May 2007 Archives

Panama Legal just posted a new segment on their website dedicated to offshore corporate agent scams. The article warns of unprofessional offshore service providers offering limited and often lacking service at a seemingly low price. Panama Law compare this practice to the age old auto dealers scam where they would publish an absurdly low price in the paper just to attract customers. When customers would inquire about the car they would discover the car lacked so many standard features it was practically not fit for sale. This of course didn't matter any more since the auto dealer got what he wanted - the customer's attention and can now sell him another car for a much higher price.

Security has always been a big issue with credit cards. After all, in theory anyone who possesses your card can ring up thousands of dollars in charges to your account. It is amazing though to see the sophisticated security systems in action.

The use of payday loans has been a controversial issue for many years. While millions of Americans take advantage of this financial solution every month throughout the country there is growing opposition to system claiming that lenders charge unfair interest rates at the expense of the small consumer who needs the cash.

Every business owner knows the feeling of spending time and effort to promote their business and attract new customers only to witness a fraction of sale leads actually convert. The main problem business suffer from is that they focus too much on attracting new customers and generating sales leads and not enough on dealing with the leads already received.

With Forbes's yearly philanthropy survey breaking records year after year, it seems more and more business owners are beginning to understand the value of giving back to the community. Businesses are becoming more conscious to their role in society and are finding more ways in which they can make a difference.

Alliance & Leicester's Premier Direct Current Account has recently been named "Best Current Account 2006" by Moneywise magazine. The survey issued every year by the UK's best selling personal finance magazine also awarded Alliance & Leicester's Premier Current Account the second place, giving Alliance & Leicester the top two spots.

One of the most frustrating institutions to deal is a credit bureau. People with limited or poor credit can definitely relate to the aggravation involved with trying to "convince" the credit bureau you have good or even any credit history and the torture involved in applying for a new credit card.

I’ve come across an article recently criticizing SCORE! educational centers claiming the centers lead to discipline problems among children due to their untraditional disciplinary approach. As a mother to 2 children who attended SCORE! courses as well as private tutoring I am a strong believer in the SCORE! system and believe their unique disciplinary approach is actually one on the keys to their success.

CNN published an article today titled 4 gas-saving myths. According to the article, such widely believed myths such as purchasing special “gas saving” additives and turning off your air conditioner don’t actually save a noticeable amount at the pump and just aren’t worth the effort.

Have you remortgaged your original home loan since you initially took it out back when you purchased your home? If not, chances are you are paying much higher interest rates than you should be.

When running a business it is very easy to get distracted from our main objectives and managers can sometimes get fixated with minor details. Dealing too much with minor details can make managers loose track of the important things in their business.

Following our small business management series this week, we would like to address the difficult task of establishing your name and building a business brand. Branding can be one of the toughest challenges early-stage companies face and there are a few approaches to take depending on the type of business, size of the business and your budget.

Earlier today we discussed the benefits of promoting your website online and making sure you rank high in search engines for keywords that are relevant to your company. This is obviously good for traffic and gaining new customers but as we mentioned before it can also help with your branding efforts since the customers you are interested in most (the ones searching for relevant terms) are exposed to your brand.

We can all use a vacation from time to time and nothing can take our mind of the troubles of our daily routine like doing some traveling. The problem is that many people on vacation tend to forget their day to day worries and spend carelessly not realizing that every vacation comes to an end and things have to eventually be paid off. Vacations are good as long as it’s not a vacation from our senses.

It is a socially acceptable that basically we are in charge of ourselves and are not supposed to get involved in other peoples business unless they ask us to. But there are situations where the right thing to do is just the opposite and we would be doing our friends or our loved ones a great sin by not getting involved and helping out.

The internet has surely contributed a lot to the world's collective pool of knowledge. It's amazing how this new medium has allowed any individual to share their thoughts, ideas and insights with the world simply and easily.

Advances and greater ease of use of blog technology has spurred a tremendous wave of new bloggers posting daily and enriching the web. Most bloggers do so for nothing more than the satisfaction of sharing their ideas with the world.

There are ways though for bloggers to monetize their blogs, making money by simply doing what they enjoy – blogging. Payperpost brings together advertisers and bloggers allowing bloggers to review the services offered by the advertisers giving their objective review while getting paid from the advertiser for the exposure.

Many great services we featured on this site have been offered through their blog marketing system and we feel they have enhanced our site by both providing our readers great new services and helping us keep the site free.

With real estate values at all time highs and recent indication that a slow down is under way, investors are now more cautious with their locations trying to pinpoint those locations that can still offer value. While many believe the real estate market is not dead yet and there are still opportunities out there, as with all investments, investors need to be selective.

With advertisements on TV, the radio, newspapers and now on the internet all offering various types of loans and financial services it seems banks are now just too anxious to lend us money. The offers are diversified and tempting but it is important not to abuse all these opportunities since taking out a loan can be easy, but you must remember that the day comes when you must pay it back.

Our friends at YourCreditNetwork don’t stop to come up with new ideas and uses for credit cards. Sometimes their imagination takes them a bit too far… :) Yesterday they featured a post on how to make prison shanks from old credit cards (don’t worry, they made clear that the post is a joke). While it’s clear these guys have a bit too much time on their hands, their website is sure fun to read and jokes aside, they provide some good information too.

Remember the days when all you needed to occupy a sick at home kid was a pad of dress up paper dolls? I sure miss those days. Not only because it was easier to occupy kids but because kids used to have much calmer pass times. Sometimes I think life was kind of better at a slower pace.

Nowadays it seems that any game that doesn’t flash and make noises give adults a headache just don’t appeal to kids anymore. But maybe there is a future to paper dolls, albeit an evolved future. In an age were the key word is virtual with kids flocking to sites like Neopets and webkinz, a new type of paper doll is now available.

Yup, you got it a virtual paper doll. Cartoon Doll Emporium now allows kids to play with virtual paper dolls just as their parents would (but with actual paper). The new feature appeals to kids as it speaks their digital language while making their parents happy seeing their kids enjoying a more relaxing game they can relate to.

So many credit cards are offered nowadays with almost every retail chain, airline and hotel offering us to apply for their card, each offering certain benefits and rewards. While many of these cards are indeed free to maintain and don't incur service charges, so it seems like there are only upsides with no downsides to the cards, be sure to read all the card information before applying.

Applying for loans and mortgages have never been easier. It seems banks are just too eager to lend us money. This doesn't mean that getting approved is that simple, especially due to the sub prime loan crisis, bus there sure seems to be competition on potential borrowers' attention.

As of the 1970’s structured settlements have been utilized in the United States as an alternative to lump sum settlements for bodily injuries. The structured settlement provides the injured their due compensation over a long period of time, often many years rather than providing them the money up front.

The internet has brought with it an endless amount of opportunities for individuals interested in opening up their own small business. Millions of people have discovered the potential for selling online via ebay or for the more advanced and tech savvy, via setting up their own website.

Have you checked our calculators section recently? We have added a few new financial calculators to help make some sense of your financials.

Don't worry, there is no typo in the headline. While saving for your future and spending money shopping sound like two quite opposing concepts but a new service by uTango combines the two actions into one. uTango bases their system on customer loyalty making sure to pass on their long term savings on to the customer.

A constant topic that keeps coming up here on our site is the importance of and how to prepare for your future. This also includes preparing for the unforeseeable future or rather unplanned future (in the sense of when the future doesn’t turn out the way you planned…). If you are a frequent reader of this column, surely you are aware of the importance of taking out life insurance.

It’s amazing how human psychology works. We spend so much time investigating and doing our research before major transactions in order to get the best deal and save as much money as possible. Whether it’s taking out our mortgage, student loan or any other major transaction, we can spend an enormous amount of time running from bank to bank checking out every option trying to save fractions of percentage points. But once the loan is approved we tend to forget about it and never bother trying to improve its terms even when possible and event when doing can save substantial sums.

A research published recently by the Journal of Financial Planning tried to evaluate how much a person has to save during the different stages in his life based on his income levels in order to ensure a comfortable retirement. Trying to target such a broad subject is obviously not possible without some generalizations on the researchers’ part.

It’s amazing to follow the path of some companies and see how they grow from a small start up with nothing more than a good idea to a large successful business. After all, good ideas aren’t always enough – you have to know how to convert your idea into a good product as well.

We are looking for some new ways to make your reading experience more interesting and have been trying to come up with ideas for a few regular columns to appear once or twice a week. One idea sent in by a reader was to add a term of the day section to the site. The idea is to take a financial term that comes up on the news everyday and offer a short explanation. We don’t plan on a very extensive explanation, rather something you can go over with your coffee. We like this idea very much but are not sure yet how frequent to do it. Every day might be a bit too often, perhaps 2 or 3 times a week. We will publish further updates next week and are always open to your suggestions so be sure to send us and email with your thoughts.

I came across a website that is already selling campaign T shirts for the 2008 elections. One thing that attracted my attention right away was how different the Hillary Clinton t-shirts are to what we are used to in campaign clothing. They just didn’t look like normal political T shirts. And then it hit me. This is one of the many things we will start to get used to over the next coming months. Things just are different when dealing with a female candidate.

These shirts have just that – a female touch. They are actually nice shirts to wear even if you are not political or don’t support Hillary. Some even just say “Hillary” on them and don’t mention the elections. They really look like regular fashionable clothing. Viva la Diva!

When you have kids, it’s hard to just buy anything you want just like in your younger days. It’s important then to control one’s impulse to purchase just about anything you desire to have. It’s alright, though, to treat yourself to a new but affordable personal stuff once in a while. It won’t hurt if you buy yourself a new shirt or pants or bag when you have extra money.

Maternity health insurance can be very important when having a baby but many parents don’t think of taking it out in time. In many cases when trying to get maternal health insurance during a woman’s pregnancy the woman either gets turned down or offered insurance at a very high premium. Many parents are uncertain how to act during this critical time and could use some professional advice and assistance. A good place to start is MaternityCard’s website. The site provides helpful information for future parents targeting issues such as maternity health insurance, extended medical coverage and more.

An article posted on Goldstarcredit.net titled credit cards: friend or foe discusses the darker side of holding on to a credit card. While credit cards per se definitely can’t be
called a bad thing and their usefulness to card holders is a well known fact, the article discusses proper care necessary to prevent unwanted debt.

It is a known problem that people tend not to “feel” credit card expenses as they would with cash. Without witnessing the physical depletion of a certain amount of cash, people don’t realize how their spending is adding up and can be faced with an unpleasant surprise at the end of the month. This phenomena is what gave credit cards the knick name “plastic money” as a play on words since the card is plastic and the money spent appears quite fake (like plastic).

This is the same concept that casino operators discovered a long time ago and is one of the reasons they use plastic chips to represent money. When players gamble on chips they tend to forget the money it represents and bet more freely than they would with “real” money. The article by Goldstarcredit.net tries to encourage users to realize the responsibility that comes with their cards.

Have you looked at your insurance policy renewal bills lately? Well first of all, if you haven’t – you definitely should. As a habit, be sure to go over all the bills you receive at least briefly, it can save you a lot of money and trouble in case of mistakes. Anyway, those of you who have may have noticed some unpleasant surprises in terms of policy price increases.

Insurance companies have explanations for everything, and will tell you that with recent events both in terms of weather and other, the risks to houses are higher so you must pay a higher premium on your home insurance. Similar “explanations” are available for life insurance and car insurance increases by insurance agents.

While these may be true, you don’t have to accept the sentence with your hands folded. Be sure to go online and compare prices before renewing ANY insurance policy even if the prices haven’t gone up. You may be able to save anyway.

Food is a primary need but just like any other aspect of our daily life, we can save money by making wise purchases on what we eat. Good budgeting is always an admirable trait.

To save money on food, why not plan ahead on what you need at home. If buy by bulk like for a week’s use, you will surely spend less instead of buying convenience food.

Use coupons and do spend time clipping them from your weekly newspapers. Organize them by type so when shopping time comes, it will be easy for you to take out the ones you will need.

Further to our earlier post about comparing insurance prices. A good resource to use is Insurance.com’s price comparison feature. Their site acts like a shopping search engine for insurance quotes. You can enter your information on an online form and their system provides you with instant actual quotes from a number of insurance companies. The site provides quotes for any type of insurance including life insurance, car insurance, home insurance and more. After you have received your quotes you can either apply for a policy online or use their call center to speak with an insurance specialist to help you with the process. I like their motto: “May the best quote win”, that’s a good way to look at things…

At Credit Card Diva we can’t emphasize enough the importance of adapting the proper financial solution to the circumstance. This rule applies especially to loans. There are many types of loans available today and it’s not just about borrowing money and calculating the return. Specialty loans vary in price and terms based on their purpose, the risk involved and estimated lifetime of the loan.

Many small businesses discover at an early stage that competing with their larger competitors requires them to find ways to stretch their budget. It’s no use taking on large companies with big pockets head on since their budget will always be larger. That’s why the way to win is not by force but by acting wisely.

As any manager knows, the two most expensive factors for businesses are salaries and equipment. Managing manpower properly is obviously a key point for businesses but sometimes there isn’t much to be done. However, in many cases companies buy expensive equipment which can be important for their business but are actually very frequently used.