Whats he doing? Go back there man! He wants to kill me so bad he can taste it! Huh? ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA! – Sonny, Dog Day Afternoon, Warner Bros (1975)
Whats the biggest challenge, stress facing national, state, regional, local governments? What stresses you, your family? Its moneydollars, pounds, yen, euro, rupee, peso, rand, won.you name it. Everyone struggles with their annual budget, but it seems like no one stays within it. Just look at the state of the global economy. Thank gawd for credit cards! Theyre sorta like virtual money. With nearly everyone, everywhere having a mobile device; heck, we might as go all the way. It would eco-friendly. Its becoming logical. In 20 or 30 years, people will deal in whatever we call digital money then and will say, Can you believe it they actually used germ-ridden coins and paper in exchange for products, services?
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Credit card users have been advised to try not to withdraw cash with their plastic on a regular basis.
Speaking to News.com.au, financial analyst Peter Arnold said individuals including those who want to compare credit cards online should consider only using their plastic to make direct purchases.
He explained that cash advances can incur interest that is up to ten per cent higher than the usual card rate and this is often charged immediately.
“A cash advance is a way of getting hold of money in an emergency or when other accounts are empty but the practice is fraught with danger, particularly if you are making a habit of it,” he warned.
Aussies considering going online to compare credit cards might also want to heed his advice about interest-free periods.
The expert noted that it is important to be aware how many interest-free days are available on a card and to work out when payments need to be made.
This comes after frequent flyer points collector Alana Wright told the Sydney Morning Herald that she tries to compare credit cards every three years to ensure she has the best deal.
– American Airlines split a giant order for 460 single-aisle jets worth up to $40 billion between Boeing Co and its European rival Airbus
The record-large order placed by the AMR Corp unit gives Airbus a stronger foothold in U.S. markets. The deal also rapidly refreshes American Airlines’ aging fleet with more fuel-efficient planes to better compete with U.S. rivals.
For Boeing, the order is a bittersweet victory, marking the end of an exclusivity deal with American Airlines. The U.S. plane maker sealed its portion of the order by offering to put a new engine in its best-selling 737, retreating from a more ambitious plan to completely redesign the plane.
“My initial reaction is, ‘Wow, what a big deal!’” said Alex Hamilton, managing director of EarlyBirdCapital.
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A recent study by global consultants, McKinsey & Company has revealed that as much as 7% of the total accountholders in India who actually use net banking facilities for banking transactions. The study has also indicated a 15% decline in branch banking transactions by customers.
“Use of the Internet for banking has seen a massive rise in the 2010-11 survey, taking the overall number of bank consumers who use the Net to close 7% of the total bank account holders — a seven-fold jump since 2007 — even as for the first time in the past 13 years, branch banking has come down by a full 15 percentage points during the same period,” McKinsey & Company India partner and head of its retail banking services Renny Thomas said.
“For the first time since we started this survey in 1998, we see a marked shift away from using branches as a main channel for interaction in many markets.
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– Investors poured into tech shares on Friday as promising chipmaker earnings and optimism a solution was on the horizon for the U.S. debt stalemate triggered a move into growth-oriented shares.
Based on the latest available data, the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 42.95 points, or 0.34 percent, to end unofficially at 12,681.46. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index .SPX was up 1.22 points, or 0.09 percent, at 1,345.02. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC was up 24.40 points, or 0.86 percent, at 2,858.83.
For the week, the Dow ended up 1.6 percent, the S&P 500 gained 2.2 percent and the Nasdaq roe 2.5 percent.
Australians with credit cards will see some fees relating to the products scrapped as part of a clampdown on banks by the government.
Under the proposals, credit card holders will not be forced to pay charges if they go over their credit limits, while financial institutions will also be banned from offering to raise restrictions for their customers.
Those with credit cards will not be able to exceed their limit by more than ten per cent and chief executive of the Australian Bankers Association Steven Munchenburg was quoted by the Australian Financial Review as saying: “Everyone now knows they can go over their credit limit by ten per cent and the bank cant do anything about it.”
According to the news source, customers will save hundreds of millions of dollars per year as a result of the change, which will come into force in July.
Transactions made overseas that take the customer over the ten per cent limit will also be rejected.
Recent research by watchdog Choice revealed ATM users have to pay as much as $4 to withdraw cash while in a foreign country.
But What About Nokia?
Sometimes people expect you to hit nothing but home runs (like Apple) and surpass their wildest expectations (like Google). Then there are times when folks dont expect a helluva lot from a company and yet they consistently manage to deliver under the wire. That pretty much sums up RIMs (Research in Motion) track record the past few years:
– Consistently lower sales projections quarter after quarter with lower actual sales quarter after quarter
– Roll-out a tablet that has to shine above the iPad in at least one or two (if not a number of) key areas leaving people to wonder if anyone in Waterloo, Ontario had bothered to buy/reverse engineer an iPad
– Sneak the introduction of an AppleTV competitor even as Jobs said it was a hobby idea (he tends to do that when the product doesnt fly off the shelves) and there are a hundred or so similar products that have been finding anemic acceptance over the past two years
Based on stock market value RIM was the shining jewel in Canadas crown just a few years ago valued at $80 billion.
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Public sector lender UCO Bank is harboring ambitious plans to increase its ATM count in the country. The bank aims to take its network to 3000 ATMs by 2013.
The present ATM count of the bank stands at 681, informed a top bank official. By the end of this fiscal, it aims it ATM count to reach 1500.
It has also come up with a scheme called ‘total freedom’ in a bid to increase the share of its CASA deposits.
The bank plans that by the end of 2012, the CASA share should reach 35% from 24% presently.
“We are targeting 25 lakh accountholders under the ‘Total Freedom’ campaign,” Mr S. Rajaram, Field General Manager, UCO Bank said.
Run for the Borders!
I told you back in January and now I really mean it: If you have a Borders gift card you’ve been meaning to redeem, do it now. Now. Let the dog walk himself. Skip the weekly lunch bunch. Tell your boss you have to leave early because you have to meet the sprinkler guy. Whatever. But go as soon as you can, either directly to the store, or online, and cash out that card.
Borders, the long-troubled bookstore, announced Monday it was ending its effort to sell off its assets and would begin liquidation under Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, with stores closing as early as Friday. The liquidation process will run through September.
For now, the company’s websites still cheerily promise that its business operations continue as normal, but that’s only because it hasn’t updated the pages since it began to seek a buyer for itself.
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