As the end of December comes around and the beginning of January nears, people in general start re-evaluating their budget.  A popular new years resolution is “saving money”.  So if this is a common goal why is it so hard to accomplish?

Due to the economic recession many households are making less then before, making it hard to bank extra money.  We also live in a society that thrives on promoting or advertising what you must have!  The line between need and want often become crossed and we end up overspending for the month.

So how can we save?  The answer lies in each one of us.   We don’t have to strive for the moon – to overshoot and miss all together.  If we take baby steps we can be successful, and if one month you fall down, don’t let it stop you!  Get up and start over again.  Here are a few money saving tips that can help you get started:

1. Set up a separate savings account and actually use it to save money.
2. Split your direct deposit so that $25.00 out of each paycheck goes into your savings account.  (out of sight out of mind)
3. Save any change that you receive after making a cash purchase. (you will be surprised how fast this adds up)
4. Plan a monthly budget, start with you needs first i.e. Rent/mortgage, electricity, car payments etc. and then budget in an allotted dollar amount for wants and stick to it.
5. Write out your grocery list before you go shopping and only get what is on the list

If you start implementing even a couple of these suggestion you will be surprised by what you can save!

Happy Savings!

When you hear the words “Payday Loan” what comes to your mind?

1. Do you think of an industry out there taking advantage of consumers?
2. Or, do you think about an industry providing people with relief and peace of mind during this financial crisis?

Most people would say answer a.  But is that true or do we need to educate ourselves regarding this part of the financial industry?  Who are the people that need these payday loans and do they have other options?

According to www.census.gov the official poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1 percent, which was up from 14.3 percent in 2009.  In 2010, 46.2 million people were in poverty, which was up from 43.6 million in 2009.

Those are staggering numbers.  People are having a hard time making ends meet. From 2009 to 2010 an additional 2.6 million people were at poverty level.  Where did they come from?  Middle Class families?  Low Income families?   Who is out there helping them get back on their feet?  The banks?  With the foreclosures on homes, the increased account fees, overdraft fees and high credit guidelines… what do you think?

What sort of monthly expenses do all of us face? Rent/Mortgage, utility bills, insurance, car payment, food allowance just to name a few.  If you are running out of money at the end of the month what would you sacrifice?  Your electric bill?  Your rent?  Your car loan?  Or just overdraft your bank account?  All of those choices involve late fees or overdraft fees and may incur being harassed by credit agencies or having your electricity turned off, being kicked out of your home or having your vehicle repossessed.  None of those sound like viable solutions to me.

According to www.wikipedia.org the definition for a payday loan is “a small, short-term loan that is intended to cover a borrower’s expenses until his or her next payday.”   That is truly what a payday loan is there for.  Many times you will hear payday opponents talk about high interest fees, but when you research these fees in comparison to bank charges and late fees of missing necessary payments and/or possible repossessions/foreclosures/losing electricity, going hungry etc. – which sounds better to you?

So before we judge the financial institutions giving payday loans or the people receiving such loans – let’s make sure that we look at the situation from all angles, and form an educated decision.

A new website has been created for Lending Season with new features and is targeted towards consumers with good credit, offering personal loans up to $35,000. In the current economy there are a lot of people in need of financing, and this includes people with high and low credit scores. Lending Season has created an option for consumers with good credit and giving them access to larger amounts of funding. These personal loans may be needed for home improvement projects, funding a small business, or a variety of other reasons that someone would need financing during these hard economic times. While Lending Season is targeting consumers with higher credit scores, it is understood that people with all types of financial backgrounds may be in need of extra financing. Lending Season also has options available for people with lower credit scores who would qualify for a short term cash advance. With the upgrades to the new website publishers are seeing much better results and higher EPCs  as we are seeing higher converting traffic from the site.

Start 2011 off right! Here are some financial tips to get your finances back in order.

1. Get your credit score and report: Knowing your credit score can help you check for inaccuracies on your credit report. A higher credit score will get you lower rates on loans and credit cards.
2. Get Organized: Knowing where all your bills and bank statements are can help you keep track of your spending and saving.
3. Track spending: Track all spending for 30 days. Evaluate and see where you can cut spend, such as eating out less.
4. Do an insurance checkup: Meet with your current provider and see if the converge you have is really what you need. Find our about loyalty discounts and good driving perks.

These simple tips can help you get your finances back in order!

Leadpile offers many great financial offers such as Credit Score and Bankruptcy. Contact us today for info on our affiliate programs and offers!

Let’s face it, the economy is in a slump and this is affecting people being able to pay their bills amongst many other things. The good news is, that the economy is going to get better, which means lenders are going to start lending again AND credit will be extended to consumers again. However, if you do not have your credit in check, you will not be able to take advantage of this. The first thing to do, when trying to fix your credit, is understand what your credit score is AND what makes up that credit score. First, you need to understand who the credit reporting agencies are that are gathering this information. The three credit reporting agencies are Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Secondly, you need to understand what a good and bad FICO (also known as a credit score) is. A credit score can be between 300 and 850. The higher your credit score, the better. Finally, you need to read your credit report and understand what is on it. To understand it, you must know the main things that make up your credit score:

1. How you pay your bills- your payment history on your credit cards and loans is the biggest factor in making up your score. This means if you have not paid your bills on time, now is the time to start.

2. What do you owe on your credit cards and loans- if you have your balances maxed out on all your creditors, this will negatively affect your credit score. Stopping charging immediately if the balances are close to their limits.

3. How long have you had each of your creditors-the newer the credit, the more it will negatively affect you. If you are applying for new credit cards, stop now to help your credit score. Keep a few creditors for a long period of time and that will help your score.

4. Do you have all sorts of creditors like car loans, credit cards, installment loans etc-the credit bureaus likes to see a diverse selection of creditors. This is not a major factor in your credit score, but something to think about if you are thinking about getting a new creditor.

Leadpile is currently working on generating this sort of lead and will welcome publishers that will eventually be interested in connecting those consumers that want to know their credit score, with the company that will be able to provide this service. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!

Do you know what your credit score is? How about do you really know what makes up the score? Knowing as much as you can about your credit score and what makes up the number, is so very important. Many employers, insurance companies etc all utilize a consumers credit score to help to determine their desire to work with you. Therefore, knowing as much as possible can only help with being able to understand and manage your credit score. For many situations, your credit score is just as important as your other personal information, so knowing it inside and out is key!

Things that should not impact your credit score:

Having a Low or High Income: How much money you make is not necessarily being reported on your credit bureau, therefor will not be a part of any decisions that third parties are making after seeing your report. However, keep in mind employer information is often times showing on your credit report.

Not Paying Insurance, Utility and Cell Phone Bills: Many insurance or utility companies will pull your credit to see your credit score, however they will not be reporting your pay history with them on your credit.

Missing Rent Payments: Similar to the insurance and utility companies, property management companies will pull your credit before allowing you to rent from them, however if you miss your rent of were a slow payer, you will generally not see any of this on your credit report or affecting your credit score.

Bank Overdraft: Banks make a lot of their revenue from bank overdraft fees, however they will generally not report any issues with overdrafting you had, unless you continued to maintain an outstanding overdraft amount owed to them. At this point they will then send the “debt” to collections who will then try and collect on this outstanding amount. At this point it will affect your credit score.

Checking Your Own Credit: Pulling your own credit score is a great thing because it allows you to know what is on your credit and who is reporting what. However, you pulling your credit score will not affect your credit score. Third parties pulling your credit does affect your credit score and you want to be conscious of who you are allowing to do this. If you have too many inquiries in your credit report, it is a red flag to those that are potentially looking at extending you credit and it is also hurting your credit.

High Interest Rates:What you are paying on credit cards or other debts is no where located on your credit report and is not affecting your credit score. Third parties will only know this if you release this information.

Credit Counseling: This could potentially affect your credit and credit score if the counseling service you are working with is not paying on your bills. Knowing what the counseling service is reporting to your credit report is key so you know what others will be seeing if they are pulling your credit.

Your Age: Your physical age in no way affects your credit score. If you are young and do not have a lot of credit, then that can affect your credit score, but your actual age is not the direct cause of having a lower or higher score.

Now go pull your credit and work on getting that score up!

As if banks and credit card companies aren’t charging enough these days Bank of America has decided to test new pricing models. BOFA expects to lose $4.3 billion in revenue as a result of the new federal restrictions on bank and credit cards.

How do they plan on recovering some of this loss? By charging its customers for not using their cards of course. Customers who do not use their cards a certain number of time a month, conduct all their banking electronically or do not maintain a minimum current balance will be charged more then other customers. For example, customers who want paper statements will be charge $8.95 per month.

It will be interesting over the next few months to see the estimated ½ dozen new pricing packages BOFA will roll out and which ones will remain permanent.

It seems all we ever read about is the “negative” about the payday loan industry, however there seems to be some positive momentum happening for payday lenders. Are people finally seeing that there is a need to help those consumers that are paycheck to paycheck? Americanbanker.com is reporting some positive news for the overly criticized payday loan industry.
Are lenders closing up store fronts to help cut costs, and therefore going to be utilizing the internet more to generate their business? For some, the answer it yes. Future growth for many payday lenders is probably going to be in the alternative products that many are getting into to help diversify their portfolio. Launching new products such as pre paid credit cards and bill pay services are some of the products that payday lenders are either getting into, or have already tapped into. This is great news for the longevity of the payday lenders. So what are these payday lenders going to be doing in the states where the payday loans are banned? Getting into ownership of pawn shops appears to be the direction many lenders are going in states such as WA and AZ. Lots of positive things happening, and we are anxious to see how Leadpile will be apart of the future success of the lenders.

Needing a small amount of money to get you through until payday is something that everyone has experienced at some point in their lives. Whether it be for an emergency or it’s just a situation where you are short on cash, a payday loan can be the fastest most convenient option to get you through until payday.

Payday loans, once only available through store fronts requiring you to stand in line can now be applied for and obtained through online lenders. Applying for a payday loan over the Internet not only can save time, but is a simple process typically only requiring a small amount of personal information and seldom a credit check is necessary. The approved funds are submitted directly into your checking account, avoiding any unnecessary lengthy paperwork.

Most online payday lenders have a minimum required age of 18 and a necessary minimum monthly income for the borrower. Loan amounts range between $100- $1,500, depending on the lender and the needs of the borrower. A loan can often be received the same day, with repayment due 14 – 30 days after.

LeadPile matches consumers with online lenders daily!

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Are you avoiding paying off debt? Paying the minimums could hurt you.. Something as simple as removing a couple of monthly “splurges” such as limiting trips to starbucks could give you additional funds to put towards your debt and make a dent in amounts owed and keep things under control.

Debt to income ratio is helpful to look at when evaluating your finances. Bankrate.com recommends that people’s debt not be more than 20% of take home pay – including your car payment. They recommend that housing expenses not be more than 30% of your monthly income.

Now that every credit card bill comes with a breakdown on how long it will take the consumer to wipe out a debt making only the monthly payments it is a reality check for many people. If the minimum payment is all that is being made, the debt can keep increasing and it can take very long extended periods of time, even decades to pay off the total amount.

Some consumers benefit from credit counseling sessions, these can help identify the biggest areas of concern and help create a debt management plan often times having the creditors agree to lower interest or payments. Two last resort options for consumers in debt can be debt settlement or bankruptcy.

Lets continue the debt discussion since it’s such a large part of peoples lives nowadays.

Ever feel as if there is no end in sight to all those piled up bills? Here are 2 plans that may help you get your finances back on track.

1. Snowball Plan: The snowball plan developed by Dave Ramsey focuses on ranking your accounts by balance amount, smallest to largest. Consumers are encouraged to pay the smallest debt first while continuing to pay the minimum amount on the other accounts. By doing so consumers enjoy the satisfaction of when debt drops off, thus they are more likely to make continuous payments.

2. Negative Emotion: The negative emotion plan urges people to pay bills that generate a negative emotion. For example, Shareef Defrai from Huston used his credit card to rent a car for a friend. No big deal until his friend decided to skip town with the car, now Shareef has $16,000 in debt for a car he doesn’t even have possession of. By paying off these types of accounts first the relief of paying off the debt can be life changing.

Both methods have their pros and cons, do any of you have a special way you pay down your debt?

Does your debt, including housing expenses equate to more then 50% of your monthly income? For many the answer would be yes. This number is very important when evaluating ones financial health. Are you only paying the minimum amount on your credit cards? By doing this you are probably only paying down the monthly interest and not even making a dent on the principal. Do you cringe when you see an 800 number on your caller ID? Are you using credit cards to purchase items you used to pay cash for? All these red flags indicate it’s time you speak with a credit counselor before your finances get even worse. If a debt management plan doesn’t work there are only 2 other options, debt settlement and bankruptcy. The NFCC created a quiz called “How Do I Know If I’m In Financial Trouble?” consisting of 20 true-or-false questions. If more than two or three ring true you may need to seek financial assistance.

Leadpile specializes in Debt Settlement and Bankruptcy leads, contact us today to become a buyer or seller.