You’ve probably heard the term ‘prepaid credit cards’, which is somewhat of a confusing moniker. Bankers devised this credit marketing vehicle to serve people with poor credit, who were unable to obtain a true line of credit, but needed the convenience of funds on a piece of plastic, to pay for items without carrying a large amount of cash, or making out a check when far from home – many retailers won’t accept checks from out-of-towners. With prepaid credit cards, you deposit the funds with the bank up front. You then receive a card which you can use to buy goods up to the prepaid amount. When the funds available on the card are running low, you simply deposit more funds in order to continue this convenient way of shopping.
You may wonder how the bank makes money on this type of card. With a true credit card, the bank charges interest on the outstanding balance, in most cases compounded daily. With prepaid credit cards, the bank is holding your money, at least until you spend it. The money you’ve deposited allows them to earn interest by loaning it out to other customers, or simply accruing it in a holding company sort of fund. So, they’re making money and you get the convenience.
However, there’s another purpose for which these cards may be used. If you’ve got teenagers in your household, or are a teen, this can be an excellent way to teach, or learn, fiscal responsibility. After all, there’s no option for ‘over-the-limit’ spending, which, with a regular credit card, comes with penalties and a higher APR. You’re limited to the amount you’ve deposited. You need to be careful that you keep close tabs on the amount you have left on prepaid credit cards. If you try to ‘charge’ more than the available funds, the transaction will be declined. Not only that, but the lending institution will make note of this cavalier use of the card, earning you a black mark on your credit report. If you have no credit when you begin using the prepaid card, this irresponsibility won’t help you build a credit rating. If you have poor credit already, this activity only makes your credit rating worse.
When you consider that the majority of new high school graduates cannot balance a checkbook, using the prepaid card becomes a teaching aid. When using your card, be sure to record each transaction as it’s made, so that you know exactly what you’ve got left to spend. Once you develop this habit, you’re far more likely to continue the practice, both in a checking account and with credit cards. It’s a simple matter of addition and subtraction. You don’t have to be an accountant to master the bottom line of your own money!
Now, you’re equipped to purchase prepaid credit cards and use them responsibly. Go for it!
Filed under Credit by on Sep 5th, 2010. Comment. 
There are times when you plain and simply need some money! However, what will you do if you have nothing tucked away in savings, you have no credit card you can resort to, and you have bad credit from a few bad decisions over the years? Well, luckily for you, there are bad credit cash advance programs that can be of some assistance. Depending on how much cash you require, these lenders can help you acquire the money you need in no time at all. So, before you just assume that bad credit means no assistance from lenders or banks whatsoever, be sure to think about bad credit cash advances, which can be found online.
Maybe you are about to be late on a couple of bills. Well, you cannot just avoid paying your power and water bills. After all, you truly do need these services to live a normal lifestyle. Furthermore, if you have ever dealt with power companies or the local water company before, then you know that they cannot be crossed too often. After a couple times of not paying your bills, they may just go ahead and shut your power or water off. This could be truly awful. Especially if you have a family. So what you need to consider is a bad credit cash advance from one of the easy-to-access lenders like My Cash Now or Pay Day One.
Your credit is clearly important to you! After all, how can you ever expect to purchase big ticket items with bad credit? The reality is you need a good credit score if you plan on living a decent lifestyle and having the things you want in life. This is where bad credit cash advances come into the picture. Although you may have been late on some payments or bills in the past, this is no reason to let this happen again and again. If you do, your credit will even get worse. So take the initiative to check out websites like MyCashNow.com, paydayone.com, and CheckIntoCashOnline.com. These are the professionals that can help you.
It is no big secret that most people struggle at times with money and finances. After all, working for a living is a challenge. No one can be expected to have all the money they need all the time. That is not how it works in the real world, because there are always additional expenses that arise at times. Expenses that you do not expect, nor do you plan for. Fortunately there are bad credit cash advance solutions these days to assist you with this financial dilemma. If you have a moment, go ahead and visit the websites for My Cash Now, as well as Pay Day One. This way you can obtain a better understanding of how this process works.
Filed under Credit by on Sep 4th, 2010. Comment.
In a world where people are constantly worried about cyber security and protecting their financial information from hacker schoolkids in China, everyone seems to have overlooked a certain important source of risk to their cards – the cardholders themselves. We all have credit cards that give us a line of credit that far exceeds anything we could ever afford to pay back. If we aren’t careful each time we fish a card out to pay an expensive restaurant bill or an impulse shoe purchase, we could get stuck with a runaway credit card bill in no time. MasterCard has a new plan now though, to help eliminate credit card debt-saddled families to find a little self-control.
They call this service inControl; as a matter of fact, Britain, that shares the kind of consumer culture we struggle with, has had this in place for quite a while now. It’s like your mother watching over your spending habits and telling you, “This far, and no farther”. If you get a card that has MasterCard’s nanny on board, any time you try to charge something to your card after you’v spent a certain amount, you’ll be declined. You will be declined by design (and not by accident as it usually happens). They have another incidental option to add on to this too – you can ask your bank to refuse all charges from certain countries. If your fear is that you will be targeted by cyber thieves from China or India or any of the former Soviet republics, you can ask your bank to make sure that no charges are ever allowed if they seem to be coming from any specified countries.
One wonders why MasterCard is bending over backwards to help you eliminate credit card debt or any possibility of it. The competition, Visa, Amex or Discovery just doesn’t seem to want any part of it. All they do is, to allow you to ask to be alerted when you cross a spending limit. If you choose to ignore the alert, you can go your merry way and spend as much as you want. Which just raises the question – in a country where people use their credit cards to routinely spend themselves into ruin, why hasn’t anyone come up with this yet? It just makes home budgeting that much easier. You just can’t spend at all over what you’ve determined to be safe when you’re all nice and sane sitting before you computer and managing your budget on Mint. Perhaps the credit card issuers never wanted to be your conscience when you went overboard because they actually profited from it.
You may think you already have this facility on Mint. Whenever you go over the limit, Mint sends you an alert. There’s just one little problem with Mint’s take on it – it doesn’t do live alerts. It takes up to a day to retrieve your spending information from the bank, to see where you’ve got carried away. In that one day with no alerts, you could probably do yourself a lot of damage. This would be a great idea for a credit card for a teenager in college. Not only could you put a cap on how much they spend, they can also make sure that they don’t ever get to use their cards at certain unsavory locations – perhaps at a watering hole.
Helping eliminate credit card debt is a great thing for the health of the nation. Usually, credit card companies don’t really see it that way. Whatever you spend over what you can actually afford to pay back, you pay interest on. And that is their main source of income. If they could only see that a healthy nation makes for healthy company, they wouldn’t be this shortsighted.
Filed under Credit by on Aug 23rd, 2010. Comment.
Following the flush economic times during the 90s, almost everyone got bit in the wallet, coming in to the 21st century. As a result, there are now lots of people looking for a credit card for people with bad credit. Due to the size of this new market, bankers and other lenders have come up with just such a product. I suspect that if they didn’t address this need, they would have few customers left! The mission of any bank is to make money, duh.
So now, the banks have devised a new model of credit card, for people with bad credit. Granted, you’ll probably have to accept a higher APR than you’d like and won’t get the credit limit you might have formerly enjoyed. However, those APRs and credit limits can vary substantially, depending on the ‘points’ you accrue on the application. For example, if you have both a checking and savings account which you’ve kept in good shape – no overdrafts and regular deposits to your savings account, with few withdrawals – you’ll pick up a few points on their risk-factor evaluation.
How about your assets? Do you own your car, or are you still paying on a car loan? Owning your car is another plus, so long as it’s a fairly recent model. Your payment history does weigh heavily in the banker’s decision making process. If you’ve got a few late payments glaring out from your credit report, but you have a legitimate explanation, such as a major medical crises, or temporary job loss, don’t hesitate to tell the loan officer how this affected your ability to make timely payments and what you’ve done to correct the situation. Keep in mind that the loan officer wants to give you a line of credit and start collecting some interest, which goes right into the bank’s coffers, as profit. With the credit card for people with bad credit, it’s usually only a question of how much it will cost you and how big your line of credit will be.
If your credit history is really bad, you might get turned down. Before you apply for the credit card for people with bad credit, get a copy of your credit report. You’ll want to clean up any entries that don’t belong to you and pay off other debts you’ve overlooked or defaulted on first. You may find several small debts like this. Your best strategy here is to correct and eliminate as many bad marks as possible, before applying for the credit card for people with bad credit. Once you submit your application, this information appears on your credit report. If you get turned down, this lowers your credit score. Creditors view this application and turn-down to be indicative of a desperate consumer, obviously living beyond their means.
If your application is approved, be sure to read all of the fine print of the terms. If you don’t, you may get a surprise letter from the bank, letting you know your APR has just risen another 4%, along with a $75 penalty fee for one late payment! This is no way to restore your credit rating. Whatever you do, be sure that payment is made on time and that you don’t exceed your credit limit.
If you take good care of this financial opportunity, you can ask the bank to review your account in six months and possibly get a reduction in the APR as well as a higher limit. After all, that bank doesn’t want to lose your business to a more flexible competitor.
Use the credit card for people with bad credit to your advantage. Stick with just the one card until your credit rating improves. Then you’re well on your way to a credit card with friendlier, more manageable terms. Good for you!
Filed under Credit by on Aug 23rd, 2010. Comment.
The federal government ended their generous tax credit of $8000 at the end of April of 2010 but in California at least, first time home buyers have another option. The State of California, under an initiative from legislators and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger have extended and expanded the California first time home buyers’ tax credit to $10,000 at least through 2011. This is great news for many Californians and actually covers more than first time home buyers but to all who purchase new or existing homes this coming year. This terrific incentive should help to revitalize a home buying market that has dropped precipitously in the last two to three years due to the bursting of the real estate market bubble.
For first time home buyers there has never been a better time to purchase, though they need to manage their expectations. Home values have dropped in California and interest rates are at all time lows. The main problem is still the availability of credit and the fact that lenders have made it very difficult for borrowers to qualify. This was a reaction to the too loose lending practices of the past decade which led to the wave of foreclosures that have endangered our economy. Lenders have money to lend, but they have placed super tight restrictions on giving loan approvals. Most lenders require very high credit scores and steady, rock-solid employment as well as seasoned assets.
There are a lot of first time home buyers down payment assistance programs available, especially in California that are well worth looking into. In the San Francisco Bay Area many of the counties and cities have collaborated on bringing these great programs to buyers. In the City of Alameda for instance, first time home buyers who have a combined household income of less than 80% of the median income for the county may qualify for a loan amount maximum of $80,000. The payments are deferred for fifteen years at which time there is a balloon payment due. No interest is charged for the first five years and after that the city takes a percentage of shared appreciation. This is a second position loan.
In the city of Antioch, where you can get a huge house for very little money, first time home buyers may qualify for down payment assistance of up to $30,000. Once again there is a shared appreciation clause that allows the buyer to sell the house at a future date and pay a portion of the accrued appreciation equity back to the city.
Besides the city programs, the State of California under the CalHFA department offers great assistance programs like CHDAP which will give up to $15,000 in assistance for first time home buyers. You can also stack all of these programs including MCCs or Mortgage Credit Certificates which are credits of 15% of the interest payments made on home loans. This helps many borrowers to qualify by effectively raising their take home pay.
Filed under Buying a Home by on Aug 22nd, 2010. Comment.
If you’ve got bad credit, you probably know it! Now your car has gone south and you’re looking to get a car loan for people with bad credit. Geez. From bad to worse, you might well think. No, don’t throw in the towel yet. Getting a car loan, even with bad credit, is a doable project. You just need to know the rules of this particular financial road.
The saving grace in this scenario, is that even the banks recognize that a car is essential to just about everyone. That being the case, they also know that the last thing you want to lose is your car. This means that you might be late on your payments for anything else, but not that essential vehicle. Whether you want to finance a new or used car, they’ll adjust their sights accordingly. Does your income to debt ratio support the proposed payment on this car loan? If so, you’ve passed test number one. Now, how much money are you bringing to the table? This means the down payment. The larger the down payment, the better is your chance of obtaining that car loan for people with bad credit. If you’re willing to part with a sizable amount of cash to buy the car, you’re going to make that payment on the car loan before anything else. Who wants to lay out $1000 of their own money, only to have the car repossessed when payments aren’t made on time? It becomes a lose-lose proposition. You lose your cash and your credit rating goes down.
Do you have direct deposit in place for transferring your paycheck to your bank account? Do you have a savings account? Do you belong to a credit union? If you can say yes to any of these, your chance for the car loan for people with bad credit increases exponentially with each ‘yes’ answer.
Even cold-hearted bankers know that there are any number of legitimate reasons you might end up with bad credit. The lender will look over your credit report and it will be apparent, with even a cursory perusal, that the loss of a job or a monster medical bill is all it takes to explain your current bad credit score. The question becomes, given your credit and employment history, and where the credit blips occurred, are you a credit worthy risk? Given that you’re putting a substantial sum down on the proposed car and demonstrate fiscal responsibility with a savings account, direct deposit and/or credit union membership, you start to look better and better as a credit risk.
No, a car loan for people with bad credit isn’t impossible. You just need to understand the rules of this road. Good luck!
Filed under Credit by on Aug 22nd, 2010. Comment.
The United States is a country dedicated to the principles of free trade, the freedom of businesses to rise, grow, and mature, to employ the nation’s citizens, to use its infrastructure, and to profit. Business is the lifeblood of the American way of life, a way of life that Americans have defended with blood, sweat, and tears. In exchange for this exalted position, business has been required to pay taxes, but also to provide health care plans for their employees. Until recently, the cost of health care plans for employees have seriously reduced the employer’s bottom line, especially those of small businesses. With the passage of the health care reform bill of 2010, small businesses will be given help to meet this responsibility, and still be able to make a profit.
Assigning to business the provision of health care plans for their employees was the country’s way of affirming that many people become ill as a result of working hard, that businesses ‘use up’ these people, and that businesses have a moral responsibility to care for their employees, some of whom virtually give up their lives for the company’s goals. Teddy Roosevelt expressed this understanding when he castigated business for “throwing back upon the community the human wreckage due to its wear and tear.” For him, and as it turned out, for the nation, business could meet its responsibility to its employees and to the nation by providing insured health care.
In the future, robots might well run the whole enterprise, but for now, businesses require people to achieve their business goals. It’s also true that work does takes its toll on humans, on their bodies, minds, and family life. Before business was assigned the responsibility of providing health care plans for their employees, the money paid to the employee was regarded as compensation for both the work performed and the cost to the employee’s health. That changed, as the impact of work on the employee became clearer, and the dependence of business on the employee was no longer understated. Eventually, compensation for labor was no longer strictly defined by a paycheck; fair compensation came to include health insurance. Today, its no longer just an expectation; health insurance in now our national law.
The United States health care reform bill of 2010 requires businesses employing 50 persons or more to provide health insurance to their employees. However, this provision doesn’t take effect until 2014, four years from now. In the meantime, to encourage business to provide health care coverage for their employees now, small businesses will receive tax credit incentives if they do. This will enable small businesses to achieve a better bottom line than they currently enjoy, due to the high cost of medical insurance, including their group health care plans.
Whether the rationale for assigning health care coverage to businesses today is valid or not, business has been irrevocably assigned the task. At least you can be sure your competitors are having their profits reduced by the same health care expense. They’re not going to have the extra profit to spend on quality improvement any more than you are. Quality products and services are what made the U.S. the great economic power that it was. Quality employees are a significant factor in creating quality products and services. Finding and training good employees can be expensive. Inexpensive, but comprehensive health care plans can be used as an enticement for getting and keeping quality employees. Your employees will, at some point, get sick. Without medical treatment, they could be absent a long time or could even die. Getting them healthy as quickly as possible and keeping them alive, as crude as it may sound, increases the probability that your company will continue to provide the quality products or services that keep your profits high. The burden may be hard, although there are also some benefits to be gained. However, the real prize of providing health care plans is in being not only a profitable company, but a noble one.
Filed under Insurance by on Aug 9th, 2010. Comment.
It is never too early to start saving money for college. This is something you may have heard from your parents or grandparents at some time or another. Obtaining a four-year degree from a university is typically encouraged these days. In fact, it is your best bet for getting a decent job as an adult. Unfortunately most people do not get started saving money for college. Instead, they end up working while they are in school. This can get difficult at times. Especially since most students are busy with schoolwork. It can be a real challenge going to school and working at the same time. You have much less time to devote to schoolwork when this is the case.
There are other options when it comes to paying for a college education. If you did not begin saving money for college early enough, you may be short on funds. In this case, you need to find a different way to pay for your higher level of education. One way is obviously by working. However, there are other ways as well. You can apply for student loans. This is actually one of the most common ways people pay for their schooling. If you consider that the average university will cost you about 17-18 thousand dollars a year, this is a lot of money to come up with. In fact, most people need some assistance getting this kind of funding for their education.
When you apply for student loans, you are typically trying to get the most you can for your college expenses. Unfortunately this does not mean you will receive every penny you need. This is why saving money for college certainly pays off down the road. Regardless, you can often get enough in student loan money to pay for your college and textbooks, as well as your rent and/or food expenses. It just depends on what you qualify for and how much you need. Another option for funding when dealing with college is financial aid in the form of grants. Grants are money that you do not have to pay back at all. There are both federal and state grants you can apply for.
Do not fret if you have not started saving money for college yet. Just go ahead and begin putting some extra cash aside. It is wise to make an actual account just for this. As you continually put money aside, you will watch it grow. Even if you only save for one year, this college funding can really add up quickly. On a final note, never overlook scholarships and grant money. This emphasized because it is free aid for schooling that does not accrue interest and does not have to be paid back to anyone. The more grant money you can get for school, the better off you will be financially in the long run.
Filed under College Savings by on Aug 8th, 2010. Comment.
For many Americans, it is a serious challenge getting debt under control. It tends to all begin with a simple credit card application. After that, all sorts of things can happen that cause you to go downhill. You see a new MPs player you have to have, and then it is a couch for your apartment, followed by a new laptop, and the list goes on and on. You naturally pay your minimum payment each and every month. However, this does not really encourage your balance to drop. Especially not with the terrible APR you have on the credit card. This is the very reason many people are seeking out the best debt consolidation company.
Think before you purchase. This may very well be the key to staying out of debt. However, this does not exactly help the majority of us who are in serious debt. Once you realize you are 10, 20 of 30,000 dollars in the whole to one or several organizations, it is definitely time to have a reality check. More specifically, it is time to acquire the assistance of the best debt consolidation company you can find. This is definitely well worth your time and effort. You see, once you get the wheels in motion, you can really begin getting out of debt, and on with your life. Just imagine how much less stress you will have to grapple with daily.
One way to get started dealing with your debt is by looking into organizations such as CareOneCredit.com, ConsumerCredit.com, and InCharge.org. You may additionally want to check out debtconsolidationcare.com for answers. These are helpful sites that can really assist you with finding the best debt consolidation company to help you personally with your debt. Since not everyone is the same, and different people owe different sums of money, it is important to check out a number of debt consolidation organizations in the beginning. It is wise to make a list of questions that you need to ask them regarding what you owe, and how long it may take to pay off.
A lot of dealing with debt is getting control over monthly bills. often when people find themselves drowning in debt, it is typically due to the monthly sums they have to fork out to various companies. However, if you speak with the best debt consolidation company to suit your needs, they can aid you with consolidating all of your debt into one reasonable monthly payment. This way you will only have to deal with one bill each month, as opposed to several. Furthermore, you can commonly get a lower interest rate, which means you will be losing a great deal less cash every month to interest alone. Do not wait to find the best debt consolidation company t get your debt in order.
Filed under Credit by on Aug 7th, 2010. Comment.
When you are in college, every cent tends to count. If you have already been through school and paid your own way, then you can certainly relate to this. After tuition and textbooks are covered, you hope you have enough money for room and board. There are months where the dollar has to be spread pretty thin. Hence the common macaroni and cheese meals that college students are known for. This is where college student credit cards come in handy. Although you may not have known it, there are various options when it comes to credit cards for college students these days. These can really assist you with getting through school.
If you have never applied for a credit cad, you should first know that it is a very easy and convenient process nowadays. Especially when you consider the fact that it is all done online. If you have a computer and access to the World Wide Web, you will certainly have no difficulties applying for college student credit cards. Furthermore, it does not take long to fill out a simple application. You will need to know your basic information, so that the company can run a check on you to see if you are worthy of a student credit card. As a college kid, you are not likely to have any dings on your credit yet.
The reason many students appreciate college student credit cards is the additional funds they have access to when needed. Have you ever been in a situation where you did not have enough money to cover one or two of your monthly bills? Or, maybe you successfully paid all of your bills for the month, but now lack the additional funds to buy groceries for the week. This is definitely where a student credit card can come in handy. You can simply charge the bill and pay it off later. As long as you do not abuse this and waste money on needless things or material items, you will be okay in the long run. It is all about being sensible.
As you may know, one of the major perks of college student credit cards is the low interest rates they generally have. It does not matter if it is a Discover, MasterCard, or Visa, college student credit cards often have low APRs so that students can handle the monthly percentage rates. However, the available credit amounts on credit cards are typically low for college students. You may want to find additional information on credit cards for college students by browsing through websites like CitiCards.com, Discovercard.com, and CapitalOne.com. This is a great way to find the right college student credit cards to meet your needs.
Filed under Credit by on Aug 6th, 2010. Comment.