Having a foot in both the Indian and American worlds recently has given me what I think is a rather distinct perspective on the progression of western economies. It is beyond debate that over the past few decades the western world has progressively become more capitalistic, and in so doing the overall wealth of citizens has increased. But in this experiment we call western democracy we have, over the last 5 years in particular, started to see the cracks in the economic and social philosophy that the western world has adopted. These cracks are no more clear that when examining our western economies against the backdrop of India, a rapidly progressing democracy currently in a sort of limbo between the eastern and western worlds.

I speak specifically of the explosion in recent years of consumer lending in India. Not 10 years ago it was virtually unheard of for an Indian to hold a credit card, or moreover to make a major purchase such as a home on credit. Today, roughly 10-20% of Indians regularly use credit cards, and millions more join those every year. The opportunity to obtain reliable credit has, no doubt, improved the lives of millions of Indians, just as it has westerners, by giving them the opportunity to buy a home, a car, or other necessary purchase that they might otherwise have never obtained. At the same time, however, it is very clear that India is but 10 years behind, and closing quickly, in its manifestations of the ugly side of consumer credit, debt.

Indians, as a general matter, have traditionally lived with a mentality of frugality. Through the absence of credit we have learned to only purchase what they are able to afford and know well the value of saving over years and years. There is no clearer example of this frugality than that the rickshaw driver begins just days after his daughter’s birth to save for her marriage decades later.

I fear that the important lessons through centuries of tradition and training may be washed away entirely by the rapid availability of credit in this economy. But more than a fear for the future economic health and traditions of India, I am forced to reflect on how little we heed those lessons in the western world today. Where are the fathers saving from the day their children are born for their children’s education? Where are the families collectively choosing to drive their jalopy one more year instead of spending money they don’t have on a shiny new car? These are no longer the values of the western world, and I think they are values we will shortly come to miss.

I hesitate to be too dramatic in a forum as public as a blog, but I believe we need to examine the costs our economy is having on ourselves. We need to begin to question whether economies such as India’s which we have condescendingly termed “growing” or “advancing”, presupposing that the western economy is the desired end, might not in fact hold some very valuable lessons for us. But rather than begin our reform in the common, yet largely unproductive way that social change is usually sought, through systemic criticism that quickly degrades into defeatism, I thought instead we might begin with the very practical step of taking action in our own lives. To that end, I’ve compiled a few resources by individuals who are rejecting our conventional notions about debt management and are instead proposing some simple, yet effective, means of retraining our minds to incorporate some of the economic values we may have forgotten.

Every once in a while here, we cover an opportunity for earning money that requires relatively little investment. This time, it’s something called domaining [Aviva Directory], which amounts to the buying and selling of web domains in a manner similar to stocks or real estate.

I’m not going to get into it much here, as I’ve got a more extensive discussion of domain monetizing techniques at Performancing, but I do quickly want to discuss some of the ways to finance domaining:

1. Cash.
2. Partnerships.
3. Credit cards.
4. Balance transfer arbitrage, which takes advantage of 0% APR credit card offers.

The latter is an advanced method and only recommended when you’ve picked up some experience in domaining, as well as have good credit. Speaking of which, don’t forget to check out Brett Bumeter’s extensive series on credit cards, debt, and negotiating better interest rates.

For our readers that are interested in getting the low down on debt and debt consolidation, we have reviewed a very thorough and site rich with information titled DebtConsolidationLowDown.com.

Web Fundamentals Pointing to Credibility

The site has a Google Page Rank of 4 out of 10 and has archives that date back to June of 2006. The categories are short and simple and to the point including

• credit cards,
• debt management,
• helpful tips,
• laws and regulations,
• student loans, and
• your rights.
• Note - I have listed these here as they are very full with a great deal of valuable information.

Areas of Concentration for Review

As I have a Masters in Laws myself, I was interested initially in the laws and regulations category. The articles under this category by my simple count number at least 27 articles.

The laws and regulations section covers an even mix of laws and regulations relating to both United Kingdom and the United States. I was impressed with the thoroughness of the topics especially as it related to debtor rights and some of the protections that debtors need to be aware of to ensure that they are not targeted or preyed upon by predatory banks and credit companies. Many of these topics I’m familiar with and felt that they were covered very thoroughly.

Debt management category

The site is devoted to debt consolidation. The debt management category is rife with lots of excellent details and topics covering many different areas. There were too many articles to count throughout the archives. I stopped counting shortly after 50 articles but I suspect it probably at least a hundred articles on various different debt management items. Its obvious that the writer for this site has invested a significant amount of time researching and writing for this site.

Stand Out Article

Getting to Black: 100 Tips to Cut Small Business Overhead and Reach Profitability

Leading things off recently, in February there was a great article offering a hundred tips to cut small business costs to reach profitability(mentioned above). This included everything from energy consumption to finances, focusing on improving Accounts Receivable, paying bills online, managing employee expenses, managing technology expenses or office design, taxes and more.

Plus, in addition to the detailed resource articles there are many great short articles and tips on the site as well. It offers up a large number of terrific carnival of debt management articles summarizing many great articles by other bloggers. In this regards this site is very generous to other bloggers, but does a very good job of mining for useful information and consolidating the resources into one location. This makes the site an excellent resource not only for people looking for information to improve their finances but also for students or educators looking for comprehensive resources. The site and in particular this category is very balanced between US and UK debt management perspectives.

Credit Card Category

Finally I turned to the credit category. The category is deep in articles with over 60 or 70 articles by my count. The articles are typically quick and to the point offering concentrated tips and methods for protecting yourself from predatory credit card companies and maximizing your ability to use your credit cards effectively.

Conclusion

DebtConsolidationLowDown.com provides a wealth of information to help people manage their finances or gather information for research and education purposes. The site covers topics very thoroughly and does not typically leave a person looking for additional details elsewhere. You will not go hungry looking for additional crumbs of information at this site, but if you absolutely need additional sources, the site provides them by the hundreds with its carnivals of other site and blog resources!

Disclosure: This is post is a paid review via ReviewMe. All care was taken to offer constructive criticism, but a positive angle is not a requirement of the review process.

This is our fourth part in a multiples part series covering some of the things that you should say and some of the things you should not say when you negotiate a lower interest rate on your credit card account. In this fourth section we are going to cover three things that You Definitely Should say.

Finally, we will conclude the series with one of the things that you should never say when you negotiate a lower credit card rate.

What you Should Say

1. Be specific in your request.

If the average rate in the country is $16% and you are paying 24%, ask them to cut your interest rate from 24% to the national average fixed rate of 16%.

Work towards the lowest fixed rate you can get.

4.  Ask for the Details

• If they accept your request or provide you an offer, ask for the specific details of their offer to include:

• interest rate
• fixed or variable
• payment cycle
• number of grace days
• late fee rate
• yearly membership fee

3. Ask them to Waive The Fees

• Once you have these details ask them to waive the membership fees and late fees. If they say no, ask them to waive them this year.

Part 1 in Series - The Right Words to Negotiate a Lower Credit Card Interest Rate

Part 2 in Series - Handy Info Helps Setup Successful Credit Card Negotiations

Part 3 in Series - Good Customers Do not Cry - Negotiating a Lower Credit Card Rate

Part 4 in Series - Three Final Things That You Should Say to Renegotiate Your Credit Card Rate

Here is our third installment reviewing some of the things you should and should not say when you are negotiating a lower credit card rate on the phone.

What you Should Say

remind them that you are a good customer

• When you call, you will want to explain to them how you have been a good customer by paying them all of this money in interest especially as it compares to your overall debt balance. If you have paid $10,000 in interest over the last 10 years, and have a $8,000 balance, the credit card company can rapidly see where they stand with you. Don’t kid yourself however, they have these metrics and many more readily available, this is primarily for your benefit and will motivate you to work for a better rate. Regardless you are their bread-and-butter you make the money every single minute of the day seven days a week 52 weeks the year. You are their cash cow they want to milk you. so they will listen to you.

What you Should not do or Say

never let them see you sweat

• Do not cry, plead or beg. If you do apologize, take a breath compose yourself and pick up in your script or response where you left off, or say good bye and call back again in a couple days and try again.

Part 1 in Series - The Right Words to Negotiate a Lower Credit Card Interest Rate.
Part 2 in Series - Handy Info Helps Setup Successful Credit Card Negotiations.
Part 3 in Series - Good Customers Do not Cry - Negotiating a Lower Credit Card Rate.

Payday ABC offers a website at PaydayLoansABC.com. It provides people with the ability to search out payday loan solutions.

Payday loans are loans provided to people based on a paycheck or paste and typically do not require a credit check. However, credit checks are sometimes used. Payday loans often charge very high rates of interest typically more than 20% sometimes as much as 30 or 40 or 50%. They should not be confused with the notorious rapid refund loans that come from companies such as H&R Block, which can add up to 400-500%. However due to the way that they can be compounded the charges for payday loan can add up very quickly.

Typically the loans are small in size you are from $100-$500. They can sometimes go higher than that up to a couple thousand dollars. Usually those types of loans aren’t offered unless it’s in conjunction with a income tax return.

Payday loans are generally used as a last resort often times utilized by people that are in desperate need of cash immediately or on the verge of bankruptcy. People that do not have bank accounts also utilize check cashing services and by extension will sometimes in essence get their checks cashed early. This usually happens when unexpected expenses come up throughout the month.

Payday Loans ABC provides access to two different loan networks. One is the Cash Advance Network, which is an entirely separate site.

The second network is the Extra Payday.com Network extra payday.com offers cash advances up to $1500 while the cash advance network is up to $1000.

There is also a state directory that can be utilized to find payday loan services.

All in all the site provides access to networks that can enable a customer to find a loan service. Payday loans are a tool, and it is up to the borrower to be very careful with that tool as it is their credit and their finances on the line.

Disclosure: This is post is a paid review via ReviewMe. All care was taken to offer constructive criticism, but a positive angle is not a requirement of the review process.

Last week we kicked off a series covering the of negotiating a better credit card rate. This week we continue that series with our second installment.

We have about two to three more installments to go in this series and we’re going to continue to mix it up covering some of the “What you should say” and some of the “What you should not say” scenarios.

What you Should Say

Have All The information at your fingertips

• Have your computer on their web page, and on their competitors web pages, opened to their current offers and plans and their competitors.
• Have copies of any paper offers where you can see them.

Tell them About the Better Offers You Are Looking At

• Tell them you are looking at better offers and describe them with full details including rates and other fees. Then ask them if they can provide a better rate than the three offers you have described.

What you Should not do or Say

Don’t Close the Account

• If you do get angry, do not make a rash decision to close the account.

Humbly Apologize to Save Yourself Money

• Apologize for being angry but tell them that you think they are being unreasonable and that you will take some additional time to make arrangements with their competitor.

Part 1 in Series - The Right Words to Negotiate a Lower Credit Card Interest Rate.

Part 2 in Series - Handy Info Helps Setup Successful Credit Card Negotiations.

I read an interesting article the other day describing some basic strategies for negotiating a lower credit card rate. I have had a significant amount of experience in the area and intended to write about it and got side tracked. Then today I saw a new article from the same site is starting a series on preparing for the negotiation.

So I decided to parallel that series and cover some of the Do’s and Don’ts of that Negotiation. There are some things that you should say and there are some things that you should never say or at least things you shouldn’t say without consulting with your attorney!

So for the next few days I will share a few tips of what to say and what not to say.

What you Should Say

Ask Them for a Lower Rate

Simply ask them if they will lower your rates. You should be prepared for more to say more, but sometimes this is a great starting point for the conversation. You should never forget to ask them. Nor should you avoid asking them. Ask the question and require the credit card representative to give you an answer.

Stick to the Script

When you call to negotiate a lower credit card rate, you should have a script to follow to cover all your points correctly. Make sure you Stick to your script when you call. If they interrupt, ask them to let you finish your request and continue. Describe three examples of better rates you have received in the mail or found online or have already been approved by your other credit card company.

What you Should not do or Say

1. Do not get angry with the credit card company representative no matter what.
2. Never curse at the representative or their supervisors.

We will have more tips on this subject over the next few days, so please check back or consider subscribing to the World Wealth View.

I have been using Yahoo! Bill Pay for almost 10 years.  I do not recall the exact year I started using the service but it was sometime between 1996 and 1998.  The service is actually run on CheckFree technology, Yahoo! just provides an additional access option to Yahoo members.

CheckFree was one of the early entrants into the Electronic Bill Pay(EPB) services.  Over the years I have tried to drop my Yahoo! Bill Pay service twice.  The problem is that I could never find any service that was better through my existing banking options at those times.

Finding and establishing a good Bill Pay Service can only be accomplished if the service functions well with your current bank or credit union.  This assumes that you do not want to change banks, just to find a better payment solution.  In 2001, I considered moving away from Bill Pay to try something new.  I had experienced a few problems, where payments I had entered just disappeared into the system, which is not easy to explain to your creditors. 

Computer glitches have long been a source for excuses to customers but this is not a two way street and banks do not allow customers to get away with a computer error excuse themselves!

In 2001 I established a new account with a credit union run by my new employer at the time.  They offered a free bill pay service. 

Yahoo Bill Pay runs at about $4.95 a month plus per transaction charges if you do more than a certain number of payments per month.  My average bill has been about $6.95 for close to 10 years now.  At the time I figured Free was cheaper than $6.95 a month and started to use the new service.

You Don’t Get What you Don’t pay for

The new service unfortunately did not work as well as Yahoo Bill Pay.  Instead of getting payments to creditors by the date promised, the new service would hold my payments until the credit union had accumulated a batch of transactions from all customers to process.  So if I had a bill to be paid in 5 days, and I entered it to be paid by day 5, it might not get paid.  If the bank’s batch minimum was say 100 payments and my payment was number 1, I would have to wait for 99 more payments to fill up the batch until the credit union started to process the payment, which might happen in an hour, a day or a week.

My creditors definitely did not understand this and neither did I so I dropped this ‘Free’ Payment service and shortly there after my account with the credit union.

Today, I find myself in a similar position.  Yahoo Bill Pay has no customer service.  I do not mean that it is bad, I mean that it does not exist.  The service has been down for 3 days, and my bills, while not late, are not getting paid.  The last thing I want to do is dig my check book out of my safe and dust it off to start writing checks.

So I am in the process of establishing a new Bill Payment service with my current bank.

Forewarned is Forewarned

This time I am prepared for the probability that the new service will not function like Bill Pay.  Right away I see that the new service can pay my credit card bills in 2 days as opposed to Yahoo Bill Pay’s 4 day window.  However, for smaller bills like my student loans or cable company, there is no 2 day transfer.  They dump the transaction into a que for potential electronic payment and if that fails they will mail a check to be there in about 7-10 days. 

This is another free service, so I’m not getting what I’m not paying for again, however, knowing about the potential problems might make things a little easier to cope with  . . . .

This Time!

Balance transfer arbitrage is a relatively new technique for making with 0% APR balance transfer credit cards. The general idea is that you get a card with, say, a $5,000 balance transfer, receive the transfer cheque, then deposit that into an interest- bearing liquid investment. If the 0% APR term is good for 12 months, then you cash in your investment before that time and pay off the credit line early.

Balance transfer arbitrage also works if the balance transfer has a low interest rate and your liquid investment interest rate is greater. If you are interested in learning more, Your Credit Advisor has an article on making money with balance transfers.