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Credit cards are widely used by many people because of the great number of conveniences it offers, this is most especially with the working professionals. But unlike before, you can now apply for a credit card online. With the help of the Internet, making an application online is very much possible.

Credit card is a card given to a specified holder who is entitled with a credit line. With a credit card, its holder can withdraw cash or make purchases on credit. After a specified period, the amount charged will be paid by the holder. An interest charges are also applied where applicable, and some banks make annual fee charges.

The use of a credit card gives a lot of people convenience most especially if they don't have cash on hand. Just in case they need to make emergency purchases, or withdrawals; the credit card is always handy.

Many people, however, are reluctant to make any application online. And this is true especially when it comes to credit card applications. Most people think that it is quite unsafe to make such private application online.

This is the most common misconception because applying for a credit card online is very much safe as making an application in a bank. Why? because your application form (for a credit card) is secure, and you are directly applying with the bank.

Different issuing banks have their very own websites, and they provide secure application forms. There are 'middlemen' on the net, but their job is simply to refer prospective clients to the issuing bank's website.

So you just have to make sure that you're filling out a secured application form. Most of todays browsers are SSL equipped, so that all-important information is sent encrypted to the issuing bank.

The fact remains that there are also a lot of scammers on the net; just to be sure, never send any number, especially that of a credit card or SSN, through email because it is unsafe. Any information sent through unencrypted forms is unsafe. As an applicant, you have to be alert, and very careful.

How do you make an online application? First, you have to choose among many credit card issuers. And in doing such transaction, you must be of legal age, which is 18 years old and above.

Most applications are easily processed if the applicant has an email address, driver's license, employer details, and other things which pertain to your salary/wages and employment or source of income.

Employer details include the name of the employer, address and telephone number. If you have existing loans, you should also provide information about it, it can be a personal debt or a personal loan. Most credit card issuing banks will require you to provide them with details about your present credit card, current balances, and credit limits.

There are also banks which would require you to provide information about your current assets which includes your house, investment properties, bank accounts, vehicles, and shares. Others also ask for the national identification number or NIN.

Upon submission of the application form, you can wait for a few seconds or minutes to have your application confirmed. If you have a good credit rating, you're application will be approved soon. Usually, it would take about three to five days before you get your credit card.

Having a credit card entails responsibility. You must have a good credit reputation; otherwise, you will find it hard to secure a credit card the next time you apply for it.

Perhaps you are thinking about getting a credit card. You have gotten a few offers in the mail that say they have great interest rates. You might not be sure just exactly how great they are, especially a few months down the road, or if you happen to make a late payment on that card.

Doing a little research on just how much interest you will be paying in such cases would be of great benefit to you. Understanding how interest rates work and getting the specifics on the offers you are getting is important if you want to go into this with no surprises or extra expenses.

The Top 3 Pitfalls

1. Getting a low interest rate in one way, and sky high rates in another.

In some cases, low interest rates only apply to one aspect of your credit card. Take balance transfer offers, for example. Sometimes people think that it would be more beneficial to them if they transfer all the balances of their existing credit cards onto a card that has a low interest rate.

In many cases, it is beneficial to do so, but before they do, they need to know for sure if that low interest rate is going to stay low. Perhaps they may think that the interest rate applies to the balance transfer, when in actuality it only applies to new purchases on that card.

2. Store-bought and interest free...sort of.

Let's say you want to buy a dishwasher. You go to the store and find out that there is one on sale, and even better, if you buy it with your credit card that is specified to that store, you get 0% interest for the first six months, and you do not even have to make a payment until that six months is up. Great!

Only there's one problem that they probably didn't tell you about. Once you have passed the six months, the interest rates sky rocket to a number that would instantly turn down had you known that was what you were going to pay in the first place. Unfortunately, too many people neglect to investigate just what possibilities there are of raised interest rates, leaving them paying way more than they thought they would ever have to.

3. Such good things seldom last.

Misunderstanding the time frame in which you will be able to take advantage of low interest rates is a huge drawback. Make sure you know exactly how much your interest rate will increase if there is an expiration date, or what it will be if you happen to pay your bills late. Knowing the penalties of the mistakes you make and just how much you will be paying when the expiration date passes will leave you with peace of mind and no surprise increases.

When you go to get a credit card, make sure you know what you're getting into. There are too many people today who misunderstand interest rates and end up paying the consequences in full.

Let me start off by saying that understanding how the three major credit bureaus arrive at your credit score is one of the most powerful pieces of knowledge you can have. Most likely this is not something that you have ever been taught. In fact, when it comes to your credit scores, the three major credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and Transunion, run sort of a "black box" operation.

To explain what makes up your credit score in as simple terms possible, this is how it works

Your Payment History (35%) Makes up the largest factor in determining your score. This is a picture of how you pay your bills.

Credit Utilization 30%: The percentage of available credit used. Keeping your account balances below 50% of the available credit limit will maximize your scores. For the purpose of this article, this is where we will find the most room to quickly increase your scores.

Credit History 15%: A more seasoned account carry more weight than one that was just opened.

Inquiries 10%: When you apply for credit, an inquiry is made to your credit. If you have too many inquiries, your score can be negatively effected.

Credit Types In Use 10%: The number of accounts in use, and the type of credit accounts. Finance company accounts are of the lowest value, and too many of them can cause a negative effect on your scores.

Ok, now we have some powerfull knowledge. It's time to put it to use with 2 things we can do in about 30 minutes to increase our credit scores...

Increase your credit limits: This is actually easier than you think. It is truly remarkable what will be granted to you simply for the asking. What I want you to do is simply call each of your credit card companies and ask them to increase your credit limit. One technique you might also use is to tell them you are doing some financial house-cleaning and are considering getting rid of the card and using one with a higher limit and better interest rate, unless they can give you a better offer. In my experience, I have found this to be successfull 100% of the time.

Here is an example of what can be achieved. You have a credit card with a balance of $4,000 and a limit of $5,000. This means you are 80% utilized. After using the above technique, your limit is raised to $6,500. Now you are only 62% utilized. Immediately your credit scores have increased. Keep in mind that we want to ideally keep our balances at 50% or lower compared to our credit limits. This segways to the next tip.

Lowering your balances to add more points. Continued from the above example, you are now utilized at 62% on your credit card. What this means is that you still have room to further increase your scores. If you coule put just $750 on this credit card, you could bring the current balance to 50% of your new credit limit ($6,500 credit limit, with a balance of $3,250). You might be saying that you don't have $750 to put down on your credit card. Ok, you could stop right here, since you already increased your scores, and you can most likely get the limit raised for all your credit card accounts. However, if you are trying to buy a home, or a new car, you can potentially save thousands, or even tens of thousands in interest on that new loan and even get a lower monthly payment, just by paying a little down on your current accounts. When that results in higher credit scores, you may qualify for much better loan terms. In one case, a client paid down $450 on one credit card and was able to increase their scores so they could purchase their new home with zero down, instead of the $5,200 required down payment they were previously facing.

If you use these powerful techniques, you are sure to increase your scores quickly and easily. I have seen it work over and over. One recent client was able to increase their credit scores by 105 points after getting the credit limits raised on all three of their credit cards in less than 30 minutes. You have nothing to lose by making a couple calls.

Keep in mind that these techniques work best for those who have a good credit history, and at least 3 open, established credit accounts. For those with more challenged credit or a negative credit history, a more aggressive approach and credit repair strategies may be more appropriate.

With rapid advancements in mobile technology, it seems that the day is not far when this technology will take the world by surprise.

We are yet to see the differences that technology can make to our lives. Working from home & geographically spread out locations is becoming an upcoming trend with developments in laptop, mobile & wireless technologies. Such advancements in technology are the result of deep knitted integration between different technologies & devices. 3G technology is becoming older with other disruptive technologies in the pipeline. This was slower & more expensive with speed varying between 400Kbit/sec. and 700Kbit/sec. this will soon change with launch of new Wi Max technology. It will bring a revolutionary change in wireless broadband. Its speed will lie between 2Mbit/sec & 4Mbit/sec. Also it will be offered at a price point that matches that of cable access & is cheaper than 3G technologies to offer more competitive advantage. These advancements in technology will have severe implications on corporates, entrepreneurs, and students & will touch every aspect of mankind. Close to 8% of businessmen who remain on the move have chucked out their desktops & operate only through their smart phones or laptops.

As larger screens in PDAs & mobile phones are becoming more popular, there is increasing scope for marketers to go in for advertising through SMS, picture messages & interactive advertising. World is also getting better connected due to advancements in technology that supports social networking. Face book, orkut, linkedIn & many other portals are becoming famous places for social interaction. Software are being developed which will allow make interaction through these sites much more interactive & at the same time come up with better interface technology which improves networking & socialising through PDAs & mobile phones.

A new software for mobile phones allows user to store contact details & addresses in cell phones by speaking out their start & end points instead of having to undergo the cumbersome process of feeding them through small keys of the phone.

Gaming has become an important our everyday lives. People love to play different games on their computers either by installing it on their computer or by visiting online game sites. People of all ages love to play different games and this is not limited to only teenagers. Some online sites provide free games to their members, while there are many sites where you need to pay to play different games.

There are various kinds of games offered by different sites and players get to choose and try their hand at their favourite kind of game. Some games can be played by a single player, while other games are to be played by two or more players. Various kinds of games available online are action games, sports games, multiplayer games and puzzle games.

Games including bingo and casino games are available to be played online and often they can be trialled for free before playing for money. With many online gaming sites providing the opportunity to play free games, this trend has become popular. Most preferred are the racing games which involve car racing, bike racing etc and racing on race tracks. There are various levels in these games and the person who covers all the level wins the game.

Apart from racing there are other different games available like shooting and puzzle games. Sports games are very popular amongst people of all ages as there are many choices available like soccer, golf, tennis, ping pong, pool, baseball, hurdle race and lots more.

People who wish to download games can do so by visiting online games sites. Players can easily join others online and play different games with people residing in different countries.

The gaming industry started off slowly, developed its own niche and has now become a full fledged business. The future of gaming industry seems to be bright with people looking forward to playing new and challenging games.

Nowadays computers are part of everyday life, and sit along with eating and sleeping as something we all do every day, and although they provide a wealth of information at our fingertips, a way to make jobs which would take hours take minutes, and of course a great source of entertainment, they are not without their frustrating moments, one of these being of course the computer virus.

We've all heard of them, whether it be in the latest company newsletter about the virus attacking your bosses hard drive, or in the news that the latest computer bug will destroy all life as we know it, the computer virus can be an annoying thing, and whether we know it or not, most of us have ‘contracted' a virus on our PC at some point, but how much do we know about them? For the large majority of computer users a computer virus is something for the ‘Tech Guy' to deal with, and apart from installing anti-virus software there's little we can, or can be bothered, to do.

A computer virus is basically a computer program that has the ability to copy itself and ‘infect' a computer without the owner telling it to do so, or even being aware. The term "virus" is also commonly but wrongly used to refer to other types of malicious software such as malware, adware, and spyware programs. A virus in the true sense of the word can only spread from one computer to another when it is taken there, whether that's over a network or the Internet, or carried it on a removable medium such as a floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB drive. Viruses often increase their chances of spreading to other computers by infecting files on a network file system.

There are millions of internet scams available. With so many people going to the same sources for information, it has become relatively easy over the past few years to integrate spyware into programs so hackers and thieves can track your moves on the internet.

Certain types of spyware can be referred to as tracking cookies. These cookies are small bits of encrypted text that companies place on your hard drive every time you visit their website. They can then review other websites you have visited, how long you have spent visiting particular websites, and whether or not you purchased items from particular websites. If this idea of tracking your internet activity gives you kind of a creepy feeling, you are not alone. For this reason, there are a lot of different types of anti spyware programs available.

What these programs do is clear your hard drive of any tracking cookies that may have been placed on your drive during an internet session. It almost seems to be a kind of "big brother" in which every move you make is being watched. Scam artists use certain kinds of spyware to access your bank and personal information, if you frequently use those websites during internet sessions. Removing tracking cookies is something that can be done relatively easily. There are programs which help you remove spyware from your computer.

Some of the more advanced spyware programs will automatically block cookies from being encrypted onto your drive at all. Some will allow you to remove cookies with a quick scan after each internet session whilst others run regularly at a set time, chosen by you, to ensure spyware programs are run at a somewhat regular interval.

Spyware isn't necessarily a bad thing. Companies first used it to be able to target banner ads and other advertisements directly to the user on the internet. They become an issue when there is a lot of information encrypted onto a hard drive. The computer can then begin to run slowly, and cause more errors. It can also be considered an invasion of privacy.