The Mungo Money Finance Blog

Finance is basically the backbone of your existence and the determining factor of your lifestyle. For an easy going life, you need not be rich. What you need is proper advice so that you may save your finances and at the same time smoothly run your family. In order to obtain some of the best tips about finances, you may safely rely on the quality services rendered by the Top Five Finance Forums on the Web.

The leading 5 Finance Forums on the Web are Kiplinger.com, Fool.com, Seekingalpha.com, Marketwatch.com and Finance.yahoo.com. You will find more details about these forums in the information provided below.

Kiplinger.com helps you put financial events in perspective on a daily basis. It offers stock quotes, mutual fund rankings, financial FAQs, and other interactive resources. It is a trusted source of personal finance advice, business forecasting, investing advice, and financial management tools.

Fool.com is primarily a financial forum for the individual investor. It offers expert advice on picking stocks, investing for retirement, and dealing with life’s major personal finance decisions.

Seekingalpha.com – Seeking Alpha is the leading provider of stock market opinion and analysis from blogs, money managers and investment newsletters, and a provider of free financial content. It is different from other finance sites since it focuses its attention on opinion and analysis rather than the news. The articles are actually written by the investors and a personal touch gives them a new dimension.

Marketwatch.com, a subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company, is another vital Finance Forum on the web. It is a leading provider of Stock Market Quotes, Business News and Financial News. It offers real-time financial news, personal portfolio tracking, stock market quotes, expert commentary, and personal finance features.

Finance.yahoo.com – Yahoo! Finance offers financial information, including stock quotes and stock exchange rates. Here, you can get free stock quotes, up to date news, portfolio management resources, international market data, message boards, and mortgage rates information.

These are the major finance forums on the Internet. To meet the unexpected events of your life, to revamp the old and welcome the new, Top Five Finance forums would be of immense importance to you in helping you out with your financial needs and planning. Visualize life with its immense prosperities with the assistance of the Top Five Finance Forums and see the difference!

Barclays card brings in a real sweetener for card owners with its offer of transferring balance at a mere 6.9% and no additional charges for it. The Barclays card is not all that easy to get since it needs a good credit history. Without that you run the risk of being rejected as well. the best part is that this special service is also on offer from other banks but they are not heavily advertised. In most cases, this service is available only to new customers.

Further details include a 0% interest balance transfer which can extend up to 12 months! This is an excellent opportunity for credit card tarts and there is no doubt that many of them exploit it to their advantage. The 6.9% rate might not be the best around but if you are planning for long term debt and don’t care much for tarting….then the Barclays card is a good bet. The 0% interest rate transfer is also permitted to existing customers under specific conditions which are quite easy to adhere to.

However, like most credit card schemes, this one is also not without its entrapment and this one is not a small one. Though the low rates of interest exist…they are mostly for the transferred amount and not for any new spending on the card. The traditional rate of interest which hovers around 17% continues to be charged and it is easy to fall into the trap quite easily. Move your eyes away and you will see the interest building up rapidly and the banks are aware of this fact and that is why they offer balance transfers in the first place.

The antidote to this problem is simple enough for individuals to implement and the only assumption is that you have another card to tide you over emergencies etc. transfer the balance at the low rate of interest and keep paying the installments till you are debt free once again. Patience and a good eye for detail (as well as a good organizing ability) can help you reduce the amount you pay in interest. In fact many individuals confirm that smart debt management via credit card results in very low rates of interest which you need to shell out and savings can amount to as much as 80% of the inflated interest costs charged by credit card companies. So go ahead and give it a shot…you never know…getting the better of banks might be the best thing you do!

If you are an Egg card holder and signed up for this card in its heydays of low interest rates and attractive cash back policies then you are in for a shock. These attractive offers changed long time back and you need to be very alert to understand the loophole in some of Egg’s offer to understand and the Anniversary offer can either get you a zero interest deal or become an expensive deal.
The card we are referring to is the first product offering by Egg, so Egg Money card holders can skip this article. The offer includes an interest free period for five months and also a nominal charge of 2.5% on transferred amounts. The catch is when you use the card for OTHER purchases which still attracts the full 16.9% interest rate and that takes the people through a complicated trap.
Each time you make the a payment, it first pays off your transferred amount while accumulating the amount of new purchases….it is quite likely that you will be stuck on a 16.9% interest rate. Each time you transfer another debt, it comes back with the 16.9% interest rate. However, there are ways to get out of this cycle and that requires juggling Egg’s balance to any other card, and when the offer for transfer comes up….transfer it back to Egg and enjoy the 2.5% interest rate!

You can even use your bank account to transfer your debt and pay it off with your savings and then transfer the balance to the account at 0%. However, the 0% does not last for ever….in fact; it is for five months only. This shuffle is not applicable to the Egg card only. Use it on any other card and you will be surprised at the savings you can get. In fact this is the common modus operandi of tarts and those struggling to get credit can also use this as a somewhat cheaper way of getting money.

This loophole of the Egg card is now commonly known and there is no knowing when it might go off-air. However, as an end user, it is beneficial to have a range of credit cards in your name and pitch one card’s 0% interest offer or low cost balance transfer with the current card in use. the amount of savings may not be all that high if you are spending on credit card is limited and in that case you don’t really have to worry about the credit card debt anyways.

Early payment of your student loan as provided by the government may not be such idea. No, we are not defying everything we have said so far but re-iterating the fact that this might be one of the cheapest forms of loans available so go ahead and take your time to pay off this loan. However, if you have a student loan from a private institution, this recommendation does not apply.

Student loans are a point of discussion since they are not really charging interest….just the inflation rate. Inflation, as you might already know refers to the year on year price increase and is determined by the finance department of the government. It is unlikely that the rate of interest on student loans will go beyond the inflation rate and this works to your advantage. so what are the advantages of not paying student loan off at one go?

The answers are governed by the type of person you are. If you like to save, then it is likely that you will get a higher rate of interest than what you pay for your student loan. The saving ( though not very large) here is obvious. If you are planning to borrow again sometime in the near future then your low interest student loan is not likely to affect your credit rating too much as most agencies do not have this information anyways.

There are two types of student which exist: the mortgage-style loans which are equal monthly installments and the income-linked repayment plan. In the first option, you monthly/annual installments are fixed and in the second one, you pay a percentage of what ever you earn over a minimum basic. Both the plans are common and a student can choose the option which suits him best.

Though the 0% credit card debt sounds more interesting than student loan, do keep in mind that it is for a shorter term and has a direct impact on your credit rating. Also keep in mind that student loans exceeding a certain age are usually wiped off since the person is considered unfit to work and earn. However, dishonest means to get out of student loans result in serious disciplinary actions by the Student Loan Council and should be avoided at all costs. Moving to another country does not remove your liability to pay the debt and it is likely that you will have incur additional charges for currency conversion and related fees.

We all fall prey to loyalty card schemes and many of them might not be very upfront about their benefits. Evaluating schemes requires you to compare what each point gets you at the end. For example, one of the best schemes available is the Boots Advantage loyalty program which effectively offers customers a 4% discount on products purchased. However, other cards might not offer such transparent valuation and thus loyalty card points are never better than real cash.

Pricing of standard goods at high street shops might actually be a tad higher than that of the chain store and thus in effect the savings are really not there. Loyalty points accrued in credit cards are not advantageous until and unless you pay them off in full. In fact, cash back cards are much better than loyalty cards. Many cards may offer points in multiple programs encouraging you to spend in their store…however, this is not always beneficial to the user and you might end up buying things which you might not even need.

Tesco’s Clubcard can be used to maximize points by getting vouchers, using these vouchers on the Clubcard Deals Brochure and also by using Clubcard Plus services where you can earn double points. Stay out of overdraft and you would have made the most out of your Clubcard. There are frequent offers which are also worth looking at but just don’t buy something because the offer is good!
The Nectar card is good is some locations such as Sainsbury, TalkTalk, BP and Debenhams. The Amex Nectar sign-up results in a minimum of 1000 free points and there are a range of services you can use these points on. We have already mentioned the Boots Advantage Card and you can use it for just about anything. The ATM offers a wide range of discount coupons to cash on to and many products offer triple points as well.

The AirMiles does not directly relate to miles collected by flying an airline but gives high value points at Avis, Homebase and Leslie Davis. Going directly to AirMiles results in more points and the name comes from the fact that the points are collected from travel related services. As the internet becomes common-place for transaction services, you can get more AirMiles as well as other just by using the services and booking features online. Being loyal to one company is not necessarily bad and if you stick around with a good card like the Boots or the Tesco one, you can be assured about the points you will accumulate.

Debt can never be good. Furthermore, saving and having debt at the same time is like a dual edged sword and one which must be avoided at all costs. It is principally true that debt will always cost more than what you will make with your savings and thus it makes sense to pay off your debt with your saving and get out of the typical trap that banks and other financial institutions promote it indirectly and lend the same money back that you saved, making a buck for themselves!

Some of the exceptions to this rule are in situations when there is a penalty to pay back the loan in advance. Other exceptions include when you have an almost interest free loan…in this case it makes sense to stick to this debt.  Though it might sound surprising, there are a number of options to get to this stage….and the 0% interest credit cards are the most common option.

Keeping an emergency fund is important but not at the cost of debt. An emergency may or may not arise… and when it does you can fall back on your debt-free status and take on debt to service this emergency. Debt free credit cards come in very handy in such situations and then it is a debt which can be serviced over a period of time. Hanging on to savings for an emergency which might never arise is not a financially wise decision. This logic is based on the assumption that you will be able to get credit cards to take on your emergency requirements.

The cost of debt should be evaluated and the ones which are most costly should be paid off first so that you can actually save interest. Once that is done, you can start looking at your lower interest rate debts and see if they are beneficial to maintain. Financial discipline of managing the interest rate earned and spent result in good debt/savings management. So don’t focus on the principle but take a look at the yearly cost of the debt as compared to the interest you earn on your savings.

Knowing your personal habits of spending also help in paying off debts…if you feel paying off credit card debt will result in more spending in the next couple of months then you should just go ahead and get rid of them. After all, this is the best traditional advice which can be given when it comes to debt management!

There is no harm in taking on debt provided you manage it well. Reading between the lines can help you decide which credit card to use and which to switch from. Here are some tips on how you can do this effectively by keeping an eye open at all times for some excellent deals:
1) How to become a Tart? Well, the name sounds a bit strange but it refers to avoiding paying any interest to credit card companies by switching to their 0% interest free offer period. Avoid this if you are not being able to actively manage it and try and keep updated with all documents with the credit card company.

2) Stable relationship cards can also be used…these are just good cards which might not be the cheapest but do not require your time and effort in monitoring them.

3) Keep checking out the new card launches and offers to be able to spot those which suit your need the best. Make a note of all the terms and conditions and the permissions per card to ensure that you are familiar with which transactions are best done in which card.

4) Don’t withdraw cash on credit card until and unless you know the exact APR (and almost all cards have a fairly high APR for cash withdrawal).

5) The credit card rates are not fixed and they are changed time to time. Look out for some good opportunities during rate changes. Downward revisions of rate changes can result in a positive impact on your credit card balance and being alert really pays off!

6) However, Tarting is not possible without a good credit score especially since you need a range of cards to use. thus the first step should be to ensure a healthy credit rating so that you can benefits from their schemes. Standard practice of checking your online credit history along with good applications should set you up on the road of getting the most out of your plastic!
If you think trying to switch or take advantage is too much hassle, you might change your mind once you know how much you end up saving in the process. General homeowners claim to save a few thousand dollars each year and also contribute better money management skills to their tarting experience. This should be enough to make you get active and become a Credit Card Tart!

Don’t let debt take over your life….there is help available at hand and you can get some of the best tips right here which can not only help you get out of debt, but also deal with problem debts which no debt counselor can tackle.
1) Don’t let debt affect you mentally. This will rob you of future earning potential as well as reduce the possibility of taking you towards getting help.

2) Don’t choose the most serious solution to get out of debt first. Try and sort it out via simpler measures such as stopping the outflow, proper evaluation of your current problems and other similar steps.

3) Don’t shut the door on the lender. Non-communication can result in the lender proceeding to various steps which might result in legal action. Keeping communication going helps in negotiating with the lender which is going to be to your advantage.

4) Don’t borrow more to pay old debts. This is nothing except a viscous cycle which will get you more in debt and not out of it. However, moving outstanding dues to a cheaper credit card or a personal loan at low rates might help you out. Check what you will end up paying over a period of time rather than the first few months only and then decide.

5) Become smart…check what the financial agencies are reading about you. You can also keep moving credit card balances or use tips on how to get free cash from credit cards to save yourself some interest. You can also consider re-mortgaging if the terms are right. Make sure the terms you have signed up are applicable and you are not being charged more than the industry standard.

6) Don’t save on one hand and take on additional debt in the other. The cost of security is not worth it. Secured loans are also an excellent way to get cash and they are usually at a lower rate as well.
Money management plays a vital roll in debt control. Be aware of your benefits, create a budget and stick to it. There are many budget checklists which can be used. Be money smart and do not pay additional charges for anything…furthermore, don’t be afraid to ask for refund! Last but not the least, avoid going to debt consultants who promise quick solutions and advertise heavily. Instead head to a national helpline or a government recognized help cell. Keep in mind, you are not alone and there is help available!

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Credit ratings are a method of rating which is unique to each lender and is devised by them in order to rate a prospective borrower. It is not necessary that a lending company has to provide credit to an individual irrespective of his ratings. Similarly, there is nothing called a credit rating blacklist and since most of the parameters of evaluating a borrow is similar, a person with poor credit rating tends to face denial of credit in most places.

Banks tend to reject individuals with very good credit rating simply because they loose an opportunity to make money when they offer credit to someone who has always pays back on time. If you are looking to borrow money from a bank, then the best way would be enter into their system via a current account holding and let them come to you to sell other financial products.

Credit ratings are determined by the application form of the individual in which a number of financial questions relating to personal assets, family members and pay is requested. Banks and lending institutions tend to maintain records of previous transactions with them and refer it to determine customer type. Other than that, they also have access to Electoral Roll Information, financial data and court data which provides relevant information about the borrower. However, there are some records which banks and lending institutions do not have access to and that is medical and criminal history, savings account details, student loans, child support and any credit accounts opened before 1994.

You can even check your records both online and by postal request available with agencies and ensure that correct data is featured there. Online viewing can be done for free if you sign up for the agency’s free trial and then request cancellation once you have downloaded the required information. Correcting data available via these agencies are independent credit rating agency can help you improve you chances of getting loans without a headache by nearly 30%. Once you have the data, cross check all the factual and financial information mentioned there and if you spot an error then you need to correspond with the agency to get it corrected by suppling supporting documents.

Some tips on how to improve your credit rating include joining an electoral roll, limit the applications to loans, generate proof of financial stability and avoid getting caught in the circle of rejection. Do not hang on to credit cards you no longer use or accounts which are not operation. Make attempts to repair your credit and avoid late payments at all costs. Joint bank accounts and credit histories can hurt your credit rating. In your quest to repair your credit, do not attempt to choose illegal or so-called legal means to settle debts with the lender even when a CCJ has been served.