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Why Credit Card Purchase Protection Insurance (PPI) is Important Why Credit Card Purchase Protection Insurance (PPI) is Important by Matthew Lloyd

Most people hesitate in spending money in order to insure their credit cards. But little do they know the truth.

Thirteen thousand credit cards are stolen, lost, or misplaced every day in the UK. What if yours is one of them? Imagine if your card is stolen and the thief goes on a shopping spree? Theoretically, he can buy goods worth millions and leave you to pay the bills later.

Consider this for a bit:

credit card fraud is now, annually, a four hundred million pound industry and growing everyday

Internet credit card fraud is a fourth of that, at more than a hundred million pounds per year

The Home Office is involved and has already begun many programs to tackle this problem. Don’t you think its time you also woke up and figured out how to minimize your losses? By the time you realize your card is stolen or lost and you report it, you could have lost hundreds of thousands of pounds. The safest thing to do is get yourself a credit card purchase protection insurance plan or PPI.

The Benefits of a PPI

You need to only call one phone number the moment you realize your card is gone.

No need to memorize all the card numbers, your PPI company may have it on their records when you provide your reference number to them.

They might immediately de-activate your cards.

They often also send replacement cards.

If you are outside the UK, your travel insurance policy will often offer protection against lost credit cards. Even so, the PPI company is more effective in such cases as it may offer global protection for all your cards, 24x7.

Liability Coverage:

You might get £1,000 for legal costs if your card has been used fraudulently.

This is a significantly larger sum than the £50 you would have got from most UK cards.

Frequently, you may also get £3,000 as emergency cash or £1,500 for each joint policy holder.

Sometimes, you are given £3,000 as emergency payment for hotel bills if you are abroad.

£100 is often given if you happen to lose some cash along with your cards.

£200 is given sometimes to recover lost luggage.

£200 might also be offered in order to replace passports or driving licences that were lost or stolen while you were abroad.

£100 can be paid for calling the police and the insurance companies in order to inform them of your lost cards.

£100 can also be paid for replacing handbags and wallets.

Return tickets to travel home might be given to some customers.

Don’t you think its worth getting a PPI now for all your credit cards?

Matthew Lloyd writes for About Your Money. His articles provide users with useful advice on a variety of financial products, including credit cards. To find About Your Money visit www.aboutyourmoney.co.uk

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The Ins And Outs Of Loan Comparisons The Ins And Outs Of Loan Comparisons by James Copper -

When doing a loan comparison for the best buy there are several features to compare. The four most often overlooked, and perhaps the four most crucial, are the terms of the loan, the credit insurance youll need to take out for the loan, and whether there is a balloon payment and / or prepayment penalty included. Lets take a look at each of these four and see how they can impact your loan comparison.

Credit insurance is much like taking out life insurance with your creditor as beneficiary. What credit insurance does is ensure that if you should die, become disabled, lose your job or in any other way become unable to pay your loan the lender will be paid.

A loan comparison should not only include the cost of credit insurance but the type of insurance included and required. You might consider credit life insurance, credit disability insurance, credit property insurance or credit unemployment insurance, or a combination of one or more of these options. The credit insurance might pay your loan for its whole term or it might be designed as a short term recovery option.

You can buy credit insurance from your lending institution as a fee that is added on to each of your monthly loan payments, as a lump sum fee that is added to the total amount of the loan. In any loan comparison keep in mind that that lump sum fee will incur additional interest charges as well. Most of the time, however, the insured can cancel any of these credit insurance options at any point during the life of the loan.

No loan comparison should exclude a study of credit insurance. The determination that you need any of these insurance options, however, doesnt necessarily mean that you should include them in your loan.

You might already have some of this protection in place with other policies or you just might find a better deal elsewhere. This is especially true if you talk to the carrier that is now insuring you for life, insurance, auto or any other type. Often when you package the various type of insurance your carrier discounts heavily.

Of course, no matter whom you pay the cost ultimately must be considered in any loan comparison. Just because it doesnt get paid to the lender or as part of your monthly loan payment doesnt mean that the coverage added elsewhere isnt the result of the loan.

The term of your loan is a crucial point when doing a loan comparison. The longer the time period you spend paying back your loan the more interest you will pay. The flip side of that is that if you take on a higher monthly payment to reduce the term of the loan you could end up unable to make the payments on a timely basis. If this happens the late fees could eat up the savings involved in signing for a shorter term.

In a balloon payment you generally make smaller monthly payments up until the end of the loan when you make one huge payment to finalize. While lower payments are great, there are plenty of folks who find that, despite their best efforts, they cant come up with the money for the balloon payment. When you do a loan comparison its best to avoid a balloon payment.

James Copper manages Any Loans who offer a finance comparison service.

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Home Equity Scams For You? Home Equity Scams For You? by J Schipper -

A home is the most expensive investment most people will ever own. For cash-strapped homeowners a home equity loan is a temptingly easy way to get cash. However, some home equity lenders are dishonest, and gullible consumers are at risk of losing their biggest asset. Borrowers should be wary of unscrupulous lenders and their scams to avoid losing their homes.

Financially unsophisticated homeowners, such as the elderly, members of minority groups and people with poor credit ratings, are often targeted by unscrupulous lenders using unethical lending practices.

One tactic used is called "equity stripping". In this instance, cash-strapped prospective borrowers who the lender knows cannot met the monthly payments are encouraged to exaggerate their income on the application form to help get the loan approved. As soon as the borrower fails to meet the monthly payment, the lender forecloses, stripping the borrower of all the equity in the home. Low-income homeowners should beware of lenders who encourage them to accept loans which they cannot afford to repay.

Another tactic is the balloon payment. A borrower who is falling behind in mortgage payments is offered mortgage refinancing at a lower monthly payment. However, the payments are lower because they cover only the loan interest. At the end of the loan term, the principal -that is, the entire amount of the loan -is due in one lump sum called a balloon payment. If the borrowers cannot make the balloon payment or refinance, the home is foreclosed.

Loan flipping is another deceptive practice. The company holding a homeowner's mortgage offers to refinance in order to give the homeowner extra cash, but charges high points and fees for doing so. The extra cash received may be less than the additional costs and fees charged for the refinancing; moreover, interest must be paid on the extra charges.

Home improvement scams are very common. A contractor offers to install a new roof or remodel a kitchen at a price that sounds reasonable, and offers financing through a lender he knows. Sometimes the contractor even attempts to get the homeowner to sign blank contract forms with the promise they will be filled in later when the contractor is "less busy". Often, the rates offered are not competitive, and as soon as the contractor has been paid by the lender, he has no interest in completing the job to the homeowner's satisfaction. The homeowner is left with unfinished or shoddy work and a large loan to pay off.

Credit Insurance Packing is the charging of extra fees at the closing of a mortgage. A homeowner and a lender come to an agreement on a mortgage, but at closing, the lender tacks on charges for credit insurance or other "benefits" that the borrower did not ask for and did not discuss. The lender hopes the borrower won't notice this, and just sign the loan papers with the extra charges included. If the borrower questions the last minute charges, the lender may state that the charges are standard policy for all loans, and if objections continue, the lender will claim that it will take several days to draw up a new contract, or that the bank manager may reconsider the loan altogether. Due to these last-minute pressure tactics, the loan may wind up costing considerably more than initially stated. Borrowers who agree to buy the insurance are paying extra for a product they may not want or need.

Mortgage Servicing Abuses occur after the mortgage has been closed. Borrowers get bills from mortgage companies for payments such as escrow for taxes and insurance even though the homeowner agreed beforehand with the lender to pay those items themselves. Bills arrive for late fees, even though payments were made on time. Or a message may arrive saying that the homeowner failed to maintain required property insurance and the lender is buying more costly insurance at the homeowner's expense. Other unexplained charges such as legal fees are added to the amount owing, increasing the monthly payments or the amount owing at the end of the loan term. The lender does not provide an accurate or complete account of these charges. When homeowners get tired of these tactics and ask for a payoff statement in order to refinance with another lender, they receive inaccurate or incomplete statements. The lender makes it almost impossible to determine how much has been paid and how much is still owing on the loan.

Homeowners should avoid signing over the deed to their properties to lenders under any circumstances. If a borrower is in danger of foreclosure, a second "lender" may offer to help prevent the loss of the home, if only the homeowner will sign over the property as a "temporary" measure. The promised refinancing never arrives, and the lender now owns the property. Once the lender has the deed to your property, he can treat it as his own. He may borrow against it or even sell it to someone else. The borrower no longer owns the home, and will receive no money when it is sold. The lender can treat the borrower as a tenant and the mortgage payments as rent. If the "rent" payments are late, the borrower can be evicted.

To protect against unethical lending practices, homeowners should never agree to loans beyond the means of their monthly income; sign any documents before reading the fine print; or let any lender pressure them into signing immediately. Never allow the promise of extra cash or lower monthly payments get in the way of good financial judgment. If a loan sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Always ask specifically if credit insurance is required as a condition of the loan. If the added security of credit insurance is desired, shop around for the best rates. Keep careful records of all payments, including billing statements and canceled checks. Challenge any inaccurate charges; many companies hope that borrowers will simply not be bothered.

Hire contractors only after checking their references, and get more than one estimate for any job.
Borrowers who are financially inexperienced should consider consulting with an accountant or an attorney before signing a loan.

J Schipper is interested in Home Equity Home Loans Mortgage Refinance

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