Card Customers Being Surprised By ‘trailing Interest’

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Credit cards customers who are trying to clear their debts are being surprised with further charges even though they may think they have already cleared the balance.

An egg customer and Guardian reader brought the problem to the media attention, the problem can occur when a customer is paying debt carried over from the previous month.

This is what many credit card companies call trailing interest on any negative balance between the issuing of the last statement and the customer paying off the debt.

Some have a minimum fee and if interest does not reach, that amount it will be “topped up” the charge, so borrwers will be repaying no lower than the minimum fee.

Unfair minimum charges

In the case of Egg the minimum is 50p, while at MBNA and Barclays it is 1. For customers with Egg, the internet bank who pay off their debt via direct debit they could incur up to 18 days worth of interest on a balance that they think they have settled in full.

A spokeswoman for Egg, speaking to the Guardian newspaper, said: “Interest is charged on the outstanding balance between our issuing the statement and the payment being made. We request payment via your direct debit 14 days after the statement date.”

Direct debits cannot be called over a weekend so if a customer’s direct debit is due to leave their account on a Saturday or Sunday, we’ll move the payment date to Monday. The longest they’ll go between statement date and paying their account is 16 days – 18 if their payment date falls over the Easter weekend.

The spokeswoman added: “If the interest amounts to less than 50p we top up the charge so it equals that amount. She added that interest would be charged on the outstanding interest and top-up fee.

“All credit card contracts will mention trailing interest in the terms and conditions but more often than not it can be hidden away within the small print of the contract. In Egg’s case the explanation behind the charges has been described as virtually incomprehensible.”

The top-up fee

In the contract it says it will charge, “a top-up fee where the amount of interest charged to your account on any statement is less than 50p and the fee will be the amount required to make the top-up fee plus that interest equal to 50p. Where this applies, your statement will show a 50p minimum finance charge”.

Barclay card mentions on its website that interest is charged until the full date of repayment meaning that you may receive a further interest charge the second month, however there is no mention of the extra 1 pound charge.

Peter Harrison, a credit cards specialist at a leading price comparison website, said too often financial services companies include these wrinkles in their terms and conditions and it is important customers check the details before applying.

He added: “Whilst the sums of money involved are quite small, many customers who want to clear their full balance will, no doubt, find this irritating.”

The extra interest charges are not likely to send customers spiraling back into debt but there is no doubt that many would find it annoying receiving another statement after thinking that the balance had already been paid off.

Nba Sport Memes

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www.sportsmemes.net Not only are the aforementioned antics early and nearly not even amusing anymore however they are completely unoriginal. They can affect every single institution in every single competition. There is absolutely no personalization or cleverness with them. But also for some reason people would NBA Memes still inform them and still post them. You would get an email that said -Oregon jokes- or you would see a line on the forum that said -Montana Express jokes- and you’d examine them and they would support the exact same experiences and oneliners, the only thing changed was the title of the institution. How ridiculous.

Although I started initially to begin to see the positive change last year, I’ve hugely enjoyed the explosion of rivalry memes this year. The raise of memes has had the decrease of the terrible jokes. People no more have time for that waste. Enthusiasts are now actually hungry for intelligent visual jokes that poke fun at the culture and means of the rival school. In this Griz-Cat week I have observed some amusing memes from both sides. Normally some do cross the line but also for the absolute most part it’s spirited, passionate enjoyment. Don’t get stuck resorting to the unoriginal and overdone. Don’t Flicker.

Not only are the aforementioned antics early and virtually not even funny anymore however they are entirely unoriginal. They are able to affect every single college in every single competition. There’s simply no customization or cleverness with them. However for some reason people might still tell them and still post them. You would get an e-mail that said -Oregon jokes- or you’d visit a thread on a forums that said -Montana Express jokes- and you would study them and they would contain the exact same stories and oneliners, the only thing changed was the title of the institution. How foolish.

While I started to start to see the positive change last year, I have greatly enjoyed the explosion of rivalry memes this year. The increase of memes has taken the loss of the awful jokes. People nolonger have time for that trash. Supporters are actually hungry for brilliant visual jokes that poke fun at the culture and ways of the competing university. With this Griz-Cat week I have witnessed some amusing memes from both sides. Normally some do cross the line but also for probably the most part it is lively, passionate enjoyment. Don’t get trapped resorting for the unoriginal and overdone. Don’t Blink.

Memes are extremely well-known in the blogging world. Within My Mail is really a long-running meme about what folks have received to read this week; there are offshoots of this meme as well, with the same principle but a different name/some variations in how the meme is run. There are also various NBA Memes other memes like Top Tuesday and Road-Trip Wednesday and many more – far too many for me personally to record. (If you should be thinking about a complete set of all young-adult blogging community memes, I’d suggest googling -ya blogging memes- to locate some extensive lists of YA memes). more information

Tithing Under The New Covenant – Part 2

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Tithing is mentioned only 4 times in the New Testament, three times in the gospels and once in the letter to the Hebrews. In the gospels, Jesus acknowledged that the Pharisees were very careful about tithing (Matt.23:23; Lk.11:42; 18:12) to the point of over-emphasizing it. They were so focused on tithing that they lost sight of the great goal of the Law, i.e. love and justice to our fellow-man. Also, they trusted in their tithing to give them merit before God.

Now remember that the Pharisees were under the Law, and by law had to tithe. All people in Israel were under the Law. When Jesus was crucified He ushered in the New Covenant, and the Old was finished. Tithing was established under the Law and has no place in the Church. It is no light thing to choose to adhere to the Law, even with a seemingly small issue as tithing. Every person who chooses to keep any part of the Law of Moses is obligated to keep the whole Law and is therefore exposed to its curse.

This point is made in the solitary reference to tithing in the New Testament epistles, i.e. in Hebrews 7. Heb.7:5 reads “And indeed those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren [Israel]. Note three things from this verse: 1) There was a commandment concerning tithes in the Old Testament; 2) They were to be given to OT priests (not the Church); 3) They were required by the Jews, not Christians.

Hebrews 7:12 notes that when there is a change of the priesthood, there must also be a change of the law. In other words, that commandment that did exist under the Old Covenant has been changed, because the priesthood to which it related has now also been changed under the New Covenant.

Hebrews 7:18 says that this commandment has now been abolished. That priesthood, because of its inability to bring perfection, is now annulled. The Old Covenant is obsolete, and the laws which required tithes to be given to the Levites are obsolete. These Hebrews, i.e. Jewish converts, were mixing the law with grace, and were told in chapter 7 to stop tithing! The Gentiles had no need of this message. The Gentile church was never under the law.

Is God in our debt, or are we in His favour?

In Rom.4:4 and 11:35 Paul makes it clear that if our doing any works, including tithing, meant that God was obligated to us in any way then we would not be in His favour but He would actually be indebted to us. Whenever you hear that you must do something for God in order for Him to bless you, be careful! If you believe this, you will be taken out of Gods grace and brought back into the realm of Law. And the Law will actually become a curse to you, because even if you keep it all in one area, say tithing, but not in another, then you will experience its curse.

If we do not tithe, how will Gods work get done and how will the pastors needs be supplied?

First, let me say that there is a hermeneutical principle that has always been helpful when interpreting the Bible and it is this – Major on majors. Jesus told 38 parables, 16 concern how we should handle money. He spoke more about money than He did about heaven and hell combined. One out of 10 verses in the gospels deal with possessions or money. In the Bible there are approximately 2500 references to money and possessions and only 500 references to prayer and faith. It is a major issue in the Bible. Many of these verses teach us that the way we handle finances reveals much about where we are at spiritually. Where your treasure is there will your heart be also.

The gospels contain more warning on the misuse of money, than any other subject. The first recorded sin amongst Gods people related to giving. Ananias & Sapphira dropped dead giving. So the way we handle our finances is an important issue in the New Testament.

Moses (the Law) said Tithe, but Jesus says, Give. The New Testament teaching was on giving, never on tithing. Giving is a result of the energy of Gods grace in our lives. Giving expresses a quality of living that reflects the nature of God. God so loved that He gave The Father loved to give all things to the Son. Jesus gave His life for the world. In doing so has gained an everlasting kingdom. But He will, one day, give it back to the Father. God desires to have a family that reflects His nature. It is the way of the Cross. It is more blessed to give than to receive. The Cross opens the heart, expands it, causing it to reach out to others.

When we are under law we have to be told to tithe. We reveal our immaturity under legalism by asking childish questions, such as, Should I tithe on my gross income, or my net income? Grace treats us as mature sons by not legislating. Grace takes us into the purposes of Gods heart, family and kingdom and allows us to be involved with Him. But our involvement is not solicited by fear-manipulation or guilt-manipulation, but as a result of the operation of the energy of grace in our hearts. So that which we give we do so freely. God loves a cheerful giver.

It is clear from passages such as 1 Cor.9:7-14 that we have responsibilities to ensure that Gods servants who preach the Word are free to do so unencumbered by secular work. But still there is no legislating this. We approach this matter as responsible sons, not as intimidated servants.

Hiring Continues In The Middle East Wealth Management Bonanza

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Despite chilly global credit markets, the Middle Eastern wealth management arena is a recruitment hotspot. Firms are busily hiring senior executives to spearhead new wealth management teams. For example, Merrill Lynch recently appointed Mazin Al-Shakarchi as a financial advisor covering Qatar from the Bahrain office. HSBC Bank Middle East has appointed Walid Boustany to the role of executive director, strategic investments, Middle East & North Africa. He will be responsible for HSBC’s strategic planning across the region. Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank, has appointed Fadi Abuali as co-head of its Middle East private wealth management business, alongside current head Farid Pasha.

And there is more: the Central Bank of Bahrain has approved Douglas Hansen-Luke as Robeco’s new chief executive for the Middle East. Mr Hansen-Luke formerly worked in senior positions for ABN Amro Asset Management in Asia, Europe and Saudi Arabia. Bahrain-based Ithmaar Bank has appointed Shaikh Salman bin Ahmad Al Khalifa as managing director, group business development.

The rash of appointments seen in recent years will continue, barring an unlikely collapse in demand for wealth management, Professor Amin Rajan, chief executive of Create-Research, a UK consultancy on the investment management industry, told WealthBriefing.

Wealth managers are going into the Middle East in a big way, said Professor Rajan. This is a high-margin business to be in as banks get fees right along the value chain, he said. But although the region is lucrative, making money is not easy. Local investors typically punish poor investment performance quickly – often far faster than is the case with European or US clients, said Professor Rajan.

The real issue is to understand the client mindset. Client money [in the Middle East] isn’t sticky at all. When performance is bad they ask for a rebate, which is how it should be. If [wealth managers] can survive in the Middle East, they can survive anywhere, he added.

Barclays Wealth, for example, has every intention of doing more than just survive in the region. As an illustration of its ambitions, Barclays is moving into a new 14,000 square feet office in the Dubai International Financial Centre, which will be a hub for the firm’s operations in the region. Operating currently in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Barclays Wealth is also planning to make its Doha Qatar office operational this year.

Barclays Wealth leadership believes that the Middle East is a core area of growth. A substantial investment in human resources and capabilities and a rigorous expansion plan will lead to a substantial increase in the scope of operations, Soha Nashaat, managing director, head of Middle East, North Africa & Turkey for Barclays Wealth, told WealthBriefing.
Like Professor Rajan, Ms Nashaat says wealth management firms entering the Middle East from outside the region must understand the local culture if they are to make a success of their business. For example, more than 70 per cent of businesses are family-owned, which requires managers to forge long-term connections.

Wealth managers must understand and cater to the regional trends such as the dominance of family offices, Ms Nashaat said. Investors tend to be intolerant of risk and hold a high proportion of assets in cash and in offshore locations, she added.

Middle Eastern clients put great stress on strong relationships with investment advisors and dislike high turnover in staff, a factor that wealth managers must consider in their staff recruitment and retention plans, Stuart Crocker, chief executive, Emirates Platform and Southern Gulf States, HSBC Private Bank told WealthBriefing.

People don’t like seeing relationship managers moving on every two or three years to other banks, he said. His own bank, part of the HSBC banking group, serves clients both from local Middle Eastern locations as well as from its teams of specialists in Geneva.

The general background for wealth managers is certainly favourable. The investable assets of HNW individuals will rise by 50 per cent between 2006 and 2010, according to Barclays Wealth data.

The number of HNW individuals rose by 11.9 per cent in 2006 from a year before, according to the latest Merrill Lynch/Capgemini World Wealth Report issued last June. Wealth management intermediaries have only started to manage a significant share of assets in the region. Research from Zurich International Life, for example, reveals that expats living in the Middle East prefer to rely on their own judgment or friends and family when purchasing financial products. The survey showed that fewer than one in ten expats would enlist a financial advisor, either in their country of domicile or residence, to help them make the financial decisions. Financial advisors have a vast untapped market to go for.

While researchers like PricewaterhouseCoopers have warned that wealth management firms face a skills bottleneck, hiring staff for Middle Eastern slots is being helped by a benign tax regime and attractive pay packages.

Private bankers in tax-free Dubai earn 25 per cent more than their peers in Geneva and almost 40 per cent more than colleagues in London, according to a recent survey by Dubai-based headhunter Dunn Consultancy FZ-LLC.

Excluding bonuses, private bankers in Dubai with at least 10 years experience receive an average salary of $276,500 with allowances, compared with pre-tax earnings of $221,900 in Geneva and $199,100 in London, it found.

The economics of wealth management in the Middle East certainly look compelling. For the time being at least, the toughest challenge for players in the region is keeping up with the pace.

The Importance Of Excel In The Workplace

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Excel is perhaps the most crucial computer software program used in the workplace today. That’s why so many workers and prospective employees are necessary to learn Excel in get to enter or remain at work.

From the viewpoint of the employer, particularly those in the field of information systems, the usage of Excel as an end-user computing tool is essential. Not only are many business professionals using Excel to do everyday functional tasks in the workplace, an increasing number of employers count on Excel for decision help.http://shuangyuan45.blog.com, http://robertandy.livejournal.com/, http://katharinealva.blog.com//a>

In general, Excel dominates the spreadsheet product industry using a market share estimated with 90 percent. Excel 2007 has the proportions for spreadsheets as high as a million rows as a result of 16, 000 columns, enabling the user to import and help massive amounts of data and achieve faster calculation performance than in the past.

Outside the workplace, Excel is broad use for everyday problem solving.

Let’s say you will have a home office. You may use Excel to calculate sales tax on the purchase, calculate the cost of a trip by car, produce a temperature converter, calculate the price of pizza per square inch and do analysis of inputted data. You can track your financial troubles, income and assets, determine your debt to income ratio, calculate your net worth, and employ this information to prepare for the process of applying for a mortgage on a brand-new house. The personal uses with regard to Excel are almost as endless for the reason that business uses for that software – and an Excel tutorial delves into the practical uses of the course for personal and business use.

The use of spreadsheets on computers is not really new. Spreadsheets, in electronic form, have been available since before the introduction with the personal computer. Forerunners to Excel and Lotus 1-2-3 were packages including VisiCalc, developed and modeled to the accountant’s financial ledger. Due to the fact 1987, spreadsheet programs have been impacting the business world. Along the way, computerized spreadsheets have turn into a pervasive and increasingly effective tool for comparative data analysis throughout the world.

Today, end users employ Excel to develop and modify spreadsheets and to author web internet pages with links and complex formatting specifications. They create macros and scripts. While some of these programs are small, one-shot calculations, many are much much more critical and affect significant financial decisions and company transactions.

Widely used by businesses, service agencies, you are not selected groups, private sector organizations, scientists, students, educators, training companies, researchers, journalists, accountants while others, Microsoft Excel has turn into a staple of end customers and business professionals.

The beauty of Excel is that it can be used as a receiver of workplace or business data, or as a calculator, a decision support tool, a data converter or even a display spreadsheet for info interpretation. Excel can create a chart or graph, operate with Mail Merge functions, import data from the internet, create a concept place and sequentially rank information by importance.

Excel offers new data analysis and visualization tools that assist in analyzing information, spotting trends and accessing information more easily than previously. Using conditional formatting with rich data display plans, you can evaluate and illustrate important trends and highlight exceptions with colored gradients, data bars together with icons.

Indeed, Excel can be customized to perform such a wide variety of functions that many establishments can’t operate without the idea. Excel training has become mandatory in many workplaces; in fact, computer software training is a must for any workplace trying to keep up with the times.

Let’s claim you’re an employer with 97 workers, 17 involving whom called in hurt today, and you want to know the percentage represented as a result of absentees. Excel can do that. You can learn Stand out and use it to determine the ratio of male to help female employees, the percentage of minorities relating to the payroll, and the ranking of each worker by compensation package amount, including the percentages of that package according to pay for and benefits. You can use Excel to keep an eye on production by department, information that may assist you in future development options. You can create even more spreadsheets to track info on vendors and customers while maintaining an ongoing inventory of product stock.

Let’s say you want to know your business production vs . cost. You don’t ought to be a math wiz – you just need to learn Excel. Excel allows you to input all of the data, analyze it, sort it consistent with your customized format, and display the outcome with color, shading, backgrounds, icons and other gimmicks that provide time-saving assistance in later locating precisely the information desired. If this spreadsheet is designed for presentation purposes, Excel helps you put it together ordinary visually appealing way that data may seem to help pop and sparkle.

The single most important things an employer may complete is learn Excel – it is among the most most essential tools of the workplace.

Excel and Microsoft are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation, registered in your U. S. and other countries. Lotus is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation in the U. S. and/or many other countries.