Business

Sooner Partners and Old Dominion Associates Lead Those With Credit Card Debt To Make Financial Mistakes

Published

1 month ago

January 26, 2021

Sooner Partners and Old Dominion Associates personal finance and debt consolidation offers are bait and switch. Sooner Partners and Old Dominion Associates has begun flooding the market with debt consolidation and credit card relief offers in the mail. The problem is that the terms and conditions are at the very least confusing, and possibly even suspect. The low offers of 3.05% APR are very difficult to qualify for.

The interest rates are so low that you would have to have near-perfect credit to be approved for one of their offers. Many debt consolidation review sites have been following Sooner Partners & Old Dominion Associates – as well as other companies that are marketing these low interest rates offers.

To prevent these perils and end up in a weak financial predicament, refrain from indulging in any of the following financial missteps.

1. Paying Automatic Bills

If you can setup automatic bill payments, it saves you from late payment surcharge. However, at times, you don’t have any idea about how much money you have in your account. As a result, you face overdraft charges or penalties in response to returned payments.

Experts believe that setting up an automatic payment schedule is a bad idea. By relying on such a schedule, you often fail to check if you have any money left in your account to pay the bills.

Rather than configuring automatic payments, one of the wiser strategies is to set up alerts through which you can pay these bills on time.

2. Failing to Create an Emergency Fund

Unforeseen expenses are always around the corner. You may lose your job in a sudden turn of events or your car might break down unexpectedly during a trip. Without an emergency fund, you have nowhere to go. It offers you much-needed assistance when the going gets tough.

If you and your partner both work jobs, try to save enough money in your account so that you can so that you can survive for three months without a job. Save for six months if you are the sole earner in your home. Even if you find it hard to save, try to accumulate enough money to pay for groceries or repairs.

3. Struggling with Budgeting

Failing to make a budget is one of those financial strategies that can lead you into a financial crisis. Budgeting allows you to pay off debt or reduce it to a significant extent. In this way, you can save money for emergency. Other than keeping you safe in times of need, budgeting provides you with an effective roadmap that allows you to address your financial objectives. By setting a spending target and sticking to it, you can budget better.

4. Deciding Against a Retirement Strategy

Surviving without funds in old age can be harder than you imagine. Young people often decide against retirement savings because they believe that it is too “far away.” However, what they don’t realize is that this extended period can generate them excellent compound interest on their retirement plans.

Some people incorrectly assume that they will not need a lot of money in their retirement. This is an incorrect assessment because the cost of living always rises with time. Moreover, retirement is a phase during which people will want to pursue their passion and hobbies like traveling. Hence, they are going to need money. To save up for your retirement, you can either go for a 401(k) plan or open an individual account.

5. Not Getting Insurance

What will you do if an untimely disaster damages your personal possessions like car or residential property?

Insurance is something where you need to strike a balance and ensure that you are neither investing too much nor spending too little. Ideally, you should cover your primary assets, especially your health. In this way, you can stop a natural disaster form taking the form of a personal financial disaster. Apart from health, get insurance for your vehicle and property where the coverage is enough to pay for catastrophic care in the event of illness or accident.

6. Using Home Equity as an ATM

Many people believe that this practice is among the smartest financial strategy, but it is not! A HELOC (home equity line of credit) allows user to purchase anything at low interest rates. When you miss out on a credit card payment, it merely affects your credit history and rating. Doing the same with HELOC can put your ownership of the house at risk.

7. Overlooking Your Credit Report

Even if you ignore your credit report, a lot of other parties will like to have a look at it. Traditionally, these reports were merely used as part of the eligibility criteria for new debt consolidation loans and credit card relief. Today, they are used in non-credit scenarios like bank accounts, insurance policies, bank accounts, and job applications. As a rule of thumb, check the following information in your credit report:

· Does it have your correct information like name, address, limits, and balances?

· Is there any account that does not belong to you? This can be a sign of identity theft.

· How are you running up balances?

· Have negatives like bankruptcies, collections, charge-offs, and late payments been removed?

8. Paying Late

Even if you do not struggle from any money issues, but end up paying late bills, your credit score can plummet. As a result, your creditors can increase your rates or end your credit line whereas the ones in the future may charge higher rates or reject you. Moreover, late payments can make you pay for additional charges. Since, this is one of those financial mistakes that is easy to get rid of, start paying on time from this moment on.

9. Co-signing Loans

Co-signing a loan can land you in mess. Often, the other person ignores it, which means the burden falls on your shoulders. With late or missed payments, your credit score can take a hit and as soon as it drops down, creditors are certainly going to be ruthless. They will increase interest rates and cut credit lines.

In the best-case scenario, if your co-signer is punctual with all the payments, the card limit or loan balance is still going to be the part of your existing obligations whenever you go for a new loan.

10. Spending More Than You Can Afford

Spending more than you earn is common, yet it is one of the worst financial mistakes. You can avoid this situation by paying with cash or a debit card – one that does not offers overdraft protection with your account.

By making sure that you don’t commit to any of the financial mistakes mentioned above, you will become a lot more efficient with your savings and manage your debts better.

Business

Why CEN Standardization is Good for Big Tech and Small Businesses

Published

1 day ago

March 6, 2021

Matthew Wiles

CEN is the European Committee for Standardization and works to create standards for 34 European countries in the European Union and European Economic Area. CEN standards, which you can access on iTeh Standards, are used to establish industry standards and technical documents for a variety of industries including:

Construction
Consumer products
Chemicals
Air and space
Energy and environment
Food for human consumption
Food for animal consumption
Health and safety
Defense and security
Machinery
Pressure equipment
Smart living
Transport and packaging
And more

Why standardization is essential

Standardization in any industry automatically increases important processes’ efficiency and makes it easier and cheaper to do business. Less time is wasted, less materials are wasted, and standards are continually revised to reflect the most efficient processes.

When small businesses and large corporations adopt industry standards, it strengthens the market competition, which supports economic growth. According to CENELEC, an organization that works jointly with CEN, standards “facilitate innovation and promote the adoption of new technologies.”

What’s so special about CEN standardization?

CEN standards are special because they apply to entire industries across the EU.

Any company can create their own standards in business, but they may not have all the information required to know if their standards are actually best for the industry and customers. When businesses in the same industry create their own standards, they’re not operating at their highest potential. They’re also operating in conflict with one another, which can sometimes make it hard to switch manufacturers and suppliers.

Having CEN standards relieves businesses from having to figure out their own standards at a fundamental level. They can still create their own standards for how they wish to do business, but the base level industry standards will be covered.

Having CEN standards also forces manufacturers and suppliers to conform to a set of industry standards, which helps them stay competitive in the market. When manufacturers and suppliers are required to meet the same standards businesses are accountable for, businesses can order raw materials and products from certified sources.

Standardization enhances the customer experience

No matter what gets standardized, it all leads to a better customer experience by creating consistency. In the end, every bump you can smooth out and every wasted second of time you can eliminate leads to a productive work environment. When teams are productive and things are running smoothly from top to bottom, customers are happier.

Likewise, standards also work to maintain safety, which also enhances the customer experience. For example, health departments set standards for handling and storing food to keep it safe, and machine shop workers follow standards for wearing protective gear and clothing to prevent injury.

You can standardize just about anything in a business, including job activities, rules, procedures, technology, services, behaviors, and measurements.

CEN standards are well-tested and documented

The advantage of CEN standards is they’re well-tested and documented. They weren’t just arbitrarily thrown together by collecting theoretical information across industries. CEN standards are created by studying and testing to see what works, what’s most effective, eliminating what doesn’t work, and establishing a set of rules that can be universally applied across the industry.

On the other hand, when organizations come up with de facto standards, they’re often illogical, ineffective, and counterproductive. De facto standards become a big problem when they’ve remained unchallenged for a long period of time. People want to do things the way they’ve always done them, and introducing standards can be off-putting to many.

Many businesses may not even be aware that their standards are actually inefficient methods like workarounds that have simply been in place for a long time.

There’s always room for more standardization

Standardizing industries is a big task – one that is infinite in scope and duration. There will never be an end to standardization. As technology evolves, standards must evolve alongside whatever tech is being brought to the industry.

While the world’s technology evolves, CEN will continue to work hard to create and develop standards for industries. Hopefully, more businesses will embrace these standards and see them as a support system for their business rather than an inconvenient hurdle.