Helpful Hints/Opinion

Helpful Hints

DEAR HELOISE: I work in a major financial institution, and we have come up against scam lenders hoping to take advantage of people in these lean economic times. Many people are looking for help from financial lenders, but please advise your readers to do their homework first. There are some red flags that should alert people that the company they are dealing with is not on the level.

• If you are pressured in any way to give false information or to sign a document you haven't read or they want you to sign a blank form, walk away.

• If they refuse to give you copies of any of the documents you've signed.

• If they want you to apply for a larger loan amount than you want.

Should you happen to have problems with a lender, contact your local Better Business Bureau and state attorney general's office to file a complaint. Always do business with a bank, credit union or loan company you know to have a good reputation.

-- Harold F., Detroit

DEAR READERS: Additional uses for plastic gripping shelf liners:

• Use under a pet dish.

• On the bathtub bottom when bathing a pet.

• Wrap the top of a hanger for tops with thin straps.

• Bottom of a chair leg..

DEAR HELOISE: My grandmother was from Holland, and she told me that if I want to keep tulips from bending over in a vase of water, to put two pennies in the bottom of the vase and the tulips will stay straight. The water should be changed once a day, and as soon as you get the tulips home, cut about ½ an inch off of the bottom before placing them in the vase.

-- Cindy T., Eagan, Minn.

DEAR HELOISE: When my father died my mother was so traumatized by his passing that she forgot phone numbers to let people know she needed help. This taught my sisters and I a lesson. We now keep up-to-date phone numbers taped to the desk, by the phone in the den and one on the wall by the kitchen phones. Not just emergency numbers, but numbers of family members who would need to know immediately if there was a problem.

-- Janet N., Bridgeport, W.Va.

DEAR READER: That's a very good idea. Sometimes in a crisis people get confused or, as you say, are so traumatized that they have trouble remembering what to do.

Send a money- or time-saving hint to Heloise, P.O. Box 795001, San Antonio, Texas 78279-5000; fax to (210) 435-6473; or email

[email protected]

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