Cut Costs on Your Airport Parking

How many times have you run into a situation where you planned your business or vacation trip perfectly and end up shelving out loads of money on the airport parking? You reach the airport to find a decent parking space for the weekend or a long weekend and you are staring at a $100+ parking charges. That can be quite a dampener right at the start of your trip. Well the good news is that you can actually avoid such events, if you plan your airport parking in advance too.

In most cases, your perfect vacation trip was planned online through one of the several online flight / lodging or vacation booking sites. Planning your trip in that fashion is highly convenient and with pre-paid arrangements you are basically just enjoying your trip, without worrying about the additional charges. Well why not use the same logic for your airport parking too. If you can plan your entire trip meticulously, why leave out the small airport parking aspect.

There are many airport parking companies that display their services online. You must exploit the online services to get the best deals and spend minimum on the parking. The biggest advantage of the online service is that you can look at all the companies offering the service and compare them sitting at your home. So even before you get into the car you have a good idea of where your cheap parking spot is going to be. This is an excellent service that you must use. So what are the best deals that you could look at?

Cheaper Online Rates: Many of these sites give you special discounts for booking your spot online rather than turning up there to find a spot.

Special Day Rates: Just like flight charges, the parking charges during the middle of the week are much lower than during the weekends. You could get a multi-day discount or even a highly subsidized rate during the weekdays.

Early Bird Advantage: If you have your flight plans ready in advance; it is an ideal time for you to extend that advantage to your parking costs too. If you book your parking spot earlier, you could get good offers and discounts. This is more significant during the peak seasons when the actual rates can be quite high.

Membership Benefits: Being member of associations like the AAA can give you additional discounts, free pick and drop between the terminals and parking lot. Some of the credit card companies too have tie ups with these airport parking companies. You could avail special discounts or additional reward points, etc if you book the spots with certain credit cards.

Besides these, you could also look to choose a not-so-great parking spots for very low rates. Premium spots could cost you dearly, but rest are pretty affordable.

Thus you see there are many ways that you can cut costs in airport parking. When you are looking to save and bring down costs, why not do it with your airport parking too.

How Does Envelope Method Budgeting work?

In tough economic times like these, budgeting is becoming the mantra to gain control over you finances. There are many types of budgeting that you could adopt in order to restrain yourself from overspending and at the same time enjoying a contended life. One such type of budgeting is envelope budgeting.

As the name suggests envelope budgeting is practicing budgeting with envelopes. So obviously you will need envelopes and you will need cash. This method would not work with credit cards. If you want to practice envelope budgeting, you have to deal only with cash. It may seem very inconvenient, but that’s whole essence of this process. With envelope budgeting you want to make paying for your necessities a comfort, but purchases beyond what you can afford highly inconvenient. The logic is if buying something unimportant is inconvenient, you would automatically be discouraged from purchasing it. Just by playing with your psyche, you can work wonders with your finances.

Steps in Envelope budgeting:
1.Decide how do you want to practice this method. Do you want to go very granular or do you want to start in a simpler fashion? Your response would determine the number of envelopes you need.
2.Next decide what are the heads under which you want to categorize your expenses? Typical expenses would be your house rent, utility bills (phone, television, Internet, power, etc), groceries, monthly bills (credit card, insurance, loan repayment, etc), special expenses (servicing cars, visiting the doctor for minor health problems), accidental expenses (major financial expense due to unexpected reasons), etc. This would be your general heads. If you want to go granular, make a separate envelope for each of the terms in the brackets, and others based on your spending habits.
3.Sum up the average monthly expenditure for heads in each of the envelope. This in effect should reflect majority of your expenses i.e. the ones that can help control your finances.
4.Now distribute your income into each of these heads proportionately. If you get a weekly income, then you must deposit a quarter of the amount for that head in the corresponding envelope.
5.Whenever you plan to pay or to purchase any item you will use the respective envelope.

That is the gist of Envelope Method Budgeting. To implement it, you need to have some discipline – never use the money from any other envelope for other expenses. This is something that you have to follow religiously. Let’s say you want to go out for groceries shopping; then carry the groceries envelope with you. Purchase all that you want and pay from that envelope. If you exceed that limit, you would have to return some goods, come back home pick another envelope and go back again. Not many would be looking to do that. More often that not, you’ll think about it the first time itself and drop off all the low priority stuff from your shopping bag. This is an excellent example of how you can avoid unnecessary spending with envelope budgeting.

One last thing to remember is that you would be dealing in cash for this method, hence take care to place the envelopes in a safe and secure place. You don’t want people to be stealing your hard earned money.

Demystifying Your Monthly Credit Card Statement

Credit cards give you the convenience of making cashless payments while shopping in the stores and also shopping online. Many credit cards have associated reward points which can be redeemed for interesting gifts and discounts. Hence, many people prefer to get a credit card.

However what people don’t tend to do is to read their monthly statements carefully. Not doing so can have serious consequences. The most obvious one being that you miss the due date for making the payment and you get a fine for the mistake. It is just not a late payment fine, but also a steep interest on the amount due. It is always advisable that you go through your credit card statements in detail.

For some people, the details in the statement is itself such a big mystery that they prefer to avoid it. This article should help you understand the basic heads in your credit card statement.

1. Account/ Card Number: This is your credit card number or a unique bank account number associated with your credit card. The credit card statements may have either or both of these details.
2. Name & Address: This is your name and your present billing address.The address is important as all the billing information is sent there. If you ever decide to move, make sure that you inform the bank to change the billing address. Many times online banking sites may use this to verify the authenticity of your credit card payment.
3. Reference/ Bill Number: This is a unique number for your bill. This number may be explicitly mentioned under the header or it may be printed separately at the top of your bill. You can use this number for any clarifications or issues that you may have with your statement. It is also useful in referencing your bill payments should a conflict arise in future.
4. Statement Date & Due Date: The statement date is the date when the statement was prepared. The due date is the date by which you have to pay the bills if you don’t want to attract any additional charges and affect your credit history.
5. Credit Line/ Limit & Balance: The credit limit or credit line is the maximum that you are allowed to spend with the credit card. If you are just starting and don’t have a strong credit history, you’ll get a lower credit line. With prompt payment of your bills you can extend the limit. However, don’t extend the limit beyond what you need as it increases the risks in case of stolen card. Besides, increasing the limit is free and just a phone call away, you can do it whenever you please, so exercise caution. The Credit Balance is the unspent amount in your credit limit that you have not used for the month.
6. Minimum Payment Due: This is a good aspect of the credit card, especially if you have a temporary financial problem. You don’t have to repay the complete amount that you spent during the month to maintain good credit history. You just need to pay this minimum amount (around 5-20%) to build your credit history. Though you would be paying an interest on the rest of the amount, it at least helps you tide over the financial crisis in the short term.
7. Reward Points: If your credit card has an associated reward points program, this section would show you the total points that you have earned till date.
8. Transactions: This is the list of all the transactions you made with your credit card for the given duration (month).

Thus you see that a credit card statement is a good collection of relevant information about your monthly activity. Use this statement to compare your expenses with what’s mentioned in the statement and that allows you to keep a tab on things. If you have any discrepancies, call the company immediately and get it sorted out.

7 Simple Tips To Improve Your Credit Score

Credit history and credit records are of utmost importance in many decisions related to your finances. Most credit lending companies rely heavily on your credit history for evaluating your loan application. Unfortunately, the process of creating your credit history is not flawless. Being complex there are many genuine issues, some loopholes that creditors may exploit and lastly your own ignorance that can damage your credit record. Hence, you need to take the initiative and start to repair your credit records.

There are many ways you can improve your records, given below are some highly effective ones. All may not suit your present state, but you can experiment with those that are applicable to you and see the results for yourself.

1. Balance Ratio Reduction
   The balance due on your credit card payments has a significant contribution in your credit score – as high as 150 points. If you maintain a good balance, you enjoy better ratings. Typically a unpaid balance of 60+% (of the limit) can have negative effect on your score and one below 20% has great impact. Hence, try to get as close to 20% as possible with your unpaid balance. You could either pay the debt to bring your balance down, or your could increase your limit. Observe that the balance is always seen relative to your limit. So increasing your limit helps bring down your balance ratio.
2. Secured Cards
   These are another great tool to improve your credit ratings. If your application for a credit card gets turned down, you must opt for a secured credit card. Secured credit card is one which is secured by some amount that you deposit with the credit card company. Given the security, it is almost always approved and you can build your credit with it. Again, if you stick to a <20% balance ratio on this card, you would do a great job with your credit ratings.
3. Authorized User Accounts
   You can join some other stable credit record of family member and own a credit card jointly. The solid credit record with that credit card can help you gain important credit scores too. Being a joint owner of the credit card, the authorized user accounts can help repair your credit scores.
4. Student Loans Rehabilitation
   If you have a default student loan that you haven’t been able to pay off, look to target that. There are provisions to bring it out of default and you can repay the loan to have it knocked out of your credit history. Get in touch with the Student Loan Ombudsman Office to look at the options that you could pursue and talk with the lender to rehabilitate the loan.
5. Verify Letters from Collectors
   Letters from collectors are great source of credit repair, so don’t just head to pay them or throw them away the next time you get one. Look to verify the claim and if you find something amiss, you can ask the collector to validate the debt. If not validated, they can neither collect anything from you nor can they report it to the credit bureau.
6. Check your Credit Report Yourself
   Annually order a copy of your credit report and look for mistakes and erroneous entries. Even if they are genuine, but you can’t place them, it is better to get them verified than live with them. This is a great credit repair exercise.
7. Check Reported Credit Card Limits
   As stated the balance to credit limit ratio is vital part of your score. Some credit card companies would look to report the limit close to your balance for their petty benefit. Check the reported limits and have them changed with your latest credit card statements as proof.

If you can relate to some or all of these tips, but are unsure how to go about it; hire a professional. Credit repair lawyers are best equipped to examine your credit records and help you repair them.

Getting a Cheap Car Loan

Cars are inevitable modes of transport now days. Almost everyone needs a car at some point or another. However, the car prices are not going down. Despite all the discounts, grand offers it is just amazing how the cars always seem to be dearer than the last time around. Fortunately you have the option of taking loans for purchasing cars. Loans give you the upfront money to buy the car and start using it even if you don’t have to finances to pay for it completely. You can repay the loans in monthly installments over a few months or years depending on the scheme. Car loans are very popular and several banking institutions and even car dealers offer such loan services. While such loans are commonplace, it is best if you do some research on the loans before accepting one.

For many of us purchasing a brand new car is virtually out of the equation because of the financial position. Some people may actually be in a good position to buy the new car on loan, they can exploit such services. For others there are always the used cars – cars that have previously been owned by some other person who wants to sell it. Of course with the used cars, a lot more things need to be taken into consideration like the mileage, condition of the parts, warranty, etc. Depending on your financial position you may have to avail car loans even for used cars.

Choosing a car loan like any loan is an important decision. Given the significant financial commitment, it is best if you carry out due diligence before signing the dotted line for any loan. So that brings us to the all important question on how to go about getting a good car loan.

Your best chance of getting a good, cheap car loan with desirable terms and conditions is to have a clean credit history. A good credit history means that you have a track record of paying your loans on time. This reassures the lender to give you the loan at better terms than otherwise. Hence, always focus on maintaining a good credit history.

However a bad or an extremely bad credit history may not mean you will not get the loan at all or get it at steep conditions always. The only problem with a bad credit history is that you would have to search harder to get the loan. But at no point should you hide any financial information while applying for the loan. It can damage your credit ratings even further and who knows you may be in other financial and legal hassles too.

Also remember that you don’t have to get the loan from a local institutions alone, you can get it from any lender that has favorable schemes. How do you find out about these schemes? Go online and visit their web pages. The Internet can be your best resource to get information about maximum number of lenders and their offers. You can then look at them and compare to find the one that is most compatible with your present financial situation. If you look hard enough you could actually get reports and discussion forums that would tell you which are the better lenders and who can help you the best.

Lastly, before signing any contract go through the fine print to find out any hidden clauses. Sometimes a great loan scheme on the face of it may have some terms and conditions that make it a mediocre one. If you are student, getting your car loan is a lot simpler as the credit checks are not very stringent for student applicants.

Tips for Safe Investments in Stock Markets

Stocks are one of the best tools to make decent money over a long period of time. More often not a good investment in a solid company stock should give you better returns than a bank deposit for the same duration. Hence it is always better to invest part of your income into stock markets.

However stock markets are not a risk-free avenue to invest money. Careless investors have lost lots of money in the bargain, so you have to be prudent in investing in the stock markets. Given below are some points that should help you make decent profits with a low down side.

Start Early

As stated before, the earlier you start the better. Typically, the markets show a lot of fluctuations and it may seem like you are losing your investment. But in the long run you’ll always make more than what you lost in the near term. Besides with an early start you are giving your investment longer time to mature and grow. With sufficient time the seasonal or monthly volatility in stocks would not affect your investments drastically.

Get a Good Broker

You need to have access to a broker to invest in stocks. Brokers are experts who know about the market and are authorized to trade on the exchanges. Make sure that you get a very good broker who can not only provide you good service but also give you tips and teach you the tricks of the trade while investing in stock markets. Do a thorough background check, look for references and the client feedbacks before picking your broker. If you want to invest online, make sure that you associate with a reputable institution with good track record.

Carry out Due Diligence

Remember that it is your money that is being invested and you want it to grow with time. Hence, you have to put in a lot of effort into finding out which stocks to invest in and which ones to avoid. Research the company, its future growth, the industry trends, its competition, etc. before investing in it.

Trading Style

Some stocks have excellent short term growth prospects while others have a decent long term prospect. A short term high return stock can also be a very risky one. So pick how you want to trade. The pinnacle of short term trading is called day trading, where you buy and sell stocks the same day. Here you try to exploit the volatility of risky stocks during a single day. However exciting it may sound, very few have actually made it work well for them. If investing stocks is not your primary profession, day trading is best avoided.

Avoid Tips from Non-Experts

You would be surrounded by many well wishers who may suggest you a stock because they made excellent money on that. Though they may have the best interests in mind, know that few companies can keep giving you excellent returns always. So if they have made good money from it, chances are that the stock is reaching the peak of its surge so you have limited scope of making good money. Think about these aspects before investing.

Remember that investing in stocks requires a lot of careful consideration, diligent research and continuous monitoring. If you follow these principles and take care of all the red flags early, you would count yourself to be one of those who exploited stocks for their financial benefits in the coming years.