The Raging Tech

Shop For a New Credit Card Online

There are lots of people who play the credit card game - using it to their benefit and not just their downfall. A lot of people are firm believers in not using credit at all, except for maybe a house or student loans. It is a smart idea to save up cash to buy the things you want, but what about the things you need?

I’ve had lots of situations in my life where maybe I blew out a tire or had to pay for something for school, or needed emergency gas money to get home to my family for a funeral or something similar. Sometimes you run into these unexpected situations, and even the most savvy of people who have savings accounts and emergency funds may find that they don’t have enough when the need arises.

If you’re responsible and don’t abuse credit cards, you might find that you can improve on your current interest rate just by calling your credit card company and asking for it. If they won’t do it, call up another company and tell them what you’ve got and what you’d like to be offered. Once you have the offer, you could either accept it and do a balance transfer (many banks do this with a 0% interest rate for 12 months) or take the offer and call your company back and use it as leverage.

Whether you’re new to credit cards or just looking for a lower interest rates, or a rewards card, or just a different bank to deal with, you can comparison shop online by reading up on credit card reviews and find the one that best fits your finances. If you travel a lot, you might want an airline rewards card. Or if you talk on the phone a lot, you might want one that gives you free long distance minutes.

Be responsible, don’t buy things you don’t need on credit, and pay off balances as early and as soon as you can without making yourself stressed out.

More on Loans and Finance

I’ve written previously about my experiences with credit cards and the like, but one facet of personal finance I have yet to experience is getting a mortgage loan. One thing that bothers me about mortgage loans is that the entire loan is centered around the house you’re buying.

Basically you either pay them back, or they take your house. The collateral for this particular loan, is the thing you’re buying with the loan. A house actually costs so much that you really couldn’t put something up against it for collateral, besides another house.

However, I can remember several times when I was a kid and my mom and dad would tell us they were getting the house appraised to see if they could easily refinance their credit cards and other debt and consolidate at a lower interest rate with a new mortgage. They always seemed optimistic about it, so I never really worried.

Now I understand things like interest rates and principle amounts and consolidation.

It still doesn’t scare me. It’s just a huge amount of debt to think about - but it doesn’t seem feasible to purchase a house at my age with just saved up money.

Merchants that Accept Credit Cards Access Venture Capital

Entrepreneurs, if you’re planning your new business ideas and you’re now at the venture capital stage - you’re probably setting up meetings and planning to wine and dine some potential investors. But did you know you may have an alternative to conventional start-up capital?

Instead of trying to repay a bank loan on a monthly basis, or repeatedly promising relatives that they’ll see their cut soon, Merit Capital Advance will allow small business owners and entrepreneurs the ability to repay a capital advance without the restrictions of a repayment schedule.

If you accept Visa and Mastercard, repayments are made only when you get paid by the customer. A Small Business Capital Advance is a smart way to get some start-up funding if you plan on doing sales and accepting credit cards.

Retire Early with High-Yield Investments

If you’re a bright-eyed young entrepreneur like me, one of your big dreams is to retire early. No one wants to work hard their entire lives. I’m not counting those people who continue to work part-time after retirement just to have something to do. And you certainly don’t want to retire with nothing but what’s left of social security to rely on.

The smart thing to do is, when you can, take low-risk high-yield investments. One of the ways to do this is to use a legitimate investment firm to do trust deed investing. Basically, you’re investing in a mortgage brokerage firm like Diamond Bay and helping people from losing their assets to bankruptcy. On these high-yield investments, you can probably expect to make as much as 12% annual return on that investment.

Things From TV: Extreme Makeover Window Coverings

Now, I haven’t really watched too many of these home makeover shows - I think the last one I really watched much at all was “Trading Spaces” on TLC where the couples redecorated or renovated their neighbor’s or friend’s houses.

However, these types of shows are always a blast. Just yesterday I kept thinking that one day when I am able to own my own home, I’d love to do cool projects to it or design it from scratch. I really dig modern architecture, home fixtures, and cool furniture.

I found the company that provides the show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” with window coverings online. It’s a company called Select Blinds, and they have some really nice window treatments.

It’s also really nice that they’re able to help those families that get selected on the show. They have all styles of blinds (my favorite so far are the wooden blinds) and shades, at really decent prices. I really like the wooden shades, so be sure and check those out if you’re looking to give your house an “extreme makeover.”

Buying a car in the UK? Check Out NetCars

Again, keeping a global perspective on who might be out there reading my blog, I’ve come across a pretty neat UK automotive website, NetCars.co.uk. Their site is pretty comprehensive, including the ability to read reviews on cars, check values, find cars for sale, a place to sell my car, and even a blogs area where visitors can contribute on any motoring topic they have expertise on.

Also, once you find a car you’re interested in, they have information on obtaining car loans and other automotive financing. Once you’ve purchased your car, they can even help you obtain car insurance! This website really is your one-stop shop for everything car related in the United Kingdom.

My favorite feature is the AutoCheck page, where you can see whether or not the car you’re interested in has outstanding finance issues, has been written-off or reported stolen, been clocked, and more data. It reminds me of CarFAX over here in the states. I would never buy a car again without checking out it’s history, so this feature is really important to me.

I don’t live in the UK, but this is definitely where I would go if I needed to buy used cars overseas. For US readers, check out Edmunds or Autotrader for the latest car buying information.

Credit Card Joe: Don’t Spend Any More!

Here’s the number one problem I think most people have with credit: they’re not responsible (I’m guilty here). You have available to you a line of credit either via credit card or just a bank loan, and you have to keep in mind that money is not really yours. Again, here I’m guilty.

You have to make use of the credit for it’s original intent, and then immediately do something like cut up the card or put a spending limit on the credit line just barely past what you needed it for originally. You don’t want to borrow more than you need, and you don’t want to spend forever paying it off.

Another credit guffaw people are guilty of is paying off their credit card or loan, and then going “Hey! I’ve got credit available! I could go buy that X-box 360 I’ve been eying all this time!” and then go run the credit card up again.

Here’s my current debt-ending process I’m trying out. I read about it on Lifehacker.org - it’s called the “Snowball Effect” or some such nonsense. You pay the most on the smallest debts you have, and then pay minimums on everything else. Once you have the small debt paid off, you move on to the next smallest paying what you can afford to, and pay minimums on everything else. This only seems to work if you make enough to pay more than all minimums anyway, which I barely am. If you’re stretched too tightly or are over-stretched on paying minimums, you might consider going to your bank or an online site and getting a debt consolidation loan.

Some of the extra money I’ve started earning online is going to help me out - I might get my car paid off first and that should free up $250 every month to pay on other things, like my student loans or credit cards. The sooner I’m debt free, the sooner I’ll have one less thing to worry about!