Personal Financial Tips

Every major U.S. credit card company with the exception of one charges a two to three percent foreign transaction fee when you use your credit card abroad. Until recently, many credit card companies did not clearly disclose these fees in their terms and conditions. Consequently, many people received a notice of a class action lawsuit settlement in regards to these fees earlier this year. Now that the lawsuit has been settled, credit card companies are required to clearly state foreign and international transaction charges on credit card applications. Here, we will look at ways to minimize and avoid these fees.

First, if you do not know how much your current credit card company charges for international transactions, contact customer service to find out. The vast majority will inform you that this fee is three percent. With the US dollar sagging, paying an extra three percent on every purchase can really hurt the wallet. Fortunately, there are a few ways to avoid these charges.

If you have cash available, using a debit card eliminates this fee. Most banks do not tack on a transaction fee for ATM withdrawals. Plus, the foreign currency rate you’ll get from your bank is often significantly better than what you would get at a foreign currency exchange booth. Again, exchange rates and potential fees vary from bank to bank, so it is important to call ahead.

While ATM withdrawals are generally free of foreign transaction charges, using your debit card as a credit card comes with some risks. First, a credit card provides much better fraud protection than a debit card. If, for example, an unscrupulous merchant overcharged or fraudulently used your credit card, you can easily contest the charges and get a refund. If, on the other hand, you debit card was fraudulently used, you will not only be faced with a depleted bank account, but it often takes a great deal longer to get your money returned. For this reason, using a debit card to make purchases abroad can prove risky.

Ultimately, the only way to pay no international transaction fees is to use a credit card doesn’t charge these fees. By using a no fee credit card, you get the security a credit card provides without the annoying added expenses.

Look for Established Banks

When you are searching for any bank, you want to stick with one that is well-established and legitimate. Going with a brand new bank that doesn’t have much to go by is a risk. For example, you want to make sure the bank is FDIC insured to protect your money in case the bank fails. There are plenty of well-established online banks to choose from.

Find a High Interest Rate

This is the greatest benefit to online banking savings accounts. They have higher interest rates than traditional rates. This is because they have fewer expenses. With a traditional bank, they have to pay for multiple locations, lots of employees, etc. With an online bank, many of these expenses don’t exist. They don’t need to pay for tellers, customer service representatives, building, etc.

With fewer expenses, the savings can be passed on to you through the interest rate of the online banking savings accounts. They are spending less money and can therefore increase the interest rate that you get. Some online banking savings accounts will have higher rates than others, but generally, they are changing all the time. It’s hard to stay on top of things to always have the lowest rate. Find the few banks with the biggest rate and choose the rest based on the following criteria.

Get the Best Customer Service

Customer service is important. The thing about online banking savings accounts is that you get minimal customer service. In fact, if you get more, you will probably get a much lower interest rate. What you need to look for in an online bank are seamless transactions, accuracy, and everything running smoothly. In this case, you won’t need customer service.

You Need Ease and Simplicity

Online accounts are synonymous with easy and simplicity. When you can work with it entirely online, it should be fast and easy. If you don’t get that from your bank, look elsewhere.

Every business venture in any part of the world is subjected to several constraints and one of these is the liability that one needs to consider and protect. The liability is a consequence of various errors and omission (also known popularly as E&O) that take place even though extreme caution is exercised to avoid any foreseeable mistakes. Thus it is necessary to carefully plan the concept of business liability insurance to avoid distressing and undesirable legal actions from diverse sources. Insurance companies have therefore evolved comprehensive liability insurance cover for business clients that will as some of them term slash your risks quite considerably. It also increases your business confidence to a large extent and enables you to carry out activities with minimum worry of such risks. Almost all businesses need to invest in liability insurance if they have to comfortably work in an environment that is governed by the consumer’s authorities and concerns. It also helps in marketing their instruments that assure the prospective customers to become their long term clients. The Internet will be able to guide you in locating the most prominent and professional organizations that provide such liability insurance cover.

Business liability cover is not the only insurance available to the corporate or personal world. The professionals who work in organizations or those who are self employed or owners of businesses can also experience problems with the errors and omissions laws that can cause distressing situations in the course of the commercial activity. The same insurance companies who provide business insurance cover handle the personal insurances needed by the individuals or professional bodies. This type of cover is appropriately called professional liability insurance for coverage of problems related to unpredicted litigation due to errors or omissions. This also covers the malpractice complaints and legal suits that commonly arise with medical and other professional practices. The insurance cover is a must for all professionals in any field as it will allow you to work confidently in your chosen line and yet exercise restraint and ethics with minimum risks of E&O that are really a part and parcel of our daily business life. This type of cover is extremely important for every professional in any sphere and must be taken for a comfortable practice of one’s profession.

In 2008, The Department of Insurance of the State of New York released a report showing the 40 P&C insurance companies that had the most complaints. We did an article about this previously. We showed the ten worst companies, the ones that got the most complaints. But we did not feature the ones that got the least number of complaints in New York, a tough insurance market.

Here is the list of New York’s best P&C insurance companies as determined by the least number of complaints, higher number of complaints as you go down the list:

1. Long Island Insurance
2. Infinity Property & Casualty
3. Interboro Mutual
4. Tri-State Consumer Ins. Group
5. American International Group (AIG)
6. Safeco Insurance Group
7. Countrywide Insurance
8. White Mountains Group, OneBeacon, Esurance, Auto One Ins.
9. State Wide Insurance
10. Hannover RE Group, Clarendon National (no longer writing business)

You may find that some of these companies are only local or regional and that you cannot do business with them where you live. But notice that AIG, Safeco, OneBeacon and Esurance are national companies that got fewer complaints.

It’s not as easy to list a Top Ten Best P&C Insurance companies for America. We would have to contact all 50 state Departments of Insurance and find out which insurers had the least complaints. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) presently does not have any such report. In addition, complaints are not the only criteria that should be used to evaluate an insurance company.

Think about this statement, my friends.

The only thing that truly matters about your insurance is what happens when you submit a claim. It doesn’t matter how good your agent is…or if the company sends you a calendar every year…or buys you dinner. It really doesn’t matter if you pay a low premium or a higher premium. Claims handling is EVERYTHING!! Claims are about KEEPING PROMISES. When the insurance companies don’t keep their promises, the complaints pile up!

Lowest premiums are not the only criterion you should use, either. Shopping for insurance is confusing and complicated. Determining if your quotes are “apples and apples” comparisons takes strict attention to detail.

You may need the help of a dedicated, experienced agent to determine your insurance needs and buy the right policy. Still, my recommendation is to shop widely for your insurance needs. Get quotes from captive agents (who only write for one company) and independent agents (who write for multiple companies).

Getting quotes on the internet makes shopping for insurance very easy these days. But look for an insurance quote service that can give you competitive quotes PLUS strategies on submitting insurance claims that will help you collect thousands of dollars more in your claim settlements.

So, which insurance company should you do business with?

1. Choose a company that has an A+ or A rating from the insurance rating services like A.M. Best.

2. Get multiple insurance quotes at least every two years, then choose the company whose policies give you the most coverage for the least money. Don’t worry about company loyalty. The companies don’t care and neither should you.

If you are one of the unfortunate people who experience a loss of any kind, you’ll need to know how to handle your insurance claim so that you maximize your recovery. You will need to know how to take control of your insurance claim, and add hundreds or even thousands more dollars to your claim settlement. For more information, check out the website shown below in the Resource Box.

You can win the insurance game if you have the right information. So go and win!

The love and protective effort of the militaries towards its nation is simply incredible. They with unlimited labor and effort perform their duty without complaining anything about it. Therefore, several loans plans have been implemented for making the militaries feel secured in their financial crisis. Military personal loans are one among those which a military personal can take up for any required financial assistance.

Based on your branch you can apply for the Navy, Marine or Air Force loans. All these military personal loans are same in type but differ on certain simple grounds based on the differences between the military branches. Here you can borrow an amount ranging from

Insurance that protects a business against damages that might be awarded to members of the general public is important. If an injury occurs on your business property or other damages are sustained because of your business, your employees or your products and service, you could face a major lawsuit. When you are searching for a comprehensive commercial insurance package, you need to ensure proper protection from these potential risks.

With the proper business liability insurance covers, you can cover any related expenses. This not only includes damage awards, but the related legal fees, hospital treatments and any other expenses associated with a claim made against you or your business, by the general public. Your business will be rated, based on the activities your company is involved in because your premiums for this cover will depend on your risk exposure. You will find there may be many conditions, exclusions or warranties involved with insurance that involves public liabilities, so compare these factors, when comparing quotes.

There are insurance experts that can discuss your needs, even though this type of insurance is not compulsory or required by law. It is possible you will need proof of insurance for potential customers you will be working for and this is especially true of businesses that cater to other commercial establishments. For this reason, there are some businesses that will need this cover to protect their business assets and the financial future of their company, but they will also need it as proof, for potential business customers.

Public liability insurance comes in a general public liability form, as well as specific liabilities, including professional indemnity, product liability and even protection against pollution damages. Depending on the type of operations or services your business provides, your needs for public liability insurance might include a number of types of cover. You can obtain online insurance quotes for policies that protect your business from public liabilities, but you need to understand the types of protection you should have. There are online insurance brokers that offer toll-free telephone service to speak with experienced and expert insurance professionals, if you have questions about your particular requirements.

Whether you are a tradesman, financial advisor or a manufacturing plant, you need to protect your business assets from the claims that can arise from dealing with the public. It only takes one incident to put your company at risk or subject it to large legal expenses that can set it up for financial failure. This is an affordable protection that is well worth the expense, when you consider there are many possibilities for lawsuits from the general public.

Even if your business is not in the riskiest venture, it is possible that a product defect can develop into a large lawsuit, through no fault of your own. If a customer slips and falls in your parking lot, you hate to think that they could end up owning your company as the result of a court award for damages. For peace of mind, insurance protection against public liabilities can eliminate these worries.