Askinz finance website brings you comprehensive articles and resources you may find useful to manage your personal finance, debt, insurance and other topics ranging from how to maximise return on your savings to how to get out of sticky financial situation by finding affordable loans even if your credit history is now very good. We have articles about Payday loans, bad credit loans, debt consolidation and other forms of loans available to people with adverse credit history.
Websites Every Start-Up Business Owner Should Follow
October 5th, 2012 
admin 
Social Media for Startups
The internet is a business person’s best friend. From fluid advertising and network opportunities, to providing us with a seemingly endless encyclopaedia of knowledge, the worldwide web simply has it all. Having it all also means a lot of junk however and it can therefore be somewhat of a nuisance finding the best websites for your business. While different businesses will of course require different websites specific to their needs, there are a few that every business should follow.
Citymax.com
With the internet being such a useful tool for any business, a website is an absolute necessity. All businesses need an online presence and the quality of this online presence is also vitally important. Websites should therefore not only be running efficiently and consistently speedy, but also user friendly and useful.
CityMax allows you to build a website that ticks all of these boxes in just three steps.
You can even try it free for ten days, with no commitment or credit card needed.
Risdall Advertising Agency Interactive
For some businesses however, simply having a website created isn’t enough. It should instead also come with a complete marketing package to ensure that it maximises the potential number of visitors it draws in, as well as being able to convert those visitors to paying customers.
Such businesses want their website to therefore come with an online marketing plan and be Google friendly and optimized well for search engines.
Risdall Advertising Agency Interactive, @Risdall.net, do more than simply create websites. They help clients develop digital strategies; provide website promotion and work to build brands through a variety of media.
RIFT
When it comes to being in charge of a business, sorting out taxes can be a bit of a bother and complication. The confusion is such that many businesses actually miss out on thousands each year through forgetting to claim their rightful money back, through invaluable tax rebates.
At www.RiftUK.com, RIFT can determine whether you’re owed any money through tax rebates such as capital allowances and should therefore be visited by your business at least once a year.
Twitter & Facebook
These two websites are a pretty obvious choice and useful for similar reasons so we might as well just bundle them into one. Twitter and Facebook are the most useful tools for a business.
Not only are both social media networks invaluable for networking but they’re also vital for promotion and advertisement. A business needs to have a social media presence and regardless of what Google+ might tell you, Twitter and Facebook are the places to make it happen.
Payday Loans, Do We Need Them?
October 5th, 2012 admin 
Payday Loans, do we need them?
Payday loan is the practice of loaning out short-term payments with extortionately high interest rates. With some interest rates reaching up to 2000% it’s no surprise that many Brits are against the practice. Furthermore, the lack of efficient financial background checking of the recipients of these loans has increased criticism surrounding the practice. However, payday loaning is a lot more necessary than its critics would have you believe.
The Anger
Angry sentiment against payday loaning has continuously been expressed by members of the public in recent months. In early August, renowned British television presenters Ant and Dec faced a Twitter backlash after the duo’s ITV show ‘Red and Black’ sponsored payday loan company Wonga. The disparagement rose to the extent that Labour MP Stella Creasy asked the presenters to use their influence to speak out against the deal. She also urged her followers to send a message to the showbiz duo condemning their association with the program and thus subsequently the payday loan company. Creasy called for there to be caps on the cost of credit for the loans paid out by payday loan companies, before the practice can be justified.
Furthermore, the same company Wonga were recently banned from advertising through the English Football League, after a number of fans protested against their football clubs being associated with a payday loan company.
Another criticism levelled out against payday loan companies is that the lack of a rigorous financial background check means that loans can be taken out by people who do not have the means to pay the money back. Presenter Anne Robinson on the BBC One program ‘Watchdog’, pressed a representative of Wonga on this, before which it was explained to her that the very lack of an efficient financial check is why so many people willingly choose payday loans.
Unjustified Anger
The anger behind payday loans is unjustified for a number of reasons. Firstly, it must be reminded that those who take out payday loans do so willingly, and in the knowledge of the very high interest rates. The fact of the matter is that the recipients of payday loans simply need the money so desperately that they’re more than willing to take on the high interest rates.
Furthermore, the desperation of many people needing payday loans means that they either haven’t got the time for a rigorous financial background screening, or haven’t got the credit history for it to not hinder their loan process! After all, people who feel as if they have no other option but to take out a payday loan are most probably in financial peril and those in financial peril are more likely to have had financial problems in the past than others.
In essence, payday loaning is a needed practice, especially in the currently tough economic climate. In addition, while credit caps may prevent people from racking up huge loan costs through interest fees, it would be a policy that’s incompatible with the very nature of payday loaning.
The British public aren’t stupid. And those who take out payday loans know exactly what they’re getting themselves into.
MCO Capital Help Loan Payday Loan Services Shut Down by OFT
August 9th, 2012 admin 
Office of Fair Trading
Payday loan companies have been praised for being more flexible when it come to making loans available to their customers where traditional lenders such as High Street banks are unwilling to lend and rather slow to make fund available to customers where they have decided to lend. Critics of Payday loan companies however criticised them for the extremely high interest they charge and the fact that their are not quite stringent when it come to verifying the identity of their customers. One Payday loan company; MCO Capital is paying the price for lack of rigour when it comes to verifying its clients identity.
MCO Capital which trades online as Help Loan has been shutdown by the OFT (Office of fair trading) after the firm was duped into making loan available to up to 7,000 fraudulent customers who use the identity of other people to obtain loan from MCO Capital. MCO Capital then pursue the real people who’s identity was stolen and made them pay back the loan they did not obtain in the first place. Office of fair trading said MCO Capital broke the anti money laundering rules by not checking identity of their customer properly hence they were closed down and fined £544,000.
OFT spokes man David Fisher said: “MCO’s failure to put adequate procedures in place made it vulnerable to fraud.
“The way in which MCO then wrote to consumers to collect debts caused unnecessary distress and inconvenience to thousands of people.” The story of MCO Capital and the identity fraud was first reported by BBC money box programme as follows: Help Loan had only started operating in August that year but had quickly been cheated of more than £1.5m, which it then attempted to recoup by sending aggressive letters to the people whose identities had been impersonated.
The law government private money lenders and debt collectors has recently been straightened by the government through the Financial Services Bill, which give the OFT the power to stop immediately rogue money lenders.
Making effective use of your credit cards
August 7th, 2012 admin 
Effective use of credit cards
Credit cards have been one of the most important innovations in financial services because they opened up the possibility of consumers having access to affordable credit that they can use for all types of needs. The rise of bad credit payday loans has changed how people gain access to consumer credit however this has not changed the importance of credit cards. If you are considering using credit cards but you want more tips, check out the top tips below on how to use them properly:
To make purchases: Credit cards are excellent ways of making purchases especially online. They allow you to purchase an item or a product and you can simply pay off your purchase straight away or you can make minimal payments each month. Credit cards have been revolutionary in helping people shop, so if you are someone who needs to make purchases every now and then, you can do this online or in person by using credit cards.
For travel: If you are planning to go on holiday to a destination such as the US, you need to have a credit card if you are planning on reserving hotel rooms or you need to pay for things. Credit card companies such as American Express are extremely popular especially because credit cards were pioneered in the US. Fast cash loans could be an option, but credit cards supplement travelling because they allow you to be seamless in your travel experience as they are accepted in most countries especially places like the US and Canada.
Emergencies: Credit cards are important in emergency situations whether there is a sick relative in your family or if you have an unexpected bill that you need to pay.
What you need to know about credit cards
Pay it off in full: The trick with credit cards is using them in a way that benefits you, not the bank. The way you can do this is by paying them off in full every time that you use them. By doing this, you don’t incur interest charges that you will need to pay.
Or pay more than the minimum per month: Your credit card provider will give you a minimum payment that you have to pay each month. This minimum payment will have interest on it. If you can’t afford to pay off your balance in full each month, then you should consider paying more than the minimum payment to make sure that the interest hit is not as large as you think it would be.
Credit cards build credit history: If you have dreams of applying for a mortgage one day, you need to build a credit history file that mortgage lenders will see. One of the best ways to do this is to use credit cards to create a profile of yourself as someone who borrows responsibly.
Choose the card with the manageable limit: You should pick the credit card that has the limit that you can manage. By doing this, you are borrowing within your capabilities.
