Journal of Finance and Accounting – TanasiJournal

1. Credit card companies can change almost all of the terms of the credit card by giving just 15 days notice.

We get used to credit card companies adjusting their lending rate by 1/4% as interest rates fluctuate but did you know they can alter any of the terms for any reason. For example they can increase the late payment fee and they can increase the interest rate without the need to justify it. If you are late or miss just one payment the low rate you are currently being charged can double or even treble almost overnight.

2. Credit card companies can increase the cost of a purchase months after you bought it.

If you purchased a widescreen plasma TV 3 months ago, using a card which at the time was costing 9.9% apr, and you are late with just one payment, the credit card company can charge you a late payment fee, say $40, and increase the interest rate to 29.9% apr, or even more, and there is nothing you can do about it.

They can, in effect, increase the cost of your TV months, or possibly even years after you purchased it. The TV retailer wouldn’t be allowed to do this but your credit card company can.

3. Discount offers are only good if you keep up all your payments.

Interest free balance transfers and initial periods can dissapear for any minor omission. Failure to keep to all the terms of a card will result in special terms being withdrawn and possible penalty interest being applied. If you have interest free purchases and balance transfers make sure you keep up the payments.

4. It’s not just your card payments you have to keep up.

If you miss a payment on your mortgage, or your car or any other financial payment, your credit card companies can re-assess your credit score and increase your interest rate accordingly.

If you therefore miss a loan payment on your boat or car, but still pay the payments due on your cards, you can find that your credit card interest charges jump to 2 or 3 times the original rate.

5. Credit card companies are today making record profits from you.

If you don’t pay your cards in full each month credit card companies make the majority of their profits from you and a substantial portion of that is in the additional charges they levy.

It makes little or no sense to keep money in the bank earning 5% maximum and pay 29.9% or 19.9% or even 9.9% on your cards. Pay off the card and use the card for emergencies rather than the savings. Without the card payments you will be able to rapidly replace the savings.

Without your knowing credit card companies can hold you hostage at the very time you may really need financial assistance. Don’t allow credit card companies the continuing opportunity to make record profits at your expense, and at the same time the opportunity to benefit from any misfortune.

If you can pay the balance off withing 3 to 6 months do so otherwise consider some form of consolidation loan to remove the noose credit card companies have around your neck.

We’ve been hearing how great automated Forex Trading system is.  There are numerous benefits using it.  But is it all about the good things?  There are two sides in a coin, so what is the other side of an automated Forex trading system?

Some traders and investors would say that intuition means a lot when trading.  Some would say that it played a major role when they are clinching a deal or when winning in a trade.  But some traders would say that intuition does not play a role.  Some would say that it works for them, while others would contest that. But given the fact that some people rely on intuition to get good trades, an automated system would not be able to help them.  Since programs and computers do not rely on intuition at all.

Another common thing that traders who use an automated Forex trading system is make their computers and programs take their place in trading.  Actually, this is a great idea.  Having a machine to do your trade for you making you deal with other matters.  But this turns into a disadvantage especially when you let the program and computer do ALL the work.

It is very easy to be comfortable with this setup, relying with your software too much.  Actually, systems could make mistakes too.  You would also need to recognize opportunities and at the same time do on-hand trading.

Another downside of an automated Forex trading system is making sure that your computer is running all the time and you have a dedicated server to run your automated trading. This is to make sure that your expert advisors or EA would work with your home and work computer.

There would be times when you would encounter a chart pattern or wave analysis which is very hard to accomplish.  So you would have to get some professional people to interpret your charts for you and decode some extremely hard patterns.

Another truth that you would have to face is that not all expert advisors handle errors and other unexpected things easily.  So you would need to brace yourself against anything that could disappoint you.  Not everything is perfect.  So, you would to be prepared to face disappointments and handle them.  This is why you would still need knowledge in manual Forex trading.

Nothing is perfect, even computers and programs still make mistakes and can find it difficult to deal with unexpected and crucial points in trading.  Traders and investors prefer to use both automated and manual trading.  They would use automated trading system if they find manual trading difficult.  While, simple systems like simple chart patterns are left to be done manually.

Aside from all of these, another downside is that automated Forex trading is too popular over the internet.  This can either be good or bad.  The good thing is that getting an automated system is easy and at the tips of your fingers.  While the bad thing is that too much popularity can cause numerous websites to come up with scams and cheating over the internee.

There are a lot of automated Forex trading systems for sale in the internet.  They claim that their products are the best among the systems, but they fail to meet the standards.  That it why, people are advised to check on the comments of customers and have a money-back guarantee for the purchase.

Are you sick of paying interest on your monthly student loans with no end in sight? Afraid of cash-flow problems that may prevent you from paying your student loans on time? I know I was and there is a solution to this problem. It is called student loan consolidation.

What is Student Loan Consolidation?

Student loan consolidation simply means consolidating all your student loans into a single loan with a monthly payment plan. Effectively, all your previous student loans are written off and a new student loan is created which you have to pay off monthly.

Benefits of Student Loan Consolidation

Here are some of the benefits of student loan consolidation

1. Lower monthly payments

By consolidating all your student loans into one loan, you only need to pay off one loan monthly instead of several student loans monthly. Thus, your monthly payment is lower

2. Pay only one loan monthly instead of several student loans monthly

It is a lot easier if you have to manage only one student loan instead of several student loans with different payment deadlines. Also, sometimes with many student loans, you may ended up forgetting to pay one student loan.

3. Low, fixed interest rate

By consolidating your student loans, you will be able to take advantages of low, fixed interest rates. Currently, by law, student loan consolidation rates cannot exceed 8.25%. Furthermore, national interest rates are at a 40-year low therefore this is a good time to get one.

4. No credit card check or processing fees

No credit card check is required during the application of a student loan consolidation. The payment plans and terms are usually quite flexible in that they can customize it according to your financial standing.

5. Make monthly student loan payment electronically

While it is not necessary to make payment electronically, most lenders will knock 0.25% off your student loan rates if you make payment electronically. Also, using direct debit from your bank account will prevent you from forgetting to make a payment.

Sometimes it can get quite confusing as to the qualification of applying for a student loan consolidation. The official stand from the government is that students who are still in their grace period or who are still studying in school may qualify for government student loan consolidation

The government student loan consolidation nowadays are quite competitive compared to private sector, therefore I would recommend going for a government student loan consolidation. With so many benefits of getting a student loan consolidation, it is quite obvious to save money in the long run is to get one.