Understanding Your Bank Account Details Better

With so many different terms floating around, banking terminology can get really confusing. If you are someone who doesn’t know their AER from their APR and their PIN from their Chip, then this guide to common banking terms could enlighten you.

AER

AER stands for Annual Earnings Rate. AER is used to calculate the annual amount that you earn on an investment or savings account. The higher the AER, then the better the investment or savings account. If you are looking for a savings account then compare AER’s to work out where your money is going to make the most profit.

APR

APR stands for Annual Percentage Rate, and is the amount of interest that you pay each year on a loan or mortgage. The lower the APR then the less you will pay yearly on that item of borrowing. Items with high APR’s like credit cards have APR figures around 15-20% whereas mortgages have a low APR figure of about 5-7%. The quickest way to compare loans is to look at their APR values.

Chip and PIN

Chip and PIN is the current system used to pay for items or withdraw cash using a credit or debit card. The card has a 4-digit PIN, or personal identification number, that you enter into a cash machine or till machine in order to retrieve money or pay for goods. The chip on the card holds information that, combined with the PIN, allows the machine to identify you as the correct owner of the card. Chip and PIN is more secure than the previous magnetic strip and signature technology that was used a few years ago.

Overdraft

An overdraft is a sum of money that you are minus within an account. If you go beyond the amount of actual money you have in an account, then you go into the overdraft. Many accounts have a pre-arranged limit that allows you to go overdrawn, which can be useful, as unauthorised overdrafts will cost you a lot in interest and fees.

Phishing

If you use online banking, then Phishing is a term you might have heard of but you might not know what it means. Phishing is a form of scam or illegal attempt to get hold of your bank details online so that they can withdraw money from them. When online banking started this was a big problem, but with increased security measures the problem is getting better. Most Internet browsers include a Phishing filter to stop such practices from occurring.

Standing orders and Direct Debits

Standing orders and Direct Debits are similar in some ways, but different in others. Both involve a regular amount being transferred from one account to another. Standing orders are a regular, fixed amount that you pay to another person or company, usually monthly. Direct Debits are an amount of money, which can be fixed or varied, that is removed from your account at set intervals. One example of a Direct Debit is mortgage repayments.

Getting advice

If you are unsure about any other banking terms, then visiting your local bank branch or looking online might help. Never be afraid to ask about something, because if you don’t understand something that is part of your account policy, you could lose money or not be taking full advantages of the features on offer to you.

Peter Kenny is a writer for The Thrifty Scot. Please visit us at Best Current Accounts and Child Trust Funds Visit http://www.thriftyscot.co.uk

How To Open Us Bank Account For Malaysian

E-Commerce is the largest marketplace in the world. E-Commerce serve user al over the world in 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. People can surf the web anytime and anywhere they want through the web. Certain item, they can get it instantly. And certain item, they can buy it online and wait until they receive the item.

As one of the Malaysian, i am interested in a lot of offer in the web. But most of them only offered for U.S citizen. Such as eBay. But, i discover the way on how to participate the offer even i am not U.S citizen. I open an account with paypal and follow the process to become verified. I discover the problem when paypal only offered U.S bank to be verified in PayPal. I search the information in google on how to open U.S Bank for Malaysian, but i found the information is not much. So that i done my research and believe that i can be verified as long as i know the right way. I spent 2 month to do the process and finally i am verified and i start buying online at U.S site such as eBay, Amazon and a lot more using my PayPal account and US Bank Debit Card.

At the beginning, i only buy online without selling anything. After 2 month buying and experiencing buying online, i learn on how to be a good seller from the seller i bought e-books, watches and etc. They always giving the right information and shipping service to the customer.

I start selling online such as watches, wallet, information and a lot more using my PayPal account and most of the service that i love is online consultant. I become a online seller from the experience i have while online the web almost everyday.

From this experience, i know the way on how to open U.S Bank account for Malaysian. Malaysian can sell online buy using a lot of merchant account offered in the web. But PayPal also offered a service accept credit card payment and in the same time it's been used by 88% US citizen to buy online. The benefit having this account is more because PayPal user only pay to another verified PayPal account. So that, PayPal is the best merchant service and also the best payment method that also offer insurance for buyer and seller.

The important part having PayPal verified is, only verified user can withdraw their money. For Malaysian who wanted to learn the way opening U.S Bank account and be verified in PayPal, i am offering the online consultation using Yahoo Messenger. So that, they dont have to read a lot of e-books that offer the method and finally they don't understand what they have to do and forgot what they have to do to be verified in PayPal.

Have A Nice Day,

IRWAN IDRIS www.irwanis.com

How To Choose The Best Bank Account

Managing money is a great concern for many people. Using a bank account is a great way to keep track of spending and manage finances. A bank account is safe, inexpensive, and easy to use. Choosing a bank account is like choosing other products. Costs and features of bank accounts vary greatly and it is good to take a look at different options before going for a particular bank account.

A few things should be kept in mind before opening a bank account. Is the money deposited in a bank fully protected? Is the bank a federally insured institution? There are many types of bank accounts like savings, checking, and money market accounts. It is important to make sure how to regulate the money before choosing an account.

A bank account’s features and fees vary from one bank to another so it is wise to consult a representative about these before opening an account. To minimize bank fees, it is smart to check offers and special services that your bank has with different bank accounts.

Dealing with a bank is often a tough task. It is important to remember a few things while dealing with any bank. People should ask the customer care representative of the bank to make sure they are signed up for the right programs to meet their needs. Building a friendly relationship with the bank employees can prove helpful. Don't be afraid to complain if the need arises and always keep good records of the bank account.

Be aware that whatever bank account you choose, their policies can change with little notice. You may be suddenly charged a new monthly maintenance fee or worse. Stay up-to-date on your monthly bank statements, as well as with any literature or brochures the bank may send you in the mail. That way, you will be prepared should you ever need to close your account and choose a new one - either at the same bank or at a different one.

Bank Accounts provides detailed information on Bad Credit Bank Accounts, Bank Accounts, Bank Checking Accounts, Bank Savings Accounts and more. Bank Accounts is affiliated with Online Banks.

Swell Your Bank Account Balance in 2005!

We have heard time and time again that money doesn't grow on trees. How we wish it does. Life is super expensive! You may have even taken a second or third route to pursuing income.

I am no financial planner but the following tips will assist you in getting your finances in order and making the money you have last longer.

1. As soon as the mail arrives, separate the bills and put them into one designated area. Sort through them and put the bills into 2 folders labeled 1-15 for the first 15 days of the month, and the other folder labeled 16-31. Twice a month, designate a day to pay your bills. Be sure to schedule your bill paying day on your calendar so it gets done in plenty of time. By the way, I also keep a folder for medical reimbursement receipts for my insurance and for tax documentation.

2. Designate a separate auto depreciation account that money is transferred into monthly. It doesn't have to be a large amount. Have it transferred automatically, and sure enough, by the time you need to buy a car, you will have money to turn to.

3. What motivates a purchase? Do you shop when you're blue, stressed, frustrated, bored? If you know you use shopping as a coping skill, then don't set yourself up! Don't go to the Mega Bucks Boutique. Go someplace where the prices are reasonable and you won't replace your current emotion with guilt. Go to the dollar store. Yes, the all-incredible, super, glamorous collar store. You need to buy something, right? I buy generic children's Tylenol ($3-5), Band-Aids($2-4), shampoo($2-5), gift bags($2-3), all the trimmings for a child's birthday party($20-30), hair stuff for my daughter ($2-4), bath soap($2-4), cleaning supplies ($2-4) and on and on. Think about paying the cost of these items in other stores (listed in parentheses) and then think--I only paid a dollar. It is is amazing all the stuff people pay too much for and find on the shelves of these kinds of stores. Along with the good feelings someone gets when purchasing something expensive, there is a sort of a euphoria that can be felt when you save a significant amount of money. Better yet, later you don't feel guilty for saving your family $20. (Teresa Higginbotham)

4. Consolidate your credit cards. You may have heard this before and it is REALLY IMPORTANT. By paying the minimum monthly balance on many cards, you are paying lots of finance charges and postage. Choose 1 credit card with the lowest APR and highest credit limit. Transfer old balances to this card. Your balance will look a lot higher because all spending is on 1-2 cards. You will be able to pay a much larger balance though now that you only have 1-2 cards instead of 10!

5. Keep track of expenses. I don't mean a rigid budget, but for a month or so, keep a small notebook with you and record your purchases. Include the miscellaneous ones- the People magazine, snapple, and starbucks. Record these expenses and at the end of the month, total them and match them up against your income. You will see where the money is going. Perhaps much of it is falling into categories such as the miscellaneous one. You can cut back on these incidentals by assessing whether or not you really need these items. I don't mean not to enjoy life and relax but keeping tabs on where the money is going is really helpful when making decisions about how you want to spend most of your money-travel, retirement, or eating out? Make small incremental changes when possible.

I hope these money saving and enhancing tips benefit you in your pursuit of a balanced life.

Rebekah Slatkin is a professional organizer dedicated to getting people organized through hands-on decluttering sessions, teleconferencing, coaching, and her website http://www.best-organizing-products-superstore.com Visit http://www.best-organizing-products-superstore.com and subscribe to Organewz, her ezine dedicated to organized living and get organizing tips and downloads- free.

How to Use an Offshore Bank Account

Having an offshore bank account is one thing, using it is quite another matter.

Corporate Account – When you have a corporate account the money belongs to the corporation not you personally. When the corporation is an anonymous bearer share Panama corporation your anonymity is further protected since establishing ownership of the corporation is about impossible so you would have to see who is recorded at the bank as the beneficial owner of the bank account and this requires you to convince a court in Panama to open up the bank records (something that is very rarely done) to reveal who the beneficial owner is. Even in the unlikely event a court did this this it would be of little value since the money still belongs to the corporation. So if you had a financial enemy pursuing you personally they would not be able to transfer a personal debt to the corporation very easily. They would need to show that you transferred funds to the corporation to make sure debtors could not recover the funds; it is called a fraudulent conveyance. The court cases pertaining to this are far from simple, they are expensive and time consuming and can take years to get heard in court. When wires are sent to an anonymous bearer share Panama Corporation no one knows who the owners of the corporation are, thus they do not know what natural persons are actually receiving the funds. When wiring funds into your Panama corporate bank account it is not revealing in terms of what the wire is for versus wiring money into a personal account. The Anonymous Panama Corporation adds in a nice thick layer of privacy protection.

ATM Cards - When you open a Panama bank account one can usually obtain an ATM card good for cash withdraws from ATM machines worldwide. These ATM cards will have your name on them and can be associated with the bank you are using. Some people obtain an ATM card from another unrelated financial institution. These cards typically have no name imprinted on them which right away adds to your privacy protection. These cards also do not leave a trail to your real bank. Money can be transferred to the ATM card by wire from your Panama or other bank account and then withdrawn as needed. Some people are fond of using these cards to cover corporate expenses like travel, entertainment and other business expenses. Usually the ATM card purchase requires a copy of a passport.

Visa and MasterCard Debit Cards – Watch it here. This can be a real privacy violator. The USA recently got a lot of MasterCard records by a court order served on MasterCard in Miami. This could happen again. The more private way of doing this is to get a Visa or MasterCard debit card from another bank, not your Panama bank. You load the card by wiring funds onto the card from your Panama bank. This eliminates any ties the card has to your real bank account. The card should come from an issuing bank in a bank secrecy country. The way these programs work is Visa and MasterCard do not know who the actual card holder is – no date of birth, no address, no tax id numbers etc. only the issuing bank has this information since they require a passport copy and a physical address to send the card to. So a subpoena to MasterCard or Visa would produce very little and since the bank is in a country with bank secrecy this avenue is going to be a long burdensome process that would be unlikely to be pursued and could only be pursued by a government in a criminal matter. You want to use a country where address verification is not set up on the debit cards or else use a mailing/billing address for the card in another country where you have a reliable mail drop box. This further protects your privacy and of course is a convenient way to guard against any potential identity theft associated with using the debit card in a restaurant, store, online etc.

Telephone Records – If you need to telephone your offshore bank consider using an anonymous prepaid cell phone so there is no record of any calls to the bank on your phone bill. Private detectives in USA can readily get copies of phone bills. A sharp divorce or collection attorney will look for international calls to isolate an offshore bank.

Online Banking – This is a great feature. Eliminate having statements sent to the house or office. Who knows who logs these statements being sent in the mail or even worse reads them, remember you could be a terrorist. Remember your ISP is a privacy nightmare. They are unregulated in general, unlicensed, and could be owned by felons, child molesters or whatever. These people can collect your entire internet transactions read them and save them forever. Rest assured all of the big ISP's like MSN, AOL, ATT, COMCAST will save your log files for ever showing every website you ever went to, every file downloaded, every email sent and to whom, etc. Don't assume they would require a court order to distribute this data, read your terms of service agreement and be prepared to be shocked. Now why should they know what online offshore bank you log into? So how do you stop it? You use an anonymous internet service provider. You log onto the internet then log onto their VPN which encrypts all your internet traffic going from your computer to their server and now your log files are basically encrypted and your ISP only has gibberish log files on you except he knows you connected to the anonymous internet provider but has no idea what you did or where you went.

Make sure the anonymous internet provider does not save log files or only does so for a few days to track down hackers, spammers etc. Never bookmark your online bank. Save your passwords in an encrypted password folder. Use a hard drive cleaner like evidence eliminator to erase tracks, places visited, image files, cookies, downloads logs etc that windows saves. To protect from Trojans, attacks etc. use an anti-spy ware program like spyware doctor and Norton anti-virus. Do not trust one of them alone. If you get a keystroke logger or Trojan it can capture your passwords and they can rob your bank account online. Extra measures are an application based firewall so if a Trojan got in it would not be able to phone home without you giving the new application manual permission to connect to the internet and a wireless router that uses encryption. All of these steps should keep you safe if you keep them updated and turned on – beats having someone get your passwords.

For more information on offshore bank accounts click here: www.panamalaw.org

5 Steps To Opening An Offshore Bank Account

If you`re investing for the first time in an offshore account, it can be confusing. You must choose a reputable bank and handle the ins and outs of offshore accounting procedures. There are no first time investing procedures to follow. However, the following five simple steps will give you the information you need.

First, figure out how much you want to invest. If you can only invest $1,000, focus on the institutions that allow that minimum.

Next, which jurisdictions do you have access to? Keep in mind that the bank or institution must be authorized to deal with your particular country of residence. If jurisdictional issues prevent fund access, you may be required to use an appropriate structure; you can always use a mail redirection service as well to access to offshore investments without much problem.

Next, which specific fund do you want to invest in? To choose, search the Internet, read offshore investment guides and publications, or use an investment information provider.

Your research should focus on the fund's previous performance, its management and assets. Watch it for three to six months before you invest, and don't rush into anything.

Next, before you can invest, decide whether you want a broker or will do this yourself. If you choose a broker, you`ll next need to call the broker and have him or her make the needed arrangements. If you decide to do it yourself, request a current copy of the fund's prospectus and then begin the proper investment proceedings from there. To obtain a prospectus from the fund, fax a request for it. The following is a sample of how you might word it:

Dear XXXXXXXXX,

I am the investment administrator of a company domiciled in (insert tax haven here).

I would appreciate a current copy of your prospectus so that I may invest in your fund.

My mailing address is
XXXXXXXX
XXXXXXX
XXXXX

Kind regards,

XXXXXXXX

I have used this type of letter often. Even when I used an Australian postal address, the fund still sent the prospectus, even though they also sent a letter stating that they were not authorized to deal with Australian residents, and therefore could not take my investment. They did give their account details, though, for my information.

Finally, if you`ve met all criteria and want to go ahead with the investment, a bank draft is the easiest payment method. Just attach the check to the completed prospectus and send it to the fund.

When you set up the bank draft, if you use a bank with an international essence, you`ll likely raise fewer questions. You also cannot post the prospectus from a country that the fund is not authorized to deal with.

The above five steps should make your first offshore investment experience relatively easy and even fun. You should know that the fund may still deal with you even if all their criteria are not met, but following the steps above should be your easiest route to opening an offshore account.

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