Information, Knowledge, Science & Technology

BudgetLife.com : Term life insurance , also called temporary insurance, covers a person against death for a limited time, the term. For example, the term might be until children are grown, or until college is paid for, or until retirement. You pay for the policy period and at the end of the term, the contract or policy expires. If no claims are made against the policy during the term, you don't receive any benefits after the policy expires, just like auto or homeowners insurance. Whole life insurance , also called permanent insurance, is permanent and does not expire (assuming you continue to pay the premiums). It provides coverage similar to term life insurance, but it also provides an investment vehicle. A portion of the premium goes for life insurance, while the rest goes into an investment account. This account can be either an interest bearing account or a variable (stocks and bonds) investment account. Which is better (BudgetLife's opinion)? Young families with large fi...

By Phyllis Zalenski QcTimes.net : The end of the year is often a time for making financial resolutions for the coming year. If one of your new year’s resolutions is to get out of credit card debt, try some of the tips below. Pay your bills on time. Don’t incur late payment fees or penalty rates. Credit card issuers could raise your rates several percentage points if you are late with your payment. Some issuers don’t disclose any particular penalty rate, but they state that they reserve the right to increase your interest rate if you significantly increase your total debt. Check your statements carefully to make sure all of the charges are correct. And also check your statements each month to make sure your rate hasn’t gone up, and that you understand the terms and conditions of the cards you hold. Call your current card issuer and ask that they lower your interest rate. Tell the card issuer that you’ve been a good customer for X years, that you’re making a resolution to improve your f...

By GAIL LIBERMAN AND ALAN LAVINE MarketWatch Mailtribute.com : Feeling overly pinched on credit card debt due to higher minimum required credit-card payments, rising interest rates and increasing prices? Your chief options: Call your credit-card issuer, seek debt counseling or file bankruptcy. Both Citigroup and Bank of America say that their credit card holders can feel free to give them a call. Not only do they support debt counseling services, but they also offer debt workout programs. "We offer various options to these customers, such as reducing minimum payments, reducing interest rates, waiving fees going forward or crediting back fees that have already been billed," explains Samuel Wang, vice president of the Citigroup Global Consumer Group. But Linda Sherry, spokeswoman for Consumer Action in San Francisco, warns that some card holders say their interest rates were raised after they told card issuers they were in trouble. At least at Bank of America, a hardship phone...

If you're new to a wireless company, do not enter into more than a one-year contract. Consider a pre-paid plan, especially if you use your cell phone very little. People who use their phones very little often end up buying too many monthly minutes with regular plans. Use your phone as much as you can during the grace period, when you can still back out of your contract without paying a hefty penalty. If you don't get good reception at your place of work or home, or anywhere else that you visit often, go with another carrier. Make sure you know what features and services you need. Younger users, in their teens and 20s, tend to use text messages, cameras and music players on phones. Users in their 40s, 50s and 60s tend to use phones to make voice calls. Travelers may want a national plan, while those who don't travel much may prefer a pre-paid plan. Consider whether you'll be using your phone for long-distance. Ask whether the plan includes long-distance ca...

PCWorld.com : Antivirus experts have warned users to beware of a spam e-mail campaign that promises a sizable grant from The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund. The fraudulent e-mail messages say the recipient has been selected to receive a grant of 2.6 million British pounds (about $4.5 million in U.S. funds) grant and should contact the organization. However, the e-mail messages do not come from the memorial fund, which was founded in September 1997 soon after Diana's death. The spam is unusual in the sense that it uses the name of a real charitable fund, plus the name of an actual employee there, according to a warning from security vendor Sophos. "This is not one that will look phishy," said Carole Theriault, a security consultant with Sophos. "They've obviously done their research before they put it out." The memorial fund has also issued a warning on its Web site. Limited Success Some of the messages contain links to Web sites asking for bank ac...

PCWorld :"Spam Blocker works with any POP3 email account. It checks your HTML and Text email and removes spam right from the mail server so you never see it in your regular inbox. Then you can review the suspicious emails in Spam Blocker and choose to keep them or delete them forever. You can even send 'Bounce Back' messages to the spammers telling them that your email address does not exist so they remove you from their lists! Spam Blocker automatically Removes Attached Viruses, and can block unwanted email by Country, Email Address, Domain, and Keywords using our pre-defined Blacklists (or create your own). You can setup Spam Blocker to check multiple email accounts. You can even Import your address book from Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, or any .txt file so you don't have to worry about email from people you trust getting marked as spam. It's so simple, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it !" go to download site Copyright 2005, PCWorld.com. ...

Kron.com: Tired of all that spam filling up your E-mail Inbox? Maybe it's time to get anti-spam software. Most Internet service providers have some kind of spam-blocking tool built-in and free E-mail websites like Yahoo! offer free spam blockers as well. But paying a premium will get you more accuracy and more protection. As much as 70 percent of E-mail -- 12 billion messages a day -- are spam. It's really annoying. But how dangerous is it? "They can download software into your computer that records your keystroke, and they can take personal information from you such as account number, credit card number, even your social security number," says PC World editor Narasu Rebapragada. She says anyone who uses E-mail these days faces some real threats. The danger often isn't in the E-mail itself, but rather in the website the E-mail will try to send you to. "They are giving you possibly a free iPod. You are giving them sensitive information." So-called "...