Investing Curiouscatblog

Category: Tips

  • Learning About Personal Loans

    Personal Loans are either secured of unsecured loans to an individual. Secured loans have some form of collateral such as a car, stocks (margin loan) or a house (home equity loan). Unsecured loans are usually involve less paperwork (which is often an attraction to the borrower – though margin loans often take no paperwork). The interest rate on unsecured loans is normally higher since the lender does not have collateral.

    Credit cards are a form of unsecured personal loan. They normally are the worst way to borrow money (though for a very short term loan – say a month or two – when you factor in the ease of use they can be the best option). The problem is many people treat their credit card as a normal source of loans. This is a bad personal finance strategy. See our credit card tips for more information.

    Personal loans often have “teaser” rates – interest rates that are low (and quoted in big bold colors) while the real rate is hidden in small type. Don’t fall for the hype. The Annual Percentage Rate (APR) helps you look through the hype to the real cost, but is still not a perfect measure of the cost to the borrower.

    A MSN money article discusses the horrendous terms of some “payday loans”: Loans with triple-digit interest. Read more about personal loan terms such as: payday loans, Annual Percentage Rate (APR), line of credit, etc..

    Related: Payday Loans = Costly Cash, FTC Alert – Learning About Mortgages – How Not to Convert Equity – personal finance articles on loans

  • Save Money on AV Cables

    Maybe this will help people understand HDMI cables…:

    “Question: Is there any difference between a cheap (i.e. $10 HDMI cable) and an expensive (i.e. $150 HDMI cable)???”

    I have an EE degree. I work as a broadcast engineer. I live and breath digital and analog signals every day. So yes, you could say I’m qualified to give the answer to this question…

    That answer is, “No, an expensive HDMI cable will make NO difference in the quality of your picture OR sound”

  • Shop Around for Drugs

    Many of his patients, he explained, must pay for their drugs out-of-pocket, and yet even the generic drugs at pharmacy chains like Walgreens, Eckerd, and CVS could cost them dearly. So Wolf began snooping around and found that two chains, Costco and Sam’s Club, sold generics at prices far, far below the other chains. Even once you factor in the cost of buying a membership at Costco and Sam’s Club, the price differences were astounding. Here are the prices he found at Houston stores for 90 tablets of generic Prozac:

    Walgreens: $117, Eckerd: $115, CVS: $115, Sam’s Club: $15, Costco: $12

    Those aren’t typos. Walgreens charges $117 for a bottle of the same pills for which Costco charges $12.

    It pays to comparison shop for you prescription drugs.

  • Challenge Those Credit Fees

    Challenge those credit fees:

    You have some leverage, though, if you’re a “good” customer, meaning you pay bills on time and, preferably, carry a balance. In either case, don’t silently accept high fees and high rates, advocates say. Call the card issuer and politely complain. With little federal regulation of the industry, your best friend is industry competition, says CardRatings’ Arnold.

    If the card company’s representative initially balks at, say, waiving a late fee, ask to speak to the manager, Arnold says. If that doesn’t work, tell the company you want to cancel the card. At that point, you’ll likely be transferred to the retention department, whose job is to keep you as a customer, Arnold says. It’s expensive to replace customers, so you may be able to negotiate a waiver of fees or a temporary reduction in the interest rate. If not, prepare to shop around for a new card, Arnold says.

    Related: Curious Cat Credit Card Tips – Credit Card Currency Conversion Costs

  • Credit Card Tips

    It is difficult to imagine trying to live without the convenience of credit cards. Yet many get into financial trouble in part due to their misuse of credit cards. By following a few simple rules you can avoid the missteps and use credit cards to improve you personal finances instead of falling into the credit card traps.

    First, don’t use your credit card for loans. Pay off your balance each month. Pretty obvious advice but way way too many people don’t follow it. If you use your credit card for a loans – 98% of the time that is a mistake and big risk to your personal financial future. Don’t do it. There is a reason pretty much all the advice from financial advisers on credit cards starts with this – it is the most important advice.

    Second, if you don’t follow the advise above pay off your loan as soon as possible. Payment the minimum payment is huge mistake. You should not be making any discretionary purchases if you are not paying down your credit card debt substantially each month.

    Continue reading credit card tips.

  • Learning About Mortgages

    Signing a mortgage document is one of the biggest financial actions you will take in your life. Taking the time to understand what you are getting into is important. I suggest you don’t act until you actually understand what it is you are taking on. And if that takes hours or days of reading and research so be it. Don’t find yourself with remorse for acting without understanding what you are doing with such an important financial decision.

    On the Curious Cat Investment Dictionary mortgage page we have defined some common mortgage terms and provided links to some excellent resources from the Federal Reserve and HUD as well as several articles from Business Week, including: Understanding the Mortgage Process from the Federal Reserve and Nightmare Mortgages from Business Week.

  • Save Hundreds on Electronics

    This tip is a bit sneaky but seems perfectly legitimate to me (I have not tried it). Essentially you are exploiting the sneaky overpriced protection stores try to trick customers into buying. Personally I just turn down the stuff they try to trick me into buying. I like this tip because it goes after a tactic companies use to trick customers. I don’t like companies trying to use gimmicks to trick customers out of money. Why they would be so silly as to lower the price of the electronic equipment rather than reducing the price of the ridiculously overpriced “protection” is beyond me but as far as I can tell if they do they open themselves up to this strategy (which I admit I wouldn’t use but for those more aggressive souls out there it might be appealing). Outsmart Best Buy, Circuit City… Save Hundreds on Electronics.

    You read right. Salespeople can and will lower the price on inventory at places like Circuit City and Best Buy as long as it pleases management. This is called illegal bundling and it happens all the time.
    …
    They have however recently caught on at some stores and will not allow you to back out in the store. However, they can not prevent you from returning the warranty within 30 days for a full refund.

  • Fake Checks That Make You Pay

    Fake Checks That Make You Pay:

    Just because you might have access to the funds deposited via a check does not mean the check is “good.” Although federal regulations require financial institutions to make funds from a deposit available generally within one to five business days, it can take weeks before a bank discovers that a deposited check is worthless. The National Consumers League recently reported that fake-check scams are rising alarmingly. In 2006, counterfeit-check scams shot to the top of the league’s telemarketing fraud list and ranked third among Internet-based scams.

    If you want to avoid being a victim of a fake-check scam, follow this one piece of advice from Grant: Don’t ever accept a check if part of the deal involves you sending or wiring back some of the money.

  • Make $500 for Every Illegal Telemarketer Call to You

    Making telemarketers pay — in cash

    So far, Lammé has won $6,000 in judgments against telemarketers in three cases. He’s not a lawyer, but by filing in small claims court, he’s spent no more than $100 in court fees and scarcely more than an hour of his time on any case. Now he wants you to do it, too.

    The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, signed into law by George Bush the elder, led to creation of the ragingly popular Do Not Call List. But tucked away in the bill was another important provision that entitles consumers to take what’s called a “private right of action.” For each violation of the act, consumers can sue for a $500 penalty. Violations include calling after a consumer has told a company to stop, or failing to provide the consumer with a copy of the firm’s Do Not Call policy.

    In his most recent case, heard in January in Sacramento, Lammé was awarded $3,500 for seven violations allegedly committed by Country Club Mortgage Inc. of Visalia. David Mitchell, vice president of Country Club Mortgage, said he couldn’t comment on the litigation.

    Good. Lets put those who don’t follow the law out of business and get yourself some money at the same time.

    Related: Info from Lamm̩ to help you earn some money from telemarketers РCharity Telemarketers РInvestor Protection Needed РReal Free Credit Report

  • Kodak Debuts Printers With Inexpensive Cartridges

    Kodak Debuts Printers With Inexpensive Cartridges. I don’t know anything about the printers but normally companies charge exorbitant amounts for ink cartridges. They rely on the tendency of consumers to only look at the purchase price and ignore the much larger operating expenses.

    In rolling out its new Easyshare All-in-One Printers, Kodak said it will “save consumers up to 50 percent on everything they print.” The new Kodak cartridges will cost about US$10 for black ink and $15 for a five-color unit.

    Kodak 4-in-1 Printer with Wi-Fi

    Related: Price Discrimination in the Internet Age