Avoid Debt By Learning How Credit Cards Work

Credit cards are certainly among the highest priced financial products that consumers can make full use of. Via high interest rates and multiple fees that are related using the cards, increasingly more people find that they are getting into massive amounts of debt, all because of credit card use. This is why one must truly understand how this service works before falling into this dangerous trap.

The fact is, as most of us already know, there are numerous charges which are associated with these cards. It is important to not only be informed of these charges but to avoid these charges when it comes to your credit cards to avoid debt. Making sure that you don’t go over the credit limit and prevent cash advances on the cards could be an effective method to reduce the charges which are associated using the credit card, as these are two of the most expensive fees that are available. Did I say stay away from cash advances? The banks or cards issuers make it really easy to do cash advances on the cards so please be very careful.

Carrying a balance from month to month is another huge expense that arises from the card. Carrying a balance from month to month causes interest to accumulate on your card and does not allow you to take advantage of the grace period that’s available through the card. How does shopping and paying off the card within the grace period help you save money? Shopping within the grace period of the credit card lets you save money through purchases which are made and repaid within 21, to 28 days of the purchase, depending on which bank or company. Through this time, you will find no interest charges or charges which are created to the card and therefore

Understanding about the card charges can be simple. You can contact the credit card company with any questions regarding the contract, but you’re also able to read the fine print that is associated using the contract. This can be an effective way to make sure that you’re not just aware of the fees, but you are mindful in any potential changes which could be made inside the credit card contract.

Knowing the fees and cost, the true costs, is the only way to ensure that you’re able to make the most of the card and avoid and reduce the debt linked with them.

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How To Reduce Debt With A Budget

Although most individuals are unaware of the general methods which are utilized to create a budget, there are simple techniques that you can use to make a budget that may allow you to become debt free.

Firstly, it is important you learn the basic steps that are used to produce a spending budget. There are two basic elements which are included within the creation of the budget that need to be decided – your earnings, and your expenses.

Although it can be relatively easy to determine your earnings, as all you should do is have a look at your earnings and also the statement of wages that comes along with your pay check, it could be a little less cut and dry to decide your expenses. What techniques must you use to determine your expenses? Initially, the consumer should realize that looking more than one month of expenses and purchases is not going to depict an accurate portrayal of the spending budget and consequently it is important to think about between three to 6 months worth of expenditures and purchases and use this information to come up with averages for every of the sections within the spending budget every single month.

You can find budgeting programs on the net, for free that allows you to easily come up with calculations for your spending budget, but that also enables you to understand the specifications within a properly allocated spending budget. For instance, no more than 28 to thirty five percent of the spending budget could be spent on property, and this includes the cost of utilities which are associated with housing and no more than fifteen percent of the spending budget should be applied for debt repayment, unless you have implemented an aggressive debt repayment program.

Although it could be simple enough to create the budget that can consist of a repayment plan for the debt that has been accumulated, it is necessary to realize that 1 must adhere with this repayment plan in order to decrease the debt and therefore regain control more than the personal finances.

The amount of the spending budget should you allocate to the payment of debt? Gurus recommend using no more than fifteen percent of the spending budget to debt repayment, unless you’re willing to make drastic lifestyle changes and create a rapid debt repayment plan.

There are many free web debt calculators where you can use to calculate the amount you may need to pay for your debt. You can use them to estimate the budget you may need to allocate towards the repayment.

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How To Reduce Interest Rates Of Credit Cards

The interest rate of your credit cards can depend on many things; your relationship with credit card organization, your credit history and even the kind of card that you are trying to get.

Some individuals might know this, credit card banks generally provide three tiers of interest rates that are available to their clients. The 1st tier is offered to clients with extremely little historical past or no history using the credit card company and is the highest sum of interest that is charged. Sometimes, this rate could be upwards of 20 %. This is the least desired interest rate and may be the standard for most cards until the consumer has developed a history with the card firm.

The next tier that’s offered may be the premium interest rate. The rate is offered to these with a higher credit rating, as they come as less of a risk to the company. The Elite rate is for all those that have developed a positive historical past with the credit card company and for people with an excellent credit score. Understanding these tiers of interest rates could be an efficient way to ensure that you’re able to take advantage of techniques to decrease the interest rate.

What are some methods that you can use to reduce the interest rate on your card? Something as simple as asking for a lower rate if you have developed a history with the bank or organization. Keep this in mind, in order to achieve a higher chance of reducing the rate on your card, you will require to develop a great history with the bank for example no late payments. Having a good credit rating helps as well.

In the case that these banks can’t offer you a lower rate, there are many alternative options which are available to you. You can choose to conduct your business with another organization and take advantage of promotional offers which are available to new customers. The rates can last for as much as one year into the term of the credit card and can allow you to decrease the amount of interest on the purchases that are made, but can also allow you to have a lowered rate, as low as zero interest, for transfers which are made to the credit card.

Using these techniques, it is possible to potentially reduce your interest rate therefore save money from the costs of accrued debt.

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How You Can Get a Lower Interest Rate For Your Credit Card

Are you searching for the perfect way to have a lower interest rate on your credit card? Maybe you are thinking about the techniques that can be used to reduce your debt once you make a credit card debt pay back plan. In either of these cases, it is essential to realize that you can indeed decrease the rates of these credit cards and you are able to make sure that you’re able to get the lowest attainable interest rates, enabling you to avoid debt, or repay the debts that have been accrued from the card.

Below are great tips you could use to have a reduce interest rate for one’s credit card:

Make contact with the card company and ask for a lower rate. This really is one of the most efficient methods to have a lower price. Merely call the customer service number that is obtainable and request a lower rate. Via the choices that are obtainable, speak to a rep. Within the case that the representative is not able to help you, ask for contact with a manager or supervisor. Explain your positive credit history with the organization and perhaps demonstrate the positive credit score for the greatest results.

Improve your credit rating. As soon as you have increased your credit rating, you can sometimes decrease the interest that is charged to the consumer. Credit card issuers periodically examine the scores of their client to determine which tier of interest rates will be offered to the customer. Via this examination, it’s essential to keep the score and improve the credit score to make sure that you’re able to get access to the lowest credit card interest rates.

Take advantage of introductory offers. There are lots of introductory offers which are obtainable for new customers of credit cards that permit the consumers to have as little as zero interest for periods of between six and 18 months. This zero introductory rate often applies to balance transfers that are made towards the card also as new purchases and can enable the customer to pay back their credit card debt, without any interest accumulating via the promotional period.

If this really is your first time obtaining a card, make sure you read the ‘fine print’ at the bottom of the subscription form. While credit cards might waive the very first year’s annual fee, numerous don’t do that.

If you’ve debt, you might wish to transfer your balance to a low interest card and continue to pay off as much as you can.

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Top 3 Reasons Why You Should Choose Debt Consolidation

Debt consolidation can be a confusing topic for people, as most consumers are not aware of how the procedure works. Through the process of debt consolidation, a loan is often given to the prospect that is facing debt, in which the funds are used to repay the existing creditors and therefore the customer is able to repay this loan via one month-to-month repayment, instead of multiple payments per month. As an added bonus, the repayment term usually includes a reduced interest rate, that may lead to a reduce month-to-month payment.

What are some of the benefits that could be seen from debt consolidation?

1. It allows you to decrease not only the sum of payments which are made to creditors, but the process can also permit you to decrease the frequency where the repayments are made towards the creditors. Majority of the debt consolidation programs make use of loans that enable you to definitely make one payment to the debt consolidation company, to repay the amount which has been borrowed to repay the unpaid and uncontrolled debt.

2. It allows you to protect the credit rating which has been established. When repayments are missed and payments are late, this usually affects the credit rating adversely and so the funds that are required via the debt repayment plan can be an effective method to repay the debts, reducing the quantity of creditors and so protecting the credit rating from being lowered.

3. It also allows you to pay one month-to-month payment, but at lower interest rates. Since the monthly transaction that is being created frequently has a reduce interest rate, also as being extended over a longer period of time, the payment which is made to the debt consolidation organization is often lower than the previous repayments.

Taking these advantages into consideration can perhaps help you to ultimately decide whether consolidating the debt is an efficient way for you to deal with overwhelming debt and a way to regain control of the personal finances. Even though you will find alternatives which are available to debt consolidation, you can frequently find the advantages outweigh the drawbacks and also the risks in terms of determining how to eliminate the debt, for good.

Before considering consolidating your debt, you can also learn about other debt relief choices like consumer credit counseling, debt management and debt settlement. There are lots of reputable companies that you can find on the web but be careful because you will find a lot of ripoffs too. Make sure you do a comprehensive research prior to making any conclusions.

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Why Are You Drowning In Debt?

There comes a time when one is unable to pay the high minimum payments which are associated with the loan and the individual may be unable to manage the every-month payments. This is often a time when people recognize that they’re drowning in debt. Surprisingly though, most people are unaware of how it occurred.

Countless people throughout the world have found out that they are in debt. Through this debt comes a variety of problems, like being unable to pay the minimum payments that are due each single month and as soon as you’re not able to afford your obligations you risk not only detrimental effects on the credit rating, but you risk facing bankruptcy and other means.

There’s one point that leads to individuals drowning in debt. Spending a lot more than you earn and living above your means with the use of credit cards is probably the number one reason that consumers find themselves in debt. Spending a lot more than you earn for any prolonged time period means you usually are forced to rely on credit cards, also as being forced to rely on other kinds of credit, which come at a cost – the interest rate.

A lot of consumers don’t know the significance of determining how you really got into debt, so that you can learn the methods and techniques that could be utilized to reduce your debt and turn out to be debt free permanently. To be able to get out of debt, you must alter the habits which have gotten them into debt in the very first place.

Lots of of these habits include being struggle to determine between needs and wants and as a result this causes many people to spend more than they earn. Also, many people get into debt because they’re unaware of the techniques which are utilized to create a budget.

Once you have learned the behaviors that triggered you to get into debt and reach the credit limits of your available funds, you’re able to make the modifications which are required. These changes need to be made immediately and usually you will find drastic modifications which are made in the budget, which lead to drastic modifications being made in the lifestyle.

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The Minimum Payment Trap Of Credit Card Debt and How to Avoid It

Do you find yourself with a credit card balance that seems to increase month after month, even after you have paid your monthly bills to the debt? However, in the state of the recent economy, there are increasingly more people that find themselves in this predicament – encompassed within a mess of the lowest payment trap and unsure of the steps to take to eliminate their debt once and for all, and even pay it down.

Sadly, repaying only the monthly payment on the balance of credit cards, particularly those which are nearing the credit limit| is not a viable way to repay the debt and get rid of your debt permanently.

There are alternative methods which can be used to have you out of debt once and for all. Listed below are some of the tactics that have been developed by financial experts to get you out of the minimum payment trap, forever:

Find the Additional Money within your Budget

While at times it can seem extremely hard to stretch the spending budget any further there are usually techniques that could be used to cut the spending budget and find the extra money. Where do you find the extra money within your spending budget? You might consider cutting down on items that you do not really require say for instance, subscription to magazines or cable tv. You may also consider looking for part time work to add some extra income so you can spend more. You can find many various component time work on the net nowadays.

Pay at least More Than the Minimum Repayment

Many people are not aware that most of the minimum payment which is applied towards the balance of the loan is applied to interest, and also the same rules come about when we are talking about credit cards. Having to pay a minimum of double the minimum payment, each and every single month can be the most effective way to make sure that you’re regaining control of the finances with regards to your debt.

Keep Credit Cards Nicely Under the Limit

Maintaining them well under the credit limit can ensure that you are not in danger of maxing out the credit card, and even going over the limit. Heading over the credit limit or maxing out the credit card can lead to extra fees and debt.

Utilizing these tips, you can decrease the chance that you are heading to fall into the minimum payment trap and lose control of the individual finances. Best of luck!

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Using Credit Card Grace Period To Reduce Interest

Most people are unaware that how they use the credit card can impact the amount in which they owe at the end of the month and even reduce the interest which is paid to the card company, when it comes time to pay the monthly payment. Shopping smart and utilizing your card wisely, including avoiding using the card to maintain a balance from month to month can be the most effective method to reduce the interest rates that are paid on the credit card and the purchases which are done.

How long may be the grace period linked with your card? The grace period for it often varies between different banks. These amounts generally vary between twenty-one and 28 days. Via the many ranges, people can take advantage of interest-free buys so long as the purchases which are done with the card are repaid within the time limit that’s linked with the so called grace period.

Understanding the grace period associated with your card can be easy. You simply have to contact the card company or read the contract that’s applicable with it.

What are the terms that are typically associated with making purchases within the grace period of the card? To be able to take advantage of the grace period, the consumer should not retain a balance on it – simply because in this situation the payments which are being applied to the card are going to become used to the previous balance that had been accumulated on the card. As well, it is important to contact the bank or company in the situation that you have any questions concerning the grace period of the credit card, as this offer is not available from all credit card companies.

Nonetheless they can provide some benefits. For example, for all those who consistently pay on time, but due to some unexpected situations late on rare occasions, can avoid a penalty for being late within the grace period and still maintain their reputation. However, for those habitual procrastinators, they may see the grace period as the actual deadline.

Therefore, if you want to be a smart consumer, taking advantage of buys that are made and paid for via the grace period of the credit card could be an effective way to ensure that you are able to create probably the most of your credit and avoid the interest rates that are associated with maintaining a balance on the credit card.

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How Does Debt Consolidation Work?

Ah, the wonders of financial problems. It can be hard to figure out how you’ve gotten into debt – possibly even harder to figure out the methods that could be used to break free of the cycle of debt.

The first step to debt consolidation is to consult a debt consolidation organization. In most cases, a loan is provided to the consumer allowing them to repay the debt that is accumulated and therefore preserving the credit rating, but the individual must very first make an application for this loan.

During the time when the loan has been granted, the client will have to come to repayment terms for the loan. This will include the quantity that’s going to become repaid on a monthly basis, as well as the amount which is going to be paid and the term in which the loan is going to be repaid. Using this information, you can work out the terms of the loan that are ideal for both parties.

After you’ve requested for the loan, the issuing firm will often give the consumer a check or provide the consumer with a deposit into their banking account. This money could be used to repay the credit cards and other debts which have been accumulated and as a result you are able to rest easy once you’ve reduced your debt to one loan, as opposed to multiple payments which seem as if you’re getting nowhere in terms of debt repayment.

After you’ve repaid the other creditors using the balance of the consolidation loan, it’s essential to adhere to the repayment terms of the loan. Defaulting on the loan make a difference to your credit rating, and missing payments of the consolidation loan can even cause the loan’s interest rate to increase or accumulate fees throughout the loan.

Researching the procedure of obtaining a debt consolidation loan could be the most effective way to ensure that you are able to use the loan to repay your debt and as a result take control of the personal finances, reducing a number of payments to one, lower-interest monthly payments.

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Anatomy of a Bank Takeover – This American Life & All Things Considered

Usually when you read about yet another FDIC bank takeover, the absence of emotion, the impact on the lives of bank employees, and the on the ground view of what happens on that fateful Friday is almost never portrayed as it is in Episode 377: Scenes from a Recession where a compellling audio story of the Bank of Clark County, Vancouver, WA is told. After all, who cares.  As long as my money is insured by the FDIC, I’m good!

In this episode, the story of a Circuit City store closing is also told.  This post will direct you to the All Things Considered resource.  The story was written by Chana Joffe-Walt.  The audio can be found here.  The abridged article transcript is here. I hope you get to listen to it.  It may not be completely objective or able to tell the entire story.  It is only 12 minutes.  But, you will see some criticisms of the piece from comments posted by readers on the article’s web site.

Anatomy of a Bank Takeover

by Chana Joffe-Walt

On a mid-January night, some 80 agents of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. pull into Vancouver, Wash. Their rental cars are generic, their arrival times staggered. One by one, agents check into a hotel, each quietly offering a pseudonym to the guy at the desk.

They’re here to take over the Bank of Clark County, which the FDIC has decided is insolvent. It’s the agency’s job to insure American bank deposits and to step in when a bank fails. The FDIC tries to keep the planning for its operations top secret, to avoid sparking a panicked run on the bank.

At 9 o’clock on this particular Thursday night, FDIC agents call another bank nearby, Umpqua Bank. They tell executives there that Umpqua has been selected to take over the Bank of Clark County. They order them not to tell anyone. Come to a meeting tomorrow at noon, they say, and we’ll fill you in on everything you need to know.

The next day, Ric Carey, an Umpqua vice president, heads into that meeting. “The FDIC had taken a location approximately two miles from the main office of the bank in a hotel under a different name,” he says later. “And they’ve been through quite a few of these. I think one of the gentlemen leading the discussion said, ‘You know, I’ve done over 200 of these over my 25 years, and let me tell you how it’s going to work.’ ”

He agrees it almost feels like a spy movie. “They’ve done this before — quite a production,” he says.

Breaking The News

Todd Zalk is what you’d call a team player, a total bank loyalist to the end and beyond.

Zalk works at the Bank of Clark County — “the best community business bank,” he says, “because we’ve changed the game in business banking and we were winning.” He laughs at himself, but a month after the failure he’s still wearing his Bank of Clark County nametag, still passing out his bank business cards with a warm handshake and calling people by name whenever possible.

Zalk says he had no idea the FDIC was in town and his bank was about to fail. On Friday afternoon, failure day, he was bringing in new business. “I had people that wanted to open accounts,” he says, adding that he opened more than 55 new accounts in the fourth quarter.

He knew the bank was going through a rough time — everyone knew that. The CEO had been saying that the bank was like a ship. The bank had taken on some water in the recent storm and might need a bigger ship, meaning a larger bank, to take it on. But things were basically under control.

On that Friday afternoon, Zalk is out meeting with potential clients.

At 5:01 p.m., a small team enters the Bank of Clark County. They’re a casual group, just two FDIC agents and a Washington state regulator, and they head straight for the CEO’s office. And this is when it happens: They deliver the news. They tell him his bank is undercapitalized and has failed.

At 5:03 p.m., an agent positioned by the CEO’s office door, types the news into a BlackBerry. It is received by everyone on the FDIC takeover team, including the FDIC’s manager on location, Ron Hodges.

“At 5:04, we receive the notification that the bank had been declared failed,” Hodges says. “It’s that simple.”

A minute later, FDIC agents begin closing in on the bank. A few are already inside, quietly and discreetly securing the cash and the vaults.

Carey, with Umpqua Bank, has assumed a position down the street. He’s sitting in his car, waiting and watching.

Gone In A Flash

Zalk, oblivious to all this, heads back into the office after a long day of work. And it’s weird, he says, how tense everyone seems. A teller mentions that there’s a staff meeting at 6 p.m.

“By this time it was quarter to 6, and I went up to someone who was senior vice president at the bank and I said, ‘How are you doing?’” Zalk says. “And they said, ‘Oh I’m doing all right.’ I could tell something was going on and they didn’t want to say. We looked across to the other side of the bank and there were two employees adjusting pictures on the wall. And he kind of laughed and said, ‘Wow, that reminds me of adjusting the chairs on the Titanic before it sank.’ And that really told me something was going down.”

The Bank of Clark County staff gathered in the lobby at 6 p.m. The group included a couple of people in suits whom none of the bank staff recognized.

“Mike Worthy, our CEO, came out,” Zalk says. “It was very short. He stood up and said, ‘Well, I’ve used the analogy that we were a ship that was taking on some water and we needed to pull up next to a bigger ship, and we thought we had a few buyers for that. And now the biggest ship that sails the seas has come alongside us, and they are going to be taking us over — and that is essentially the federal government.”

At 6:03 p.m., down the street in his car, Carey notices his BlackBerry vibrate. He was getting the signal, an e-mail: “It’s time. Come in.”

Two minutes later, Carey gets out of the car and starts walking toward the bank. Meanwhile, in the lobby, a woman from the FDIC takes the stage.

“She said within the next 10 minutes there will be 80 FDIC employees coming into the bank. And I looked out there, and it was dark so I couldn’t really see,” Zalk says. “Then all these people, mostly in suits and professional clothing with attorney-type briefcases, start entering the bank, just flooding into the bank. I was so awestruck at them coming in — and so many of them coming into the bank, that I turned around and looked over there, and just kept watching them, and they just continued to come. I mean 80? I mean, our bank had, like, 100 employees.”

Out in the parking lot, he noticed a flash. It was a photographer for the local newspaper taking a photo for the front page of Saturday’s edition.

Keeping The Doors Open

At 6:08 p.m., Carey enters the bank he will own in just a few days. He finds the staff members are standing in their closed bank headquarters trying to digest the news. Some of them are crying. He remembers one of them saying, “My goodness, I just told one of our biggest customers yesterday, ‘Don’t worry, everything’s fine.’”

He says they seemed almost personally embarrassed that they now had to face those customers.

It’s now around 6:10. The Clark County people have a bunch of questions running through their heads — first among them: Do we get to keep our jobs? Carey can’t answer that. Umpqua will need only about a third of the Bank of Clark County staff. But it’s too soon to let individuals know whether they just lost a job.

The Bank of Clark County no longer exists. It’s not quite Umpqua Bank yet. The FDIC is in charge. The bank has to open its doors Tuesday morning — Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The FDIC agents announce that, through the weekend, the staffers will be temporary employees of the FDIC. Stay and help us, the agents say.

“Most of us were planning on leaving at the end of the day,” says Ken Moody, the bank’s vice president of information systems. “My daughter had a seventh birthday that we were going to go to.”

Like An Autopsy

At 6:20 p.m., the FDIC agents spread out into offices, storage rooms, hallways, into any space available. They tape handmade signs to the doors, labeling rooms with functions like “audit,” “security” and “investigations.”

The agents begin going through files. They change the Web site and count all the cash by hand, a task that takes three hours. They check the safe deposit boxes, go through desk drawers and toss out bank letterhead.

From all the paperwork and computer hard drives, the FDIC has to reconstruct the bank’s entire balance sheet. It has to know what it’s selling to Umpqua.

The agents’ work includes checking every single account. Ones with a balance under $250,000 are fully insured by the FDIC. But some people have more than that, and there are business accounts and loans and it gets complicated. Some of the accounts are covered, some aren’t.

While the agents are sorting all this out, they can’t have customers going online and moving money around. They need to shut down the bank’s computers for a short while, maybe an hour. “Things started happening very quickly and with what seemed to be a lot of precision,” Moody says.

At 6:25 p.m., Moody sees three agents approaching. They hand him a thumb drive and ask him to plug it into a computer. The drive contains all the instructions about all the computer systems.

“It was like watching an autopsy being performed by a really skillful surgeon,” he says. “They just came in and sliced and diced and broke the bank up into a bunch of different pieces, threw them into different buckets — and did it with great efficiency.”

It was like an autopsy, he says, of all the work the bank employees had done together for a decade.

‘They Were Really Nice’

Many workers at the Bank of Clark County said one thing about the FDIC that you don’t often hear about a government agency — that it did a really good job. They describe the agents as kind, courteous and efficient. Everything was structured, even how and when to grieve.

“Many of the people who came in from the FDIC got to where they were because they were part of a bank that was failed,” says Lisa Stapleton, an assistant loan officer. “And they were like, ‘You know what? We’ve been where you are. And we understand and it’s going to be fine.’ So they were really nice. Having that empathy helped it kind of make it a little more pleasant.”

The Bank of Clark County had 100 employees and assets of $446 million — it was a really small bank. But the federal takeover kept 80 FDIC agents, about 50 Bank of Clark County staff, and 100 Umpqua employees, working round the clock for three days.

Most of the largest banks in trouble right now — Citibank, Bank of America — are about 6,000 times the size of the Bank of Clark County and much, much more complicated.

Considering the scale involved, it’s not surprising the U.S. Treasury secretary’s latest plan does everything it can to avoid using this process on those big banks. When you take over a little bank, it’s called receivership. When you do it to a big bank, people throw around the word nationalization.

But on the other hand, check these FDIC folks out. They know what they’re doing. And every week they get more experience. In the 10 weeks since the FDIC took over the Bank of Clark County, 18 more banks have failed. That brings us to a grand total of 20 since the start of this year — a number that will likely grow tomorrow.