The battle begins - One question is worth $50

We discuss hundreds of topics in a day in our forums but the “Answer & earn $50″ section has twisted the story. This recently added section is an opportunity where hundreds of us can answer one question and battle it out for better and the best ones.

How it works?

1. Our community picks up the question of the week, which is displayed on the site under the section “Answer & earn $50″.
2. Anyone can answer it. All the answers are kept hidden.
3. At the end of the week, all the answers are shown to our moderators’ panel. They pick up the 5 best answers (first one gets 5 points and fifth one gets 1 point).
4. Answers with the maximum points win.
5. $50 is paid to the member for the best answer.
6. Once the result is declared, all answers are made public.

Today is the first day of “Answer & earn $50″ and the first question is “What are the alternatives to payday loan?”And we already have SIX answers. Must say it is a great going

Technorati Tags: dollar, money, community, finance, payday loan

Posted in Personal Finance | No Comments »

Inquiries and establishing credit

“I am on my way to establish credit so how many inquiries should I make? I have also heard that too many inquiries can lower down my score. Is it correct?” - This is a common question that most of the people trying to build up credit face. This post is an attempt to help them.

Inquiries negatively affect your score but the extent to which it affects actually depends on the overall profile of the credit report that’s being scored. For instance, an inquiry is going to matter more on somebody who has a short credit history without a lot of accounts.

Consider a college student who has only a student loan included in his credit report. Now, if he gets a few inquiries, then that’s going to affect his score more negatively than someone else who has got a long credit history.

The worst thing to do while establishing credit is getting a secured account and then putting across your credit applications to all of the big banks and the national department stores. By doing so, you start generating hard inquiries that in turn lower down your score. As lenders consider too many hard credit checks as an indication that you’re facing some kind of financial hardship and are desperately looking for credit to help you out

Technorati Tags: credit report, credit inquiry, hard pull, credit score, establish credit

Posted in Personal Finance | 1 Comment »

5 Tips to lower your grocery bills

I am not a very meticulous person and it reflects on the way I keep (Do I really?) a track of my grocery bills. The very thought of spending hours and hours in keeping notes of each and every grocery item purchased from stores gives me a headache. I am not an overspender and buy things that I need (things that are necessity) but of late I have realized that I can save some extra money if I start paying a little more attention towards reducing the grocery expenses. I have started adhering to these simple tips to cut down my expenses on grocery and its working. So, I thought of sharing them with you all.

• Make fewer trips to store: I have cut down my trips to the grocery store. My trips have been reduced to once or twice a month. The fewer times I visit the store, the less opportunities I will have for impulse buying. Shoppers making a ‘quick trip’ to grocery stores end up spending 54 percent more than they intended.

• Every weekend plan for the coming week’s meals and snacks: On Saturdays I sit down and make a plan of the menus that will be cooked for the next week. I also plan for the snacks. Planning ahead restricts me from buying unwanted stuffs and also gives me an idea about the quantity of the items I need to buy.

• Try generic grocery products: Most of the people rush to grocery stores and grab the name brand. They simply overlook the generic products. I was also a bit apprehensive about using generic items at first, so I compared the ingredients in the generic and the national brand items. To my surprise in most cases, the ingredients present in the generic and the brand items were same. So, buying generic items do not imply that you are compromising on quality. Everything from breakfast cereals to canned goods and prescription drugs is available under a generic or store brand label. And by purchasing them you can actually save from a few cents to a couple of dollars per item.

• Stock up the necessity items if they are put on sale: Items like soaps, tissue papers and toiletries can be stocked up. Buying them in bulk will be cheaper. Instead of rushing to stores and wasting gas, you can easily use the items from your stock anytime when you need a new supply for your own use.

• Use coupons: I usually clip out the coupons that I intend to use in a week from the Sunday paper. I usually buy items that I regularly use with coupons- it does save money.

budget,grocery bills,budgeting tips,reduce grocery bills

Technorati Tags: budget, grocery bills, budgeting tips, reduce grocery bills

Posted in Personal Finance | 3 Comments »

DebtCC reveals 6 money making secrets to get out of debt

If you are in huge debt and struggling to come out of it, DebtCC is the best place for you. The community, comprising of nearly 108075 members serves a two-fold purpose in making you debt free. They not only provide you with a simple debt free solution, but also offer you with some financial guidance.

Lately, the DebtCC community has come up with 6 simple ways for you to make money with DebtCC and become debt free. Do you know that you can earn $100 - $900 a month with the DebtCC community?

Get to know the 5 simple money earning ways from DebtCC community:

1. Earn while you post in the community forums:

Each time you post in the community forums you win some DebtCC points. These points can be converted into dollars. Once your point value is worth $10 you are free to cash out your amount. If you want to cash out you need to request a Simon or Jason to send you the amount by check or paypal.

2. Earn while you share your real life story with the community :

The section comprises of some real life stories of the people who successfully managed to come out of huge debt. Such stories would be some genuine example for the debt-trapped people. One single book comprises of 100 different stories. If you, as an author share one story with the community, it gets compiled in a book. Each book comprise of 100 stories. If the community can make $100,000 from a single book then each author can get an amount of $1000 for every story.

3. Start your own blog with us and make money :

If you register with the debt community, and host a blog under our domain, you can make money. DebtCC would host your blog and publish it in the internet. The experts would assist you with their marketing knowledge, to get more visitors. Your adsense would help you to earn lots of money as your blog will get ample traffic from DebtCC. Moreover, the community would also help you with all the technical support that you need for your blog.

4. Community review in local newspaper can help you to earn over $1000 :

If you can make some arrangements of reviewing the DebtCC community in the local newspaper, you will be rewarded with $1000 at one go.

5. Become a Hall of Fame and earn huge cash :

When you complete 1000 posts in the DebtCC forums, you will be eligible to be nominated for the DebtCC hall of fame. The community would then start a thread in the DebtCC forum on your name, something like “Vote for your name to Hall of Fame”. If the members cast 10 positive votes in your favor, you will earn $100 instantly.

6. Debtcc income forum:

Debtcc community has lately introduced an interactive platform on different scopes of income. The purpose of the community income forum is to update people with the different income procedures.

To know more about the different income methods, look forward to my next post.

Technorati Tags: DebtCC, money making option

Posted in Earning Option, Personal Finance, About DebtCC | 10 Comments »

Which one should I pay off first?

Everything seems to be in an utter mess……you’ve missed the payments on the mortgage, auto loan, furniture, washing machine, TV, and credit card. To make the matters worse, the bills are simply piling up- whether its electricity bill or a reminder letter from your telephone service provider. You are simply confused as with a limited income you have really no clue of the debts you need to pay off first. To ease your problem I have jotted down 6 important debts that must be disposed off first. They are actually the ones where serious action can be taken against you if you don’t pay what you owe.

• Mortgage – the lender can repossess your home
• Rent arrears - Landlords usually have the right to look for a court order in case you miss to pay your rent obligations. In certain circumstances your landlord can also get you evicted without even obtaining a court order first.
• Utility debts (like gas, electricity and telephone bills) – failure to make payments on utility services will lead to disconnection of the services by the provider.
• Auto loan: If you require your car to get to work or for some other essential transportation, then you must place your auto loan or lease payments right next after food, housing costs, unavoidable medical expenses, and utilities.
• Income Tax Debts: It is advisable to pay the income taxes you owe that are not automatically deducted from your wages, and you certainly must file your federal income tax return.
• Fines: Court fines like child support or spousal maintenance are also priority debts. Non payment of these debts can make you land up in very serious problems, including prison.

Posted in Debt Consolidation, Personal Finance | 6 Comments »