Claudia

Hi, I have a quick question about FSA expenses. My dentist just sold me an electric toothbrush. Can this be an FSA expense? Yes, because it was purchsed from a health care provider, or no, because it is a tooth brush?

Thanks for any input!

Question on how to improve my credit score: Last year I fell behind on payments for a couple of credit cards and ended up settling all of them for less than the full balance. Obviously my credit score took a hit and now I am trying to improve it. Will these remarks really stay on my report for 7 years? Is there anything I can do to get them removed? I tried some goodwill letters but they were rejected. Is it worth going through a credit repair company? Everything on my credit report is accurate so I am not sure if they could accomplish anything that I couldn't do myself. If the remarks on late payments and amounts settled for less stay on my report for 7 years will they impact my score less and less as they age? Any input is appreciated...I am back on track with my finances and would like to improve my score from fair to good. Thanks!

We are selling a 2 family house that my husband owned since before we met.

He bought 1 side first, then the 2nd side later, refinanced multiple times and took out some home equity loans over the years. For 2 of the past mortgages the MERS discharges are missing. The closing date is coming fast and we now need to pay a lawyer to get this all fixed. We are no real estate experts, but the lawyer said that this is a common problem. Is there anything we can do to get some of the legal fees back? Sue MERS? Any ideas?

Thanks!

My daughter drives her dad's car (my ex-husband's) since he is currently overseas. She is covered under his insurance policy. I also insured her with mine because once in a while she might drive my car.

But it seems like a waste of money to have her insured twice. I am thinking about taking her off my policy. If I do that will she be ok to drive my car occasionally? Will she be covered under her dad's policy?

Thanks!

I have been divorced for almost ten years and have 2 teenage children with my ex-husband. I am remarried and live with my new husband and the 2 kids. Until recently my ex-husband owned a house one town over and the kids would go back and forth between our two houses. But due to a lot of bad life style choices my ex-husband almost lost his house to foreclosure a couple of times.He basically went from being very wealthy to almost filing for bankruptcy after initially making a lot of money in investment banking. A few years ago he just stopped working to enjoy his money and also hooked up with a woman who helped squander his money. When he was almost broke he couldn't find any job here in the US and had to move overseas to find work which also helped him avoid all the collection calls he was getting. The kids moved in with us full time and their dad sort of left behind a trail of destruction. My new husband is not very fond of my ex-husband.

A few month ago my ex-husband finally sold his house here in the US (with no profit) and now has basically no residency here in the US. I was nice enough to let him store his motorcycle in our garage and to have a few pieces of mail come to my house. Our daughter just got her license is driving his car.

He just came to visit for February vacation and is staying with a friend. The issue is that during previous visits he would just come pickup the kids to take them out for dinner or other activities and then drop them back off. This week he started out with asking me once if he could go up to my son's room to play some xbox with him. After I agreed that afternoon he ended up staying until well after 8 pm. The nest days he started showing up and random times and just walking into the house, hanging out in our living room and going back up to my son's room for hours. I was kind of taken aback but was sort of ok with it during the day. But then he would just stay way into the evening after my husband came home from work. As I mentioned before my "new" husband is not very fond of my ex-husband and finds it very unappropriate for my ex-husband to all of a sudden crash our house. I feel like he could have come over during day hours to spend time with the kids and that he didn't have to hang out in the evenings. He also jump started his motorcycle and ran it in our garage 2 nights ago which shook the whole house after my husband made it clear to him that he needed to study for an exam the next day. He then did it again the next day (at least during the day) and ran the motorcycle for 45 minutes in the garage again (knowing I was working from home). After he left our carbon monoxide alarms went off and I ended up calling the fire department who sent their whole crew to measure the carbon monoxide levels. When I told him about it he just shrugged it off. My husband got so upset and now doesn't want my ex-husband to set foot into our house. This morning (Saturday when we are all off from work trying to relax) my ex-husband told me he needed to come by one more time to do something to the kids computers so I told him to come at 1 pm and asked how long he would stay. He told me 1 hour. So my husband was just going to run some errands during that hour so he wouldn't need to run into him. My ex-husband ended up hanging at the house for well over 3 hours and we ended up going to a bar to wait for him to leave. I finally texted my daughter and she told me he was still there. These last few days I have been feeling so stressed out and I am glad my ex-husband is leaving back for Europe tomorrow.

I feel bad for the kids being caught in the middle, but their dad has serious issues with not recognizing boundaries.

Are we being unreasonable? I know he doesn't see his kids that much when he is away, but I also feel he is totally intruding into our life and house and inconveniencing us?

My 13 year old son is about to take a flight from Boston to France to visit his dad who lives there. He has done this before, but this time he has invited his best friend to come along. He would rather have his friend's dad drop them off at the airport without me. I am fine with that but I just want to make sure that his friend's dad will be authorized to put my son on an international flight. Does anybody know?

Thanks!

I have 2 children (13 and 17) with my ex-husband. At the time of the divorce we agreed on joint legal custody, granting my husband sole physical custody (I was constantly travelling to Europe for work).

Now our work situations have totally changed. I live in MA and barely travel and my ex-husband spends 95% of his time in Europe. In 2012 both kids lived with me for the majority of the year and only spent about 4 weeks with their dad). We never legally changed our custody arrangement, but I was wondering who would be considered the custodial parent for tax purposes.

Thanks!

I am divorced mother of 2 children (13 and 16). In 2012 they lived with me and their step dad full time, their dad lived overseas due to his job. They only spent a couple of weeks with him.

Their dad pays me child support on a monthly basis.

Who gets to claim the children as dependents? I think it should be me because they lived with me for the majority of the year. Their dad thinks it should be him because he pays child support.

Thanks!

Hi,

we just received a bill from a hospital for xrays that were taken in August 2010 (service date is August 19th 2010 and the bill date is August 29th 2012). I am wondering if they can really bill us for the first time 2 years after the xrays were taken. Is there some kind of statute of limitation for this situation? We are in Massachussets. The amount is $220.00.

I have emailed them twice (an email address for billing questions is on the bill) but have not received an answer. This is about to go into collection and if we still are obligated to pay I will, but it just seems wrong for them to bill us now.

Thanks!

Hi,

I just sold a Piaget ring through ebay and the buyer is in the Netherlands.

I am not an experienced ebay seller and am somewhat leary when it comes to the transaction.

Here are the things that stand out to me:

-When I listed the ring I only offered domestic shipping, but this guy bought it anyway

-After he won the auction he is asking me to NOT use UPS or Fedex, but only USPS and to declare it as a gift with a value of $25.00 so he won't have to pay taxes

-When he made the paypal payment the shipping address was an address in Israel, but in a separate email he gave me a shipping address in Amsterdam

-I refunded the money telling him that he needs to re-send the payment with the correct shipping address so that I can have my seller protection (paypal said I would loose it if I shipped it to an address other that indicated on the payment)

-Before I can resend the invoice he resends me the payment from a totally different paypal account (with a different name) - the payment now says that I only have partial seller protection since this account is not verified in the US.

I have the guys name and googled him. He seems to have some kind of antique jewellry store in Amsterdam.

What are your thoughts on this? Does this sound like a scam or is it legit?

Thanks!

I own a Cartier watch and a ring made by Piaget that I no longer wear.

I am wondering what the best way to sell them for the best price would be. Should I find a local store that buys used jewellery or should I maybe try ebay?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

We are getting married next Saturday and I am trying to find out if we need to plan for any tips.

The ceremony and reception is at a country club and the whole thing is a package. All food and beverage prices are subject to a "customary 20% administrative fee". Does anybody know what this means? Will this fee cover tips for all the servers/bartenders?

We are paying for the entire wedding ourselves and I am trying to control our costs.

Thank you!

I am about to place an online order for a couple of dresses (wedding dress and bridesmaids dresses) on a website called "cherrydresses.com". They seem to be a custom tailor in China.

Since I am about to spend well over $500.00 I wanted to see if they are legitimate and if anybody has used them before.

Thank you@!

We owe the IRS around $1,300 for last year's taxes and the payment is due in April. For the first time we actually owe money instead of either breaking even or getting a refund.

Does anybody know if the IRS would let us pay the amount we owe in 2 or 3 installments? We had a tough last year with my husband going through hip replacement surgery and being unemployed for most of the year. We struggled to pay bills and were unable to save any money. My husband just started a new job and we will be able to pay half of the amount now and the second half a month later. Has anybody been in this situation? How did you go about getting the IRS to accept installments?

Thank you!

I currently have a PPO through my employer and have a "family plan" (3+ people) since I insure myself and my 2 children. My employer pays the entire premium which is great. I am about to get married again and my fiance has his health insurance through his job, but has to pay part of the premium by himself. He also has a $1000 deductible. After we get married it would make sense for me to add him to my health insurance since we would save a lot of money and since my insurance seems generally "better" (lower co-pays, no deductible etc). Once I add him to my insurance will the premium go up? Or is it a fixed premium for a family plan regardless of how many people are in the family (3 or more)?

Thanks!

I posted this yesterday but wanted to add an update:

Yesterday I received a call from a collection agency about a balance (approx. $62,000) on an Amex credit card that belongs to my ex-husband. We have been divorced for over 8 years now and I never knew that my name was still on this account and I have not had a card with my name on it for all these years. The collection lady said that I am held responsible just as much as my ex-husband and that at this point my name cannot be removed until this "issue" is resolved.

Is there anybody who could tell me if there is really no way to have me removed from this account. My ex-husband would be willing to somehow sign a paper that he is responsible for this debt.

Thanks !

UPDATE:

I regularly check my credit report and this account does not show up. I also just called Amex and they said that I am just a card holder on the account, but that a card was never issued. I am really confused now....is it possible that this collection agency is just fishing for info and that they are using me to put pressure on my ex-husband?

Thanks !

Today I received a call from a collection agency about a balance (approx. $62,000) on an Amex credit card that belongs to my ex-husband. We have been divorced for over 8 years now and I never knew that my name was still on this account and I have not had a card with my name on it for all these years. The collection lady said that I am held responsible just as much as my ex-husband and that at this point my name cannot be removed until this "issue" is resolved.

Is there anybody who could tell me if there is really no way to have me removed from this account. My ex-husband would be willing to somehow sign a paper that he is responsible for this debt.

Thanks !

I have 2 children (10 and 13) with my ex-husband. We have joint custody and they mostly spend week days at his house and week-ends at my house.

He has been living with his girl friend for 2 years now and the relationship is very "turbulent" (a lot of arguing, yelling, name calling etc. on her part). My children have complained about not being able to sleep due to her screaming at their dad during the night.

A few month ago my ex-husband called me to tell me that she had "freaked out" that morning and started to beat him with a snow shovel in the drive way. Trying to defend himself he attempted to take the shovel away from her. She then locked herself in her car, dialed 911 and screamed into her cell phone that he was trying to climb through the window to hurt her. 5 minutes later the cops showed up, handcuffed him because they believed he was the aggressor. After trying to explain what had really happened and showing the defensive bruise on his forearm they uncuffed him, but went inside the house to talk more. While this all happened the kids were in the house, but saw everything through the window. My ex-husband also told me that about a year before that she went after him with a screw driver once and he also called the police.

Anyway...after initally saying that he was going to kick her out she is still there. They went to court and both said nothing really happened. I think this woman has no business spending time with my kids, but he is now down playing the whole thing. If there is another incident I would like to go to the police to inquire about a restraining order against her so that she can no longer go near the children. Do you think this will be granted even though she has not tried to harm the kids directly - just their dad while they are in the house?

I also just want to point out that I am not a "spiteful" ex-wife. We have been divorced for a long time and I am in a happy new relationship. So far I have always stayed out of his business, but I do worry how this whole thing affects my children psychologically.

My ex-husband has adopted a siberian husky a little over a year ago. At the time the dog was about 2 years old.

He is a very even tempered dog, but has not been receiving any obedience training since he arrived at the house. They do not walk him on a regular basis and keep him out in the yard most of the time. After he went through the electric fence a couple of times and even attacked one of the neighbour's goats they now keep him on a long leash. Needless to say that the dog is depressed and "acts up". He pees and poops on the house, digs up the yard etc. My ex-husband is about to surrender him to the local shelter, because he can't deal with him anymore.

I feel so sad because he is such a lovely dog and my children are very attached to him. Since me and my second husband have been talking about getting a dog for a while now we are discussing the possibility of taking him. We are pretty much aware of all the work, time and attention the dog would require and think that his behavioral issues could eventually be resolved. We have also done a lot of research on the breed. The question I have is about his behavior around cats: Huskies have a strong prey instinct and he would very likely attack our 2 cats. He has attacked one of my ex-husband's cats before. Is there any way he can be taught to "get along" with the cats?

Or is his instrinct so strong that it could never be controlled?

Our kitties are part of our family and do come first. I also would want the Husky to become part of the family and don't want to be forced to keep everybody separated in different parts or rooms of the house.

Does anyone have any Husky or dog obedience experience and could give me some input?

Thank you!