Is There Such a Thing as a Bad Credit Gas Card?

3 January 2010 - Filed under Gas Bills

It used to be that a bad credit gas card was the easiest type of credit card to get. Nowadays, however, it seems that only those with near-perfect credit qualify for the best gas cards on the market. What’s happened to gas cards for those with imperfect credit histories? Are gas cards for people with bad credit still out there? The answers may surprise you.

More Restrictions

Gas cards are definitely harder to get nowadays and the bad credit gas card may very well become a thing of the past. Why? Believe it or not, gas prices and the economy have a lot to do with it.

When gas prices started to skyrocket, people who couldn’t afford gas started putting it on their gas credit cards. The problem is, when the bills came in they had no way of paying them. Eventually, the gas card companies started taking some big hits. Because of this, they began changing their credit requirements for new account holders.

Some Things Change, Others Don’t

The funny thing is that while many gas credit card companies changed the way they approve credit applications, they didn’t lower their interest rates. Some gas cards charge ridiculous interest rates even though they’re now only issuing cards to people with good credit.

A Dying Breed?

So is there a single bad credit gas card left? In all honesty, you’re probably better getting a general bad credit credit card. It’s easier to qualify for some of the major credit cards than it is for some of the gas cards.

You might also want to consider pre-paid gas cards or secured gas cards. These will allow you to pay at the pump and some even offer rewards similar to unsecured gas credit cards. Personally, I recommend a secured card over a pre-paid as a secured card can help you rebuild your credit while a pre-paid gas card cannot.

Your bad credit gas card can be a stepping stone to bigger and better cards, but it can also hurt you in the long run if you charge more than you can afford. Your credit can get better and you’ll qualify for more cards in the future if you mange your payments wisely. Just because the credit is available to you doesn’t mean you should use it. Like all other credit cards, only use your gas card to charge what you can afford.

Just remember, if you do obtain a bad credit gas card make sure you pay the bills on time each and every month for a brighter credit future.

Comments Off  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2010-01-03  ::  Paula Hart

Cell Phone Security And Your I T Department

2 January 2010 - Filed under Telephone Bills

When it comes to IT security, our computers aren’t the only thing vulnerable. Almost everyone these days has a cell phone, and a cell phone can be hacked too.

One way to infect someone’s cell phone is with a malicious program called FlexiSPY. Here’s how it works. Let’s say that Dave, our company president, wants to follow up a little bit on one of his senior managers, Greg, and find out what he’s up to. Dave would simple go to Greg sometime and say, “Greg, do you mind if I borrow your mobile phone? Mine’s not working and I want to check in with my family.” And Greg says, “Sure, no problem.”

So Dave takes his phone. Now Dave has already been to FlexiSPY, and they’ve already given him the instructions of how to infect Greg’s phone with a little virus by simply visiting a web site URL. So Dave does that. He acts like he’s dialing the number, and then just to make it look good, he says into the phone, “Yeah, hi. I was just checking in. Is everything okay? Oh yeah, Greg loaned me his phone. He’s a great guy. Okay. I’ll talk to you later. Bye.” Then Dave hands Greg his phone back.

Meanwhile, Greg thinks everything is just dandy. He loaned his boss his phone and he’s a good guy. But now, any phone calls that Greg places or receives, Dave is going to get a report of who the other party is, what their phone number is, and how long they were on the phone. All that information is available to Dave for just $49.95.

Now, if Dave decided to splurge and spend $149.95, he can remotely activate the microphone on Greg’s phone and actually listen in on Greg’s activities any time Greg’s phone is turned on. So if Greg is at home tonight with his family, Dave could listen to their conversation at the dinner table. If Greg is in a closed meeting, Dave could listen to the closed meeting. Essentially, Dave could hear anything going on in Greg’s life, as long as his phone is turned on.

The CIA knows what a serious danger this technology is. In fact, the CIA is very concerned that this spying technology might get on the cell phones of some of the Chief Justices of the Supreme Court or other high-ranking government officials. If that were to happen, it would really undermine the security of the United States of America.

Therefore, never hand your phone to anyone. If someone asks me to borrow my cell phone, I say, “Sure. But I’m going to dial your number, and I’m going to stand two inches from your face the entire time you have the conversation.”

At that, the person who asked to borrow my cell phone usually replies, “Never mind.”

If you have recently handed someone your cell phone to use and are wondering if some sort of spying device is on your phone, you could have your IT professional examine the phone. Or, if your phone is getting out of date anyway, now might be a good time to trade in your phone for a new one. You can keep the same phone number, since the virus affects the phone itself and not the phone number.

If you ever look at your phone and see the screen says that the phone is “connected” or “in use” when you didn’t place a call or answer a call, then this may indicate that you have some sort of phone spyware on it. Unfortunately, most people don’t look at their phone when they’re not using it. They just leave it in their belt clip, purse, pocket, in a desk drawer, or on a table.

You would also see tell-tale signs of someone spying on your calls on your phone bill. But not everyone examines their bill, and some people never even see their bills if they use a bookkeeper to mind their finances.

If you have the right tools, you can figure out if something was loaded onto your phone. One company called Trust Digital makes a very nice central management tool to audit, manage, and protect all of your phones and PDA’s in the enterprise.

A common theme you will notice in this book for protecting your network is the concept of “Central Management.” What’s that? Well, ask any IT professional, and they’ll tell you that one of the worst things in our career is when we have to change something on all the company’s computers. It doesn’t matter if you have five computers, fifty computers, five hundred computers, or more, that’s way too much work to visit each computer, phone, or PDA, individually. We want to be able to manage things centrally.

Today’s organizations have PDAs, cell phones, Blackberries, etc. All of these devices also hold sensitive data. So what happens when one of your employees is traveling for business and accidentally leaves his mobile phone or PDA in a taxi? If you had a central management system in place, that employee would simply call the IT department and tell them what happened. Then someone in IT can make a few keystrokes on the keyboard and erase everything in that particular phone or PDA.

Now, everything on that phone gets securely erased. And when I say securely erased, that means inside that phone it’s writing ones and zeros on the data card to actually erase information. Even data forensics can’t get that data back anymore. It’s just gone.

In the event that whoever rides in the taxi next finds the phone and somehow returns it to you, your IT department can make a few more keystrokes on the keyboard and restore all the data. That sure beats having to go through a four-hour process of reloading everything.

So don’t overlook your cell phone and PDA when it comes to data security. There are tools out there that will help you-use them.

Action Item: Treat your cell phone like you treat your toothbrush. Never let anyone use it.

Comments Off  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2010-01-02  ::  Paula Hart

Do Gas Credit Cards Reward You at the Pump?

2 January 2010 - Filed under Gas Bills

Gas Credit Cards are meant for saving money, keeping in view the high gas prices. You have a variety of cards to choose from, and each one has a different offer. These cards offer you a rebate up to 5% on purchase of gas and also other items like grocery. The rebate is lower in the case of purchase of items other than gas. When you have earned cash back of $50 all you have to do is obtain the check from your credit card issuer.

Certain Gas Credit Cards offer comparatively higher rebates on hotel reservations and travel including flights and car, and also double rewards for the initial bills. Certain other credit cards have come up with innovative ideas like rebate on purchase of automotive parts, no interest on purchases for a certain number of days after the billing date etc. Though you are on the look out for such incentives you should be sure if you are actually going to use them, and are not going to incur loss for the kind of rewards you do not actually require.

There is ambiguity regarding any introductory offer, and before taking a decision you should pay special attention to the fine print. You can notice that in many cases the percentage of rebate offered by the Gas Credit Cards drop dramatically to less than half after a certain number of days. And even though you are happy with the functioning of your credit card the issuer may change the terms and conditions or add a clause, suddenly to your disadvantage.

Also the rebates may not be offered at all the gas stations, which may cause you inconvenience and also sometimes extra gas. Your effort always must be cash in on the rebate, you have to request for a check or money to be transferred into your account, instead of waiting for them to pay you, as the rebates may cease to exist after a given period. If you intend to carry a balance like majority of the credit card holders do, you might end up suffering loss on account of the high interest rate. The idea of the Gas Credit Card is to save you a few dollars and not accrue debt.

Because of the stiff competition in credit card business the companies are always on the look out for innovative methods to attract customers. As gas is something everyone buys, teaming up with a gas company means better business. On the other hand the gas companies themselves offer credit cards which can be used at only those gas stations. Rebates are offered for purchase of gas and items on sale at the particular gas station. Sole gas station credit cards generally offer more discounts, and in case of a gas station in your neighborhood it is a good idea, unless you are going on a trip and you run out of gas. Other advantages of using these cards besides the rebate is that you need not carry cash and expenditure on gas will not be mixed up with regular expenditure.

If you are particular about monitoring the expenditure on gas these cards offer monthly statements with list of purchase. Like other credit cards you may watch out for annual fee or other hidden charges in case of the Gas Credit Cards too.

Gas Credit Cards are credit cards that help you reduce travel expenses by offering rebate on purchase of gas, and also on certain other purchases.

Comments Off  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2010-01-02  ::  Paula Hart

Heat Without Electricity Bills… – You Won’t Believe It !

2 January 2010 - Filed under Electricity Bills

If you’ve been shocked by energy prices and you search the web for info about heat without electricity bills then do yourself a favor and read the following review – you are sure to find it extremely helpful. The general public relies on the electric company for their energy; however, there is a secret way that can provide you with all the electricity you need with a simple and low-cost method.

Most people would probably find it unbelievable, but in truth, the public has the capability to create sufficient energy for their entire household to run as it does now, without being tied to money-making public or private energy firms. Take a look at this utopia – no more monthly bills, deposits of any kind, just an endless supply of green energy to provide all the electricity you need.

Before you begin your research on heat without electricity bills; i want you to know, for both financial and environmental reasons, that there is a simple method that is already being utilized by literally thousands of people in the united states and around the world that gives you the power to seriously decrease your power bill if not eliminate it once and for all! So this sounds great, and now you want to know how this new system works; it’s simply a matter of using energy that already exists – turning natural sources of energy into electricity that you can use, quickly and easily, at home, and best of all, you can do it yourself! The most astonishing thing about this is that anybody can set this up, even if you lack technical know how and even if you have no knowledge of electricity.

Before you go on finding out about heat without electricity bills, prepare yourself for another amazing fact – with this new energy solution, you are helping the planet by using renewable energy and in addition, you can even make the electric company pay you for your self-produced energy. Take a moment to see yourself the ‘luxury’ of air conditioning, electric heat, washers, dryers, etc., without counting each cent, and even getting paid while nature does its job. Sounds unreal? Go ahead and give in to your curiosity – look into this further; I am certain you’ll be every bit as amazed as i was.

Comments Off  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2010-01-02  ::  Paula Hart

Call Day and Night With Pc Phone

2 January 2010 - Filed under Telephone Bills

The arrival of internet has completely changed the way people communicate with one another. Once, owning a telephone was a very big thing but now people do not even think of buying telephones or mobile phones. There is one thing that matters to all. It is none other than huge telephone bills. This is the age of globalisation and people have to move from one place to another. There are times when a husband and wife does not stay with each other due to professional reasons. How do these people maintain their relationship? These people must be taking the help of mobile phones and would also have been paying huge telephone bills.

Internet and personal computers can be very helpful in reducing international call rates and to make PC to mobile phone calls via PC phone calling. That is why, PC Phones are in huge sales. People can buy these phones and by taking the VoIP call facility, they can save a lot on their phone bills. There are many opportunities around which people need to look and make use of them. Ads on VoIP calls are quite available through out the World Wide Web and they need to read all of these. They would definitely find the best VoIP call offers which can help them in getting access to reduced call rates.

Some people think connecting VoIP equipments to personal computers is very complex when it comes to PC to phone calls. It is not so. If people do not know how to connect these equipments, then they can take the help from service providers. When the whole setting is all done, then people can start communicating with any other people in any parts of the world.

Most of the people like to speak with the help of VoIP calls. With PC Phones, people can speak as well as see the other person. Isn’t that exciting? This is really exciting as people get to see the other person while they speak. On the other hand, with mobile phones or landlines phones, this facility can never be found.

People should always buy PC Phones from online shopping sites which especially deal in advance telecommunication products. Apart from these shopping sites, they can get these from the service providers. There are many service providers which even let people get these phones free of cost.

Most of the companies dealing in VoIP call services entice customers by their attractive PC phone offers. People should try their best to get such offers at the initial announcements as these are always limited. These companies also let people enjoy free midnight calls. Such features on PC Phone calls can save lots of their money.

These internet phones allow people to make multiple calls. Sometimes, it happens that one receives two or three important calls at a time. With these phones, people need not to bother about missing any important calls.

Some telecom companies provide poor PC Phones, when people apply for VoIP subscriptions. One should check out the kind of internet phones given to them at the very beginning. Otherwise, one would have to face a lot of problems while making important calls.

Comments Off  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2010-01-02  ::  Paula Hart