Beware Credit Card Firms’ Odious Tricks

Credit Card Companies – Reduced Rewards/Cash-backs

Starting a new business and making arrangements for the fund could at times come from friends or family or even a small business loan from the lender or financial institute. However, when these options seem to be unavailable, one could turn to credit card in availing the funds for a small business.

Credit card is not an invitation to spend money one does not own but the consumer needs to be cautious in using the credit card wisely. Several of the consumers do not take the trouble in reading the card statement carefully that would make them cautious of all the small charges which are imposed by the card company.

It means that a credit card is an easy packaged though a terribly priced personal loan which has the utilities but the charges seems to outweigh the benefits. Since updated EU clampdown on charges has been hitting on the profits, Credit card companies have reduced their rewards and cash-backs. Peter Jackson of Stockport speculates on the rewards that these credit card companies tend to hand out to consumers in a way to confuse them on how much they actually pay to use them.

Companies – Hidden Charges

Jackson writes that `any perks that individuals tend to receive have been paid for, by themselves without their knowledge. What makes matter worse is the fact that because everyone pays the same prices in the vast majority of retail outlets, anyone without a cash-back deal is subsidizing the customers who do’.

 He further goes on the same point with regards to current accounts stating that `this has been going on for years in the form of free banking. Banks give free bank accounts and then make their profits from people going overdrawn’.

In all honesty, he could have made the same point about mortgages, energy bills or mobile phone charges and people with the time and energy seeking out the best deals tends to do well. Others get penalised through higher charges or fewer discounts. Jacksons continues that `instead of charging a fair price for a fair service, companies tend to put all their efforts in hiding charges.

Introductory Deals of Zero Percent – Odious Deceits

It ends up with the poor and financially illiterate supporting the well-off. Why is there no open and honest charge, without all the cross-subsidizing?’ he asks. He states that it is a fair enough question and the one which he constantly puts forth to financial institutes over the years.

There are few notable exceptions most of whom are too frightened of losing business should refrain from competing with the same marketing tricks which their rivals tend to have. The introductory deals of zero percent which credit cards tend to offer are one of the most odious deceits, since people get affected by huge balance transfer fees together with high charges towards the end of the term.

 The faster these tricks or deceits are barred, the better. Consumers should bear these facts in mind and be wary while using the credit cards and avoid the traps the card companies and banks utilise to entice consumers getting them to pay all kinds of penalties and fees.

How to Maximize Credit Card Rewards

Credit Card Rewards – Perks of Rewards Program

According to a 2011 research from Colloquy and Swift Exchange, the average household active in rewards program do not redeem a third of the rewards they tend to earn every year which could include credit card rewards. John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education at Smart Credit.com comments that `there are a slew of people out there that has cards with points on all of them and they don’t even realize it’.

 The idea of receiving rewards credit card is to give the person the perks of the rewards program and the best way to ensure that one gets the most out of the rewards credit card is to use the right one and make sure it is paid off each month.

It could be used to the greatest advantage while also being aware of the possible pitfalls like leaving points on the table. The first problem is to ensure that the credit card and rewards program chosen matches the individual’s financial lifestyle.

 If the person travels a lot during free time, then a hotel or airline card could suit the individual while a gas credit card could be best for a road warrior. Those who would prefer an uncomplicated reward system could opt for cash-back credit cards, according to vice-president, Amy Lenander, of rewards programs at Capital One.

Cash Rewards Easy & Straightforward

She states that `cash rewards tend to be easy and straightforward as rewards can develop. Customers who prefer miles and points could save up for a big reward and dream up the possibility, whereas the cash-back customers tend to be more practical’.

Besides this, several cash back cards are provided with various ways of redeeming rewards like in the form of cheques, statement credits, charity donation or gift cards while others tend to automatically deposit the rewards directly in the bank account. It is essential to read the terms and conditions since not all cards are created equal even if they offer a similar form of reward program.

There are various forms of credit cards wherein some may require spending threshold prior to earning rewards while others cap the amount of rewards that is earned. Users should also be aware of blackout dates in redeeming travel rewards or the expiration date on points. Linda Sherry, director of national priorities at watchdog group Consumer Action also informs that these rewards programs are subject to change at any point of time.

Some Advanced Planning

Cash back cards could also involve some advanced planning and while most cards provide one percent to two percent cash back there could also be certain restrictions or requirements. These could include caps on spending in various categories or more rewards on purchases on gas, groceries or dining. Other cash back rewards programs could be even more difficult, with rotating categories needing quarterly registrations.

According to Bill McCracken, CEO of Synergistics Research in Atlanta, states that in some cases, consumers tend to pick the spending category and receive the rewards or the rewards are given to the highest spending category. This could mean more observing by the consumer in taking full advantage of their credit card.

Consumers should be alert for opportunities to double or triple their reward earning power. Lisa Hronek, senior analyst at Mintel Comperemedia informs that several issuers tend to offer an increased cash back return rate each quarter for certain categories usually the ones that go according to the season.

Equity Systematic Investment Plan - SIP

Stocks with good fundamentals are known to be some of the best ways of investment plans and investment in equity stocks has reaped phenomenal returns amongst various other assets if the same has been done in an organized manner with long time horizon. It is very important to select stocks and the right decision of the right price to enter in equity investment where most of the investors often tend to commit errors.

Equity Systematic Investment Plan or SIP is an instrument that tends to help an individual in avoiding the risk of timing the markets and enable wealth development in an organised or disciplined manner by averaging the cost of investments. Saving which tend to be small could create the big corpus in the long run. SIP enables the individual in building a portfolio on a longer time basis with small investment that are done at regular intervals thus reducing the danger of market volatility.

Individuals have the option of choosing between Quantity based and Amount based SIPs, in Mutual Funds, Stocks, ETFs as well as Gold. Quantity based SIP is a type where a fixed amount of quantity of shares of a desired company is purchased at a predefined frequency while Amount based SIP is a fixed amount which can be decided by the individual intending to invest in selected share at predefined frequency.

Disciplined & Long Term Time Horizon

The formula for calculating Quantity is SIP Amount/Market price of the said share. Fractional value is ignored and the order is placed for the remaining quantity. In the case of Quantity based SIP the quantity which is to be purchased is specified by the individual and is fixed at the time of placement of order according to the desired frequency.

The order value is then calculated depending on the usual market price of the scrip while execution of the order. In order to have a long term wealth development through the equity market, it is essential to have a disciplined and long term time horizon that have integral features of SIP. The following features would make an appropriate choice for equity market –

• Disciplined and simple approach to investment
• Based on concept of Rupee Cost Averaging
• Investment possible with small sum of money invested recurrently to mount up wealth
• Flexible intervals like Daily/Weekly/Fortnightly/Monthly basis
• Flexibility with regards to Amount or Quantity based SIP

Avoid Majorly in Aggressive Funds

While investing in equity funds through SIP, though one will gain the rupee cost averaging benefits at the time of the volatile market phase, one should also avoid investing majorly in aggressive funds such as sector, thematic and mid-cap funds. One cannot guarantee better returns in excessive aggression.

On the contrary it could make your portfolio risky and probably disrupting the life stage with regards to investment goals. However, with mid-caps as a section of the portfolio, majority of it could comprise on large cap funds. Individuals often tend to start SIPs without a second thought on the amount they intend to invest comfortably. Often they try to make up for the lost time and then find it difficult to continue with their SIPs after a period of time.

This results in a stop of their investment and their long term life stage goals. Hence with systematic investment plans one should start conventionally and increase their investment amount gradually over a period of time ensuring stability.

3 Valuable Lessons from the NASDAQ Bubble

The NASDAQ Bubble

Looking back, one can recall that the big capitalization technology stocks which controlled the NASDAQwere wildly overrated by out-dated measures. The Wall Street Journal had published on March 14, 2000, a prominent article - `Big Cap Tech Stocks are a Sucker Bet’. This article was contributedby the Wharton School finance professor and fellow Kiplinger’s columnist, Jeremy Siegel. He was of the opinion that `several investors of present time are undisturbed by history and by the failure of any large cap stock ever to justify, by its subsequent record, a (price-earnings) ratio anywhere near 100’. 

 

Bubble is a change and the nature of bubbles is that no one can predict when they could pop. If Nasdaq seemed to be overvalued in 2000, it was also overvalued in 1999 as well as 1998 and 1997. This resulted in investors rushing to buy stocks in late 1990s with the intention of not missing out on profits which their colleagues would be making. Most of the buyers overloaded their portfolios with big cap tech stocks with the belief that they could later sell to make a profit.


Education from the NASDAQ Bubble

Three of the most valuable education from NASDAQ bubble -

• Diversification - The main lesson from Nasdaq COMP, -0.63% bubble was diversification. Having ones’ savings in one high beta sector of financial markets would give rise to substantial risk of long lasting loss. Though the NASDAQ took fifteen years to break, an investor owning a 60%/40%stock/bond portfolio beginning on March 1, 2000 was at risk for less than four years. Besides, while NASDAQ was scrabbling its way back to break even, one generated an annualized return of 5.5% though not bad at buying while it was at its peak
• Price compression creates tail risk–Investors get involved in years’ worth of future returns into a very short time period. If the underlying entity does not give the actual value which it was priced in, this would give rise to disequilibrium. In other words, you would get investors who priced in high growth that does not seem to be profitable. When understanding dawns, the price decompresses and the bigger the compression, bigger is the decompression. As the Nasdaq bubble tend to get expanded, investors were looking forward to gain profits of the Internet, pricing in years’ worth of profits in a very short span of time. This means that they priced in a 15 years value of profit in a few years. When one fails to diversify accurately, one could be exposed to their savings being at risk. They should allocate their savings accurately to avoid being exposed to huge risk to their portfolio.
• Avoid chasing the next hot thing for maximizing returns –If one intending in maximising the primary source of income and allocating some of the income in, with the intention of planning for the future, proper allocation of saving is essential. The purpose of savings is not actual return maximization; on the contrary, return maximization within the boundaries of suitable risk taking. If one is a real saver on the lookout for stability, then the main portfolio goal is not simply a protection against purchasing power loss but the risk of long lasting loss. This means that it could be probably unwise to overweight the portfolio in favour of purchasing power protection.

Conclusion 

Most of the investors unfortunately turn to the stock market as a place where they could raise their profit and improve their financial status. In their eagerness to reach high, the risk factor is often overlook and sometimes ends in disaster. Caution needs to be exercised in every plan of investment to earn the fruits of a good labour.

Impact of New Money Market Rules

Securities & Exchange Commission – Passed New Rules 

When money became a product, the money market became an element for the financial market for possessions for the purpose of lending, in short term borrowing, buying and selling with original maturities for a year or less and trading in money market could be done over the counter.

Securities and Exchange Commission – SEC had passed some new rules which governed money market fund in mid-2014 and these rules were designed to contest the probable problems on liquidity if the economy would envisage a financial meltdown like the 2008-2009. Usually the money market fund is where several investors tend to invest their funds and the shares of the funds have a constant $1 per share value and there was instant liquidity.

 According to the new rules there is some change to these attributes for some money market funds. Some money market funds will be having floating net asset value – NAV when the new rules are applicable and these funds will not be priced at the prevailing $1 per share. This is turn will have an impact on the institutional municipal money market funds as well as institutional prime/general purpose money funds only while retail money market funds will not be affected by this rule.

Two Kinds of Liquidity Fee

The new rule is for two kinds of liquidity fee which could levy rigid fees on redemptions especially those conventionally low return vehicles and if the weekly liquid assets of money market funds tend to fall below 30% of the total fund’s assets, the board of directors connected with the funds could impose a 2% fee on redemption of funds.

Should the money market fund’s weekly liquid resources tend to fall below 10% of the total assets of the fund, then the redemptions could be subject to a 1% redemption fee if the board of directors vote otherwise. This new rule is then applicable to both the institutional as well as retail municipal and prime/general purpose money market funds.

If the money market fund’s liquid assets fall below 30% on the whole assets, the funds’ board of directors are permitted to vote on whether to restrict all fund redemption for 10 days and agreed that money market funds could be used for their low investment risk and liquidity, the burden of redemption could be difficult for several investors.

Vanguard’s Ultra Short Term Bond Fund 

After the announcement of the new rules, some new short term bond mutual funds have come up which include Vanguard’s Ultra Short-Term Bond Fund – VUBFX, but according to Vanguard, the launch was not connected to new money market fund rules. Higher yield than money market funds are offered in short term bond funds though they also have additional market risk depending on their underlying holdings.

The average ultra-short term bond funds, according to Morningstar Inc. – MORN, lost 7.89% in 2008 and financial advisors could be wise in reminding clients intending to seek more yields on the potential risks of presuming that these funds could be a substitute for money market funds. In an effort in preventing a collapse of financial system in case of another economic meltdown, as the financial crisis which occurred in 2008-2009, the SEC have approved several changes in the rules that govern money market funds.

While some will have redemption fees levied on shareholders in some cases and others will see their NAV enabled to fluctuate from the traditional stable $1 per share, these changes will compel investors as well as financial advisors to reconsider how to use the money market funds while at the same time look for other alternatives.