Changes to fees and terms may be positive for many consumers struggling to pay their bills! New rules obtaining to overdraft protection requires consumers to specifically request it, rather than being automatically enrolled in it. According to the Credit CARD Act, should the consumer enroll for overdraft protection, fees can only be applied once during a billing cycle and the card company must notify the consumer of the amount. These new overdraft rules only apply to debit cards, not checks or electronic transfers.
Consumers now are given 21 days to send credit card payments in, rather than only 14, and if changes are made to terms, 45 days notice must be given instead of 15. This change does not apply to reducing your credit limit, the credit card company can do this at any time without any warning!
One new change might be scary for many consumers to see, but after the initial shock sets in, the overall perspective will hopefully ultimately help consumers in the long run. Effective starting February 22, credit card bills must make it clear how long it will take the consumers to pay off the balance, and how much interest will be paid if the minimum amount is all that is paid each month.
While there is no current cap placed on increasing interest rates, credit card companies are required to give customers 45 days notice on changes and may not raise the current interest rate on customers existing debt unless payment is more than 60 days late on payment. Additional help to consumers trying to pay off debt, additional fees for paying over the phone, electronic transfer, or mail are no longer allowed and universal default for existing credit card balances may no longer be practiced. The Credit CARD Act has now made is more difficult for college students to obtain credit cards, someone under 21 may not be offered a credit card without a co-signer or proof of proper income.
LeadPile matches consumers in debt with Debt Consolidation, Debt Settlement and Bankruptcy companies daily. Debt is a huge source of stress for many people, hopefully the new Credit CARD Act will help get people back on track and become more aware of their own debt, and make plans to get things paid off!

Leadpile is excited to roll out a brand new exclusive offer with Broadview Security. We are looking for publishers that can drive traffic to our offer-nationwidehomesafe.com. This offer helps to bring together those consumers that are looking to help keep their homes safe and secure. The typical consumer that this is great for a security system is someone that maybe just purchased a home, a family that has welcomed a new addition, or simply anyone that is looking for a great way to keep their things safe. If you are a publisher that is interested in working with Leadpile to help bring together consumers looking for a security system, reach out to us and get started NOW!

Leadpile is excited to be a part of the upcoming Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas, NV. If you are an affiliate that will be attending this weekend’s upcoming show, please make sure and stop by our Meet Market booth on Sunday January 17th. This show is a great opportunity for us to see some past, present and new partners all in one place. We would love to talk about lead generation, publisher opportunities, advertisers opportunities, affiliate marketing, traffic and anything else related to affiliate marketing. If you are not attending the show, make sure and reach out to us so we can discuss how we can potentially work together (mari@leadpile.com).

With the holidays finally over and a week into January, it is about time that we get that one last present from the credit card company. What might that present be you ask? A nice fat bill. Whether you did your holiday shopping in the stores or at the comfort of your home online, so many of us just go swipe, swipe, swipe all season long. It really is the the fastest and most convenient way to make a purchase. Sometimes you do not even realize how much you have racked up until it is all down on paper. More times then not, individuals will not be able to pay off the whole bill in one lump sum by the time that the bill is due.
Below are some helpful suggestion for when you realize you have bit off more than you can chew:

1. Use credit cards that offer cash back for purchases – You can put the money you get back towards your credit card bill.
2. Know your interest rate and try to use the card with the lowest interest rate.
3. Do not just pay the minimum balance due – Often that minimum payment will only cover the interest that was charged that month.
4. Get a balance transfer – transfer to a card that offers you a lower interest rate/reward programs.
5. Create a feasible payment plan and stick to it.

In some instances where you find that you are getting into too much debt, try to not feel overwhelmed and that there is no way of getting out of it. There are several options out there to get you back on your feet. For example, debt consolidation or debt settlement might be the perfect solution. Everyday at LeadPile we are matching consumers to debt professionals who are there to help you get the professional advice that you may need. Maybe consider getting help if none of the above options really worked out for you.

As of January 1st 2010, a new payday lending law was imposed in Washington. “The new law limits the size of a payday loan to 30 percent of a person’s monthly income, or $700, whichever is less. It also bars people from having multiple loans from different lenders, limits the number of loans a person can take out to eight per 12 months, and sets up a database to track the number of loans taken out by people.” This will be something that lenders will now have to pay attention to.
Leadpile will be watching the status of Washington and payday loans, because we work with publishers nationwide, and we will be interested in any legal changes that happen in this particular state.

Believe it or not Wi-Fi is going to be available in cars in the near future (2010 to be exact). Many of us need to go to coffee shops or other public places that allow us the convenience of getting internet access, however it seems that Ford cars are going to be starting to install WI-FI capabilities in next years models. This will be possible with the SYNC system who is partnering up with Microsoft. Consumers will then be able to utilize their laptops in their cars wherever they want!
The advancement of technology is so amazing. Not only can people use their cell phones to access the internet, now they are going to be able to sit in their cars and be on an actual laptop when needed. So will something like this maybe impact the lead generation world, where more people can potentially fill out online forms such as Leadpile’s Microclick form on a website? I think so!

In recent news, Leadpile is getting some great recognition from Revenue Performance Magazine. Here is a recent press release from December 11th:
Revenue Performance Magazine today ranked LeadPile as a Top Ten Performance Marketing Network in the United States in the Advertising and Marketing Category with 10 or fewer employees. LeadPile ranks the #1 Ad Exchange in the prestigious Revenue Performance Blue Book Top 20 rankings. The list is designed to provide some answers, by aggregating expert views, traffic data, and measures of industry influence.

LeadPile joins MediaTrust, ShareASale, Commission Junction and NeverBlue in the top ten list. LeadPile is the premier Lead Exchange, providing a central marketplace for the buying and selling of targeted consumers or “leads”. According to Revenue Performance Magazine, LeadPIle was selected to the celebrated Top Ten List because of its size, growth, and simplicity it offers both buyers and sellers of leads.

Eugen Ilie, LeadPile’s Marketing Director, says, “We are honored to be included in such an important publication as Revenue Performance Magazine. It is a testament to our team that we have been evaluated on our overall influence and reputation, and have earned the spot decided on by so many industry experts. It is our goal to continue to live up to such an honor, and our entire organization is committed to continuing to leverage our position in multiple verticals within the industry.”
LeadPile is the premier Lead Exchange, providing a central marketplace for the buying and selling of targeted consumers or “leads”. The Company, also ranked by Inc. Magazine as the Number 3 Company in the United States in the Advertising and Marketing Category with 10 or fewer employees, is the world’s largest exclusive online lead marketplace. LeadPile offers the lead-gen space the first ever, secure, online centralized location for buyers and sellers of exclusive leads to engage in an efficient, exclusive, lead exchange.

We all turn to the search engines to help us locate information, however did you know that the most popular search is one-word searches? Hitwise is reporting that 24.13% of the searches in November were people only using one word. Interesting enough, eight-word keyword searches had the biggest increase last month, however it only made up a little less than 4% of the searches. This sort of data is something that SEO/SEM experts should pay attention to for their campaigns.
This information is also really important to study if you want to optimize your website. Leadpile publishers should pay attention to articles such as this one if they are trying to understand what consumers are doing when searching the internet.

The FDIC has released a report showing 30+ million people have little or no access to banking services. Unfortunately, this study is also highlighting the fact that many of these consumers are poor, immigrants or minorities. According to NPR news, “In all, 25.6 percent of U.S. households either lack bank accounts or use payday loans, check-cashing services and other costly alternatives to traditional banks, according to the survey.
The report is part of an FDIC effort to bring the so-called “unbanked” into the financial mainstream.
FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said access to a bank account gives households “an important first step toward achieving financial security.” Vulnerable families need the ability to save for emergencies and borrow on affordable terms, she said in a statement.”
The one thing that really needs to be pointed out about this report is the fact that it talks about many people who do not have banking services, yet they are using services such as payday loans. In reality, a consumer generally can not get a payday loan if they do not have a checking account. There might be some lenders that allows no bank account, however most do require it. So, I am not sure payday loans should be in this article when speaking about the “unbanked” consumers??????

The Thanksgiving rush is now over, and retailers seem to be pretty pleased with the Black Friday results. However, now Cyber Monday is here and the kickoff to online shopping has begun. Internetnews.com is reporting sites such as Amazon.com and Walmart.com to be the potential big winners. Time will tell who is going to be the big winner this holiday season. Web sales only represent a small portion of the holiday sales, however year after year more and more people are turning to the internet for their shopping.
Leadpile is hoping to capitalize on some of this increased web traffic with some additional lead generation. Payday loansare in high demand, and we are hoping some will see these short term loans as an additional way to potentially purchase their much needed Christmas gifts.

Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks and express gratitude. The LeadPile team would like to express our appreciation for your business! In combination of saying thank you, we thought we would share some helpful ideas on increasing your sales during this holiday season:

- Send Thanksgiving cards to your customers, everyone likes to hear thank you!
- Send out an email blast to your clients offering discounted services. This keeps your name in front of your customers and potentially brings them back for more services.
- Get involved with your community and do local sponsorships, to get your name in front of more people. Now is the time to share and people appreciate companies that help the community.
- Look at utilizing social networking as a source for advertising and building relationships, because families and friends stay well connected over the holidays.
- Emphasize family in your communications with your customers.

These are all ideas that might help you jump start your sales during this holiday season.

LeadPile wishes you a warm and happy holiday.

There seems to be some more positive news in the automobile industry. A recent report is stating the number of people that are going online to search for a car is up in 2009 versus 2008. This is great news considering the industry came to a screeching hault with the falling economy. Webpronews reports that people who depend on the internet to locate a vehicle rose from 40% in 2008 to 46% in 2009. More and more people are starting to bounce back from the struggling economy, therefore they are turning to the internet to tackle a lot of ground work at their fingertips.
The good news for companies like Leadpile and other auto loan lead generators, is that used car buyers visited third party website more frequently than other types of sites, including dealer websites. A large percentage (91%) of those that were searching say they visited at least one third-party website during their shopping process. So if people are doing their homework online first, then we all need to focus on providing as much information as we can to these consumers. I think this auto industry is coming back!