collecting-overdue-debt-a-course-of-action

Collecting Overdue Debt: A Course of Action

Writen by Jeremy Maddock

If you are a business owner, you will likely encounter overdue debt on a very routine basis. A huge number of customers - both individuals and other businesses - will inevitably forget, not bother, or refuse to pay their bills.

It’s easy enough to deal with the forgetful procrastinators with a couple of firmly worded overdue notices, but for those who still don’t pay, there is a time to turn things over the a debt collection agency.

When it becomes clear that a customer doesn’t intend to pay you of their own free will, turning things over to another party probably isn’t a bad idea. For example, customers that flatly deny owing you money, despite your records, are very difficult to deal with without help.

A customer making repeated, groundless claims and complaints for the sole reason of getting out of a payment, is another tell-tale sign that your business may have a problem on its hands. In cases like this, it is a good idea to send a final warning notice, attempting to create a fair repayment plan. If no action is taken by the other party, it is then time to seek help from professional debt collectors.

Another obvious sign of trouble is when a delinquent debtor changes their address or telephone number without notifying you or providing forwarding information. In cases like this, you should immediately get assistance from an agency that is willing to track down the customer and act upon the debt.

can-refinancing-a-loan-really-save-you-money

Can Refinancing A Loan Really Save You Money

Writen by Joseph Kenny

You have heard that refinancing a loan might be able to save you some money, but do you know how it could? This article will show you how you might be able to benefit by refinancing your mortgage, and showing you how you could end up saving some money - with a better deal.

If you have any thought at all that you wish your payments could be a little lower, then this article is for you. Many mortgages were made at a time when the economy was doing better than it is right now. So you may be one of those people who, because the economy was good, got a variable interest rate on your mortgage. It was good when you got it because it helped you get that house you wanted, but now you may be faced with a higher payment soon - in fact, possibly a much higher payment than you had before. Refinancing may provide you with a real good solution.

Combine Your Debt

If you have more than one form of debt, and are paying a hefty rate of interest on some of it, then refinancing will give you the opportunity to combine the debt, and get a better rate of interest. Combining them all together makes it so much easier to write one check, too.

Reduce Your Term Length

With many mortgages, the term length allows the lender to tack on to the loan a whole lot of extra interest. The longer the term length, the more interest you are paying. By reducing the term length, and combining your loans, you can pay more on the principal quicker, thus reducing the overall amount that you owe.

Get Better Interest Rates

Having more than one type of debt may mean that you have at least one of them with a higher rate of interest. By getting a loan when the interest rates are down, you can definitely save some money. Refinancing your debts, however, is only valuable to you if you can get a lower interest rate than you have now. If one or more of your debts have a lower rate than the one you are getting, keep them separate and enjoy the low rate, but bring down your overall debt interest where possible.

Get Smaller Payments

By refinancing your mortgage, you have opportunity to get a smaller loan, and this could give you smaller payments, too. You will want to make sure, however, that there is not any penalty for paying off the loan quicker than the term length of the loan. Take advantage of the smaller payments, as much as possible, and make larger than the minimum payments each month to be able to get out of debt as soon as possible. If you cannot pay more than you were before, at least pay as close as possible to the same amount - which will enable you to pay it all off sooner.

Get Some Extra Cash

By refinancing, you may also get a little extra money for one or more projects around the house, too. If money is tight, though, you may want to hold the extra projects until the debt is reduced some and you build up some equity in the new loan - if the project can wait.

uxc-president-to-us-utilities-buy-american

UxC President to U.S. Utilities: Buy American

Writen by James Finch

Summary: In the face of Asian competition and possible supply shocks to the uranium market, UxC president Jeff Combs urges U.S. utilities to “support the expansion of production in the United States.” He believes there’s a good chance for $50/pound uranium this year. “Any shock to supply could send prices much, much higher.”

StockInterview: How would you sum up the uranium market right now?

Jeff Combs: There’s a very tight supply/demand situation that exists now for deliveries over the next several years. If you were going out today to buy uranium for 2007, 2008, and 2009, there’s not that much available supply. The supply/demand balance is very tight, and I think that’s going to be reflected in prices continuing to rise for a while as utilities seek to fill demand for those delivery years. Since most contracting in uranium is done on a term basis, you’re always looking out several years. By the time you reach 2009, for example, you’re looking to fill needs in 2012 and beyond. By that time, supply might have responded sufficiently, or even “over-responded.” Of course, whether or not the supply/demand balance is tighter then depends on how nuclear power expansion is progressing at that point and what happens with respect to the HEU deal. But, in the meantime, production will have had more time to react to higher prices, and this could alleviate some of the supply/demand pressures.

StockInterview: How are escalating market-related contracts impacting the uranium price?

Jeff Combs: It’s pretty much a sellers’ market right now. You have escalating floor prices that are maybe not too much lower than the current spot price. If you have ceiling prices, they’ll be much higher than the current price, and those will also escalate. In some cases, you don’t even have ceiling prices. In rare cases, you don’t have either ceiling or floor prices. Most producers are looking to sign market-related contracts and not fix the price even on an escalated basis in the future, although they would want floor protection. To a large extent, the utilities don’t have too much choice in the matter except to wait and hope that the competitive landscape changes in the future. However, in many cases they need to procure uranium now and can’t afford to wait. Thus, they must accept what is being offered.

StockInterview: Do you continue to see a speculative frenzy in the market?

Jeff Combs: There’s still some speculative activity in the market, but I wouldn’t call it so much a frenzy. The importance of this speculative buying has been somewhat over-blown. Total hedge fund/investor volume to date is about 11 million pounds. This buying started towards the end of 2004. The bulk of it was during 2005, and it has continued into this year. It will be much less over the first part of this year versus the first part of 2005; about a half a million pounds so far this year versus 5.5 million pounds through May of 2005. There is probably too much emphasis put on the role of hedge funds or investment funds in the market. If you look at the market, the price - especially the long term contract prices - has been leading the spot price up. The speculators really aren’t involved in that part of the market.

Over the same time the hedge funds/investor funds were buying, you’ve probably had a third of a billion pounds transacted under long-term contracts. If you go forward several years from now, you see a very tight supply/demand situation in the market. If you wanted a pure base-escalated contract, the base price for this might be close to $50 today, a good bit higher than the spot price and about a third or so higher than the long-term price at the beginning of the year.

StockInterview: We’ve been led to believe the HEU deal with Russia will not be renewed. What is your feeling?

Jeff Combs: You need to consider how much things have changed from when the current HEU deal was signed. At that time, the Russian economy was struggling, as was Russia’s nuclear power program. Now Russia’s economy is much more robust, thanks to energy exports. Russia is experiencing a nuclear power renaissance of its own. From this perspective, I think it’s quite unlikely that the HEU deal will be renewed. When I say that, I’m referring to the deal between an agent acting for the Russian Government and an agent acting for the U.S. Government. I don’t think that necessarily means that there will not be any HEU blended down after the current deal is over, but that could be done for internal consumption in Russia or be used as supply for countries where Russia is exporting fuel for Russian-supplied reactors.

StockInterview: The trading volume on the spot uranium market has fallen off after what transpired in 2005.

Jeff Combs: The volume now is certainly less than what it was last year. Volume so far for the year is 6.3 million pounds on the spot market. If this rate were maintained, it would put volume close to 20 million pounds for the year. This would make it more of a typical market in terms of volume from the standpoint of recent history before 2005. Whether or not volume is higher than this depends a lot on the extent to which utilities that are out in the long term market, right now, are able to get offers to cover requirements in 2007, 2008, and 2009. If they’re not successful, they might come back into the spot market. That could boost spot buying somewhat later in the year. Also, some producers have been buying on the spot market. If this buying picks up, it could add to volume as well

StockInterview: Do you believe we’re going to see $50/pound uranium in the near term?

Jeff Combs: Oh yes, I think there’s a good chance that we’ll see $50 per pound uranium this year, more likely in terms of long term contracts. I think the highest prices may be reached within the next couple of years. I think that’s when supply will be the tightest. In our uranium market report, we develop three price scenarios - a base case, a high-price case, and a low-price case. Price spikes or overshoots its long-run equilibrium in all three scenarios. In the high case, which would be the most dramatic spike, I would say it would be somewhere in the $60 - $70 range. Price certainly could be higher than this if the wheels come off the wagon. I think you’re definitely looking at price going into the $50s. It’s not too difficult to see a scenario where price goes into the $60s. And then it would come down from there.

StockInterview: What goes up must come down?

Jeff Combs: I don’t think these higher prices are sustainable in the long term. You also have the situation now where utilities are going out to buy uranium, and they’re not finding what they want over the 2007-2009 period. It might be the case that some of these newer producers, or producers in the process of expanding production, really aren’t in a position to offer the supplies in those years. Ultimately, they will have the supply to offer in maybe 2009 or 2010. Since they’re not offering it right now, price can be pushed up a fair amount, setting up the possibility for a correction in a few years when more of these supplies become available to the market. In the short term, uranium supply and demand are very inelastic. This sets up the potential for an explosive response in price, as witnessed by the recent behavior in price. I have to admit we’ve had to adjust our price projections upwards on more than one occasion.

StockInterview: What would be on your checklist of “shocks to the market” or the “wheels coming off the wagon”?

Jeff Combs: What we’ve pointed out for a while is that you have the vast bulk of supply coming from a few major production centers and blended-down HEU. If you have a problem with any one of those, it can have a large impact on the market. Obviously, we’ve already had problems at Olympic Dam and McArthur River, and now Cigar Lake, even before it gets into production. If you have problems at any of these in the future, or at Rossing or Ranger, it’s going to impact the market. If you had some problem with the HEU deal between U.S. and Russia, it could have a devastating impact on the market. In the past, these problems have been caused by fire and floods, but other factors such as trade policies or the shortage of equipment could negatively impact supplies going forward.

StockInterview: But then why did the Cigar Lake delay seem to pass by unnoticed?

Jeff Combs: It hasn’t seemed to have gotten a lot reaction in the market. I think it depends on how people look at it. I’ve heard somebody say, “Well, it just means that it just takes 2.5 million pounds of production out of the market because it gets delayed 6 months.” Unless Cameco increases the rate at which it ramps up Cigar Lake, then it’s going to take more than 2.5 million pounds out of the market, because it’s not going to get to its desired production level until half a year later. Production will be lower in the intervening years, as well. The problem is that this delay in production is coming at a time when supplies are very tight in the market, the 2007-2009 timeframe. I think it could also impact the market by increasing the levels of inventories held because you really don’t know when the next flood or next problem is going to occur. Until production expands more, any shock to supply could send prices much, much higher.

StockInterview: What should U.S. utilities do to protect their supply channels in the face of possible market shocks and especially in light of the aggressive Asian appetite for uranium?

Jeff Combs: That’s a good question. I think that U.S. utilities should support the expansion of production in the United States, in addition to maintaining their supply channels to major uranium producing countries, or perhaps developing them in the case of Kazakhstan. I think it’s more of a case that U.S. utilities should look at what all their options are, try to stimulate additional supply options, and in the process promote domestic production. Right now the market is fairly concentrated. There are not a lot of suppliers. While foreign utilities haven’t been, to date, looking at the U.S. as a supply source, they also have a desire to promote supply diversity, and could look to the U.S. for supply in the future.

StockInterview: To be blunt, are U.S. utilities going to get caught “with their pants down,” at some point during this decade?

Jeff Combs: If you had some kind of supply interruption or shock as we were talking about before, certainly that would create problems, not just for U.S. utilities, but for any utilities that were uncovered or have contract payment terms that relate to the market price with no real ceiling price protection. If you have really aggressive nuclear expansion in China, if India is allowed to play in the market, and if Russia goes ahead with its reactor expansion program, this makes the chances of price getting out of control somewhat greater down the road. We’ve been warning of these issues for a while.

I clearly don’t think we’re out of the woods yet. When I say that we’re not out of the woods yet, I still believe that some utilities may be putting too much faith in current prices in that they believe that the now higher prices will take care of the problem of future supplies. While higher prices will certainly stimulate more production, I think that you must ask the question whether these prices are the antidote for the supply problem, or whether they are more a symptom of a severe deficit of supply that the market is facing. The answer to this probably determines how proactive utilities will be in securing future supplies. We wrote an editorial in 2003 that I think pretty well captured the state of the market at that time and the market environment we have seen since.

financing-a-business

Financing a Business

Writen by John Mussi

Financing a business can often be perilous if not approached with caution. Although bad management is commonly given as the reason businesses fail, inadequate or ill-timed financing comes a very close second. Whether you’re starting a business or expanding one, sufficient ready capital is essential. But it is not enough to simply have sufficient financing; knowledge and planning are required to manage it well. These qualities ensure that you will avoid common mistakes like securing the wrong type of financing, miscalculating the amount required, or underestimating the cost of borrowing money.

Before inquiring about financing, ask yourself the following:

Are you sure that you need more capital?

Can you better manage existing cash flow?

How do you define your need?

Do you need funding to expand?

Do you need funding as a cushion against risk?

How urgent is your need?

How great are your risks?

In what state of development is the business?

For what purposes will the capital be used?

What is the state of your industry?

Is your business seasonal?

How strong is your management team?

How does your need for financing fit in with your business plan?

If you don’t have a business plan, make writing one your first priority. All capital sources will want to see your business plan for the start-up and growth of your business.

There are two types of financing: equity and debt financing. When looking for money, you must consider your company’s debt-to-equity ratio - the relation between pounds you’ve borrowed and pounds you’ve invested in your business. The more money owners have invested in their business, the easier it is to attract financing.

If your firm has a high ratio of equity to debt, you should probably seek debt financing. However, if your company has a high proportion of debt to equity, experts advise that you should increase your ownership capital (equity investment) for additional funds. That way you won’t be over-leveraged to the point of jeopardizing your company’s survival.

You may freely reprint this article provided the author’s biography remains intact:

10-easy-ways-to-organize-your-business-finances

10 Easy Ways To Organize Your Business Finances

Writen by Mike Peterson

Whether you are a new entrepreneur or a more experienced business owner, taking control of your finances can feel like a part-time job. Some simple tips can help you streamline your time, organize your finances and reduce the stress of business money matters.

1. Keep Your Bills in One Place

When the mail comes, make sure it goes in one place. Misplaced bills can be the cause of unwanted late fees and can damage your credit rating. Whether it’s a drawer, a box, or a file, be consistent. Size is also important. If you get a lot of mail, use an area that won’t get filled up too quickly.

2. Pay Your Bills on Schedule

Bill paying can be simplified if it’s done at scheduled times during the month. Depending on how many bills you receive, you can establish set times each month when none of your bills will be late. If you’re paying bills as you receive them, chances are you’re spending too much time in front of the checkbook. Although bills may state “Payable Upon Receipt”, there’s always a grace period. Call the creditor to find out when they need to receive payment before the bill is considered late.

3. Read Your Credit Card Statements

Most people take advantage of low interest credit card offers but never read their statements when paying the bill. Credit cards are notorious for using low interest as bait for new customers then switching to higher rates after a few months. Make a habit of looking at your statement carefully to see what interest rate you are paying each month and if any transaction fees have been applied. If the rate increases or a transaction fee appears on your statement, a simple call to the credit card company can oftentimes be beneficial in resolving the matter. If not, try to switch your money to a more favorable rate.

4. Take Advantage of Automatic Payments

Most banks offer a way to automatically deduct money from your account to pay creditors. In addition, the creditors usually offer a lower interest rate when you sign up for this payment option because they get their money faster and on-time. Consider it as one fewer check to write, envelope to lick and stamp to buy. Just make sure you record the deduction when the automatic payment is scheduled or you run the risk of bouncing other checks.

5. Computerize Your Checkbook

Using a software program is a handy way to organize your finances. Whether it’s Quicken(r), Microsoft Money(r) or another package, these easy-to-use programs make bill paying and bank reconciliation a cinch. Computer checks can be ordered almost anywhere and fit right into most printers. Once the checks are printed, all of the information is automatically recorded in your electronic checkbook. Furthermore, many banks have direct downloads into these software packages so when money is deposited or withdrawn, the transaction is entered immediately onto your computer. And, when it comes time to do taxes, it couldn’t be easier.

6. Get Overdraft Protection

Most banks have a service where, if you run the risk of bouncing a check, the money will come from another source. For a nominal fee, the bank will link your checking account to either a savings, money market, or credit card so the embarrassment of bouncing a check will be avoided. Call or visit your bank to learn about this convenient feature.

7. Cancel Unused Accounts

Whether it’s a credit card or bank account, write a letter requesting that the account is formally closed. Not only will this improve your credit score, it is a useful way to avoid money from being scattered all over the place. Don’t let department stores and credit card companies lure you into opening new accounts by offering favorable interest rates and purchase discounts. It’s easy for credit to get out of hand by taking advantage of every credit offer that comes your way.

8. Consolidate Your Accounts

If you have several credit card accounts with outstanding balances, try to consolidate them into one. Be careful and check the balance transfer interest rates and one-time fees. Also, make a list of all your open Money Markets, Savings, CDs, IRAs, Mutual Funds, and other accounts to see if any consolidation can be done. Keeping your money in fewer places eliminates all of the guesswork involved and reduces errors.

9. Establish Automatic Savings

Create a link from your checking account into a savings account that will not be touched. This can usually be done through the banks and automatic amounts will be transferred over each month. Most people will not put money into a savings account on a regular basis. They may wait until a large tax refund check arrives or some other event to actually deposit money into savings, retirement or other accounts. If you establish an automatic savings deposit every month, your accounts will begin accumulating money faster than you think.

10. Clean up Your Files

Make sure your paid bills are organized in a filing cabinet. Keep individual files for paid bills. Go through your files at the end of each year and throw out bills and receipts no longer needed for auditing purposes. Contact your local IRS office to see how long records need to be kept for audits. Usually federal tax return audits can be done three years back but cancelled checks may need to be kept for seven. Consult the Internet for auditing and records-keeping procedures for your state or region.

(c) 2005 DebtGuru.com(r). This article may be freely distributed as long as the signature file and active link are included.

open-an-online-savings-account-a-newbies-guide

Open an Online Savings Account (A Newbie’s Guide)

Writen by Stanley McMahon

The basic steps for opening an online savings account are the same for all online banks. Various online banks are present and these offer different services and benefits but to varying degrees. Before opening a virtual bank account, it is important to know if the bank is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC), which insures accounts up to a value of $ 100,000.

The APY offered by online banks is much higher than that offered by bricks and mortar banks; this is because maintaining a virtual account results in fewer overheads for banks. All the same, one should compare APYs offered by different banks before selecting a bank to open an account with. Ideally, the banks should credit the interest, which is compounded daily, on a monthly basis.

Opening an account with an online bank is a quick process that can be carried out telephonically or online. Filling the application form online rarely takes more than fifteen minutes; whether filling for an individual account or a joint account. Information required includes personal details, residential address, and details of a checking account that is to be linked to the online account. If during the course of filling the application one is unable to furnish any detail, it is possible to save the application and return to it later. The linked account is verified by the bank by verifying two test deposits made into that account by the account holder. Instant verification is also possible; it is achieved by submitting the login ID and password of the checking account that needs to be verified. The account is activated when the prospective account holder receives material via postal mail. The material includes a temporary login ID and password, the account number and account password, ATM card, and ATM password. It can take anywhere between four to eight days for the materials to arrive by post separately. Sending the material via mail is time consuming but it helps the banks to corroborate the address details mentioned in the application by the prospective account holder.

history-of-online-banking

History of Online Banking

Writen by Ross Bainbridge

The concept of online banking as we know it today dates back to the early 1980s, when it was first envisioned and experimented with. However, it was only in 1995 (on October 6, to be exact) that Presidential Savings Bank first announced the facility for regular client use. The idea was quickly snapped up by other banks like Wells Fargo, Chase Manhattan and Security First Network Bank. Today, quite a few banks operate solely via the Internet and have no ‘four-walls’ entity at all.

In the beginning, its inventors had predicted that it would be only a matter of time before online banking completely replaced the conventional kind. Facts now prove that this was an overoptimistic assessment - many customers still harbor an inherent distrust in the process. Others have opted not to use many of the offered facilities because of bitter experience with online frauds, and inability to use online banking services.

Be that as it may, it is estimated that a total of 55 million families in America will be active users of online banking by the year 2010. Despite the fact that many American banks still do not offer this facility to customers, this may turn out to be an accurate prediction. The number of online banking customers has been increasing at an exponential rate.

Initially, the main attraction is the elimination of tiresome bureaucratic red tape in registering for an account, and the endless paperwork involved in regular banking. The speed with which this process happens online, as well as the other services possible by these means, has translated into a literal boom in the banking industry over the last five years. Nor are there any signs of the boom letting up - in historical terms, online banking has just begun.

enjoy-the-journey-as-a-community-fundraiser

Enjoy The Journey - As A Community Fundraiser

Writen by Patrick Mc Erlean

An essential component of your fundraising strategy is for you to enjoy the journey to success. That means enjoying each of your small victories along the way. If you’re always looking for the overnight success formula you’re doomed to a life of frustration. That formula simply doesn’t exist.

Success comes with knowing what to do, planning your steps and taking action faithfully, until you achieve your goals. Since I’ve started using the powers of persuasion as a foundation for community fundraising through relationship building, I’ve found my fundraising surprisingly painless. Quite often it’s been lot of fun! “How can you find fundraising fun?” I hear you ask.

When I first discovered relationship building using the powers of persuasion I instinctively knew that it was the answer to the vast majority of my fundraising problems. What I couldn’t figure out was why I was still feeling a gnawing sense of frustration. Even though I figured out what I needed to do, planned the required steps, and started to take action, I was still feeling uneasy.

It took me a couple of weeks but I began to realise the problem was, that my success still seemed a long way off into the future (probably six months to a year). Like most people in today’s world I had fallen into the trap known as “instant gratification”.

Sadly in today’s world we have become instant gratification junkies! Most people jump from pillar to post in search of the life’s magic formula for everything from their love life to their job. Instant gratification causes people to be very short on patience.

It saddens me the number of times I see people, who have been armed with the right tools, failing because they simply run out of patience. Those same people spend their whole lives switching from one method to another, and because they never give anything a chance to produce results, they rarely achieve their goals.

To get an insight into the average person these days all you have to do is look at how they approach the Christmas period. Most spend weeks looking forward to it and when it arrives it’s over all too soon for them. The result is that they are depressed again because the next big holiday or event seems so far away. Many have practically put life on hold, waiting for Christmas.

Imagine what if would be like if you were looking forward to every weekend like it was Christmas? Now imagine you have the same feeling when looking forward to each and every day! This is what started to happen to me and my fundraising, when I began to set smaller goals, that I knew I could achieve in a fairly short time period. Ok, so it wasn’t quite the Christmas feeling every day but hopefully you can see what I’m getting at.

I slowly began to realize that the key to enjoying the challenges of fundraising (and of life) was to set a series of small targets and enjoy the victory of achievement, associated with each. This series of smaller victories eventually lead to me achieving my bigger goals.

I was no longer so obsessed with the big prize at the end and as a result I barely noticed the time flying by. In the end it turned out that the big prize was really just another milestone in a never-ending journey.

Over this past few years, I’ve spoken to many people who’d arrived at a point in their life where they felt like they’d achieved most of their life’s ambitions. Surely that is a fantastic place to be? Well, yes, but don’t expect it to last!

Most of these people were surprised to find they had a feeling that something was still missing. The thing is, that its just human nature to want to make progress. No matter what you achieve there’ll always be something else. When you can accept this and start celebrating each achievement in the knowledge that its only a stepping stone, then you’ll be truly successful (and happy). If you apply this philosophy to your fundraising, I’ll guarantee you that you’ll start to enjoy it again.

Life is for living in the here and now. By all means plan for the future but don’t live for it. All successful people enjoy the journey to success. They know that a series of small victories lead to the big prize. Enjoy the journey because success takes time and more importantly its a never-ending journey. You may not always be a fundraiser but while you are be sure to enjoy that journey.

defining-common-banking-terms

Defining Common Banking Terms

Writen by John Mussi

Banking is one of the most important industries in the world today the economy of every country in the world flows through the various banks and financial institutions that exist in the world.

There are times, though, that some of the terminology that’s used in banks and the banking industry might seem a bit confusing to those who aren’t exactly sure how they work.

Below you’ll find a list of common banking services and terms, compiled to assist you in making your banking decisions in case there are some terms that you aren’t familiar with.

Chequeing

Chequeing accounts are one of the most common types of bank accounts in the world, but there are some individuals who might not be sure exactly how the cheque writing process works. Basically, a cheque is a form of contract between an individual and the recipient the cheque is submitted to the recipient’s bank, and its value is transferred from the writer’s account to the recipient’s.

Debit

Working on much the same principal as a cheque, debit cards transfer funds from an account held by the user and an account held by a business or individual. Unlike cheques, however, the debit card uses credit card processors and doesn’t require the same amount of time as cheque writing. Additionally, there aren’t any cheques to write and no chequebook to carry around.

Interest

Interest is a term that can have two meanings, depending upon which type of banking service it’s used in conjunction with. When used with savings, chequeing, or money market accounts, interest is the amount that is paid to you monthly based upon the balance that you have. For loans, credit cards, and other such services, however, interest is an additional fee that you pay that is added on to the monthly balance of your debt.

Annual Percentage Rate

The annual percentage rate, or APR, is used when determining interest on credit cards. The APR is based upon national interest rates and other rates determined by the bank and dependant upon the credit rating of the cardholder. The APR that you pay may fluctuate, and the lower it goes the less interest you have to pay each month.

Equity

Equity is a representation of how much of a mortgage has been paid off some people look at it as how much of your home or real estate you actually “own”. This percentage of how much debt has been cleared from your property can be used as collateral for some types of loans, and can be an important factor in refinancing a home loan.

Balloon Payment

A balloon payment is a specific type of mortgage payment, and is named “balloon payment” because of the structure of the payment schedule. For balloon payments, the first several years of payments are smaller and are used to reduce the total debt remaining in the loan. Once the small payment term has passed (which can vary, but is commonly 5 years), the remainder of the debt is due this final payment is the one known as the “balloon” payment, because it is larger than all of the previous payments.

Closing Costs

Closing costs are additional costs associated with the purchase of real estate and some other high-value items. Once the loan has been approved to pay for the purchase and all of the paperwork has been completed, various costs associated with filing, legal fees, and other commonalities are due at the time of closing the deal. While there are some mortgage lenders who don’t charge closing costs, they are required in most cases.

You may freely reprint this article provided the following author’s biography (including the live URL link) remains intact:

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save-money-on-your-grocery-bill

Save Money On Your Grocery Bill

Writen by Shannon Jarvies

We’ve all heard about certain ways to cut your grocery bill like avoiding the grocery store when you’re hungry, using coupons on double coupons day, and buying only the items on your list. These are all good tips and we should keep using them. However, I’ve found a few pointers that might help you save even more on your grocery bill.

The first thing you need to do after you’ve made your grocery list is to try to figure the total cost of your grocery bill. Make sure you’ve got everything on the list that you’ll need because after you’ve made an educated guess you’re going to go to your purse (or wallet), take out the cash and leave the rest behind. Believe me, this will definitely cut back on the unnecessary extras because you won’t have the credit cards to fall back on. And if you’re like me, you’d rather be hung upside down by your toe nails than be found short at the check out.

Don’t be afraid to look on the day-old bread rack or in the “about to expire” section of the meat department. You have to be careful, but you’ll probably be able to tell whether the item is good. Just make sure to use it right away, don’t let it sit in your refrigerator for a week. Who knows, it just might “meat” your expectations and save you money in the process!

Another thing to think about is the time of day, time of week and even time of month that you are shopping. I’ve found that early in the morning and in the middle of the week is when the grocery stores are less busy and you’ll be able to get more efficient shopping done. Be careful not to go on the first day or two of the month. Some stores have been known to raise prices because that is the time that social security and welfare checks go out.

Buy in bulk when it makes sense. If you’re shopping at Costco or Sam’s Club you still need to comparison shop. I’ve found that some of the items are just as inexpensive at our local grocery store and there have been times when Costco’s or Sam’s Club prices where higher. So most of the time it makes sense for me to get most of our groceries at my local store because we live two hours away from Sam’s Club

Look high and low for savings, literally. The grocery stores purposely place the higher-priced name brand items at eye level. The lower priced generic and store brands are usually higher and lower than the brand name items. Remember that the generic brand or store brand isn’t always the less expensive. Some stores I’ve been to list the cost per ounce, or per item (trash bags) so be sure to compare these prices when shopping.

Last but not least, if you’ve got kids at home try to find another mom to trade shopping times with. It’s a lot easier to shop without kids, you won’t be tempted to buy extras just to keep them quiet and you’ll have more time to comparison shop. Your chances of having an enjoyable shopping experience will go up as well as their chances for survival!

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