Payment deferral plans allow you to skip payments without damaging your credit score. Under normal circumstances, your credit score would suffer as soon as a payment is 30 days late or more. How Do Payments Normally Impact Credit Reports? Each month, credit issuers report your payment activity to the three major credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. “In normal circumstances, when you miss that first full billing cycle, it’s going to have a negative impact on your scores,” said Rod Griffin, senior director, public education and advocacy for Experian....

Credit reference letters might help you get approved for service or secure the best terms on the loan you applied for. What Is a Credit Reference Letter? A credit reference letter is a document that describes your payment history with a business you’ve worked with previously. Recipients use the letter to learn more about your finances and decide if it’s appropriate to offer you credit. Letters (like the samples below) typically provide details about your account, such as the length and the type of services you’ve used....

What Is a Dental Savings Plan? A dental savings plan, also referred to as a dental discount plan, isn’t health insurance. Instead, it’s a benefit program that allows you to take advantage of savings and discounts when paying for dental care. Similar discount programs cover health care services beyond dental care. Rather than paying premiums as you would with health or dental insurance, you pay a membership fee to join a dental savings plan....

Some real estate agents specialize in bringing buyers to the table, showing them homes until they find one that’s just right, then helping them to negotiate the numerous steps involved in the purchase. However, it’s the seller, not the buyer, who typically pays this agent’s commission. Agents Work for Brokers Some buyers believe that an agent’s brokerage pays them, and that is true to an extent, but the money doesn’t come directly from the agent’s company....

They’re then placed on a premade foundation, professionally joined and completed by your local builder. How Long Does It Take to Build a Modular Home? Some modular houses can be built in the factory in as little as one to two weeks, but it can depend on your design and the manufacturer. There are never weather delays because modulars are built indoors. It usually takes another two to four weeks for your local builder to put the pieces together after the materials are delivered to the building site....

Whether you’re a residential homebuyer, a seller, or an aspiring real estate investor, learn the basics of an appraisal, why an appraisal is useful, how it’s conducted, and what various appraisal terms mean. What Is a Real Estate Appraisal? A real estate appraisal is an objective, qualified expert’s analysis of a property to help determine its value. Lenders commonly use appraisals before financing property purchases. The lender wants to ensure the amount of money being loaned isn’t more than the property is worth....

What Is Vesting? “Vesting” refers to your portion of ownership in money or other assets that have been contributed by an employer to your retirement, stock-option, or other benefit plan. Examples of assets that are subject to vesting include employer-matching contributions or a share of the company’s profits that amounts to a certain percentage of the employee’s salary. If you are 100% vested in a plan, the full balance of the plan account belongs to you, which means that your employer can’t take the assets away from you for any reason....

What Is Health Insurance? Health insurance is a type of policy or agreement between you and a financial institution—called an insurance company—that pays a portion of your medical or healthcare costs. In return, you are responsible for paying a monthly premium or fee to the insurance provider. The monthly payment is pooled into a fund that the company uses to pay claims. When you need to schedule medical expenses, you or your care provider will remit a claim to the insurance company for the service you received....

Business interruption (or business income) insurance may be included in a commercial property or business owners policy. The coverage may require a modest additional premium, but the peace of mind it affords makes it well worth the cost. Learn why business interruption insurance is important, how much it costs, and what some alternatives are. What Is Business Interruption Insurance? Business interruption insurance covers income that a business loses and the operating expenses it incurs after it’s forced to shut down due to a fire, windstorm, or another insured peril....

A 2018 study by Bankrate found that the average wedding guest spends hundreds — maybe even thousands — on attending a wedding. This includes costs such as wedding attire, traveling to and from the wedding, a wedding gift, even attending a bachelor or bachelorette party. Read on for our breakdown of the average cost of attending a wedding and some money-saving tips while still celebrating the happy couple. The Numbers Members of a bridal party can expect to pay an average of $728 to attend a wedding and other related events, according to the 2018 Bankrate study, which surveyed 2,228 U....

But who owns all of this debt? A nation’s debt consists of the total amount of bonds it has issued or sold. The U.S. debt sat at nearly $30.6 trillion in the second quarter of 2022. The largest investors in U.S. Treasuries are other governments and central banks. China’s Large Position in U.S. Treasuries China, which owns an estimated $972 billion in U.S. Treasuries, is the number-two investor among foreign governments, according to the August 2022 figures released by the U....

A Chapter 7 case is designed to allow the debtor (the person who files the bankruptcy case) to discharge (eliminate) debt in exchange for property that the debtor does not need for a fresh start. Sometimes, the debtor has debts that cannot be eliminated as easily, or they owe back payments on a house or car loan. In a Chapter 13 case, instead of surrendering property that will be sold to pay debts, the debtor makes a payment each month for three to five years to a trustee who distributes it to the debtor’s creditors....

Before deciding to borrow against the equity in your home, understand how interest rates work on these loans. There are different types of rates with HELOCs, and they change at various paces. Because they will tie into your repayment, you’ll want to know what to expect, if it’s possible to change from a variable to a fixed rate on the amount you borrow, and how often the interest rate on a HELOC could potentially change....

In 2018, real estate construction contributed $1.15 trillion to the nation’s economic output. That’s 6.2% of U.S. gross domestic product. It’s more than the $1.13 trillion in 2017 but still less than the 2006 peak of $1.19 trillion. At that time, real estate construction was a hefty 8.9% component of GDP. Real estate construction is labor-intensive and a major force in job creation. The drop in housing construction was a big contribution to the recession’s high unemployment rate....

It’s important to understand the difference between a business and a hobby because a legitimate business can deduct its expenses and possibly take a loss if it isn’t profitable. But if the IRS considers your activity as a hobby, you can’t deduct expenses to get a loss to offset other income. This article discusses the criteria used by the IRS for determining whether an activity is a business or a hobby....

It will take time before your new online business will actually start making money and become profitable, or you can buy an established business that has been put up for sale if you have the spare cash. If you choose the latter option, there are a few things you should consider before jumping in with both feet. What to Look for When Buying an Online Business To be clear, you’re not just buying a website....

The future value of a single sum of money is important to businesses because it allows for the calculation of the rate of return on an investment. If a case is made to invest money into a new project such as an acquisition, or an equipment purchase with a long holding period, it’s important to have a way to calculate the potential return or profit you’ll gain. What Is the Future Value of an Investment?...

Your stroll on cloud nine is briefly brought down to earth, however, when the diligent bank teller stalls your efforts for a pre-honeymoon deposit of your wedding checks into the account you and your spouse—and your maiden name—shared prior to your betrothal. The rules state that payee names must match the account names, so until you have time to make an official change, any check deposits made out to your new last name may need to wait....

Learn more about how to claim a deduction for casualty, disaster, and theft losses. How the Casualty and Theft Losses Deduction Works You can only deduct casualty and theft losses if they’re directly tied to an event that’s a federally-declared disaster. Generally speaking, only the president of the United States has the power to declare a disaster. Often, a president will declare federal disasters for areas heavily impacted by hurricanes, tornadoes, or floods....

What Is a Website? A website is defined by the U.S. Copyright Office as “a webpage or set of interconnected web pages, including a homepage, located on the same computer or server (i.e., fixed together on that computer or server), and prepared and maintained as a collection of information by a person, group, or organization.“ In other words, a website is a structure containing content. It’s the content that’s copyright protected, not the structure....