Your Home is Your Bank

Are you disturbed by the financial constraints that hamper the smooth functioning of your life? Do you think that the deficits in your budget have left you in a lurch? Do not be worried any more. Financial ups and downs are an integral part of everybody's life. Do not make these short term irregularities so empowered that all the funs and excitement from life are dried up.

To overcome the financial hurdles you can take the help of loans. You will be pleased to know the estimate that the average cost of home in UK is near about 200,000 pounds. So if you are home owner, availing a loan is not a problem. You can borrow up to the eighty percentage tons of the value of your loan. Your home is your bank.

Homeowner loans are available when you pledge your home as the security. Under these loan categories, you can borrow up to 250,000 pounds. Rate of interest is also very low. The repayment period can be stretched till twenty five years. In this time period you can repay the borrowed amount with interest in easy monthly instalments.

The amount you can borrow under the homeowner loans category depends upon your credit history and the value of your residential property. The loan amount is decided on the loan to value or the LTV criterion. Your previous outstanding also plays a role while deciding the amount.

To get the homeowner loans you have to fill up the online application form. There are more than hundreds of loan plans. You can choose one of them as per your requirement. After you fill the form your asset and credit rating is being checked. Then only you can have the loan. You are free to use the borrowed amount for any purpose. So apply for the homeowner loans today and make your requirements fulfilled without any hurdle.

The author is a business writer specializing in finance products and has written authoritative articles on the finance industry. She has done her masters in Business Administration and is currently assisting Loans-Bazaar as a finance specialist.

How To Avoid Bankruptcy

n many cases, bankruptcy can be avoided if the habits that lead to one filing bankruptcy are curbed early on in life. It is never too soon for individuals to learn how to avoid bankruptcy.

People in the United States tend to live on credit quite a bit. Many individuals feel pressured to keep up with neighbors, friends and family and end up overextending themselves on their credit cards. Unfortunately, credit card lenders are pretty indiscriminate as to who they issue credit. There are hundreds of thousands of credit card companies in the United States today. And once someone gets one credit card, chances are they will begin to see many offers coming through the mail for more credit.

This can be tempting, especially for younger people. A good percentage of people who file bankruptcy in the United States each year are young people recently graduated from college. In addition to student loans, college students often use credit cards for everything from pizza to books, with the intent to pay off the debt once they graduate and get a job. Hard reality sets in when they realize how long it will take to pay off the debt mounted on their credit cards, especially as it continues to accumulate interest at a high rate. Still, college students are a prime target of credit card lenders. And many of these young people are handling credit for the first time in their lives. It is very easy to let it get out of hand.

How to avoid bankruptcy? Individuals must learn, early on, to live within their means. This is especially true for young people. Parents should teach children early on how to use credit in a responsible way. College students should limit themselves to one credit card with a low balance, to be used just for emergencies.

Another way how to avoid bankruptcy is to use debit cards instead of credit cards. Debit cards are usually offered by banks and the money is taken directly from your checking account. Because most debit cards usually have a VISA or MASTERCARD logo, they can usually be used in the same places as a credit card. Only the funds are available in the account, not owed.

Individuals who want to learn how to avoid bankruptcy can also take seminars and classes on financial management. Here they can learn which items are wise to buy on credit (real estate) and which items to avoid buying on credit (vacations) as well as investment strategies.

Living within your means and only buying things you can afford is one way how to avoid bankruptcy.

Do You Make Money While You Sleep?

I love rolling out of bed walking to the kitchen and making my first cup of coffee, loggin onto my online business and finding out that I have an additional $1,200 in my bank account... what a rush!

I want to give you a sneak peek at how You too can go to bed tonight and have additional monies deposited into your bank account while you sleep ~ it's easier than you think.

All you need to know is my behind the curtain secret.

You see the Internet is an amazing place; I have the ability to do bussiness all over the World 24 hours a day... without ever meeting them or speaking to them in person. I now have the ability to interact with millions if not billions of people providing them valuable information (software, e-Books, reports, reviews, digital video and lectures) that they are more than eager to pay for and cost you pennies on the dollar to produce.

"I can't write a newsletter, or a book"..." Do not worry; there are plenty of people that offer wonderful products ready for you to market.

This is called Affiliate Marketing, where you receive a percentage commission for every item sold or individual referred depending on the agreement you have with the company you are promoting.

The Big Secret to pulling this off is "Automation."

Any successful online company has four parts: 1 - The product. 2 - The computer technology to run the business. 3 - Website visitors, better know as "Traffic". 4 - A sales process to convince your visitors to become your paying customers.

One big misunderstanding is allot of people believe that is I have a product and a website I am guaranteed to make money... Some do, but it requires allot of time and manual labor to pull this type of web business off. An internet business may appear simple to construct and mange, but to do it properly it is not.

A successful online business requires allot of hardware, software, programming skills, and follow-up capabilities.

First, you need this thing called a Hosting Company to operate your web server that will allow your website to be seen by people.

Than you, need a convincing Sales page to tell people about your product and the advantages of buying from you. In this page, you will need a mechanism to allow people to leave their name and email address so you can contact them in the future to inform them of special promotions or sales they may be interested in, in the future. You need an Auto-Responder to follow-up with your customer list, and Audio and Video service to spice up your sales page, increasing sales.

Lastly, we need to be able to track all the people that are coming and going from our website, so we are able to identify what ads are working and what is a complete bust. You want to measure your business performance in order to constantly improve your business.

This is the biggest reason for business failure - people do not monitor their performance and strive for continual improvement. This is done by Split Testing. Split Testing is running two ads head to head against each other testing which ad copy converts the best.

This is expensive, and incredibly time consuming to implement and manage. Your time is a valuable commodity, you do not want to waste allot of it managing your business, testing ad copy, and learning new technology.

You have a goal to strive for: Spend no more than 10% of your time learning technology and 90% of your time finding new traffic and converting them into customers. You to can make Big Money while You Sleep.

Great, so how can I do this? The first choice you have is to hire professionals. In the internet world, they are called Webmasters they set up and run the "technologies" required for you to run your business. They are not cheap, so be prepared to fork over some money. Or, you can find an integrated web-business service where all the technologies are bundled into one complete package.

This is Online Automation at its best... and how I make money while I sleep.

Bank of America Online Banking

Bank of America online banking is available to any customer who currently does business with the bank. Participation in the Bank of America online banking program is free and easy to set up.

One feature that sets the Bank of America online banking program apart from its competitors is the way it handles bill payments. You’d think a lot of data entry would be required, but that’s not the case. The program already knows the billing addresses of the most commonly used payees.

To set up a payee such as your electric company, start by accessing the built-in list of payees that the Bank of America online banking program maintains. The program already knows the names of the major players in the community and maintains the names and billing addresses that most customers are likely to use such as electric, cable, and utility companies, area department stores and local major financial institutions. Pick the payee from the list, enter your loan or account number and in seconds, that payee is set up.

If the payee does not exist in the list, you enter payee details one time, and you never have to deal with a payee again until there’s a change in address or other account details. When you have all your payees entered, they appear listed in alphabetical order. Next time you open the Bank of America online banking program to pay bills, you select the payee, enter the amount due and the day you want the payment to show up at the payee address.

Now here’s the cool part about the Bank of America online banking bill paying option. The money for the payment is not debited from your account until the payment arrives at the payee billing address. Most other bill paying options debit the money the day the payment is mailed not delivered, meaning the bank has 4 – 7 days to earn interest on your money! So in effect, you actually earn money by using the Bank of America online banking option.

Why Bank of America Is a Good Solution for Credit

Bank of America is one of the largest banks; there are very few towns or places in the US that you will not find a Bank of America. They do not just offer excellent banking services but also offer an excellent line of credit cards for those that have good or excellent credit. This line up has cards that are good for both personal and business use and offer a wide variety of rewards that go with them.

For those with excellent credit a lower than market standard APR is available on some cards making holding a Bank of America credit card an asset to bother personal and business finances. Another added benefit is that you know you are getting the best of both worlds. Bank of America works closely with both visa and MasterCard to give you the most options when it comes to acceptance of your bank of America credit card. Looking for security, how about your photo id placed directly on your card. That is right, Bank of America offers credit cards that feature your photo right on the front. You will never have to worry about digging for your id again. If your card is stolen no need to worry you are covered by fraud protection.

Just let Bank of America know and they will take care of the rest. Earn reward points and have the benefit of a 24/7 concierge service offered with Bank of America cards. This personal assistance program will help you make reservations, even find a gift and its part of the rewards you get for choosing Bank of America for your credit card provider. Want the benefits of American Express, no need to worry Bank of America works with American express as well.

China's biggest bank to open U.S. branch

The government-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China also plans to open branches in Russia, Australia.

China's biggest bank, government-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, will open its first U.S. branch as part of a global expansion, a state news agency quoted its chairman as saying Wednesday.

"Preparations have been going on smoothly. We hope to receive approval from American authorities as early as possible," said ICBC chairman Jiang Jianqing, according to the Xinhua News Agency. The report gave no dates concerning the U.S. expansion.

The director of ICBC's press department in Beijing, Xie Taifeng, confirmed that the bank plans to open a U.S. branch but declined to say when or where it would be located.

On Tuesday, officials confirmed that another state-owned bank is bidding for a minority stake in U.S. securities firm Bear Stearns (Charts, Fortune 500) amid a rapid foreign expansion by Chinese financial institutions.

Jiang said ICBC also plans to open a branch next month in Russia, take over a bank in Sydney, Australia, and open branches in the Middle East in Dubai and Qatar, according to Xinhua. The report said he gave no details of those plans.

China trade surplus surges

ICBC already has branches abroad in Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Luxembourg and Seoul and Pusan in South Korea, according to the bank's Web site. Hong Kong and Macau are part of China but are treated as foreign economies by Chinese regulators.

The bank made its first acquisition in 2006, buying Indonesia's Bank Halim.

China's state-owned banks are growing rapidly amid an export-fueled economic boom and are expanding abroad to serve Chinese clients and try to get a foothold in international business.

They are flush with cash following a series of multibillion-dollar stock market offerings in recent years.

ICBC raised a record-setting $21.9 billion in 2006 with a joint initial public offering on the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges.

7 Ways To Avoid Credit Card Overload In Your Online Business

There are loads of reasons why people decide to start an online home business and some of them include convincing sales copy and promised riches.

Our emotional response to a sales page is what "hooks" and the need to be lead by someone we hope will show us the way to a no-brainer cash cow with an endless stream of $100 bills is what has us whipping out our credit card faster than we can say "compound interest"

You could try willpower as a method to stop this endless, expensive necessity to buy, but it can be easier said than done. When you are watching a timer ticking down the seconds before the offer ends, or there is a fast action bonus that you have convinced yourself you need. Or even worse, the price is rising with every second that passes and the longer you wait the more expensive the product gets. Resistance of any kind is futile.

And while these are all fantastic marketing techniques when you are the seller, they are an absolute nightmare when you are the buyer.

Your credit card takes yet another "hit" as you buy the latest piece of viral software or adsense templates. Your credit card absolutely cowers when you add the latest article site monthly membership fee, and it gasps for air when you add the new gurus coaching program onto to it!

Yes folks, when the marketing machine "hooks" you there is little you can do but give in and buy. Or is there? Here are 7 proven ways (and I know they are proven because I had to use them myself) to stop credit card overload:

1. Create a vision for your business. I always get back to this because for me it is one of the most important things. If you know you are focusing on writing info products you don't need the latest gadget software. Focus, focus, focus with a vision for your business and whatever that vision is don't allow anything to come along and deter you from it.

2. Stop – okay so the price of the product is increasing before your eyes, but stop anyway and ask yourself "Is this something I really need, and how will I use it within the next 24 hours?" If you don't know how you will immediately put it to use I would argue that you really don't need it right now.

3. Delete the email – don't even read it, when you are stronger (you will know you are stronger because you stop salivating when a new email offer arrives), open the email and unsubscribe from all these mailing lists you are on!

4. If curiosity really is killing you and you have to open and read the email then BEFORE you click that link to take a look, stop and let your logical mind take over. Tell yourself you are only looking and before you buy you will read the entire sales page TWICE!

5. Read the entire sales page TWICE – Research has shown that long sales copy works. It's my personal belief that the only reason why they work is because we are too lazy to read them, so we go from the top of the page and the headline straight down to the fast action bonuses and hit the "Buy now" link. If you really think you need this product then read the sales page from start to finish at least twice. I recommend 4 times to be sure.

6. Don't put your email receipts in a separate folder – It is easy to forget about that $27 ebook, or $8 domain you bought. Leave all your receipts for that month in your inbox. It is important they remain unopened and highlighted. You will be surprised at how many "purchase receipts" you actually accumulate and it definitely stops the spending!

7. Find yourself a business where you don't need any extras! Internet marketing is such a huge area that it's easy to believe you need to buy all the latest products for your business. Find yourself an online business that provides you with just about everything you need. That doesn't mean you never have to buy anything again. It just means that you need less and so can be conservative in your spending.

Credit card overload can become an occupational hazard for anyone working online, and running a home based business.

If you are fairly new to internet marketing there is still time to save yourself, re-read my 7 ways to avoid credit card overload, in fact print it off and hang it on your wall as a reminder of what you must do to survive online.

If you are a long-term internet marketing veteran who has managed to buy more than you have ever sold online, here's my advice……… step away from the computer, put the credit card down and put your hands behind your head!