Thanksgiving is a time to say thanks for everything you have. Appreciate those around you!
Leadpile Lead Exchange would like to say thank you to all our affiliates, partners, employees and blog readers. Have a Happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday!
Over and over I am bringing the attention to the payday loan industry, and really how it is not necessarily taking advantage of consumers. I couldn’t resist a good post on the Payday Pundit, who brought up some good points about a payday loan.
“Let’s consider some alternatives for the working mom who is short $100 until payday, 14 days from now. She could get a $100 payday loan, pay $15, and the APR for that two week loan would be 391 percent..
She could also choose to write a bad check and pay an average of $48 in NSF and merchant fees. That would be a comparable APR of 1,251 percent!
Even if she has courtesy pay with her credit union, the average fee is $25, or an APR of 650 percent. Another option for her might be to not pay the $100 minimum balance due on her credit card, resulting in a $26 late fee—678 percent. If she chooses to not pay her $100 utility bill which may result in a $50 late or reconnect fee, that’s a comparable APR of 1,304 percent!
The argument can be made that by securing a payday loan to solve her cash flow needs, this woman is taking a proactive approach to her financial dilemma.
The Center for Responsible Lending indicates the 11 states that banned or limited payday lending saved consumers $1.4 billion in fees in 2006. But eliminating local payday lending activity does not eliminate the need for emergency cash loans. People still come up short prior to payday and the center does not address how these consumers managed their cash-flow problems. If they had to use one of the other alternatives, or had to drive to an adjoining state that made payday loans, or used the Internet to get an even higher priced loan, it is possible consumers in these states paid even more to solve their cashflow problems.”
This just keeps going back to the fact that there are bad with everything, and if you abuse the use of a payday loan you will NOT be in a better position. However, as Credit Union National Association and the National Credit Union Foundation state there are other alternatives that could be worse for a consumer. Education is key with payday loans and any other type of financial solution customers choose to take.
Question is, the holidays are now here and there are going to be families that need those gifts and food on their table. Is the payday loan the smartest solution for that consumer? Leadpile Lead Exchange will be here no matter what the answer to that question is, to provide the service to the consumers that DO need this temporary loan.
According to DMNews, Yahoo was rated the preferred search engine for US Hispanics in October 2008.
Knowing this popularity, Yahoo has launched Yahoo Publicidad. This is Yahoo’s answer to reaching the large Hispanic population. Yahoo’s Hispanic America Marketing director says, “Yahoo is the only marketing platform to integrate display, performance or search and mobile advertising.” This site is a marketing platform for advertisers to reach US Hispanics, Latin American and South American consumers. Many lead generation companies are fucusing on the Hispanic market. This might be a good indication that companies like Leadpile Lead Exchange should focus more on this market.
Yahoo has an eye wide open for targeting the hispanic population, maybe we should also take note too!
According to Forbes.com, the big 3 auto makers have concluded testimonies in front of Congress. They are requesting emergency financial assistance and failed in their first attempt in front of Congress. Round 2- they get another chance to plea their case. However, Congress is looking to see if these big 3 auto makers actually have a plan in place. According to Forbes, “What they likely want to see is how the carmakers will lower their labor costs and develop more fuel-efficient cars U.S. consumers will want to buy. The companies are happy to lay out their future product plans, which include more hybrids, plug-in electric cars and new turbo-charged gasoline engines that sip fuel. But the rest is tougher to do.” Let’s see how the next week or so pans out for GM, Chrysler and Ford. My fingers are crossed for you.
Leadpile Lead Exchange, and I am sure all other lead companies, are hoping something positive comes out of the meeting with congress. We would love to see the demand pick back up!
Help with repairing your credit is something pretty much everyone could use a little assistance on. With a tough economy, Americans are needing to worry about more important things like paying their next electric bill. However, when that time comes where they have the ability to get help, credit repair is a great option to look at. Credit repair assistance can be a very informative service, that once you learn what makes up your credit report, you will be able to use the valuable information in the future.
Leadpile Lead Exchange is currently generating a large volume of credit repair leads. These consumers need the help now and are looking for someone to provide that service. Knowledge is power when it comes to your credit report, unfortunately not everyone is in a position to have great credit. Knowing we have a large demand for this lead type, and the large amount of consumers wanting assistance, Leadpile has rolled out some text links/landing sites for lead sellers to use.
www.countrywidecreditfix.com
www.creditfixnationwide.com
www.mycreditjump.com
www.personalcreditassist.com
www.uscreditfix123.com
If you are currently not working with Leadpile to purchase or sell credit repair leads, I recommend it!
Remember those days when you could pick out all the items you want, and then pay for them each week at your local store? Okay, maybe not everyone did that, but I remember doing this sort of thing when wanting to buy some “big” ticket items. Those days seem to be back. Sears announced it is rolling out layaway! You shop for what you want and then make a small down payment, then you are done. Layaway is not a common thing these days, however with the economy retailers are doing whatever it is they can do to get consumers in their stores for the holidays
What happened to layaway and why did it pretty much disappear? According to creditcards.com, the rise in credit cards being issued erased the high demand for layaway. Now with consumers having maxed out credit cards, delinquent mortgages, and jobs disappearing, retailers are trying to come up with ideas on how to get that limited amount of consumers in THEIR stores. Other stores that I found offer layaway are: Burlington Coat Factory, TJ Maxx, and also take a look at elayaway.com, because this website offers a layaway service.
So, why would Leadpile Lead Exchange be writing about “layaway”? As I have stated in previous posts, we see consumers that are in all sorts of financial situations. Seeing stories such as retailers rolling out an old idea in this tough economy, gives me optimism that there is possibly some light at the end of the tunnel. Every little piece will help those consumers and the economy get headed in the right direction!
With tough times even in the internet business world, businesses must find effective ways to generate new business. Companies need to see results from their money spent on advertising, so many choose to invest in lead generation.
Businesses could spend an infinite amount of money on PPC and not know what the result could be. Businesses could spend undefined amounts of money on hiring someone to do SEO.
Businesses could purchase “lists” and cross your fingers there will be a response rate that is acceptable.
OR
Businesses can look at lead generation (CPL), where each lead you purchase is a defined person who is interested in their product. There are various ways lead generation companies are generating leads. For example, leads can be generated from things such as surveys or incentives. However, these are not always going to be as targeted of leads, because consumers could be looking at it like what is in it for them? Unlike some other lead generation companies, Leadpile Lead Exchange is working with ONLY consumers who are opting in for a particular product of service. This end result means a lot more targeted consumer, and a much bigger chance the lead will convert to an actual sale. What should businesses choose?
Marketing dollars are down, so this requires a strict focus on making the most out of what you spend on marketing. Businesses can’t afford to pay for random non targeted ads, unopened e-mails or wasted clicks. CPL pricing models allow businesses to get returns on every advertising dollar they spend. Tough times are not just affecting consumers, it is affecting businesses all over the world. Businesses are fighting over every last potential sale because they are becoming far and few between!
Credit cards are a way of life for most Americans. According to Time.com, in the last 10 years credit card balances have gone up 75%, yet consumer’s wages have gone up only 4%. Increased balances and the number of credit cards consumers have, has allowed credit card companies to reap the rewards for years. These credit card companies have always survived in tough economic times because they were able to generate lots of revenue from things such as late fees, however more and more consumers are now facing charge off. The charge off rate for default consumers is expected to reach 10%, which is double what the rate has been for the past 10 years. If there are more charge offs, that means credit card companies will be in the RED, because defaults/charge offs will far surpass the revenue they are bringing in from things such as late fees. So, what does that mean will happen?
In the case of American Express, they just became a bank holding company in order to receive some low cost funds and a piece of the $700 billion bailout. In the case of Citigroup, they layed off 10,000 employees and will begin imposing higher interest rates on it’s 54 billion cardholders. With other credit card issuers, there is bound to be some increased interest rates passed down to the cardholders and increased fees. The only way to really avoid the effects of these credit card issuer’s hardships, is for consumers to manage their money better where they avoid any additional late fees and also look at not incorporating any new debt. The only option I can see is looking at debt consolidation or debt settlement to avoid getting in a deeper hole. Leadpile Lead Exchange generates a lot of debt leads where consumers need help and need help now. Hopefully, they can ride the wave before any sort of credit card “bubble” bursts and they are affected in an even worse way.
Citigroup announced it is going to be helping some of it’s mortgage customers from going into foreclosure. According to NPR News, Citi will be lowering mortgage payments on more than 100,000 people who have not yet fallen behind. They said they are looking at getting some sort of similar assistance to those people whose loan they service, but do not own. Other major lenders are also rolling out assistance programs to it’s customers to help try and help control more foreclosures from happening. Some mortgage customers who are paying their mortgage on time, say what can Citi do for them for being a “good” paying customer? This is a legitimate question, however at this point if Citi lets more people go in foreclosure, then this will hurt our home values and economy EVEN MORE! We don’t want that.
My question is why did it take this long to roll something out like this? Shouldn’t this have been something the major lenders offered before we got to this point? Some are still asking who is to blame for all this hardship in our economy and mortgage industry, however at this point it might be best to just get the economy headed in the right direction first. Wasting time on trying to place blame is something that Americans need to avoid, and instead focus on how we can get the economy headed in the right direction. Citi and these other mortgage companies, I do commend for helping to start getting the ball rolling!
Leadpile Lead Exchange comes across all sorts of consumers is all sorts of financial situations every day. However, the number of people submitting requests for foreclosure, loan modification, debt consolidation are increasing dramatically. These consumers need help and we are going to help in any way we can, just like Citi and these other mortgage companies are trying to do. Everyone contributing to this resolution, will help us ALL get headed in the right direction.
In past years, the internet did not play a big part in a company’s product sales. Today, this is certainly not the case. The internet is a major player in generating revenue for all industries. Specifically, financial related websites are very popular for consumers to find out information and also purchase items. Leadpile Lead Exchange is no different. The highest demanded leads in our marketplace are financial related lead types. These are companies wanting to provide financial services to consumers looking for assistance.
The auto industry is also no different than our marketplace, and other companies generating business online. According to DMNews, internet generated car sales will rise from 5.1 millions in 2007 to 7.7 million in 2012. This means that auto makers, no matter what their future status is, need to be visible on the internet in order to generate car sales. This would mean that with the tight economy and not as many people out shopping for a car, auto makers must utilize search engines and SEO efforts to get the much needed attention of consumers. DMNews also stated that Nissan North America, Chrysler and GM have done the best with utilizing search marketing.
So does this also mean that those auto lead exchanges that are not focusing on any other lead type are suffering right now? My guess would be yes. Leadpile Lead Exchange is also feeling the effects of less consumers online looking for a new car, however that is why diversifying the lead types we generate is so very important. People are in dire need of other financial services besides just getting a new car, and we want to be able to help with that.
It is official…
Leadpile Lead Exchange is officially generating the lead type of Loan Modification. There are so many consumers out there wanting help with the mortgages they are in, and we are now connecting those consumers with companies providing the service.
The sad part about this lead type is that the some lenders that actually issued the loans are the ones now trying to offer loan modification options. I know this is happening because I received a letter from my original lender, however I am not delinquent on my mortgage or not about to experience any “life changing” experience to cause me to need a loan modification. My guess is they are just sending out notifications to everyone, in hopes that there are some that took out a loan with them that are falling behind at this point. Why were things like this not offered to the consumers at the time they got the original mortgage? We all know there are some consumers who just could not wait to get that cash out on their refinance, however there are a lot of consumers that were maybe put in loans they had no business being put in. Our lead marketplace is here to try and match up consumers with service providers, no matter what the circumstances were.
The information we are capturing for the loan modification lead type:
1. Full contact information
2. Monthly Income
3. Credit rating
4. Home value
5. Mortgage balance, interest rate, and adjustable, fixed, or interest only interest rate
6. Consumers monthly obligations
7. Have bankruptcy filings been started already
Sad days for those in AZ and OH with regards to payday loans. Many are not sure how these initiatives lost in the voting, however they did. This is going to affect a lot of brick and mortar stores located in these states. This is a very large deal, because there are quit a few stores located in these states. Where do we go form here?
According to PDL blog, image might have had something to do with being able to get legislation passed on the payday loan industry. Did the misconception of a payday loan really have that much affect on those that were voting on these propositions, or did voting consumers really not want to have payday loans around any longer? Now some lenders in these states and going to be closing down some of their stores. So how will this affect the internet payday loan industry? Will it be affected?
The good news is that some of these lenders that will be closing down locations, will now be looking at alternative options to offer the consumers. One of the alternatives is a short term unsecured loan. This type of alternative will then be able to still provide some assistance to those that are in a temporary situation, but do not have the ability to get a payday loan or any other “bank” loan.
Time will tell. I am sure all eyes will be on this industry to see if this recent legislation will affect what direction other states pursue……. or if there is a way to “try again” to get this legistration overturned. Leadpile Lead Exchange realizes that there are consumers that really need assistance with their unforseen debt/bills. We will continue to try and match up those consumers with the lender that can help them take care of this issue. Loan modification, tax debt relief, debt consolidation, debt settlement, credit repair and others are lead types where we are trying to get the necessary help to the consumers.