1. Chase and Olivia Ellison have a home with an appraised value of $180,000 and a mortgage balance of only $90,000. Given that an S&L is willing to lend money at a loan-to-value ratio of 75 percent, how big a home equity credit line can Chase and Olivia obtain? How much, if any, of this line would qualify as tax-deductible interest if their house originally cost $200,000?
2. Clarissa Lombardi has an overdraft protection line. Assume that her October 2015 statement showed a latest (new) balance of $862. If the line had a minimum monthly payment requirement of 5 percent of the latest balance (rounded to the nearest $5 figure), then what would be the minimum amount that she'd have to pay on her overdraft protection line?
3. Cole Fraser recently graduated from college and is evaluating two credit cards. Card A has an annual fee of $75 and an interest rate of 9 percent. Card B has no annual fee and an interest rate of 16 percent. Assuming that Cole intends to carry no balance and pay off his charges in full each month, which card represents the better deal? If Isaac expected to carry a significant balance from one month to the next, which card would be better? Explain.
4. Maureen Byrne, a student at State College, has a balance of $380 on her retail charge card; if the store levies a finance charge of 21 percent per year, how much monthly interest will be added to her account?
5. Lilly Thompson has several credit cards, on which she is carrying a total current balance of $14,500. She is considering transferring this balance to a new card issued by a local bank. The bank advertises that, for a 2 percent fee, she can transfer her balance to a card that charges a 0 percent interest rate on transferred balances for the first nine months. Calculate the fee that Lilly would pay to transfer the balance, and describe the benefits and drawbacks of balance transfer cards.
6. Amy Kang was reviewing her credit card statement and noticed several charges that didn't look familiar to her. Amy is unsure whether she should "make some noise," or simply pay the bill in full and forget about the unfamiliar charges. If some of these charges aren't hers, is she still liable for the full amount? Is she liable for any part of these charges-even if they're fraudulent?