Avoid the Zeus Virus on Your Credit Card

As fraudsters seem to invent new ways to trick, scam and hoax the public everyday, it is becoming increasingly important to know how to protect your finances.

The prevalent platform or 'God' for financial fraud, Zeus Malware, is a particular worry for banking customers at the moment.

Zeus has succeeded in inventing a particularly fool-proof device for asking people to provide their most intimate financial details.

By targeting the two main security systems Verified by Visa and MasterCard, a total of 15 leading financial institutions and their customers could be at risk.

By mimicking the validation page which is often requested by Visa and MasterCard, the scam has enough legitimacy to dupe even the most careful e-bankers.

This scam is particularly disheartening as from the outset Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode has been introduced in the customers' best interests.

If you don't have one of these systems protecting your card then it is strongly advised that you enroll now. Especially since, as you'll see when you do a credit card comparison, some card providers only protect you under their internet fraud guarantees when you've signed up to this scheme with a password.

It is easy to sign-up - simply visit your bank's website, register your card for the service and choose a password that no one could guess.

You could use numbers, symbols and letters in your password for added protection.

After this, every transaction you make online will be protected.

A screen will come up and ask for the password and if it is incorrect, you will not be able to complete the transaction.

This added layer of protection should be used with caution though, as the Zeus hoax has so recently proved.

PC's that are infected with the malware could be subject to an attack.

After making a transaction, Zeus could inject their own falsified form into the browser, claiming that Visa and MasterCard now have compulsory security systems.

They will then ask for details such as date of birth, social security number, card number and personal password.

This information would give them access to your card and they would then be able to make countless 'card not present' transactions.

However, this will not happen if you are already enrolled in Verified by Visa or SecureCode.

It can also be avoided, as can every scam of this nature, by downloading the software that your credit card provider suggests.

Programmes are free to download for e-banking customers of several UK banks including HSBC, Santander, RBS and NatWest.

The software detects and stops HTML injection, and would not allow Zeus to force a false form on to your browser.

Zeus is very hard to detect even by the most high-tech anti-virus software.

It is also alarmingly common, so if you suspect the smallest irregularity on your PC, contact your bank, download software and make sure you get disinfected.

Note that credit cards meant for spending as opposed to, say, 0% balance transfer credit cards, may be more likely to come with added fraud protection.

This can include monitoring of the account which flags up unusual activity as potential fraud.

Qualify For Corporate Credit Cards Without Personal Guarantee

Corporate credit is essential for many new businesses and for those that are currently operating. Businesses with a good loan score can qualify for higher business loans, vendor loan and corporate credit cards without personal guarantee. Most small businesses, unless they have an established line of business credit, often link their personal and business accounts together. A personal guarantee is often required for business credit cards, loans and some vendor accounts when a business is new, without established trust in future payment or has a low credit rate.

Businesses without established surplus cash will have to use the owner's personal credit score when it comes to applying for credit cards or loans. Business owners with a low FICO score that apply for a credit card or loan may be approved with a low extension line or at times even denied loan. For owners with bad assets, obtaining any kind of business capital outlay is nearly impossible. In order to create a financially fit business, emphasis must be placed on building business credit. Business loan is based on a Paydex score, which is similar to the FICO score used in personal loan. The Paydex score takes into account the number of revolving accounts and whether they are paid on time or defaulted. Late payments and defaulted accounts negatively affect a business's credit.

In order to obtain an extension for a business should start out by applying for an Employer Identification Number or tax ID number. This a clear separation from personal social security number of the owner and that of the business and officially makes it a separate entity of its own. It also allows a business owner to then use the EIN number for the business to establish surplus cash lines. Once an tax ID number is obtained, the next step is to establish a few small lines of loans to help build up a good Paydex score.

One thing to keep in mind is that paying debts on time does not improve your loan points if the creditors do not regularly report the payments and account status to the capital outlay bureaus. Make sure that the vendor or bank that supplies the business assets reports the account to the capital outlay bureaus including Equifax, Experian and Dun & Bradstreet. One or all of these companies are used by credit card and loan companies when reviewing a business loan application. By establishing several revolving accounts and keeping them current, a business can greatly improve its extension rate. With a good Paydex score, a business can easily obtain credit cards and loans with having to personally guarantee the loans. Eligibility will be based solely on the extension score of the business.

Instant Credit Card Offers

Has it ever occurred to you how a credit card works and what is its role in your fiscal health? Now-a-days everyone depends on digital cash technology to compare these cards and keep credit or debit cards which are prominently used by one and all to carry out daily transactions.

How A Credit Card Works?

It is a credit facility. When one swipes the card, the company pays the receiver. This expense is borne by the company. At the end of the month, the credit card company totals up the amount of all the transactions that took place, adds an interest and also levies a service charge. There is a due date to pay off these bills and a fine is charged by the company if there is a late payment. Their offers come with many facilities and hence to avail a good one, their comparison must be done.

Before filling the application form make sure that all the terms and conditions are well read especially about the low interest card. To get the best deals, one should look for the fees the company charges and the rates at which they calculate the interest for the payments made after the due date. Always go in for a card of a company which is doing well. There are many sites which even do the comparison for low interest such cards and simplify access to an online visa card application for such deals.

Instant Approval Credit Cards

The best way for application of a card is to surf the official website of the card company and fill up the credit card application form. After the application form is filled, the company starts the process of approval. In this process, a complete background check is done. Credit scores are taken to determine the creditability which also indicates the ability of the applicant to pay the monthly bills. The credit score and credit ratings also determine the person's spending habits. Instant approval cards follow a process of approval takes not more than 48 hours. In cases, where the applicant has a very good credit rating/credit score, the approval process requires a time period of a few hours. Sometimes the process take longer if one has applied for 0 interest cards.

Types Of Instant Approval Credit Cards

Based on the nature of their approval, there are several different types:

Credit Cards for people with Bad Credit: These cards are issued for those who have a poor credit and usually have to suffer with a high service charge. If the user can't pay the bill, the company can legally take over some assets to recover the losses.

Cards for people with Fair Credit: These cards are offered to those who have a good credit. If the applicant does not have a job, the company demands collateral.

Student Credit Cards: These online cards are issued to students who don't have regular jobs but whose parents have a steady income.

A Formula For FAST Credit Repair

There is no question that nearly everyone will need credit at some point in life. Very few people will be able to purchase a home or even a new car without credit and the better that credit score is the better the terms will be. Unfortunately, for many people a good credit rating has been beyond their reach. Sometimes it is simply because they did not know how to create a good score in the first place, but often it is because of erroneous entries on a credit report.

If you FICO score is 600 or below you can expect to pay a great deal more in interest charges over the life of any kind of loan. Does any of this sound familiar to you? Would you like to boost your credit score in less than 60 days? It is possible, if you are armed with the know how!

The truth that the credit agencies do not want you to know is you can perform credit repair actions that will remove late pays, judgments, repossessions and loan defaults quickly and completely. When you understand how the system works you can boost your credit score by as much as 135 points in just 37 days! Have harmful inquiries removed in days and double your credit card limit in minutes simply by putting these easy credit repair techniques in play.

Unless you are a multimillionaire, you are going to be at the mercy of credit reporting agencies and your FICO score so the best thing you can do is learn how to work the system. When you are armed with this knowledge, you will never get stuck in the poor credit cycle again. When you are ready to begin your credit repair, simply check out the information
Get instant approval credit cards and save your time. Instant approval credit cards are the best type of credit cards that will fit your financial needs.

Is a Bad Credit Mortgage Broker Trustworthy?

Today, more people turn to credit companies to get to accomplish their goals. Whether you want to buy another hose, or to open a business, generally you're tempted to follow the easier path and turn to a mortgage. The mortgage is easy to obtain, under certain conditions. Must guarantee with something like, a stable residence or stable income. But often happens, to not be taken in consideration, the costs, and forget about how much you have to repay, and another sum, with an interest which is not exactly small, or we forget to think if we can handle the rates. Of course, there is the possibility of running out of work, so we do not benefit from the income we had when we opened this credit, and therefore we can not afford to pay rates anymore.

The only thing that might help, would be refunded. But this funding, we can not get, unless we have a clean payment rates history. It is also harder to get if we have no previous income. For such situations, have appeared on the market, bad credit mortgage brokers. They are perhaps the only alternative left to us, so we can get some refinancing. What makes a bad mortgage broker? It is simple, and not really simple. It must take our case and after a thorough study of it, they must to negotiate directly with the bank that he can get a new refinancing for us. And they do not fail most of the time.

Instead, we should be very careful when we are making a choice on what it regards our representative. Would be best to choose a broker, which, you are recommended by a trusted person. In fact they are interested of that. If they do a good job, and thank their customers, creating what they want, they are awaiting to be recommended by their customers, to others that may be in the same situation. On the market can be found a lot of people dealing with this kind of thing. Between customers and bad mortgage brokers, there must be a full trust, and if happens, that they are not speaking on our meaning, we better give them up. They are not loyal to any banks, or credit companies, so the only people whom they need to demonstrate loyalty, is us. Because with our help they can win, others and other clients

Personal Finance Tips From One of Life's Financial Victims

Good advice without strings is extremely hard to find nowadays, nevertheless, this is what I'm here to do. Yes, I'm offering personal finance tips that are both useful and practical, and what's more, free of charge. Some of my personal finance tips you may have heard from others, and some you may not. However, even if you've heard them before, many of them are well worth repeating. After all, good advice always holds its value and none more so than personal finance tips from one of life's financial victims. I'd even go as far as to say that not only do they represent sound advice, but these words are good enough to live by.

Always be Wary of Shoes

If you're a man and married, here's a peculiar and extremely useful personal finance tip I urge you to listen to. Strange as it may sound, please take note of the relationship between your wife and her shoes. Whenever you first marry, usually things start out quite innocently as simply just several nice pairs of shoes and, of course, some sneakers for wearing outdoor. But all of a sudden, it quickly turns out she'll need a new pair of shoes for every new outfit for work, despite that she may already have two pairs of black shoes. "Ah", she proclaims, "but none of my own shoes are like this new pair of black shoes". Before you know it, you are up to your knees in a sea of shoes just to try and get out the door in the morning. And the problem grows steadily worse. This tip is as much for your personal sanity as it is one of my personal finance tips. Trust me on this one!

Replace your Light Bulbs

Recently I decided to change all of my current standard light bulbs to the energy-saving bulbs that only use a fraction of the power of the standard, yet emit greater light. So I ask you, what makes this one of my personal finance tips?

This is indeed one of my personal financial tips as the new energy-savers cost $35 for the entire house, which I have ascertained will save approximately $50 and $60 per month on my home energy bill. The point being, if you find ways to save money in your home, ultimately you'll see a positive increase in the balance of your savings account.

Avoid High Interest Terms and Conditions

Credit is all very well, however, should you take the finance option to buy a $500 product, then with an interest rate of 25%, by the end of the finance period you'll have paid out just short of $1,500 for the privilege. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that if you can save the $500 cash needed to pay for the product, you'll save yourself almost $1000.

At all costs, try to avoid purchasing any item on a store credit card, as these tend to charge the greatest rates of interest. When it comes to personal finance tips, the best tip I can give you is to avoid high interest rates whenever you go on a spending spree.

Secret Tips to Keep Your Finance Under Control

Let me give you some personal finance budgeting tips to help you keep your budget on track.

1. Keep a track of your daily expenses. - This can be the hardest part of your personal finance budgeting. Maintain a ledger or a log book to track your daily expenses. This will help you to note down all the expenses without missing them.

2. Before going to any shop make a list of things that you need. Buy only things that you require. If you go to a shop without preparation, you may buy many unwanted things and this will in turn make yourself spend more. If you have a proper plan, you will not only save your money, but will also reduce the chances of forgetting things that you need.

3. Do not make impulse purchase. - In other words, do not go shopping for the sake of shopping. This is a phenomenon that takes place when you hang out with your friends. You tend to go to shops and buy things that amuse you. But in fact you may not need them at all. Avoid such instances.

4. If you are going to make purchases of huge amounts, say $ 400, it is always advisable to purchase this after a few days. This will often help you analyze the need for the product. You may not need that purchase at all. So you will get some air to think about your purchase if you think about it for a few days.

Budgeting is completely about taking up responsibilities oneself, so that you will be able to to hunt down your unwanted expenses. The budget shows you how you can cut down your expenses by saving unwanted purchases. Follow these steps and you will find yourself in a very secure financial situation in a few months.

Contactless Prepaid Cards - Glimpse of the Near Future

The presence of Contactless Prepaid Cards is slowly but steadily becoming more and more visible and it certainly seems that they are here to stay.

Contactless cards differ from regular prepaid cards in the way the information is read from them by the card reader.

A regular prepaid debit card stores its data on a magnetic stripe that must be physically swiped through a card reader or on a microchip which must be inserted into a Chip & PIN device.

A contactless prepaid credit card, on the other hand, stores its data on a microchip embedded in the card's plastic. The microchip is fitted with a radio antenna that is capable of transmitting the card's data to a card reader without physical contact.

Using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, these cards can transmit data to a special RFID card reader when the cardholder waves his card within a few inches of the receiver.

Q. Who accepts contactless prepaid credit cards?

Up until very recently, these cards were only accepted at select convenience stores, gas stations, movie theaters, and fast food restaurants. However, the drive behind the contactless card movement is to persuade consumers to use plastic conveniently at places that have traditionally been cash-intensive. Doing so would reduce lines and waiting times by speeding transaction times. While few merchants accept the contactless payments right now, the technology is expected to catch on soon and most prepaid card issuers are watching the market trends carefully with widespread rollouts are predicted in the months and years to come.

Q. Who issues contactless prepaid credit cards?

Contactless cards are available from MasterCard PayPass, Visa Contactless and American Express ExpressPay.

There are few examples of successful contactless pre pay cards currently but some successes would be the limited edition MasterCard cards for the Brit Awards as well as a pilot programme to help deliver the first stadium contactless prepaid card in Europe, the Manchester City FC MasterCard(R) Prepaid Seasoncard with PayPass(TM), with MBNA and MasterCard to replace the standard season ticket currently issued to supporters.

The Contactless technologies provided by the leading scheme managers are as follows

* MasterCard Paypass
* Visa Paywave
* American Express Expresspay

One of the biggest dilemmas faced by prepaid card issuers is the area of how to make money with contact less cards as well as how to educate consumers about their use and convince them that contactless cards are indeed safe and secure to use.

With the London Travel Oyster Card and the steadfast commitment of certain banks to delivering contactless prepaid cards, we can rest assured that contactless prepaid cards are undoubtedly going to become more visible in the near future.

Visa Vs MasterCard - Which is the Best?

The two leading credit card companies in the world today are the competitors Visa and MasterCard. They both operate along very similar lines. While Visa can claim to have almost a billion cards issued, MasterCard has over twenty five thousand banks issuing its cards and it is difficult to find any difference in the number of locations worldwide that accept the cards, which is now estimated at over twenty million.

In fact, as far as most consumers are concerned, there is no real difference between the two. They are both very widely accepted in over one hundred and fifty countries and it is very rare to find a location that will accept one but not the other.

However, neither Visa nor MasterCard actually issue any credit cards themselves. They are both simply methods of payment. They rely on banks in various countries to issue credit cards that utilise these payment methods. Therefore, the interest rates, rewards, annual fees, and all other charges are issued by your bank and when you pay your bill you are paying it to the bank or institution that issued your card and not Visa or MasterCard.

How Visa and MasterCard make their money is by charging the retailer for using their payment method. So the truth of the matter is that a Visa issued by say the Bank of Scotland will have very little to do with a Visa issued by other banks and may in fact by more similar to the Bank of Scotland's MasterCard.

What this means for the vast majority of customers is that you do not have to overly concern yourself with whether a credit card is MasterCard or Visa. You would be better off concentrating on the interest and other charges on the card, the balance transfer possibilities or their reward scheme. You are very unlikely to ever be effected by the fact that it is one and not the other.

If you prefer, if you are going to have two credit cards, you may decide that you want one of them to be Visa and the other MasterCard, this means that if something drastic were to happen to one company, or if you were in the unlikely position of finding a location that accepts one but not the other, then you would have the option of paying with either.

At the end of the day however, much more depends on the bank that gave you the card, than on the type of card it is.