Financial Blog

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety announced the winners of Top Safety Pick award for 2008.

This award is given to vehicles that protect people’s lives best of all. Front and side impacts are especially dangerous to human lives; more than 85% of all lethal crashes were of such a kind. Rear-end crashes are not so dangerous to our lives but they are meaningful to our health and insurance companies. More than 60% of all insurance injury claims report strains of all kinds and concussion of the brain.

All winners of the award are proved to help in avoiding crashes. They are equipped with equipped with ESC, which helps drivers to control the vehicle even in extreme conditions. When a driver predicts possible impact he tries to avoid it instinctively; ESC prevents a car from spinning out during these emergency maneuvers. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety calculated that there would be 10.000 fatal crashes less each year if all vehicles were equipped with ESC.

It is very important to drive a car, equipped with latest safety systems. This is more important for the USA as SUVs are traditionally popular in this country and they have higher chances of roll over during a crash. So it is almost obligatory to have SUV equipped with ESC.

Car manufacturers have been working for a long period of time in order to safe people’s lives. Besides, they save the money of insurers helping to avoid crashes and our money as we pay less for the insurance.

In future Insurance rates will be notably decreased for the owners of “safe” vehicles present in the list below.

The list of winners:

Large cars:
Audi A6
Ford Taurus with optional electronic stability control
Mercury Sable with optional electronic stability control
Volvo S80

Midsize cars:
Audi A3, A4
Honda Accord
Saab 9-3
Subaru Legacy with optional electronic stability control

Midsize convertibles:
Saab 9-3
Volvo C70

Small cars:
Subaru Impreza with optional electronic stability control

Minivans:
Honda Odyssey
Hyundai Entourage
Kia Sedona

Midsize SUVs:
Acura MDX, RDX
BMW X3, X5
Ford Edge, Taurus X
Honda Pilot
Hyundai Santa Fe
Hyundai Veracruz built after August 2007
Lincoln MKX
Mercedes M class
Saturn VUE built after December 2007
Subaru Tribeca
Toyota Highlander
Volvo XC90

Small SUVs:
Honda CR-V, Element
Subaru Forester with optional electronic stability control

Large pickup:
Toyota Tundra

Filed under: Insurance by admin No Comments »

The National Association of Realtors reported that its pending home sale index rose to 87.2 in October from a revised reading of 86.7 in September. This is a good sign but that is not enough to make a sigh of relief. Most realtors still believe that home sales will decline in 2008. A year ago home sales index was up more than 19% and this situation makes people worry.

Mike Larson, a real estate analyst for independent research firm Weiss Research said: “Things aren’t getting much worse, but they’re not getting much better either”.
In August, many lenders had to slam the brakes on home loans due to problems in the market for mortgage-backed securities. Then pending home sales index hit a record low of 85.5. With all these bad factors that effect world economics, people may use some benefits of such a situation. Mortgage rates are near a 30 year minimum, so it could be a good idea to buy a house now.
For example, 30 year fixed mortgage is 5.76% now and 15 year fixed mortgage is only 5.33%

Any problem has it benefits, isn’t it?

Filed under: Mortgage by admin No Comments »

American drivers should be ready to pay 3$ per gallon of Regular gas. There is no tendency for this price to go down. A barrel of crude oil costs about 90$ now and is expected to be 100$ soon enough. With such an expensive oil, seasonal waving of the price will not be noticeable, American economists say.

It’s a normal state of affairs when gas prices rise during summer periods and slightly fall in winter. This winter is not an exception but it would be naïve to think that the price will be lower than 3$.

However, some analytics believe that crude oil will sank 10-15% to 70-75$ per gallon. With all this, American drivers shouldn’t expect to see lower numbers on clapboard signs at filling stations.

It may be interesting for you to know the price of gasoline in other countries.
The lowest price in the world is set in Turkmenistan, one gallon of regular gas costs about 9 cents; Venezuela – 14 cents; Iran – 40 cents, Saudi Arabia – 72 cents; China – 3.13$; Russian Federation – 3.63$; Japan – 4.94$; Germany – 7$; Turkey – 8.5$.

Looking at these numbers I’m starting to believe that average American is well protected from gas overpayments in comparison with other countries, especially when average income is taken into consideration.

Filed under: General by admin No Comments »

When you arrive at a retail store register with an armful of items, the clerk will probably ask if you’d like to save 10 percent and receive perks by simply signing up for their store credit card. This may sound too good to be true … and often it is.

Industry estimates show that the market for proprietary or private-label credit cards surpasses $100 billion annually, so many consumers are wooed by the initial discount. But these forms of plastic, offered by many major retailers to customers through their own financing arms or through third-party issuers, tend to carry high interest rates. While the average bank credit card charges a rate in the neighborhood of 13 percent or 14 percent, many store credit cards’ interest rates exceed 20 percent. If you revolve a balance on your credit card, that initial 10 percent savings on a purchase will be eaten up very quickly by the hefty interest you will end up paying.

Still, store credit card fans argue that since these credit cards carry higher minimum monthly payments than bank credit cards, balances decrease much more quickly. They add that retailers set the minimum payments at a higher level than what banks require, since they know a debt-free consumer is likely to do more shopping.

Michael McAuliffe, president of Family Credit Counseling Service in Rockford, Ill., says, “Every time you go into a store, they’re going to push their card. I discourage shoppers from accumulating retail credit cards because they tend to carry very high interest rates, and it’s an easy way to damage your credit score.” In the formulas credit bureaus use to calculate your credit score, store credit cards differ from bank issued credit cards. With the average U.S. consumer carrying four or five credit cards, additional store credit cards can make you look like a bigger risk to credit agencies, resulting in a lower credit score. A lower credit score, in turn, can raise the interest rates you pay for other borrowing.

Although having a diverse mix of credit within your credit history can potentially aid your score, too many lines of open credit can signal danger to a lender, which may worry about the consumer’s potential to incur additional debt.

Meanwhile, store credit cards are often forgotten by consumers who only complete applications in exchange for an initial burst of savings. Many of the 500 million or so store credit cards in circulation are taken out during the holidays. While the store credit card may not be used, the open account will still appear as a line of revolving credit on the consumer’s credit report.

Judd Rousseau, COO and director of fraud operations for Identity Theft 911 in Scottsdale, Ariz., says that signing up for a store credit card during the holidays can also put you at risk for identity theft.

“During the holidays, some stores will have tables set up trying to get people to sign up for store cards. They are gathering tons of peoples’ personal information in an unsecure area,” he says. “Often they have temporary or seasonal people doing that work, and they haven’t always had a thorough background check. We’re seeing more and more organized crime and street gangs getting into identity theft in that way; they’ll get their cleaner-cut girlfriend or younger sibling to get those kinds of jobs and steal the information.”

Consumers who sign up for store credit cards may also find that their personal information is shared with other companies or that they are placed on marketing mailing lists. Stores such as retailing giant Wal-Mart routinely provide data to third parties looking to offer you special promotions or services. While buyers’ personal information and buying habits represent another source of revenue to companies, it may be an annoyance to consumers who are already flooded with offers they don’t need or want.

In the end, consumers looking to get something back when they shop will likely get more out of a reward credit card. Experts say an instant 10 percent savings may not be worth the problems a store credit card might cause.

Information is taken from:

Filed under: Credit Cards by admin No Comments »

If you are reading this post, it means that you has entered a new Financial Blog on Nowgetloan.com. Administration of the resource and personally I welcome you here. We will do our best to provide you with latest financial news and give you the best selected offers in the Net in order to save and increase your financial resources. Leave your comments and posts on any financial topic. Our consultants and I will try to answer all your questions. Let us be a source of useful information to each other and exchange opinions in order to get extra benefits and use our abilities effectively. Hope this blog will become one of your favourites.

Filed under: General by admin No Comments »