Credit card

A credit card is part of a system of payments named after the small plastic card issued to users of the system. The issuer of the card grants a line of credit to the consumer (or the user) from which the user can borrow money for payment to a merchant or as a cash advance to the user. A credit card is different from a charge card, which requires the balance to be paid in full each month. In contrast, credit cards allow the consumers to 'revolve' their balance, at the cost of having interest charged. Most credit cards are issued by local banks or credit unions, and are the same shape and size, as specified by the ISO 7810 standard.

Credit cards are issued after an account has been approved by the credit provider, after which cardholders can use it to make purchases at merchants accepting that card.

When a purchase is made, the credit card user agrees to pay the card issuer. The cardholder indicates his/her consent to pay, by signing a receipt with a record of the card details and indicating the amount to be paid or by entering a Personal identification number (PIN). Also, many merchants now accept verbal authorizations via telephone and electronic authorization using the Internet, known as a 'Card/Cardholder Not Present' (CNP) transaction.

Electronic verification systems allow merchants to verify that the card is valid and the credit card customer has sufficient credit to cover the purchase in a few seconds, allowing the verification to happen at time of purchase. The verification is performed using a credit card payment terminal orPoint of Sale (POS) system with a communications link to the merchant's acquiring bank. Data from the card is obtained from a magnetic stripe or chip on the card; the latter system is in theUnited Kingdom and Ireland commonly known as Chip and PIN, but is more technically an EMVcard.

Other variations of verification systems are used by eCommerce merchants to determine if the user's account is valid and able to accept the charge. These will typically involve the cardholder providing additional information, such as the security code printed on the back of the card, or the address of the cardholder.

Each month, the credit card user is sent a statement indicating the purchases undertaken with the card, any outstanding fees, and the total amount owed. After receiving the statement, the cardholder may dispute any charges that he or she thinks are incorrect (see Fair Credit Billing Actfor details of the US regulations). Otherwise, the cardholder must pay a defined minimum proportion of the bill by a due date, or may choose to pay a higher amount up to the entire amount owed. The credit provider charges interest on the amount owed (typically at a much higher rate than most other forms of debt). Some financial institutions can arrange for automatic payments to be deducted from the user's bank accounts, thus avoiding late payment altogether as long as the cardholder has sufficient funds.

Rewards

Many credit card customers receive rewards, such as frequent flier points, gift certificates, or cash back as an incentive to use the card. Rewards are generally tied to purchasing an item or service on the card, which may or may not include balance transfers, cash advances, or other special uses. Depending on the type of card, rewards will generally cost the issuer between 0.25% and 2.0% of the spread. Networks such as Visa or MasterCard have increased their fees to allow issuers to fund their rewards system. However, most rewards points are accrued as a liability on a company's balance sheet and expensed at the time of reward redemption. As a result, some issuers discourage redemption by forcing the cardholder to call customer service for rewards. On their servicing website, redeeming awards is usually a feature that is very well hidden by the issuers. Others encourage redemption for lower cost merchandise; instead of an airline ticket, which is very expensive to an issuer, the cardholder may be encouraged to redeem for a gift certificate instead. With a fractured and competitive environment, rewards points cut dramatically into an issuer's bottom line, and rewards points and related incentives must be carefully managed to ensure a profitableportfolio. Unlike unused gift cards, in whose case the breakage in certain US states goes to the state's treasury, unredeemed credit card points are retained by the issuer.

Credit cards in ATMs

Many credit cards can also be used in an ATM to withdraw money against the credit limit extended to the card, but many card issuers charge interest on cash advances before they do so on purchases. The interest on cash advances is commonly charged from the date the withdrawal is made, rather than the monthly billing date. Many card issuers levy a commission for cash withdrawals, even if the ATM belongs to the same bank as the card issuer. Merchants do not offer cashback on credit card transactions because they would pay a percentage commission of the additional cash amount to their bank or merchant services provider, thereby making it uneconomical.

Many credit card companies will also, when applying payments to a card, do so at the end of a billing cycle, and apply those payments to everything before cash advances. For this reason, many consumers have large cash balances, which have no grace period and incur interest at a rate that is (usually) higher than the purchase rate, and will carry those balance for years, even if they pay off their statement balance each month.

Consolidate Federal Student Loans

Step1

Contact Your Lender: Although as a general rule the traditional lenders are not consolidating student loans, it still doesn't hurt to try. Call your lender today and ask about low annual percentage personal loans or even low interest credit cards. With low credit card annual percentage rates (APR) you might even get a similar rate.

Step2

Federal Direct Consolidation Loans: If you google search "Federal Student Loan Consolidation" one of the first sites you will find is www.loanconsolidation.ed.gov - the federal website for federal student aid. If you select "Borrower Services" it will take you to the federal consolidation website. It takes about a month to get a response from the FSA, but it is the only agency that is currently consolidation the loans.

Step3

What if I can't get the loans consolidated?: In a few instances it may be impossible to consolidate your loans, so what can you do if you just can't afford the payments at this time. First you should contact your lender and simply tell them it is too much to repay at this time (cite your reasons). Many times they will reduce your payment or extend the life of the loan. A second option is to place the loans in forbearance, which allows you to defer payment for a set amount of time until your financial situation improves. A third option is to return to school at least part-time (6 units). This can be done at a junior college or a local university, and is not dependent on what courses you take. This option will allow you to defer your loans without penalty, as long as you are in school.

Avoid Using Credit Cards

Step1

Remember that every time you swipe a credit card, you're borrowing money you don't have, and digging yourself further into debt. Look at your credit card and repeat it to yourself, over and over again, until it's the first thing that comes to your mind whenever you see that card in your hand.

Step2

Scale back to one card. Close all the other accounts, and cut up the cards. Yes, closing several accounts at once may ding your credit score a bit, but if you're going to be living a debt-free lifestyle from now on, that little ding isn't going to make a difference. Credit scores only matter when you try to borrow money you don't have!

Step3

Leave your one credit card at home. It's too tempting to use it if it's immediately available in your wallet. Your credit card should only be used when you need to make an immediate purchase (like an airline ticket), but need time to transfer the money to your checking account (from a savings or other account). It should NOT be used to purchase items you don't have the money for! After using your card, immediately transfer the money you need and pay it off. Don't wait for interest to accrue.

Step4

Manage your money with an online tool such as Mvelopes, where you can see all of your accounts in one place. Log on every day to balance your checking account transactions and schedule bill payments, so you know exactly how much money you have available for each category (gas, groceries, clothes) at any given moment. See my article "How to Manage Your Money Online" for more info.

Step5

Use cash or debit card only. Now that you know exactly how much money is available, you'll be more likely to stay under that limit. You know what this means, though. When the money runs out, STOP SPENDING! If you use cash or debit only, you'll have no choice but to be more careful and deliberate about your spending.

Step6

If you're having trouble learning how to curb your spending, put cash into designated envelopes in your wallet or purse, and leave your debit card at home (to prevent overdraw and impulse purchases). When your grocery money envelope is empty, you have to stop, period. Studies have shown that the action of counting out dollar bills and handing them over is psychologically more painful than swiping a card, which is why you tend to spend less when using cash.

Step7

Attend a personal money management class like Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University to give you a practical plan for eliminating debt and building wealth, and help keep you inspired, educated and accountable.

Step8

Get rid of tempting credit card offers in the mail. Log on to www.optoutprescreen.com and follow the directions to opt out of unwanted credit card offers and other financial junk mail.

Step9

Ask for help. If you still cannot seem to control your spending and impulse purchases, get whatever help you need, whether from a financial advisor or even a therapist who specializes in compulsive behaviors.

Improve your credit score during a financial hardship

Step1

Gather all of your bills.
Take a good look at them without crying.
learn these simple rules of importance.

Step2

Do not pay the bills that nag you and call you more just because they are nagging and calling. Those are usually the bills that have no collateral and cant take anything back from you. an example would be like a gym membership or credit card...
First only focus on what can hurt you more. Those are your mortgage, car loans...

Step3

make sure you call all your loan companies and explain to them your situation. Not picking up the phone and avoiding them is the easiest thing to do but the worst. (believe me I know). No one wants to admit they are struggling, but honestly what is the worst they can say to you? Tough luck, Pay up? No.. Believe me, they appreciate you letting them know because it seems you are concerned about paying it and you are not avoiding it.

Step4

Sometimes, when you talk to credit card companies after missing a payment or two, you can speak to them and ask them to lower your interest rate for you and maybe set up a payment plan that is much less than your minimum until you get on your feet. That may be documented on your credit, but it is better that non payment being documented.

Step5

Any monies you have, ration them out so you have some for daily life and some for your bills. Do not give up responsibility just because you have a small set back. Dont be afraid to ask for help as well, need be your family, the government or what ever. keep in search of a job to get you back in gear.

Step6

Downgrade the service in your cable, phone, cell phone, internet, or any other luxury. try to save anywhere you can.

Market trends

Bear market

A bear market is described as being accompanied by widespread pessimism. Investors anticipating further losses are motivated to sell, with negative sentiment feeding on itself in a vicious circle. The most famous bear market in history was after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and lasted from 1930 to 1932, marking the start of the Great Depression. A milder, low-level long-term bear market occurred from about 1967 to 1982, encompassing the stagflation economy, energy crises in the 1970s, and high unemployment in the early 1980s.

Prices fluctuate constantly on the open market; a bear market is not a simple decline, but a substantial drop in the prices of a range of issues over a defined period of time. According to The Vanguard Group, "While there’s no agreed-upon definition of a bear market, one generally accepted measure is a price decline of 20% or more over at least a two-month period." However, no consensual definition of a bear market exists to clearly differentiate a primary market trend from a secondary market trend.

Investors frequently confuse bear markets with corrections. Corrections are much shorter lived, whereas bear markets occur over a longer period with typically a greater magnitude of loss from top to bottom.

Secondary market trends

A secondary trend is a temporary change in price within a primary trend. These usually last a few weeks to a few months. A temporary decrease during a bull market is called a correction; a temporary increase during a bear market is called a bear market rally.

Whether a change is a correction or rally can be determined only with hindsight. When trends begin to appear, market analysts debate whether it is a correction/rally or a new bull/bear market, but it is difficult to tell. A correction sometimes foreshadows a bear market.

Correction

A market correction is sometimes defined as a drop of 10% to 20% (25% on intraday trading) over a short period of time. It differs from a bear market mostly in that it has a smaller magnitude and duration. Because of depressed prices and valuation, market corrections can be a good opportunity for value-strategy investors. If one buys stocks when everyone else is selling, the prices fall and therefore the P/E ratio goes down. Also, one is able to purchase undervalued stocks with a highly probable upside potential.

Bear market rally

A bear market rally is sometimes defined as an increase of 10% to 20%.

Notable bear market rallies occurred in the Dow Jones index after the 1929 stock market crash leading down to the market bottom in 1932, and throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Japanese Nikkei stock average has been typified by a number of bear market rallies since the late 1980s while experiencing an overall long-term downward trend. Bear market rallies are typically very sharp, sudden, and short-lived.

Secular market trends

A secular market trend is a long-term trend that usually lasts 5 to 25 years (but whose distribution is more or less bell shaped around 17 years, in the stock market), and consists of sequential 'primary' trends. In a secular bull market the 'primary' bear markets are almost always shorter and less punishing than the 'primary' bull markets are rewarding. Each bear market rarely (if ever) wipes out the real (inflation adjusted) gains of the previous bull market, and the succeeding bull market usually makes up for the real losses of any bear market. In a secular bear market, the 'primary' bull markets are sometimes shorter than the 'primary' bear markets (not often in the stock market), but rarely wipe out the real losses of the 'primary' bear markets during the cycle.

If you look at the 1966 - 82 secular bear market in stocks, there was hardly any nominal loss, But, in real terms the loss was devastating! (In the past, most 'housing recessions' were of this slow nature— allowing inflation to keep housing prices steady)

An example of a secular bear market was seen in gold over the period between January 1980 to June 1999, over which the nominal gold price fell from a high of $850/oz to a low of $253/oz, which formed part of the Great Commodities Depression. The S&P 500 experienced a secular bull market over a similar time period (~1982 - 2000).

Market events

An exaggerated bull market fueled by overconfidence and/or speculation can lead to a market bubble— which is usually signaled by an extreme inflation in the P/E ratios of the market commodities, e.g., stocks. At the other extreme, an exaggerated bear market, that tends to be associated with falling investor confidence and panic selling, can lead to a market crash and, in the case of the stock market, is often associated with a recession. The 1987 stock market crash was famously not associated with any recession.

Causes

Both bull and bear markets may be fueled by sound economic considerations and/or by speculation and/or investors' cognitive biases and emotional biases.

Expectations play a large part in financial markets and in the changes from bull to bear environments. More precisely, attention should be paid to reactions to information, chiefly positive surprises and negative surprises. The tendency is for positive surprises to fuel a bull market (when the news continually tends to exceed investor's expectations) and negative surprises tend to feed a bear market (with expectations disappointed). Also, some behavioral finance studies (Richard Thaler) show the role of the underreaction-adjustment-overreaction process in the formation of market trends.

Technical analysis

Many investors and analysts use technical analysis to try to identify whether a market or security is in a bull or bear phase, and to generate trading strategies to exploit the trend. Technical analysts believe that financial markets are cyclical and move in and out of bull and bear market phases regularly.

Etymology

The precise origin of the phrases "bull market" and "bear market" is obscure. The Oxford English Dictionary cites an 1891 use of the term "bull market".

The most common etymology points to London bearskin "jobbers" (brokers),^{[citation needed]} who would sell bearskins before the bears had actually been caught in contradiction of the proverb ne vendez pas la peau de l'ours avant de l’avoir tué ("don't sell the bearskin before you've killed the bear")—an admonition against over-optimism.^{[citation needed]} By the time of the South Sea Bubble of 1721, the bear was also associated with short selling; jobbers would sell bearskins they did not own in anticipation of falling prices, which would enable them to buy them later for an additional profit.

Some analogies that have been drawn, but are likely false etymologies:

• It relates to the common use of these animals in blood sport, i.e bear-baiting and bull-baiting.
• It refers to the way that the animals attack: a bull attacks upwards with its horns, while a bear swipes downwards with its paws.
• It relates to the speed of the animals: bulls usually charge at very high speed whereas bears normally are lazy and cautious movers.
• They were originally used in reference to two old merchant banking families, the Barings and the Bulstrodes.
• Bears hibernate, while Bulls do not.
• Bears keep their chin up, while Bulls keep their chin down.
• Bear neck points down while Bull's points upwards.
• The word "bull" plays off the market's return's being "full" whereas "bear" alludes to the market's returns being "bare".

Another plausible origin is from the word "bulla" which means bill, or contract. When a market is rising, holders of contracts for future delivery of a commodity see the value of their contract increase. In a falling market, the counterparties--the "bearers" of the commodity to be delivered, win because they have locked in a price higher than the present for future delivery.

Investment Business

Investment or investing is a term with several closely-related meanings in business management, finance and economics, related to saving or deferring consumption. An asset is usually purchased, or equivalently a deposit is made in a bank, in hopes of getting a future return or interest from it. The word originates in the Latin "vestis", meaning garment, and refers to the act of putting things (money or other claims to resources) into others' pockets. The basic meaning of the term being an asset held to have some recurring or capital gains. It is a asset that is expected to give returns without any work on the asset perse.

Finance

In finance, investment=cost of capital, like buying securities or other monetary or paper (financial) assets in the money markets or capital markets, or in fairly liquid real assets, such as gold, real estate, or collectibles. Valuation is the method for assessing whether a potential investment is worth its price. Returns on investments will follow the risk-return spectrum.

Types of financial investments include shares, other equity investment, and bonds (including bonds denominated in foreign currencies). These financial assets are then expected to provide income or positive future cash flows, and may increase or decrease in value giving the investor capital gains or losses.

Trades in contingent claims or derivative securities do not necessarily have future positive expected cash flows, and so are not considered assets, or strictly speaking, securities or investments. Nevertheless, since their cash flows are closely related to (or derived from) those of specific securities, they are often studied as or treated as investments.

Investments are often made indirectly through intermediaries, such as banks, mutual funds, pension funds, insurance companies, collective investment schemes, and investment clubs. Though their legal and procedural details differ, an intermediary generally makes an investment using money from many individuals, each of whom receives a claim on the intermediary.

Personal finance

Within personal finance, money used to purchase shares, put in a collective investment scheme or used to buy any asset where there is an element of capital risk is deemed an investment. Saving within personal finance refers to money put aside, normally on a regular basis. This distinction is important, as investment risk can cause a capital loss when an investment is realized, unlike saving(s) where the more limited risk is cash devaluing due to inflation.

In many instances the terms saving and investment are used interchangeably, which confuses this distinction. For example many deposit accounts are labeled as investment accounts by banks for marketing purposes. Whether an asset is a saving(s) or an investment depends on where the money is invested: if it is cash then it is savings, if its value can fluctuate then it is investment.

Real estate

In real estate, investment is money used to purchase property for the sole purpose of holding or leasing for income and where there is an element of capital risk. Unlike other economic or financial investment, real estate is purchased. The seller is also called a Vendor and normally the purchaser is called a Buyer.

Residential Real Estate

The most common form of real estate investment as it includes the property purchased as other people's houses. In many cases the Buyer does not have the full purchase price for a property and must engage a lender such as a Bank, Finance company or Private Lender. Herein the lender is the investor as only the lender stands to gain returns from it. Different countries have their individual normal lending levels, but usually they will fall into the range of 70-90% of the purchase price. Against other types of real estate, residential real estate is the least risky.

Commercial Real Estate

Commercial real estate is the owning of a small building or large warehouse a company rents from so that it can conduct its business. Due to the higher risk of Commercial real estate, lending rates of banks and other lenders are lower and often fall in the range of 50-70%.