BarclayCard Rewards MasterCard Review

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The Barclay card Rewards MasterCard is an excellent points based credit card. It has no annual user fees and comes with easy to accumulate bonus points. You get bonus on all purchases related to even day to day things such as gas, groceries as well as utility payments.

The Good things about Barclay card Rewards MasterCard

The good points worth highlighting about Barclay card Rewards MasterCard are:

• Great Introductory rates:

The card offers 0% introductory interest rates for the first 12 month period, something that is hard to get with other credit card providers.

• Great Sign-up bonus:

To get the sign up bonus, the card holder is expected to make his first purchase or balance transfer to claim 5000 points, that is equivalent to $50 credit. A good way to begin, indeed.

• Zero annual fees:

Normally the reward credit card providers charge an annual usage fee, up to as high as $200. This money compensates for the benefit that on will get by using the card, thus reducing the net benefit. But the Barclay card Rewards MasterCard does not charge any annual fee. A great thing for any card holder as there are no strings attached.

• Great ways to earn bonus rewards:

Normally the reward credit cards have limitations on the options by which one can accumulate credits. With the Barclay card Rewards MasterCard, one accumulates 2 credit points on any purchase of gas, groceries or paying for a utility. For any other purchase, the user gets one reward for every dollar spent.

Having, numerous ways to collect bonus enables the user to accumulate points very fast. Other companies may offer you higher rewards points, but the limitation imposed on accumulating them will now allow the user to use the card frequently.

Downsides of the Barclay card Rewards MasterCard

There are some limitations of the Barclay card Rewards MasterCard. Let us discuss some of them.

• The card needs to remain active:

Sometimes, the reward credit card companies put up expiry dates for claiming the required points else the points get wasted. Though, now many have stopped this, but even then the user has to be careful about such rules. The Barclaycard Rewards MasterCard does not put any such limitation, but the user must keep the card active else the reward points expire.

The card is considered to be inactive if it remains out of use for 3 months at a go. So the user has to be very careful on this point and keep using this card at frequent intervals. If you have the possibility of long periods of nil usage, then claim the required points before such happening.

• Transaction Fees for dealing in foreign currency:

These days most of the credit card companies have stopped charging fees while dealing in foreign currency, but the Barclay card Rewards MasterCard still charges 3% fee for the same. If you are a frequent international traveler, this is something to worry about. If not, then this weakness is not going to affect you much.

In short, the Barclay card Rewards MasterCard is an option worth going for. So do it now.

Make Money With TD Ameritrade

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There are more than 7.2 million people worldwide including Americans who have invested their money with TD Ameritrade. The only drawback of this platform is the fee structure where you will have to pay $9.99 for trading each stock or EFT irrespective of its size. If you take the help of a broker then you will have to pay $49.99 for trading each stock, EFT or Mutual Fund, $25.00 for trading each Treasury bond and $3.50 for trading each feature.

Working with TD Ameritrade is a great experience as the platform is very easy to operate even for novices who have not used the internet earlier. It is very easy for you to find all the information you require and in initiating actions to start trading.

Pros and Cons

The greatest advantages of working with TD Ameritrade is that they provide tools which help you to do your research and educate yourself to understand which trade is going to be profitable and which not. They have invested a large amount of money to provide access to webinars both current and archived ones, articles for helping you, workshops and a long list of other tools to educate you. You are able to access the results of the research carried out by reputed third parties related to the industry. The tools are very easy to use for gathering all the information you need. All these tools will help you select the best investments which can suit you.

Changes, which take place overnight, can cause the investors gain or to lose a lot of money if they have to wait for the next day before they can carry out another trade. This company believes that time is money and allows you to trade after regular hours without charging anything extra for it.

The reputation of TD Ameritrade is upheld by Barron and Smart Money as they have given a rating of 4 points out of 5 to this company. This rating places the company among the topmost ones which have research platforms. They also have given the company a low rating as far as the cost of trading is concerned. Smart Money has rated TD Ameritrade as the third top company which can be used by online investors. It has rated the company’s banking services and online tools as some of the best which are available. The only thing that has been shown in poor light by Smart Money is the fee structure.

As an investor, you may always want an access to the information even while you are travelling. TD Ameritrade has followed in the footsteps of other companies that have given their investors access to the platforms while being mobile and has come up with one of the best of its kind. The application designed by TD Ameritrade can work on any iPhone or iPad, BlackBerry and any hand held device working on operating systems like Windows or Android.

Conclusion

The company is a great one to work with though the fee structure has left a lot to be desired. If you consider the tools, they provide for doing research and for gathering information while you educate yourself; then you will find that the high fee structure is worth it. You will find the tools they provide are far better than those provided by other platforms, and this is the reason why the company is trusted by millions of its clients.

Scottrade Review - Best Online Stock Brokerage

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A good online broker is not only one that has competitive fee structure, but also one that is tailor made to suit your needs. So, before you jump onto the bandwagon and open an account with an online broker, one must understand the features. In this article, we shall review the Scottrade, one of the renowned US based online brokerage firm.

Scotttrade has earned its name to be the best discount broker, with whom one can trade the stocks at a very reasonable and competitive rate. One can also deal with options, futures, ETFs, Mutual funds and bonds. The firm was established in 1980, and today it has grown into a strong 500 branch establishment all round the US. It has earned its position in Forbes List of best US employers in US. They are a company that has maintained its positions high in customer satisfaction surveys.

For a new comer, let us discuss some of the features of Scottrade.

The account is damn easy to open : One can easily open individual as well as a joint account. In case of a joint account, as many as 3 people can be members of the account. The account allows you to trade in almost all kinds of instruments like stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, options, futures etc. For trading in stocks, the fees are $7 per trade (for stock prices $1 and above), and for options trade the fees is $7 plus $1.25 per trade.

Business and Trust Accounts: Beside individual accounts, one can also open a business (for corporate and LLC) and trust accounts with Scottrade. The trust account variations are regular, PSP, MPP or Keogh.

Individual Retirement Accounts: Scottrade offers different types of retirement accounts for individuals as well as the employers. The type of accounts that are available is Simple IRAs, Traditional, SEP, Roth and Rollover.

Initial Deposit to open an Account : To open a brokerage account with Scottrade one has to make and maintain a minimum deposit of $500. To be able to trade in options, the minimum balance limit gets enhanced to S2000. These levels are very much reasonable compared to other brokerage firms.

Wide Variety of trading options : With Scottrade one can trade in almost all kinds of investment options like that of stocks, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds etc. It gives you the flexibility to invest in instruments of almost 20 countries besides the US. The platform gives the option to invest in almost 15000 mutual fund variants, out of which 3000 funds do not charge any fees. All these variations give and excellent opportunity to diversify.

No maintenance fees: For all investors there are times when there is no trading activity. During such times, Scottrade does not charge any fees. This great money saving option compared to many other brokerage firms which charge some minimum account maintenance fees if there are no trades.

Besides the above benefits, Scottrade is available 24x7 through email, chat or on the phone. They conduct extensive customer education programs, online and offline. The customers also get one to one support through the 500 branches all over US. In short, by choosing Scottrade an investor will make his like easy and profitable. So, go for it, the site is highly recommended.

Everbank Review

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Are you searching for a reputable bank to assure that your money is in good hand? Do you want to have savings and at the same time earn more? This bank is sure to give you the best offer. EverBank may not be suitable for standard checking or saving accounts, but this bank is designed for money market investors who are willing to save big and earn big for a brighter future! EverBank is FDIC insured and is sure to give you high yields. It gives benefits to investors who are willing to take the risk of a quite high minimum balance.

But, don’t you worry because despite that, it is very simple to open an account and the promotional interest rate for the first 6 months is 3%. After the first 6 months, the interest rate will be reduced to 2%. Not bad, right? It is so far the only bank that offers the largest returns on savings. This rate is also higher than all the other competitors in money market accounts. For money market investors, you will be guaranteed that your account will be in the Top 5% on BankRate.com list.

I’m sure you’ll like it!

Fees and other Benefits

Now let’s talk about bank fees. Bank fees are required so that the bank can stay in the business and can offer the best service to their clients. However, here in EverBank, Checking accounts have no monthly fees, no ATM fees, and no annual fees. Plus a refund of any fees charged by other ATMs will be available to you if you maintain a minimum account balance of $5,000.00.

Another great thing is that if you were able to comply with their requirements, and under certain conditions, money market account is available for free! Make sure that you maintain a minimum balance of $5,000.00, and you can avoid a monthly fee of $8.95. Big savings, right? Are you amazed with all of those awesome features of EverBank? It doesn’t end there.

The greatest feature that Everbank can offer is that you can write checks directly from your money market account. That is something interesting and something that is not being offered by any other competitors.

Conclusion

Money is something that we have to take good care of. It cannot be easily earned, but EverBank is giving out opportunity on how you can earn fast and big. Since it is an established bank, you can assure that your money is in good hand. You may be afraid to bring out a big amount of money for your investment, but you have to keep in mind that EverBank, will not waste a single cent of your money or a single second of your time.

All you need to do is to entrust and invest your money in savings, and then only you can sleep peacefully. This is the easiest way to earn big without pouring out sweats from your body. So what are you waiting for?

Start saving now, and be richer tomorrow.

Lending Club Review

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The Short review

The lending Club is a new unique concept that brings the borrower and the lender on one single platform. Here the lender, normally an individual, goes through the possible options for investing money and spends time to select one good borrower to loan money. The risks are more. But the rewards are also excellent. All that it takes is the extent of risk that one is ready to take.

Today, The Lending Club, is a big name in peer to peer lending space, by being able to fund almost $1.7 billion in loans, a big money by all counts. They have the experience, available funding and also the capabilities, much better than the competition.

From a borrower’s point of view, The Lending Club gives a good opportunity for hard loans, the fees are competitive, and money is easily available. From an investor's point of view, the returns are quite decent, varying from 5% to 13 % depending on the risk that one is ready to take. There is only one disadvantage and that it takes a good amount of time to rummage though all the loan requests on the site and then select the right opportunity to fund. So, one has to evaluate of the time spend in finding the right opportunity is worth in terms of money or not.

The Long Review

Whenever, there is a funding opportunity, the first question that comes in mind of an investor is the credit profile of the borrower. One good thing is that the average borrower on The Lending Club has a credit rating of more that 700, which is quite safe.

Another important factor that is important before opting for peer-to-peer lending is the ability of the borrower to service the loan, and that is reflected properly by the debt to income ratio of the borrower. The average borrower on The Lending Club that debt to income ration of 15.8%, something that is not very comfortable, especially if one is approaching a bank for a loan. In other words, these are the people who will actually turn to peer to peer lending as they face difficulty in getting the loan from a bank.

The next important thing that is important in peer to peer lending is how to decide the starting point and how to invest it. It is preferred that one starts will money not less that $500 and invest it such that not more than 10% corpus is invested in one loan. It is better to fund as many options as possible so that the risk of default is diversified. It is also a good strategy to choose some low return and some high return options so that the risk is suitably diversified as some time or the other someone will definitely default. So do not put all your eggs in one basket.

From a borrower's point of view, especially when you are facing difficulty in getting loans from regular channels, The Lending Club gives a very convenient borrowing option. The rates are also competitive with respect to banks. If you have good credit history and your debt to income ratio are low, you will have to pay much less interest than otherwise.

The Lending Club- Conclusion

The Lending Club is a great platform, with excellent experience and also transparent business process for investors, borrowers as well as stockholders. The interest rates are quite reasonable and data available authentic and well researched. In all, it is a great way to make and take peer to peer lending.

Motif Investing Review

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A little about Motif Investment

There are people who want to start on investing and are looking for a basket of stocks. They are the ones who do not have enough knowledge about investing but is eager to learn about how to start on investing. Motif Investing platform is a basket-based investment solution. Not unlike other platform where you tend to choose a stock one by one, Motif Investing offers a basket full of stocks and is theme-based to help you choose easily.

You should not worry because there are several different “motifs” to choose from and there are various themes that you can choose from. Motif Investing offers baskets of “motifs” of up to 30 EFTs in a system.

Features

As someone who is just starting out, you will ask about the investment fee or the payment. One of the questions that will pop in your mind is “What are the fees?” In Motif Investment, you are not forced to give out a large amount of money, rather you just need $250.00 as your initial investment to start an account. Of course, Motif Investment would like to give everyone a privilege to test it first before investing a greater amount of money. This is to ensure each investor that Motif Investment is willing to help them grow their money. In terms of buying or selling any motif, the fee is $9.95. This price is per motif and not a usual per trade basis. However, should you wish to buy or sell individual stock within your motif, it is $4.95 per trade. Competitive for someone who is just starting out, right?

Another important feature that Motif Investing is offering is that it gives you the power and ability to customize your motifs. This is very vital for every investor like when you are not feeling comfortable with the risk that you have to take to keep 30 different stocks intact. Another big aspect of investing is the allocation. You must be able to control the allocation of your funds, to success in the long run. On this platform, you have the opportunity to remove a stock completely from a motif, and not only that, you also have the ability to customize the allocation of funds that a motif receives, thus, giving you absolute power over your stocks and your funds.

Conclusion

Finally, what makes Motif Investing unique and incredible is the user-friendly feature of its platform. Ease of use is very important for any investor. Maybe not for those who are already in the business for a long time, but for someone who is just starting out, ease of use is very important to give each investor an assurance that they can easily handle and operate their funds.

Everyone is welcome in this business, and even those people who are not fond of using computers before can easily use the platform. All you need is to know the basic about the use of mouse, keyboards, and internet connection, and there you have it! You can now start investing and earning in Motif Investing.

Prosper Review - Peer To Peer Lending

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Prosper Pros- Being a borrower if you are looking for unsecured loans at the best affordable rates, Prosper is the best you can get. Prosper also allows investors to earn some wise money with loans. Basically, Prosper brings together people who have money and people who want money together from different demographic regions.

Prosper Cons-. Not everybody can get benefits from Prosper. Prior to 2008, Prosper had a lot of cons associated with it. But, in 2008, the SEC declared peer lending as a form of securities and made it mandatory for companies to get themselves licensed.

Overall- I cannot advise you whether Prosper is a relatively stronger investment to be made, it completely depends upon you and your security advisor. I can say one thing if you are a borrower, peer-to-peer lending is definitely a great option for you as through it you can easily eliminate the middleman fees charged by the banks.

For both investors and borrowers, there are risks and benefits involved. Here is a glimpse of some of the risks and benefits-

Risks for Investors-

Each and every investment has some risks attached to it and being an investor you are always concerned with those high end risks, here is a list of risks which an investor might face while investing with Prosper-

1. Defaulted Borrowers- One of the major risks associated with peer to peer lending is default borrowers. This basically means that if your borrower defaults in paying the loan, you will be helpless. As all Prosper deals are unsecured, there is no collateral security attached to the loan which you can claim if in case the borrower doesn’t pay your money back.
2. Default Prosper- Another risk, which an investor might face, is Prosper default. It may so happen that Prosper suddenly goes out of business. Big dignitaries including Larry Page from Google and Steve Jobs from Apple are behind prosper, so I don’t think anything wrong can take place in Prosper.

Risks for Borrowers-

Risks always come with any kind of borrowing. Working with an unknown lender might result in poor lending practices, but thanks to the changes made by the SEC in 2008 which has made a strict disclosure of all lending laws. It is completely up to the borrower now who can choose the lending terms as per his convenience.

Like any other loans, the more your credit score is, the lower will be your interest rate and vice versa. For borrowers who always make timely payments, the risks are very low and for those who are not in time are charged a late payment fee of $15.

Prosper Benefits for Investors-

Here is a list of benefits an investor can avail by in investing in Prosper-

1. Ability to Choose Risk and Reward Levels- For every investor, the higher is the risk, the higher will be the reward attached to any investment. Prosper gives every investor an opportunity to choose the risk and reward levels associated with the loan.
2. Portfolio Diversification- For every investor, it is best to diversify their investment portfolio by opting different investment channels. Prosper gives you the opportunity to understand the risk and reward levels and then invest as per your choice.

Prosper Benefits for Borrowers-

Prosper offers a lot benefits for borrowers, here are some of the benefits-

1. Low Interest Rates- As there are no middle men associated with peer to peer lending programs, all profit excluding 1% fee goes directly into the lender's pocket. This makes the availability of low interest loans possible with Prosper.
2. Low Fees- Borrowing from Prosper doesn’t result in any type of maintenance or annual fees. You just need to pay the interest rate and that’s all.

My Last Piece of advice for Investors-

I would suggest there is no harm in trying something with only a few bucks and then check out whether you can go for bigger investments. In my opinion, Prosper offers great features of low risk investment with an ability to choose the risk and reward levels and diversify the investment portfolio.

My Last Piece of Advice for Borrowers-

If I were a borrower, I would definitely opt for Prosper peer loans which comes with minimal interest rates and fees. After having a conversation with my security advisor, I would personally recommend you to choose a good and the genuine lending company- Prosper.