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Affordable and good insurances, loans and finances

Three main parameters are important when finding the right insurance.The first is the prize. The second is the extent of coverage, that is what assets are really insured throught the polise and what eventualites are you insured for.

The third is the quality of the coverage, that is how much will you get paid when you need it and what type of repair or service is the insurance company willing to pay for. Through the links below you can search out that insuranse plan that will work best for you.

Please click on the banners to get free insurance quotes.

Travel insurance / assurance

Worldnomads.com - This travel insurance service can be accessed for people from over 150 countries. It is designed for active travellers and can be purchased with cover during a long range of activities, for example skiing and snowboarding.  The insurance covers overseas expenses like medical, evacuation and baggage. Lonly planet recommends this insurance service.

Innovative financial services

CashUnclaimed.com - This service makes it easy for you to search for and claim money free to be used by persons filling the right criteria. Any citizen fill some criteria for being able to claim some of all the unused money out there.

Mortgage loans

Mortgage Refinance - Get a new mortgage loan to bring down interest rates and get more suitable paymet conditions. Bad credit not any hinderance. After having filled out an application this service will search for and display the perfect lender for your needs.

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SOME GENERAL ECONOMIC AND BUSINESS INFORMATION FOR OUR VISITORS

Here is some miscelaneous information about business life and organisation that might interest our visitors.

Advices about investing in the stock market

Basic propertties of the stock market

A share is an ownership unit in a company. The market where shares are traded is called the stock market. A share is also often called a stocl. The trade is handled by companies called stock brokers that act as middelmen beween the actual buyers and sellers of shares.

Everyone investing in the stock marked shoukd be aware of some fundamental propertioes of shares and the stock market.

Shares tend to rise in price a long time, and then fall in prize again, often more abruptly than the rise. Such a wave of rise and fall, called a long term trend, tend to last 7 - 10 years.

Within one such long term trend, there use to be preliminary rises and declines in the share value, lasting typically 4-6 months, called median term trends.

Withion each median term trend, there also uses to be value rises and declines lasting 2-4 weeks. These are called short term trends.

If one plots the graph of the share value of a company over some years, the graph will have the shape of a wave, but with secondary waves along its cource and tertiary waves along the course of the secondary waves.

The institutions where stocks are traded are called a stock exchanges.

The average prize of the stocks at a a stock exchange, in a country or of a group of shares is called stock index, important indexes are Dow Jones and Nasdac. Most stocks tend to rize and fall in unison. Therefore the stock indexes tend to develope in waves of rise and falls in the same way as the stocks themselves.

Investing in the stock marked can be very lucherative, because the great rises of the stock value over a comparatively short time. But it also carries significant risk. This is because the stocks one have invested in can fall again, and because companies sometimes go bankerupt so that the value of the stocks are nullified.

Investment strategies

There are many strategies one can use to earn from the stock market. Common for all strategies is that one must diversify, that is: allways spread the capital on several stocks and preferably on stocks of companies in different field of trade.

In a long term strategy one buys shares in the beginning of a long term trend, and keeps on buying until the prises are at the top in the trend. At that point one sells all the shares and wait to buy againg utill the fall has happend. This is the most easy strategy, but that one with the least profit potensial.

In a median term strategy one buys at the bottomn in the beginning of a median trend, and sells at the top og each of these trends. This strategy is somewhat more difficult, but have a greater earning potetial.

In a short term strategy one buys at the bottom in the beginning of every shert trend, and sells at the top og each of these trends. This strategy is the most profitable if succeeded, but it is difficult and one is easily loosing instead of winning.

The forth stratgey is equity investment. This is investment in stocks or parts of companies to own the shares a long time and during that time gain from dividende and rize of stock value. It is an unclear division between this strateguy and long term buy and sell strategy.

A fifth stargey of investment is to invest to gain controle over a company and thereby restructure the company to give more value. Actors using this strategy often causes the shere prize to rise and thereby give other shareholders increased profit.

Some basic stock market concepts explained

American Depositary Receipt (ADR): An administrative system that allows people in the US to trade shares in foreign companies on American stock exchanges and with all payments in US dollars.

Boiler room: The term boiler room in business denotes a busy center of activity, often telemarketing or other types of sales. It typically refers to a room where tele-marketers work, often selling stocks, and using unfair, dishonest sales tactics, sometimes selling fraudulent stocks. The term carries a negative connotation, and is often used to imply high-pressure sales tactics and, sometimes under poor working conditions.

Bucket shop: The tem is sometimes used when the speaker thinks a business is a scam or mailnly frawdolent. The term is also yused when a stock broker buys or sells shares own ow its own portefolio without going through a stock exchange. Small amounts are often traded this way.

Buying in: In the stock market it is a process by which the buyer of stocks, when seller fails to deliver the stocks contracted for, can 'buy in' the stocks from a third party with the defaulting seller to compensate.

Concentrated stock  A stock making up more than 30%  of the value of a portofolio is called a concentrated stock. Having concentrated stocks givs a higher risk for high looses, but give a better chance of high earning if one is investing wisely.

Direct Registration System: The Direct Registration System is an electronically based system for registering stock with a corporation's transfer agent. These shares are called book-entry shares, and can be transferred to and from a brokerage account. For example, shares held by IBM's transfer agent can be transferred by completing a DRS form

 
Equity investment: This is investment in stocks or parts of companies to own the shares a long time and during that time gain from dividende and rize of stock value.

GICS industry classification scheme: The Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) is used as a basis for certain Morgan Stanley financial market indexes. It was developed by Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI), a provider of global financial indices, products and services, and Standard & Poor's (S&P), a provider of global equity indices, financial data and investment services. The GICS structure consists of 10 sectors, 24 industry groups, 67 industries and 147 sub-industries. The system is similar to ICB (Industry Classification Benchmark), a classification structure maintained by Dow Jones Indexes and FTSE Group.

Golden share: This is a share that gives the holder the right to outwote all other share holders in certain circumstances.

House stock: A house stock usually refers to a stock that the management of a brokerage firm has instructed all brokers working for him to promote. The brokerage firm or its owners might be receiving an undisclosed profit from the sale of the house stock.

Insider trading: Insider trading is buying or selling shares by people having direct acess to information about a company that the general market lacks, when this information is of importance to the value of the shares. When this infromation at last is published or leaks out, the shares will rise or fall, and the insider has got an advantage upn other traders by being able to act in advance. Insider trading is generally regarded as unlawful and subjected to penalties in most juristictions, but it is difficult to proove in many instances,

 
Initial public offering: This is the first sale of stocks to the general public by a company.

Naked short selling: This is selling stocks one does not own without having got some kind of kredit or lending of stocks form a broker or bank beforehand.

Penny stock: In the U.S. financial markets, the term penny stock usually denotes any stock trading outside one of the major exchanges (NYSE, NASDAQ. However, oficially a penny stock is a very low priced share, either because the stock cakital of a company has been divided on a very large number of shares or because the shares of a company has declined severely for some reason. A penny stock has a psychological tendency to rise apbruptly if good news are pubished. Therefore some companies prefere to divide its stock capital in a very large amount of small shares.

Restricted stock: Restricted stock, also called letter stock or restricted securities, refers to stock of a company that is not fully transferable until certain conditions have been met. Upon satisfaction of those conditions, the stock becomes transferable by the person holding the award. Under the securities laws, these conditions are either registration with the SEC, or fitting into one of the securities exemptions for resale, such as Rule 144.

Scripophily: This is the study and collection of stock and bond documents, for example stock certificates.

Short selling: This is selling shares one do not own and buying these shares some time later in order to cover oneself up. This can usually only be done with some credit arragement as security, and one pays interest for that credit.

Stock broker: These are companies buying and selling shares on the stock exchanges for their own portofolio or on behalf of the ultimate sellers or buyers of shares. When a privat person wantsw to buy or sell shares, he goes to a stock broker that fulfills the trade at the stock exchange.

Stock dilution: Stock dilution is a fall in the values of a stock that results from a company issuing new stocks so that the value of the company is divided onto more stocks than before. This increase in common shares of a stock can result from a secondary market offering, employees exercising stock options, or by conversion of convertible bonds, preferred shares or warrants into stocks.

Stock exchange: This is an arena where sellers anounce their shares for sale, where buyers anounce their interest of buying shares, and where executed sales are noted so each part has a proof for the trade done. Usually only companies with special license trade on the stock exchanges, stock brokers, and these companies then buys or cells the shares on the stock exchanges for the ultimate sellers and buyers.

Stock investor: Any person or company buying stocks is called a stock investor.

Stock market: Stock marked is a collective term for buyers, sellers, bokers and exchanges together.

Stock options: A stock option is a right to boy or sell an amount of stocks  in a company within a certain time limit for a certain prize from / to a certain actor. Am option to buy is called a call option, an option to sell is called a sell option.

Stock valuation: This is the same as estimating the value of a company or a stock. There are many different philosophies of doing this. By one philosophy  one tries to estimate all future discounted net revenues of the company and sum these together. Another method is estimating what the assets of the company will bring in if they are sold.

Stub (stock): A stub is the what remains of a company if most of the assets in the company is sold, demerged or otherwise separated from the company.

Cathegory: Money managers: This are people who manage securities, as opposed to directly manage the production of a business.

Voting interest: Voting interest is the persentage of voting a share holders owns. This is not always proportional to the number of shares a person owns, because there may be several cathegories of shares in a company with different voting rights. If some person or instance has more than 50% of the voting interst, he actually controls the company.

The leading stock exchanges in the word:

Here is a list of the major stock exchanges in the world:

Africa                              Johannesburg Securities Exchange
Americas                         NASDAQ
Americas                         São Paulo Stock Exchange
Americas                         Toronto Stock Exchange
Americas/Europe            NYSE Euronext
Asia-Pacific                     Australian Securities Exchange
Asia-Pacific                     Bombay Stock Exchange
Asia-Pacific                     Hong Kong Stock Exchange
Asia-Pacific                     Korea Exchange
Asia-Pacific                     National Stock Exchange of India
Asia-Pacific                     Shanghai Stock Exchange
Asia-Pacific                     Shenzhen Stock Exchange
Asia-Pacific                     Tokyo Stock Exchange
Europe                             Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Deutsche Börse)
Europe                             London Stock Exchange $3.85 $7.64
Europe                             Madrid Stock Exchange (BME Spanish Exchanges)
Europe                             Milan Stock Exchange (Borsa Italiana)
Europe                              Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX) 
Europe                             Nordic Stock Exchange Group OMX1
Europe                             Swiss Exchange

The stock exchanges may be privately owned companies, self owned foundations or public instances, varying from country to country.

WHAT IS A CREDIT SCORE?

Consumers who seek a home mortgage, auto loan, or credit card are assigned a credit score. A credit score measures the relative degree of risk of delinquency or default that a borrower represents to a creditor or lender. The score, also called a "risk score," is based on information in the borrower's credit report and also on information about how other borrowers with similar information have repaid their bills. Credit scores are widely used by mortgage lenders and other lenders in evaluating loan applications.

Creditors may use their own credit scoring model, different scoring models for different types of credit, or a generic model developed by a credit scoring company. Many different credit scoring models are used; the most widely used models have been developed by Fair Isaac Co., a credit scoring company in San Rafael, California. A credit score is sometimes called a "FICO" score.

To develop a credit scoring model, the model builder selects a random sample of loan customers and analyzes the sample statistically to identify characteristics that relate to patterns of repayment. Then, each of these characteristics is assigned a weight based on how strong a predictor it is of the likelihood of repayment. The higher the score, the lower the risk for the lender. Credit scores range between 900 and 300. A borrower with a score of 660 or greater is considered to be of less risk for the lender, while a score of 620 or lower is a poor credit score.

Credit scoring may ideally and legally not rely on factors such as race, religion, gender, income, address, employment, national origin, or marital status. However such considerations may clanestinely still be given a weight by many credit givers. Some credit scoring systems may use age as a factor in determining a credit score.

How is a credit score determined?

Credit scores commonly rely on the following five factors:

• Past payment performance, e.g., late payments. A pattern of late payments brings down the credit score.

• Credit utilization, i.e., the way credit is used. Borrowers who borrow to the limit of their credit cards are considered higher risk.

• Credit history, i.e., how long the borrower has been borrowing. Someone who has had credit for a long time is considered less risky.

• Inquiries into and applications for credit. The number of times a person has asked for credit or has had an inquiry into their credit record affects the credit score; frequent requests for credit or frequent inquiries in a short period of time bring down the credit score.

• Types of credit in use, e.g., secured credit card, installment loans, revolving loans, finance company lines.

Trics used by credit card companies to inflate your bills

Credit card companies use all types of mean tricks to let you pay as much as possible. Here are some advices to avoid credit card companies abuse you.

A general advice

Just do not use credit cards at all. Instead use debit cards going against an account where you have a positive ballance. Keep your credit card in your wallet just as a security to use if you should get into really big trouble and need some quick cash.

You don't get what you applied for

Every often the credit card company will not give you tha card with the favourable rates and bayment conditions you applied for, but a card looking very similar, but with some crucial differences not easily seen at once. Therefore, when you get the offer, or the card, read all the fine lines in the agreement. If they do not mach the inistial promises, cancel the card.

Musical address

Credit card companies frequently change their payment P.O. Box. If you send your payment to the wrong one, it may meander around the postal system or your credit card's headquarters for a while before finding it's way to the payments department. That means you're responsible for the late fee and your interest rate could be raised. It will be raised if you have one of those super-duper low rates -- guaranteed.

To avoid falling for this trick use the envelope provided in your statement. If you use a different envelope or use online banking, check the mailing address on your statement each month or call the company to verify the address. Always pay early to avoid last-minute mix-ups.

Late fees in minutes

If you're five minutes late it could cost you $29. You see, even though your due date may be the 15th of the month, upon further inspection of your statement, you might see it's actually due by 1 p.m. So if Harvey the mailman took a few minutes of shut-eye at the cul-de-sac, it will cost you a late fee and a possible rate increase. Check your statement to see what time and date your payment is due and send it in early. Read more.

Over-the-limit fees

This fee is a no-brainer -- don't go over. But what you don't know are the little tricks credit card companies use to push you over the limit.

One trick is to get you to pay only the minimum on your account. If your rate is higher than your minimum (It is. The minimum payment is usually 2 percent of your balance. The average APR is more than 14 percent), eventually you will hit the maximum on your card and get socked with over-the-limit fees -- even if you pay the minimum every month.

 Over-the-limit fees

He applied for a card with a high-credit limit and requested a balance transfer to pay off another card. He received his new credit card and was hit with an over-the-limit-fee the first time he used it. Apparently, the credit card company gave him a card with a much lower limit and transferred as much of his balance as the card could hold. So when he got his card, unknown to him, it was already maxed-out.

Cash advance fees and rates

Don't take cash out of your credit card. Read the fine print on your statement and you'll see it's a very bad idea. Your card might have a really low rate for purchases, but if you take out a cash advance, get ready for a shock. The rate for cash advances is much higher. And there is no grace period -- you start paying interest right away.

Aside from paying a high rate on the cash you take out, you're going to pay a fee, usually 2 percent to 4 percent of the amount advanced. And your payments will be applied to the lower-interest balance before it's applied to your cash advance. Read more.

Reverse the late payment, but up the rate

Credit card companies may forgive a late payment, but they could still punish you by raising your rate. Let's say you fell for the ever-changing-mailing-address trick. You call and scream until they reverse the late-payment fee. But next month, when your bill arrives, you notice you're now being charged a much higher interest rate because you were late on a payment.

Increasing the rate based on other accounts

Your credit card company may use your late auto loan payment to justify a rate increase. They frequently check your credit report and look for any late payments to justify raising your rate. Read more.

Fixed rates aren't fixed

A fixed rate means the credit card company has to give you 15 days notice before raising your rate. You can call and ask them to lower it, but they don't have to do it.

Raising your rate for no reason

They don't need a reason. They can just do it -- it's in the agreement. If they won't give you a lower rate, get a new card and cancel the old one. .

"Free gifts" that cost a bundle

Did you really think they'd give you something for nothing? Throw away those offers that come in your credit card statement. Read more.

Selling credit card theft insurance

You don't need theft insurance for your credit card. If it's stolen, you are only liable for $50, at most. Read more.

Selling disability coverage

Credit card disability insurance will make debt worse, if it ever kicks in. One Bankrate reader wrote in to say she developed cancer and her credit card company kept finding reasons not to activate her disability insurance even though she paid for it every month.

But credit card disability insurance is a really bad idea anyway. Even though you don't have to make payments, the debt piles up all along. And you can't use the card during that time either. Read more.

Setting low minimum payments

It'll take forever to pay off your balance if you only pay the minimum. Most credit card companies set the minimum payment at 2 percent of the debt. At that rate, you could be paying for life.

Cards that cost more in fees than they give in credit

If you've got shaky credit, you could fall prey to a really bad credit card deal, like the card with $360 in fees that leaves you with a $19 credit limit.

Balance-transfer fees and disappearing low rates

If you're not careful, you'll get socked with unexpected fees and soaring rates when you transfer your balance. Before transferring a balance, ask if there is a fee. Also, ask how long the low rate lasts. Those low rates on credit card offers are usually only good for six months. If you are late on one payment, the low rate is immediately replaced with a much higher rate. Another note of caution: When you transfer a balance from one card to another, wait to see the balance appear on the new card before closing the old one.

Zero-percent offers -- with a big catch

Those zero-percent offers sound like a good idea until you miss a payment or the introductory period ends. After that, you can end up with a sky-high rate.

Charges for charging abroad

In addition to the 1 percent currency exchange fee on Visa and Mastercard, some major banks are charging a 2 percent fee on credit card and debit card purchases made outside the United States. After a vacation's worth of spending, those fees will add up.

Shrinking grace periods to less than the billing period

The grace period is the time between when you make a charge on your credit card and when that amount starts building interest. Many credit card companies are shrinking that time down to 20 days, meaning that by the time you get your bill, you may already be paying interest.

Pre-paid gift credit cards worth less than you pay

The fees on these cards can make them worth less than they cost. And they can expire rapidly -- making them worthless. You'd be better off giving cash. Read more.

Customer service impossible to contact

If you want to talk to customer service, you better have a lot of time to kill. Credit card companies don't want to save you money at their expense. So they will transfer you and put you on hold until you are blue in the face. The name of the game is Frustrate the Customer Until They Give Up and Go Away.

What is a cartel?

Cartel is a collusive arrangment in oligopolistic markets.Producers agree on unified pricing and production actions to maximize profits and to eliminate the rigors of competition.Cartels may be tactic,but in most cases some sort of arrangment is reached.Cartels was at one time made illegal in the United States with the passage of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890.Even though most official cartels were found in other countries.One of the most famous cartels that exist today is the OPEC-Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.Collusive agreements have also existed in the United States.One of the most famous involved General Electric,Westinghouse,and other large corporations.This was a case of price and market share fixing in the electrical industry.This case was tried and concluded in 1961 and resulted in prison sentences for several executives and large fines.There were several other cases which involved collusive behavior from the Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) case to several companies being charged fines and not just small fines but large fines such as millions of dollars.THis was one of the cases that was ongoing for a long time and several different firms were being involved and getting fines.There were even investigations examing price fixing in rubber chemicals,plastics,and synthetic materials used in industries/firms.The conclusion of the case resulted in De Beers SA pleading guilty and charged a large fine.This resolution paves the way for De Beers to reenter the US market directly.It had been barred from doing so and dealt in the US through intermediaries.

Price leadership is when one company in an oligopolistic industry establishes the price and the other companies follow.The difference in cartels and price leadership is the practice of price leadership there is no formal or tactic agreement among the oligopolists to keep prices at the same level or change them by the same amount.However,when a price movement is initiated by one firm others may follow.Two major type of practices of price leadership is barometric and dominant price leadership.Barometric price leadership is when in an oligopolistic industry,a situation in which one firm,perceiving that supply and demand conditions warrant it,annouces a price change,expecting that other firms will follow.Dominant price leadership is when in an oligopolistic industry,a firm,usually the largest of the industry,sets a price at which it will maximize its profits,allowing other firms to sell as much as they want at that price.