Hitting The Bad Credit Wall

I am one of those people that check their credit report regularly, religiously if you like. I used to work for a company that sold identity protection and some of the material I read scared me to death, but aside from that I like to know where I am with my credit.

My credit does leave a little to be desired at the moment but it has been worse. Obviously my debt has a lot to do with the fall in credit I experienced around this time last year but thanks to credit cards for people with bad credit it has started to rise again. There are many on the market today but if you are going to start working on elevating your credit level then it is wise to be careful. Some lenders do not lend responsibly at all, but they are in the minority now thanks to the credit crunch.

There are several things to look out for. No lender should offer to lend you more than you could pay back, and that is doubly important for those that offer a credit repair service. Also, they should offer you the best credit card deal possible with as low a rate of interest as you can get. There are some excellent websites out there that could help you. Request Credit is one of those that stands out. It seems to have a range of great deals, but more importantly it strives to help you manage your personal finance more effectively and enables you to “get wise to today’s credit cards market”. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a credit card site with a mission statement like that before! That’s why it deserves a special mention. I do recommend reading the news section on there. It has plenty of information that I found useful so I’m guessing you will too. After all, I need all the help I can get at the moment!

Places To Make A Little Extra Money Online

If even the Bank of England head honcho is saying things will get a lot worse before they begin to get better, the economy is facing severe difficulties. That goes for the rest of the world too. Inflation is rising, salaries are staying stagnant and fuel and food bills are beginning to go through the roof. So what are we to do? Well, the main way that I make a little extra cash from time to time is to sit on my couch and log on to the Internet!

There is a massive range of survey sites out there at the minute, and most of them pay really well. It only takes around 10 minutes to register on them and then they will send you surveys via email when they become available. I earn around $25/£15 a month from doing these every now and again. I have been paying the extra off my credit cards but that might change soon with the financial difficulties so many people will undoubtedly soon be facing.

I have listed some of the better ones I complete surveys for below, complete with the links, so you can take a look for yourself if you like. Try some of them out and see how much you can earn:

Survey Savvy - This is for UK and US residents and sends through surveys based on your demographic profile fairly regularly. Even if you don't qualify for surveys, you still get entered into prize draws. Well worth a look!

Ciao - This site is awesome. Not only do they send you surveys through several times a month but you can write reviews of products and get paid for them so you can earn as much or as little as you like every month.

You Gov - This is a UK survey site that offers at leat one paying survey and one prize survey every month. There are plenty of surveys through asking about everything from politics to your shopping habits. You do have to wait until you get to £50 to claim a cheque but this company provides all of the statistics that are featured on the news and in various newspapers so you can take part!

Snap Dollars - Snapdollars sends through paid emails. All you have to do is click on the emails and get paid for it. If you do want to earn more though, you can take up as many of the offers as you like.

Pure Profile - Pure Profile offers an online community for consumers to discuss anything and everything. They also send you surveys several times a month. Even if you do not qualify for them all, you still get 20p for your trouble.

A W Surveys - With this company, you review and comment on websites, which takes a few minutes and pays quite well! You can join this regardless of where you live as long as you have a Paypal account.

Greasy Palm - Greasy Palm is a cashback site that rewards you for shopping online. You can install software on your computer that reminds you that you could earn money for shopping online whenever you go to a site that they reward you for. You don't even have to think about it! The cashback soon mounts up as well so you could get a cheque from this every month without even trying.

Cashcrate - A popular site with Americans, but anyone can join. You literally take advantage of the offers on there, which are usually great, and get paid for them! This is an awesome site that you should check out.

My Shopping Rewards - This is another cashback site. The rewards aren't quite as high as Greasy Palm but they do offer cashback on offers and online stores that Greasy Palm doesn't. As a result, it is worth signing up to both.

There are a few more out there that are good, but these are the best ones in terms of the rewards. Take a look for yourself and see how it works.

The Importance Of Choosing Credit Cards Carefully

Choosing credit cards carefully… what a mouthful! Regardless of how difficult it is to say though, I watched a program on TV tonight all about debt. I vaguely remember having seen it before but some of the people that were featured astounded me when it came to their attitudes towards credit cards. I found that a high number of people are not taking the time to choose the right credit cards to suit their needs. A good example of this was one lady that specifically chose her credit cards because of the pretty pictures on the front! Yes, you read that right! The pretty pictures! Given that fact, it was little wonder that she was £200,000, which is the equivalent of $400,000, in debt.

I do honestly think that having a credit card is a good insurance policy. Some may not agree with me, but what happens if an emergency comes up and you can’t get a hold of the money you need? Your car may break down, you may have an unexpected bill or you may find that you are stuck when you go on holiday. This applies to consumers credit cards and business credit cards

alike. You never know when something may come up, but then you have to deliberately take the time to choose the right credit cards for you so that you don’t have to deal with huge interest rates, ridiculous credit limits, faddy offers that hide the poor terms and conditions that are hidden underneath.

All of the above is especially true in the case of student credit cards. There could be nothing worse than being in debt that totals thousands and thousands of pounds when you are about to make your way in the world. I was lucky enough not to be in credit card debt when I left university and it was circumstance led me down the debt path but I am lucky to have credit cards that have relatively low rates of interest with reputable companies (for the most part). It is really important to read the terms and conditions and read reviews about the individual cards before you apply because choosing the wrong one could make a major difference to your future financial health.

Tips To Help You Save - No Thought Necessary!

I'm not quite sure how I have managed it over the past few months, especially with how tight our finances have been, but I've managed to start saving a decent amount of money. Now, all of the ways in which I am doing this are pretty simple and obvious. They don't yield a lot of money but some is better than nothing at all and it soon starts to build up. I'm planning on using the money to build up my emergency savings and then, when we are in a better financial position, maybe put it towards a house deposit.

Here are just some of the ways I have begun to build up the savings again:

1 - Have a change jar. Too many people do not have one of these but, believe me, it soon mounts up. I save 1p, 2p, 5p and 10p pieces because they are all my purse is ever filled with. We tend to spend the larger coins but not the smaller ones (in amounts of course) so they go in a jar and are counted for full bags at the end of each month. Obviously the currency would change depending on where you are, but the principle is a good one nevertheless.

2 - Splitting anything I get from selling - I have put stuff on eBay and Amazon in recent months because I've begun to clear the clutter away, and believe me, I have a lot of clutter. Instead of using it all to pay off debts though, I've been splitting it in half so half goes into the savings and half goes towards the debts. This is one of the main reasons why I've been able to put a regular amount in the savings.

3 - Spare change - I've opened an account that automatically transfers any loose change into a savings account at the end of every day. If I've paid a bill or used my debt card, the spare change is put into a savings account for me. This soon adds up as well. Lloyds TSB do it in the UK, although I don't know any banks that offer it elsewhere.

All of the above options are worth looking into, or maybe you could come up with some and let me know about them. I'm always interested in various ways of saving money so drop me a line if you do!

Are Credit Card Comparison Sites All That?

Credit card comparison sites are extremely common at the moment. If you happen to tap a search for "credit card comparison" or "financial products" into Google, for example, then the likelihood is that the first page of results would all feature comparison sites, with maybe one or two financial provider sites thrown in for good measure! Now, this applies to a lot of financial searches and not just those for the keywords above, but the point is that comparing the available credit cards has never been easier... but is that a good thing or not?

My honest answer would be no in the majority of cases. There are a few good comparison sites out there that do ask you what you are looking for and bring the best results to suit your wants, needs and circumstances to the fore, but it has to be said that the majority don't. Instead, they push the most popular cards, or their most influential partners in some circumstances. When you are browsing for the best credit cards options for you then this is exactly not what you need. It is, however, a sure fire way to run up debts in next to no time.

Everyone else may wax lyrical about how great comparison sites are, all credit cards comparison sites, but I will not do that. There are a handful that are brilliant but the rest suck, to be perfectly honest! Make sure that you find a good credit card comparison site if you do want to find the best deals because a little further down the road you will be glad that you did!

Balance Transfer Credit Cards - Good Or Bad?

Interest free and balance transfer credit cards garner a lot of interest for a huge number of reasons today, but none as big as the fact that more and more individuals like you and me are looking for a debt solution that is a cheap as possible. They believe that balance transfer credit cards are the answer. Whilst they may help you to ake your debt stats look better temporarily, balance transfer cards are not always all they seem.

For example, those cards offer a fixed time period in which no interest is added onto the balance, but terms and conditions can jeopardise this if you miss payments. If you are even a day late with the monthly payment once then the provider will apply interest to the balance and recant the deal.

Another fact is that your interest free balance transfer only applies to balance transfers that are completed within the first three months, although this does vary from provider to provider. after a certain time frame.

If you believe that you cannot pay the amount you owe on the card in full before the end of the interest free period expires then you should look for an alternative solution, like a loan, because the regular interest rate is often higher than it would be on non-balance transfer cards with offers. After all, your financial situation is a long term issue and not a short term one so you do have to look a little into the future. If you plan ahead, you stand less chance of going a little off your chosen financial path

The Global Trend Of The Payday Loan

I’ve been looking through an awful lot of blogs in recent weeks to try and get a few ideas, hints and tips under my belt that could actually help me reduce my debt that little bit quicker. Of course, I found plenty, but I also had a quick look at some of the links as well and found a number that redirected to a payday loans website. I have to say that I’d only heard of the payday loan before but had never really looked into it. Well, I got curious and took a closer look…

For those of you that do not know what a payday loan is, it is a very short-term loan that is designed to tide you over from payday to payday if your monthly budget falls short for whatever reason. I’ve had that plenty of times because something always happens (usually something breaking that has to be replaced) when I do not have the money to fix it! There are lenders on the high street and on the Internet that will give you a cash advance almost instantly without a credit check but you have to pay it back the next time you are paid.

I have to say that I think a payday loan may well have helped me to stay out of debt the first time I had to borrow money. Of course, this is not a certainty and what happened would have happened anyway, but it is so easy to put items on a credit card and write out a reminder to yourself pay the balance in full. Something else always came up so I never did pay it off and the debt just kept growing and growing. With the payday cash advance, you have to pay it back immediately when you get paid so you have no choice in the matter!

As far as I can tell, payday loans are available throughout the world. I found a number of sites in the UK as well as in the United States. The one thing I did notice is that the fees are relatively high for this kind of service, but then there is no money to be made on interest payments in the long term I suppose. However, some providers do seem to have lower fees than others so it is worth looking around. I don’t have any need for one at the moment so I haven’t compared them all, but I can see why so many people do.