started shifting their buying habits more to online transaction, the buzz word “Cyber Monday” will often be float around by the media as Thanksgiving weekend near its end.  Just earlier this morning, CNN reported that Cyber Monday online shopping reached a staggering 4.3 million visits per minute by 2:20 PM EST.  Other media outlets have their experts point you to some “best” Cyber Monday online deals, with one large media outlet comfort readers by telling them: “If you’ve missed the Black Friday shopping spree, have no fear, you can also find the best deals online at the comfort of your desk.”

Unfortunately, these claims are a bit inaccurate.  Cyber Monday was never intended to be a price-slashing, deal-hunting day such as Black Friday.  The term “Cyber Monday” is a marketing term whipped up by the National Retail Foundation back in 2005, along with the development of their website CyberMonday.com, to highlight the fact that online shopping traffic increases significantly during the Monday following Thanksgiving weekend.  Though it was never intended to be a specific day that drives massive discounts like Black Friday, because of the wide adoption of the term by mainstream media and online retailers, some have stipulated that the “gimmick” of Cyber Monday will start becoming a real trend.

Can you really avoid the crowds and snap up some sweet deals?  Is Cyber Monday really offering can’t-miss deals?

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58 Top Black Friday Electronics & Gadget Deals to Watch For

Heading out this Black Friday to battle the masses and fight for the best deals?  Here’s a list of 58 notebook computers, electronics, and gadgets that’s worth your time and money.  (We’ll be adding more to the list throughout the day plus scanned Black Friday ads for other major retailers soon, feel free to bookmark!)

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More Consumer Protection on the Way: The Creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency

It turns out that the Credit CARD Act of 2009 – a series of reforms in the credit card industry aimed at eliminating or mitigating unfair and abusive practices – was only the initial salvo of a legislative campaign aimed at benefiting consumers.

At this point in the economic recession, just about everyone agrees that our financial regulatory system needs a serious overhaul. President Obama is taking an important step with the creation of a new consumer protection agency — the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) — that will be the cornerstone of financial reform.

The proposed agency’s powers and oversight would extend to home mortgages, credit cards, consumer loans, and other consumer credit services. The agency’s first charter would be to create consumer-friendly, uniform disclosure to all home purchase and financing transactions, like ‘good-faith’ estimates and truth-in-lending statements.

The proposed CFPA puts consumer concerns front and center, rather than as a tangential issue. Designed to rule credit and loan institutions, the agency would be a toothier watchdog for financial institutions who are long accustomed to cozy relationships with the institutions meant to regulate them. Such cozy relationships are a big part of our current financial predicament, and the whole reason Obama and Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) are such major proponents of the agency.

BillShrink fully supports the creation of the CFPA. After all, we’re a company dedicated to saving people money by providing apples-to-apples comparisons on costs of their everyday bills.

Bottom line: In the everlasting conflict between big business Goliath and the little David, it’s about time David got some backup.

photo credit: amycgx

FCC to America: Is Your Cell Phone Bill Confusing?

This summer, the Federal Communications Committee (FCC) asked America to weigh in on whether consumers have enough information to make decisions about their communications services.

Turns out Americans have plenty to say. And so do we. BillShrink has found that 8 out of 10 people are overpaying on their cell phone bills — to the tune of $800 million dollars total so far this year!

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The Collapse of Personal Savings Rate in America

This year’s dramatic shift in the economy found many Americans without a ‘rainy day’ fund.  Millions of Americans lost their jobs and saw their 401(k) wiped out. It is unsurprising then to see that the trend of personal savings rate has been on a fast-pace decline since the mid 1980’s, reaching decade-low levels in recent years. The following graphic shows the trend of personal savings rate per month from 1959 to 2009, along with an alarmingly opposing trend of rising consumer debt.

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10 Simple Tips to Master the Art of Haggling and Savvy Shopping

If you’re a news junkie like me, you may have read about a recent finding produced by America’s Research Group, which found that in the past holiday season, approximately 72% of customers haggled with a retailer, compared with 56% the year before.  Upon hearing this news, the consumer advocate in me was delighted and I proceeded to do a little dance in the head — or so I thought until fellow passengers on the bus started starring at me funny.

Public dancing aside, it was even more enjoyable to read that about 80% of those attempting to haggle were successful at getting a better deal, compared with about half of those who were successful a year earlier.  Despite difficult economic times, it was refreshing for us at BillShrink to see that more Americans are getting over the idea that the act of haggling  can be bad-form — after all, when done properly and gracefully, haggling is just another way for a savvy consumer to get a better deal.

If haggling isn’t your forte, have no fear, we have a few tips for you.

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7 Overlooked Benefits of the Recession

Nothing is easier than identifying problems during recessions. In fact, one might argue that what is truly difficult is avoiding mention of these problems, which are shouted from the rooftops daily by politicians and journalists. (Many of whom harp on problems even during prosperous times.) Still harder is calling attention to the overlooked benefits that economic downturns can bring. In this recession as in others past, opportunities have opened up for consumers, investors and businesses positioned to capitalize on them. Typically, these opportunities require seeing the recession as it specifically relates to you, rather than the all-encompassing malaise often seen by others. Here are 7 of the most appealing recessionary opportunities.

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