R4nT0-WNG: 3/1/08

10 Valuable Tips about Business Credit Cards

A business credit card can bring many advantages for a business. However, incorrect use can also bring risks and problems. As a business owner, what can you do to avoid facing such dilemma brought about by unwise use of business credit cards?

Consider the following tips:

1. Choose your credit card wisely. There are many business credit card offers on the market and if you’re not careful, you may end up with a high-rate and unreasonable terms. So do your research to find the card that suits you.

2. One business credit card will do. Don’t feel tempted to acquire more credit than you can handle. Just like with a personal credit, owning too many business credit cards can impact your credit negatively.

3. Use business credit cards for official business expenses only. See to it that you only use your business credit card for business expenses.

4. Check your account summary regularly. Look for unauthorized charges, and keep your bookkeeper updated with your latest charges.

5. Take advantage of your business credit card rewards. Choose a business credit card with a rewards program that will best fit your business. If you frequently travel to promote your company, a business credit card with Frequent Flyer Miles program or perhaps a Gas Reward business credit card will help you save on your traveling expenses. If you make a lot of business purchases, a Cash-back or Cash-Rebate business credit card is perfect for you.

6. Use your business credit card with discretion. They are not all the same and so you should have a list of MUST HAVE features in mind before you apply..

7. Choose a business credit card that reports to business credit tracking companies. It’s important that your business credit card issuer reports to business credit reporting agencies such as Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, Business Credit USA, and Equifax. This is the way you can build a business credit for you company.

8. Implement an employee business credit card program. Most credit issuers provide extra employee cards for free. These cards will help you control and keep track of your employee’s spending.

9. Don’t take out cash advances. Just like with your personal credit card, business credit cards also charge high rates from cash advances. Use your business credit card only to make purchases or payments.

10. Find a business credit card with ample grace period. Make sure that your business credit card gives you a sufficient grace period before charging you interest payments. This will buy you enough time to pay back your bills without incurring additional interest.

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Confessions of a Credit Card Junkie

I cut four credit cards today. I kept one - the one with the lowest interest rate - just in case. In case of what, I don’t know.

As I put that card back into my wallet, it hit me - I am a credit card addict.

In a previous post I mentioned that I accepted an offer to consolidate all of my outstanding credit card debt at 5.99%. Yesterday, all of the payoffs came through on my existing cards. Today, I got a shiny new credit card in the mail - it gave me access to the $25,000 credit line that came with my consolidation loan. I proceeded to cut it up immediately (the rate on purchases is 11.99%, 4% higher than my existing Chase card).

It is such a relief to see all of that high-interest rate debt wiped out. Never mind the fact that it’s just been refinanced. I can’t wait until the day that it’s legitimate, and I’ve paid off all $17,000+ of that revolving debt in full.

Which brings me back to that one remaining credit card. I don’t know why I think I need to keep it. I have $1600 plus change in my wedding fund - I could tap into that in case of an emergency. I have proven to myself that I can’t be trusted with plastic buying power. Why keep what is clearly one of my great weaknesses available?

Here is the story I am telling myself: I am keeping the card in case something catastrophic happens to me or a loved one and I need to have immediate access to $4000. But to be completely honest, there is an underlying subtext that I don’t want to own up to (but for the sake of my reader - not a typo - I will).

The truth is that I’m afraid that I will regret of not having that credit available more than I fear the bottomless pit that is unsecured debt. I don’t believe that the $326 in my bank account will be enough to get me to the next payday. What if I find the perfect Christmas gift for my mom tomorrow and it just happens to be $150? Will I have enough money for gas and groceries next week? What if I am admitted to the hospital for some reason (I have already tapped out my health flex account this year)? Logically, I know that these are just excuses and I need to pull the trigger (or snip the scissors, as the case may be) and cut up that card, but I can’t bring myself to do it.

Beware of Outrageous 401K and Mutual Fund Fees (Expense Ratios)

If you are like most people saving for retirement may not be the first thing on your mind. Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, expense ratios, index funds, actively managed funds are all probably terms you’ve heard before.

Generally speaking you don’t have to be a Wall Street whiz to save for retirement and start to build up a nest egg. One of the best ways to have a reasonable chance at reasonable stock market returns is to create a lazy portfolio that merely seeks to keep up with the gains of the overall stock and bond markets. That’s what an index fund is. It doesn’t try to outsmart or beat the overall stock market; it just aims to stay with it. Most actively managed funds (where the portfolio manager trades stocks and bonds more frequently cost you more money in trading fees and commissions and result in sub-par returns for you over the long haul.

On the subject of expenses or expense ratios (the percentage of the money you have invested in a mutual fund that the mutual fund company charges to manage the fund), Vanguard is the most well known mutual fund company for helping investors keep more of their money by keeping fund expenses low.

When you signed up for your company 401K, did you happen to pay much attention to the fees associated with your account? Some 401K providers offer retirement plans for businesses in which the company providing the plan harvests a FORTUNE in fees which greatly diminishes your overall returns.

When you buy funds through a company like Vanguard, the expense ratios are typically much less than 1%, sometimes as low as 0.1%. If you have a 401K plan through some other 401K custodians, you will have a selection of funds to choose from, each with what are often higher than average expense ratios. Often times, since the 401K custodians send business to those mutual funds by administering 401K plans, the custodian is likely to get a referral fee from the fund company. Sometimes buying through a 401K custodian can benefit you buy eliminating the loads some fund charge. A load is a fee you pay to buy (front end load) or to sell a fund (back end load).

In addition to a 401K custodian getting a (reasonable) kickback from the fund company, they also tack on another fee in many cases. This fee can be at least as high as 1.45%, which mean that each and every year, they take up to 1.45% of your total assets to administer your 401K plans.

So what does that mean to you in plain English?

Lets say you’ve been a 401K participant for a while, your investment choices have done reasonable well and your balance is $100,000. At the end of the year or maybe with each contribution you make when you get paid, your employer gives you some kind of matching contribution. Lets say the match ends up being $1,500 for the year. Well, if you have a balance of $100,000 and your 401K provider charges an additional 1.45% annually of your assets to administer your 401K, they will take $1,450 for administering your account each year. It was nice of your employer to give you a match; to bad the fund company took it all to pad their pockets. If the funds available in your 401K plan are not Vanguard funds with really low expense ratios, you may pay another 1% or more so that annually on a $100,000 balance you pay $2,500 to have your 401K.

Unfortunately unless you can get your company to switch 401K providers, there isn’t much you can do about this if you want to max out your tax deferred retirement accounts. If you are not maxxing out the total amount you can save between a 401K and an IRA and your 401K plan has outrageous expenses like this, you should consider putting in just enough to get the employer match and the starting a traditional IRA or a ROTH IRA. Companies like Vanguard are great for no transaction fee, very low expense ratio funds. E*Trade Brokerage is great for ETFs or individual stocks. Vanguard has a great variety of stock and bond index funds to track various benchmarks and indices and target retirement date funds that adjust your asst allocation for you as you get older.
401K plans 401K Retirement Plans mutual fund expense ratios Retirement Planning & Investing retirement plans retirement savings ROTH IRAs SEP IRAs Traditional IRA Investment Plans401K plans 401K Retirement Plans mutual fund expense ratios Retirement Planning & Investing retirement plans retirement savings ROTH IRAs SEP IRAs Traditional IRA Investment Plans

Beware of Outrageous 401K and Mutual Fund Fees (Expense Ratios)

Rewards Credit Cards

Do you want free Subaru service and free Subaru parts?

Do you spend at least $3,333.00 per year on a credit card?

If you answered yes to both of these questions then you are in luck! When you get the Subaru MasterCard from Chase Bank, you get 3% of your purchases back in the form of “Subaru Bucks” which can be used for Subaru parts, accessories and service at a Subaru dealer.

Every time your rewards balance reaches $100, you get a Subaru Buck good for $100 towards almost anything Subaru from Subaru. The card has a limit of $500.00 in rewards per year so if you are a big spender and spend more than $16,666.67 per year on your credit card you will want to have a second rewards card that you can continue to accumulate rewards on.

One way to get around the annual limit on the Subaru rewards card is to simply get more than one Subaru Rewards card. Each of the $100 Subaru Bucks coupons is good for 5 years so between a trade in and as much as $2,500 in coupons per card over the course of 5 years, you could fairly easily get a free Subaru when you go to trade yours in for a new one if you get multiple cards. The dealer may or may not go for something like this but in any case you can get up to $2,500 off your new Subaru “playing by the rules” with just one card.

As with any credit card, make sure you pay off the balance in full each and every month. If you don’t you’ll pay the typical credit card interest charges which add up to a ton of cash and will be far in excess of any rewards you will get for using the credit card.

If you don’t have a Subaru, there are other great rewards credit cards including the MBNA (now Bank of America) World Points credit card and the Fidelity World Points card which is an even better deal if you have a Fidelity investment account.

Business Start-Up Killers or How to close your business in five steps!

Having been in business now for nearly eight years, I recently had pause to consider why typical businesses don’t succeed in the local market in Taiwan or anywhere. This list includes some of my observations:

1. Poor Financing

Most business owners here in Taiwan budget enough money to open the business, but they base income projections and the related decisions on the most rosy of circumstances in the first three months. The result is often that the business will close within 3 months because the businesses have run out of cash, and haven’t built up enough customers on a returning basis to pay for the basic costs. If you’re planning to open any business, remember to consider several scenarios and prepare for different results.

When we opened our business, we had very low estimates of income in the first six months; and we were financially comfortable with the idea of paying costs until the business could support itself. Part of that was a realization that salaries for the bosses (the only staff at the time) would be token only.

Solution: Always budget for a period at startup in which income is less (much less) than your expectations. Don’t forget to include unexpected startup costs. Be bullish on these because best-case scenarios rarely occur.

2. Missing the Mark

It’s amazing how many business owners only look at the superficial aspects of running a business. Yesterday my wife and I ate in a coffeeshop that had newly opened. The coffeeshop had a great location, and lots of potential. But when we walked into the store, everything LOOKED fine. It’s only when we ordered the food that we noticed the LOOK of the store was quite different from the reality. The staff were untrained, didn’t know how to greet customers, the drinks we ordered were pricy (for that kind of service) and really didn’t measure upto drinks at half the price in better restaurants (no flair), and the management seemed too busy doing the work to notice what was missing: an atmosphere, good service, and passion for the foodservice business. Oh, well.

The restaurant was called O Sole Mio and had a very pretty facade with a decent counter area, and much of the right equipment, too. Its location was on a major route around the north coast of Taiwan just outside Jingshan. In reality, most people would only stop once as we did.

Solution: Focus hard on the quality of the food or service that you produce. Make sure that they are up to scratch. And be your own harshest critic.

3. Location, Location, Location

That’s right. We’ve seen great businesses with potentially good profit margins killed by their locations. Why? Because the location chosen for the business ate up most of the businesses income. The business owner had chosen a high traffic location to maximize the market exposure. Result: he ended up paying over the odds for rent. When it turned out the product wasn’t that great, initial business interest fell away, and word of mouth didn’t occur.

A bakery opened across the road from our community and fell victim to this situation. Worse: the baked goods were quite unexceptional, and there was little reason for customers to cross the road to shop there, when TWO very good bakeries were less than 100 yards away. It shut in less than three months.

Solution: Choose a cheaper location, and create such a great product that people will go out of their way to find you. Once you have the quality, margins, and cash, then rent a mainstream property.

4. Hiring Staff

This has to be the biggest bugbear of any new business. Why? Finding good staff is an ongoing nightmare for our school from the first year that we opened. We have recruited actively most of the past eight years, but many of the applicants have been less than desirable. Even those we vetted carefully and who came to interview and do demos with us were in most cases unsuitable. We hired the best of those interviewees, but in reality only one or two of those we hired had the passion to be an excellent teacher.

Of course, hiring and training are both essential. When you hire new staff, it’s important they be trained properly. This is an aspect we seriously underestimated as we expected our hires to have the same passion and skill as we shared. This expectations have been tempered by our experience.

Solution: you have to be prepared to hire selectively, manage directly, and fire decisively. Poor staffing and staff who are unmotivated and interested only in their salary both will seriously undermine your business.

5. Freebies, Giveaways and Discounts

Over the years, we have noticed that some promotions work and some promotions look like they work. You have to learn to tell the difference.
Freebies - Giving away products and services for free rarely generates a good client-base. Why? Because you will always attract people who like ‘free’, and who will shrink at the first sign of a bill or invoice. If you are going to do freebies, make sure it is tied to something that is purchased. And clearly state that these are introductory offers only.
Giveaways - Giving away products may work for toothpaste and shampoo. It will likely not work for your business. Why? Because you will have to give away a lot of samples just to get some leads. Be careful with what you give away.
Discounts - Discounts also can be used to attract attention, but you need to be careful in how you manage them. Otherwise you will find that you have to offer permanent discounts to keep customers who ‘thought’ that the discounted price was the regular price. Worse, as we found out, some customers will tell others that that is the pricing.

Solution: Clearly limit the duration, type and extent of your promotions. Make sure that your discounts, freebies and giveaways are closely tied to those you are trying to attract. And manage your cost basis effectively enough that you can still have a decent mark-up after your promotion. Otherwise, you will find it difficult to service those accounts properly.

One of the biggest reasons that you need to avoid these ‘killer promotions’ in the long term is simply that you will end up in a bidding war either with your own pricing or with a competitor’s. You should have confidence in your pricing structure. Aggressive promotions will create initial surges of interest, but may undermine the future of your business, the quality of your products, and your reputation.

These five issues are all issues that I’ve dealt with in different situations. They did not all pertain to my current business, but I’ve seen how the effects of these bad decisions can effectively ruin a nascent business, even one that has passed the first two years. Do let me know if you have any additional suggestions for this list.

Credit Cards: Budgets, Rewards, Self-Discipline!

For those of you who are using credit cards for the first time, or are having difficulty in managing your expenses, budgets can be a bit tricky to devise. Your credit cards are charged one month, but typically don’t show up on your credit card statement for at least 2-5 weeks (sometimes more). This is long after you have enjoyed that meal, worn your new shoes or purchased a book! Perhaps you have even forgotten what you bought or why.

There are a couple of ways you can deal with this.

1. Instead of waiting for the bill, deduct the money from THIS month’s expenses as the expenses are incurred and place it in a ‘holding account’ where the  money can gather some interest until the bill is due. This helps to keep the feeling that purchasing on a credit card actually involves REAL money. I try to do this, but sometimes I forget to separate the cash. Naturally, my cash gets spent, leaving a shortfall that has to be covered next month.

2. Use a special program like Quicken or MSMoney to track your expenses. Or use Credit Card Manager to help manage your credit card expenses.
One aspect that I forgot early on in my credit card ‘career’ was to take advantage of points. I saved up my points for quite a while and I ignored the ‘expiry’ notices each month, until themonth after expiry when I realized that my hard-earned points had been knocked down a great deal. At that point, I was pretty upset because I had used that card a great deal up until that point, but hadn’t found much worth purchasing through their credit card rewards program. I just waited. After that, I retained the credit card, but I only use it for online purchases and emergencies. So I punished the bank. In reality, my other credit card also did the same, but this time I was more careful to use the points.

Bad management

Buried in the publicity of a nasty airline strike was a vivid example of how misdirected
management’s service improvement efforts can become. To improve service, the airline ordered
all attendants to attend three hour “Commitment to Courtesy” classes without pay. “They told
us the reason we were losing money was because we were rude to passengers,” said one
attendant.

How reasonable would it be to hold a shipping dock worker responsible for the quality of the
goods in the boxes he or she is shipping Not only would that be unfair, it would be bad
management. A good manager would argue, quite rightly, that the manufacturing process should
be traced back to find the ultimate source of the defects.

So how reasonable is it for managers to hold the final deliverer responsible for the quality of the
products or services he or she is delivering The person on the front serving line is a symptom
carrier, not the source of the problem. While he or she may be contributing to low service
delivery, blaming him or her is not only unfair, it’s unproductive.

The basic problem is that people are visible, but the systems and organization culture by which
group and individual behavior is shaped are largely invisible. So when something goes wrong, it’s
easy to trace the problem back to whoever touched it last and lay the blame there.

If you put a good person into a bad system the system will win. This has been proven so often
that it has become a truism in the quality improvement field called the “85/15 Rule”. The 85/15
Rule shows that if you trace errors or service complaints back to the root cause, about 85% of
the time the fault lays in the system, processes, structure, or practices of the organization. Only
about 15% of the ricochets can be traced back to someone who didn’t care or wasn’t conscientious enough.

I’ve seethed in the seats of all too many airport gates waiting for a late aircraft, or scrambling to find an alternate way home. Having a flight attendant then give me a bag of peanuts and a big courteous smile doesn’t turn me into a satisfied customer. I often feel sorry for the attendants (and the harried gate agents) while plotting my revenge for the faceless bureaucrats and managers that can’t get the organization’s act together.

Frontline servers often provide delightful service in spite of, not because of, their organization’s support and systems. Given the many obstacles, it’s a minor miracle that service is being
provided at all by some exceptionally caring employees!

Many manifestations of the “our workforce is to blame” assumption stem from the all too
common, but badly misguided, inclination to begin error “seek and destroy missions” by asking
“who” rather than “what” went wrong. Symptom carriers of the organization’s system and
process problems are hunted down and hung by the neck. The result is a culture of fixing the
blame rather than the problem. A culture of fear, cover your backside, and finger pointing.

If senior management truly wants to find the source of their organization’s declining service
levels, the best place to start is with a long and deep look in the mirror.

Credit Cards And Their Rewards

A lot of credit card companies offer incentives to people with large debts. These include 0% balance transfers, 0% purchase rates and long term low interest rates on balance transfers. But people who clear their balances regularly do not benefit from these rewards. After all, if they pay off their balances each month, they are not paying interest anyway. So how can these people gain something from using their credit cards The answer lies in credit card reward schemes.

What Are Credit Card Reward Schemes

Credit card reward schemes are schemes that offer bonuses or incentives to people when they spend on their credit card. These schemes are usually linked to the amount spent, so this is a good option for people who put their monthly spending on their credit cards. There are a number of credit card reward schemes to choose from.

Earning Nectar Points With Your Credit Card

One of the best known reward schemes is the Nectar points scheme. This started as a loyalty card scheme, with Sainsburys, Debenhams and BP as the principal players. There are now a number of retailers who accept and issue Nectar points. There is also a branded Nectar credit card (run by American Express) which allows card holders to earn Nectar points when shopping for a range of goods with the credit card. Card holders who also have a Nectar loyalty card can earn up to 4 points for every pound spent. These points can then be used for shopping, entertainment, travel and more.

Other Credit Card Points Schemes

Many other credit card companies also offer their own proprietary points schemes. Again, these allow card holders to collect a set number of points for every pound spent. These points can then be used to claim discounts on food, wine and travel; travel insurance; clothing; high street discount vouchers; or exchanged for cash. Many credit card companies also give cash back rewards. These consist of a rebate of a certain percentage of the amount spent on a credit card per month or year. There is usually a cap on the amount of the rebate.

Reward Yourself For Travelling

Another common points scheme is the air miles scheme. This allows card holders to earn a set number of miles linked to the amount they spend on the credit card. Card holders can have separate air miles accounts or can gain more benefit by applying for one of the many credit cards that offer air miles as their reward. With air miles credit cards, credit card holders can also benefit from balance transfer rates and other incentives. Many air miles credit cards also offer additional discounts or upgrades on travel products.

Other Credit Card Reward Schemes

In addition to these credit card reward schemes, there are credit cards that offer specific incentives to consumers. These include earning money to help with the purchase of a car. Credit card holders can also consider using their credit cards to give to charity. There are a number of charity credit card schemes backed by major banks.

How to Consolidate Credit Cards

One of the prizewinning things individuals crapper do is consolidate their assign cards. Credit bill compounding offers whatever benefits but modify monthly payments is apparently the content of most grouping who consolidate. Another doable goodness is creating added set indite soured by using your bag justness to bonded the loan. Using your home’s justness is also sharp because it crapper support you intend modify welfare rates on your newborn loan. Having digit monthly commercialism also makes your bills easier to control and ready up with.

Often consolidating your bills module attain you countenance meliorate to a give tar if in the forthcoming you requirement to bonded added give for upcoming projects.

The large nonachievement prefabricated by those hunt a give to consolidate their assign game is unfortunate to do their homework. This nonachievement crapper literally outlay you thousands of dollars over the chronicle of a loan. Many grouping module verify the prototypal substance that they have. You hit to advert the companies that are in playing to attain loans verify salesman move to gaining your business. Most folks do not discern this. When we are hunting for a loan, we do not move it the aforementioned artefact we do if we are purchase a car. The think we do not is a pledgee module invoke downbound customers. So we move it as if we are disagreeable to attain the sale. This plays correct into their hands, and they do verify plus of this situation.

When we are hunting for a give we should advert that the internet has finished something that the disposition playing has never dealt with. We crapper class nationwide for lenders. Before you exclusive had a containerful of choices, so you had a significance of urgency. In today’s internet surround there is ever added pledgee around the corner. We crapper verify an move of motion the pledgee downbound for the give if his cost or welfare rates are not satisfactory.

Lenders haw seem same they don’t requirement your business, but they do not possess the money they lend. They hit borrowed the money meet same you are doing, and they cannot move their loans if they do not attain sufficiency loans to attain a profit. So, hunting at it this artefact they requirement you meet as you requirement them. solon aggregation and whatever enthusiastic course crapper be institute at…

Lenders haw seem same they don’t requirement your business, but they do not possess the money they lend. They hit borrowed the money meet same you are doing, and they cannot move their loans if they do not attain sufficiency loans to attain a profit. So, hunting at it this artefact they requirement you meet as you requirement them. solon aggregation and whatever enthusiastic course crapper be institute at…CONTINUE

Credit Cards: Boon or Bane?

Plastic money has a lot of appeal to youngsters since money is hard to come by at that age. If an indulgent parent hands out an add-on card for emergency usage it's the best gift one can get. But usually each time one is a little short of cash out come the Credit Cards. Every occasion is an emergency. Eventually the card is confiscated when dad hits the roof seeing the bills and theres no excuse to save face with.

My first Credit Card was almost presented to me on a platter. It was sometime during my second job that the personnel desk executive off handedly inquired if I would require a credit card along with the debit card. I didn't even get time to compare Credit Cards before I nonchalantly replied 'Obviously I would'. Paperwork was completed and supporting documents supplied by the company. 10 days and some impatient waiting later my glittering Silver Credit Card arrived coaxing me to spend a little more than I could afford.I wasn't unaware of the evils of a credit line. So I swore to myself I would treat my card just like I would treat some friends money in my account.

The first opportunity to be able to inaugurate the card presented itself. It was like the card wanted to be used. Mid-month treat for a group of friends was something no one with my salary could afford at that time. My next promise was to pay up as soon as I got my salary, and I did.

Opportunities kept cropping up every now and then. I never realized when the opportunities turned into needs. I kept spending like no ones business, be it for shopping to tend to my mood or taking friends and relatives out. My payment was regular so the credit line kept increasing. Pleasant bank executives would call to offer better cards or higher lines or loans without papers. Sometimes I would accept, other times I would politely decline. It felt pretty good to be offered so much when I kept hearing about people whose cards got canceled or credit lines reduced. One principle that I stuck to all through was to not accept a second credit card even if the executives sat outside my door and begged me to accept.

Amidst all the adulation, I didn't realize when my balance was pretty much out of my range. It hit me when I quit my job after four and half years to pursue my higher studies. The responsibility to pay for my immaturity and irresponsibility fell on my father. It was not difficult to understand that it was a high price to pay for being kind enough to bear my expenses while I studied.

The Credit Card is still there with me now though it is being used as it should have been earlier â€“ for emergencies. A card is a necessity since we never know when we might run out of cash and be in dire need of money. Mainly when studying or working far away from parents or relatives who can help at time of emergencies, a credit card is the best bet. Usage of the card needs to be monitored by us responsibly.

Credit Cards are a boon if they can be used properly. The banks do their parts to help the customers. There are lots of offers available on cards. Some credit cards give a discount on purchase of gas while other cash back credit cards return a percentage of purchases made at certain stores. The cards can be custom designed too. A Silver Card, Gold Card, Party card, Petroleum card, Grocery card etc. The choice is yours since the services are out there to serve every special need. There are also reward points on purchases made using the card. Reward points allow you to choose a gift or gift voucher from the kitty made available to you according to your card usage. It can be anything from a wallet to a hair dryer or some other electrical appliance.

The credit card companies also help you monitor your accounts and usage. Paper or e-statements are offered every month. Analyzers are also available to check on the spending habits and be warned well in advance. For large purchases, often there are offers to break the amount into suitable installments to make payments easier or affordable.

End of the day, the credit card companies do their share of easing customers into proper credit card usage policies. It is not all their responsibility either since its their bread and butter and they have a right to make a profit out of seducing people to avail means to spend more. In any case, one should compare Credit Cards thoroughly before availing any offers being made in the market. Credit Cards can be a real friend if we listen more to the sensible side of us than the one with the horns, tail and pitchfork.

How to cure your holiday spending hangover

Attention all overspent holiday shoppers with bills coming due now. Mint.com, a free online money management service, is sponsoring a contest that could help you pay off those pesky credit card bills.

Mint is looking for the funniest, saddest and/or most creative stories from people who have holiday spending experiences they want to share. As part of its “$5K cure for your Holiday Spending Hangover” contest, the company will pay off two winners’ 2007 credit card balance, up to $5K each. The winners will also get a free credit counseling session with InCharge Debt Solutions, a nonprofit credit counseling and financial education organization. InCharge Debt Solutions is affiliated with Young Money’s parent company, the InCharge Education Foundation.

Contest submissions may be in writing or via a video and can be submitted via a link on mint.com or on the contest website contest.mint.com. The submissions will be online for all to view and rate until March 15th.

The ten highest rated stories and ten highest rated videos will then be judged by a panel of experts and two Grand Prizes awarded on or around April 1…just in time to pay off any remaining credit card balances, fund an IRA or pay taxes.

We could all use an extra $5,000 so I hope you will take a chance and compete.

Making tax time a little easier

I finally got around to doing my taxes this past weekend. I used to pay H&R Block to do them for me but that changed two years ago when I started using a free online tax service instead. However, this year figured to be more complicated tax-wise so I decided to give TurboTax a try for the first time.

TurboTax does offer a free edition for 1040EZ and simple returns but I chose to use the deluxe Web version for $29.95 intended to help users maximize their deductions. I am a self-acknowledged tax novice so I wanted something that was simple to use. In that regard, TurboTax does deliver the goods. The program starts by asking you a series of general questions (name, address, marital status, etc) so you can create a financial record and make sure you complete the right tax form.

Next, I was prompted to fill in my W-2 income data and that of my spouse. The system was able to automatically enter most of my employer’s W-2 information but it couldn’t do the same for her. That was only a minor inconvenience but it meant I had to double check all her numbers because its easy to make a mistake in the process.

The next step was to choose whether I wanted to search for deduction options myself or have the program walk me through each potential deduction. I chose to search for my own although I later went back to have TurboTax search for other potential deductions. My deductions included interest from my wife’s student loans and property taxes for my home and investment property. Filling in all those numbers is simple enough but you need to make sure you have all those documents on hand in order not to have to stop and save what you’re doing until you can find the correct paperwork. I ran into this problem because I didn’t have last year’s tax return with me when I started using the program.

Here’s what happened. I had chose to file my return electronically so that meant I need to use an electronic signature in order to certify it was me filing the form. The program asked me to provide my adjusted gross income from 2006. I spent the next 20 minutes searching for last years’ return before I finally found it. Then, I spent another 20 minutes searching for my wife’s 2006 tax return when I was asked to provide the same information for her electronic signature.

I thought I was done until the program found a problem while doing its final error checking scan. TurboTax claimed my wife’s employer’s address didn’t exist! It turned out I had mistakenly entered the employer’s home state as NE instead of NV for Nevada. Having solved that error, I chose to have my tax refund directly deposited into my bank account and sent the return on its way. The entire process had taken almost two hours but part of that was my fault for not being prepared.

TurboTax emailed me a day later to confirm that my return had been accepted by the government. Overall, I thought the program was convenient and easy to understand. I could definitely see myself using it again next year. Have you used an online tax service or software? If so, please feel free to share your tax stories and tips with our readers.

Top 10 Debt Traps

I’ve discovered a helpful new resource that deals with the biggest financial problem that most Americans have today: consumer debt.

As you may have experienced, debt accumulates very quickly, yet it usually takes a long time to pay off. There are a lot of really good reasons for that, and the booklet “Debt Traps & How To Avoid Them” addresses the top 10:

1. Not knowing enough about your finances
2. Not knowing enough about your credit report
3. Living beyond your means
4. Overspending on credit
5. Getting to much credit
6. Not paying on time
7. Paying only the minimum due
8. Purchasing unnecessary credit card sevices and products
9. Chasing lower rates by transferring balances
10. Abusing debt consolidation

“Debt Traps & How To Avoid Them” provides ways for avoiding each of the above debt traps and offers exercises to help you create a personalized spending plan. The booklet is part of a series called Mind Your Finances that is available from the InCharge Education Foundation for only $4.95. Check out the website for more information.

Five ways to cut your expenses

You can start saving more money today by using the following tips found in ”Increasing Your Spending Power” from the Mind Your Finances booklet series. The booklets offers 46 ways to cut your expenses and advice on how to create your own spending plan. You can order “Increasing Your Spending Power” online for $4.95.

1. Pay off credit card debt.
Every responsible financial plan begins with paying off credit cards, and the one that has the highest rate comes first. This saves you money because you’ll be paying less interest (assuming you don’t charge the card back up). Think of it as a guaranteed investment. If you are paying double-digit interest rates, let’s say 14 percent, paying your balance is like making an instant 14 percent on your money. Where else can you get a return like that these days? Nowhere.

2. Know exactly how much you have and how much you owe.
In fact, write down your income each month and all of your fixed and variable expenses. The more aware you are of your situation, the less likely you’ll be able to spend more than you have.

3. Always shop with a list.
Lists focus your buying habits and help prevent you from impulse buying and squandering your hard earned-money. Remember, spending just one extra dollar a day adds up to $365 in a year.

4. Don’t go grocery shopping on an empty stomach.
If you’re like many people, you sometimes shop when you’re hungry, and, list or no list, you end up buying lost of stuff that looks really good to eat at that moment. Look over your last grocery bill. Not your list–your bill. How many items on your last grocery bill are things you didn’t need?

5. Don’t buy what you don’t need.
For each purchase you make, ask yourself the following question: Do I really need (fill in the blank) or do I just want it? Often, if you walk around the store for a while asking yourself this question, you’ll be able to put whatever it is back where you got it from and walk out of the store empty-handed. The quicker you pick something up and rush to pay, the less time you have to think, and the more likely you’ll be to buy things you don’t need.

Student Video Contest Targets Credit Card Debt

A new video contest is offering a $5,000 prize to the best student Public Service Anouncement (PSA) effort warning young adults about the dangers of credit card debt. I’m not against students having a credit card. I just don’t want them getting into debt. The “Keep It In Your Pants” contest seems like a creative way to encourage students to stay out of debt. I also think the contest name will help get people’s attention.

The contest is being sponsored by the Service Employees International Union and the League of Young Voters.
Go to KeepItInYourPants.org for more information or check out the press release below.

STUDENT VIDEO CONTEST: “KEEP IT IN YOUR PANTS” PSA COMPETITION TARGETS CREDIT CARD “DEBT DISEASE”

It’s spreading … one person can give it to another … even the nicest people have it and can’t get rid of it … you can’t tell if someone has it … it only takes one time to catch it.

The “it” featured in a video promoting a new contest for budding filmmakers is the growing problem of “Debt Disease” among young Americans. With the biggest banks in the United States — including the nation’s largest bank by deposits, Bank of America — increasingly marketing credit cards to college students in particular, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the League of Young Voters unveiled “Keep It In Your Pants” (KeepItInYourPants.org), a video contest with a top prize of $5,000 for the best student-made public service announcement (PSA) running 30-60 seconds.“Credit card debt can ruin your life, spreading and growing like a disease,” said Stephen Lerner, SEIU Assistant to the President and Director of the Private Equity Project. “We’re warning young people of the dangers of ‘Debt Disease’—and urging them to protect themselves the same way they would against any other dangerous and contagious social epidemic.”The first-place winner of the “Keep It In Your Pants” contest

—open to students 14 years of age and older enrolled in middle school, junior high, high school, college, or graduate school—will receive a $5,000 scholarship for school-related expenses. Four runners-up will each win a $500 scholarship for school-related expenses. Submissions will be accepted at KeepItInYourPants.org until March 12, 2008. Semi-finalists will be announced on April 2, 2008 and the winner will be announced at a red-carpet event on April 23, 2008. Complete rules are available at keepitinyourpants.org/Rules.With Americans holding nearly one trillion dollars in credit card debt nationally, “Debt Disease” is a growing issue among college-age individuals in particular. Some of the biggest banks in the country employ troubling practices that contribute to Americans — including students — going deeper and deeper into debt. KeepItInYourPants.org explains what “Debt Disease” is, how it can be caught, and how to avoid it, providing statistics including:* The average American carries as many as nine different credit cards.

* College students are one of the credit card industry’s fastest-growing markets. It is estimated that 78% of college students have at least one credit card.

* The biggest banks already control the majority of the credit cards issued in the United States, and Bank of America controls 1 in 5 credit cards and 1/5 of the credit card debt in the country.

* 82% of Americans believe household debt is a serious problem and the general public is more concerned about falling into debt than about being the victim of a terrorist attack or a natural disaster.

To draw parallels between “Debt Disease” and other social epidemics, the Web site points would-be contributors to examples of current and past videos, including venereal disease-related educational films from the 1940s-1970s.

Adsense Code: Amazon Top Sellers

The Adsense Code of Joel Comm is currently the number one top sellers at the AMAZON particularly in Computer and Internet Category.

Book Description:

Hidden on the Internet, scattered among billions of Web pages, are the clues to an incredible secret. For those who know the secret, the result is untold wealth. Each month, a small group of people - an elite club who have uncovered the mysteries of The AdSense Code- put their knowledge to use and receive checks for tens of thousands of dollars from Google. And untold numbers of additional site owners are regularly generating supplemental income via AdSense while they play, sleep and eat. The AdSense Code is concise and very focused on the objective of revealing the proven online strategies to creating passive income with Google AdSense. The AdSense Code reveals hands-on solutions to many of the concerns and challenges faced by content publishers in their quest to attract targeted traffic, improve content relevance and increase responsiveness to AdSense ads - using easy and legitimate techniques that have worked for those who know the secrets. Google AdSense expert, Joel Comm, provides you with the keys you need to “crack” The AdSense Code and unlock the secrets to making money online.

Adsense Secrets

Lot of new Adsense Publishers are asking other successful Adsense Publishers through the forums or comments on blogs about the secrets they’re using to earn four to 6 digits of Adsense income. Others are silent about it but their minds keep asking themselves on what possible secrets others have. And some tried to search the search engines, but what they found are just ads or sites that said to reveal secrets but are asking fees.

I will use this post to tell those who are inquiring about the Adsense Secrets, that there are no secrets actually when publishing Adsense Ads. All the techniques in dealing with Adsense are already revealed in forums, blogs, website or through the blog of Google Adsense Team. What you need to do is just read those available materials in the internet for free and apply them to your site.

What are some of these techniques? Well, I will list some of them below:
Keyword optimization or Keyword Targeting

Section Targeting
Site Blocking
Placement
Ads color and looks
Ads Style

But the most important thing that we should do is to SEO your site. If you have large number of traffic, plus the things I listed above, then probably you’ll be one of those guys who are earning $10,000.00 or more every month.

Alternate To Adsense: Text Links Ads

Webmasters or bloggers who are not lucky enough to join the Adsense Publishers Program or the Yahoo Publishers Program actually have another alternative to earn higher amount of Dollars from their websites.

We should not forget that not only Yahoo or Google pay publishers for ads. Text Link Ads, is one of the bests alternate Ads Services available in the internet which you can earn as much as Adsense and Yahoo Publishers do.

Through the Text Link Ads you can sell links through your site. Once you’ve become member of it, you can immediately post the code into your site, customize it to suit your preference, and then when advertisers notice it on your site, then they’ll start bidding and purchase links from your site.

And it’s even a good news to all Adsense Publishers. Text Link Ads can be placed on a page with Adsense Ads without violating the Adsense Policies. You can increase your online earning by selling ads through the Text Link Ads. Try it now here >>> Text Link Ads

Adsense Policies Updates

Haven’t you notice any new changes on the Adsense policies? Okay, visit now the Adsense Policies and you’ll notice lot of changes made. Below are the changes I noticed:
You are now allowed to post up to 3 Link Units in one page.
You can place up to 2 Adsense for Search in one page.
You can place up to 2 referral ads per referral products
You can place 1 ad link unit on Adsense for Search results pages but can’t place any other ads.

Some changes are also mentioned at the Inside Adsense blog.

Adsense Payout via Western Union

Last October 3, 2007, Google announced the offering of the new payment method to Adsense publishers in countries like: Argentina, Chile, China (Mainland), Colombia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, and Romania. And this new payment method is the use of Western Union Quick Cash in which Adsense publishers, especially those who are Filipinos residing in the Philippines, can now pick-up the cash at any Western Union agent the day after the payment is sent.

You have the option on what to receive, either in dollar or in our local currency based on Western Union dollar exchange rate on the day you pick-up the cash.

Limitation

Western Union Quick Cash has limitation and according to Yuga, it’s $10,000. Now, if Google supposed to be sending you more than $10,000, they will automatically send it via the secured express delivery. However, you can set it to the ordinary delivery to avoid any delivery cost. But, if your earning for the next payout is below the limit and you want it to be sent to you via the Western Union Quick Cash, you need to specify it again at you Google Adsense account information.

Western Union Charges.

I tried the price calculator of the Western Union as shown on the screenshot below, and it seems that Yuga is right.

If you are sending:
From $100 to $300, the charge is $16
For $500, the charge is $32
For $600, the charge is $50
For $750, the charge is $56
For $1,000, the charge is $68

With this corresponding charges, I think, I will continue to choose the ordinary delivery option. $56 to $68 is already big enough and I really need that. Anyway, ordinary delivery option is still safe, I think, and will cost you nothing.

How To Set-Up your adsense Account to receive payment via Western Union?

So, you really want to receive the adsense payment quickly via the Wester Union Quick Cash even if you’ll be charged more than what you’ll spend when depositing you adsense check? So, just do these before the 15th day of the month:
Sign in to your account at www.google.com/adsense.
Visit the My Account tab.
Click the ‘edit’ link adjacent to the ‘Payment Details’ header.
Select the Western Union Quick Cash radio button.
Click ‘Continue’.
Click ‘Save Changes’ to save your payment type.

How to collect your money?

I am not really sure when will Google send payment via the Western Union Quick Cash. What I only know is that Google sends the adsense check on the 25th to the 28th day of the month. Anyway, you can check it at your Payment History page at your Google Adsense account.

Now, once the payment is already reported, go immediately to any of the Western Union agent (you can check agents here.) Bring with you any of the government-issued ID such as Driver License, PRC ID, SSS or GSIS ID, or even the Postal ID. But you need to make sure that the name you used at your Adsense account is the same to the name printed on your IDs. Anyway, you can update the Payee name at your Adsense account.

I think, there’s no need to inform you that that you need to pick the money up within 35 days (other wise the money will be sent back to your adsense account) because I know you’ll be very much excited to pick your money up.

So, what do you think is the best one: Ordinary Delivery, Secured Delivery, or Western Union Quick Cash?

Got My Union Bank EON Card (VISA Electron)

Just like what the title of this post said, I already got my EON Card (Visa Electron) from Union Bank. Last Monday, I went to Tacloban City just to pick this up and deposited PhP3,000.00 for the Expanded-Use enrollment of Paypal and for my other online transaction.

Actually, last October 2007, I applied for EON Card (VISA Electron) of Union Bank but I was not interested to get it from the Tacloban City branch of Union Bank because of the few reasons listed below:
Union Bank has no branch here in Maasin City.
I don’t know yet if I can transfer money from my Metrobank-Maasin City accounts to the EON Card of Union Bank.
If I couldn’t transfer money from my Metrobank accounts to EON Card, then I need to visit Union Bank’s ATM or Teller in order to deposit money which is in Tacloban City only. It will be fine if there’s a Union Bank branch in Ormoc City because I am always in Ormoc City every Wednesday but Union Bank doesn’t have branch there.
I also applied for the Value Mastercard of Metrobank.
In my case, using a credit card is much better than using the EON card of a bank that has no branch here in my base-city.

Now, soon as I received the Value Mastercard of Metrobank, I immediately set it to my PayPal account to verify my ownership of that PayPal account. PayPal successfully charged $1.95 my Value Mastercard credit card as part of the Expanded-Use enrollment of my PayPal account. I waited for my Value Mastercard credit card account statement to arrive. When I lost patient in waiting for it, I went to the Metrobank Maasin City branch to ask a copy of the account statement. The bank’s personnel called the Cebu office of Metrobank Cards. Then the copy of the account statement was sent via FAX.

Finally, I got the PayPal’s Expanded-Use number. I immediately logged-in to my PayPal account and tried to complete the Expanded-Use enrollment for my Value Mastercard. But the problem is, the Expanded-Use or Expu number I entered is incorrect, so PayPal suspended my Value Mastercard credit card.

However, PayPal’s system suggested that I should sent the following documents to their office via FAX at FAX Number 08707-303-190:
Copy of the Value Mastercard account statement
Photocopy of my two government issued ID’s
Photocopy of my Value Mastercard credit card (back to back)

But the problem is, everytime I dialed that said to be FAX number, an answering machine tells me that I am dialing a disconnected number. I immediately emailed PayPal about this and asked them for another but available FAX number. However, until now I received no response from PayPal.

So, I have no choice but to pick my EON card up at the Union Bank-Tacloban branch.

But then I am again facing another problem because my EON Card can be used after it is activated by the Union Bank Cebu office. Union bank’s personnel in Tacloban City told me that I have to wait for 10 to 15 office days before I can use my EON Card.

Received Ad-Publishing Payment

Actually, my PayPal account received already the amount of $148.65 from an ad-broker. It’s my January 2008 earning from that certain ad-broker. But I am worried that my other income from other ad-brokers are blocked or I mean denied by PayPal because of the receiving limit of my PayPal account. And I can only lift this limit up when my PayPal account will be verified using credit card or debit card.

For now, I can do nothing but to wait for the time that my EON card will be fully activated.

Got My Value Master Card at Metrobank

I finally got my own Value MasterCard from Metrobank. And finally, I can now continue living in the cyberworld, because I finally have my own credit card.

What is Value MasterCard?

Well. Value MasterCard is a credit card, an international card that let’s you settle local and international purchases and subscription using our own (Philippine) currency. It’s similar to other credit cards but it differs in the requirement when applying to have this one, because you don’t need to bring any important documents like ITR (Income Tax Return) if you’ll apply for it.

What you need to do is to visit the nearest Metrobank branch in your area and accomplish a Value MasterCard form and bring with your PhP30,000.00 which will be used as collateral. Don’t worry about your money because it will be deposited (Time Deposit) under your name.

In other words, you’ll not just enjoy using the Metrobank’s Value MasterCard but you’ll enjoy the interest applied to your Time Deposit account.

Value MasterCard to Full Featured Credit Cards

Last December 2007, I talked with the account personnel of the Metrobank Maasin about the credit cards they’re offering and I learned a lot of things about Metrobank Credit Cards.

Well, I think I already told you the advantages and privileges of having the Metrobank Credit Cards, but I forgot to tell you that Metrobank’s Value MasterCard holder can actually upgrade their credit card from Value to full-featured MasterCard credit card without the hassle of applying for it.

In other words, if you can’t avail the full-featured Metrobank’s Credit Card, then you can start with their Value MasterCard. Then show them that you are a good credit card holder by paying your outstanding balance on time. And after 6 months of being a Metrobank’s value MasterCard holder, you can now upgrade your card into the full-featured credit cards.

Just visit the Metrobank branch near you and talk your Metrobank’s account personnel for he or she will help you on this.

Accept Credit Card on Your Site

Tips For Accepting Credit Card Payments on Your Web Site

Accepting credit card payments on your web site is very important if you want to increase sales. Many people are less trusting of web sites that do not accept credit cards, because it makes your web site appear less professional. Also you will possibly lose business, because a person might want to make a purchase immediately, and can only use a credit card to do so. If they have to wait to mail a check or a money order, then they might decide that they do not need your product that badly after all. Once a person decides to make a purchase you want to make it as easy as possible for them to complete their intended purchase.

The idea of accepting credit card payments on your web site might seem like a daunting task, but it can be quite easy if you use a third party merchant to accept credit card payments for you. Many third party merchants exist for the sole purpose of accepting credit card payments online. You will definitely want to research these merchants and choose the merchant that fits your web site and your budget best. However you want to make sure the merchant is reputable, because many cases of credit card fraud exist on the web today. Many of these merchants will charge a setup fee as well as a per transaction fee. It is usually better to accept a larger setup fee than to accept a larger per transaction fee.

There are many reasons to use a third party merchant for accepting credit card payments on your web site. When dealing with a person’s credit card information you need to be very careful that this information is secure. Third party merchants have already created implementations of accepting credit card payments that are secure. Also, customers will feel better about giving their credit card information if they know a reputable merchant is processing their transaction. Third party merchants also make accepting credit card payments on your web site very easy to implement. Most of these merchants offer technical support for the initial setup, and ongoing support if you start experiencing any problems.

Get Point of Sale equipment to help you process credit card payments face to face, plus software to track, control and manage your inventory.

College Student Credit Cards

The below article on student credit cards was written for the teens. Let us start teaching them financial responsibility as soon as we can.

There is a great debate on what to do these days. The debate to allow your child to have a college student credit card or not. Many parents are afraid to give up this control and allow a teen or college student to have such a large responsibility.

If your teen or young adult has a job then you can help them build credit in college or high school and learn some basic finance skills. In a world were good credit is becoming more and more important you can help your young adult become qualified to purchase a home at a younger age as well as life-long skills. Do you remember how hard it was for you to learn that responsibility?

Below I have outlined some Ideas on how to teach your child about credit by allowing them to use a college student credit card:
1. Keep the credit card limit to $250 or $500.
2. Make sure they understand they must pay the bill.
3. Show them expense tracking and budgeting.
4. Eliminate bad cash spending habits.
5. Set rules for spending (what is ok to buy).
6. Explain the fees, interest, and grace period.
7. Pay-off credit card balance each month.

You also want to make sure you find the best college student credit card:
• No annual fee credit card
• 0% Intro period
• Points, Miles, or other rewards

While teaching your young adult good spending habits and financial responsibility make sure to discuss the dangers of too much credit. This would include over-extension, debt accumulation, credit scoring and how it works, and the problems with debt at a high rate of interest.

Use your good judgment on deciding if a college student credit card is right for your young adult or teen. It may be too early to transfer such responsibility, but the sooner you discuss these types of things the better off you will be in the long run.

Teen credit cards are actually “prepaid” or “secure” credit cards. They are not true credit cards in the sense that they belong only to a teenager and are open and revolving lines of credit. Instead, there are credit programs that are designed so that the only money teenagers can spend is money that is already on the card.

Here is how it works: You sign up for the account. You are on the account, as well as your teenager. You begin with an initial deposit that serves as the “limit.” Every month “payments” are made, increasing what is available on the card (or simply replacing the money that is spent).

The best practice, from the standpoint of teaching money management to teens, is to have the teenager make the payments and keep track of his or her spending. This can help teens get a better idea of how much money they are spending, and get used to the idea that even though they are using a ‘pre’ college student credit card, they still have to pay for what they spend.

It is important to impress upon teenagers the importance of keeping track of what is spent on these cards. Overages can result in fees. Once fees are assessed, another payment adding money to the account will not be worth as much, since fees are deducted as soon as the account gets back in the black. Personal finance software or a ledger can help your teenager keep track of expenses and update balances. Make sure you show your teenager how to balance the statement at the end of each month, and explain the importance of this action.

Teaching your teens and young adults is your responsibility. As parents, the responsibility is never ending. We are obligated to teach it all from how to wash there closes to being responsible for there finances. Teach your children well and you will both see the rewards of it.

How to Use the Better Business Bureaus (BBB)

The Better Business Bureau in your area is just one of thousands throughout the country. The Council of Better Business Bureaus provides many excellent services to small businesses, and compliance with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) is desirable and respected among consumers. The Bureaus operate in the United States and Canada and offer a voluntary standard of operating guidelines and behavior to companies in any field of service. To use the BBBs, consider the following aspects and services offered:

• BBB Reports on Companies
The Better Business Bureau has reports available on thousands of companies both in your area and nationwide. If you are considering working with another company or making a large purchase or service arrangement, the BBB can offer you information on the past dealing of the company in question. This is an excellent way to learn if a company has been ethical in their past dealings when making your decision.

By the same token, you can make reports to the BBB about other companies. While this is not the same as litigation, reporting unethical behavior to the BBB is enough to force some companies to behave more appropriately. Compliance with the BBB is not mandatory, however, so many of the most unethical companies are undisturbed by reports. If you were to research those companies, however, you will easily discover their misdeeds and proceed to take your business elsewhere.

• Check out the Local BBB
Your local Better Business Bureau has much to offer. To see what services your local BBB offers, visit their website using the BBB locator. Local offices often have information sessions, seminars and guides available that may not be found elsewhere.

• Resolve Customer Disputes
The BBB has an excellent program to mediate disputes between customers and businesses. There are actually many programs available through the Better Business Bureau that can help businesses determine the best route to take with a dispute. There is advice about finding common sense alternatives, a program to help reach a solution without any formal proceedings as well as fully developed mediation and arbitration. These services are designed to help small businesses get help without having to resort to lawyers and full legal expenses.

• Establish Polices and Protection
A huge concern in business today, especially in light of the internet, is protecting your customers’ privacy as well as your own. The Better Business Bureau has programs and information available about privacy and how to best set up a privacy policy. The BBB websites help you understand what privacy entails and how to assure you employees and customers that they are protected, especially if you work online. The BBB also offers a great deal of information about identify theft and its prevention and consequences.

• Reach a Higher Standard of Practice
The Better Business Bureau has a strong foundation in ethical business practices. They encourage all businesses to prepare an ethics policy and live up to a higher standard. This is the one of the most centralized focuses of the organization, and it takes it message very seriously. The BBB website is full of information about the value of ethical business and the right steps to take to ensure you are operating both legally and morally.

It encourages business owners to examine every aspect of their business and gives advice and instructions on opening lines of communication with all levels of employees, keeping accounting and books ethical and ensuring every employee, including management, is living up to the standard you set.

• Demonstrate Your Integrity to Others
Finally, you can apply for membership with the Better Business Bureaus and receive an online reliability badge. This badge can be displayed on a website to build confidence with customers and other companies who recognize the value of your commitment. To earn a badge, you must meet the reliability program requirements which require commitment and dedication. The badge is a sign to others that you work hard at running your business in a way that offers the best service or product you are able to produce while protecting the interests of your employees and customers.

Credit card debt management

Credit card debt management refers to the process of effectively managing your credit card debts in order to avoid difficult financial situations.

According to a recent survey most Americans have between five to ten credit cards even though this number has been reported to touch up to fifty. Consequently, most of them have to face a financial crisis (or worse a bankruptcy) at one point or another in their life. Although there is no denying the fact that credit cards make life easier and offer you the freedom to buy what you want even when you are in a liquidity crunch, they can tarnish your financial position if used unwisely. Thus, it is essential to have a credible credit card debt management process in place before you apply for credit cards and start making purchases left, right and center. Most of us are satisfied with making minimum monthly payments on our credit cards without giving a moment’s thought to the ever increasing interest and principal.

Strategies for Effective Management of Credit Card Debt

Following are some of some strategies that can be employed for effective management of one’s credit card debts:

1. Always Make Minimum Payments on All Your Credit Cards – Experts stress the importance of making minimum payments on all your credit cards irrespective of your financial situation. This is because the effective interest rate applicable to your credit card is increased every time you are late and you may also be charged a late fee. Every single one of your late payments is reported to the credit bureaus and will negatively impact your credit score.

2. Make Payments on Delinquent Accounts a Priority – Always treat making payments on delinquent accounts a priority. All your extra cash should be utilized to getting current on your delinquent accounts. This is because along with damaging your credit score delinquent accounts lead to late fees and ever increasing interest rates.

3. Bring Over Limit Accounts below the Critical Mark – Along with adding over limit fees to your credit card payments, current and potential creditors are warned each time you go over your credit card limit. Thus, bringing your over limit accounts below the critical mark should have high priority and all your extra cash should be contributed towards this purpose.

4. Lower High Balances – Try to keep your credit balances as close to zero as possible especially in case of balance that is close to the credit limit since high credit balances have a negative impact on your credit rating and increase your credit utilization. A low balance implies that you use your credit limit wisely and will reflect positively in your credit score.

5. Prioritize Your Credit Card Payments with respect to Interest Rates – Prioritizing your credit card payments with respect to interest rates is one of the most commonly used strategies for effective management of credit card debt. Pay off the credit card with the highest interest rates as soon as possible. It may also be a good idea to rationalize the number of credit cards you have to ensure that you do not spend more than you can pay.

TheFind.com announces new shopping search engine exclusively to PayPal

TheFind, Inc. announced the launch of PayPal.TheFind.com, a new shopping search engine built specifically to enable consumers to browse products exclusively from merchants who accept PayPal payments.

Just like results on TheFind.com, products will be shown to PayPal customers as visually compelling catalog-like images, not simply text links or thumbnail images. Unlike traditional comparison shopping sites, merchants will not have to pay for their products to appear in search results on PayPal.TheFind.com; instead, products from PayPal merchants will be indexed and become part of the natural search results.

“By working with TheFind.com, our customers have access to a unique online shopping experience. We are committed to providing our customers with safe, simple and secure ways to shop online,” said Gene Alston, business development director at PayPal.

Shop now, pay later with PayPal

PayPal’s new payment option offers consumers a convenient way of shopping on participating merchant websites, allowing them to shop now and pay later.

Powered by GE Money Bank, The PayPal Pay Later service allows merchants to give flexible financial options to buyers through a transactional credit account. With options such as no payments for 90 days, merchants get to have more ways to market their merchandise to shoppers.

“We’re really excited to be one of the first sites to offer deferred payments through PayPal and give our customers even more choice when they make purchases,” said Dave Gaeta, Marketing Director of Cooking.com. “We see this is as a great new tool to generate even more sales for our business.”

“PayPal Pay Later makes offering PayPal even more attractive to merchants because it gives them yet another way to drive sales,” said Stephanie Tilenius, VP and General Manager of PayPal Merchant Services. “And consumers get instant purchasing power because they can buy when they want and pay for it later – all with the peace of mind that they don’t have to share credit card information over the Web.”

Yahoo!, eBay and PayPal join forces to protect consumers against e-mail fraud and phishing scams

Yahoo!, eBay and PayPal today announced a collaborative effort to better protect consumers against fraudulent e-mails and the dangerous scams known as phishing attacks. Starting today, eBay and PayPal customers worldwide using Yahoo! Mail will begin receiving fewer fake e-mails claiming to be sent by eBay and PayPal. Yahoo! Mail is the first web mail service to block these types of malicious messages for eBay and PayPal through the use of DomainKeys e-mail authentication technology.

DomainKeys technology provides a unique way to verify the authenticity of e-mail messages, allowing Internet service providers to determine if messages are real and should be delivered to a customer’s inbox. The collaborative effort between Yahoo!, eBay and PayPal will result in the blocking of unauthenticated e-mail, reducing the volume of fraudulent e-mail received by consumers and lowering their risk of falling for phishing attacks.

Yahoo!, eBay and PayPal are in the process of transitioning their systems from DomainKeys to the proposed standard DomainKeys Identified Mail. The implementation is expected to be complete in the coming months.

The technology upgrade will be rolled out globally over the next several weeks to all users of Yahoo! Mail.

MySpace, PayPal to empower non-profits and political candidates to virally raise funds

MySpace announced an agreement with PayPal enabling non-profits and political candidates to virally raise funds throughout the site’s civic and political hub, the Impact Channel. This marks the official launch of the Impact Channel which will feature new tools including a volunteer search and match tool “Volunteer Space,” a daily issue-based poll, and a voter registration tool.

Today’s announcement with MySpace and PayPal makes the fundraising tool available for select non-profit organizations and all presidential candidates to add to their profiles. Each PayPal tool is viral, encouraging friends to copy and add the tools to their MySpace page to show friends the causes they support, encourage donations, and help raise funds. The viral effect of the fundraising can be viewed with a “supporter tree” function which tracks the users who have added the tool to their profiles, and how much each person has raised as a result.

Along with the fundraising tool, MySpace is unveiling a new volunteer search and match service, “Volunteer Space,” powered by VolunteerMatch, which allows users to personalize volunteer projects by entering their zip code and search preferences. Flektor, one of the Web’s leading video editing sites, will be integrated into Impact by powering the channel’s daily issue-based polling. Additional channel content includes an optimized voter registration tool powered by Declare Yourself and a job search tool allowing users to find civic and socially-minded jobs in their area.

PayPal now accepted in US Airways

US Airways welcomes online payment system PayPal as a new alternative for customers wishing to purchase tickets through its official website.

With a PayPal account, US Airways customers can choose from several different payment options to fund transactions, including credit card, bank account and PayPal account balance.

There are no additional fees for using PayPal on usairways.com. For more information, or to sign up for a PayPal account, visit usairways.com/paypal.

“An important part of our ongoing project to rebuild usairways.com is to provide our customers with the payment options they’ve asked for, including the ability to pay via PayPal,” said US Airways Sales and Marketing Vice President Travis Christ.

PayPal launches Storefront Widget

Online payment company PayPal has released Storefront Widget, enabling its members to set up virtual stores in any websites using HTML code like blogs and social networking sites.

By seamlessly integrating e-commerce platform, PayPal users can easily setup their own store, promote, and sell any items outside their websites. Ideally, this widget can get additional traffic and boost sales of many merchants.

Some of the features I find quite useful are the following:

Storefront display – Sellers can display thumbnail images of all of the items for sale through the storefront widget. When a buyer hovers over an item with the mouse, an enlarged view of the item is shown.

“Sold Out” items –When an item is sold out, sellers can define whether the item is suppressed in the storefront or appears with the “sold out” label.

In terms of integration, PayPal has already made some arrangements with TypePad to automatically insert the widget in the blog with just one click. Though setting up this widget requires a simple copy-paste command.

While its blog claims this widget can be integrated to MySpace, the official Storefront site states it is not currently available for this social network.

Additional limitation is its inability to process payment in U.S. dollars only. This something I believe requires a trivial tweaking in the system.

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