Observers in the lending industry have estimated that there may be at least 50 million Americans who are not able to qualify for credit. These consumers are usually young, often members of the minority groups and unbanked…and they are faced with the long-standing dilemma of credit: how can I build my credit record if no one will give me any credit at all?One of the answers offered by credit card companies is a variety of prepaid credit cards, designed for use by specific segments in the market. The prepaid credit cards are meant for that significant portion of the population that cannot meet the qualification criteria for regular credit cards, or who qualified before but have since lost their credit due to repeated defaults and other reasons.Advantages of Prepaid Credit Cards For those who do not have enough credit history or have had it blemished, prepaid credit cards are an effective way to build or slowly rebuild credit. That may not happen immediately, but it is something to work on over time. The banks that issue prepaid credit cards are also prepared to extend normal credit the moment you are able to show that you have become a worthy credit risk.For the moment, you may have to make do with prepaid credit cards. You can use prepaid credit cards as you would any other regular credit card to purchase airline tickets, reserve hotel rooms, or order items online.Prepaid Credit Card for Students There is a special prepaid Visa credit card for students, which offers a lot of convenience not only for the students but also for their parents. These reloadable prepaid credit cards offer parents several options on how to reload. Parents can add money to reloadable prepaid credit cards by depositing money, by arranging an automatic transfer of funds from their account (a deposit account or their own credit card account), or by online transfer. Using the prepaid Visa credit card is no different from giving the regular allowance to their child, only they do so by electronic means and there is no more cash that changes hands.The big advantage of the prepaid Visa credit card is that the student is limited to spend only as much money as there is in the card. The parent is thus able to control to some extent the spending behavior of their child. They can use the prepaid credit card anywhere that the credit card brand is accepted.Prepaid Credit Cards as Gift Certificates Some prepaid credit cards function like gift certificates. You buy the prepaid credit card for a certain amount, and your recipient can purchase items with it at any of the brick-and-mortar stores or online merchants, and also for mail order items, that accept the particular credit card brand. Your recipient can use the prepaid credit card only up to the amount of money that you loaded on it. This particular version of prepaid credit cards is non-reloadable.Like any gift certificate, recipients of prepaid credit cards can buy whatever it is they want at any time they want. Unlike a gift certificate that, when it gets lost is lost forever to the recipient, prepaid credit cards may be replaced if it gets lost or is stolen.Prepaid Credit Cards for Travel There is a prepaid credit card designed for travel. These reloadable prepaid credit cards can be purchased in lieu of travelers’ checks or cash. In a way, it combines the best features of a credit card and a traveler’s check because of its convenience and security features. Should you lose the prepaid credit card while you are on travel, you can easily obtain an emergency replacement, both for the prepaid credit card and some cash.Prepaid credit cards for travel are accepted all over the world, and also allow you to obtain currency from ATM machines. When you need to reload and you are already traveling you can arrange for the reload by phone or online. Apart from the fact that it is a prepaid credit card, you can use it exactly like a regular credit card. That also means you enjoy other benefits just like a regular card — reimbursements for lost luggage of up to $1,000 per cardholder if your luggage is lost; zero liability if your prepaid credit card is used fraudulently after you lose it or have it stolen from you; purchase security up to $500 per claim for any items you buy with prepaid credit cards, which subsequently gets stolen or damaged for certain reasons.Generally, you can purchase prepaid credit cards of all the major credit card brands at their participating retailers. You don’t have to worry about not having acceptable credit because prepaid credit cards are made available without need of a credit report or a bank account. The only qualifications you need to have are that you have reached 18 years of age and that you must be able to present a valid identification issued by government.Disadvantages of Prepaid Credit Cards There are a few things about prepaid credit cards that may not be as convenient as the regular credit cards. For one thing, you load only so much money onto it. You will need to keep track of the balance on the prepaid credit card because not all of the merchant terminals where you use the card may be able to help you determine it. However, there are procedures that tell you how to determine your balance, and you will these detailed on the back of the prepaid credit card and in the instructions accompanying it.The process of reloading your prepaid credit card may be a little inconvenient to some. If you’re using cash, you would have to visit the participating outlet where you bought your reloadable prepaid credit cards. The more convenient way will be reloading online.There are also the charges. Prepaid credit cards impose an application fee, the amount of which varies with the issuer, and there is also a service charge that you have to pay monthly. You also have to pay for transaction fees, charges when you transfer funds to top up the balance, when you replace your prepaid credit card, and many other fees. To be sure about the fees, you should read closely the fine print on the prepaid credit card account.Prospects of Prepaid Credit Cards Prepaid credit cards do not provide credit; it is your money that you’re using. You are asked to pay other charges, so it is not for free. You are paying for the convenience and security of carrying plastic instead of large amounts of cash. People with bad credit will be able to act as if they had a regular credit card and enjoy the convenience of one.Issuers of prepaid credit cards realize that it is a good way to monitor the credit behavior of the cardholder. A prepaid credit card would be a source of information that indicates to the credit bureaus and issuing lenders about how you as the individual cardholder use the card to pay your bills such as utilities. If these consumer data could be formatted in such a way as to provide the basis for a statistical model on probable future behavior in spending, then this could become the foundation for building a credit history.You would benefit, because by using prepaid credit cards you are rebuilding your credit. The prepaid credit card issuers would benefit, too, because they would be making previously unproven customers bankable. More people could then qualify for regular credit, and that would mean tremendous incremental revenue for the lenders.
Personal Finance Site – Resort to All Your Finance Related Queries
A Personal finance site provides the existing as well as prospective investors the tips, suggestions, advices and the facility to connect to a share market agent online. All the happening in the capital market can be watched in the run-time with the help internet accessibility spread all over the world. All such personal finance sites provide relevant information to their readers. They provide the data which affects the decisions of the readers.Every personal finance site has experts to write the content to be put online, which determines the traffic quality to that particular site. The various options available there for investments can be read, watched and understood by the reader online. The different investment options are discussed there, to give clear view about the market position of that product.Any popular personal finance site accumulates all the data regarding various investment options available in the market like, mutual funds, shares, debentures and bonds. Mutual funds offer multiple options along with professional management. Mutual funds are assumed as a resort for easy liquidity. An ideal personal finance site takes care of the queries asked by their followers. They provide sure shot and feasible suggestions as the answer to the queries made in context with the choice of investment options, tenure for investment and organization goodwill etc.An ideal site can drive unimaginable amount of traffic on to its portal, with the help of the quality of suggestions, activities and content presented online. Customer base is the key to the growth of any business site. These site which provides relevant tips, cautions and options while doing investments catches the maximum attention.Some of the tips regarding investment threats and options are given below:• Be aware of the market on routine basis. Go through the content published on these sites to check the position of the investments vehicle which are interested in.• Be cautious of the prevailing market threats like credit card frauds, fake agents who perform illicit trading activities and rob you off your money online.• Expert advice is of great importance to check the variability and wide range of options available for investments.• A good site provides you with the run-time information regarding the procedures to apply for credit cards, surrendering credit cards and taking up an insurance policy for that sake.• Market reading by a personal finance site expert provides good quality data which you can further use to derive decisions about taking up of rejecting a policy.Users, who aim at gaining relevant knowledge to plan their retirement plan, can also seek the help of such personal finance sites to reap in maximum profits from the policies provided by various companies. Even major players in the capital market recruit agents to follow their ratings among these sites, as it the matter presented there can affect en organizations revenues in long run.But without forgetting the market tricks users are recommended to not to follow only one site to make up their mind, they should check out all the major sources of information relevant to their interests available online or offline. The credibly of the content placed on a site determines its worth and reliability in the mind of the users.
Internet Marketing Web Site Promotions – Zero Cost Online Campaigns
Running effective internet marketing web site promotions using conventional online advertising campaigns can be quite costly. Online promotional methods such as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising can drive traffic quickly to your web site. But with cost per click rates skyrocketing for many search terms, it can be difficult to break even on the front-end, and even more difficult to make a profit.What if you could create zero cost web site promotions that were perpetually self-sustaining? What if you could combine three proven Internet marketing techniques together to create very effective online promotions at zero cost other than a little of your time?Effectively applying these three internet marketing techniques will ensure that your web site promotions are successful:1. Article Marketing2. Newsletters3. Viral Marketing eBooksWeb Site Promotions Using Article MarketingThe web has a voracious appetite for content. Webmasters need content for their web sites and online newsletters (ezines). To fill this need, thousands of article directories have sprung up. A search in Google for “submit your article” produces over 1.5 million results! Webmasters can generally freely republish these articles as long as they leave the author’s “resource box” intact.Writing and submitting high quality articles to article directories is a highly effective internet marketing technique. By writing articles, you begin to establish yourself as an expert. Include a link to your web site in the resource box and you will drive targeted traffic to your web site. You will also create hundreds of keyword-rich backlinks to your web site. Such backlinks have the additional benefit of improving your ranking in search engine results.Web Site Promotions Using NewslettersSeasoned marketers will always tell you, “the money is in the list.” They mean your mailing list of people who chose to subscribe to your mailing list at your web site.Use an autoresponder service to send prewritten newsletters, or ezines, regularly to your list. This can be a very powerful marketing strategy. Use it to build your reputation as an authority in your field.Web Site Promotions Using Viral Marketing eBooksThe best way to build your list is to offer a free present for subscribing to your newsletter. eBooks and short reports make great presents. Create short reports or ebooks on your topic to give away to new subscribers.Be sure to encourage your subscribers to pass the ebook on to their friends. If you have an affiliate program, encourage them to rebrand the ebooks with their affiliate links.Combining The Three Proven Internet Marketing TechniquesPeople read your articles and visit your website. There they either make a purchase or subscribe to your newsletter for the free gift. The viral ebook begins to circulate around the web as some pass it on. People follow the links in the ebook back to your web site.The beauty of combining these three techniques to create internet marketing web site promotions is that all of them continue to produce traffic and sales long after you set them in motion. Many sites will leave your articles published for as long as their web site exists. Your autoresponder service will continue sending your prewritten newsletters. And the viral ebooks will continue to circulate on the web. Your zero cost internet marketing web site promotions will be perpetually self-sustaining.