0% APR credit card – true benefits
By financen | November 28, 2008 - 4:41 pm - Posted in Credit Card

A 0% APR credit card allows you to create more savings in the long run. If you are using multiple cards and paying higher interests, it will be wise to transfer all the balances on to the 0% APR credit card and save more money. Hence, it is very important that you understand the terms and conditions before applying for the 0% APR credit card. You must find out the right opportunities for your specific needs. If you are using this type of card in the right manner, you are definitely saving more money in interests.

  • Should you use the 0% APR credit card?

If you are deciding to use a credit card, you will definitely go for the one that charges the lowest interest rate and save more money. Hence, if you have got a credit card for a 0% APR, it is important to know the interest rate that will be charged after the introductory period is over. For example, if you have two offers, one credit card with a shorter introductory offer and thereafter charges higher interest rate after the introductory period is over, and another card that has a longer introductory period and thereafter charges lower interest rate, you will have to compare which card will save more money for you in the least expensive manner.

  • The Benefits Of 0%

There are plenty of benefits of selecting a 0% APR credit card. Let’s say, you are using a line of credit and you know that you will be able to pay it back within the introductory period of the 0% APR credit card, it is well worth making the switch. There is nothing better than borrowing the money for free. And if you are paying higher interests on a credit card and you have another credit card at 0% APR, transferring the balance on to the 0% APR card will be a wise decision if you have the ability to pay it back within the introductory period.

Check out the offers with different lenders before you go for the credit card at a 0% APR. Make sure that you have understood the terms and conditions of the credit card company and compare different quotes.

1 Comment
Can you survive without an insurance policy?
By financen | November 24, 2008 - 4:30 pm - Posted in Insurance

Almost a quarter of the individuals confess that they don’t have any insurance policies. In fact, most of these people don’t have any insurance on their home and they go to some holidays without any kind of insurance. They have not done any kind of health insurance because they feel the need to tighten their purse strings.

There are large numbers of people who do not have any kinds of insurance on their homes, life, medical or income insurance at all. Recent statistics showed that around 42% of the people wanted to reduce their household expenses by discontinuing their insurance premiums or even their pension contributions. The consequences can be quite serious because if any kind on untoward incidence happens which might warrant a claim, then you would end up paying out far more than what you would have paid for the policy.


Most of the home insurance policies will cost less than $10 per month. If you do not pay the home insurance premiums and the house got broke, then you will have to spend a lot of money for home improvement and replacing the items then you would do on the policy itself.

Likewise, if you go out on a vacation and do not do travel insurance, and then you might have the risk of facing huge medical bills if you get sick and need to get good treatment in abroad location. If somehow, your luggage gets stolen without any fault of yours, the insurance policy will cover the cost of replacing your clothes and other essentials.

Out of all the insurance that are not compulsory, car insurance is the only kind of insurance that is legally required if you drive a vehicle. It’s always advised that it is better to be safe than sorry. If you have the right kind of policy for your home, car, life, income and health, it will give you not only peace of mind if something happens, you can recoup some or all of the losses.

Comments Off on Can you survive without an insurance policy?
Credit card debt consolidation
By financen | November 17, 2008 - 5:07 pm - Posted in Credit Card, Debt consolidation

If you are being overwhelmed by your existing debts, you may consider the option of combining all your existing debts under one payment plan in the credit card debt consolidation. You should consider taking this step before your existing financial problems continues to leave a negative mark on your credit ratings.

Credit card has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. While it has made the purchase of goods and services much easier and you don’t have to carry too much cash in your wallet, it also creates an unhealthy and tempting spending habit. When you make a purchase on your credit card, you are well aware that you will pay back the amount in your next billing cycle. Often most people don’t do a proper budgeting of their finance and continue to purchase things that are not very urgent. They end up doing purchases more than their income and increase their debt to income ratio. So the credit card debt simply piles on and on.  Most of the people are not able to pay the full outstanding balance within the due dates. As a result, the credit card company charges interests and fees each month and the outstanding balance keeps moving up. If you are just paying a little more than the minimum, a lot of money is eaten up in interests and fees alone. A situation may come that a substantial amount of your monthly income is going towards the credit card debts. It is time to be proactive and opt for a credit card debt consolidation program.

Credit card debt consolidation will combine multiple credit card accounts under one payment plan. You don’t have to worry about remember the different payment dates of your credit card bills. Your debt consolidation company will negotiate with your creditors to reduce the interest rates and waive off the fees added on the outstanding balance. They will explain that you are no more able to afford the existing interest rates and fees and it may happen that your accounts will turn delinquent, if it’s not happened till now. Your credit card company will offer you reduced interest rates after some serious negotiations done with your debt consolidation company. The monthly payment plan will be set to something that you can afford and you won’t have to face the irritating reminder calls, collection agencies etc. just stick to the monthly payment plan set with your debt consolidation company and they will disburse the payments to your creditors. They will send you monthly statements of how your money is applied towards different creditors in the program.

2 Comments
Get out of debt using the debt snowball method
By financen | November 12, 2008 - 5:51 pm - Posted in Debt

With the recent economic crisis, mortgage crisis, high gas prices and rising costs of basic living, many people are finding ways to get out of their overwhelming debts. There are a lot of people who try their options to get debt free but later give up and file for bankruptcy. You didn’t fall in debts overnight, so coming out of this mess is certainly going to take some time. But there are ways to get debt free within a span of three to five years. One needs to have a lot of discipline and determination by using the snowball method.

If you are using the snowball method, you will be able to quickly pay off the outstanding balances faster than you ever thought possible. Snowball method will allows you to use your total income as you want to, but if you want to speed up the process to become debt free, increase your income so that you can contribute a substantial portion towards paying off the existing debts.


Here are simple ways of using the snowball method and walk towards a debt free life:1) Gather all the bills, plan your budget for all expenses, and determine how much money you can possibly save in a month.2) Go through your latest statements from the creditors and make a note of the outstanding balance. Now, you need to decide the account that you will want to pay off first. Either you should choose the account with the highest annual percentage rate or the one with the lowest balance.3) Make sure that you are making the minimum payments on all other cards, and applying the additional money towards the account that you want to get paid off first.

 

4) When the first account in your creditors list gets paid off, take the same amount you were paying on that debt and add it to the minimum payment of the next account.

5) Repeat the same strategies until all the accounts have been paid off.

By using the snowball method, the total amount of debt should rapidly decrease, especially as your payments made becomes a bigger snowball with each account paid off. This is the best way to get rid of the overwhelming debts. Once you have come out of this mess, take control on your finances and make sure that you don’t repeat your previous mistakes again that put you into debts. Credit cards debt problem can also be solved by using debt snowball method. Just follow the above mentioned directions to move towards a debt free life.

3 Comments
Guaranteed mortgage loan approval – watch the catch
By financen | November 3, 2008 - 5:33 pm - Posted in Loan, Mortgage

There are many ads on the radio, television or on the internet that say “guaranteed loan approval” in just less than twenty four hours. Is there any kind of catch? Is there anyway you can get a better term on your home refinance loan from one of these lending institutions. If these companies are guaranteeing the sign up process, then there should be no let downs or dead ends in the search of a loan, right??!!

Your credit dictates the terms of the loan – the true fact is that the terms of the loan will be delivered on the basis of your credit scores and that is “guaranteed”. If you have a good credit rating, then you will get the best terms from the mortgage lenders and if you are having a poor credit history, then the terms will be designed accordingly. However, putting up the kind of assets as collateral will also decide whether you are getting approved. Most lending agencies will prefer a real property in collateral so that they can take the risk by lending you the loan.


Your credit report – The mortgage loan companies will most certainly approve your loan application on the basis of your credit ratings. If you have a good credit score, then you will get the loans at lowest interest rates. However, if you have a poor credit history, then they will lay down the worst terms possible and you might lose everything that you own if you default in their monthly payments. Not to forget, they will be charging you the highest interest rates until that time shapes up. Every loan company will review your credit report and see how you have been handling your past accounts. They want to check from your credit report and analyze how good it will be to offer you new loan with less risks involved.

Pull your latest credit report from the three credit reporting agencies – As per the federal laws, you are entitled to get a free copy of your credit report at least once a year from the three national credit reporting agencies. Check each item on the credit report from the three national credit reporting agencies because the credit grantors are not obligated to report the same information to all the credit reporting agencies. Make sure that you have checked for any negative items on your credit report and if they have surpassed the seven years reporting time frame, then they should be immediately removed from your file. You should also check for any inaccurate negative items because they will be hurting your credit scores tremendously.

Gather your documents and get organized – make sure that you organize all the documents related to the past and present accounts on your credit report and put it in a folder that is easily accessible to you. You should have a complete track of your tax returns, pay stubs, bank statements, property deeds and anything else you can think of. These documents will be needed anytime when you are applying for some kind of a loan or a mortgage.

Comments Off on Guaranteed mortgage loan approval – watch the catch