Money and Finance

[mrpancake]

Does anyone know of a credit card that will give you air miles with no annual fee? I just want it linked up to my frequent flier account. Oh, and I'm new to credit (about 6 months), but in those 6 months all balances have been paid in full each month and never been paid late. I don't need much credit (right now, I think I have a 700 dollar line), I just want to be getting something for it if I can. Help!

[Deleted]

Does anyone know what the current interest rate for a savings account is? Isn't that FDIC mandated? My bank won't cough up that info on their website.

[Deleted]

So, I need help. I apparently have an (Canadian) RSP that I would really like to close-out, but without getting dinged. How do I feasibly do that?

Some background: My grandparents left me a bit of money for school, and I had invested it and then closed out the accounts when it came time to pay for my undergrad. Today I received a statement of funds from an investment company about an RSP that I apparently still have.

Amount now? Under $1,000. Amount when started in 1999? Over $9,000.

The account hasn't been touched, b/c the Canadian government will ding you for accessing the RSP before you die or something, but the thing is... I DON'T REMEMBER GIVING PERMISSION TO OPEN AN RSP IN MY NAME. I was 19 at the time, so I'm pretty sure that my undergrad costs were of greater importance to me, and that I wouldn't have allowed a sizable chunk of money to sit where I couldn't touch it forever. Also, the money in the account now is just enough to pay off what remains of my grad school loans (which would be awesome!) But I can't access it. Gah!

[bossyboots]

English rose, you can withdraw the funds but you have to pay witholding taxes on it. Amounts under $5K are charged 10% witholding (provided you do not live in Quebec). And the money is added to your income for that year. So it's not totally inaccessible to you but it will cost you to take it out because an RRSP contribution reduces your taxable income so if you take it out before you're "allowed" to, the government sees to it that it gets its taxes (boo!).

I'd check with the investment company first, though...your comment about not remembering giving permission to open an RRSP may work to your advantage. Are you sure this account is an actual RSP account and not just a regular investment account with the company? Not that I think you wouldn't understand that, it's just that I've made that mistake before...not all investment co accounts are automatically RRSPs. Maybe the error is theirs and you won't have to deal with the taxes?

Good luck!

[Deleted]

Thanks for the info bossyboots- I'm calling my old advisor tomorrow morning to talk about this development. It's a "Self Directed RSP" which really doesn't sound like something I'd sign up for. My big concern (besides losing what little is in there still) is that I cut all "ties" with Canada in 2002, no residence/bank account/investments, etc., and now this turns up, meaning I could be seen as evading taxes without knowing it.

[topher]

poorfrances said:

Does anyone know what the current interest rate for a savings account is? Isn't that FDIC mandated? My bank won't cough up that info on their website.

They have to tell you. It is the law. Savings rates can be all over the place. If they are not telling you, it is probably low to the market.
ING Direct's rate is 4.35%.

[bossyboots]

englishrose said:

Thanks for the info bossyboots- I'm calling my old advisor tomorrow morning to talk about this development. It's a "Self Directed RSP" which really doesn't sound like something I'd sign up for. My big concern (besides losing what little is in there still) is that I cut all "ties" with Canada in 2002, no residence/bank account/investments, etc., and now this turns up, meaning I could be seen as evading taxes without knowing it.

Sounds like it may have been opened as an RSP in error. A self-directed RSP just means it's like a regular investment account in which you can hold all kinds of different investments including stocks, bonds, mutual funds etc., but it's "registered" meaning your deposits into it are RRSP contributions. So if you had intended to open a regular investment account (which as I understand, you did) and they made it registered instead, that's their error.

That possible perception of tax evasion is worrisome. I'd call up the company and get to the bottom of things. Again, good luck.

[hamhock]

I don't know where to put this so I'm putting it here.....do we have a "Law" thread?

My fiance has 5 siblings. Their mom died back in October. They can all never agree on anything because each of them distrusts the other so much. Generally.

Their mom's executor has handled the division of furniture, etc., in the house. Their mom's husband, their stepdad, was left the house. He is in a nursing home and needs 24-hour care so he is in the process of signing the house over to the 6 kids.

The executor of the house worked for their mom and stepdad, not the kids, so he will be essentially washing his hands of the lot of them once the stepdad signs over the house, for which I really don't blame him. A couple of them made the whole division of furniture a nightmare.

So these 6 people will own the house. It's in Florida. None of them live in Florida. The oldest brother, who has some serious emotional problems (really...he's an 8-year-old in a 50-year-old's body), has never had a real job or paid taxes, has substance abuse problems, told my fiance on the phone today that he's gonna live in the house.

There is still some mortgage left on the house. I say if that asshole's gonna live there, then HE should pay the whole mortgage. What I really think they should do is sell the house and split the money for it and be done with Florida...none of them live there. And that's what my fiance, his fairly rational sister and his fairly rational other brother think as well, they'd like to sell the house.

Question: how can they keep crazy brother from moving into the house, NOT paying the mortgage, trashing the place and getting it into foreclosure?? It is 1/6 HIS house, too. But I have a feeling he thinks he's gonna move in and have the other siblings pay his mortgage, while he doesn't work, & smokes and drinks all day.

Does anyone have any advice? If they refuse to pay the mortgage, will it screw up their credit, since the 6 of them technically own the house???

[ladyboy]

They could sue for partition and have the house sold and divvy up the profits. I don't know how easy/difficult it is to do that, and if they'd get the best price for the house doing it that way. I also don't know how long it takes, so the one brother may still move in and the mortgage may still need to be paid for a while.

[hamhock]

ladyboy, thanks for the tip. My sweetie said he's going to see the executor today and get some advice from him as to what to do. Another friend of mine suggested that the stepdad sign the house over with him (my fiance) as the new executor, so one person would sort of be "in charge" and really push the sale of the house and division of money.
He spoke with a couple of realtors about selling the house and the sibling situation and the realtors pretty much told him that in cases such as this, the majority rules, meaning, that even if whack-a-doo brother moves in, the rest of the family can "vote him out", as it were, and sell the house. I dunno.......I told him he's GOTTA not trust what anyone other than the executor and/or a lawyer says. I don't trust just anybody.
But thanks again...I'm going to go look up "partition" as it applies to this.