Finance & Loans

Your payment history could affect your credit score

Your credit history accounts for 35 percent of your credit score. That’s why your payment history is one of the most important factors in deciding your credit score. Other factors that affect your credit score including balances, credit history, type of credit and inquiries takes a back seat to payment history. There are aspects of payment history that affect your credit score negatively.

• Serious delinquencies such as foreclosure, repossession, short sale and bankruptcy drive down your credit score.
• Late payment negatively impacts your credit score. Avoid being late on paying your bills. If you failed to pay a bill on time because you were out of town or had to attend to an emergency, pay the bill as soon as possible. Call the creditor immediately after your payment and see whether they are willing to forgo the late payment and not report it to credit agencies. Many will accept genuine reasons for being late.
• Paying 30 days late may be better than paying 60 days late. No matter what, pay as soon as possible.
• Recent delinquencies affect your credit score more than delinquencies from a year ago. Try not to repeat it.

How To Fight Charge Backs

Charge backs are something that every online business faces.  A fraudulent charge back is something that can cause you a lot of money and erase your profits.  A fraudulent charge back is when a customer disputes a transaction that was actually legitimate.  When they successfully dispute it, they get the money back from you, basically getting whatever product they purchased from you, completely free of charge.

 

If you want to fight fraudulent charge backs, you need to start out by first and foremost fully understanding what they are.  Once you understand a fraudulent charge back, as described in the first paragraph, you can take steps to battle them.  The first thing that you must do is to keep a detailed record of all of your transactions.  This is for the sake of being able to completely legitimize your sale to the credit card company if a charge back is claimed by a customer.  The next step that you can take is to actually call the customer that has made the dispute.  You may get them in an uncomfortable situation to the point where they actually do not want further fight the fraudulent charge back.

 

Thanks to Solidtrustpay.com you can work with a professional services company that can help you keep the sales in your pocket.  Solidtrustpay works with you to ensure your sales are processed successfully, and fraudulent charge backs are fought.  Solid trust pay is a major partner in the fight against fraudulent charge backs

Looking for new revenue, banks role out “payday advance” products

Communities of all sizes in the U.S. are flooded with “payday advance loan” boutiques tucked away in strip-malls.  They trap financially strapped consumers in a vicious circle once come in through the door.  A borrower required to provide a signed check in order to borrow against their weekly, bi-weekly or monthly wages.  They collect outrageous fees that amount to 300 – 550 percent annual interest rate.  A typical loan could cost $1 for each $10 borrowed.  A typical two-week $100 loan could charge a fee of $15 that equals to 395 percent annual percentage rate.  It is a lucrative but loosely regulated financial instrument.

Banks are highly regulated financial institutions.  However, curtailed by new financial regulations and dwindling revenue, some banks are venturing into the “payday advance” arena.  Bloomberg Businessweek reports that Wells Fargo ($500 limit with $7.50 charge for each $100 borrowed), U.S. Bancorp (up to $500 for 35 days with charges of $2 for each $20 borrowed), Regions Financial (product is called Ready Advance), and several others have introduced products similar to “payday advance.”  According to the report, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are going over the new bank offerings.

Chinese government supported UnionPay becomes a world player

Visa card issued by Visa International is the world’s number one credit and debit card processor.  We hear the name Master card mentioned when we talk about credit cards.  But have you heard of UnionPay?  The Shanghai based UnionPay is owned by 85 Chinese banks including the Chinese government and is the world’s second largest credit card processor behind the Visa card.  China’s credit card processing is expected to increase to $397 billion by 2015.  UnionPay card is accepted in 135 countries worldwide.  The recent rise of UnionPay has been a boon for those merchants that offer luxury goods such as Italian leather handbags and French perfumes.  Chinese customers are the world’s number one customers for luxury items now and more and more purchase their luxury goods outside China.

The Chinese government requires all automated tellers in China as well as all Chinese merchants to use UnionPay electronic payment system for local payments.  Because of that Visa, Master Card and American Express pays a certain percentage of their transactions to UnionPay.  The U.S. government appeared before the World Trade Organization against Chinese discriminatory practices and the body ordered the Chinese government to stop the practice.

Fighting Charge Backs, When You Know Your Company Did No Wrong

Charge backs are something that every company has to deal with.  A charge back occurs when a customer disputes a transaction that has appeared on their credit card statement, originating from your business.  At times, these charge backs are fraudulent and require fighting on your part.  Customers will attempt a fraudulent charge back to try to get an item for free basically, as they will state that they did not make the purchase and try to get a refund from your company.

There are ways in which you can fight these charge backs.  The first thing that you want to do in order to fight these charge backs is to keep detailed records of all of the transactions that your company records.  This is the most important thing as you will want to be able to show that the transaction actually did take place.  Finally, there are agencies out there who will work to collect the lost products or funding.  Credit card companies can suspend your agreement if you have too many charge backs, making the fighting much more important.

Fighting charge backs can be made easier by gaining help from a professional services company such as Solidtrustpay. When these companies set up merchant accounts they work to retain as much information as possible so that they can show credit card companies the legitimacy of transactions.  Solid trust pay and other companies out there will help educate you about fraudulent charge backs and work to make sure that your company does not fall victim to them.

Worldwide government bond markets are slowing creating more demand

Central banks all over the world are buying government bonds in order to improve economic conditions especially job growth.  Most of the activity concentrated on troubled European countries including Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Italy.  Portugal’s bonds were the best performer while Japan coming in as the worst due to its high sovereign debt load.

All throughout the world, government bonds outperformed the stocks and commodities returning an average of 31 percent.  Worldwide stock indexes show a loss of 4.2 percent.  According to the Standard & Poor’s GSCI Total Return Index, raw materials lost 21 percent during the same period.

Why investors are interested in government bonds?  Even with an average bond yield of 1.44 percent, many consider inflation is non-existing and bonds provide the safety.  In the U.S. the average inflation for last 20 years is 1.9 percent.  Another reason is central banks all over the world are buying government bonds in order to promote growth while keeping the borrowing cost down.  Additionally, government spending throughout the world is slowing making fewer bonds available in the market.  The $23.6 trillion worldwide bond market is the smallest since 2005.  This shortage creates more demand for government bonds.

Helping parents and kids

Many baby boomers are retiring and some are faced with financial insecurity due to many reasons.  They may are faced with ill health and healthcare cost is putting a strain on their retirement income or unable to bear healthcare cost.  If you have retired parents and children and faced with a similar situation, here are few ways to get some help.

Healthcare costs are rising.  One estimate indicates that nursing home care cost could reach more than $87,000 a year.  Most retirees who rely only on Social Security couldn’t afford nursing care due to cost.  In-home care could cost even more.  If your parents are still healthy, look into long-term care insurance.  Most long-term care insurance plans pay for nursing home, home care or assisted-living facility care.

If your parents need help to pay for long-term care insurance, they live with you more than half the year and you pay for their care while you work, you may be eligible to participate in a flexible spending account (FSA) at work.  You can contribute up to $5,000 pre-tax a year for dependent care.  You can also set up a FSA account to pay for childcare if you have kids under the age of 13 and use daycare.

Do you have a corporate shield to protect you and your business?

Small business owners have very little time to devote to formalities such as maintaining financial records. Therefore, many elect to run their business as a sole proprietorship or as a general partnership. These forms of businesses require less attention to formalities and allow the owner to concentrate more on the business side. However, these forms of running a business do not provide the owner with the protection that is needed to run a business. The owners will be personally liable for the debt and expenses of the business.

If you are seeking to limit your personal liability for debt and expenses of the business, look into a LLC or a corporation. But keep in mind that you have to comply with all formalities that are required by law which will take additional time and effort on your part. You need to draw a clear line between your personal assets and business assets. Otherwise, you will be subject to “piercing the corporate veil” or commonly known as alter ego liability. For small businesses and closely held businesses this is more important in case of a liability action. Third parties could go after alter ego liability subjecting your personal property.

Ways to save money

Here are few ways to save money for future retirement or to pay current liabilities.

Cut your interest rates:  If you are a homeowner with a mortgage, look into your current mortgage interest rate.  Rates are at a historical low.  If you have obtained a loan few years ago, your rate may be higher than what the currents rates are.  By refinancing you will be able to save few hundred dollars a month by lowering your interest rate.  Also, look into your interest rate on your credit card balances, your vehicle loan and student loan, if you have one.  Many credit cards are offering no interest charges for balance transfers for a specified period of time.  Be careful with other charges such as balance transfer fees they may charge.  Also look into your insurance policies which may help to cut your monthly expenses.

Look for more tax breaks:  Some of the overlooked tax breaks include retirement saver’s credits, childcare credits, American Opportunity Credit for college education expenses, deduction for job search and job related moving expenses and charitable donations including mileage for charitable work.  If you missed any of these breaks within the last three years, you can file an amended return to take the deduction.

A solution for European debt crisis

At its peak in 2008, the Euro traded at $1.60. The slide of the Euro has resulted in trading the Euro closer to $1.22 today. Some analysts say that the Euro will fall to $1.18 soon. Some economists and financial gurus are expressing their opinions and indicate that the Euro’s parity with the Dollar will be a way out of its current economic crisis.

The European Central bank has the unlimited power to print Euros. So far it has bailed out Greece, Portugal, and Ireland. It is also working with Spain and Italy to bring down long-term interest rates. Spain’s 10-year bond is yielding 7 percent at the moment. How much it takes to bail out the entire Euro Zone is anybody’s guess.

The crisis in Euro Zone is pushing traditional manufacturing behemoths to look elsewhere. The Mercedes-Benz and BMW are already operating plants in the U.S. and the Airbus, the European consortium to rival Boing, just announced that it is establishing a new plant in the U.S. One option to stop the drain and get out of the current crisis is to force the Euro to be parity with the Dollar. This will help the entire world economy and markets too.

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