General

Refinancing your Auto loan

Refinancing your auto loan is a great option to take up if you have maintained a good credit score. Refinancing will bring down your monthly payments by a significant amount. But that is not the only reason why you should consider it.

1. Divorce – A divorce can be messy enough without a loan being thrown in to the mix. Whether you are about to get one, are in the middle of one or are past one it is best to get any and all joint loans out of the way. By refinancing, you can take your spouse’s name off the loan agreement. This is important because, if they fail to make any payment it is reflected on your credit score. Once you build up a bad score it is a tough task to correct it.

2. Family member – A family member (probably your dad) would have co-signed the agreement in order for you to get the loan. By refinancing, you can free their credit up to help someone else (like one of your siblings). If you have made payments on time for 12 months, it should have reflected on your credit history positively. If so, you can refinance into your name alone.

3. Reduce the profit margin – When car dealers arrange financing, their markups are also included in the loan. This means that you are paying a fair amount towards their markup in your monthly payment. Refinance it and you can cut it out sizably.

4. Better rates – The obvious reason to refinance. Lower rates means that your monthly payments come down drastically. This will give you a little bit of breathing room when it comes to that time of the month where you have to pay all the bills.

Benefits of Online Banking

After the initial period of mistrust people have grown comfortable with the concept of online banking. The initial wariness was justified as there were a lot of fraud committed by hackers and the security in place simply was not good enough. However, all those things have now changed and improved security in particular has thwarted the almost all hacker attacks. Although hackers still manage to cause some harm, the number of successful attacks carried out by them has gone down drastically.

Online backing is the ultimate in avoiding the hassle of going down to a bank to conduct your business. It enables you to sit at home or office or anywhere with internet access and interact with your bank. You can do online almost everything you would physically do at bank. You can check your transactions, account details etc., just by clicking a few buttons. It also allows you to schedule payments, multiple installments, transfers etc., as well. Even loan applications can be filled out online and buying and selling stock can be done via this method too.

Using online banking is also beneficial to the environment. The pollution caused by travel to and from the bank is eliminated as is the usage of paper in banks. Having fewer customers to deal with in person allows banks to shift their resources towards newer technologies that can serve their customers better. This in turn gives you, the customer, a smoother experience when dealing with you bank for whatever needs.

Managing Your Income

The biggest problem that any working adult faces is money management. How often he we heard or even heard ourselves say “my money goes out as fast as it comes in”? This is a hallmark of poor money management.

The basic idea of managing your money is to spend less than what you earn. When you write it down like that it seems very simple, but obviously it is more complicated than that. The first step in managing your money is drawing up your budget.

Open a spreadsheet (or use a piece of paper if you like) and start putting down your fixed expenses down one column. These can include rent, loan payments etc. Anything you know is a definite cost that you have to pay regardless of whether it is used or not. Then on another column put down your income. This could include your salary, any extra jobs, interest from fixed deposits etc. Now compare the two; hopefully there should be a positive difference where you are making a fair amount more than you need to pay off.

Now this difference is what you have to play with. This is the amount you have to pay for your food, entertainment, shopping etc. So now you can plan out exactly how much you can spend. When you are doing this, don’t forget to set aside some money as savings. When you are in tight spot, savings are what will help you out of it. Do a budget ever month and keep track of your expenses, this is the tried and tested method that has help generations in managing their money.

IMF Focuses on Debt Burden

The two biggest threats towards the recovery of the global economic situation are unemployment and sovereign debt which is witnessing a constant growth. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund speaking to the media following the conclusion of meeting of the IMF’s committee on policy steering said that most heads of state and other leaders are quite aware of the fact that the economic recovery is right here within hand’s reach, but reiterated that the negatives must also be taken into consideration.

Meanwhile, the World Bank recently announced a decision to give developing nations an additional three percent of voting power. This means that the more powerful countries would lose 3%, giving developing nations a total of 47% in voting power. This move comes in the wake of recommendations made at the Pittsburgh Leader’s Summit.

The IMF too is in the middle of a similar shift with regards to voting power. However, the intricacies of deciding which countries gain power and which ones lose this power is what seems to be holding back the final outcome. Financial experts cite that smaller European nations are more likely to lose voting power, due to their share in the global economy seeing a rapid decline over the last few decades. Countries like Saudi Arabia however, which comes under the title of developing nations has larger voting shares compared to its economic range. IMF’s MD stressed that the end of 2010 would see the changes in voting power in the IMF, with developing nations being given a bigger say in such matters.

Airlines Lose $1.7 Billion Due to Volcanic Ash

Global airlines recorded losses amounting to approximately $1.7 billion due to flight disruptions due to the volcano in Iceland. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) stated that the volcanic ash crisis affected at least one third of global flights, with over 1.2 million passengers affected per day.

Flights finally resumed on Tuesday (20th April 2010) night after many airports being shut down for a period of six days. The ban was lifted following safety test results indicating the low density ash could be handled by aircraft engines.

Another report released by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, UK estimates airline losses at $1.45 billion.

IATA figures indicated that airlines recorded savings of around $110 million per day on fuel, but had to sustain additional costs from taking care of passengers stranded by cancelled flights. IATA’s Chief Executive, Giovannie Bisignani said that it was quite a serious issue, taking into consideration that the industry made around $9.4 billion in 2009 – and lost $2.8 billion within a space of six days. He openly criticized governments as being ‘too hasty’ to close down airspaces and insisted airlines be compensated for their losses. Bisignani stood his ground saying that the decision to close down airspaces were based on theoretical models instead of hard facts, stating that IATA test flights showed results otherwise.

Easyjet, a budget airline which experienced losses of £50 million during this period, stated that they would seek compensation from the government. British Airways also sought compensation from the UK government, stating that they had incurred losses of £15-20 million per day.

Apart from airlines, other businesses too were hit hard by the crisis. Perishable goods which are frequently flown out for export purposes such as flowers and food items have also been heavily affected.

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