Eiko and her credit card


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On the 24urenloop there was a stand of KBC where you could let them take a picture to put on your credit card. That’s how Eiko received her first credit card! Ok it was a festival credit card but anyway…
Action: www.mijnKBCkaart.be.

Picture taken by Fu.

Bad Credit? Get the Credit Card you Want and the Credit Card you Need!

So you have bad credit, millions do, and more importantly millions did.  Yes million of people have taken the steps necessary to improve their credit history, and credit ratings.

Before you start to improve your credit rating, it’s critical to find out why your credit is in the state that it is. If you don’t know why your credit is poor, then you must ask to see your credit reference file to find out.  At the UK Credit Card Centre we can help you in your quest to understand your credit score (Visit our Credit Help page). 

Once you have a good understanding why your credit score is poor, or bad, there are a number of simple steps you can take to help improve your credit rating and start to rebuild credit history and score:

Make sure you are on the electoral roll. It only takes a few minutes to register with your local council and it will help to improve your credit score over time.
Always pay bills when they are due. This will begin to improve your credit history and score and will again give you an improved credit rating over time.
Do not apply for too much credit.  The number of times you apply for credit, either credit cards or loans can have a negative effect on your credit score. Every application for credit is logged into your credit file.  Too many credit applications in a short period of time may not help your credit rating.
The truth matters.  When applying for credit never give false or misleading details.  Always tell the truth.  If there are inconsistencies with past credit applications or details that are held on credit checking systems differ from your application it will affect your credit score.
 Start to build a credit history over time and when you check your credit reference file you should find an improved credit score.  Remember good credit will not occur over-night, but if you take the time to fix your credit blemishes, your score will improve over time.

So how can you improve credit ratings if you can’t get credit?  Credit card companies like our Vanquis and Capital One are specially designed for people with bad credit, or for people that have credit that needs help.  Even if you have been turned down by other credit card companies, you may be able to qualify for cards designed to improve credit.

As long as you manage the card properly, stay withn your credit limits and pay promptly, this is a good way to build credit history and to improve your credit rating.  Take the time to understand how to build good credit, and you will start down the road of financial freedom.  To find out more about cards designed for people with bad credit, Please visit our site UK Credit Card Centre for additional details.

The Short and Simple Story of the Credit Crisis. By Jonathan Jarvis. Crisisofcredit.com The goal of giving form to a complex situation like the credit crisis is to quickly supply the essence of the situation to those unfamiliar and uninitiated. This project was completed as part of my thesis work in the Media Design Program, a graduate studio at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. For more on my broader thesis work exploring the use of new media to make sense of a increasingly complex world, visit jonathanjarvis.com Or email me at jonathan.jarvis@gmail.com Support the project! Buy a T-Shirt! cafepress.com/crisisofcredit
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CPR / My Neighbour to the West


Image by bill barber

Home Equity Loan

Home Equity Loan is defined as the loan secured by the primary home or by the secondary residence to the extent of the excess of the fair market value over the liability incurred in the process of purchasing. Generally home equity loan are offered in the purchase of the house or any repair, renovation work undergone in the extension of the house. Home equity loans are offered at a lesser interest rate by the Unique Mortgage group. Some of the terms related to home equity loan are equity loan and home equity debt.

Home equity loans are offered on the purchase of the home. When purchasing a home the considerations like the amount to be spent on the construction of the home should be determined. Then according to the budget the home equity loan should be applied. Unique mortgage loan offers home equity loans at a lesser cost and it can be processed through easy online service offered by the mortgage company. Some of the process involved in the purchase of the home equity loan with the Unique Mortgage loan is closure of the previous loan amount, beginning of the home equity loan processing steps, application for the loan, selection of the right rate of home equity loan and finally the calculation of the actual amount of home loan to be borrowed.

Home equity loan is usually described as the method of lending from the homeowner against the home equity loan for using the amount in the construction of the residence. Home equity loan can be used only for the construction of residential purposes and cannot be used for other commercial building. Home equity loan differs from the standard loan and the borrowing of the amount is maintained for over a period of time and it prevents from the excess borrowing and limits the interest rates.

A home equity loan allows the line of credit involved in the borrowing of money used for the construction of the residence using the home’s equity as the collateral security. Collateral property is defined as the property used for the purpose of guarantee or pledge that helps in repaying the debt. If the debt amount is not repaid, the lender can make use of the collateral property from getting the money back. Unique Mortgage group helps in the offering of home equity loan at a lower cost and makes the owner to make easy payment of interest rate plus the actual amount at a lower cost. The interest rate for the home equity loan is considered as the lesser in the Unique Mortgage Group and it helps in the easy payment of cash by the borrower.

Unique Mortgage Group offers the home equity loan with the ease of online application and with no hidden costs. Lower interest rates, easy money lending operations and lesser interest rate makes the process of home equity loan easy and simple for the borrowers. A home is a secured and safety place for any individual and hence construction of such homes should be taken with the reputed financial lending institutions. Important credit institutions like Unique Mortgage Group is considered as the best and safe place for the borrowers of home equity loan.

Accounting Principles

In all, there are nine accounting principles that are used to prepare all business accounts. Any business accounts that are created using any of these principles, are deemed by the professionals in the accounting world, as accounts that were prepared with principles that are generally accepted by all accountants throughout the world.

If these principles were not used, and financial data was just thrown together haphazardly, then the accounting for your companies accounts, would be complicated to say the least. All of these nine accounting principles will help to keep your corporate accounting needs straight, and in a methodical method that every accountant will be able to understand.

The mother of all accounting principles is the accrual principle, and will ensure that all of the business revenues and expenses are methodically recorded when the money is earned, and not when it is paid for. There is a set way that money is recognized in the accounting world of high financed businesses, and the principles of revenue recognition are followed to make sure the recognition is interpreted right.

Accountants will use a historical cost principle when they are filling in the financial data for your business accounts. These accounts can glace at a balance sheet, and see what the price of the item that was sold, cost the company that they are recording business accounts records for. There are other account transactions that might be confused with this principle, and that is the current cost accounting feature.

For financial records to be consistent, accountants often require their clients to methodically record their financial transactions using the consistency principles. This way their financial information is recorded the same, time after time, and there will be no confusion over the entries after a long period of time.

If other principles are mixed with the constancy principles, the end result may provide the wrong financial figures. Tax auditors find that this will be the case in businesses that are performing illegal activities, and do not want to leave a lot of financial information that can be easily traced, and legitimate business do not want to leave this bad impression on such a major faction such as the Internal Revenue Service.

To keep financial accounting of business records from becoming confused with other expenditures made by the business owner, accountants like to use the separate legal entity concept when they are performing financial services for a company, and the personal banking transactions of a person that is small business owner. Some business owners get confused and make withdrawals from their business accounts for personal use, and make the wrong entries in both sets of checkbooks.

Google Sites account niceness


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Final segment in series of 17 videos describing the essential ideas typically covered in early weeks of a university-level accounting principles course. This explains reversing entries.

City of Boston Real Property Tax Payments Page


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Delinquent Tax Properties – Buying Liens at Tax Sale or Deed Sale May Not Be the Way to Go

If you’re looking to make money from delinquent tax properties, there are several ways to do it. First, get clear on why you want to get involved with tax delinquent properties in the first place. There are two basic ways to make money by attending tax sales: interest on tax liens that you can purchase, whose owners end up paying you off, or by acquiring the properties directly at rock-bottom prices.

If you’re interested in earning an above market interest rate on your money, consider going with tax liens. Half or so of the states in the US sell tax liens to recoup back taxes on delinquent properties. After you buy a lien, the owner of the property (and other parties with an interest) will have a certain period of time, called the redemption period, to pay of the lien with interest and reimbursement for your legal fees.

If you don’t really want to end up with property and are just looking for the interest, buy liens on nice properties in good areas. Most of the time, the lien will be bid up close to retail value, but usually you do end up getting the stated interest rate on the entire amount of your investment. By investing in nicer properties, you’re almost guaranteed to earn your interest. Over 95% of properties in the best condition and highest value end up being redeemed. If you are going to invest this way, just make sure you don’t overpay for the lien in the rare event the lien doesn’t get redeemed. In that case, you would apply for a deed after the redemption period and become the owner of the property for what you paid for the lien.

If you’re looking to acquire property, you may attend a tax deed sale, where deed/immediate ownership of the properties are offered. Here you will be bidding against many other people and the price often reaches near market value. You may have to bid on low-end properties just to have a chance at getting one. Also, you’ll probably need to hire an attorney to wade through all the legal work that goes along with acquiring property this way (same with a lien, as well).

Does this mean it’s hard to get tax delinquent property for cheap? Not at all. If you’re looking to acquire property easily and/or make lump sums of cash fast, the way to do that is to buy tax delinquent properties from the owners, without going to the auctions/sales, before they are lost to the lien holder or sold at deed sale at the end of the redemption period… a process I fondly refer to as “deedgrabbing.” Now, you won’t need to wait to get your property, and forget all the research needed to buy tax liens or tax deeds. Just see who is about to lose their property to tax sale, and contact them a month or less before! Most of the delinquent tax properties that have made it that close to the sale/auction are free and clear, because mortgage companies will pay off taxes for homes with mortgages rather than lose their interest in the property. And at this point, often the owners simply don’t want the properties anymore, or can’t afford the upkeep and responsibility. You can easily buy these properties, and immediately resell for huge profits- or keep them as rentals, and start to build your real estate empire!

The Trail of Lights fizzles out this year after budget cuts force it to the end of its road — while property taxes and water rates will increase.
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While the credit crunch has made borrowing for… or against… your home more difficult, home equity loans and lines of credit remain popular for those with equity. Stacy Johnson explains what these loans do and if you should consider them.

Home equity


Image by jacobgrier

How Do Home Equity Loans Work?

A home equity can be a great way to to get some money fast. Home equity loans are also sometimes called second mortgage. They allow a homeowner to borrow money from the equity they have in their home. Home equity loans can be for as much as 0,000 allowing homeowner to borrow to do renovations, pay off debt, etc. The interest on a home equity loans is tax deductible which has made this type of loan quite popular in the 1990s. Let’s look at how they work. Home equity loans come in two types. There are fixed rate home equity loans and line of credit home equity loans. In both cases, the terms vary from five to fifteen years. However, in both cases, the loans must be repaid in full in the event that the house is sold. The fixed rate home equity loans option gives the home owner a lump sum payment from the equity. The home owner will then repay the loans over a pre-determined period of time at a fixed interest rate. In most cases, the repayment is made monthly and the interest rate and the monthly payments remain the same over the life of the loan. In the case of the line of credit home equity loan, the principle is much the same as with a credit card. In fact, this type of loan often comes with a credit card. The home owner will be notified of the maximum limit of the line of credit and he or she can spend the money either by using the credit card or the cheques that the lender provided. Just like credit cards, line of credit home equity loans work on a variable rate of interest, which is determined monthly. Repayment of the loan must be made monthly, based on the amount borrowed that month. Once the life of the line of credit is over, the outstanding balance must be repaid in full. Home equity loans are a great source of money for home owner that need access to cash quickly. The money can used for anything at all but most borrowers will use the money to do home improvements, send kids to college, pay off another loan, etc. Home equity loans can be very appealing as their interest rate are almost always lower than other types of loans and certainly lower than credit cards. Someone with a credit card loan would benefit from taking a home equity loan on their home in order to repay the credit card debt. Not only will the home owner reduce his interest rate, the loans will be consolidated into one month bill and the interest rate on the home equity loan is partially tax deductible. Home equity loans are a great financial tool. Particularly for home owners looking to do renovations or with unforeseen expenses. They provide fairly easy access to money at a relatively low interest rate. However, remember that the loan must be repaid and that if you sell your home, the amount that you borrowed will not be profit in your pocket.