Financial Math and Matters Made Easy
Archive for November 2006
I’ve read it enough times to believe it. Several months may pass between the time your credit card or banking account information is stolen and the time when the stolen account information is first used to access your account.
Of course, one can’t imagine this is true in every case or even most cases. But when it is true, there is something simple you can do to protect your finances from online thieves.
Change your PIN or password monthly.
Washington Mutual has sold its mortgage servicing business to WellsFargo. The accounts of 1.3 million mortgage servicing customers will be soon transferred from WAMU to WellsFargo.
Whether it’s a letter from WAMU or another mortgage servicing company, chances are pretty good that your mortgage will be sold a time or two during the 20 or 30 years you make payments. When you get the letter (AKA “Notice of Servicing Transfer“), what should you do.
First, hang onto it and file it in the folder where you keep your other mortgage-related documents.
Second, document that status of your mortgage. If you’re one whose mortgage servicing is being transferred from WAMU to WellsFargo, login to your WAMU account and print the information you see in your web browser: Account Summary, Loan Details, Escrow Summary, Transaction History, Amortization Schedule and other pages that contain information about your current loan status.
Third, using the online Document Request feature or by calling your current mortgage servicer, request paper copies of the information you have printed. Ask for copies of all your loan documents including the HUD-1, the Escrow Statement, a Payoff Quote, and other documents the servicer has available. It’s better to have these and not need them, than need them and not have them.
Fourth, if your mortgage loan payment is being automatically drafted from a checking or other account, pay close attention to your account statements to ensure the payments occur as they should after the transfer. If you use a third-party service to make your loan payments (an online bill paying service for example), remember to provide the service with the new mortgage servicer’s payment information (account number, address, etc.).
Fifth, while you may have no say in whether your mortgage loan is transferred to another servicer, you do have some very clear consumer rights and protections related to your loan servicing. These are detailed in section 6 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (AKA RESPA) which is Federal law. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development has an excellent web site with information about your RESPA-guaranteed rights.
Finally, if you have problems or experience any difficulties resulting from the transfer of your mortgage loan from one servicer to another, always communicate with your loan servicer in writing.
If you are a real estate agent looking for additional ways to engage your web site’s visitors consider adding financial calculators to your web site. Website calculators allow home buyers to do their financial figuring without leaving your site. And online financial calculators give visitors a reason to return to your web site.
Keep a few things in mind related to hosting and licensing of web site calculators. Hosting is about where the financial calculators are actually located. Some web site calculators are provided by companies which host the calculators on their own servers. You use them by sending your visitors to the host’s web site. A better way is to obtain calculators which you host on your own site. This ensures there’s no reason for visitors to leave your site.
How the web site calculators your choose are licensed is an important consideration, too. Some vendors require an annual license fee which must be repaid each year. Other companies charge a per use fee or license their calculators with traffic-based fees. The most cost effective licensing arrangment is a one time fee structure in which you purchase a license and then may use the web site calculators indefinitely for no additional charge. (MoneyToys web site calculators are licensed this way.)
Another consideration is whether the calculators you choose for your web site can be customized to match your web site’s current color scheme and design. Chances are your put a lot of thought and effort into the design of your site. The calculators you choose should not detract for the quality of your site’s design and color scheme.
It’s important, too, that the calculators’ initial values can be configured for your local market. For example, a refinancing calculator should allow you to set your own default values for the amount borrowed because typical loan amounts vary greatly between San Diego, California and Vidalia, Louisiana.
Consider ease of installation. Do the calculators come with step-by-step instructions? Are there example web pages included with the calculator? Will the developer help me if I have any trouble? How much maintenance is required once the calculators are installed. Ideally, the calculators you choose for your web site should be easy to install and require no maintenance.
One example of web site calculators which you can install on your own web site is the MoneyToys collection of 12 financial calculators. They are licensed with a one-time, perpetual license, can be configured to match your site’s colors and design. The default values can be configured to fit your market and installation is easy.
In fact, if you’ve ever created a web page, you have the skills required to install MoneyToys. Simple step-by-step instructions and 3 sample web pages are included with each calculator. With a few lines of HTML and MoneyToys a webmaster can quickly install online financial calculators so visitors can do financial math without leaving the web site.
The MoneyToys collection of web site calculators currently includes a Home Seller’s Proceeds Calculator, an APR Calculator, a Pay Down Debt or Invest Calculator, a Loan Spread Calculator, a Refinancing Calculator, a Buyer’s Cash Requirements Calculator, a Simple Loan Calculator, the new Very Simple Loan Calculator, a Future Value of Savings Calculator, a Loan Comparison Calculator, a Discounted Cash Flows Calculator and a Rent vs. Buy Calculator.
Will installing web site calculators guarantee you’ll sell more homes? Of course not. But online financial calculators will make it easier for your visitors to begin their financial figuring and they ensure visitors have an additional reason to return to your web site.
For more information visit http://www.moneytoys.com
Contact Information:
MoneyToys Financial Calculators
Wheatworks Software, LLC
P. O. Box 7, Ruston, LA 71273
http://www.moneytoys.com
If you use your computer to maintain your financial records, the last thing you want is for the computer to be infected with spyware. Worse than someone gaining access to the information stored on your computer, spyware may also pass your online financial account information to the crooks who can use it to login to your financial accounts.
The Antispyware information on WildWickedWeb.com has just been updated to include links to four, free antispyware applications that you can install on your personal computer. (Wheatworks created our WildWickedWeb.com web site to provide information about avoiding the dangers of the “wild, wicked web”. It’s a great place to go for information about free tools related to viruses, spyware, firewalls, root kit detection, etc.)
The four free antispyware applications are: LavaSoft’s Ad-Aware®, Microsoft Windows Defender, SpyBot Search&Destroy, and SUPERAntiSpyware.
Unlike most antivirus software, more than one antispyware can (and experts say, “should”) be used at the same time. The four listed above can all be installed and run at the same time without interfering with each other.
Why use more than one antispyware program? Because none offer perfect protection. By using more than one, what one misses another may catch.
Remember … it’s a Wild, Wicked Web! Protect your financial data by using antispyware.
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