US Finance World

This lovely turmoil is no joke. Amusing perhaps at a local tavern or sushi bar, it will bring a fine dining establishment to its knees. With different silver for each dish, with a tight kitchen, 70 seats in the dining room and 18 stools at the bar, not to mention the communal table, polite chaos and gustatory anarchy can result. And did result several Thursdays ago when our bar turned over twice and the communal table was at full tilt. Walk-ins can share the 10-seat communal table or sit at the bar; the rest of the restaurant is reserved (on busy nights).

Half the 100 guests that night walked in willy nilly. And ordered with a goofy gusto. And everyone suffered.

On the other side of the fence, in the dining area, everyone ordered the prix fixe, by design, and their courses arrived in unison. There were exceptions (an additional dish), but they were the exceptions.

Read more…

[/caption]Internet Banking can be described as online banking process between the bank and the customer. This method accelerate the process of banking and gives you the ability to use banking services from your home, or even when you’re away from your office. It is the effectiveness of online banking.

When you want to use online banking, you are given a username and a separate password, so you can log onto the website of the bank and have access to your account. Now you can transact online. Many large banks provide this facility to its customers today.

Despite this system being popular, many people are still worry about the use. These people could use online services for loans, but when it comes to money transactions through the Internet, they still feel inconvenient. Read more…

It’s easy for consumers to fall prey to the perils of credit card debts simply because they are unable to restrain themselves from exercising their buying habits much beyond what they can actually afford. Some on the other hand rely on these cards for compensating their exhausted sources of money, the main reason being the loss of a job and therefore absence of regular income. Instead of giving up on the luxuries, they continue to indulge themselves with the aid of the credit card. It’s only when they have the concerned authorities hounding them for repayment that they realize they’ve stepped way over the mark.

A word of advice to those who rely heavily on credit cards to meet their unexpected expenses is to stash some funds as a contingency measure so that dipping into it is more feasible than utilizing an expensive credit card. There are some people who do not accept the fact that they are knee deep in credit card debt, thinking that the debts may be paid off easily in future. It’s Read more…

Everyone is familiar with 0% balance transfer credit cards and 0% interest credit cards, right? Well, how about the latest thing to hit the credit card industry – contactless payments? This is a relatively new development that is just starting to take off, and this article aims to take you through exactly what contactless payment is and why it is such a useful development.

What is contactless payment?

By now, you will no doubt be familiar with the Chip and PIN system, which involves putting your credit card into a machine and then entering your four digit pin. The aim of this process was to make paying by credit card more secure and faster than the old methods of payment.

Now, contactless payments aim to make use of new technology to speed up payments even further. They work using a credit card that has a special chip inside it and a payment machine enabled for contactless payments. Y Read more…

Which companies offer the best mobile phone insurance policies for iPhones and standard phones? Donna Ferguson investigates.

If you’ve read Why you don’t need mobile phone insurance, you’ll know that not everyone needs mobile phone insurance. But if you do want it, and the peace of mind that comes with it, how much should you be prepared to pay? And what level of cover do you get in return?

Here’s how policies from the major mobile phone networks stack up against each other for a standard phone:

As you can see, Orange offers the best deal on a standard phone, while O2 offers the worst. If you bought cover for a year and then had to make a claim, you’d pay just £87 in total with Orange, while you could end up coughing up as much as £169 with O2. That’s 94% more!

So what nasty surprises are lurking in the Orange Care policy small print? First of all, you must keep proof of purchase of your phone and your account must be paid up to date, or they can refuse the claim. You also have to report any theft to the police within 48 hours for the claim to be valid. Exclusions include cosmetic damage, the cost of any phone-calls made on the phone after it’s been lost or stolen, the cost of replacing any accessories or software, and any theft from a place that is not locked or secure (unless the phone is on your person).

What if you went to an online specialist in mobile phone insurance?

I like Talkcover.co.uk. While the excess is higher than with Orange – £40 for a theft/damage claim, £60 for a loss claim and £75 for an international claim – with this insurer, you typically pay just £22.40 a year for cover for a handset worth less than £200 (as long as you pay for the full year’s cover upfront).

That works out at just £1.87 a month, compared to £6 a month with Orange.

How competitive are the policies from the major mobile networks when it comes to iPhones? 

Again, Orange is the most competitive, despite the fact that its policy costs £144 a year, as it has a low excess of just £15. Meanwhile, O2 charges £180 a year – and a whopping £100 excess on the latest 32GB iPhone 4.

But I wouldn’t recommend getting any of these policies. And here’s why:

Apple is legally obliged to replace a malfunctioning iPhone – even out of its first year of warranty – for free under the Sale of Goods Act, as such an expensive gadget should reasonably last more than a year. It will also replace any maliciously or accidentally damaged iPhone for just £139.

Unfortunately, you have to present and trade in your damaged phone at an Apple store to take advantage of this service. Obviously if you’ve lost it or it’s been stolen, you can’t trade it in – but if you are willing to take this risk, then it works out cheaper than all of the insurance policies listed above!

There’s no need to rely on Apple however. As the annual cost column in the  table below shows, specialist insurers offer much more competitive premiums than mobile phone networks, especially if you are able to pay upfront for an entire year:

The cheapest policy in this table – offered by Insurance2go.co.uk – is £115 cheaper than the most expensive mobile phone network policy. That’s a saving of 176%! Plus, you’re covered for £1,000 of unauthorised calls (if your phone is stolen) with this policy.

Are there any nasty surprises lurking in the small print? You must report a theft or loss to the network within 24 hours, and you must be able to confirm the time and place of a loss. You’re not covered if you lend your phone to anyone outside your immediate family and you need to be able to provide proof of purchase. The phone must be less than six months old when you purchase it. Exclusions include the sim card, accessories, damage to the phone due to a software malfunction and accidental damage when the phone is unattended.

Overall, however, I think it’s the best iPhone policy on the market, if you can pay upfront. In fact, I intend to take it out to cover my own iPhone. But before I do, I’d like to hear what you think. Do you know of any better policies? Have you dealt with insurance2go.co.uk and how have you found their customer service? Let us know using the comments box below.

More: Why you don’t need mobile phone insurance! | How to prevent your phone from being hacked