Category Archives: Home Mortgage
A Home Security Checklist For Your First House
Getting the chance to settle down in a home is a huge step for any American. After all, in a world where moving beyond renting an apartment seems tougher and tougher, the chance to have one’s very own property to protect is a major accomplishment. And after settling all of the tasks involved in closing a deal and solidifying mortgage payments, it’s tempting to just kick back and relax. However, it’s crucial to remember that another major part of having a new place to live is making sure that one’s family is safe.
Caring for loved ones means being concerned about home security, since no one wants to experience the turmoil and pain of a break-in where priceless family memories or crucial elements to work and leisure time are stolen. And the very real fact about break-ins is that they more often than not leave those with homes feeling like strangers in their own living space, a bit timid and scared about their own surroundings. It’s crucial to be proactive, ensuring that your own household never has to experience that kind of nervousness or recovery time after a break-in occurs.
Fortunately, sprucing up home security is a breeze. Following a straightforward checklist is one great way to make certain that there is nothing wrong afoot. Here are the basic elements to look for when checking out a new home.
Replace light bulbs. Indoors and outdoors, since the best thing to invest in when it comes to safeguarding a home is a timer that handles all of the lighting for the entire house. Make sure that there are working light bulbs, as this will mean that tricking robbers into thinking a home is occupied at all times a whole lot easier.
Teach the whole family how to use the home alarm system. There should always be the back-up of technology there to safeguard a property, but sometimes, the trouble is that not everyone in the house has actually figured out how to set it. And sometimes false alarms spook people into forgetting to use the very thing that keeps robbers from succeeding most of the time. So sit down with everyone, go over the process step by step, and stress the point that the pin code or password is something to be kept in the family.
Talk to the neighbors. Especially if you’re new to an area. Find out what the history of crime has been like, if there are any break-ins that have happened recently, and determine if there’s a neighborhood watch that can be joined. Being active in the community is a great way to get settled in a new place, and it’s an even greater way to prevent the stresses of home invasions from happening.
Deadbolts. This is the biggest misstep people make: locking the regular lock, but neglecting the deadbolt. It’s considerably more difficult to break down a door when a deadbolt is engaged, so a couple of seconds can mean the difference between effective home security and something more lacking. Don’t make that kind of mistake.
The Basic Credit Card Types (Page 1 of 3)
It may seem incredible, but credit card issuers clog the mails with over 2.5 billion offers inviting people to apply for a credit card. Even those who would not qualify for a conventional credit card due to serious credit problems are now able to get one; some credit card issuers even specialize in this particular type of market. And according to financial gurus, there are at least a billion credit cards in active circulation throughout the United States alone.
Credit has been an economic cornerstone for some time now. Surveys show that the average American household is estimated to have at least twelve credit cards, including charge cards. While you may tend to think that one credit card is pretty much the same as the next, there are in actual fact distinct characteristics for each different credit card type. It is good to know these difference between the three different types of cards in the market: a bank credit card, a travel credit card, an entertainment credit card (although nowadays the combined travel and entertainment card has become more common) and a retail credit card or house card.
Bank Credit Cards You have probably noticed that most credit cards bear either the logo of Visa or MasterCard together with the name of the bank. It would appear that the credit card has been issued by either Visa or MasterCard. That is not quite an accurate assumption: these two companies do not issue credit cards directly to the consumers. Most of the credit cards on the market today are offered by thousands of banks around the globe. Each bank is linked to the credit card association, because are not allowed to issue any kind of card unless they are association members.
Visa is a privately held membership association, although it is preparing to go public. It started as an association of banks in California and the West Coast. There are over 20,000 financial institutions in the membership rolls, and virtually all of them offer Visa Card. MasterCard is also a membership association, similar to Visa, and originally consisted of member banks in the East.
A bank credit card is in reality a revolving credit line. When you receive your statement, you can pay all or part of your balance each month, run up the balance again and so on. Being a credit line, the account comes with a pre-determined credit limit that depends on key factors like disposable income, credit history, etc. The credit limit can be as low as a $100 or as high as many thousands of dollars.
It is possible for card holders to get themselves into trouble when they do not properly manage the revolving credit line. When you carry a balance instead of paying it off, the credit card issuer starts charging interest on that balance in some cases, this interest could be pretty steep. The interest rate varies widely, depending on who issued the card, but you could expect the average credit card interest rate to be at about 18 percent.
For instance, if you carry forward a $1,000 balance for 12 months, you pay $180 in interest per year or $15 every month. If you maintain a $1,000 savings account, you will earn about $40 in interest per year. Those who get into trouble will have to reduce debt, and one of the more common ways to go about this, is to arrange for credit card debt consolidation, which helps lighten the interest burden.