A Personal Finance Guide

Overdraft Fees Beware - How to Avoid

A recent frustration for myself has been learning the wonderful world of banks, and most importantly, the ways in which they nickel and dime most people to death. The majority of Americans are living with credit, with debt, and many recent college graduates are frustrated, unable to find work. This leaves a lot of people living paycheck to paycheck.

If you are living on the line, one of the best things you can do to prevent extra expenditures is to beware of overdraft fees. There are some simple things you can do to prevent overdraft fees in the first place:

1. Create a budget and monitor your spending strictly. Know your account balance mentally without needing the computer to confirm it.

2. If unsure about your balance, check an ATM or your online banking before making a purchase. Even a $1.50 item that overdrafts your account will often result in a whopping fee - sometimes up to $30.00 for each infringement.

3. Ask the bank to disable your “overdraft protection” or “balance shield” - all clever names to encourage your feelings of “protection” - when in reality, they’re just hoping to make a buck from your accounting error.

4. If you’re not making enough to justify any investments or savings accounts - consider keeping your money outside of the banks. Recent history has shown that investment companies and monetary spending groups are not iron clad, and can be very selfish.

If you do make an overdraft and notice, report it to your bank right away. Claim ignorance, claim naivety, feign a medical emergency that your Grandma was experiencing, thus justifying the $2.99 peanut purchase from the gas station. Some banks will forgive the first overdraft - but being confident and loud can help - even if you know it was your own mistake.

Banks have long been on top of the people whom support it - and our current so Read the rest of this entry »

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Regain Your Personal Finance - How to Legally Eliminate Credit Card Debt

The number of years we have been working, price and the cost of living had not hit us so hard as it did in the past two years, when the economy has fallen and the overall environment has become extremely hard for us to bear. This is not because we are lenient in your spending but there are certain other reasons as well. Most of the people are under debt now and the number has kept on increasing gradually. Debt makes the persons on going life very tough as without any financial backup one can’t survive for a long period of time. One must look for the best feasible solution to regain confidence and balance in one’s personal finance.

A huge number of people are looking for the best option and taking advice from professionals which will help them in achieving their goal. The professionals can be the credit counselors or planners that can guide you regarding your debt settlement. The other popular programs are the debt consolidation or the debt settlement. Regarding the debt consolidation you must collect all the necessary information about your credit cards. That is how one can make the best use of credit cards and pay them back on time. The total debt amount on the card should be known to the card holder and also the interest rate at which the payment is made to the financial body. Before approaching any professional you must collect all these necessary information about your credit card status.

If you approach any debt relief company for debt consolidation then all the credit card debts are collected together and then they are reduced in certain amount. That amount is to be paid in lump sum or in the monthly installments and that too at a lower interest rate and over a longer period of time.

If you are going for the debt settlement then you have to approach your creditor especially if the debt amount is less than $10000. If the amo Read the rest of this entry »

No Comments »

Regain Your Personal Finance - How to Legally Eliminate Credit Card Debt

The number of years we have been working, price and the cost of living had not hit us so hard as it did in the past two years, when the economy has fallen and the overall environment has become extremely hard for us to bear. This is not because we are lenient in your spending but there are certain other reasons as well. Most of the people are under debt now and the number has kept on increasing gradually. Debt makes the persons on going life very tough as without any financial backup one can’t survive for a long period of time. One must look for the best feasible solution to regain confidence and balance in one’s personal finance.

A huge number of people are looking for the best option and taking advice from professionals which will help them in achieving their goal. The professionals can be the credit counselors or planners that can guide you regarding your debt settlement. The other popular programs are the debt consolidation or the debt settlement. Regarding the debt consolidation you must collect all the necessary information about your credit cards. That is how one can make the best use of credit cards and pay them back on time. The total debt amount on the card should be known to the card holder and also the interest rate at which the payment is made to the financial body. Before approaching any professional you must collect all these necessary information about your credit card status.

If you approach any debt relief company for debt consolidation then all the credit card debts are collected together and then they are reduced in certain amount. That amount is to be paid in lump sum or in the monthly installments and that too at a lower interest rate and over a longer period of time.

If you are going for the debt settlement then you have to approach your creditor especially if the debt amount is less than $10000. If the amo Read the rest of this entry »

No Comments »