Harry Gross writes about personal finance for the Daily News.
Dear Harry: My father died in 1981. I am his only child. Until he died, he collected Social Security. This lasted about four years. My mother died before him so she never got a dime of his SS. I'm 51, and I'm too young to collect on my own SS, but it sure
Dear Harry: I need your advice on how to approach my credit-card issuers about lowering my interest rates. I have five cards with balances totaling $30,000. I have never been late, and I almost always pay more than the minimum required. I own my home free
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Dear Harry: About 20 years ago, I participated in my former employer's stock-purchase plan by means of payroll deductions. I was able to accumulate 40 shares. I hoped to hold on to them and use them as a supplement to my retirement pensions. The value of
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Dear Harry: In one of your recent columns, you indicated that a person's neighborhood could be a factor in determining the rate on auto insurance. Do you really think that this is fair? How do our legislators let this inequitable method of determining premiums continue to exist?
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Dear Harry: My mother died in 2002. She left her home to me. With my brothers' consent, the house is now in my name. Mother was not able to pay her real-estate taxes for a few years before she died. I wanted to get a loan to pay the taxes and do some repa
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Dear Harry: I am enclosing a letter and a check from North American Sweepstakes. The letter declares that I am a winner of "swipe and win sweepstakes." I never entered any sweepstakes, ever. The check looks like it's genuine for $3,985. I'm a sk
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Dear Harry: Your voice has been one of common sense and reasoned opinions. I would love to see you get more involved in the national debates going on in Washington, particularly the one on health care. I have always thought that insurance was an economic
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Dear Harry: I never discussed money matters with my boyfriend before I got married four years ago. I moved into a house that he owned, and did not find out until recently that he had financial trouble. He has been paying his mortgage every month to a coll
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Dear Harry: Back in April, my wife and I attended a meeting of a "travel club." Afterward, we received a card for a three-day, two-night trip to anywhere in the United States. In order to "validate" the trip, we had to send a $100 mone
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Dear Harry: A while ago, my father took a big hit on the sale of one of his stocks. He had been taking a deduction for that loss on his jointly filed 1040 at the rate of $3,000 a year ever since. He died recently. IRS told me that I can continue to take
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Dear Harry: I have a universal life insurance policy that will pay my heirs $100,000 "if and when" I pass away. I owe $21,000 on a credit card, and the bank has retained a lawyer to try to collect this debt. He said that he is in the process of
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Dear Harry: I am the son of a man who recently died after two successive marriages. He had adopted two daughters that his current wife had before her marriage to him. My stepmom, one of my sisters, and I want to sell his house and divide up the money, but there is bad blood between one of my sisters and the family, and she won't even discuss his estate with us. This has been going on for about three months. How can we get the house sold with the least possible cost?
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