April 2007 Archives

With today’s low interest rates it is a terrific opportunity to consolidate your student loans. Thanks to the Federal Student Loan Consolidation program created in 1986, student loan owners have the option of consolidating their student loans to one single fixed rate loan. The fixed rate system makes taking advantage of low rate periods crucial to saving money on your loan’s long term payments.

One of the smartest and most important investments you can make is taking out a health insurance plan. This may not seem like an investment to you since it's not something you will be making money on. However, at Credit Card Diva we encourage you to look at all investments as taking care of your future. One investment will help your future by growing your wealth and another investment will take care of your future by preparing yourself for ill situations.

The concept of Annual Percentage Rate or APR was introduced in order to help consumers get a clearer picture of the actual cost of loans including all fees. This number is expressed as an annual percentage of the entire loan or credit line granted taking into account all costs and fees including the interest charged as well as any one time fees or maintenance fees.

To gain financial freedom, discipline and patience are vital. You need to set your goals first by defining what financial freedom means in your life. For instance, you have to determine the age you would like to retire.

If you suffer from poor credit or possibly simply from too little credit history you know how difficult it could be to get approved for a new credit card. This can easily be a catch 22 since one of the most important factors in building credit history involves timely payments on your credit cards.

The latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey conducted by Freddi Mac revealed that 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.17 percent with an average 0.5 point for the week ending April 19. This is down from the prior week’s average of 6.22 percent and considerably lower than last year’s 6.53 percent.

The Thrifty Scot reports that scammers have been taking advantage of the abundance of Britons in debt and devising fraudulent debt-collecting schemes, operating from countries across the globe. The scammers target those most deeply in debt and frighten them into "paying off" debts—which, of course, were never really incurred—without asking too many questions.

Lenders today are quite strict with their standards and refrain from borrowing money to consumers with low credit scores. Increasingly it is becoming more and more imperative for consumers to maintain a good credit score. However there are solutions for getting a loan approved even if you don’t have perfect credit or your credit history contains too little information.

With the ongoing depreciation of the dollar against virtually every currency, U.S. investors are seeking overseas alternatives for their savings. The week dollar along with the emerging economies of certain developing and developed countries has brought many U.S. investors to put their money towards managed real-estate projects in places like Morocco, Spain, Dubai, Romania and Brazil.

We have received a lot of feedback about our previous entry regarding real-estate overseas. Readers pointed out that with the current week dollar, investors might be better off purchasing real estate within the U.S. where prices are quoted in U.S. dollars and not be forced to pay for overseas real-estate paying with a week currency, thus basically paying a high premium to begin with. We feel there is room for some clarification on this point.

Banking, as well as our interaction with our banking institution has changed dramatically over the past few years. Virtually all major banks now allow customers to view account balances and perform major transactions via the internet. While these services have been hugely adopted by customers, lowering operating costs for most traditional brick and mortar banking institutions, these savings rarely get passed on to the consumers.

Dealing with money problems is not something we like to talk about. Obviously, in some cases there is no alternative but to turn to friends and family for help getting out of a tight situation. But people tend to do that only when things reach a point where they can’t handle their problems themselves. This usually depends on how much you need, how your credit situation is and your potential borrowing power.

In our previous post we discussed the option of using a payday loan in order to make ends meet during the period until you receive your paycheck. While payday loans can sometimes really save you in certain situations and they offer almost the simplest process for applying they have a tendency of becoming quite addictive.

Yesterday we’ve discussed the advantages and disadvantages of investing abroad with considerations involving speculation on the direction of the dollar and the need for diversity. Specifically we looked into the option of investing in real estate overseas. One location worth looking into is Bulgaria. Situated in Southeastern Europe, Bulgaria occupies the northeastern part of the Balkan Peninsula.

It seems lately that everywhere we turn some financial institute or another is offering us to take out a loan. Loan opportunities are a hot topic nowadays and we have devoted a lot of coverage to various types of loans here at Credit Card Diva too.

In the last week we published a few features involving investing overseas. As the dollar keeps deteriorating against most foreign currencies more and more investors are realizing the necessity of diversifying their investments and eying foreign markets. One option we looked into was the possibility of investing in real estate with such opportunities in countries like Spain, Bulgaria and Brazil. One solution we looked into for managing your overseas properties was using a local management company specializing in purchasing, managing and renting real estate projects for overseas investors. However some investors prefer to scout for deals and manage them on their own. This can sometimes be quite rewarding but also brings on some difficult challenges.

Often we hear about people who reached a point where their financial situation prevents them from being accepting for loans just when they need them most and they are in the position to turn things around.