We are getting closer to concluding this series on credit provided by personalmoneystore.com’s payday loans money blog.

We hope that the information provided thus far has been helpful to you in obtaining, reviewing and understanding your credit report as well as how credit works in general.

Now that you have reviewed your credit report, you may have found some errors. These errors, insignificant as they my seem, can prove devastating to your financial options over time.

Imagine what you would save on your home mortgage payment if your interest rate was a 1 to 2 percent lower. Your credit score can make a big difference on rates such as these, so working toward improving your credit score by fixing any errors can save you lots of extra money over time.

Finding Errors On Your Report

We all make mistakes, including our creditors. When creditors report your personal information to the credit bureaus, and when the credit bureaus update your personal credit report, mistakes are sometimes made that can cause you as the consumer to suffer undeserved consequences. Therefore, you must take ample time to look over your report to assure its accuracy.

Choose Your Errors Wisely

When reporting errors, you will want to pick and choose your disputes wisely. If you see a discrepancy such as the wrong creditor’s name or a recorded date on an older account that is inaccurate, it is best to leave these undisputed, as these issues do not have any real effect on your credit rating.

Additionally, remember when you dispute an error on your credit report, make sure you have the necessary documentation to back it up. Failing to have adequate support for your claims will get your dispute discarded as well as any other dispute that you file in the next 12-month period. So report only those errors that have a negative bearing on your credit rating.

The Law is on Your Side

When it comes to your credit, the law is on your side. If you have a dispute and the documentation to prove it, the credit bureaus must do their part to resolve it, or they will be held in violation of the laws protecting consumers. Be sure to make copies of everything you send to the credit bureaus so you have the necessary means to force the issue if your dispute fails to get addressed appropriately.

The Most Common Mistakes You’ll Find

1. Creditor Information that is InaccurateUsually errors such as these don’t matter a whole lot, but if you are insistent upon eliminating the error, request that the item be deleted. The bureaus will then delete the information or contact the creditor to verify the mistake in question. Therefore, if at all possible, try to clear the error with you creditor first before making the request to the credit bureaus to edit your personal report.Don’t expect to find all your accounts on your report. Some accounts, such as those established with payday loans lenders, don’t typically report information to the credit bureaus.
2. Inaccurate Credit LimitsIf you see that any of your credit limits are higher than they actually are, you will want to report them as inaccurate because it shows you have more financial liability than you actually do.
3. Inaccurate Account TypesIf you have closed an account that is reported open on your credit report, this too can hurt your credit rating. Some inaccuracies, however, may actually help you in your pursuit of good credit, such as a loan that you may already paid off that has duplicate entries on your report. This will only show that you have been consistently responsible. Leave it alone!
4. Inaccurate BalancesContrary to the above, if you have a account that you owe money on that is reported twice or more on your report, this will hurt you in that it shows you have more outstanding debts than you really do.This is a common scenario that often happens with consumers who have been turned over to collections. A credit report will show two accounts owed, the account with the creditor that turned them over to collections and the new collection account. Both will show the same debt.If this happens to you, you can have the original account deleted as the original creditor has sold your account to the collection agency.
5. Inaccurate Reports of Delinquency or Late PaymentsThese errors can hurt you the worst. If you see a late payment or delinquent account on your credit report and can prove otherwise through either a printed online statement or receipt, you should not have any problem overturning the error on your report.

Reporting information

The names and contact information of the three bureaus are as follows:

Equifax: P.O. Box 740250, Atlanta, GA 30374- 0241.
Report fraud: Call (888) 766-0008 and write to address above.
TDD: (800) 255-0056
Web: www.equifax.com

Experian: PO Box 9532, Allen, TX, 75013
Report fraud: Call (888) EXPERIAN (888-397-3742) and write to address above.
TDD: Use relay to fraud number above.
Web: www.experian.com/fraud

TransUnion: P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790.
Report fraud: Call (800) 680-7289 and write to address above.
TDD: (877) 553-7803
E-mail (fraud victims only): fvad@transunion.com
Web: www.transunion.com

Good Luck with your credit-building endeavors, and stay tuned to the payday loans money blog for more credit building tips.

New Hampshire’s Banking Commissioner has denied the request of payday loans lenders to charge 365% on open-ended lines of credit.

The South Carolina lender Advance America Cash Advance was fighting the the law that passed 8 day ago in New Hampshire capping annual interest rates on payday loans to 36%.

Peter Hildereth, the banking commissioner, declared the latest request to be unreasonable and predatory.

The request by Advance America was to loan money under a different section of banking law that would allow them to loan out money without being subject to the interest rate caps.

After stating that a consumer who borrowed $500 dollars at 365% interest for a year would end up paying a grand total of $2325 in interest, Peter Hildereth said the following;

“Brought down to its basic level, it just is not fair”

I agree, and I think that anyone would. $2325 dollars in interest on a $500 dollar loan is clearly an injustice when examining the situation at a quick glance. Looking at the situation a little closer, however, reveals an entirely different story proving that the lenders are actually the ones who have been dealt with unjustly.

The Truth Made Clearer

For instance, the 365% interest rate here has been explained using an unrealistic example. First of all, the interest rate here is an annual percentage rate which means that the $2,325 dollars in interest being charged on the $500 dollar loan in the example above, is based on the assumption that the consumer borrowing the loan would have to let the loan loan lapse for an entire year without making and effort to pay anything back. You would be hard pressed to find a consumer who would be so irresponsible as to miss payments 26 times in a row. The standard term for payday loans is two weeks.

Payday loans lenders typically charge up to 521% when it comes to interest rates. That being said, even at the highest percentage of 521%, far above the 365% charged by Cash Advance America, the total interest charged on a loan of $100 dollars for the standard term of two weeks, would cost the consumer only $20 in interest charges.

This is only a 20% interest charge on the money borrowed and a far cry from the ridiculous claims of misinformed payday loan opponents.

Putting things into Perspective

Now that we have revealed the truth in payday loan lending rates, let’s consider the situation from the side of Advance America and other lenders who are suffering from these interest rate caps.

As mentioned above, the caps were enforced at an annual percentage rate of 36%. For lenders this means that on a $100 dollar loan given on a two week term, the total profit made on interest charges for each loan would be $1.38 or just short of a dime a day.

You can now understand Advance America’s request to loan funds under different laws, as these low annual percentage rates will prove devastating to them and other payday loans businesses.

Adding Insult to Injury

It’s shocking that laws such as these are being passed with our economy in such a fragile state. These laws will create additional job losses as lenders will be forced to lay off employees or close stores altogether. For consumers everywhere who are having a hard time making ends meet, payday loans are a saving grace when the need to avoid late payment penalties with creditors or other small financial emergencies arise.

Show Your Support!

For those of you who have used payday loans and have seen their advantages, consider writing your local and state officials showing your support and expressing your concern over the latest trend sweeping the country capping lender’s interest rates.

It’s Should Be The Consumer’s Decision

When it comes to interest rates, consumers like you should decide what is acceptable and what is not through your simple choice to use or not use the services of payday loan lenders.

One thing is for certain, if things don’t change, these sources of of obtaining quick payday loans will cease to exist.

Image by flickr

The payday loan money blog continues Part III on personal credit with obtaining and reviewing your personal credit report. Here’s how.

A quick Internet search will reveal several sites you can use to order your credit report, but if you want the one that I use, it’s www.freeannualcreditreport.com. This site is a reputable source and will allow you to print off all three of your credit reports from each of the three main credit bureaus.

You will be asked some personal questions in regard to previous street addresses or credit accounts that will help them identify you as the person you say you are. Once you get through these preliminaries, you will be able to print off your report for review.

Understanding Your Credit Report

After printing off your credit report, the next objective is to carefully review it for any discrepancies. By discrepancies I mean anything that appears to be incorrect.

You may have misspelling in your name and address or you may have credit accounts listed that don’t belong to you. This could be a result of identity fraud or perhaps just a recording mistake made by someone else’s creditor or the credit bureau themselves.

Reading your credit report can be confusing at first, but after a short examination you ought to be able to make sense of it. Your credit report will be divided in to several sections. Here is some helpful information describing each section you will find on your report.

Section 1: Personal Information

The section on personal information is the easiest part of your credit report to read and contains information such as SSN, Name, Address, etc. Double check the information here for accuracy before moving on.

Section 2: Credit History

The credit history section contains the bulk of the information on your credit report. It lists all the information for your past credit accounts including the date they were opened, closed, account numbers, names of your creditors and if you still owe a creditor, the minimum payments, the total balance left on the account and the current status of the account whether delinquent or in good standing.

If you possess accounts that are not showing on your credit report, it may be because they are relatively new or the account resides with a company that doesn’t run credit checks when applying for their service. This would include companies like payday loans lenders. Some payday loans lenders don’t require credit checks at all, making them a prime source of extra cash for individuals with a bad credit score.

This information is pretty straightforward, but there may be some things you question, so I will list them below for your understanding.

• Internal Collection: The creditor is in the process of trying to collect the debt.
• Charged Off: The creditor tried to collect the debt, couldn’t and threw
  in the towel.
• Numbers prefaced by R or I: You will see a lot of the numbers on your accounts prefaced with the letters R or I. “R” stands for revolving credit accounts where “I” stands for Installment loan accounts. The lower the number that follows, usually between one and nine, the better the payment history on that account.

Section 3. Public Records

If you have anything in the public records section, you have a long road of credit repair ahead of you. This is the section where things like defaults and or bankruptcies are reported and is a big red flag to anyone thinking about extending a line of credit to you.

You will have to be diligent and patient as these things can take a long time to cycle of your credit report. For example, a bankruptcy can take as long as 10 years to cycle off.

Keep in mind, however, that these public records are easier to deal with as they get older, provided you maintain a clean credit history between then and now. Your credit score, however, won’t come to its full potential no matter what you do until they clear off your report altogether.

Section 4. Inquiries

An inquiry is marked on your credit report whenever the creditor you’re applying for financing through checks your personal credit. These inquiries could also be insurance providers as well as employers you applied with and gave consent to run your credit.

The more credit inquiries on your account, the more risky you appear to creditors as they might tend to think you will overextend yourself with two many open accounts and therefore not be able to pay them on time.

The number of inquiries typically doesn’t affect your credit score too much, but as a general rule of thumb you will want to be conscious of how often you are opening or applying for accounts or services that require a credit check.

In Conclusion

Take the time to download and review your credit report and join us again for Part IV of this series on the payday loans money blog.

I hope your report fares well!

Credit Cards - A funny Animal

Welcome back to personalmoneystore.com’s payday loans money blog and Part II of this series on personal credit.

Yesterday, in Part I we touched on personal credit and how credit is scored by the credit bureaus who track our financial account information.

Today we will continue our discussion. I’ll talk first about the common misconception regarding building credit that often gets consumers into trouble. I’ll also cover the first steps we will need to take in obtaining our personal credit score.

Common Misconceptions About Building Credit

Credit is a funny animal, and to some degree it works contrary to what we as consumers would consider sensible.

Naturally, we have a tendency to think that if we have a credit card and we make purchases and pay the balance off in full each month, we would get a higher credit score ranking from the credit bureaus.

However, by paying off the entire balance in full each month, the credit bureaus don’t see you as really borrowing any money at all. But, if you pay off your balance in monthly installments, the credit bureaus see you as having a debt and making good on that debt. Therefore, they award you points toward your credit ranking.

It Costs To Have Good Credit

It’s ironic that the the process of establishing a good credit score is achieved through the irresponsible practice of obtaining debt and paying it off more slowly than what would be considered financially smart.

Nonetheless, don’t let this become a crutch. Some consumers fall into the trap of justifying large credit purchases on behalf of their pursuit to obtain that elusive credit score.

Many other things will be addressed throughout this series that will help you strategically build your credit without falling into financial snares that will leave you entrapped in debt.

Many of our customers borrow payday loans just to avoid the late payment penalties on debts they have accrued by making decisions with good intentions but bad financial planning. Don’t let that be you!

The End of the Road for Bad Credit

It's a Hard Road

At this point you may not even know if you have good credit or bad credit. Surely you have some assumptions. After all, nobody pays your bills but you, so you must ask yourself, “Have I been diligent about making my payments on time?”

If so, I would expect at least a fair credit rating, but really there is only one way to find out: obtaining a copy of your credit report.

Obtaining Your Credit Report

Obtaining your credit report is free the first time you request it each year. Each additional request, however, will cost you a little extra money, but the price is usually quite small and affordable.

You are entitled to one free credit report per year from each of the the three main credit bureaus. The first step to achieving or maintaining good credit is to download all three of your credit reports from each of the three main credit bureaus. One may report things about you or your credit history that may be inaccurate and will need to be addressed as soon as possible.

Once your credit is in good standing, you can download free reports from the bureaus individually. That means you can check your credit score every three months, allowing you to monitor your report for discrepancies without having to pay a dime.

To Be Continued…

That concludes Part II of our series on credit. Keep your eyes open for Part III on the payday loans money blog, where we will show you how to obtain your credit reports and understand them.

Credit repair takes a little time, but considering the effects it has on your financial opportunities, it is time well spent.

See you soon!

Help in hard times

Welcome back to Part II of this series on “Financial Preservation in 2009,” courtesy of personalmoneystore.com’s payday loans money blog. This series will continue addressing how to prevent financial crisis as a result of unemployment in 2009 by preparing now.

Here are a few things you can do to save extra money today while you still have a job, so that you have the necessary emergency funds you need later this year if you find that you don’t.

Are Those Car Payments Really Necessary?

Nobody can blame you for wanting what is hot or the current trend, but when it comes to automobiles, staying with the current trend can cost you a lot of extra money.

When buying a new car, not only does it require high monthly payments but also higher insurance rates and higher taxes and licensing, delivering one whammy after another to your pocketbook, and needing payday loans to cover for it.

Is this really necessary? Downgrading to a newer used vehicle, or even an older model that has been nicely taken care of and properly maintained, will save you both in monthly payments and taxes and licensing.

You may even be able to trade your current vehicle for an older model that the dealer has gotten on a trade-in. This could get you out of payments altogether.

This should be carefully considered if you are concerned with your job’s longevity as it can save you thousands of dollars which, if saved as emergency funds, could preserve you in a time of financial need.

Downgrading Digital Services

Consumers today are gadget-obsessed, having a multitude of gadgets and digital subscriptions that may be cheap by themselves but add up to a considerable sum when considering other digital services in your home.

These digital services include things such as your cell phone, cable television, digital media, satellite radio or any other of the digital packages available today.

Examine each of the packages you have and decide whether they are used enough to justify what you are currently spending. After your evaluation, you will be able to determine whether to downgrade each respective package or terminate it all altogether.

Debt Consolidation And Payment Insurance

When loosing your job, payday loans are not typically an option due to employment requirements, which means the only funds that will be available to you during this time will be the funds from your unemployment office.

These funds alone will likely not be sufficient to pay your bills, leaving you to pick and choose between which bills you are going to pay and which bills you are not.

Defaulting with creditors wreaks havoc on your personal credit rating. You may have to hire one of the many credit repair services or credit repair companies to help you repair your credit in the event that you do so.

Defaults can take several years to cycle off your credit report, so what you do now will save you both time and money later.

Here are two things you can do now to better position yourself with your outstanding debts so that you won’t be forced to default on any of your current creditors down the road provided you still have them.

Payment Insurance

The first thing you can to is purchase payment insurance through your creditors. Payment insurance will pay your monthly minimum payments in the event that a financial crisis befalls you and you are not able to pay yourself.

The cost of payment insurance varies from one creditor to the next but it is usually a very small sum and is calculated based on the current balance of the account. For example it may be $1 for every $100 dollars of your current account balance.

Debt Consolidation

The second thing you can do is consolidate your debts. Preferably, consolidating your debts into your home mortgage would be the best option if you’re in a position to do so.

With the current interest rates on home loans as low as they are, it may be in your best interest to refinance your debts into your home mortgage.

This allows you to spread that debt over a 30-year term, making the payments far more manageable. You end up spending more in the long run, but it’s a nice safety net to keep you from defaulting with your creditors in the event of limited cash flow.

Lastly, don’t forget about the options we provide you here at personalmoneystore.com. If you find yourself in need of quick cash payday loans to avoid the more spendy late payment fees associated with many of your creditors, we can help. Provided you are still employed, that is.

Good luck in 2009!

2008 is finally behind us, and for those of us who have been struggling financially, perhaps even borrowing payday loans from time to time, are relieved that 2009 has finally come around, bringing the hope of prosperity with it.

You may have found yourself in a quandary when it came time to set your New Year’s resolutions. Usually we make resolutions targeted toward family and personal goals, but this year many are wondering what we can to do to earn the extra cash we need to make it through another year of economic turmoil. After all, we have been promised another 18 months of it.

Where Do You Stand This Year?

If you have lost your job, your first priority, obviously, is  finding work. That may prove to be quite difficult with more than 2.5 million others who have lost their jobs as well. Setting yourself apart from others is the key to employment this year as employers have the pick of the litter.

If you still have your job, you should be thankful that you do, and be more proactive at work, making yourself more valuable as an employee.

You can do this by taking on additional tasks or roles within your company. Employers are struggling, too, so this will make you a more valuable asset when decisions are made to cut some fat from the company. Your willingness to contribute to the success of the company will set you apart from the rest of your coworkers and the abundant pool of talent that is out of work and available for hire.

Financial Conservation in the New Year

Regardless of your situation, 2009 should have found you thinking more carefully about how to cut back or be more conservative when it comes to your finances.

In the event that you were to get laid off from your job, what measures do you have in place to support yourself and your family while finding work? Setting aside emergency cash while you are still working is a worthwhile investment for what may happen.

Unfortunately, third party financial help through a short-term payday loans may not be of use to you in times such as unemployment because many require proof of employment in order to utilize their short-term loan services. So that means it’s up to you to prepare now for what may be some difficult times ahead.

Taking Account of Your Personal Finances

In part II of the this article series on “Financial Preservation in 2009″, we will discuss a few strategies that you can use to to avoid being one of the many victims of today’s economy, but first it may be wise to take into account your current financial situation in regard to the debts you owe, your future employment outlook and your accounts and balances.

After doing so join us on the payday loans money blog for part two. We look forward to helping you brave the new year with the tools you need to come out on top.

Building credit is more complicated than most people think. It's not simply a matter of paying your bills on time.

On PersonalMoneyStore.com’s payday loans money blog, we talk about a variety of financial topics and money-saving tips, tricks and strategies that help you stretch each of your hard-earned dollars the furthest.

We care about your financial welfare and want to equip you effectively to prosper financially.

That being said, today we are going to start a series on credit — undeniably the most important and least understood part of consumer financial education.

What is Credit?

Most consumers don’t realize the importance of credit or even what credit is. When most of us hear the term credit we think of all the plastic in our wallet that allows us to charge purchases for later payment.

Often times the term credit brings a mixture of both good and bad feelings because of the opportunity it provides us as well as the difficulties it can bring in light of the debt we as consumers tend to accumulate.

The Objective of this Series on Credit

For the duration of this series, however, we will be talking about credit in the terms of personal credit or credit score, or in other words the scoring index by which creditors judge our “credit worthiness” or ability to handle money effectively and responsibly.

How Credit Works

How credit works is complicated, but to get the ball rolling a little more quickly, let’s just throw out a quick description in layman terms.

Every time a consumer, such as yourself, applies for an account with a creditor — such as a bank, credit card company, retail store, auto loan, personal loan or even a home mortgage — the account is reported to each of the nations three main credit bureaus.

There are many factors which determine a good credit score.

What Creditors Track

The credit bureaus track the number of open accounts, closed accounts, account balances, credit inquiries and any history of late payments or collections that have been reported on your behalf. Through a complex algorithm unique to each of the bureaus, they assign you a numerical score.

The purpose of this credit scoring system is twofold. First, it helps protect creditors from fraudulent or irresponsible customer transactions on financed merchandise such as cars, furniture, appliances and anything else you would choose to finance with a credit card or a company’s in-house financing options.

Their are some exceptions to this rule, such as payday loans lenders. These companies typically don’t work with the credit bureaus, which makes them a good loan option for people with bad credit, but we will talk about that later in this series.

Secondly, and most importantly, credit scoring it set up to award those who are diligent and responsible with their financial resources and penalize those who are not.

The difficulty in obtaining a good credit score these days has become a little more cloudy and involves more than just paying your bills on time. For many this begs the question: Is the effort worth it? Or is having good credit really that important?

How Important Is It To Have Good Credit?

It can be easy to brush off the pursuit of good credit as unimportant, but today good credit has become a very important, integral part of every consumer’s personal and financial success. Your personal credit score has an effect on the following:

• How much you pay for car insurance
• How much you pay for house insurance
• How you pay for your personal health insurance
• How high your interest rate is on your home mortgage loan
• How high your interest rate is on auto or other personal loans
• The total credit amount you’re awarded with financed options or credit loans
• Your chances of employment

Almost every major financial transaction will consider your personal credit rating or credit score before awarding or denying you any contractual terms.

Credit and Employment

As mentioned above, more and more employers are running credit checks to validate the credit worthiness of new hires, as they believe it is the best indicator of a potential employee’s responsibility. Employers associate a good credit score with an employee’s diligence to come to work on time each day and fulfill the requirements of their job position.

The Value of Having Good Credit

You can’t put a price on good credit. Good credit saves you a fortune in unnecessary expenses over time that can be delegated to a retirement savings plan or college fund for the kids. Knowing how credit works and its effect on your financial endeavors will open doors that would otherwise stay shut. Short term credit needs are filled well by payday loans.

That concludes part one of this series on how credit works. Consider your personal credit and its limiting factors in your life and join us again tomorrow for part two.

See you then!

Posted courtesy of personalmoneystore.com, your payday loans source.

Planning your meals provides more benefits than you may realize.

In the first part of the payday loans money blog post entitled “Grocery Shopping for Big Savings” we discussed buying in bulk, buying food for your household once a month, adequate food storage and comparison shopping.

In part II, we will discus the advantages of planning meals around cheaper staples as well as the benefits of joining a local food co-op if available in your area.

Planning Meals Around Cheaper Staples

Saving money on groceries by buying cheaper foods doesn’t mean that you have to live on a Third World diet. With careful planning and a little research, you can buy cheaper foods and make better dishes.

Here are some good examples of these types of foods and the dishes they can make:

Egg noodles

• Tuna casserole
• Chicken Noodle Soup
• Fettuccine

Pasta

• Traditional Pasta
• Baked Pasta Parmesan
• Lasagna
• Macaroni and Cheese

Rice

• Stir fry
• Fried Rice
• Spanish Rice
• Rice Pudding
• Chicken Rice
• Chicken and Rice Soup
• Rice Pilaf
• Spicy Beef And Rice

Beans

• Bean Burritos
• Baked Beans
• Bean Soup
• Boston Baked Beans
• Beans and Rice

Beans, rice, pasta and egg noodles are some of the cheapest foods you can buy, especially when buying in bulk. The above shows the variety of dishes you can make utilizing these staples, and don’ t they sound tasty?

A 25-pound bag of rice or egg noodles is cheap, and goes a long way in feeding you and your family. The more dishes you can create utilizing cheaper staples, the more extra cash you will save, and the less likely you will need a payday loans at the end of the month to cover expenses.

Joining A Food Co-op?

A Food Co-op has some wonderful advantages you can profit from, both financially and physically. A co-op is the combined efforts of a large group of people to buy consumer goods at discount prices.

Sometimes buying in bulk by yourself just isn’t a feasible option because you have difficulty coming up with the available funds to buy a month’s worth of groceries at one time.

With a food co-op you have the combined resources of multiple individuals working together to purchase food items in bulk. Often times deliveries will be made to your home once a week, saving you time and money at the store.

You will still need to carefully plan out your meals so you can put in an accurate order for goods that won’t leave you needing something until your next shipment.

Organic Food Co-ops

Food co-ops come in many varieties, so it will be primarily up to you to search your area to discover what the co-ops in your locale can provide for you.

The last few years have seen the popular emergence of organic food co-ops. These co-ops allow consumers to buy organic goods for prices equal to or less than the same goods available at retail grocery stores. The added advantage is that you are treating your body healthier by avoiding a lot of the chemicals and pesticides in store-bought produce.

Time Share Co-ops

For families, time share co-ops allow members to donate portions of their time in exchange for goods. This is especially valuable for parents who want to teach children the value of work or the simple fact that food doesn’t grow in the kitchen.

It takes hard work and money to fill the refrigerator and kitchen cabinets, so having the kids contribute a little time to the co-op and therefore the household, will help teach them a little bit about life as well as an appreciation for what they come to expect instead of earn.

Regardless of the type of food co-op you choose, joining one will allow you to save extra money each month that you can apply toward other financial matters such as an emergency fund for those unwelcome little surprises that pop up from time to time.

Good luck in your money-saving endeavors!

Posted courtesy of personalmoneystore.com, your payday loans source.

Buying groceries in bulk and shopping only once a month can pay big dividends.

When it comes to your personal finances, identifying where you can cut costs on your monthly bills can save you a lot of extra money as well as keep you from having to borrow a payday loans at the end of the month for the lack thereof.

Besides your home mortgage, there are few monthly expenses that will exceed that of the average family’s grocery bill. Their are a few strategies you can implement here to help you save the extra money which we know you can find a use for elsewhere.

Shopping For Savings

Shopping for savings is easy but requires a little effort and time for preparation but will pay big dividends for those who chose to do so. Here is a quick list of tips to get you started saving money on your grocery bill today.

Buying In Bulk

Buying in bulk is a common strategy used for saving extra cash in just about every category of consumer goods. Rarely however, do we implement the same strategy with our grocery bill. Most families pay a visit to the grocery store at least twice a week finding it easier to just shop for a few days at a time.

By sitting down and planning out meals a month in advance, you can go to your local wholesale depot and buy everything you need for the entire month with the exception of milk, on one grocery bill.

Planning ahead allows you to purchase larger containers and quantities of product which provides you savings benefits when shopping at many wholesale grocery suppliers.

When buying in bulk and shopping once a month, you also have the added benefit of saving the extra money on the gas and time it takes to go back and forth to and from the store each week.

When Buying in bulk make sure you have adequate cold storage space.

Finding Extra Food Storage

Buying in bulk may have it’s difficulties when it comes to food storage but believe it or not, you will find it much easier, more cost effective and well worth your while to clear out and designate an extra closet for pantry space if you have to.

Much depends on how you plan your meals for the month. You will want to be conscientious when it comes to refrigerated goods as you may be limited on cold storage place for vegetables, fruits, cheese and eggs unless you have an extra fridge in your basement or garage.

Freezer space may also be a factor so investing in a chest freezer may be well worth your while in the long run and will allow you to take advantage of periodic sales on meat and other freezer goods as they arise.

Comparison Shopping With Weekly Circulars

Like payday loans lenders, it pays to shop around for different providers.  Of all the wholesale food suppliers in your area, Costco is usually the most popular but often times you may find better deals elsewhere so be sure to do a little comparison shopping before settling on you place of choice. It may pay to shop at two or three places depending on the deals that you may find in your weekly circulars or sales adds that are delivered to your door on a weekly basis. If don’t get them delivered to your door they will be freely available at your local grocery store. Invest the time to compare prices between the different retail chains and take advantage of the deals that you find before you set out shopping on the big day.

Planning Ahead Saves On Impulse Buying

By planning ahead and creating a list you also save extra cash by avoiding impulse buying. Often time we go to the store hungry or without an idea of what we really need which usually results in buying things we don’t need as well as forgetting the things that we do. Shopping without a plan or without a list results in wasteful spending and extra trips to the store.

The tips above will help get you well on your way to saving money, saving time, and even eating a healthier and more balanced diet depending on the time that you invest into the process.

Stay tuned to the payday loans money blog for part II of Grocery Shopping For Big Savings.

Rightly dividing your expenses utilizing a budget will help you to save more.

When it comes to creating a budget, many don’t know where to start. So many bills, so many expenses, all due at different times of the month; small wonder people need payday loans. Its quite easy to get lost or frustrated during the process.

Implementing a budget will help you build credit, pay bills on time without the use of payday loans, credit cards or other third party financial services and prepare you successfully for all your future financial goals ranging from family movie nights at your local theater, exotic vacations around the world or retirement.

Debt And Money Management

When it comes to debt, we all have it, and we all hate it, but we don’t have to live with it. The primary reason why we as consumers fall into the cycle of debt is because we fail to know where we stand financially on a day to day basis.

The average American consumer possesses $9200 of consumer credit debt which could be avoided through implementing basic money management practices through easy to implement tools and strategies such as a personal budget.

Budgeting Today For A Better Tomorrow

For the duration of this article we will examine the fundamentals of creating and implementing a financial budget. Often times people associate budgeting as a deterrent or restriction to their ability or right to have fun.

It’s true that you may have to make some sacrifices but often times budgeting your money leaves you with more money to both have fun with, pay your bills and pay down your debts.

Be Careful Not to be to Conservative

When budgeting your finances be careful not to eliminate the entertainment or fun in your life as eventually you will lose interest and focus on budgeting altogether. Instead, learn to compromise or moderate the funds you allocate towards entertainment expenses.

For example if your used to going out to lunch five days a week, cut back to three. If you go to your local cinema once a week, cut back to two for two weeks out of the month and rent a movie for the other two.

You don’t have to sacrifice much to save a lot. You simply need to know what your spending and then learn to spend those funds in moderation and find cheaper substitutes for the same activities.

Track Your Expenses

The first thing you need to do before developing a budget is to discover where all your funds are currently being allocated. To do this you will need to use a ledger to track all your daily expenses for one full month. This needs to include any and all expenses both big and small.

After the month is over, you can categorize your expenses and come to terms with how much you are spending and where you are spending it. You can then make educated decisions on how to better allocate your funds and moderate excessive spending.

Pay Yourself Before Anything Else And Build Your Savings

Off the top of your budget each month try to allocate around ten percent of your funds to a savings account before doing anything else. We all have rainy days sometimes and having a source of emergency funds available without having to borrow payday loans will prove useful.

Maxing Out Your 401K

Apart from contributing funds to a savings account, be mindful of your 401k as well especially if your employer is willing to contribute. There are not many places where you can get free extra money and although you won’t see your 401k funds for a long time, this is an excellent way to get ahead and meet or exceed your financial goals for retirement.

Matching 401k options from employers will usually only match funds up to a certain amount. Do your best to contribute enough each month so that by the end of the year, you are getting the maximum amount of contributed funds to your 401k matched as possible.

Remember, it’s free money and the extra cash that is contributed to your 401k by your employer becomes larger over time making this opportunity even more important to take advantage of.

Spending with cash instead of credit will help you make decisions that will save you money.

Getting Use to Cash Instead of Credit

Once you have allocated funds in your budget to put towards monthly bills, investments in your 401k and or your personal savings account, you should designate a modest sum of what is left over for monthly fun and entertainment and use the rest to get ahead on credit debt by paying extra towards the principle amount owed.

The funds you set aside for entertainment purposes should be set aside in cash. Doing so will help hold you accountable to your budget and what you have alloted yourself to spend. Being able to see the amount you have or have left, will prevent you from spending these funds wastefully and help you spread your transactions equally throughout the month. You may end up thinking about payday loans less.

Spending cash out of your wallet or purse will catch you making decision such as

“Do I want to go out to lunch with my friend or buy that new CD I have been wanting?” or “Do I want to treat myself out to espresso this week or go to a movie with refreshments this weekend”

With a credit card we never have to make these decisions and end up surprised when we see the new balance on our monthly statement.

Make the effort. Take the plunge. Do what is best for you and your future starting today by creating a budget for your finances.

Posted Courtesy of personalmoneystore.com, your payday loans source.

In the midst of a financial crisis and a failing economy, payday lenders are fighting to stay alive as local, state, and federal regulators try to cap the interest rates these lenders charge consumers for short term payday loans.
The latest in the line of persecuted payday lenders is South Carolina based Advance America Cash Advance Inc.

Advance America Cash Advance claims that it can’t make enough money under the new laws that are being passed to keeps it’s doors open to it’s consumers, effectively driving them out of business like many other payday lenders across the country.

New Law, Old Tactics.

For payday loans stores in New Hampshire, the law that takes place on Thursday, January 2, 2009, and will cap the percentage rates to 36%.

For consumers, 36% may even seem like a high interest rate but the thing to remember here is that the interest rates are calculated on an annual percentage rate basis, so for a one hundred dollar payday loan, a 36% APR would equate to only about $1.38 in total interest charges on a two week payday loan. This is barely over 1% of the total loan value.

Clearly these tactics are aimed at driving these lenders out of business without having to officially ban them.

Next on the Endangered Species List

What Is Fair?

Typically payday loan lenders charge around $20 per $100 borrowed on a two week term. This amounts to an annual percentage rate of about 521%. The new cap reduces revenue per loan almost 1,900% which would be a heavy blow to any business’s bottom line.

The question as to what APR is fair is up to consumers not regulators. If the rates are to high consumers won’t borrow extra cash utilizing these lending services which will force these businesses to find a profitable balance between revenue and market share.

A New Hope For Survival

To stay alive, Advance Cash America Advance is hoping to loan money under other sections of banking law. This would allow the company to charge their usual annual percentage rates without falling under the current restrictions of the new laws passed against payday loan lenders in New Hampshire.

The Pro and Cons of Payday Loan Lending

The battle for and against payday loans has been a continuing battle and a constant struggle for lenders across the country with many states already implementing bans on payday loans.

Why the animosity towards these lenders? Opponents call them predatory and convince the public around them to believe the same with advertising campaigns that draw attention to the perceived high annual percentage rates of 521 percent but in the process fail to explain what the total interest on the loan would actually equate to.

The uneducated public looks at 521% as having to payback over five times the amount of the borrowed loan. It’s no wonder they get outraged and fall towards the opponents side of the payday loan debate.

The Cost Cost of Payday Loan Regulation

Banning and or putting payday loan lenders out of business is really a shame for many reasons. First off we have people losing their jobs in an economy that cannot afford to continue in that direction. Secondly, payday loans offer a service that is unparalleled by any others within the financial industry.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in these loans are given out out to applicants each year proving both their popularity and their worth. Bad business will eventually crucify itself. The fact that these cash advance centers are still open is a testament to the value of their services.

What Makes Payday Loan Lending Valuable to Consumers

Nowhere else can you go today to apply for extra cash and receive it almost immediately after approval.

You can now apply online for payday loans and have funds deposited directly into your account. These loans usually don’t amount to more than $1500 and require minimal criteria for approval making them ideal for individuals with bad credit or no credit at all. The two most important requirements applicants are required to have is a current employment and a checking account for funds to be deposited into.

For life’s little emergencies that demand extra cash, payday loans are hard to beat. For example, if your car breaks down today, how do you get to work tomorrow? Perhaps your short on funds to pay your monthly bills where a payday loan could help you save money by eliminating lay payment fees. Maybe it’s the high scho0l prom this week and you need to purchase your daughters dress, but your short on funds till your next payday. Emergency funds are needed from time to time and that is what makes payday loan lending a valuable service.

There are hundreds of scenarios that could find you benefiting from the use of payday loan services. Be sure to take the time to educate yourself on the payday loan industry before joining forces with payday loan opponents. After all, you may just find yourself in need of payday loans yourself someday.

Examine your finances to avoid wasteful spending

Welcome back to Part II of the “Frugal Finance” series on the payday loans money blog. If you are just joining us, in the first part of the discussion we covered the process of determining your net worth by subtracting your personal liabilities such as outstanding personal loans and consumer credit card balances from the total value of your assets. Your assets are things you own such as the equitable portion of your home or car, checking and savings accounts, stocks and bonds, or retirement accounts such as a 401k.

Purpose of Establishing a Baseline or “Net Worth”

The purpose of identifying your financial baseline or net worth, if you remember correctly, was to compare your future financial positions with your current financial position.

This will allow you to see if you are making progress in your financial affairs and therefore plan for retirement and other important financial goals in your intermediate or long term future.

The comparison also works as a motivational or inspirational tool to encourage you in your money saving endeavors. Seeing progress will help you to stay the course without getting discouraged.

Where Is Your Money Going?

The next thing that we must determine after finding out your net worth is where your money is currently going. This means that you must record each and every one of your monthly expenditures.

With a pen and paper in hand, start writing down all your known expenses, starting with your monthly bills. Once you have listed all your expenses, categorize your bills into two separate categories called wants and needs.

Be careful in your distinction here as some things may feel like needs but are really just wants. The simple difference you will want to ask yourself when categorizing your expenses between needs and wants is, “Can I live without it?”  If you can live with out it, it would be a want rather than a need.

I have included an example list below to help you determine the difference:

Example Needs

• Monthly mortgage payment or rent
• Heat, gas, electric, water and other utilities
• Car

Example Wants

• Internet
• Cell phones
• Television
• Entertainment such as movies, dinners out etc.

Compromising With Unnecessary Expenses

Looking at the want list above may surprise you as we have all grown very attached to the current generation of technology. Mobile phones, internet, and television are all things we can live without, although it seems hard to believe sometimes.

The intent here is not to cancel all your wants or optional expenses but rather to simply help you to expose those expenses that can provide you an opportunity to save extra money.

The more expenses you can trim down, the more extra cash you can save, allowing you to allocate additional funds towards your consumer debt or to a savings account so that the next time you find yourself needing payday loans, you will have some emergency funds to spare.

If you can’t bare giving up any of your digital services, then consider lowering your monthly package subscriptions to save some extra money each month. For example, if your television package is subscribed to more than just one movie package such as HBO, Starz, TMC, etc., pick a favorite and save on the rest.

Develop A Monthly Budget

So let’s recap. We established a baseline by determining our net worth, listed our expenses and categorized them according to wants and needs, now we need to develop a monthly budget.

A monthly budget will allow us to delegate funds from our total recorded monthly income to each of our needed expenses. The remainder can be allocated between debts and/or your listed wants. A monthly budget will help keep you accountable on a monthly basis to allocating funds to accomplish specific goals.

Join us for part three to learn some helpful tips on creating and maintaining a budget.

Posted courtesy of PersonalMoneyStore.com. Your payday loans source.

Being frugal will allow you to accomplish your present and future financial goals while allowing you to enjoy yourself today as well.

Organizing your finances may seem like a difficult, if not impossible, task. Consumers have more expenses today then ever before due to the variety of payment options that are available. From credit cards to payday loans, these finance options have found consumers who have used these tools irresponsibly, slipping further and further into debt.

Making Sense of Your Finances

The purpose of organizing your finances is to realize the following:

1. How much money you make on a monthly basis.
2. How and what you spend your money on.
3. To identify ways in which you can save extra cash
4. To plan effectively for your intermediate and future financial goals.

Don’t confuse being money conscience with being over frugal. Being frugal can be taken to great extremes.  While that may be alright for some, you can be frugal without putting a vice on your pocket book. Many, such as myself and perhaps you as well, may like to go out on the town and splurge once in awhile.

By organizing your finances, you will be able to better save and allocate extra money to do both the things that you would like to do today, and the things you would like to do and or accomplish tomorrow.

Creating a Baseline for Financial Progress

Before we really dive into the strategies of financial planning, the first thing we need to do is create a baseline to compare our future financial progress to.

Calculating Net Worth

The best financial indicator of financial progress is your net worth. Net worth is simply what you are worth financially. You calculate net worth by taking the total cash value of all your assets, or the things that you own, followed by the deduction of all your liabilities or the things that you owe.

Difference Between Assets and Liabilities

To put a clearer distinction on the difference between assets and liabilities, we will outline a few of each to help you determine the difference.

As mentioned above assets are the things that you own. However, what you own and what you owe can get a little confusing sometimes.

A home is a perfect example and is considered an asset, but it is also a liability. When creating a financial baseline by determining your net worth, you need to record the equitable portion of your home’s value as an asset and the rest of which you owe, as a liability.

For example, if my house was worth $200,000 and I still owed $80,000 on the home’s mortgage, I would declare $120,000 as an asset, because selling the home tomorrow would yield the equitable portion of the mortgage that has been acquired through both appreciation over time as well as individual monthly payments.

Cars should be done the same way. With cars you will want to get the blue book value and compare that to what you may still owe on the auto loan.

Other Assets to Include

Other things that would be considered assets would be the current values in your checking and savings accounts, 401k’s or other retirement accounts. If you have any stocks, bonds or mutual funds you will want to be sure to include those in your asset allocation as well.

Other Liabilities to Include

Liabilities are a little more straightforward.  Anything that you owe is considered a liability. Outstanding personal loans, payday loans, auto loans and credit card balances are all examples of liabilities.

The Final Calculation

Now that you have determined what your assets and liabilities are as well as the values of each, you will want to subtract the total value of your liabilities from the total value of your assets. The difference will be your net worth.

Below is an illustrated example :

Assets

Home Value (equitable portion) $120,000

Car (equitable portion) $1,500

401k $5,500

Savings Account $960

Total Asset Value = $127,960

Liabilities

Mortgage $80,000

Car Loan $4,250

Payday Loan $425

Student Loans $8750

Credit Card Balances $11,100

Total Liability Value = $104,525

Total Net worth = $23,425

Don’t be discouraged if your net worth equals a low or even negative value.  The purpose here is simply to establish a base line that we can compare ourselves to later to see our financial progress over time.

This concludes Part I of this series. Determine your baseline or net worth and then come back to the blog for Part 2 of the “Frugal Finance” series posted courtesy of the payday loans blog at personalmoneystore.com

This article is a continuation of “Witty Living Part I | A Report From Your Payday Loans Source,” covering money saving tips to brave the current economic storm.

Saving On Interest

If you currently have debts such as high interest credit cards or perhaps an auto loan, you may consider making a large lump sum payment with the funds you may have set aside in savings.  Why?

Bank savings accounts usually pay very little in interest, failing sometimes to simply keep up with today’s inflation rates. By using these funds to pay off your high interest debts or make a significant payment towards them, you will save more money in the long run in interest fees then in the interest you would have earned on it if it were in a bank savings account.

Also, making payments above and beyond the minimum required payments on your credit accounts, will save you lots of extra money in interest fees over the life of the balance as well.

Reconsidering Your Mortgage Payment

Perhaps one of the most significant ways to save yourself money is by changing your current mortgage structure from a 30 year fixed mortgage to a 15 year fixed mortgage.

If you were to take a $100,000 fixed rate loan with an annual percentage rate of 7%, it would cost you $75,000 less than a 30 year fixed rate loan at the the same percentage rate.

Many think that a 15 year mortgage means your payment will be double the size that it is now however, payments on a 15 year versus a 30 year usually only differ by a few hundred dollars.

Before you decide to switch to a 15 year mortgage, take a careful accounting of your finances as you don’t want to find yourself borrowing payday loans each month just to make your monthly housing payment.

Water Down Your Heating Bill

Believe it or not, heating your water accounts for approximately 14% of your monthly utility bill. Being diligent about cutting costs here will show you a noticeable difference on your next bill. Here are a few ways to cut costs on your hot water bill.

• If your water heater is old, you can invest in a newer more efficient water heater for only a few hundred dollars and by doing so you should see some significant savings each month.
• I you cannot afford a newer unit, you can wrap your current water heater with insulation or a water heater blanket to make it more energy efficient.
• Encouraging shorter shower times among your family members will dramatically decrease the amount of energy it takes to heat your water and keep it heated.
• Check the temperature of your hot water.  If it is scalding hot, you should turn your water heater thermostat down so as to avoid heating water above the satisfactory temperature for bathing, doing dishes, etc.
• Changing your existing shower head to a lower flow aerating shower head can save you up to half the water consumption that is currently being used for bathing.
• When washing clothes, 80% to 85% of the energy used is for heating the water. Try using cooler water with your loads of laundry. You shouldn’t have to use hot water except for heavily soiled or stained clothes. For everything else, you can use warm and cold water.

Subsidize Monthly Entertainment With Public Resources

Families are faced with large costs these days with the cost of entertainment. Taking the kids to “Chuck E Cheese” or to a movie at the local cinema can cost an arm and a leg these days.

Subsidizing your entertainment costs by utilizing your public library for book and movie rentals can prove to be a cost effective and fun outing for the family.

Looking at a local community newsletter or website may also provide you with some additional community funded activities that are community funded.

Posted courtesy of PersonalMoneyStore.com, your payday loans source!

Personal Money Store, the Internet’s number one source of online payday loans, would like to give you some additional money saving tips to help you brave the current economic storm. Implementing one or all of the strategies below will guarantee you financial savings and help each payday stretch a little further.

Eliminate impulse buying

Impulse buying is the primary cause of consumer credit debt. We tend to “impulse buy” when we go shopping with only a vague idea of what we are shopping for. This results in extra cash being spent on things that are either not needed, or unnecessary.

When you go shopping, whether it be for Christmas, birthdays, or groceries, be sure to write your self a list of what it is that you have in mind.

You will also want to guesstimate the expenses so that you have a realistic expectation of what the day’s shopping is going to cost you and therefore help you to prioritize your purchases , control impulse buying and stop the accrual of unnecessary debt.

Investing in a new car filter can save you money

The last thing many of us ever get around to is vehicle maintenance however staying up-to-date on your vehicle’s tune-ups can and will save you extra money in the long run.

Regular maintenance prevents one problem from starting another, and when it comes to things such as clean oil, your fuel efficiency is the big money saver.

One such example is your air filter. Changing out a dirty and clogged air filter can save you up to 10% in fuel efficiency. This equates to about $.15 cents per gallon of fuel.

Expect More From Your Bank

When it come to banking and the payday loans industry, remember that it pays to shop. Each has their own fee structures that they uphold with their customers or clients so doing a little research before settling on a choice can pay you dividends in the long run. With payday loans in particular, you can use a broker such as personalmoneystore.com who will help to match you with the best lender possible.

When setting up an account with your bank be sure to obtain a list of fees and attempt to negotiate the fees with your account representative. The banking industry is a very competitive field and will wave fees just to keep you as a customer.

If you have a considerable chunk of change that you hold in reserve in your savings account then you should be able to request free checking as well. Remember the bank uses your money to make money, and when you leave, your money leaves with you as does the banks opportunity to make money with your money.

Pay Off Your Monthly Credit Card Balances

Americans on average can pay up to a thousand dollars a year in credit card interest. By paying off your credit card balance in full each month you save yourself a fortune over time.

If you already have a substantial debt accumulated on your credit card you can save money on the monthly interest fees by performing a balance transfer. Introductory credit card offers will give you anywhere from 6 to 18 months at a 0% interest rate, giving you a chance to make some headway on your debt and avoid additional fees as well.

Keep your eye on personalmoneystore.com’s payday loans blog for additional money saving tips in part two of this series on Witty Living.

Sadly for many Americans this year and many more come 2009, pink slips have, and will continue to be given in record numbers.

Between layoffs and salary cuts, payday loans and other sources of payday loans are what consumers are turning to for the extra cash they need.

If this sounds like you, we have some helpful advice and resources for you to turn to, to lessen the financial strain and economic impact to yourself and your household.

Finding Gainful Employment

What would you do if you were laid off tomorrow?

Have you lost your job? If so, finding your next source of income is your primary concern. However, before you fill out your first application or type your first cover letter you need to file for unemployment benefits.

It is imperative that this course of action be taken immediately as it takes two to three weeks before your unemployment benefits will kick in.

Handling this first will get the ball rolling so that you will have some income coming in, in the near future provided you don’t find employment first.

There are other benefits that you can apply for as well, providing that you meet the qualification criteria. To find out what you can qualify for, visit workforcesecurity.doleta.gov.

Local Resources

Your community likely has an organized unemployment center that will grant you access to resources such as the Internet for sending out resumes as well as a localized job bank of local employers looking to fill positions within their own respective companies.

These centers will put a lot of resources at your fingertips including classes such as resume building and interviewing skills to help enhance your professionalism and make you more attractive to employers. Visit Careeronestop.org to find a local career center in your area.

Controlling Your Debt

Consumer debt will become an immediate concern if your job is lost. Obviously you will want to protect your credit by staying current on your debts but this is not always feasible in the event of job loss.

If you find your debt is spiraling out of control or you borrowing short term payday loans to try and stay on top of your expenses, you will want to get in touch with a credit counselor who can help manage your debts on your behalf with your creditors.

This will help minimize your debt load as well as lower your minimum monthly payments helping you brave the storm until you get back on your feet.

A good place to start on your quest for debt counseling is the National Foundation for Credit Counseling or NFCC.org.

Mortgage and Foreclosure Assistance

If you are struggling to make your mortgage payment you will need to contact your lender and negotiate payment terms that will be more convenient for you. Do not be afraid to ask for leniency. Your lender will be pleased that you called and more than willing to cooperate with you as a foreclosure will only cause losses to you and your lender.

Before you call to negotiate terms, take a careful look at your finances and what you will be able to pay each month as your bank or lender will ask you specifically what amount you can afford to pay. Whatever information you give to them, you will want to do your best to follow through to avoid possible repercussions.

There are also some government programs that can help as well. HUD, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has a free and helpful guide to help you avoid getting foreclosed upon. You can find the guide on their website at hud.gov

You can also go to Hopenow.com or call 1-888-995-HOPE for additional resources which will prove helpful to your situation.

Posted courtesy of Personal Money Store, your payday loans source!

In the article, “Bargain Shop With Payday Loans or Learn How to Haggle,” we discussed a couple of techniques in haggling a better deal.

The first entailed making accessory products conditional on the purchase of a desired product, and the second involved finding the bottom price of clearance and discounted items.

Here are a few more ways to haggle better savings with your next purchase.

Buying In Bulk

Save on consumer spending by becoming a master haggler!

You can save money when purchasing consumer goods and merchandise by buying bulk. The more units you buy, the more willing a store sales assistant or department manager will be to give you an additional discount or price break on the purchased goods.

Of course, the drawback here is usually high costs are associated with buying in bulk. Plus, why would you want to buy five DVD players or 10 TVs? You wouldn’t.

Your best approach for buying merchandise such as consumer electronics and the like in bulk is to recruit friends and family to commit to purchasing an item if you can promise them a significant discount. Then talk to the store’s sales assistant or manager and see what kind of deal you can swing if you were to buy so many units of a particular product.

Knowing the Chain of Command

A sales assistant may not always be able to help you when attempting to haggle for a better deal, and if this is the case don’t let it stop you. Floor sales representatives are not always authorized to cut prices or offer discounts based on their discretion.

If your offer or proposal is rejected, go up the chain of command until you find a supervisor or manager who can give you a definitive answer. Retail supervisors understand the importance of customer relationships and will do what they can to ensure that you continue to do business with them.

Remember, as long as the retailer is making money on the product, they should be willing to talk numbers with you. Because retail products are generally marked up 40 to 60 percent, there is usually plenty of room for negotiation that will save you extra money on the purchase.

Haggling may require a little boldness on your part, but it beats having to take out a payday loans for the things you want or worse yet, having to wait until you have saved the full sticker price amount.

Leveraging Savings With A Product Warranty

As you may have noticed by now, warranties are sold on just about everything and have become a key revenue stream for most stores with regular quotas to be met at the end of each week, month and quarter.

Knowing that the store and their sales reps have warranty quotas to meet gives you a bargaining advantage to reduce the list price of the item you wish to purchase. By reducing the price, the store may make less money on the product but will be happy to trade the opportunity to make their warranty sales quotas.

What’s even better is that most warranties give a provision of 15 to 45 days for the consumer to cancel for a full refund. So you can use the warranty purchase as a real tactic in lowering the price and then cancel the warranty for additional extra cash savings.

This may not be the friendliest of tactics, but tough times sometimes call for tough measures to get the things you want for an affordable price.

Knowing When the Time Is Right

Apart from warranty quotas, stores have monthly sales goals they are required to meet. Before the last weekend of the month, retailers will examine their stats and have some kind of advertised sale if they are in need of quickly making some additional sales to meet their goals.

This makes the last Saturday of the month the best day to haggle your way to a price that is friendlier to your budget and pocketbook for product.

Practice Makes Perfect

With a little practice, you will become bolder and save more. Don’ t get discouraged or embarrassed. The worst that can happen is the store representative can say NO to your request. The best thing that can happen is you get what you want and more for a lot less than you were expecting. In a little time you will become a master Haggler!

Keep your eye on Personal Money Store’s payday loans money blog for additional money-saving tips.

We have all been there before, standing in the aisle looking at a piece of merchandise you have been wanting, for what seems like ages, trying to decide if you should draw payday loans to take advantage of the good deal you’ve just found or if you should just walk away.

Wanting things that you really can’t afford, knowing that you may never find a better deal can break your heart or burden you with debt. Being faced with financial responsibility and the things you desire to buy but don’t necessarily need can be a heart wrenching experience. What do you do in times such as these?

HAGGLE!

Make A Good Buy Even Better

When you see a good deal you can

The only way to get a good buy that you can’t afford is to make the good buy even better! This can be achieved through haggling and believe it or not, this can save you a fortune.

Here are some tips to help you get the things you want without having to find the extra cash or borrow a payday loan to buy it at face value.

How to Haggle

There are many ways to haggle to get the things that you want. Not all merchants will succumb to your haggling tactics, but don’t let that deter you from trying. The worst possible thing a merchant can tell you is NO!

On average, retailers usually charge consumers somewhere between 40  and 60 percent more for their products than what they purchased them for from their distributors.

Some profit is better than no profit, and moving merchandise off their shelves makes them and their distributors much happier.

Getting Something Extra For Free

Sales assistants are not always authorized to give you something for less than the sticker price. However, often times, depending on the product, you can get accessories at no additional charge by making it a conditional part of the purchase.

This would be things like:

• Batteries for a remote or any other battery operated product
• A camera case or digital media card for a new digital camera purchase
• Extra laces for the purchase of a new pair of shoes
• An assortment of connection cables such as Component, RCA, HDMI, etc., for the purchase of a new television

Finding the Floor on Discounted Items

When you come across a good deal that has already had its price reduced or is on clearance, you may be tempted to buy the product as is. You may think haggling on an already reduced price would be somewhat insulting to the retailer trying to sell the goods, but the opposite is actually closer to the truth.

By the time retailers slash prices on merchandise or put it on the clearance rack they have already, to a large extent, written it off as a loss, and at this point they don’t want it to sit around any longer.

Capitalizing On Retailers Losses

A retailer’s willingness to move the product at almost any cost is better than nothing at all. The retailer is more than prepared to lose money on the deal, so pipe up and make the purchase well worth your while.

With Christmas behind us now, expect a lot of things going on sale or hit the clearance rack to make room for next year’s inventory. Now is the time to get the best deals of the year!

Stay tuned to the payday loans blog for some more money saving haggling tips.

Until next time,

Happy Haggling!

Welcome back to the payday loans money blog at personalmoneystore.com.

Continuing on yesterday’s topic in the article, “Increasing Income , Decreasing Debt | Payday Loans Blog Resolutions for 2009,” today we will continue the topic by exposing habits we possess that keep us tied to or continuing the cycle of financial debt.

Where Does The Money Go?

Having trouble seeing where your money is going? Follow this excerice to save money and eliminate debt!

Living In A Financial Fog?

Apart from the larger monthly expenses such as your house and car payments, you may be a little foggy as to what consumes the rest of your income. “Where does the money go?” is a question that is usually indicative of poor budgeting and or spending habits.

Know Where Your Money Is Being Spent

If you don’t know where your moneys is being spent, it is difficult to see the areas where you can save.

For one month, devote yourself to recording each and every one of your daily purchases and expenses. At the end of the month, categorize each into their own respective categories such as food, entertainment, home and utilities, etc. By taking a careful inventory of these monthly expenses, you will begin to see some interesting patterns emerge. These patterns will fall into two separate categories that we will call excessive spending and habitual spending.

Meet Daryl, Your Average American Consumer

For this example we are going to use Daryl, a debt burdened consumer, who has completed the above exercise, so that we can illustrate the patterns that you might expect to see when doing this exercise for yourself.

Daryl is an average American consumer with just more than $9,000 in consumer credit card debt. He has found himself paying only his minimum monthly payments at the end of the month due to a shortage of funds and occasionally he has to borrow payday loans to avoid late payment penalties in on his mortgage payment.

Before the above exercise, Daryl said that he occasionally goes out with his friends but does not buy a lot of consumer goods like his friends do. He considers himself a fairly conservative spender. He just can’t seem to make any headway on his debt. He blames his job, saying that he just doesn’t make enough to live on. So we asked Daryl to do the above exercise to see just how conservative he really is.

Daryl’s Spending Habits

Below are some of the habitual spending habits that Daryl found after completing the above exercise.

• Morning double shot espresso purchases two to three times a week before work at a cost of $4.25 each.
• Lunch twice a week at fast food establishments at a cost of $6.50 each.
• Movie once a week with refreshments costing an average of $16 each.

After doing the math, Daryl found that each month he was spending $51 on “wake up” coffee. $52 on lunch outings and $64 on movies and refreshments, for a grand total of $167.

Daryl did a little better in the excessive spending category finding only the following after completing the above exercise. But it was a big one.

• Groceries bill meeting and exceeding $150 dollars a week

This may not seem to be that much of a grocery bill, but considering that Daryl is “Batching it,” or in other words living solo, a grocery bill of $600 per month for one person is extremely excessive.

So between Daryl’s grocery bill and his habitual spending expenses, Daryl was spending $767 dollars each month.

What Could Daryl Do Better?

The advice given to Daryl after he completed the exercise saved him greatly in his monthly expenses. Here is what was suggested to improve his financial out look.

Cutting Out The Coffee

Instead of getting that morning cup of espresso at the drive-through three times a week, cut back to just one espresso a week. Better yet, eliminating these expensive cups of mud altogether by making his own coffee at home.

If coffee is not an acceptable substitute, purchasing an espresso maker would pay for itself rather quickly with the extra cash saved each week and could be considered a viable option as well.

Pack Out, Don’t Take Out!

Instead of indulging in fast food lunches twice a week, making a lunch and bringing it to work with him would save Daryl the extra money and his cardiac health too.

Spendy...and not good for you.

Subtituting the weekly movie and refreshments, with a RedBox or Netflix movie and some cheaper finger food with the friends, would eliminate his monthly dependence on payday loans.

Buy The Groceries, Not The Store

As far as groceries are concerned, Daryl could substantially lower his costs by going to the store with a planned list of needed food items, thus eliminating a lot of the more expensive junk foods he was getting before. This would lower his monthly grocery bill to the more typical average food bill for one person which should be in the neighborhood of $250 to $300 dollars.

The Conclusion

By subscribing to Netflix ($15), purchasing only one espresso each week ($17) and lowering his food bill to the higher end of the average food bill for one person ($300 dollars), Daryl will have room for beer and refreshments for movie night once a week and save $435 dollars each month.

If Daryl Can Do It, You Can Do

Looking at Daryl’s circumstances and the potential outcome,  a very small sacrifice is made for some extraordinary savings.

This shows the importance of implementing a budget or system to track your expenses each month so you can isolate areas where you can save money and regain financial territory lost to consumer credit debt.

Posted courtesy of Personal Money Store, your payday loans source.

Does debt have you bound up and feeling like a police officer bound up, not able to reach the donuts? Try consolidating your debt with a home equity loan. (image from flickr)

When struggling with personal debt, you may be tempted to apply for a personal loan, payday loans or try to borrow money from other sources from time to time simply to relieve the financial pressure you may feel weighing in upon you.

In this article we will attempt to address some of the advantages and disadvantages of the various debt payment options that may be available to you to pay down, pay off  and take control of the debts you owe.

Payday Loans

Payday loans, although a valuable service for emergency funds, are not the best option for paying off or consolidating debt. Payday loans are more a source of emergency funds for dire situations, such as when your car breaks down and you need money for quick repairs or if you want to avoid a late payment penalty with a creditor.

Because payday loans usually limit you to a maximum of $1,500, it is likely that a payday loan would not be sufficient to cover and or consolidate your debts anyway. There are better options available to you that can provide you with a lower interest rate.

Withdrawals On Your 401(k)

A lot of people resort to using funds that they have put aside in their 401k savings plan. This is a tempting but ill-advised approach to debt relief.

Remember, the funds that are in your 401k are reserved for your retirement years. Using these funds to bail yourself out of financial trouble today may cause another crisis for you several years from now. You may find at retirement you don’t have sufficient funds in the account to last through your retirement years.

Taking money out of your 401k will cost you more than you think. You have to take into account how much you will be taxed for on the withdrawal of these funds plus the total amount of interest these funds would have acquired between now and the age you retire. This adds up to be a significant sum.

Home Equity Loans

Home equity loans are usually the best option for consolidating and paying off your debts. Home equity loans are obtained by borrowing against the equitable portion of your home’s value. This gives you the advantage of lower interest rates than most other options. Plus, interest paid on home equity loans is tax deductible.

When borrowing against your home equity, be sure to remember defaulting on or failure to pay your home equity loan payments can result in losing your home.

Avoid Repeating The Cycle

The biggest thing to remember when paying off your consumer credit debt, regardless of the options you choose, is to avoid repeating the cycle again by running up your credit card balances that have been paid off.

If you find that your money spending habits are habitually putting you under financial stress, you may find it helpful to work with a debt counseling service that can help you manage your finances in the future. Click to learn more about debt consolidation.