Payday Loans Blog

According to the following article in the JoongAng Daily news, Korea is one of only three of the developed countries in the world to experience positive economic growth for the year 2009.

Published November 20,2009

"Korea will be among the three developed countries with positive economic growth this year and become the one with the highest growth rate next year, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said yesterday.

The latest outlook for Korea, a considerable improvement from one released in June, reflects a steady recovery in the private sector of Asia’s fourth largest economy, the organization said.

It even recommended that expansionary monetary policy, which has provided the economy with a major boost, now needs to gradually come to an end in order to better balance the national budget.

Spending, the OECD said, should be scaled back.

'Other exceptional measures to stabilize the economy, such as the expanded support to small and medium-sized enterprises, should be phased out,' it said.

In its revised world economic outlook, the OECD said Korea’s growth rate this year and next year will be 0.1 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively.

That is a significant improvement from its previous forecast. In June, the OECD predicted a 2.2 percent contraction this year and a 3.5 percent growth next year for Korea.

Among the other 29 OECD countries, only Australia and Poland were predicted to post growth in the positive territory, at 0.8 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.

Next year, none of them were estimated to have a higher growth than Korea’s.

In the revision, the OECD also said Korea will post 4.2 percent growth in 2011 and then record a 4.5 percent average annual growth between 2011 and 2017, close to its potential growth.

'Following the severe contraction in late 2008, Korea has achieved one of the earliest and strongest recoveries in the OECD area, led by exports and expansionary fiscal policy,' said the OECD in the report.

Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun echoed the optimism on the Korean economy yesterday, saying the economy will grow more than 4 percent next year, which had been a government target.

'Major foreign media and international organizations are showing amazement at Korea’s rapid economic recovery,' he said.

Yoon, however, cautioned against an excess of optimism, saying the employment situation and the private economic sector are still stagnant.

Analysts also point to the new flu as a factor with the ability to weaken the recovery.

Early this month, Hyundai Research Institute said the growth rate could be lowered by up to 7.8 percentage points due to the new flu while the Korea Economic Research Institute suggested a 5.6 percentage point drop.

The government said the new flu will lower growth by up to 0.3 percentage point this year."

What do you think? Should we be worried about our economic growth pattern? Can we learn from Korea's smooth and swift economic recovery? To help your own economic recovery program send us your scrap precious metals including your gold, silver and platinum jewelry and get a financial boost all for yourself.

Scams revolving around refinancing are making headlines these days.  If you are considering financing your home, please read this entire article.  It may save you a lot of money in the long run. 

Refinancing lenders who are trying to scam the public will teach their representatives how to manipulate customers into loans that are not in their best interest.  There is even some psychology that goes into teaching their employees how to do this.

When a lender looks at your loan application, they are typically looking at three things:

1. Your FICO score.

2.  Late mortgage payments
3.  Any bankruptcies you may have

Anything else is irrelevant to your loan approval.  They will not look at your credit card payment history, auto payment history, student loans or collections or charge offs.  Why is this?  Because your FICO score is the numerical value that takes into consideration all of these factors and puts them into a number ranging from 500 to 800.

If you are late on your mortgage payments this will usually increase your interest rate.  Bankruptcies will also increase your rate or give you instant denial for a loan.

Below is a tactic that you should be aware of:

Why is this something to be aware of?

The worse your credit history is, the more power the loan officer will have against you to try and manipulate you into accepting a loan that is not good for you.

The majority of loan officers know exactly what type of loan you can be approved for the minute they pull your credit.  There is no reason for them to dig into your past any further.

If you experience any of this with your loan officer, I suggest you find another reputable lender to work with and save yourself the money and the headaches.

When you apply for credit or financing, your credit report will be pulled electronically from any three major consumer reporting agencies.  These are Experian, Trans Union and Equifax.  They are responsible for maintaining correct and up to date credit information for people around the globe.  Obviously they are maintaining billions of records and are therefore not very effective in finding errors to individual reports.

This is the very reason why we as consumers are responsible for checking our own credit reports.  Make sure that you get a copy of your credit report at least once per year.  You are entitled to get one free copy per year.  If you have been denied credit in the past 60 days you are also entitled to receive a free credit report.  Below is a list of each credit bureau.

• Equifax, P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241; (800) 685-1111.
   
• Experian(formerly TRW), P.O. Box 2002, Allen, TX 75013; (888) EXPERIAN (397-3742).
   
• Trans Union, P.O. Box 1000, Chester, PA 19022; (800) 916-8800.
   

You can also use the internet to get your credit report.  Many companies will give you instant access to your report online and will offer it free if you try their credit monitoring service for a limited time.  These are great services to keep track of your credit and stop identity theft in its tracks.  When someone applies for credit in your name and SSN, these services will notify you via email.  If you did not request this credit then you just log into your account and alert the credit bureaus of potential fraud.

The information on your credit report is used to evaluate you when you apply for credit, insurance, employment or other purposes allowed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).  It is crucial that you review your credit for accuracy at least once per year.

When you monitor your report you will save yourself future problems when you apply for new credit or if you are considering the purchase of a new home.  When you know what is on your report you can clear up any inaccuracies before you even apply for new credit.  In doing so, you will avoid any issues before they arise.

When you find inaccurate information do the following:

• Verify discrepancies as soon as possible.  The credit bureau says that a reasonable amount of time is usually 30 days.
• Dispute the information.  You can either do it one at a time or all at once.
• Write a dispute letter.  Don’t just copy a form.  They will take you more seriously if you write it yourself rather than doing what thousands of others have done before.

The credit bureau is required to investigate claims and if they cannot confirm within a reasonable amount of time then the credit record must be taken off your credit file.  They also must provide you with a free copy of your credit report that was fixed.

Make sure your dispute goes to all three credit bureau companies. If by chance they decide that the information must stay on your report, then you can add a letter of explanation to your report so that future lenders are aware.

A lot of advice that exists about how to lower your expenses revolves around debt consolidation if you are deeply in debt. It is recommended to pay debts as soon as possible.  This advice does not fit everyone though and the following tips may be useful to you.

We are talking about how you can spend less money in your day to day affairs.  Some of these tips are simply common sense but you may not have thought of them before.  You should be able to save quite a bit of money if you pay close attention to the details in your daily life.

Let us examine how you eat.  As you may know, eating out can be expensive.  Even if you eat at cheap places, in the long run, that all adds up.  If you are truly trying to spend less money then you should avoid eating out.  Some of you may wonder how you will feed yourself at work.  Most employers have a fridge and a microwave available to staff.  Prepare your lunch the night before.  If sandwiches don’t sound appealing for every day, then make just a little extra dinner the night before and take leftovers. Not to mention that this tactic is healthier for you as well.  You don’t have to eliminate restaurants completely, just minimize them to save that extra money.

Still on the topic of food, buy your produce from local farms or at local farmers markets.  This can save you a lot of money that is usually spent on paying for the shipping costs from grocery stores.

Do you still read the newspaper?  If reading the paper with your morning coffee is something you can’t eliminate then skip past this part.  But, with the internet revolution, the news is posted all over your computer and you don’t need to worry about cutting trees to make paper and hurting the environment.  Most times, reading the news online can be absolutely free.  Even if a small fee is required to read your favorite newspaper online, it will still be cheaper than if you had a physical subscription.

Cut back on your utility bills.  Try to use fans and open windows in hot weather instead of turning on your air conditioner every time it gets a little warm in your home.  You will also be consuming less energy. The same goes for your heater.  Turn the lights off when you leave a room.  Even if you will be going back in that room in a half hour, that is one half hour of paying for electricity that you didn’t use.  Unplug your electric appliances at night.  This will save a little money but it will also help the environment immensely.

Buy second hand clothing, especially for your children.  Children grow out of clothing so quickly that it seems a waste to spend $40 on jeans that will be worn for a year or less.  Even for adults there are some very nice consignment shops.  This doesn’t mean that you need to buy clothing that has holes or stains.  For jeans and plain old play clothes, buying second hand can save you hundreds of dollars.

Research your purchases, and comparison shop.  Have you ever bought something and then found it somewhere else for significantly cheaper?  If you look around first, you can avoid this situation completely.  Along those same lines, if you shop around at thrift stores and yard sales, you can usually find some every day items for very cheap.

With some of this advice you can cut back your spending.  Once you see that money back in your account, use it to save!

This post touches on several issues that plague people all over the world.  The first is a no brainer:  Credit card debt.

Credit card debt is something that gets so many people upside down that they can’t tell which way is up.  It may seem like a good idea to buy this or that when you deserve it but you are spending money you don’t have.  This can add up and before you know it you are neck deep in fees and balances that will take you years to pay off.

The first piece of advice I have for this situation is to stop buying things you don’t have money for.  Cut back on things that are not necessary like too many minutes on your cell phone, cable TV or DSL if you don’t use the computer that much.  Take this money and add it to your payment on your lowest balance.  Once that has been paid off, take the extra money you added and your former payment and add them to your payment to your next lowest balance.  Your balances will start dropping more suddenly than if you just stretched your money over multiple bills.  Stay dedicated and you will find yourself out of debt faster than you realize.

Once your debts are paid off, take that money and save or invest and your income will grow.

The next situation I’d like to talk about is spending without saving.  You may spend only money you have and not use your credit cards for it, but what peace of mind are you giving yourself for retirement?  If you’re counting on your children to take care of you, then good luck with that.  Take financial responsibility now and save your money.  Pay the money it requires to get help with an investment portfolio and start allowing your money to grow.

The third situation I am going to touch on is identity theft.  Most of you don’t even know what your current credit score is.  It is your responsibility to find out what your credit report looks like.  Identity theft is a huge problem all over the world and it doesn’t take your SSN to steal your life.  Sometimes all it can take is your name and address.

Thieves will not only buy things in your name but they will get medical care in your name as well.  Can you imagine going to the hospital and being told you have a horrible disease when in fact, you do not?  Identity thieves will also commit crimes in your name.  This could spell disaster for you for a long time.  The first thing that most thieves will do is use your name to buy things, if that works and no red flag is raised, they will move on to bigger crimes.

Check your credit report, pay for it if you have to, and analyze it to pieces!  There could be things on there that aren’t related to you at all.  There could be a bill you paid off years ago that wasn’t taken off and is still affecting your credit rating.

There are simple ways to protect yourself that will leave you and your family grateful for a long time.