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Showing posts from December 24, 2005

Consumers warned over credit card debt

fairinvestment.co.uk : Consumers spend almost 20 per cent more on their credit cards during December than any other month in the year, moneyexpert.com has revealed.The financial advice website warns that consumers should not get too carried away as the Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) experienced 77 per cent more calls during Christmas in 2004 than any other time. Consumers should also try to use the right type of credit card to pay for festivities, says moneyexpert.com. Chief executive of moneyexpert.com Sean Gardner said: "If you are financing Christmas on plastic, be really choosy about how you do it. Store cards should be avoided if you don’t aim to pay off the balance straight away. "Choosing the right credit card can be a good way to spread the cost of Christmas if you can't pay it off in January. However, as always, it's important to choose the right card for your needs as the wrong one can add to the cost of the holiday period in the long-run and can also ca

Sharing credit card info may help stop debt

fairinvestment.co.uk : Credit card lenders are to share their credit card data in an effort to stop consumers borrowing too much and getting into financial difficulty. Barclaycard, the Co-operative Bank, egg and Abbey have all agreed to share data which charts consumers spending habits. Consumer groups have said lack of detailed data has allowed credit card holders to incur massive debts on different credir cards from various providers. They are allowed to do this, consumer watchdogs say, because credit card companies do not know which potential customers have massive debts with other providers. However, under the new system credit card providers will be able to swap 'behaviourial data', which includes how much a customers spends on cards each month, how much is repaid and how much cash is withdrawn, so providers can make "good lending decisions". "This move will improve our ability to make good lending decisions. Whether it’s a customer applying for a card or

Online credit card spending 'on the up'

fairinvestment.co.uk : Online redit card spending surged in November as Brits began preparing for the festive season, new figures have revealed. Figures from MasterCard revealed spending on cards surged to almost £6 billion. The amount spent on credit cards was astronomical, increasing by almost 50 per cent from the previous month, mainly due to online shopping. Vice-president of MasterCard Europe Brian Moore said: "Despite the traditional upsurge in spending at this time of year, UK consumers are clearly managing their finances carefully as concerns linger over rising energy prices and a general reluctance to enlarge personal debts at a time when unemployment is slowly rising and manufacturing output is declining. "This all suggests that the actual growth in credit card spending may owe more to added convenience of shopping online as opposed to braving the crowded high streets." But amid suggestions of restrained spending, a report this week revealed personal insolvenci

Exchange Spam Causing Growing Concern for IT

jak.com : Exchange spam is quickly becoming an overwhelming problem for organizations utilizing Microsoft Exchange Server. The amount of spam Exchange Server receives daily, is reaching critical mass. When queried, organizations of all sizes admit that email security has become their single most important challenge. The need to secure the organization against spam, phishing and fraud attacks, as well as email borne viruses, has become critical. Organizational resources are increasingly targeted to defeat this growing security threat, as IT departments struggle to protect systems, employees and customers from the pervasive efforts of criminal spam gangs. The primary defense against Exchange spam, by organizations of all sizes, is the deployment of third-party anti-spam technology as perimeter security, surrounding the vulnerable Exchange Server mail server. Due primarily to the overwhelming popularity of Exchange Server, hackers, virus writers and spammers have teamed up to find and ex

After a decade, Lasik surgery still a luxury

According to eyeglossary.net ,Lasik is an acronym for LAser in SItu Keratomileusis. Type of refractive surgery in which the cornea is reshaped to change its optical power. A disc of cornea is raised as a flap, then an excimer laser is used to reshape the intrastromal bed, producing surgical flattening of the cornea. Used for correcting myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism. Even though millions have had vision correction, but perfect eyesight not guaranteed and Lasik surgery still remains a luxury. Recently Christopher Tomes, 43, (MSNBC) becoming one of the 5 million Americans seeking to shed their eyeglasses with laser vision correction during the past decade. Tomes, who heads a company that creates animated advertising for the Web, had grown tired of misplacing his glasses. "Glasses are easy to leave on an airplane," he said. "I was losing, on average, three or four pairs of glasses a year, and that got expensive." Lasik, safety & funds Since U.S. doctors began