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Most major credit card issuers now offer their members a variety of different free insurance programs. It is highly recommended that you review the insurance terms of your credit card agreement as in certain circumstances the credit card insurance offered by your card issuer may cover situation beyond those you may originally have thought.

The major credit card insurance programs offered include:

Purchase Protection

If you purchase a product on your credit card that is later damaged, lost or stolen, you should be able to reclaim all or part of the purchase price cost from the insurance policy. Not only is this a useful protection to have if you purchase expensive or fragile products, but can also be a very good additional insurance to any home contents insurance policy you have.

Fraud Protection

Policy covers you should you be the victim of fraudulent use of your card. With the rise of identity theft, and the ever increasing Internet fraud taking place, this policy not only covers the traditional fraud methods but should also cover you for any Internet or telephone fraud.

Stolen Card Protection

Provided you report your card stolen at the first opportunity you have once you have become aware of your card?s theft, this policy should reimburse you for any transactions processed on your card following your last genuine transaction.

Price Protection

Not offered by all card providers, basically this policy will reimburse you the difference between the price you paid for a product and the cheaper price of the same product you later found elsewhere.

Travel Insurance

If you purchase your holiday on your credit card there are two useful beneficial insurances you should check Read more…

If you can’t rely on your own research, or if you don?t have time to do the research, you might as well make your investment decisions based on tips from that smart guy at work. No, no, I’m just kidding. Tips are for restaurants.

Important Rules to Follow When Buying a Stock

These suggestions are presented with the assumption that you intend to remain a casual investor. I strongly recommend mastering the art of technical analysis (reading charts, analyzing price and volume moves) if you intend to become more serious about the timing of your purchases.

With this said, you should still be able to buy good stocks if you follow these rules:

1.Don’t ever buy a stock without first examining its financial health. You are going to learn how to do this.

2. Don’t ever buy a stock without first learning about its business and who its competition is. You want to focus on the leaders in an industry.

3. Buy when market indexes are in an up-trend. Don’t try to bottom-guess, wait until the stock or the market has clearly turned around, with several days of price increases on larger than usual volume.

4. Buy the top companies of industries or market sectors with many stocks hitting new highs.

5. Buy companies with new products or services that are expanding (profitably), especially young companies.

6. Determine if large or small-cap stocks are favored in the current market.

7. Pick companies with high management ownership. With their personal stake, there will be a tendency to Read more…

Regardless of where we are in life we can all learn something about money and how to better prepare for our future. Especially when we see that the national average is $10,000 in credit card debt and that savings and preparedness is dropping. This article can put you back on track to a more fulfilling and financially free life.

1) Automate your investing. Experience has proven that if we have to make a conscious effort every time we need to invest we will start with good intentions and then miserably fail a few months later. If you can automate your savings, whether by using your employers 401k, a sep (self employment plan), or direct deductions from your account you will finish ahead. The rule here is if you don’t see it, you won’t realize it and you won’t miss it. Some of these deductions will reduce your taxable income and save you further on taxes (see your CPA and tax advisor for more info on this). A good rule of thumb is to set aside 10% of your income.

2) Real estate. If you haven’t already, buy a house. Renting will only make your landlord (hint – house owner) rich. Regardless of what the immediate market does real estate is one of the best long term investments you can make. It also has many advantages including deductions for mortgage interest. Real estate will always go up. People will always need a roof over their head. Just watch HGTV, real estate has made many millionaires and is a key factor in almost every tape and book series on gaining wealth. Stick with the standard 30 year fixed mortgage.

3) Medical and life insurance. You need to have them, if you think you don’t just ask anyone that didn’t have it when something unexpected happened. If you love your family, they are a must. But, on that note, don’t get taken. Buy term life. 20 years will give good term coverage and if you follow all of these tips you won’t need anything beyond that. Whole life only makes your agent rich and really never builds any value for the huge costs involved. Term life can be purchased cheap over the internet at great savings. For medical insurance, in most states Blue Cross and Blue Shield offer great plans that are a fraction of Cobra or employer plans. If you have an adequate employer plan, by all means use it. Stick with big names like Blue Cross as they will be around for years.

4) Don’t ever buy new cars. It is a fact that new cars lose 25-30% of their value the moment you drive it off the lot. Let someone else pay for that depreciation and get a two or three year old car or truck. With the latest technological advances cars can easily go 150,000 miles and above. A two or three year old vehicle with 30,000 miles on it will save you not only in initial cost, but also on your insurance, and taxes. Also do your homework before buying your car. Get your credit score and see what loans you qualify for. This can easily be done right off the internet and will save you big at your local dealer (never take a dealers word for your credit and rate – they will hold 1-3 points on rate and that can mean thousands in extra interest over the term of the loan).

5) Get out of debt. I put the Read more…

The Basics

I know most of you know about bankruptcy, for those of you that do not, here are some basics. Generally, filing bankruptcy allows people who are having financial difficulties to wipe out their debts, which can provide them with a fresh financial start. There are several events that can take place to force people to take the path of filing for bankruptcy. Some events may include divorce, unemployment, lawsuits, foreclosures and credit card debt.

Bankruptcy serves two main purposes. It gives creditors a fair share of the money that debtors can afford to pay back and it gives debtors a fresh start. There are two ways in which bankruptcy can provide for payments to creditors and discharge for debtors: Chapter 7 and Chapter 13.

Chapter 7

Under this chapter, all unsecured debts are wiped out. These debts include credit card bills, medical and legal fees, utility bills and deficiency balances. Debtors can lose certain properties which the courts can sell and pay the proceeds to the creditors. There are some debts that cannot be discharged through this process. These debts include alimony, child support, some student loans, most taxes and debts resulting from fraud, larceny, debts and fines.

Chapter 13

This chapter is designed for people with regular income that want to pay their debts but are unable to do so. The purpose of this chapter is to help people, under court supervision, to work out a repayment plan with their creditors in which the creditors are repaid under a prolonged period of time.

Credit Card Solicitations

According to an article recently published in The New York Times by Timothy Egan, there is a woman who is a nurse and a single mother of two. She filed for bankruptcy before the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 because of her bad use of credit cards after her cancer surgery. As soon as she filed, she began to get two to three pre-approved credit cards in the mail daily. Now ask yourself, why would banking institutions and credit card companies want to attract consumers that have trouble paying off their debts? Bankers say it gives them a perfect opportunity to rebuild their credit. On the other hand, it also keeps consumers in a repetitive downward spiral of debt. Banks already know the risks of soliciting recently bankrupt consumers with a clean slate. That is why they offer them extremely high interest rates and even require a cash deposit on the card. This is why these consumers are an attractive market for credit lenders.

According to an article published in The Washington Post by Caroline E. Mayer, there is a yet-to-be-released survey of 356 debtors who filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2001, 96 percent reported that they received offers for credit cards, car loans, mortgages and other credit the year after their debts were discharged. Half of the 96 percent received at least ten solicitations a month.

New Requirements

As of October 17, 2005, the new law also known as the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 makes it much more difficult for consumers to file for bankruptcy. This new law mandates enrolling in a credit counseling session before bankruptcy can be filed. People also have to complete a financial management seminar before bankruptcy is complete. The curriculum that consumers should be learning at these seminars is budget development, money management, using credit wisely and consumer information. Most of these classes will have a fee. Another critical change is ?means testing.? According to Read more…

When the prices of commodities are booming and expenditure is increasing in every manner, it becomes essential to make some planning for your income.

? The best way to take care of your money is to plan a budget. A budget should keep a track of all your expenses. The indispensable expenses like education fee of the kids, the bills, the fuel, taxes etc. should be estimated and subtracted from the monthly salary. Then monitor the other likely expenses like gifts on friend?s birthday in that month, your anniversary, weekend outing and the like. The amount that is left after reducing the essentials should be planned in such a manner that you end up with little, at times even negligible savings.

?A Penny saved is a Penny earned?. Savings are very crucial in today?s life. But many people do not understand the relevance of savings. An individual, who develops the habit of saving money, never falls short of it especially in exigency situations.

If the outlay outweighs the income, situation is called a negative cash flow. In this case you ought to be extra vigilant while spending money. Try to reduce the weekend trips, partying at home or outside, purchasing needless items etc. If possible make a new budget where you have optimized the costs. It then becomes your duty to abide by this budget in order to avoid pitfalls. While if the case is other way round i.e. the cash inflow is more than its outflow, its time to cheer and of course make some savings for the future.

? Next good thing you can do to manage your money is to make investments. Investments can be of different types. You can invest in a property or land, in banks, in stocks etc. The investments you make not only keep your money secure but also give you good returns. Like money that is kept in a fixed deposit in a bank is supplemented with interest amount, the cash invested in purchasing shares of an eminent and successful company, always give a great output etc.

If you are investing in some trust or insurance policies, your wealth will not just be beneficial for you till the time you live; it will also be a financial security for your children and grandchildren in future. So investments generally are rewarding, they do not go futile. But before making any investment, you must enquire about the Read more…

According to Pricewaterhouse Coopers, investment by institutional venture capitalists in startups grew from less than $3.0 billion at the beginning of the 1990?s to over $106 billion in 2000. Although venture capital volume has retreated significantly since the economic ?bubble? years of the late 1990?s, the present volume of around $ 19 billion per year still represents a substantial rate of growth. Venture capitalists will fund more than 2,500 high growth startups in the U.S. this year.

The growth in venture capital investing has given rise to a relatively new and expanding area of equipment leasing known as ?venture leasing?. Exactly what is venture leasing and what has fueled its growth since the early 1990?s? Why has venture leasing become so attractive to venture capital-backed startups? To find answers, one must look at several important developments that have bolstered the growth of this important equipment leasing segment.

The term venture leasing describes equipment financing provided by equipment leasing firms to pre-profit, early stage companies funded by venture capital investors. These startups, like most growing businesses, need computers, networking equipment, furniture, telephone equipment, and equipment for production and R

The standard means of obtaining credit has become so widespread that being at the mercy of increasing interest rates and inflated charges on loans and credit cards has become so commonplace that it is easy to believe there is no other option. But there may be an alternative in the form of the little known credit union movement.

A credit union is a profit sharing, financial co-operative run democratically by the members of the union itself. And by offering a more financially attractive alternative to the standard products offered by banks, the popularity of the credit union movement in the UK is increasing.

As maximizing profits is not the key goal for a credit union, such an organisation has three main aims:

? To encourage its members to save regularly
? To provide loans and financial assistance to its members at the lowest rates of interest possible
? To offer its members help and support, if required, in the management of their financial affairs

To enable you to take advantage of the kind of services that a credit union offers, all you have to do is become a member. Not that this is quite as straightforward as you might imagine?

The key to becoming a member of a credit union is what is known as the ?common bond?. The common bond determines whether or not you will be accepted as a member of a credit union and this could be that you reside in a specified area, work for a particular employer or within a particular trade, or that you are a member of a certain club or association.

Because of this, credit unions welcome everybody from within the common bond regardless of income, employment status or age and also ? and perhaps more crucially, regardless of your credit rating or if you are unable to save a regular amount. So whether you have a poor credit rating or not you can still become a member of a credit union and save as little or as much as you like.

Irregular savers are just as welcome as those people who are able to save money on a regular basis and usually all members, regardless of the amount saved, are paid the same percentage annual dividend on their savings. Whilst generally paid at 2 to 3%, this can be as much as 8% depending on profits.

Using the sum of all members? savings, the credit union is then able to provide low cost financial services to its members. Although each credit union (as all mutual societies) must ensure that enough money is set aside to ensure financial stability, all other profits are used to provide the lowest interest rates for members? loans whilst returning an attractive rate of interest for its savers.

With an attractive 6% being the typical interest rate on loan repayments (which normally includes insurance at no direct cost), as the rate of interest that a credit union can charge is capped at 1% a month the most interest you would have to pay on a loan of ?100 for example would be only ?1 a month!

Insofar as government regulation is concerned, the Credit Unions Act 1979 remains the key legislation that regulates the activities of credit unions. As well as setting out the objectives of an individual credit union, it also mandates that all accounts are independently audited on an annual basis and that full insurance is put in place against fraud and theft.

Also, a given credit union cannot lend all the money saved as loans to its members and cannot invest any residual money in any ventures above a certain level of risk. To reduce the risk of bad investment and to ensure that all savers? money is not tied up for long periods of time, any money in the control of the credit union must be put into bank deposit accounts, government bonds or other reliable investments.

Overall, credit unions offer an easy and convenient way to save and borrow and can provide a focal point for a community by bringing people together, to both help each other and to help the community as a whole. A credit union can also help to revive the economy of a local area as more money stays within the community which has a knock on effect Read more…

If you are buying a home for the first time and are looking to apply for a mortgage loan, one of the recommended paths is through the internet because it is quick and easy. You can also compare the policies and fees of multiple lenders to find the best option for your financial situation.

It is very important to carefully choose the mortgage terms that will benefit you the most. If you wish to borrow as much as you can against your income, it is probably a good idea to accept an adjustable interest rate mortgage with low initial payments. For a more secure loan involving less risk, fixed rates are a viable option. The length of the loan also affects the interest rate and monthly payments.

Online research is also suggested because you can request quotes from numerous lenders, and compare rates and closing costs. If you plan on moving or refinancing your initial home mortgage, you should pursue a loan with lower closing costs rather Read more…

For a given quality of a product, we want to purchase it at the lowest rate. Remember – loan is also a product and obviously we will like that we get it at the lowest possible cost. Therefore, before availing a loan, a little vigilance can save you many dollars.

So if you are planning to avail a Home Loan, Student Loan or Study Loan, Mortgage Loan, Home Equity Loan, Pay Day Loan, Vehicle Loan or Conveyance Loan etc., here are certain vital tips for you.

THE COST OF A LOAN CONSISTS OF TWO PARTS:

(A) HIDDEN COSTS
(B) INTEREST COST

A) HIDDEN COSTS:

These are the costs about which the representatives of the banks/finance companies are generally silent at the time of selling their product (i.e. loan). But these costs are very much written in the finer prints of the contract you sign with lender. So, it is wise to go through the entire content of documents you are going to sign for availing a loan. Believe me, there will be many points on which you will like to have clarifications from the lenders.

HIDDEN COST CONSISTS OF THE FOLLOWING THINGS:

1. UPFRONT INSTALMENTS:

Some finance companies take certain installments on the first day of the disbursal of the loan. Suppose you have availed a loan of $10,000 and your EMI (Equated Monthly Installment) has been fixed at $410 per month. Now the lender wants you to deposit, say 5 installments in advance. It means you will deposit $2,050 as upfront installments. In this case the finance company has financed you actually $7,950 ($10,000 – $2,050) but the amount of loan on which you are paying interest will be $10,000. The principal amount from your angle is $7,950 but the lender is charging interest on $10,000. So negotiate with the company for not paying any upfront installments.

2. PROCESSING FEE:

Processing fee is the fee charged from the borrower for preparation of documents. Processing fee is generally negotiable and certain companies waive off the entire fee on negotiation. The companies generally reduce the fee if do not waive off the entire fee. So try your best to negotiate on this front before agreeing to avail the loan. It will save you a handsome money.

3. CHECK BOUNCING CHARGES/LATE EMI CHARGES:

If you are not able to pay the monthly installment on time or the checks given by you for repayment of the loan have bounced due to certain reason, the lender will charge a penalty from you. Different companies charge different penalty in such cases. Check out with the competing companies and fix this condition accordingly. If not settled before hand, you will have to shell out as per the terms written in the contract which may be exorbitantly high.

4. FORECLOSURE PENALTY:

Foreclosure means paying back the entire loan before the agreed period. Suppose you have availed a loan and undergone an agreement with the lender to pay off the entire money in 24 equal monthly installments. After 10 months you have got some money from somewhere and now you want to pay off the entire loan to the lender. This is a case of foreclosure. The lender will charge certain percentage on the remaining principal. This is called foreclosure penalty. Certain lenders don’t let to pay off the entire money before a fixed period, say you will not be allowed to opt for foreclosure during first 6 months and after that you may pay off the loan that too with foreclosure penalty. The foreclosure clause should be clearly understood and settled with the finance company well in advance. After reviewing your financial credibility, the financer can alter/delete this clause to your benefit. So, do negotiate on this point.

INTEREST COST:

Interest cost is the main cost of the loan availed. Here are given some finer points to be learned about the interest rate component.

INTEREST RATE IS OF TWO TYPES

1. FLAT INTEREST RATE
2. MONTHLY REDUCING INTEREST RATE

1. FLAT INTEREST RATE:-

“Flat interest rate” is the rate of interest that is determined at the time of application and is fixed for the duration of the loan.

Let’s illustrate it with an example. Suppose you have borrowed $10,000 @ 4% flat rate Read more…

Inevitability for any growing business enterprise is to seek new funding. For many small companies, individual owners may not have enough cash on hand to attain the capital in order to finance the growth that their company needs. In these situations it is time to consider a business loan. But now what? The answer is turn to a lender or financer.

You obviously have a lot of lenders you can do to, but who should you pick? Identifying a good lender isn’t easy. As our company grows, the demand for money for new investments may increase and you will need good relationships with a lender to meet your investment needs. Hence, it may be smart to think about finding a business loan lender even before that critical date when you will actually need the loan.

Searching for Good Financers

If you need sizeable funding for your new business venture or expansion, why not go for “best in the business”? First, do a round of identification on the Internet and business journals to zero in your search for good lenders. The goal here is not to make a selection, but to merely lower your list of available down to 10 or 20 lenders.

Be prepared with your business strategy, financial statements, tax returns, etc. as lenders will like to have a look at that first before processing your loan application. Also, keep your options open with smaller banks, as they might be more than interested to finance your business goals (and you might also get more individual advice, which big names often don?t give).

Preparing to Apply

Usually banks look at substantial operating records prior to offering a business loan. To increase the chances of acquiring your company?s loan, you need to create a healthy atmosphere for banks to feel confident about you; confident that your company will handle cash-flow properly and that this business will be able to meet its monthly bills. It is also important that have Read more…