Tuesday, March 10, 2009

What to Look For in a Money Counter

You may initially consider buying a money counter to eliminate wasted time or to increase counting accuracy; or both. But once you have decided to purchase a money counter, how do you know which one is right for you? I did some research recently to develop a list of criteria to help you decide! It is important to choose the counter that best fits your company’s needs to increase efficiency and productivity during the money handling process.

Counterfeit Detection

First, consider whether you will need the option of counterfeit detection. If counterfeiting is a concern, you may want to purchase a counter/counterfeit detection combination machine. Typically these detectors use ultraviolet light or a combinations of ultraviolet light and magnetic detection to prevent the acceptance of fake bills. In general, money counters with added counterfeit options are more expensive and machines with both ultraviolet and magnetic detection are usually a little more expensive, but offer increased protection and versatility. In businesses completing a high number of transactions with large bills, money counters/counterfeit detectors are vital to accuracy and security.

Discriminators and International Currency

To make counting even faster, machines are available that are able to detect different bill denominations. These machines are called discriminators and are usually much more expensive than a typical money counter, but can be a huge time-saver for businesses counting large amounts of cash. Some counters are capable of detecting international bills, as well as separating smaller sized bills. When counting bills from multiple countries, international detection is a must.

Vertical or Horizontal Feed

Machines are available that can be loaded flat, by stacking bills, or loaded standing up, on the bill’s side. Machines that accept stacked bills are called horizontal feeders and those that accept only bills on edge are called vertical feeders. A horizontal feed allows the user to stack more bills into the hopper and reduces time when counting a large number of bills. For counting less than 100 bills at a time, a vertical feed is sufficient.

Additional Features

Money counters come with a variety of extra features to accommodate almost any counting needs. For instance, some models come with an external count display that allows more than one person to view the running count. This feature is perfect for situations when a teller is counting bills for a customer. Machines intended for large counting operations often come with a dust shield to deflect dust and debris away from the operator’s face.

Warranty and Service

Finally, like any product you may consider buying, investigate the specific brand’s warranty and service agreements. Ideally, you will want to find a money counter that remains under warranty for at least one year. Many manufacturers offer on-site service packages for maintenance and repair on your counter. To ensure you purchase a counter that has a long life, find one that offers the best possible warranty and service agreement.

When you are looking for a money counter remember there are an assortment of models with different features, don’t settle on a machine that doesn’t fully accommodate your needs. Examine all the possible features and choose the product that helps increase your efficiency and productivity the most. Use these basic guidelines to help narrow your product search and find the counter that is right for you!

Canadian Debt Consolidation

Our lives are full of shocks, surprises and twists. When we are challenged financially we often freeze in fear and stand-by watching as our lives deteriorate into a nightmare. Money problems are a common occurrence in the current financial climate. They are often brought on by poor health unexpected job loss, motoring expenses, addiction, and many other mishaps. When we finally realise our dire circumstances it's often too late and the shock strikes hard. So what do we do when we realise we cannot even afford minimum payments?

People from Canada are just as likely to experience financial difficulty as anyone else on the planet. Luckily, Canadians are able to seek Canadian debt relief. Debt consolidation loans are varied and work in many different ways.

The primary debt consolidation method utilises the professional services of a debt specialist. The job of this individual is to liaise with and negotiate with the clients creditors. Expert debt consolidation specialists are able to organise and negotiate reduced loan payments and interest rates. Both of these strategies bring forward the final payment date. This Canadian debt consolidation method is best used by debtors who identify and act on their problem before they reach bankruptcy. The big advantage associated with this method is the fact that the arrangements are satisfactory for all parties involved. Once the debtor has paid off the outstanding funds, he can make a fresh start.

The beauty of this approach is that it allows the debt consolidation specialists to build a strong relationship with the lending companies. They develop a trust which is otherwise hard to achieve between debtors and their lenders.

The debtor also has the advantage of being able to rely on an expert with the experience to realise what they can afford each month. The debt consolidation expert therefore, is able to rely on his expertise to ensure the debtor is provided with a practical arrangement that he's able to meet. It is his responsibility to help the debtor get back on their own two feet. It's in the consolidation expert's best interest to provide an effective service for future employment testimonies.

The second debt consolidation method is Canadian debt relief. If he is accepted the debtor is loaned sufficient funds by a financial institution to clear his debt. He uses the borrowed money to make the final lump sum payment. This breaks him away from the entanglement of higher interest debt. He now has a much lower interest rate loan to pay back. The advantage of this is that it is a single monthly payment as opposed to multiple smaller payments, it's far easier to manage and keep track of. Once he's made several payments towards this new loan he will see massive improvements in his credit rating.

Bankruptcy in Canada can often be avoided by making use of country's well-established debt relief systems. The benefits attached to a debt consolidation service in Canada are immense and can easily assist the debtor's desire to improve his credit score. If your debt is becoming too much and you feel overwhelmed it's time to look at Canadian debt consolidation as a means to improve your situation.

Using The “Autograph” To Get Cheap Motor Insurance

What if your motor insurance provider told you that you could get up to 25 percent discounted from your next car insurance policy simply by showing them that you were a safe driver? It would sound obvious won’t it - after all, basically, isn’t that what a no claims bonus is all about? Well, you can guess again, because with the new “autograph” device getting up to 25 percent discounted on your car insurance policy in the years to come is going to be a very real experience!

What Is The Autograph?

Basically, an “autograph” is a device that you ask a garage to plug into the diagnostic part of your car (which can be found underneath your steering wheel). The autograph will then record all of your driving skills, including how fast you drive, your average speed, whether or not you need to suddenly break (and, if so, how often), the times of the day that you like to be out and about on the roads, what your average mileage is, what your longest and shortest journeys are. In fact, the list is endless. After a pre-determined period, say three or six months, you then return to garage that installed the autograph and they will uninstall it and replace it with a new one. The old autograph is then plugged into a computer and all the requested recorded data is feed into a computer and sent to your motor insurance provider. Your motor insurance provider can then take a look at all of this recorded data and can decide, more accurately, if you are a high or low risk driver!

Benefits of the Autograph

If you are a good driver, the benefits of agreeing to use an autograph are easy to see – after all, recorded data rarely lies! The downside to using an autograph is the fact that it is recording the data collected in the car. This has two effects – first, you have to have a car capable of recording this data (i.e., not too old); second, the data collection cannot differentiate between drivers. As such, if you have a car in your house that is driven by several different people, the autograph will not be able to tell who is driving the car at any given time. Consequently, if you have your son or daughter on your car insurance and they tell you they like to drive at 50 miles an hour, while the autograph tells the motor insurance provider they like to drive at 120 miles an hour, it’s not likely you are going to be getting the 25 percent policy premium discount you were looking for!

All in all though, as with pay per mile car insurance, getting cheap car insurance using an autograph device, although being the way of the future, is here to stay and will most probably benefit far more motor drives than it inhibits.

Using Cell Phones While Driving Increases Car Insurance Rates

Cell phones are the omnipresent electronic devices of this era, and multi-tasking is the byword of this generation. So, it is quite natural to see many people jovially chatting over the mobile phone or thumbing down instant jokes while negotiating the traffic on busy highways. It is a habit that spreads like the bushfire does in Australia. And in the long run, it is as deadly as well.

Studies have proved that drivers who use cell phones while driving are more prone to cause accidents. Many researchers have equated driving while using mobile phones (or is it the other way around?) to drunken driving. They say that in both cases, a person does not have enough focus and mental capacity to carry out a potentially dangerous activity like driving. If you also have this habit, do not shrug and dismiss this article as nonsense. There are many gains - both for you and for others - if you do away with this habit.

The Advantages Of Stopping Cell Phone Use While Driving

The primary advantage is that you are keeping a safe distance from accidents. It has been estimated through various studies that a person using cell phone is four times more likely to meet with an accident. The reasons for this are not hard to understand. One cannot focus fully on the road and the other vehicles, if one keeps on chatting on phone simultaneously while driving. Thumping, or writing text messages on the cell phone, is a doubly dangerous activity. It requires the driver to control the vehicle with one hand and half a mind.

Well, let us drive past the usual negative thoughts on the same subject, such as accidents can happen to anybody and other similar gospels. Just for the record, there are a number of people who have been driving without causing any major accident.

The second, and perhaps a more tangible, benefit is the reduced car insurance Canada premium. In many states in the USA, using cell phone while driving is a traffic offense that can get you a penalty ticket. The more the number of tickets you attract against your name, the higher will be the insurance premium. In these troubled times of economic recession, insurance companies are eagerly waiting for something to increase the insurance premium. They can easily track the tickets against your name, even if you got those in faraway locations.

The rules regarding this are not consistent across the country. Different states have different sets of rules. At present, seven states have banned talking through a handheld device and texting while driving for general public. But more states - 17, to be precise - have banned the use of mobile handset device for beginner drivers. Several states allow the person to use hands-free device for talking through the cell phone while driving. But it is strongly reminded that driving does not lend itself to multitasking.

Young drivers should be more conscious about the financial burden, if not the social troubles, that can be resulted from their cell-phone-induced driving. The rules regarding cell phone use are more stringent for the new drivers and the increase in the tax premium is steeper. The bottom line is that using cell phones while driving not only increases your phone bills, but raises your car insurance premium as well.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Split Dollar Insurance

What is Split Dollar Insurance? You may or may not have heard of this term. It sounds very sophisticated at first, but with a little explanation, this type of insurance is easily understood.

Split Dollar Insurance is when two entities, an employee and an employer, pay premiums and the benefits of a life insurance policy are shared between the two. The policy benefits are split and the costs, or premiums, may be split, as well. The insurance is on the life of the employee. This provides insurance to the employee at a reduced cost.

Why would a company want to have this type of insurance available? It is used to give a reduced cost life insurance policy to an employee. This is viewed as a valuable added benefit to the employee. Therefore, companies can use this sort of insurance as a way to retain employees. Getting good employees loyal and committed to your company is not always an easy prospect. When the good fortune of the company arrives and there is a good group of employees in place, some companies realize that they need to do something to retain these people. Good people are hard to find.

Take, for example, the financial industry itself. At one financial company the brokers and registered representative are doing a good job. They get noticed. But they don’t just get noticed by their own company, the other companies in the industry are hearing about what a good job Joe Smith is doing over at Eastern Financial. Before they know it their employee is trying to be lured over to that company. Of course this other company has a lot to offer, as well. They say well your reputation is impeccable and we want you to come and work for us. Since we know that we have to make it worth your while, we will offer you benefits such as health insurance coverage and a 401(k) plan. But the loyal employee turns down the offer because they realize that they have all of those benefits and more. They also have insurance at a reduced cost. This type of offering made available by the current employer with the split dollar insurance, made a difference to the employee. This was an added benefit that helped make the ultimate decision to not leave a company that takes such good care of their employees.

It is important to understand that split dollar insurance is not a qualified plan. A qualified plan has to meet certain Internal Revenue Code criteria. This means that it qualifies for favorable tax treatment. What is good about qualified plans is that they have tax deductible contributions and tax-deferred growth. Further, there are employers that contribute to these plans. When they do, generally speaking, their contributions to these plans are viewed as a business expense for tax purposes. However, split dollar insurance does not fall into this category.

Moreover, the company is not profiting from the split dollar arrangement, they merely want to recoup their costs. They are usually not looking for a tax advantage either. They just want to be able to offer a fringe benefit to the employee. Usually this type of insurance is selectively offered as an executive perk.

Life insurance can help provide protection and benefits to people in many different situations. The best way to get an understanding of what one’s needs are is to connect with an insurance agent. They can get an understanding of your specific situation and suggest products to provide the best overall answers to one’s needs.

The Absa Mortgage Options and Benefits

Absa is clearly a big name in the banking industry of South Africa with assets worth more than R456 billion and was formed in 1991. With Barclays having a +-56% stake in ABSA makes one feel more secure. And after all, security is the thing everyone is after when it comes to mortgages.

ABSA is a very popular South African Bank and is one of the largest when it comes to bonds.

Absa has a number of mortgage options, structured to fit every conceivable budget. Absa are known above all for their MultiPlan option and wide range of choices for lower-income home owners.

So let’s take a look at Absa’s main home loan product, the MyHome option. This product is pointed at first time and low-income home owners with add-ons and special features. Absa also provides building loans to cater for the needs of the growing number of small businesses in South Africa, as well as a buy-to-let option for aspirant landlords.

This home loan product is very flexible and can be customized to suit everyone’s needs. That is what truly makes this product so unique. MyHome has been designed in such a way that it really isn’t a home loan package at all; it is a home-building block that can be conjoined with multiple add-on options and features in the same way you’d use a little black dress to create a wardrobe of various clothes for every event.

The benefits that you get with the Absa home loan is that you can assign your repayments by selecting your preferred interval and choosing which interest rate you’d prefer, flexible or variable. With the current economic climate, having this choice is important. With electronic banking and due-debit orders, transactions are quick and easy to make.

The MyHome mortgage product is for everyone who earns less than $750 a month. You can even get this option without having a formal proof of income and the TartetSave product will help you working towards overcoming this obstacle. Absa also offers insurance options to insurance your home when getting this option.

When you apply for a mortgage, you have to make sure that the loan will adabt to your budget and needs.

With the FastForward product, you can automatically enlarge your bond repayments. It is in your best advantage to pay of your house as soon as possible as this will save you thousands in the long term. If you need money then FlexiReserve is the way to go. With this you will be able to withdraw cash in your bond account when you need it. You can do this easily. The FurtherAdvance allows you to register a higher amount on your home loan up front, even before you need it, so that you have access to that virtual loan if and when you do need it. This option will let you save thousands in the long run as your house will be worth that increase. With Multiplan you can configure your mortgage account into separate accounts with different interest rates, terms, etc. MultiPlan is like a spreadsheet; you can design the way you want to handle your bond yourself.

Cheap Car Insurance Companies Online In Alabama

If you are going to drive a car in Alabama you'd better buy car insurance. The penalties for driving without insurance include having your car's registration suspended and paying a fine of $100 - plus a lot of time and aggravation. Fortunately the state of Alabama makes a very cheap form of auto insurance available to its drivers, a type of car insurance that virtually every driver can afford.

It's known as a 20/40/10 basic liability policy. This is the cheapest insurance policy that you can buy in Alabama and still drive 100% legally.

This policy pays a maximum of $20,000 toward the medical expenses of any one individual who is hurt as a result of an accident with your vehicle. It pays a maximum of $40,000 toward the medical expenses of everyone involved in an accident with your vehicle - this $40,000 maximum payment is made regardless of how many people are hurt or how badly they are hurt. The policy also pays a maximum of $10,000 in property damage (typically the repair of the other person's vehicle).

There are a couple of things you should be aware of if you are thinking about buying this insurance. First, a liability policy pays NOTHING toward repairing your car after an accident nor does it pay anything toward any of your medical costs or the medical expenses of anyone in your car at the time of an accident.

The other thing you need to understand is that the maximum payouts on a basic liability policy are rather small. It is not difficult to run up medical bills in excess of $20,000 or even $40,000 after even a moderate-sized accident. Also, the cost of repairing most modern cars is astronomical - for some models a simple fender-bender can almost run $10,000.

The reason this is important is because if your insurance doesn't cover all of the medical bills or all of the property damage caused by your vehicle in an accident it is possible that YOU could be forced to pay the difference out of your own pocket or purse. That means your life savings could be wiped out or you could even be forced to sell your home to pay the bills.

But regardless of what kind of cheap car insurance you're looking for the best place to find it is online. Online insurance sellers have very little overhead and they pass those rather substantial savings on to you.

In order to insure that you are getting the very best price possible you're going to want to see the prices from the largest number of companies possible. The best way to do that is to make your car insurance price comparisons on more than one site and not relay on the results you get from just one site.

Once you've reviewed all of the prices you've found, getting the best deal is as easy as simply choosing the lowest price. The state of Alabama wants you to know that it is absolutely serious when it says that you must buy car insurance before you drive a car on its roadways. If you're caught driving in Alabama without car insurance your car's registration can be revoked on the spot, meaning your car may be impounded at a tremendous cost to you. Plus you'll have to pay a fine of $100. Fortunately the state of Alabama offers its drivers a very cheap high risk auto insurance that almost anyone can afford to buy.

This cheap insurance is called a basic liability policy. Every state has one and every state sets the minimum payouts that such insurance must make. In Alabama the cheapest insurance policy you can legally buy is called a 20/40/10 liability policy.

What this means is that the policy will pay a maximum of $20,000 to pay the medical bills of any one individual person who is hurt in an accident with your vehicle. The insurance will pay a maximum of $40,000 to pay the medical bills of everyone in the other vehicle who is hurt. Plus the insurance will pay a maximum of $10,000 in property damage - usually the repair of the other person's car.

If you are familiar with medical costs or with the high cost of car repairs you will understand why this cheap insurance is considered a high risk type of insurance. It doesn't take a very big accident for someone to need considerably more than $20,000 to pay their medical bills, and it doesn't take much of an accident to cause far more than $10,000 in damage to someone's vehicle.

So what happens if you are at fault in an accident and the bills are higher than your basic liability policy will cover? It's possible that YOU could be forced to pay the difference. Some people have lost their entire life savings or have even been forced to sell their home because of one car accident.

Still, if you are looking for the cheapest high risk auto insurance there is, a basic liability policy fits the bill. And if you want to get it at the best price possible then you'll definitely want to buy your policy online. Buying your policy online will save you a ton of money!

In order to guarantee than you have found the best possible price when you start comparing auto policy prices online you'll want to make your price comparisons on several different sites. But once you've done that then all you have to do is to choose the lowest price you've found and you're done!