Jodielegaspi : Financial Tips

Credit card spending is something that the majority of consumers actively participate in. For some it’s a matter of convenience. It’s easier to use a card than worry if you have enough cash. Card purchases offer some recourse to the buyer/consumer if they feel they didn’t get what they paid for. The charge can be reversed by the company. If you struggle to make the minimum monthly payments on your debt total each month, that’s a warning sign you may be heading for a debt crisis.

When it comes to credit cards, there are basically two types available today. They fall into these categories: secured and unsecured. The exact credit cards you are eligible for will be dependent on your credit history.

An unsecured card is issued to consumers with (at least) a good rating. The ‘perks’ that are attached to it, also depend on one’s score. Financial institutions determine the limit on each card after reviewing things like: debt to income ratio, time on the job, number of open accounts, late payments and missed payments. The better your score the less interest and fees you’ll pay and the higher the credit limit.

This type of card typically carries a lower interest rate and fewer miscellaneous fees than a secured credit card. You do not have to pay anything upfront, other than an annual membership fee, and that can often be waived.

On the other hand, a deposit of some sort is required in order to get approval for a secured card. Usually, this deposit will be equal to the limit issued which can range from $500 to $1000. Although, in some cases the limit will be higher. It depends on the applicant’s credit worthiness. The deposit is not used to make any monthly payments. Don’t expect the creditor to do so. It can’t be withdrawn for emergencies as long as the account is still open.

Secured cards are issued to consumers with a fair to poor credit history. Individuals who have gone through a bankruptcy are typically eligible as well.

These cards have very high interest rates and higher fees attached to them. But, most consumers are more than willing to pay these extra fees, in exchange for a second chance at building good credit. Sometimes a secured card is the only option. A business accepting a secure card can’t tell by looking at the card that it is secured.

Many banks refund the initial deposit, after a pre-determined number of on time payments have been made… usually between 12 and 18.

Making timely payments will go a long way, when it comes to re-building credit. It is recommended that a secured credit card be used sparingly, to avoid repeated problems. Use it enough to re-establish your credit but make sure you make the payments on time every month.

Today’s traveler can and should get travel insurance. A lot of things can go wrong when traveling today. For example, your trip may be canceled, your baggage could be lost, and you may have a medical emergency. All these expenses can be covered by some of today’s insurance companies. So before you travel, consider insurance. Here are two examples that I have encountered.

Example 1

We had a friend visiting us from England. During her visit we went horse back riding. She fell while riding, right on her back. Seeing she was in pain, we did not want to move her and went and called 911. The Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) transported her to the hospital where she was diagnosed with a severely bruised back. She spent several days in pain, but fortunately she recovered. The best thing of all this, she had travel insurance and was fully covered.

Example 2

Another friend came and visited us while we lived in Alaska. One day she complained of a swollen spot on her leg. After applying home remedy it only got worse. We took her to the emergency room where she was diagnose with a spider bite. After the proper treatment, she was released and had a full recovery. And of course, the best part of this experience was she had insurance. So she was fully covered.

Travel insurance not only covers you medically, but will pay for lost baggage and trip cancellation. With the large amount of trip disruptions because of weather concerns and tightened security at airports, it may be worthwhile to look into insurance.

Investing is an art. Investing in such a way as to not lose money is a talent worth cherishing. Not all are blessed with such a talent. However, it is quintessential (at least in recent times) to invest your money so that you participate in your economy’s growth (and contribute something to it).

So how do you invest your money so that you don’t lose anything whatever be the market condition? One way is to invest in mutual funds. Investing in mutual funds provides safety and assures return. And amongst the mutual funds, it is always better to go for money market funds. There has hardly been an investor who has lost money in these funds!

What is a Money-market fund?

A money market fund is a type of mutual fund that is required by law to invest in low-risk securities. These funds have relatively low risks compared to other mutual funds and pay dividends that generally reflect short-term interest rates. However, unlike a “money market deposit account” at a bank, money market funds are not insured federally.

Money market funds are regulated primarily under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and the rules adopted under that Act, particularly Rule 2a-7 under the Act.

How do these funds give you money?

The portfolio of these funds generally consists of government securities, commercial papers of highly rated companies, certificates of deposits and other low-risk securities in the money market. These funds generally invest in securities that have high liquidity. These funds aim to keep the Net Asset Value (NAV), which is the value that you get when you sell one unit of the fund, to be constant. However, the yield will move up and down.

What else do you get?

Money market funds are extremely liquid. They can be easily converted to cash. Its just like a deposit in a bank. To make it look just like that, most money-market funds have allowed check-writing facility. You can write a check on your money-market fund and just pay for whatever you want. Hence they are a serious competition to the banks!

Types of money-market funds

There are many different types of money-market funds. One of the most common type is the Treasury-only funds. These funds invest only in the government treasury bills and treasury bonds. This is the safest kind of fund. Another popular type is the Government-only funds. These funds invest in all forms of government securities including debt from government agencies. Apart from these there are many funds like prime funds, first-tier funds etc. Whatever may be the name, all these funds are of high quality and will promise to keep their NAV fixed regardless of what happens to any market in the economy.

One thing you must do before investing in a money-market fund is to carefully read all of the fund’s available information, including its prospectus, or profile if the fund has one, and its most recent shareholder report. This is just to be safe.

Today, there are a number of financial institutions that provide unsecured credit cards for people with bad credit using online facility where you can get instant approval within 60 seconds. Unlike secured credit cards, unsecured credit cards do not need special savings account to be established with the credit card issuer. You can apply online and fill out the credit card application with your personal details, income, and credit report. Approval process can take just in a matter of hours and you will get an email notification to advise whether or not your application is approved.

Getting an unsecured credit card can be useful to improve your credit score. People may lose their credit rating for a number of different reasons. One of the ways to improve your bad credit rating is to rebuild your credit history by applying for a credit card for bad credit. The credit card company reports your credit card history to three major credit card bureaus. Therefore, with smart spending and discipline in making payments, over time you not only enjoy the benefit of the credit card but also repair your credit rating yourself.

How to find unsecured credit cards that suit you best


Most of the time you receive offers to get an unsecured credit card through mail. They are, however, usually intended to those with a good credit score. If you have a bad credit the best thing to do is to go online and research a number of options from different credit card providers. The applications made online are secure and confidential, and one can easily find out whether his/her application for an unsecured credit card on bad credit was approved or not. The majority of these cards can easily be applied for online, and some even guarantee that approval will be granted within 60 seconds.

There are some criteria that you may want to look at when searching for online unsecured credit cards. The first thing is interest rate. You need to find a credit card with a low interest rate. While some companies may be able to provide instant approval for an unsecured credit card, you should be aware of how much they will charge you for every dollar you spend. Choose one with the interest rate between 9% and 10% per annum to help you maintain good balance and avoid getting ripped off due to high interest rate.

The next thing is application fees. We have discovered a number of credit card companies that charge you no application fees and yet there are some that apply over $100 just for the application alone! Many do not even realize it until they see the transaction in their credit card statement.

Another important thing is you have to make sure that the financial company you are applying the credit card from are able to issue reports to all credit bureaus in the proper way. This is to help you slowly rebuild your credit rating as you make the regular payment for your credit card.

Currency forex market trading can be both a very rewarding and a very lucrative way to either make a living or simply earn some extra money on the side, depending on how much you put into it. If you’ve never taken a course, read a guide, or made a trade in your life even, consider this as your chance to get a head start.

One distinct advantage which currency forex market trading has over the conventional localized stock exchange is that it takes place over a number of international markets, each with their own unique open and close times. Because of this, this market is always open for trading somewhere on the globe, making it a 24/5 market during the week. While this gives you more trading freedom, it also requires you to not only know the whereabouts of the market around the clock but to be able to act on it in a swift and effective manner.

As this is obviously the only surefire method for making money currency forex market trading, you can either work your pants off studying market data around the clock, or you can outsource this job which an increasing number of traders have continued to do in recent years. What I am referring to is the implementation of an electronic trading program as a standard in your trading arsenal.

These are programs which have been designed to keep a constant watch over the market and conduct currency forex market trading accordingly for you on your behalf automatically and in your best interest to effectively meet the challenges just described. The program remains connected to the internet, keeping and analyzing up to the minute market data and making split second responsive and informed decisions and reactions to changes in the market about how to trade for you using mathematical algorithms. The result is no guesswork and more effective trading based entirely on the numbers of the market themselves, not to mention a program which trades around the clock for you and never tires.

A couple of the best things about electronic forex programs is one that they all but destroy the learning curve so that anyone can sustain a profitable forex campaign regardless of their experience, and two that you can trade through a demo account within the program to both learn how to effectively trade from it as well as see how the program operates effectively before risking any real money, but this is all simply to offer you more peace of mind.

If you’re thinking about using a debt consolidation or debt settlement service to help you get out of debt faster and save money on your monthly payments, make sure you do your homework before choosing a company. There are definitely shams and scams out there.

First let me say that debt consolidation is *not* the same as debt settlement/negotiation, which most people don’t realize.

Debt settlement companies charge hundreds of dollars as an initial “admin fee” to set up your account, plus a monthly service fee. The fees vary depending on the company and the amount of your debts.

Such companies take your money every month, but don’t make monthly payments to your creditors! Instead, they put it in a trust account, negotiate your debts with your creditors, then make a lump-sum payment when there’s enough in your account to pay a creditor in full.

That can take *years* depending on the amount of debt you have with each creditor. Meanwhile, you can be sued by your creditors and your wages can be garnished! (Or just don’t make payments to your creditors. You’ll end up in the same spot without paying someone to help you get there!)

Settlement companies don’t ask your creditors to stop all interest, late fees and overlimit fees from accruing. That means while the negotiations are ongoing, your bills will continue to grow! So if you’re sued and a judgement is brought against you, you’ll owe more money than before!

And shoddy companies, which there are alot of, don’t tell you *any* of this up front. I call it “getting permission by omission” because they simply don’t tell you how their program works *before* you sign an agreement with them. Or after, for that matter. But if you ask the right questions, eventually you’ll figure it out. (Or when the crap hits the fan. Whichever comes first.)

Let me give you an example of how debt settlement works.

Let’s say you have $20,000 in unsecured credit card debt. You owe $10,000 to one credit card company, $6,000 to another and $4,000 to a third. You agree to a 5 year plan where you pay $250 a month to the settlement company. (After all, $250 a month for 60 months is only $15,000, so you’re saving $5,000 and you’ll be debt-free in 5 years, right?)

The admin fee will cost you $750. Your first 3 monthly payments go towards that and nothing gets put into your trust account until your 4th month.

The settlement company keeps $50 of your $250 payment each month for the service fee. That means $200 a month is being added to your trust account.

Most debt settlement companies claim to be able to negotiate your debt for about 50% of what you owe. So let’s use the lowest credit card debt as an example.

If you owe $4,000 and your creditor agrees to accept $2,000 as payment in full, it will take 10 months at $200 per month to have enough in your trust account to pay off just that one credit card.

But remember, your first 3 payments to the settlement company only paid the admin fee. That means your first credit card settlement is 14 months *after* you started sending them money.

So what’s the problem? It’s simple. Your creditor won’t agree to accept half of your actual debt unless, or until, it can be paid in full. Otherwise, you’re expected to make your normal monthly payments.

Since you don’t have $2,000 in your trust account, and you won’t have it until more than a year after you stopped paying your creditor directly, they’ll probably take you to court and request that your wages be garnished long before you have that $2,000 built up.

And what about your other creditors? Well, they’ll be waiting even longer to get their money from the settlement company. The $6,000 debt will take 15 *more* months to pay off, assuming your creditor waits that long and agrees to 50%. And that $10,000 bill? You do the math.

On the other hand, if you signed up for a 3 year plan with the settlement company, your debts would be paid off sooner. But, the question is, will your creditors wait that long? Probably not.

The facts are, you can negotiate with your creditors yourself. Most will agree to take a smaller monthly payment from you and stop all interest and fees from accruing. And, of course, you’ll save thousands of dollars in fees to a settlement company.

Before signing up for any service, please be sure you check out the company thoroughly. And don’t let the words “non-profit” fool you either. Alot of debt settlement companies claim to be non-profit.

Going back to the example above, if you pay them $15,000 over a 5 year time frame and they settle your debts at half of what you owed, they’ll make $5,000 from you. I’d call that a profit, especially since they might not have actually helped you in any way.

Most companies will allow you to cancel your account and get a refund of what you’ve paid, less the non-refundable admin fee and the monthly service fees. If you feel you’ve been mislead about their program, don’t hesitate to argue til the cows come home. File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau or hire an attorney if you feel you’re getting nowhere.

You can visit the Better Business Bureau’s website ( http://www.bbb.org ) and find reports on hundreds of companies. Here’s a small listing of companies that have poor reputations with the BBB:

National Consumer Debt Council LLC – Irvine, CA (A.K.A. NCDC, United Consumer Law Group)

Financial Rescue Services – Burbank, CA

Debt Legal Services – Anaheim, CA

American Debt Relief – Los Angeles, CA (A.K.A. A M Debt, American Debts Relief, Debt Relief)

Please be very cautious when choosing a debt help company and ask lots of questions before agreeing to anything. If you find they’re evading your questions, run fast and run far. There are reputable companies out there, so keep looking until you find one.