Unclaimed Property Blog

The state may be small in size, but it is large in their amount of money to give away.

Vermont has money to give away. How much? $37 million. The 37 million is available through the Unclaimed Property Division of the state Treasurer’s Office.

At a recent Burlington exposition, state Treasurer Jeb Spaulding helped Vermonters check a database to see if they were owed money. Other methods of getting the word out included radio commercials, newspaper inserts, the Champlain Valley Fair annually and the Yankee Sportsman Classic, in direct mailings and passed along in lists of names to legislators and town clerks. It was the hope of the Unclaimed Property Division to create a buzz and return money.

This is a true story. The IRS is searching for residents to give them money.

A recent article informed residents of Morris, Sussex and Warren Counties, New Jersey, who have not yet filed their 2002 tax returns that there is still time to do so and claim returns. Time is running out, according to the Internal Revenue Service, they stand to lose $6.9 million in uncollected refunds if they don’t file within the next several weeks. To collect the refunds, tax returns must be filed no later than April 17th.

Often you hear that you should save those important papers. What are the important papers?

To be safe, however, experts recommend you keep them for six years, since that’s the time the IRS has to audit a return if you under report your gross income by more than 25 percent.

Have you taken a very long vacation and wondered if someone back home could handle your finances? Yes, today with computer systems it isn’t an often asked question, but what if you were in the hospital for an extended period of time? What are your options?

The solution is to designate someone you trust with power of attorney. Did you know there are different types? There are and each has different rules and purposes. Here is a basic description:

Do you know how you scored on your credit score? Probably. Do you know what you did to get this score? If not, here are some areas that are used to determine your credit score. Hopefully with this data you can begin to get extra credit in some areas. Here are the 5 basic things that are reviewed which will give you your overall score for credit worthiness.

You receive a call from a collection agency on a debt that has been written off or perhaps the statute of limitations on collecting the debt has expired. Do you know what your rights are? Do you know that trying to make it good can harm you? Read on for some noteworthy advise on how to deal with this situation.

The statute of limitations is the amount of time a creditor can sue over an old debt. Also in some states there are laws that prohibit creditors from suing once a debt is more than four years old. So time can be on your side regarding old debts.

If you ever felt you didn’t have much say in how your credit card company handles you, think again. Below are some ways you can be in control, remember you are the consumer.

You don’t have to play (or pay) by their rules. A credit card company usually will have a minimum amount due. Are you one that pays just that amount? Well this is cleverly calculated to keep you forever as a customer. For example a $4,500 balance will take 44 years to pay off at the minimum amount due. This is even if you don’t put another red cent on the card.

How can a credit card company make money? Let me count the ways…

One credit card company is showing that it does have concerns for the consumer. MasterCard International launched an initiative to help credit card-accepting merchants tighten up their protection of personal consumer information. They are also taking actions to entice merchants into incorporating security for the consumer.

The credit card association is working with merchants to provide them with information, tools and support to help safeguard consumer information.

The effort is designed to combat credit card fraud amid increasing concerns about identity theft. It comes after a series of high-profile security breaches involving credit card data.

With the ever changing technology we can now give our children a credit card which will control spending.

An Arizona company has introduced a debit card, which uses a V-chip-like computer control, letting parents set spending limits, review statements and even select where it can be used. For example, parents can make sure their children’s debit cards work at gas stations but not liquor stores. This card is called the Allow Card.

For the parent it is a way to teach the child about money and for the child it is really easy to use and they do not have to worry about carrying money around.