Stock Investing Guide

There has been plenty of activity in the balance transfer credit card market recently, but relatively little movement when it comes to cards which offer consistently low standard rates – until now that is.

Low standard rate credit cards are worth considering if you won’t be able to clear your balance during the 0% introductory periods offered by other cards, and don’t want to switch your card again once it ends. You’ll pay interest but not as much as the rates charged on many credit cards.

Sainsbury’s has just thrown down the gauntlet to other providers by launching a new market-leading low rate ‘Transactor’ card with a representative annual percentage rate (APR) of just 6.9%, with no balance transfer fees. Here, we take a look at who the card is suitable for, and whether there are any catches to watch out for…

Sainsbury’s new low rate card, which is only available to customers with a Nectar card, offers a representative APR of 6.9% on new purchases and balance transfers, and importantly does not impose any balance transfer fees.

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Tank-less, or on-demand, Hot Water Heaters have been popular in Europe and Japan for years. And they are starting to attract more attention in North America. Tank-less heaters are small wall-mounted units that can be fueled by gas or electricity, producing hot water only on demand. When a hot water faucet is turned on, cold water begins to flow through heated coils on the unit heating the water to the preset temperature you chose.

When they were first introduced many years ago, very few builders or homeowners were interested as a result of their relatively high price and potential reliability issues. However, with the ongoing rise of fuel costs and the better redesign of these units to eliminate reliability issues, a renewed interest has been seen in new construction.  The primary benefits advertized are their energy efficiency, limited space requirements, and ability to supply hot water whenever needed.

And although these units will supply hot water on demand, they were not originally designed for high water volume output.

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Are you impatient? One study suggests that being impatient has more than just a small connection to your credit.

“Participants in the study with poor credit scores were more impatient and more likely to choose immediate rewards rather than wait for a larger reward. As a result, they were much more likely to engage in behaviors that virtually guarantee financial trouble.”

According to the article, the credit scores of patient consumers were an average of 30 points higher than those of impatient consumers. The credit scores of impatient participants were consistently lower than 620, which is generally known as the cutoff for subprime lending.

In other words, the bad habit of impatience can lead to bad credit. But that’s not the only bad habit that lends itself to poor financial moves. Here are a few tips for curbing bad habits before they start affecting your wallet.

Procrastination

Effect on your finances: Paying just the minimum on your credit card balances means you’ll be charged more in interest over the long-run.

How to curb your habit: Consider ramping up payments on a couple of your higher-interest rate balances. Adding

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Unemployed homeowners can now be excused from making mortgage payments for up to a full year on Freddie Mac-supported home loans, the lender has announced.

The new program doubles the length of time unemployed homeowners can obtain a forbearance on a Freddie Mac mortgage, up from six months previously. The new program takes effect Feb. 1, 2012.   “These expanded forbearance periods will provide families facing prolonged periods of unemployment with a greater measure of security by giving them more time to find new employment and resolve their delinquencies,” said Tracy Mooney,a Freddie Mac senior executive. “We believe this will put more families back on track to successful long-term homeownership.”   Approximately 10 percent of mortgage delinquencies on Freddie Mac home loans are tied to unemployment, according to the company.   Lenders servicing Freddie Mac mortgages may offer unemployed homeowners up to six months of forbearance without Freddie Mac approval, and may get approval to extend it another six months. Borrowers Full Article…

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This is the third and final instalment of our Thursday bubble series. The first part looked at Canadian housing, while the second looked at gold. This one is a little more, shall we say, contrarian in nature.

These days, I don’t know anyone who will discourage a young person from going to college. (Except me. Plug alert!) Haven’t you heard the studies? You know, the ones that say that college graduates make more than their lesser educated brethren? Or the ones that argue the difference can be as much as a million dollars over a lifetime? If you’re not going off to get some sort of higher education, you’re missing out.

I won’t discourage anyone from attending post secondary if they want to. Higher education is a noble goal, and often one that will directly result in higher wages, since we live in an increasingly specialized world. Often, co

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