Pinoy Biz Blogger

Tips for Finding the Best Credit Repair Company...and Avoiding a Credit Repair Scam

2008-05-13T19:42:00.000-07:00

Getting started with repairing your credit is one of the very best things you can do for your financial well being. At the hands of the credit system, you are being abused in the form of inaccurate reporting and an unfair credit scoring model. Through credit repair, you can do your part to make sure you get the credit score you deserve - a credit score that is truly indicative of your credit worthiness.

Choosing the right credit repair company to help you achieve your credit goals is pivotal. What follows are tips and things you should look for when choosing the best credit repair company for you.

1) Look for a credit repair company with experience

An experienced credit repair company will have taken the time to learn what tactics work best for each type of dispute. Having a large number of clients and a track record of removing many items means that a credit repair company has enough information to know what works and what does not.

2) Look for a credit repair company that has been in business for a while

Repair credit, like many other industries, has it's fair share of scammers. Preying on desperate people who long for a better credit score, fraudulent "credit repair" companies promise amazing results but the only thing they manage to do is take off with your money.

Fortunately, these companies never last very long. They are either run out of town or shut down by the FTC or local law enforcement. What this means for you is that you can usually trust a credit repair company that has been in business for a number of years.

3) Check out the company's BBB report

To start with, look for the BBB's rating of the company and their explanation of this rating. For example, the BBB report for the credit repair company Credit Bureau Experts shows the company as having an unsatisfactory rating because of unsubstantiated advertising claims made on their site.

Also look at the number of unresolved complaints to see if the company has been responsive to their customer's problems. Almost all companies will have some complaints, and the larger the company the more complaints it will have, but it is how they deal with these complaints that is important. Look for a company that addresses the concerns of its clients as opposed to a company like Credit Fix Now (see BBB report) who has an unsatisfactory rating with the BBB for not responding to to complaints.

4) Get the details on the company's payment policy

A common tactic of fraudulent credit repair companies is to charge you a large fee upfront and then either disappear with your money or otherwise not perform the agreed upon work. Many of the companies have been known to charge several hundred or even thousands of dollars before they will do any credit repair work.

Even though the practice of charging large upfront fees is illegal, there are still a number of smaller credit repair companies that try to get away with it. For example, the companies Credit Clean and Today's Credit Solutions are perfectly content to charge you one time fees of $1223 and $499.99 respectively for a year's worth of credit repair service. Granted, these companies may offer money back warranties, but that will be of little use to you if the company goes out of business or otherwise disappears.

5) Watch out for companies that guarantee to raise your credit score

To help protect you against credit repair companies who make impossible claims, the Credit Repair Organizations Act also forbids any credit repair organization from making guarantees about the results of their service when it pertains the the effect it will have on your credit reports.

While searching for a credit repair company, take note of any claims to "increase your credit score by 100 points", "lower your interest rates", or "remove all negative items from your credit reports". No company can legally make these claims and any company who implies they can should be avoided.

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Be a Sonography Technician

2008-04-15T17:56:00.000-07:00

The field of medical service is needing all the help they can get. With so many people getting sick, lots of people are needed to give cure for them. There are choices though on what field you may take. Consider to study sonography. Study at the best sonography schools in town. Be a sonography technician. Sonography tech will be a good service for all those who are in need.

Taking the Best CNA Program

2008-04-15T17:50:00.000-07:00

Considering to be a Nurse someday? Why take such lucrative course if you can take it for 2 years? Why not be a Certified Nursing Assistant? Be at a CNA school taking up CNA courses. The demand of nurses has been fading but not their assistants. Consider taking up a CNA training program, that might be the profession for you.

India Through the Eyes of an Indian

2008-04-12T23:25:00.000-07:00

I really love the idea of blogging to increase the awareness of the beauty of one's country. Like this India blog. Although the focus isn't really much of the Indian culture and the beauty of the country called India, it's very much likely to see bloggers who give tribute to their beloved country. I too has the same obsession. I have two self-hosted blogs, both named with something "Pinoy", a denonym for the Filipino people.

Precious Metal Investments

2008-04-09T01:30:00.001-07:00

Investing is a very good way of preserving one's wealth, and also a very good way of getting income, the passive way. There are lots of investment sources available in the net. Be it stock exchange, foreign exchange, or precious metal investments, you have lots of options to choose from. (Let's concentrate in Precious Metal Investments here).

Speculation is the name of the game in Precious Metal Investing. Just like investments in stocks and foreign currency, prices of these precious metals fluctuates everyday, everyhour, everyminute and everysecond, that's why having a very reliable broker who can assist you in your investments is a must. Such services can be provided by an experience brokerage firm, like Monex.com.

Monex.com offers brokerage services for precious metal investors. For over 30 years, the Monex companies have been America’s gold, silver and precious metals investment leader, which proves that investors can rely on their services. Monex offers different kinds of precious metals. There are gold bars, silvers, platinum, palladium and coin bullions.

Comparing to intangible stock investments, having your precious metal investment is a tangible asset which you can carry with pride. You can request it for delivery, the actual metal itself, not just a certificate telling you that you own one. It is a good defense against inflation and deflation, for its price goes up during inflation, and not necessarily goes down during deflation. Hedging precious metals is really a certified wealth shield, protecting and preserving it.

Culinary School Finder

2008-04-06T01:22:00.000-07:00

Searching for the best culinary schools? Still dreaming to be trained in the best chef school there is? Here is a website wherein you can search from a huge database of culinary schools in the United States. It is called Culinary School Finder. There are also articles about the culinary profession which you might find interesting and inspiring. Locate your culinary school of your choice, and be one of the best chefs in the world.

AShopCommerce your E-commerce

2008-04-03T05:32:00.000-07:00

Just like what I keep saying on my previous posts, the internet has paved the way to lots of opportunities and innovations that lead to lots of creative ideas to make life easier for all of us. The birth of the internet has soon brought the idea of e-commerce. With just pointing and clicking, of course with our credit cards on hand, items we want to buy will soon be at hand without even going outside the comfort of our homes, to the malls for example, to buy them.

This kind of comfort won't be possible without the ecommerce software that our favorite e-commerce sites integrate to their systems. Big thanks to these shopping cart software providers who made e-commerce transactions a breeze.

Regarding shopping cart softwares, I will be reviewing one provider that I find interesting, and as a webmaster of e-commerce sites, you may find it worth it to consider using it..

THE REVIEW:

Website Name: Ashopcommerce.com

More than the shopping cart software offered, Ashopcommerce offers a free store design, which I think is a very critical factor to consider in the success of your e-commerce business. Aside from that, if you are doubting whether to use ashopcommerce or not, you may opt to use their trial version first before you engage in such service. They offer a 10-day free trial, and what's good about claiming the free trial is that you need not to give them any credit card information. No risk involved in the trial.

The shopping cart software is supported with a huge database of payment systems gateways. It includes, paypal, google checkout, and many more.. With this vast database of software of payment system gateways, your customers, or I say prospective customers, may find it very difficult to resist the call of purchasing items in your e-commerce site.

One of the most important factors you may consider in acquiring your shopping cart software is the price. With a price ranging from as low as $40 at sign up to $190, Ashopcommerce is an affordable deal.

Considering all of the above stated factors you may consider, having a good customer support may make this deal more convenient for you. Check out their live customer support for any details you may want to inquire before committing yourself to their service.

Taking a Look at BlogTV.com

2008-03-29T06:06:00.000-07:00

I've discovered a website wherein you can create live shows and chat with your audience. Here, all you need is a webcam and an internet connection. I think it works like youtube but the difference is it offers a live broadcast of your videos. A 15-minute fame, it is what they offer. In the time allotment, you can showcase your talents, show them to the world and be famous. Just imaging you're in a live tv and lots of audience watching what you've got. Well, this looks really cool. You might as well be discovered with this very cool service :)

Give Way to the Fashionistas

2008-03-19T23:46:00.000-07:00

Fashion nowadays has become more than just an extravagance. In fact, it has become a necessity, though we can live without, but it do the wonders if we have one. Well, the sense of fashion is not naturally built in. It is developed, considering the different factors of life. The necessity of fashion has brought up professions regarding it. Fashion designers gives hope to the frustrated fashionistas, like me? hehe. Well, these professionals may come from fashion schools in California, fashion schools in Los Angeles, or anywhere around the globe.

Oh well, having the sense of fashion is not really that easy to attain, but when you eventually have it, the maintenance is a breeze. In the end, it will no longer matter from where your fashion designer studied, be it in any fashion school in California, what will be the most important is how you present yourself.

FInance your Education

2008-02-26T06:42:00.000-08:00

Fortunately for me, tuition fees never became my problem during my college years, I'm actually to graduate this coming April, because I have managed to keep my scholarship, which is really a hard work. But this is not always the case for every student. To some gaining the luck of acquiring a scholarship could be out of reach (I'm not bragging about my scholarship here, and nothing to brag actually. It's just a scholarship grant, not an academic one). In cases wherein students who still want to continue studying, being a part-time student, part-time employee could give a solution. Alright, this may be possible in countries like here in the Philippines, where cost of education is not that much. Comparing to other countries, I believe that the Philippines offer lower rates, but not sacrificing quality.

In the United States (or Canada, I'm not too familiar) there are programs like "study now, pay later". Those projects are very advantageous to students who don't have enough resources to continue their studies. These kinds of programs proves to be for the benefit of the citizen's welfare, which is really good. Unfortunately, such programs does not exist here in the Philippines. I really don't understand why the Philippine government does not use that idea, study now pay later, and offer it to the public. There are lots of intelligent young minds who are capable of doing many things, but are constrained because of limited resources.

There are other ways to finance education. For the well-offs, educational plans is one of them. But for the "not so blessed", student loans can be one thing to consider. I'm not actually familiar on how this thing works, but if my intuitions is correct, I believe it works just like the study now, pay later principle, although with a higher interest rates of course! In order to find the best deal, one may consider searching in student loan directories, which is probably found online. I'm not sure if these loans are applicable in all the countries worldwide. These online student loan consolidation is a great deal, especially if your directories offer services that will find the best loan for your need, of course I'm pertaining to low interest-rate loans.

Our Mini Office

2008-02-22T19:31:00.000-08:00

These past few weeks, my brother has started to contract several people to construct an office. Why an office? Well, me and my brother have been engaged in BPO, I guess its been a year already since we got that very first project. From there, we realized that we are making money out of it, a significant amount, to specify it. There started the idea of establishing an office and hire individuals who reside in our community to help us do the job. The idea of my brother is to hire people in our community so that while we are earning, they may earn too, thus helping our community have a better living.

The construction is nearly done, with only minor fixes to be furnished. I was thinking, what kinds f furnitures do we need in the office. The dimension of the office being constructed is not that big, honestly, just a very small space. So, will lockers help to maximize the small space available? I guess it will help somehow, to keep things organized. An office desk of course will always be there. Can't imagine an office without one. Computers of course will be present.

How about chairs? With such small space, I am considering to add few classroom chairs in the office. Why? To maximize the space of course. A chair plus desk in one, it can do a lot! It might look awkward though, but the important thing is the functionality, not the design per se.

Oh, before I forgot, my brother didn't tell me to choose the furnitures in the office, just my imagination playing around. :D

Pimp Your Ride!!!

2008-02-22T16:12:00.000-08:00

Tired of how your auto looks? Why not try to pimp your ride instead, coming from your own budget of course!lol. Ok, let's take it out from Xzibit, pimping your ride is very costly isn't it? If I have my own car, I'll probably be saving money now, viewing catalogs to see the latest car parts bargains there is. Or you might consider dodge parts instead?

For those who are financially capable, price is just a secondary factor, quality is the first. Taking consideration all the probable advantages and disadvantages of a product. But for who are in the other end like me, I may consider aftermarket car parts. Besides, if I make my choices with an extra caution, where could I go wrong?

Pinoy Money Talk Contest

2008-02-19T19:23:00.000-08:00

As I was reading my feed reader lately, I found out a contest hosted by pinoymoneytalk.com. The blogger behind the blog is currently conducting a contest worth $75 or 3000 pesos. It is a contest of high pageranks I guess. SEO is the name of the game. Participants are required to talk about pinoy money talk, anything about the blog, about the content, just anything. The highest rank in the results page of the query pinoy money talk will get the price. It's just that easy.

Take the opportunity, and who knows, you'll bring home the pot money :D

Is ProjectWonderful the New Entrecard??

2008-02-17T04:08:00.000-08:00

I was doing lots of blog hopping these past few weeks and I have notice something really obvious. There is an advertising network that is becoming very popular to lots of publishers. It is ProjectWonderful.com. I didn't pay too much attention to it before, but still I registered and tried it out. Yesterday, as I was making major blog hops, I'm seeing it all again, lots of project wonderful ads, so what I did is research about it. To my surprise, the idea of projectwonderful is very innovative. It is like an auction house, but it is an infinite auction. Bidding never stops, you can bid as much as you can so that your ad will show to your targeted website.

Benefits of publishers to this program is very impressive. Earnings fluctuate exponentially. This is so beneficial to websites with a very good traffic because advertisers will find it worthy to bid on higher prices. I saw bids as high as $40 per day just to show the ad. Isn't it great??

Well, for those who are uninformed about this program, try it. It's worth your time. I've removed all my ppc ads and replaced it with this one :)

Go with the Slots

2008-02-16T04:23:00.000-08:00

I have never tried gambling in my entire life. I do now how to play some card games, but I play it just for fun, no money at risk. But I am familiar with some casino games, and I think that slot machines are the easiest of them to comprehend. My housemates play a little poker, well I don't think I can understand how that game goes. I may consider gambling sometimes when I feel really bored and feeling rich. But as of now, I can't afford that vice.

If ever I will gamble, I think I'll go with the slots, and I will play it online. Online slots is nothing new, and lots of casino games has an online edition. So, if ever I gained the guts to gamble, why would I sacrifice playing in an overcrowded casino if I can play it online. Yes the ambiance won't be the same, but that's my opinion.

Finally, Im Paid!!

2008-02-15T00:11:00.000-08:00

It's been quite a while since I registered and approved by blogitive.com. I made seven reviews from them for a rate of $5 per review. As I can remember, it was outstanding for almost a month, but I was surprised when I view my paypal account last week, I was paid!! Before that, I was almost becoming very disappointed about this pay to blog site, but after all my efforts have been given the proper reward, everything is ok again.

Now I can recommend blogitive to paid bloggers like me. Though it took them so long to process my payments, at least I've been paid for the right amount they owe me.

Hits or Lead??

2008-02-10T03:46:00.000-08:00

As an amateur blogger, I was attracted of having lots of hits to my hit counter, well it does help my blog rise at alexa rank. But as time pass and as I gain experience in blogging, I have realized that getting leads is way far more important than having lots of useless hits. The difference between hits and leads does not affect my blogging career though, but for e-commerce sites, it is very critical.

Imagine that your e-commerce site receives so many hits, but those who visit your site do nothing. It means that your site is more prone to server breakdown rather than customer overflow. To avoid that, you can, at your option, initiate an affiliate program, lead management software may do a lot of good things to you. Present your site to those who have a genuine interest to your site, not just to anyone who wanted to pass by and waste your bandwidth capacity. Consider giving incentives to bloggers, like me. lol. But seriously, this works with lots of e-commerce sites. Get lead management services and let them be your guide in having a good number of leads, not just any useless hits. With a good lead management, you also can create a good customer relationship management, which is really cool and beneficial.

What Makes Medical Profession so In Demand Today??

2008-02-10T03:28:00.000-08:00

It has been an observed phenomena in the world, especially here in the Philippines. More and more students taking up nursing and other medical courses all over the country. Everywhere I go, I come across with students wearing that very popular nursing gown. I also considered taking up the course, but I haven't got that opportunity. Anyway, why do these students take nursing instead of other medical courses?? They can be an ultrasound tech (technician) and study at a famous ultrasound technician school, or they can be some medical assistants, pharmacists maybe.. So why nursing??

Here in the Philippines, the main reason is that it is in demand. A higher demand means lots of opportunities to be employed, and as far as employment is concerned, a higher salary. Yes, being a medical professional here in the Philippines is now more than a vocation as it was before, but just merely a profession. Taking care of people just for money. I am not against it though, it is reality and I having no bad thoughts about it.

People don't go into ultrasound tech school because it is nursing that gives lots of opportunities, and where opportunities is, there people goes.

VoIP for Freelancers

2008-02-03T15:31:00.000-08:00

Being a freelancer myself, making and getting calls to my clients is as critical as having this internet connection. Thanks to VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), costs regarding these calls became way less than without it. There are lots of providers giving these kinds of services in the net, and the good news is, most of them are free. It is a great help because all of our clients are overseas (this is the nature of business-outsourcing).

As we are thinking of ways to expand our services to call center services, we came across to possible dilemma we might be facing. Of course the major one is the telephone line because it will be the main source of our business. We are considering to purchase Call Center VoIP Phone Systems. Upon extensive research, we found out that having an internet telephony may cost us less than the traditional telephone connection. We may be able to surpass a long installation process when we use a VoIP system. According to our research, a traditional connection may take up to a month or more to setup, but a VoIP system only takes 7-days of installation at minimum. This will provide us an earlier startup of business, which means an early inflow of money going to our bank accounts.

Another problem we might encounter is getting that client to work with. But I guess it won't be that hard as acquiring this technology. There are lots of websites where service providers and service buyers meet, there is an active market in freelancing, you just have to be competent enough to get that job. A part of being competent is having the right tool, the right technology, and most of all, the right attitude.

Happy Hearts Month Everyone!!!

2008-02-01T05:01:00.000-08:00

At last, the long waited of month of February has now arrived. Happy hearts month! A month of flowers, chocolates and diamonds, wedding rings and anniversary rings..

Along with the incoming of the heart's month, some good news proved to be worth blogging. Recently, this blog was accepted at smorty and I instantly obtained three new assignments. The task wasn't that hard to accomplish that's why I finished it at no time. The approval of the post took five days to finished, and gladly all of the three were approved with no problem coming along the way. The good news is, they really pay weekly, my receipt of my payout proves this.

On the other hand, unlike smorty, blogitive has been incurring delays in their payouts. I was asking them reasons for the delay, to my dismay, no reply from them. But after checking the site again today, new posts in their blog appeared in the main page. Ok, the reasons for my queries were answered there. They say that they are resolving backlogs in approving post assignments, and told their publishers that they have resolved the issue. 3-weeks late with their payouts, blogitive assures that they will be catching up. They are now resolving backlogs in approving new blog approval request, and I'm hoping they finished it sooner. Just wishing them goodluck, and hopefully I receive my first payout from them sooner :D

What Do I Do to Improve my Traffic?

2008-01-26T04:47:00.000-08:00

1. I submitted my blog to the major search engines and web directories like Google and Yahoo.
This is the first thing that I did to promote my blog. My blog did not get listed instantly that's why I became impatient at first, but eventually I became very happy now that more than 60 pages of my blog is now listed at google. Web directories make it easier for searchers to find websites that may help in answering their queries. It compiles different websites and segregate each to different categories. There are lots of free web directories in the net, and I'm trying to take advantage of all of them :D

2. I joined communities like Blogcatalog, Technorati and Bloggeries.
Continuing my quest in improving my traffic, I resulted to getting tips from experienced bloggers. I was advised to join communities and interact with my fellow bloggers, guess what, it really works..

3. Visit other blogs and give a sincere comment in their posts.
Going deeper, every time I go online, I make it to a point to give time to read blogs of other bloggers and comment on it. I keep in touch, in short. Believe me, this gives a good exposure to your blog, and believe me when I say that they will reciprocate for what you have done for them.

4. I bought traffic.
This is the worst thing that I have done for my blog. I really got nothing from buying traffic, no quality at all. I recommend that no one will try to do this, it won't do any good for your blog and pocket.

5. For additional exposure, I installed widget blogrolls.
Blogrush and Criteo Widgets are the widget automated blogrolls I'm talking about. For blogrush, each time you make a new post, blogrush will syndicate it. Your new post will be viewed by thousands of bloggers who have blogrush installed in their blogs. Same thing with Criteo Widgets, the only difference is that the one being syndicated is the Blog title, not the new posts.

6. Use of free traffic exchange
Just discovered it lately, I've found a site call smileytraffic.com which offers a free traffic exchange. You just have to surf on ads on their site and you will be credited with points eligible for a free traffic. What's good about it is that there is a program in this site that lets you surf automatically. What I'm doing now is that while I am doing posts in my site using firefox, I open my internet explorer and open smileytraffic.com and engage the autosurf there. The result is a massive traffic coming to me everyday.

Just a reminder. The traffic that will register in your hit counter does have no quality at all. No quality at all! So you may be thinking why I still use smileytraffic.com. This is my strategy. The blog syndicate Blogrush uses credit points in order to syndicate your new posts. Credit points are acquired through page impressions that the widget of blogrush in your blog gets. And page impressions are acquired through traffic, irrelevant of quality. That is why I still use smileytraffic.com to increase my credit points in blogrush, a greater opportunity for exposure.

7. I use Yahoo Messenger Chatrooms
I have been doing this for a while now. I've gain friends who are engaged in the same industry. Well, I cannot say this is a good thing to do, but it somehow works good for me.

8. I'm trying to comprehend search engine optimization, I guess it will do lots of things for me.

9. Last but not the least, I am trying to make my posts informative and of high quality
I am concentrating in this point. I keep on thinking. Thinking of things to write, thinking of things to contribute, and thinking of things to share. Content is the king as they say, convincing isn't it?? What is a blog anyway if it won't help anybody.. I suggest that this is the part all new bloggers must concentrate. If you can't give anything free from your site, just be informative and many readers will love you for that.
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I am still in an aggressive quest to improve my traffic. I am planning to buy sponsored links and adwords when I have the budget. Well, this is what I can share from now, I hope this will help or somehow guide those who may read this.

Good News for the Day

2008-01-22T22:37:00.000-08:00

Great! As I opened my mail today, I find out that I have received mail from the most unexpected senders. First, a mail from smorty. "Your blog has just been approved by Smorty" Isn't that a great news?? My paid to blog sites seems increasing in numbers, meaning I have lots of opportunities coming from this single blog.

Second, a mail from Linkworth. This was the most surprising of all. Linkworth told me that I have 2 advertisers waiting for my approval for a LinkPost. It is a surprise because I'm not really expecting anything from them.

Third, ok, this is not a good news, but I prefer to include this in my post. I have just acquired a Page Rank of 3 a week ago, but as I look into my blog stats today, it is zero!! How disappointing it is, that Google gave me so much excitement last week and a very sad news today.. Well the good news about it is that before I got a 0 PR, my blog was accepted first at smorty.. LOL.. Smorty requires a blog that has a PR, and I just passed that before going back to zero.. :D

Play at Phelios.com

2008-01-22T22:28:00.000-08:00

Tired of searching for games compatible to your mac platform? There is a site called Phelios.com that offers mac games dedicated to serve the gaming needs of our fellow mac-fanatic gamers. There are lots of mac games in their directory that you might find very interesting.

You may think that, "yes, those games are compatible to my pc, but would it interest me? I guess it is just a collection of those jurassic kids game!" Phelios is not only focusing on children video games but to all ages. Try playing rpg games that they offer. It is quite tricky and mind bending. I myself is a fan of rpg games which I really enjoy playing.

Professor Internet Connection

2008-01-22T22:05:00.000-08:00

E-learning is not new at all. It has been out few years after the birth of the internet. It is quite amazing how innovative individuals came to an idea how to make this E-learning work. Let's use computerbasedtrainings.net as an example. Through the use of very attractive games, they make E-learning possible for kids. They offer excel training, pmp training and many more. They even offer leadership training for professionals to get that competitive edge.

Ok, what I'm trying to point out here is that there are lots of services in the net that can help you increase your educational achievements. With different programs, you have lots of choices. It is just a matter of what your needs really are, and how willing you are to fulfill them..

PC Games for Kids

2008-01-22T21:45:00.000-08:00

Midoritech offers various games your kids can enjoy. Well, it offers Games for Kids that even adults will enjoy. The database of games is quite limited as of the moment, but it is expected to increase as time goes by. Midoritech has special mac games dedicated to mac fanatics.

Midoritech does not only offer games, but also lessons that will help your kids be environmentally aware. Look at their global warning page, and you'll appreciate the games that your little ones play.