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Many people do not understand the importance of insuring the possessions in your home.  The insurance of possessions is one type of insurance that every person should have, regardless if they are renting or have a mortgage on their home.  It is very hard to replace all of your possessions in the event of fire, flood or theft and having the items insured will reduce your out of pocket cost for the replacement of the items.

Does My Homeowner’s Or Rental Insurance Cover These Items?

Many people are confident that their homeowner’s insurance policy or their renter’s insurance policy will cover the replacement costs of all of the possessions that are located within the residence that is insured.  In reality, most policies only cover structural damage or a limited quantity of the items in the home.  For this reason, insuring your possessions is the best way to protect yourself if an unfortunate event ever occurs.

Insurance policies that cover possessions located in the residence are generally purchased in addition to a basic insurance policy used to insure the physical residence.  It is important to request this additional coverage when purchasing homeowner’s or renter’s insurance policy. It would be regrettable to find that your possessions in the home are not covered under your insurance policy after they have been destroyed. 

What Can Be Covered?

One category that is frequently covered under this additional insurance policy is the appliances in the home.  In the event of a natural disaster or fire, major appliances in the home will possibly be damaged or destroyed and it will cost thousands of dollars to replace these appliances with items or a similar nature.  By ensuring that these possessions are insured, you can avoid having to drain your savings account to replace the items that are unusable.

This insurance can be used to cover items as varied as refrigerators, clothing, television sets, and/or jewelry.  The decision of what items to insure will be based on the personal preferences of the individual purchasing the policy. The importance of insuring the possessions in your residence is not often realized until it is too late.  By ensuring that these possessions are insured soon after you move into the residence or soon after purchase, you will ensure that you are not blindsided with excessive costs in the future.

American consumers are urged to review their credit report at least once per year. In fact, every consumer has the right to access their credit report from each reporting agency free of charge once a year. This means every person has the opportunity to pull their credit report three times per year without paying a single cent by visiting www.AnnualCreditReport.com. Reviewing my credit report on a regular basis by checking your online credit report is one of the best ways to spot inaccurate information or signs of identity theft and credit card fraud. With this in mind many consumers are beginning to take the advice of financial experts and stay atop the information that appears on their credit report.

Knowing this, there are companies currently advertising free credit reports to consumers, however they are not truly free. Consumers are confused by advertisements and often sign up for a free credit report only to find out later they have unwittingly enrolled in some other service subscription. As a result several states have asked the Federal Trade Commission to tighten the rules governing the ads that are causing the problems. New York has recently joined these states and asked the FTC to consider requiring all advertisements to include a disclaimer of sorts.

The New York State Consumer Protection Board (CPB) feels consumers are being mislead by the advertisements currently circulating on television and printed publications. They suggest the FTC prohibit the use of the word “free” in these advertisements. They also suggest the addition of language which relays to the consumer the fact that the advertised credit report offer is not the same as the free credit report made available by Federal law.

Unless or until these changes are made, consumers are on their own in spotting misleading advertisements. The best and easiest way to avoid being charged for a free credit report is by not giving any billing information in the first place. Most of these advertisements are offering a free credit report which you can receive after entering credit card information. When you do this, you are enrolling in a monthly service which will be charged to your credit card if you do not cancel within a predetermined period of time. If you come across any company offering a free credit report yet requiring credit card information in order to receive the report, do not enter the information and move on. Remember the free federal website www.AnnualCreditReport.com or call 1-877-322-8228 for your free credit score online.

Gift cards have become a staple of the holiday season, with millions of gift cards purchased and given each year.  Instead of worrying that the recipient will not like the gift that was picked out for them, these gift cards allow the giver to control the amount spent on the gift while giving the recipient some flexibility in what they receive.  These gift cards can be a great way to allow someone to choose the gift that they would prefer and it is important that both the giver and the receiver understand the best ways of using the gift cards to get the most value out of the gift cards.

Look For Hidden Fees Before Purchasing
Some store gift cards are loaded with hidden fees that reduce the total purchasing power of the gift card.  These fees may include activation fees, physical card fees, or other fees deemed necessary by the card issuer.  While these fees are not typically disclosed on the front of the gift card, they should be included in the terms and conditions of the gift card per the disclosure laws in effect for these products.  If there are initial fees for the gift card, you may be paying $50 for a gift card that only has $40 of purchasing power. 

Use The Entire Amount
One of the biggest mistakes made by individuals redeeming gift cards is to choose an item that is slightly under the price limit of the gift card in order to avoid paying anything for the item.  This is the equivalent of giving free money to the retailer because, chances are, the person will never go back to the retailer to redeem the last few dollars on the gift card allowing the retailer to keep the money without having to give up merchandise in return.  The best way to get the full value of a gift card is to use the entire amount and pay the few dollars extra for the sales tax.

Pay Attention To Expiration Dates
A few gift card issuers place expiration dates on their gift cards and after this date, the remaining balance on the gift card can no longer be spent.  Although many people use their gift cards within a short period of time of receiving them, people that need more time to decide on their purchase may find that the expiration date has passed and their card is no longer valid, allowing the issuer to keep both the money and the merchandise and leaving the gift card recipient with nothing.

One of the newest features offered by banking institutions today is automatic bill payment.  This feature allows the account holder to schedule automatic, repeat payments for their monthly bills so that they will not have to remember to make these payments when the bills are due.  The account holder can sign up as many or as few recurring payments as they wish and can cancel the automatic payments at any time.

The Pros

The biggest benefit and selling point of automatic bill payment is that the feature is exceedingly convenient.  The person can schedule their payments to occur on the actual due date of the bill or schedule the payments to occur the day after their paycheck has been deposited into their account.  Submitting the information needed for the payment to be made only takes a few minutes and the person will not need to view the information again unless any changes need to be made.

Another benefit of automatic bill payment is that the payment will never be late as long as the due date remains the same.  Many companies have started tacking on hefty late fees to overdue accounts and are reporting delinquent payments in levels higher than ever before.  When the payments are scheduled and paid electronically, the risk of incurring a late charge for an overdue payment is greatly reduced.

The Cons

People that regularly use automatic bill payment are at a greater risk of overdrawing their accounts and racking up a great deal of overdraft charges in a short amount of time.  Any disruption in the average amount of money in the bank account, such as an inaccurate paycheck amount or an unexpectedly large withdrawal from the account, can cause a payment to be made while there is not enough money in the account, resulting in an overdraft before you know it.

If the due date of your bills can change from month to month, then this could cause another issue with automatic bill payment.  If a bill is typically due on the 14th day of the month and you have the payment scheduled for the 13th day of the month, you don’t have anything to worry about, but if the due date of the payment jumps to the 12th day of the month, you risk having a payment paid late. 

Taking into consideration both the pros and the cons of automatic bill payment will help you make an informed decision on whether automatic bill payment is the right choice for you.

A financial emergency can strike at anytime and no one is immune or can predict when a financial emergency will happen.  Yet, many people fail to plan adequately for the chance that a financial emergency will occur and are financially devastated when an emergency situation occurs.  There are several steps that you can take to help prepare yourself to be able to handle any financial emergency that occurs and taking these steps will increase your peace of mind and confidence in your financial situation.

Reduce Your Debt Level
The most common reason for financial emergencies causing financial devastation is a high debt level when the financial emergency occurs.  People that are carrying a high debt level often do not have much money saved and have limited opportunities to obtain more money to handle the financial emergency.  In many cases, these people have either put off handling the situation, which could end up costing them even more in the future, or they have to obtain a loan at an astronomical interest rate to have the money to fix the problem.  Paying down your debt level can eliminate these issues and allow you to have money in reserve for handling any problem that arises.

Increase Your Savings
Many people do not realize that obtaining the money for a financial emergency from your savings account is much cheaper than obtaining the money from a lender, mainly due to the amount of interest that will be charged on the loan.  Short term loans have high interest rates and placing the charge on your credit card can result in interest payments of 20% or more.  Both of these options will still cost you less than obtaining a loan from a payday lender, where interest rates often top 300% and the money has to be paid back within 14 days.  Putting more of your salary into a savings account to hold for future needs will reduce the chances that you will need to go to an outside lender to obtain money to handle the situation.
 
The ability to take control of your financial future and take care of any financial emergencies that occur provides many benefits to a person.  Stress levels are reduced because the person does not have to worry about how they are going to take care of the problem.  Health and happiness are also increased because the person will not have to make major sacrifices to be able to handle the issue.  Being able to solve these problems and keep the family finances intact will go a long way towards improving the lives of people that are struck with financial emergencies.

Short term personal loans have been a lifesaver to millions of individuals that need a small amount of money to handle urgent financial responsibilities.  These loans are available in a number of different places and knowing what you need to look for in order to get the best short term personal loan will help you make your search a successful one.  There are several features that you will need to look for and the loan that has each feature in an acceptable range for your needs and financial situation should be the loan that you choose.

A Reasonable Interest Rate
One of the most common reasons that individuals choose to obtain a short term loan is that the interest rate for the loan will be lower than the interest rate that will be charged by a credit card company for placing the purchase on their credit card.  The interest rates charged for short term personal loans are generally competitive between lenders interested in obtaining your business, although the interest rate for the loan will be higher than for borrowing the same amount of money with a long term loan.  The actual interest rate may be higher, but in a majority of cases, a person will pay much less interest for a loan held for a shorter term.

Fair Terms And Conditions
Every person that is interested in obtaining any type of loan should understand the importance of reading all of the terms and conditions associated with a loan.  Reviewing the terms and conditions that dictate how a short term personal loan will be repaid is the only way for you to know exactly what you are agreeing to and will reduce the risk of getting hit with hidden fees and interest rate hikes in the future.  If there is anything written in the terms and conditions of the short term personal loan agreement that you do not understand, you should have the loan originator or a trusted individual explain the item to your full satisfaction before you sign your name to the agreement.

A Reputable Lender
Over the last decade, many different types of lenders have opened up shop in various areas across the country.  Many of these lenders are great for doing business with, offering good products at reasonable rates to all that qualify, but a few of these lenders are only in the business of taking your money.  Before deciding on a loan provider for a short term personal loan, you should do some research and talk to family members, friends, and acquaintances about their experiences with various lenders.  Obtaining this information will allow you to steer clear of bad lenders and focus on the ones that treat their customers fairly and have reasonable terms for their loans.

Although the use of coupons has been around for many years, in recent years the number of coupons redeemed has declined by a significant amount.  Coupon use topped out in the early 1990’s with nearly 8 billion coupons being redeemed each year, but in 2006, that number had dropped to little more than 2 billion.  Now, mainly due to the economic recession, more people are discovering how much they can save on a wide variety of items by using coupons.  There are several different places where a person can find coupons that can be used at a number of different retailers for various items.

Newspaper Inserts
Many companies choose to distribute coupons for their products through local newspapers, typically the Sunday edition.  In these newspaper inserts, coupons can be found for items as varied as baby furniture, toothpaste, and restaurants as well as everything in between.  These newspaper inserts also contain the sales flyers of various retailers showing which items are discounted in the store for a specific time period.  By using the information and coupons available in these news inserts, a person can save hundreds of dollars each year off of the cost of the items that they usually buy.

Direct Mail Coupons
Some retailers choose to mail their coupons directly to customers instead of relying on newspapers to distribute their coupons throughout the city.  These retailers may target a specific area of the city, close to where their store is located, or choose to only mail coupons to previous customers that have provided them with their mailing address.  These coupons may come as a flyer from a single retailer or bundled with other retailer’s coupons in an envelope.  Sometimes, these direct mail coupons include coupons for vehicle maintenance, pizza, local restaurants, and home improvement items.

Coupons From Websites
Because of the popularity of the internet, many retailers are beginning to offer coupons for their items on online websites.  Some websites contain many different types of coupons from various retailers and will allow the coupons to be printed from the website with a home printer so that the coupons can be taken to the physical store.  Other websites program the coupons onto the person’s store loyalty card so when the card is scanned at the store, the discounts are automatically taken off of the total.  Some store websites will have coupon codes listed on the website that can be used at the store’s website or a physical retail location.

Choosing the right kind of tips for getting out of debt can be difficult.  Many people would like to take control of their financial future and take the steps needed to reduce or eliminate the amount of debt that they hold, but they do not want to spend a great deal of money for the advice.  Many of these people seek out tips that can be used for getting out of debt that are less expensive, or free, but are still effective at debt elimination.

There are many places available where a person can find tips that the person would be comfortable using and knowing where to look for these money management tips is half of the battle.  Because most financial advisors charge a hefty fee by the hour for their advice, people that would like to find the absolute best price on tips that are good for getting out of debt will need to look in places that are more unconventional.

Money Management Websites

For most people, the best place to find tips that are good for getting out of debt is on a money management advice website.  Many of these online websites are run as small businesses and the low overhead of the business ensures that the company can keep their costs low while providing money management tips at a reasonable price for consumers.  Some of these websites require that the person become a member of their website in order to access the information while other websites allow anyone to have access to the tips found on their website.

Some of the most unique and effective money management tips you can find are found at these online websites.  These tips have been used successfully by many people for getting out of debt and the success of these methods have encouraged people to share their stories and recommendations for the best ways to manage money until all of your debt has been eliminated.

Many people prefer to find tips that are good for getting out of debt online because it allows them to compare many money management tips from different experts and choose the best ones for their current financial situation.  Different people have different ideas about the best course of action to take for getting out of debt and may decide to follow the advice of a particular expert because it conforms to their ideas on the best ways to reduce their debt load.

One of the least well known aspects of investing is investing in penny stocks.  Many investors misunderstand the definition of a penny stock and either avoid them like the plague or increase their shares of penny stocks to the point where they could be a dangerously high percentage of their portfolio.  If you are interested in purchasing penny stocks to add to your holdings, there are a few things that you should understand first.

What Is A Penny Stock?

A penny stock, as defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is a stock that is sold as low priced shares of a small company.  These shares are generally sold outside of the stock exchange and are traded infrequently.  The people that purchase these shares are often lured with the prospect of making significantly more than the initial investment in a short period of time with a company that could become well-known in the future.

There are a number of different types of companies that are traded in the penny stock market.  Some of the shares are from out of favor stocks or companies that are entering or emerging from a bankruptcy.  Other shares come from speculative entities that are legitimate, but are too risky for more cautious investors.  There are some fraudulent companies and entities that also trade shares on the penny stock market, but by researching the underlying companies before purchasing any stocks, savvy investors should be able to avoid those that are fraudulent in nature.

Pricing Penny Stocks

It can be difficult to find accurate price quotes for a penny stock because the small companies that are offering the shares are not evaluated by the same regulators that monitor and valuate the larger corporations.  Some of the newsletters that are issued to prospective investors with penny stock price quotes are inventing the prices themselves or attempting to artificially inflate the price of the stock so that the owner’s holdings will be more lucrative, resulting in a “pump and dump” scheme.  It is important for potential investors to research and obtain accurate information on the companies that they are considering investing in so that they can make an informed decision on the best types of stocks to purchase for themselves.

The Risk Of Investing In Penny Stocks

Investors that invest in penny stocks are at a higher risk of losing their entire investment than the investors that purchase the more expensive stocks that are traded on a stock exchange.  The companies that trade their stocks as penny stocks have less capital to call on in the event of a catastrophic incident and so are at greater risk of bankruptcy or closure if something goes wrong.  Although the investor may be able to obtain a high rate of return for their initial investment in the penny stock, they may also lose their investment in a very short period of time if the company does not do well.

Many people across the nation are having trouble deciding whether credit card insurance is worth the price paid for the peace of mind that comes with the coverage.  Using this type of insurance for fraud protection has become more common as cases of identity theft and scams have increased over the last decade.  In many cases, if you do not have the insurance, you are leaving yourself vulnerable to financial devastation at the hands of crooks and scam artists.

Signing Up For The Insurance

Obtaining credit card insurance for protection from fraudulent activities is not difficult and can provide you with peace of mind, knowing that if you become a victim of some sort of criminal activity involving your credit card, you will be covered.  The credit card company will ask the person to sign up for the service when the person applies for the credit card account.  Even if the person declines the coverage when they open the account, they can always add the insurance at a later date, although the rates may change in the meantime.  It is important to ask about the details of the coverage before deciding whether to sign up for the insurance to understand exactly what is being purchased and what is covered under the insurance policy.

Different Types Of Credit Card Insurance

There are several different types of credit card insurance that may be purchased from the insurance company in order to protect your credit rating or protect your account against fraud.  The type of insurance that is currently the most popular among consumers is insurance that protect you from charges if the credit card is used without your permission.  Many credit card companies have found this type of insurance to be so popular that they include it for no additional charge on many of their credit card products.

Another type of credit card insurance that is quickly gaining in popularity is the credit card life insurance policy.  This insurance policy pays the balance of the credit card in the event of the card holder’s death so that the debt does not become the responsibility of the cardholder’s family.  This type of insurance is very popular with people that have a high limit credit card, carry a balance from month to month, have dependent children, or have a spouse that is not employed.  Even though this type of credit card insurance does not offer much protection against fraud, it is often considered one of the best types of insurance offered by the credit card companies.