Money Board Game Changes To Credit Instead of Cash

Hasbro is amending their popular financial board game to include charging a credit, or debit card, instead of using cash. 

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Recently, Hasbro the toy manufacturer announced that later this year it will launch a new edition of its classic, The Game of Life. The new version, called Twists & Turns ($35), will replace play money with a Visa-branded card. Players insert their cards into a gizmo, called a LIFEPod, that keeps track of each player's finances so there's no need for a banker.

As Matt Collins, Hasbro's vice-president of marketing, explains, "We knew it was time to reflect the way people choose to pay and be paid -- and replacing cash with Visa was an obvious choice."
 
Well, it's not obvious to me. I'm a big proponent of using board games to teach children about money, and the classic Game of Life has always been a family favorite. It covers a lot of territory: careers, college, mortgages, insurance, taxes, stocks and dividends. And it lets kids feel the pleasure of collecting a salary, or the pain of paying for college, by piling up or depleting their stacks of money.

Plus, the player who's designated to be the banker has to count out each player's cash, pay salaries, collect fines and make change -- a painless way for kids to hone their math skills.

For all those reasons, using a card just doesn't cut it -- especially when that card is advertising a company's logo to 9-year-olds, the game's target audience. And -- yikes! -- Monopoly may be next. Hasbro has already introduced a cashless version of the game in the United Kingdom.

The adults who dream up these things say they're just trying to prepare kids for a cashless society. But they make the mistake of thinking like grown-ups instead of children.

A cashless society may be a great thing for credit-card issuers, online retailers and adults who use plastic as a convenience. But kids see the world in more concrete terms. Although the Visa Life card isn't labeled a credit card or a debit card or a prepaid card, the distinction is lost on youngsters.

To kids, plastic of any kind isn't as real as money they can see and feel. With a cashless society looming in their future, teaching children to manage hard currency is more important than ever.

Readers of this column know that I've been on this crusade for a long time. Two years ago I wrote that giving kids credit cards is like letting them use drugs early so they won't turn into addicts (see Kids and Credit Cards Don't Mix).

But I'm not alone on my soapbox. There's plenty of research to back me up, and I'll write more about that next week.

[Source Kiplinger.com]

Related Video…Hasbro Game of Life

 

4 Credit Cards That Chase Bank Offers

Here is the short version of the Chase credit card products that are currently available for American consumers.

All Chase credit card products have an APR that is a 0% introduction on balance transfers and purchases. All cards have 0% annual fees except the Chase Perfectcard which has a $19 dollar fee minimum. Below is Chase's description of their cards. There are four Chase credit cards offering different credit products:

Credit Card #1 - The Chase Cash Builder Card = earns up to 2% cash rewards for your purchases when you use your card

Credit Card #2 - Chase PerfectCard = earn rebates on all gas purchase when you use your PerfectCard

Credit Card #3 - Chase Platinum = Purchasing power with superior customer service

Credit Card #4 - Chase Platinum for students = designed to help four college students jump start the financial future.

Read the small print below for your credit card research (I've blown up the small print for you)

* The introductory rate will be maintained for the term of the introductory offer as long as you make at least the required minimum payments on your account when due. Otherwise the regular preferred pricing rate will take effect from your last statement closing date.

** No annual fee first year. Thereafter, the $20 annual fee will be waived if at least nine (9) purchase transactions were made in the prior year at Marathon retail locations.

† No Annual Fee the first year the account is open. $19 Annual Fee thereafter, but the fee is waived if 9 purchases are made in the prior year.

‡ No Annual fee first year. Thereafter, the $20 annual fee will be waived if at least nine (9) purchase transactions were made in the prior year at Speed way retail locations.

Funniest Master Card Priceless Commercial

 

Online Boat/Marine Loans

From the old article archive of Auto Loan 4u

Apply for online boat loans with a reasonable financial merchant - good credit boat financing, credit score 625 boat finance, or bad credit boat funding and get a yes answer back in minutes. We scour the internet for reasonable financial companies that provide good and bad credit lending. They all have excellent rates on good credit boat financing, credit score 625 loans and bad credit boat finance. Even if have a credit score of 625 or less, you can find the funding you need.

Even for a boat finance charge with a credit score of 625 or less. These select few lenders I have chosen excel when it comes to delivering hassle free bad credit boat boat financing, and bank boat financing. Qualifying for boat finance is a snap online. Whether you are looking for small boat financing, or classic boat financing. You'll get an answer back in ten minutes usually, and at the very latest twenty four hours.

Best Interest Rates for Boat, Seadoo, and Rv Financing

Some visitors come on my site to get help with financing a boat, or find the best rates for boat funding. Others want to finance boat motors or seadoos. Some need used boat owner financing. Some have bad credit and need "credit score 625 loans". Whatever your needs are, you will find the best of the best, in my boat finance directory below. I wish you well on your quest for boat loan financing and bad credit boat finance.

Before I sign off I should mention that the bank/ fund providers are not in abundance. The boat and rv loan industry is very small online. You will notice that as you surf for the best interest rates and flexibility.

Don't Borrow Money For These Reasons

This is a good 5 piece bit of info on borrowing  money for all the wrong reasons. Good financial advice to heed. Take a close read of bad borrowing item #3. There are many pitfalls when borrowing money. If you can, try to only borrow when you buy a home or car. Even better, forget about the car and borrow just for the house or condo.   

I. Borrowing to invest - Taking out a loan to invest is not a good idea. "In the late '90s we saw a lot of that and people got really burned. But people tend to forget," Petote says. Of course a caveat is borrowing to start or grow a business, where thoughtful consideration has gone into the expenditure and the borrower is sure the return on investment (ROI) is there. "That's typically the way I see clients use debt to create wealth," he says.

II. For the tax deduction – One of the things that drives me crazy is when people say they took out a home equity loan because they needed a deduction. What I ask them to do is put a dollar on the table and I give them back 30 cents. That's exactly what they're doing. Paying a dollar to get 30 cents back, 25 cents back, depending on the deduction." He says tax deductibility should be a secondary or tertiary benefit and stresses the importance of enlisting the advice of a trusted tax professional before making decisions.

III. To defer debt – Using your home equity to consolidate debt, without committing to a change in lifestyle could spell disaster. Petote says that with credit card debt the worst you could do is hurt your credit rating, but if you consolidate credit card loans into a home equity loan, your house is on the line. Consolidation to get a lower rate is a viable option only for those absolutely committed to stop using the credit cards. He cautions: "People aren't honest with themselves. They think 'I'm going to do it this time,' just like they'd say 'I'm going to lose weight,' and on and on." Even the best intentions can fail. Consolidation is not a stopgap measure. Stop spending more than you earn, no ifs, ands or buts.

IV. Buying from wish list - Buying a boat with home equity creates negative wealth. "Generally you don't build wealth by borrowing money. If you're the lender, that's how you build wealth," Petote says. He opts rather to look to build wealth over a lifetime, saying that people who have lot of money typically haven't used much debt. If you want it, save for it.

V. Borrow using a balloon or interest-only loans - Interest-only loans or loans with balloon payments are generally marketed to people who are looking to buy more home than they can afford, says Petote. He warns: "If you're stretching it and only paying interest, when you go to refinance and throw principal in there too, you will really be in big trouble. Or if you don't have a strong cash flow or money available, you will run into problems when that balloons." Pay on principal. It's in your best interest.

[Via Bankrate.com]

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Treasury Department Scolds Lenders

Story on a Treasury Department official who verbally went after subprime lenders for their risky lending tactic.

Story… 

A Treasury Department official on Wednesday scolded mortgage lenders for failing to verify the income of borrowers with blemished credit histories, blaming the practice for rising defaults and foreclosures.

Comptroller of the Currency John C. Dugan said federal banking regulators need to give the industry guidance for improvement in this area, though he did not offer a specific remedy.

"Sound underwriting and, for that matter, simple common sense suggests that a mortgage lender would almost always want to verify the income of a riskier subprime borrower to make sure that he or she had the means to make the required monthly payments," Dugan said in a speech to a New York housing group.

"But the norm appears to be just the opposite," said Dugan, whose agency regulates nationally chartered banks. "Nearly 50 percent of all subprime loans last year accepted stated income," meaning the underwriters did not verify the information provided by borrowers on loan applications.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said last week that the central bank is considering tougher rules to reduce abusive home loan practices even though he believes the economy should escape without significant harm from the problems in the market for subprime mortgages, or loans made to borrowers with shaky credit histories.

In March, the Fed and the other four federal agencies that regulate banks, thrifts and credit unions _ including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency _ proposed guidelines that call for strict evaluations of a borrower's ability to repay, among other recommendations.

The guidelines, which would affect big lenders such as Countrywide Financial Corp. and Washington Mutual Inc., have not yet been made final. The Fed plans a mid-June hearing on ways to curb abusive lending practices.

Lenders catering to home buyers with shaky credit have seen a spike in defaults on payments in the past year, and more than 30 subprime lenders _ those catering to borrowers with shaky credit histories have gone bankrupt this year. Major lenders have tightened standards for borrowers since February, when parts of the mortgage market fell into disarray.

RealtyTrac Inc., an industry research firm, said last week that mortgage lenders foreclosed on 62 percent more U.S. homes in April than a year ago.

Home prices are slipping too. The national median existing single-family home price in the first quarter was $212,300, down 1.8 percent from a year ago when the median price was $216,100, according to the National Association of Realtors. The median is a typical market price where half the homes sold for more and half the homes sold for less.

Dugan's speech came one day after trade groups representing mortgage bankers and brokers traded barbs over who should be blamed for the housing market's woes.

The head of the mortgage banking industry's trade group claimed mortgage brokers and lenders focused only on short-term profits benefited from the housing boom, but didn't do enough to examine whether borrowers could repay.

Harry Dinham, president of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, replied by saying that, because most residential mortgage loans are quickly resold to investors, most lenders are actually "just brokering the transaction but afraid or ashamed to admit it."

Shares of Countrywide gained 22 cents to $41 in morning trading, while those of Washington Mutual dipped 18 cents to $43.90.

[Source Google News]

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