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‘Brown label’ ATM concept gaining pace in India

Written by Oliver Laker on May 6, 2011.

The ATM network of India is going to enter a new phase and expansion is expected to take a pace in the upcoming few years. The reason for this change has been attributed to the ‘brown label’ concept being introduced in the country. The concept allows banks to establish large number of ATMs in a matter of weeks.

With this model getting fully incorporated in India, the ATM count in the country is expected to rise from 75,000 to 1.5 lakh by 2015.

In a ‘brown label’ ATM, the hardware as well as lease is under the ownership of the service provider, while connectivity and cash handling and management is the responsibility of the sponsor bank. The ATM is named under the brand of the sponsor bank.

Many banks, big and small both are incorporating this process in their system. Lenders like ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Dhanlaxmi and Ratnakar Bank have adopted this system.

“While funding is not a problem for bank, installing ATMs was a time-consuming process.

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Questrade Review

Written by Tim Peak on May 5, 2011.

Questrade, based out of both Vancouver and Toronto, Canada, stands as one of the most popular stock trading agencies in the country.

Their services operate on many national markets, including the American one, which controls much of the world’s economy.  Although their services are extended to anyone, they’re predominately a way for Canadians to tap into the US stock exchange.

Questrade serves as a broker, hooking up potential investors or small investment firms with stocks, bonds, funds and so on.  Their online platform points the consumer in the right direction and helps them assemble their portfolio.

Their website provides the consumer with multiple options, but most importantly it allows easy set up of a new account.  On the front page you can quickly set up and fund an account to be up and ready as soon as possible.

Questrade includes several tutorial services that make the investing process easier and that might help a new trader figure out what to do.  It’s more geared towards those who aren’t necessarily high in the ranking as far as trades go.  But it’s also not necessarily just for newcomers, either.

Before beginning your trading you can go to a particular spot on their webpage that runs through the basic outline with you.  It tells you what you need to be looking for, when you need to be buying, when you need to be selling, and so on, featuring relevant graphs and videos to help through the process.

When you get ready to dive right in the process becomes incredibly simple.  In fact, Questrade prides itself on being not only easy to use but also cheap—in many cases you’re able to buy and sell shares for as low as one cent, which many broker sites don’t accommodate or even allow.

Furthermore, they have implemented several approaches that would minimize the amount of money that goes to the broker, specifically with regards to mutual funds.  They’re on your side when it comes to these types of funds, and they often offer services with a less than 1% commission, which you’d be hard-pressed to find elsewhere.

Because they’re a prominent business they have a high influx of customers which allows them to keep their broker fees down as well.  Because they’re larger, they take a smaller percentage from a larger number of people, allowing them to stay afloat without cutting into what’s your money.

And what’s perhaps their biggest and best feature is their “lightning fast” trades.  Their trading system, which is set up electronically, enables near-instant transactions so that you don’t lose your advantage or buy or sell a stock at the incorrect time.  On top of that you get instant trade verification marking every single transaction so you can keep an accurate log of where your portfolio is heading and where it has been.

Unlike some services you don’t need a huge chunk of change to get investing—you can start for a very small fee (which, essentially, is up to you, based on how much you feel you’re willing to spend).

Reviews of Questrade frequently outline the service’s extremely cheap commission fee, which is extremely favorable to consumers.  However some people complain about the accessibility of the web site.  Complaints range from it overall not being user-friendly to their being glitches, and many people take umbrage with the fact that you need several different passwords to protect your account.

At any rate, Questrade is generally seen as a strong trading source in the Canadian industry, but also in the US as well, since it operates heavily off of the US market.

How to Handle Unexpected Expenses

Written by Tim Peak on May 5, 2011.

As much as you try, you can’t predict every single expense you’ll have. But, since we know unexpected expenses will come occasionally, we can set up a savings account known as an emergency fund to pay for these expenses. The key to a useful emergency fund is to set it up ahead of time so the money is there when you need it.

The good thing about an emergency fund is that it keeps you from having to use a credit card or expensive payday loan to cover unexpected expenses. You spend money you already have instead of spending money you’ll have to eventually pay back.

If you have to use a credit card to cover an emergency, use a card with the most available credit and the lowest interest rate.

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Forget the Headlines and Keep Saving

Written by Blake Teen on May 3, 2011.

What do Libya, Portugal, Greece and Japan have in common? A mix of geopolitical risk, dissolved parliaments, plummeting stock markets and “austerity measures,” by my recent scan of headlines. Oh, and unemployment for college graduates is the highest it’s ever been. There are a lot of scary things going on out there—only 50% of which I understand. First, this doom and gloom makes me want to live it up while I can. This means vacationing on sunny beaches and buying myself an iPad instead of deferring the vacation until I get through graduation. Second, I think it makes me less likely to invest my money in faraway places, because who knows when the people will rise up and take to the streets?

Then I shake the anxiety out of my head and tell myself to stay the course. Precisely because we don’t know what’s on the horizon, we need assets to our name. We need an

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How Debt Happens

Written by Tim Peak on April 30, 2011.

You won’t find yourself drowning in debt simply because you used your credit cards a few times. In fact, you can use your credit cards regularly and still keep your head above the murky debt waters.

What does lead to debt is using credit cards and other debt instruments (e.g. loans) unwisely and unnecessarily without paying your debt bills accordingly. There are five specific spending habits that lead to debt. Avoid these and you’ll have a much better financial life.

  • 10 Signs of Credit Card Debt
  • Good Debt vs. Bad Debt
  • Do You Have Too Much Debt