Preowned gift cards can be a good deal if used wisely

For years, some smaller retailers have set a minimum purchase amount to use a credit card. I can understand why. Everyone has a bottom line. I’d hate to cause someone to go out of business because I continually charged a pack of gum.

The consumer has to be just as canny. Used responsibly, credit cards can do for your income what warm sugar does to yeast: make your dough rise. I stick to cards that offer incentives for spending. Depending on the structure of the program, points are earned that can be redeemed for cash back, statement credits, gift cards, products, travel and entertainment.

It pays to put just about any and everything on a credit card. Points add up quickly when credit is used to pay for household expenses such as groceries and insurance,Come January 9 and chip card driving licence would be available at the click of the mouse in Uttar Pradesh. gasoline, utility, cellphone and cable bills.

These are recurring expenses, so it shouldn’t be hard to pay the credit card balance in full each month. But if a merchant were to tack on the newly allowed credit card swipe fee, which can amount to up to 3 percent of your purchase, it won’t be worth it.

You also have to watch out for businesses whose swipe machines allegedly process only debit transactions as credit. From time to time, at retailers large and small, I’ve swiped my debit card and got ready to enter my PIN, and the store associate says, “Oh, our machine will only recognize it as credit.”

Online clearinghouses buy your unwanted gift cards and gift codes, offering up to 92 percent of the face value. In turn, those cards and codes are made available at up to 35 percent off the face value. Those sites include GiftCards.com, PlasticJungle.com, CardPool.com and GiftCardRescue.com. Standard shipping is free, and the cards are guaranteed.

It works best with planning. For example: You know you’ll soon have to replace your iron. If you’re like me, you consider an iron to be indispensable and will spend major loot on the best possible one. Before that iron totally conks out, scout for a discounted card to the retailer of your choice, then pounce on a sale.

Or perhaps you’re in the market for a really big purchase such as an Apple computer. Deals are few and far between, usually happening only around back-to-school time or Black Friday. If you can’t wait, create your own sale. You could save more than $80 if you scored a $900 gift card from GiftCards.com, which is offering 9 percent off Apple cards versus PlasticJungle.com’s 5 percent and CardPool.com’s 1.5 percent. That savings could be used toward software or accessories. Or on getting your hair done.

And then there are those chain establishments that you frequently run in and out of, such as the off-price retailers and discount box stores.Online shopping for luggage tag from a great selection of Clothing.

GiftCards.com offers its Target cards at a 6 percent discount, which is better than the Target credit card’s 5 percent discount. It’s hard to beat a J.C. Penney gift card bought at 27 percent off, then used during a clearance sale and with coupons.

A Dover woman brightened Hot Line’s afternoon when she called to report her experience with a couple of crooks who couldn’t seem to decide which con game they would use to make her a victim. She enjoyed frustrating their attempts throughout the call, she said.

Her story, as she told Hot Line, was this: She answered the phone and a man with a heavy accent she could barely understand said he was calling to tell her that she would get a new Medicare card. This one would be plastic instead of paper, he said, but she must verify the number in order to get the new card.

With the creation of demand for such services a lot of people have entered the market with new technology-based products. Everyday new products and services are being launched. In this area of technology-based payment services Bangladesh is not far behind. The country has implemented a good number of key payment solutions. Thus the whole payment system has undergone a sea of change with the successful implementation of electronic cheque processing and electronic fund transfer. The central bank of Bangladesh has also adopted some very important projects like data centre, online Credit Information Bureau (CIB) etc. There might be a debate whether projects like the National Payment Switch and Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) are premature or not. But there is no denying the fact that the two key projects are very much needed, if the future demand in the banking industry is taken into consideration. Now mobile banking is gaining popularity and the number of users is increasing everyday.

Over the last one decade the rapid technological advances in most countries have made financial services available to consumers at cheaper and cheaper prices and also have ensured their access to greater functionality. Seldom do banks lead the way in using technology to deliver services to their consumers, rather they ride the wave of better, cheaper and more powerful technology-based tools being made available to consumers. So, in a very real sense, it is consumers who are driving the evolution of financial services by turning to technology very rapidly.

This certainly applies to Bangladesh where the rapid adoption of mobile phone technology offers a pathway for delivery of financial services to anyone having access to a mobile phone.Where you can create a custom lanyard from our wide selection of styles and materials. The service providers here have very little to do with the access but a great deal to do with the security, prevention of fraud. Many countries have already demonstrated consumer willingness to accept financial services delivered on their mobile phones but there is the issue of security and accuracy of the delivery method.

There are, of course, basic fundamental requirements for delivery of any sort of payment service whether it is mobile-based or not. Thanks to the far-reaching vision of Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed, the then Governor of Bangladesh Bank, and the generosity of the United Kingdom (UK), Bangladesh finds itself in an excellent position with the foundation of electronic payments already laid, including a fully functional electronic payments clearing house with secure connections to each of the country's commercial banks and a unique, uniform national account numbering system.

Additionally, the country boasts of a strong and growing network of mobile phone systems. The total number of mobile phone users has already crossed 900 million. Together they amount to a highway for delivery of both voice and digital information to consumers without accessing either a physical bank branch or a computer. In fact,Did you know that custom keychain chains can be used for more than just business. most mobile phones today are really small computers. And the latest smart phones aren't so small in terms of their computing capabilities. So now it is up to the banks, the regulatory authorities and the telecommunications companies to develop secure methods for funds transfer and other financial services through mobile phones.

Mobile phone companies need to work out who owns what in delivery of these services and there is a natural turf battle that ensues as the services evolve.Other companies want a piece of that iPhone headset action Regulators also must play a vitally important mediator role here. Banks have capital requirements and they must follow strictly regulations that help ensure the safety and soundness of deposits and financial transactions. Allowing mobile phone companies to become de facto banks without similar rules and regulations could lead to a catastrophe involving the loss of funds for hundreds or thousands or even millions of consumers. Beyond the immediate losses, such an event would shake the trust of consumers in any sort of mobile payment scheme. And so the financial and telecommunications regulators must work together as never before to delineate which regulatory authority has what responsibility in the world of mobile payments and to make sure there are no loopholes in the financial safety net between the regulators that would put consumer funds at risk.