Category — Blogroll

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. [Read more →]

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.

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. [Read more →]

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. [Read more →]

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. [Read more →]

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. [Read more →]

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.

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. [Read more →]

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. [Read more →]

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.