Beating The Rica

Archive for December, 2011

In today’s economy everyone is looking for ways to save money, and one of the easiest ways to get a little extra money is to sign up for cash back program with companies that you already use.

If you have a credit card, check with the company if they have a cash back card. The best cards are ones that mail you a check and do not lock you into using your cash back at a particular retailer. The Sam’s Club Discover cash back can only be cashed and used at a Sam’s Club. Instead Citibank’s Cash Returns card gives you 1 percent for every purchase plus a 20 percent bonus for the first year of the card. In addition if you shop through Citibank preferred retailer network you can receive more cash back. Once you hit a fifty dollar threshold Citibank will send you your fifty dollar check up to 300 dollars per year per card. You and your spouse can apply for a card individually and get 600 dollars per year.

If you save money via a 529 plan for college expenses many of these plans allow you to add additional money via Upromise. Upromise has various ways for you to receive these cash back incentives

- You can sign for a Upromise branded credit card which adds a percentage of your total amount charged to your 529 plan.

- You can register your current cards and when you dine out, shop online, or get gas Upromise will add a percentage ranging from 1 to 8 percent of your purchase price to your account.

- Missouri’s 529 plan is currently offering 25 dollars if you sign up for Upromise

An additional benefit is that money added to your states 529 plan is usually tax deferred and many states allow you to claim a tax deduction for the money you added to your account.

A little research can yield a lot of cash back benefits from companies that you already use. If you use the bonus offers that many companies offer you can goose your return to 2 percent or more of the total money that you spend. Who can’t use a little extra money these days?

I just received this email asking for the definition between prepaid and secured.

I was wondering if a secured credit card is distinguishable from a regular credit card. I have currently been using a prepaid card but several hotels and car rental agencies have recently turned me down when they have recognized the prepaid card. I only really want the credit card for hotel and car rental use, as well as rebuilding my credit.

My answer:

PREPAID CARD DEFINITION


Canadian Prepaid CCs are not technically credit cards. They don’t offer you any credit, and you didn’t have to apply for credit in order to get one. Also, the issuing company didn’t have to pull a credit bureau report from Equifax Canada or TransUnion Canada in order to see if you are credit worthy.

Prepaid cards are really glorified debit cards and they’re not necessarily attached to your bank account. They can have the Visa or MasterCard logo on them.

Here’s how they work… you deposit money into the card, say $500. You can then proceed to spend the money on the card until it’s all finished. It’s kind of like a unsecured credit card in reverse.

There is no credit limit, and you have to “refill” the card again in order to use it again.

The nice thing about a prepaid credit card is that you’ll never go into debt using it.

HOW HOTEL “TRANSACTION HOLDS” WORK
NOTE: This example uses a credit card, not debit / prepaid card

To answer the question on the email as to why hotels don’t accept a prepaid credit card… Hotels and restaurants will usually preapprove a credit card to see if it’s got an adequate credit line available before they will take the card.

Example: You want to stay for 2 nights at a $100 per night hotel. 100 x 2 = $200 Taxes x15% = $15

I called a few hotels and they said that they would put a 2 night hold on the credit card for $150.00 per night. Total $300. This nightly hold allows for any overages such as meals charged to the room or movies watched.

I called my credit card company and asked them what happens when a hotel or restaurant puts a “hold transaction” on your credit card account.

Let’s say you had $500.00 available on your CC at the time your were booking the hotel. They would put a temporary hold of $300 on your credit card. Your credit available limit is reduced by that $300 to only $200.


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I believe that hotels cannot put a hold on prepaid credit cards. In the same example: if you had a $500 limit on your prepaid credit card, and tried to book the same hotel for $300, you would still be able to spend that $300 as there was no hold on those funds. There is no way for the hotel to secure those funds for themselves.

CORRECTION: I’VE BEEN INTERCHANGING THE TERMINOLOGY “PREPAID CREDIT CARDS WITH SECURED CREDIT CARDS”


I just wanted to point out that I’ve been interchanging the terminology prepaid credit cards with secured credit cards. While we do offer a Capital One secured credit card on this site, it’s not the same as a prepaid credit card.

SECURED CREDIT CARD DEFINITION


A secured CC is a real credit card where you get a real line of credit. This line of credit is secured by a cash amount that is held by the creditor until the end of the credit cards agreement.

Example: The HomeTrust Visa card has a credit limit of $1000. This card requires that you put a deposit of $1000 as security for that limit.

Once that’s in place, you use the $1,000 limit just like a credit card. Use it up, pay it off, pay interest on the balance etc. The credit limit stays in place even though you’ve used it up.

Because a secured credit card is a real credit card, it reports like a real credit card to Equifax Canada and TransUnion Canada. Thus it helps you to rebuild your credit score with the credit bureaus.

A person having a bad credit score can undergo several difficulties in getting the bank loans. This is because almost all lenders would want a good credit score. There are many lenders who would agree to give the loans only if the credit score is close to 650. This is why many people have a difficulty in getting the loans from the lenders. There are many solutions for such people. This article will give a detailed explanation on the solutions available to get bank loans for people with bad credit.

How much money do you need?

Before you get the loans from any lender, you must make sure that you decide the amount of money you need. Since bad credit loans will have a high rate of interest you should make sure that you are not getting an amount which is higher than what is required. This will prevent losing money in the form of interest. If the money needed is in the range of $100 to $1500, you can get the payday loans. This is because these loans are much easier to get from the lenders. They will definitely be given by the lender if you have a job. The payday loan lenders would not want to check the credit score. They will be fully concerned on your income status and would not be concerned about the other things.

Getting the loans online

Rather than getting loans offline, you must try the online lenders. There are several lenders operating through the internet. So you must make sure to get the best lender who provides the loan at a low rate of interest. By selecting the lender at a low rate of interest, you will be able to save a lot of money in the long run.

Prepaid credit cards have been around for some time now but only recently have credit card issuers been promoting this product to the youth market. In the past couple of years many advertisements have emerged depicting a teen who has empowered himself by obtaining a prepaid MasterCard or Visa. We have also seen some of the prepaid credit cards feature images pop stars Usher and Hillary Duff. The line of marketing is clearly aimed at our youth, the question is will this make a positive or negative impact in their financial well being.

Plastic is the currency of the world we live in today. Without a credit card you are definitely going to feel the burn of being restricted in your spending. Do you want to rent a vehicle? Rent a movie? Almost anywhere you rent anything from now requires a credit card for the business owner’s security. Do you want to make purchases online? Although there are other options for payment online, credit cards are still the most widely accepted form of currency by far.

Originally Prepaid credit cards were designed for adults who could not obtain a traditional credit card due to having either no or poor credit history. Some of the cards actually have credit rebuilding features that report to the credit bureaus regularly. These same cards can be a valuable asset to our youth. Chances are our children will never use a checkbook so why not teach them how to use and manage a credit card from the beginning.

They are like credit cards wrapped in a life preserver. Your teen cannot damage their credit history with a prepaid credit card. The credit limit on the card is determined by the amount of money they have already loaded onto the card from their bank account. This gives them then chance to learn how a credit card it truly supposed to be used instead of falling into the trap many adults do, spending money that they don’t have.

The issue of “should my teenager have their own credit card” can only be answered by those teens’ parents. If you have decided that you want your teen to have a credit card take the following into consideration. Holding a credit card will give your teen more freedom. Review several credit card applications with your son or daughter. Ensure the credit card that you apply for has safety features such as allowing you to monitor spending. Always read the terms and conditions in the credit card application carefully.

The insurance industry is one of the most profitable and investors, not surprisingly, want to see those dividends continue. This is not to suggest the insurers were ever charitable in their intentions. Insurance has always been a business in the real sense of the word. The result is the wording of the policies allows the claims adjusters some wriggle room when it comes to deciding which claims to honor. In another article on this site, we note the insurers have grown increasingly reluctant to cover flooding. Most of the coastal areas where high tides combined with strong winds can overcome sea defenses, and all areas formally designated flood plains, are now no-go for private insurers. Yet, you will still see standard terms for wind and water damage. This creates the impression you have some protection while allowing the insurers to argue they are not liable at all should you claim or only liable for a small percentage of your losses.

This is all smoke-and-mirrors. You can see a listing of perils covered which will include wind damage but, when you look at the clause on deductibles, you will probably find there’s a mandatory hurricane deduction. Unlike the auto insurance policies, this is not a fixed amount. These deductibles are a percentage of the value of your home and some insurers pitch the deductible up to 5% of your home’s value, e.g. $15,000 if your value is $300,000. For homeowners to have to find 5% as a lump sum to trigger the payment of the rest of the claim can be a major financial strain.

Now let’s comes to the theme of this article. One of the reasons why the claims process can slow down to a snail’s pace is disagreements over the difference between wind damage and water damage. The majority of policies exclude or restrict water damage. So, as an example, suppose a strong gust of wind removes the roof from your home. That’s clearly wind damage and the cost of rebuilding will usually be covered. Why “usually”? When the wind exposes the timber frame of your home, it can get wet and this can cause the frame to warp. Now the question is whether replacing the frame is responding to the damage by the wind or damage caused by the subsequent rain. You argue that the timber would not have gotten wet had the roof not blown off, so the main cause is the wind. The insurer argues the wind did not cause the timber to twist out of shape. That was the rain.

It would be good if all such arguments could be quickly resolved but, after Katrina, insurers are more defensive faced with large weather events. Worse, they have also been reducing the number of claims adjusters and everything now takes longer. This puts a heavy burden on home insurance policyholders. You’re often forced to take emergency measures to protect your property, e.g. when the roof blows off. Keep a detailed photographic record to show the before and after situation, keep all the invoices and bills for the materials and labor, and make sure you keep a constant stream of updating messages going to the home insurancecompany. It must always have the chance to monitor this work.

Male pattern hair loss is the type of problem that doesn’t necessarily affect a person’s health in a negative way but certainly decreases self esteem and can cause psychological issues. Because this issue affect the part of the body that plays an important role in social display a lot of patients can experience changes in their social activity, in most severe cases limiting their activity due to their alleged unattractiveness. If you are worried about your hair and don’t want to deal with hair loss problems you have probably taking some measures to prevent the development of the problem. Yet, there are certain things you have to know about hair loss prevention that will really help you set your priorities straight. First, let’s look at some of the most common factors that are claimed to be the cause for hair loss and how can you target them to prevent the issue.

Hair loss is often claimed to be caused by malnutrition of hair, especially when shampoo producers want to make you buy their new products. Every shampoo out there is claimed to contain vitamins and minerals that help your hair grow better and stronger. Sure, proper hair nutrition is a must if you want to have good hair. But there are two things you have to understand about this aspect of hair health. First of all, hair malnutrition is rarely the cause of hair loss because if you don’t get all the proper vitamins and minerals in necessary condition hair loss will be the last problem on your mind since there will be more serious health conditions taking place. Sure, if you don’t get enough right vitamins your hair may become thinner and get into a slightly worse condition but it will be far from balding since you will have to sit on a vitamin-free diet to achieve such an effect. And secondly, all the substances we are discussing here should be consumed internally. All those balms and shampoos that have vitamins and minerals can’t give you any effect because these substances are not absorbed by hair and get washed off with water. Of course, that’s not a proposal to drink your shampoo! It’s just a suggestion that you will benefit more from taking vitamin supplements than using expensive “natural” shampoos.

What really causes hair loss in most men is hormonal imbalance. Sure, it’s a vague term that can be interpreted as change of any hormone level, which are dozens and affect nearly all aspects of human body functioning. However, when it comes to hair loss there’s a specific hormone to watch out for, called dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which is the product of testosterone conversion. It tends to accumulate in the body with time and that’s why most men start experiencing hair loss at a later stage of their lives. There’s a drug called Propecia that can help you lower the levels of DHT when they are too high. But until that happens you can monitor your hormone levels on a regular basis just to make sure that you won’t be needing Propecia anytime soon.