When you need cash quickly, selling or pawning something that you own can be a good option. Generally, though, you want to make sure that it’s something you actually own, and not something that you just got from Rent-A-Center. [More]
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Why Some Best Buy Stores Need Two Forms Of ID To Give You $5 For A Junk Cell Phone
By 1.17.13
You may remember the adventures of S., who wanted to turn a drawer full of junky cell phones into Best Buy gift cards, but ran up against a baffling store policy that requires two forms of photo ID to do so. He complained, then flounced to another store that didn’t have this inexplicable policy. Turns out that this policy is pretty explicable: it involves local laws regulating pawn transactions. [More]
Sears And Kmart Want To Buy Your Gold
By 5.17.10
The next time you want to sell some old gold jewelry, you can just take it to your nearest Kmart or Sears. The retailers have announced a partnership with something called Pro Gold Network, which basically amounts to, “You can pick up a mailer and instructions at our jewelry departments.” Remember, though, that mail-in services almost always pay less than what you can get locally from a jeweler or pawn shop, or by selling to a refinery directly. Here’s what Pro Gold Network will pay so you can compare rates. [More]
Auto Title Loans, Illegal In Most States, Even Riskier In Georgia
By 1.26.09
Meet Scott. When builders in financial trouble stopped paying him the money he was owed as a brick and stone contractor, he became desperate. He needed a loan to buy him time while he tried to collect the money he was owed. Thinking he understood the risks, he used his wife’s 2004 Ford Expedition to get an auto title loan of $2,000 at an interest rate of 25% per month — or 300% APR.
