What Loan Products Are Available Today?

Ever since the introduction of the internet, the loan market has changed dramatically. The internet has meant the lenders are able to offer quick decisions and same day payouts, something that was simply not possible before. It has also meant the lenders are able to contact applicants and existing customers with ease via things like text, email and instant web-chat facilities.Nowadays, there is a loan product available to suit almost any financial situation. Whether you’re looking for; £10,000 to buy a new car, £5,000 with bad credit or £200 to tide you over until your payday- there is a lender somewhere that should be able to help. Here are just some of the options available:Secured Loans
Secured loan lenders will be able to offer anything from £2000 to £50,000 (with some offering up to £100,000) to homeowners. The reason secured loan lenders require the applicant to be a homeowner is because they will secure the loan against the borrower’s property. This means that if the borrower was unable to pay and the loan falls into default; the lender has the right to repossess or put a charge on the property.Personal Loans
Sometimes referred to as unsecured loans; these loans work on the basis that the lender has not got the security of an asset such as a property to fall back on. This means that if the loan was to fall into default the lender is unable to repossess the property, although if taken to court they may be able to get a charge put on a property of the borrower is a homeowner. The regular personal loan provider will offer between £1,000 and £15,000 depending on the applicant’s credit history.Peer-to-Peer Lending
Often referred to as social lending, this is a relatively modern approach to finance. It uses the idea of a borrower getting financed by investors who are funding all the lending. The investor then makes a margin depending on the interest rate the borrower is being charged. The “lender” in this situation is more like a middleman, taking a percentage of the interest charged.Guarantor Loans
A guarantor loan is a personal (or unsecured) loan that is backed by a friend or family member with good credit. This means that in a lot of cases the main applicant of a guarantor loan can have a certain degree of poor credit and still be approved for the finance. This works because the lender has a “plan B” and if the applicant is unable to pay they have the right to ask the guarantor for the payment instead. The guarantor is legally obliged to make the payment if the applicant can’t.Logbook Loans
Logbook loans are secured against a car. They work in a similar way to secured loans. The amount available to the borrower is relative to the value of the car the loan is being secured on. If the loan goes unpaid the lender will repossess the car.Payday Loans
Payday loans are short term loans, usually lasting no longer than a month. The idea of them is to free up the money you need now and pay it back as soon as you receive your wages. An example of when you would take out a payday loan would be if you are struggling to pay an important bill mid-month, perhaps Council Tax, you know you could pay it after payday but they are demanding the payment now. In this situation you could borrow the required funds, say £100, and then 2 weeks later after being paid you would repay the £100 + £25 interest.I hope you found this rundown of available loans helpful.

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Receivable Financing – Factoring Is the 4th Way To Finance Your Company

Canadian business owners and financial managers often ask about assessing the different alternatives to their overall business financing strategy. Receivable financing – factoring can be one of the cornerstones of a creative alternative financial solution for their business. We sometimes hesitate to use the word ‘alternative ‘because quite frankly this method of financing is becoming as mainstream as things can get!Canadian business can be financed in one of four different ways. You need to be able to asses the methods utilized in those four categories and which one, or ones, makes sense for your firm.Business is financed of course by your own shareholder equity. Equity is expensive because when you give it up, or sell ownership in your business your overall position becomes diluted and your return on investment diminishes.The three other methods of financing, in lieu of equity of ownership relinquishing are:Debt
Grants
Asset FinancingDebt of course comes in the form of good debt and bad debt – we would, as an example categorize a commercial mortgage as good debt – a cash flow working capital loan might be another example. However, the reality is that most business owners recognize the dangers of debt and how that increased leverage can be a double edged sword.Clients are always asking us about ‘governments grants and loans.’ In our opinion there are only two respectable grant/loan programs in Canada – the SR&ED program, and the CSBF program – the former is a non repayable grant, the latter is simply a great government loan for financing equipment and leaseholds.So that brings us to # 4- Asset financing. Depending on the type of business and industry you are in your asses include inventory, land, equipment, and receivables.A very strong case can be made that #4 should in fact be #1 when it comes to working capital and cash flow financing. Simply speaking your assets need to be monetized in the best manner in which to bring you liquidity.Receivable financing – factoring is in fact the quickest and most efficient manner to bring immediate cash flow to your business. Why is that the case – simply because it involves no debt coming on our balance sheet, no payments are made as in a loan type scenario, cash flow is immediate, and the reality is, that if you have negotiated the right factor facility then you are in control of your overall cash flow requirements?The benefits of a receivable financing factor facility are very clear once you understand the process. Generally a factor facility, aka an invoice discounting or receivable financing facility can be negotiated in a couple of weeks from start to finish. To the extent that your business is growing you essentially have successfully completed a financing that gives you unlimited cash flow. We say unlimited, because if your sales and receivables grow your cash flow and working capital grow in lock step to that growth!Cash flow and working capital from a factor facility can be used to increase inventory, take on more purchase orders and contracts, and, in general meet working capital guidelines.The overall process for a receivable financing – factoring facility is simple. You sell some or all of your invoices to your factor partner firm. You receive generally 90% of that invoice amount that same day as cash in your bank account. When your customer pays the factor firm keeps a ‘discount fee ‘based on the total time it took your customer to pay.Discount fees, or as clients prefer to call them, ‘factoring rates ‘vary in Canada. Factors (excuse the pun) that affect your fee are the size of facility, who you deal with, the method in which your facility operates, and the overall quality of your customer base.Speak to a credible, trusted, an experienced business financing advisor – Find out today why the 4th method of financing your business might just be the best!

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Home Networking Secrets – How To Do It the Easy Way

Today’s secret: Why big stores love home networks.More and more of us are adding devices to our home networks – an extra PC for the kids, Xbox or Wii, a media sever to store all our music and photos. The ability to share music, photos and videos across all the PCs in your house has never been easier.Yet with all this growth, a recent survey conducted by ABI Research showed one in three consumers reported difficulty in setting up and maintaining their home network. 25% of all wireless devices are returned to the store simply because it was too hard to setup and not a defective product. This notion is further enforced by Best Buy’s Geek Squad founder Robert Stephens who acknowledged that the complexity of installing a wireless network is evidenced by the fact that return rates on wireless networking devices drop to nearly zero when his installers do it. Really there are a lot of great network products out there, but unfortunately they do not always do a good job of explaining very simple to set up.This is one of the reasons that big stores love home networks, it seems complex and hard to set up. Its easy to get frustrated with it. So if you return a wireless router to the store how hard do they have to sell you on letting them ease your frustrations by having them install it for you.Another reason they love home networks is the time it can take to set up a network. Usually there’s software to install, the PC will need a reboot, add security passwords and need another reboot and we all know how long that can take. So if you have two PCs on your network the time needed is doubled, want to add a printer you can all use, time doubles again as more software is added to each pc and yet more reboots.Final reason is maintenance. Want to add a new pc or printer they will gladly come out and spend more time adding the new device. If the network stops working do you know where to start troubleshooting?Truth is home and small business networking is not that difficult if you have some technical knowledge. Setting up times and maintenance can be greatly reduced with the right software. With great software you do not even need the technical knowledge to get a multi-device network running.Whenever I go to someones home to set up a network I show them them Network Magic. This software is by Cisco, one of the leading companies in business high tech networking. I explain how by using this software their network can be set up quicker, be more secure and easier to maintainSetting UpSimply install Cisco Network Magic to each PC in your home. The Essentials version has licenses for up to 3 devices. The Pro version lets you connect up to 8 devices. Cisco Network Magic adds a level of simplicity to many of the most common setup problems encountered. These issues include enabling wireless security and discovering and adding each device to the network, whether wired or wireless. With Cisco Network Magic, you can instantly connect all of your devices to the network, without the usual difficulties.Once your network is up and running, Cisco Network Magic makes it easy to see what is happening on the network through a Network Map which is a visual representation of of all the devices that are connected to your home network, as well as possible intruders. The map also provides additional details about those devices, including IP addresses, connection status, alerts about software updates, as well as easy access to any tasks related to each device. By utilizing the features of the map, you can view and control many aspects of your networked devices, without having to go to each device individually so no more running back and forth.File and Printer SharingABI Research has also found that more than 33% of home network owners said they use their network for file sharing, and 40% share a printer among multiple computers. Cisco Network Magic helps make the process a snap, with built-in file and printer sharing tools.To share files with your other computers, simply click on “Share a Folder” and a software setup program known as a “wizard” walks you through the steps. If you want to see what folders are shared on one computer, or all of your networked computers, you can do that as well. Cisco Network Magic even puts a shortcut on your desktop, making it easy to access all the music, photos, videos and other files available on your networked computers. With multiple computers in a household, it becomes very cumbersome and expensive to outfit each one with its own printer. If you want to share a printer among multiple computers, Cisco Network Magic has an easy setup process. The program will make the printer available to all computers on the network, and will even automatically install the printer drivers on the different PCs for you.Parental ControlsIf you’re like millions of concerned parents, you worry about the content that your children are exposed to on the Internet. Perhaps you would also like to control when your children have access to the Internet. With the Internet Access Controls in Cisco Network Magic, you can do all of this and more.Cisco Network Magic offers controls that allow you to manage when and where your networked computers access the Internet. You can restrict Internet access to certain times of the day, making sure your kids are doing their homework and not surfing the web or chatting with their friends online. All of this can be done remotely, via a password-enabled tool so the controls you put in place stay there.Computer Reports and Network History The reports feature of Network Magic offers a convenient way to keep track of what sites have been visited on your connected computers. The program can be setup to email a link to a detailed report each day, showing when the computer was online, the programs that were used (and when they were used) computer health status, each website that was visited, and the Internet bandwidth consumed by each computer. Network history shows you which computers and other devices have connected to the network, along with any intruders that may have attempted to connect.TroubleshootingOne of the most frustrating aspects of managing a home network is troubleshooting when one of your devices gets disconnected. Your computer’s operating system offers limited solutions for fixing a problem with the PC, and no help for reconnecting other devices like game consoles or Internet-connected TVs. Network Magic offers a variety of troubleshooting solutions for your network connection, as well as file and printer sharing. When your connection is lost, the Network Map will clearly show you where the break is. Click on the “Repair Connection” button from the map to have the software walk you through a step-by-step guide to fix your network connection. The “Troubleshoot Sharing” task will do the same when you have file and printer sharing problems.If you’re still having trouble after using Network Magic then its worth having someone come in and help you. So why do I recommend Network Magic to my clients if it means less work and money? Because I would rather my clients only need to call on me as a last resort and to know that when I a working for them I’m not wasting their time and money on tasks that can be made simple and easy.Top 5 Home Network Problem Areas:1. Wireless Network Connection 2. Printer Sharing 3. Troubleshooting 4. Connecting New Devices 5. Wireless Network SecurityI’ll add a sixth to that.6. Cost. Network Magic reduces all of these. Its a great price and is a one off fee, no yearly subscriptions like some software.Bonus Secret: Most times when your network is down, a simple restart will get everything back; just follow this procedure.
Shut down all the pcs and network devices
Shut down your router
Shut down the box provided by your cable company or phone company for internet access
Wait 5 minutes and then start up the cable/phone box again
Wait five more minutes and start up your router
Wait 5 more minutes and startup your pcs one by one

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