Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Thursday, October 8, 1998
30-year mortgage rates fall to 30-year lows
WASHINGTON -- The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 6.49 percent this week from 6.60 percent last week, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.'s survey.That's the lowest since January 1968, when the monthly average for the 30-year mortgage rate was 6.41 percent, Freddie Mac said, citing figures from the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. Freddie Mac began its survey of 30-year fixed-rate mortgages in 1971.
The latest report also showed the average rate on an adjustable mortgage fell to 5.36 percent this week from 5.39 percent last week; and the 15-year mortgage rate fell to 6.15 percent from 6.27 percent.
GTE revamping bills to combat 'cramming'
WASHINGTON -- GTE Corp., parent company of Hawaiian Tel, is revamping its local phone bills to help customers understand them and spot unauthorized charges.The company also announced yesterday that it will implement all of the phone industry's voluntary guidelines, unveiled in July, to combat the problem of cramming, which federal regulators say has bilked consumers out of millions of dollars. Cramming involves consumers getting charged on their phone bills by third parties for products or services they never requested or received.
GTE's changes will affect its 14 million residential customers and 2 million business customers in 28 states. Included are GTE Hawaiian Tel's 650,000 to 700,000 customers, said spokesman Keith Kamisugi.
Upcoming bills will be redesigned to include more specific explanations and information about charges, something the Federal Communications Commission last month proposed requiring companies to do. Other bill changes will be phased in over six months.
Starting Jan. 1, Stamford, Conn.-based GTE will stop billing for nontelecommunications services, such as club fees or membership fees for psychic or sports chat lines. Charges for those kinds of services are often "crammed" into phone bills.
At the same time, GTE will require third parties other than long-distance companies to obtain customers' written or oral approval to add to their phone bill charges for services or products.
By April 1, GTE also will give customers -- at no extra charge -- the option of limiting the companies that can charge them on their local phone bills.
Report: American Air pilots retiring in droves
NEW YORK -- The stock market slump and a benefits quirk has pilots leaving AMR Corp.'s American Airlines in droves, forcing the nation's second-largest carrier to cancel flights, The Wall Street Journal reported today.American pilots take most of their retirement money in a lump sum from a company mutual fund, and their contract allows a three-
month window to retire at a set share price. That means pilots who leave now can count on retirement distributions based on July's stock prices. Many recently have received distributions of as much as $3 million each at retirement, the Journal reported.
Since July, the value of the fund has dropped by about 10 percent, which translates into a loss of up to $300,000 if the pilots had to retire at today's stock prices. So they've been leaving before the window closes. About 20 of American's 9,000 pilots retire each month. In September, 63 retired and the airline expects 65 more retirements in November.
The airline has responded to the early retirements by reducing the frequency of flights to Latin American cities.
Britain's central bank follows U.S. rate cut
LONDON -- The Bank of England cut a key British lending rate by one-quarter percentage point today, the first decline since Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labor Party government took office in May 1997.The government and business leaders had been pushing for a rate cut to stimulate the economy. The U.S. Federal Reserve last week cut a key lending rate by a similar amount. The Bank of England cut the repo rate, the lowest rate at which the central bank loans money to commercial banks, by 0.25 percentage points to 7.25 percent.
See expanded coverage in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
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