first step in reducing your debt

The first step in reducing your debt is to work out exactly how much you owe. Now, this may sound obvious but you’d be surprised how many people know they have have debts with various credit cards, store cards and loans, know they’re paying monthly towards them, but don’t know what the outstanding balance is (or are too afraid to look).

Make a list, separating out each individual debt. Be sure to include all your:
- credit cards
- unsecured loans
- loans secured on your house, e.g. mortgage
- other secured loans
- store cards
- bank overdrafts
- car finance
- other hire purchase (furniture, electrical goods etc)

Next you need to write down further details of each one. Find out what the interest rate is for each of the debts, how much you are paying each month and how much longer the debt has to run, either by checking your statements or by calling the companies.

Now write a new list; put your mortgage (if you have one) at the top of the list, followed by any other loans secured on your house. The reason for this is that these are the repayments with the highest priority: the last thing you want to do is concentrate on paying off other debts, but have your home reposessed in the process. Underneath these draw a line then write your other debts, in descending order of interest rates, i.e. the highest at the top. Your list should now look something like:
Abbey Mortgage - 6% - £126,000 - 22 years - £850/month
Ocean Finance Loan - 7.9% - £28,250 - 4 years - £625/month
—————————————————————
Debenhams Store Card - 29% - £1250 - indefinite - £80/month
NatWest overdraft - 17% - £900 - indefinite - £0/month
LloydsTSB overdraft - 18.7% - £850 - indefinite - £0/month
NatWest Visa - 16.9% - £3700 - indefinite - £85/month
Barclaycard - 14% - £5250 - indefinite - £95/month
Car hire purchase - 10.5% - £9,500- 3 years - £222/month
NatWest Loan - 7% - £6300 - 3.5 years - £142/month
Total debt - £182,000Total payment/month - £2099
The plan now is two-fold: pay off debts with the highest interest rates first and, where possible, move debts to a lower interest rate without extending their life.

This last point is very important. Although your monthly repayments will be lower you will stay in debt for longer and could end up paying more in total over the life of the debt. For example, £10,000 over 3 years with a 10% interest rate is £322/month; over 5 years at 7% it is only £198/month. However, with the second option you would have stayed in debt for 2 years more and paid an extra £264 in interest. Only if you are stuggling to make repayments should you ever consider extending the life of a debt.

Source: http://www.debtassistant.co.uk/

Efficient ways to pay off your debt more quickly or reduce the amount you pay out each month!

What you should be aiming to do is move as much of your debt to as low a interest rate as possible, whilst paying as much as much as you feel comfortable with each month.

Mortgage and Loans Secured On Your House

Of all of your debts these are the most important, as if you default on monthly payments you run the risk of losing your home. Unless you only have a few years left on your mortgage (less than 5), do not be tempted to either increase the size of it to pay off other debts or extend the length of it. In the first instance you will end up paying off your debts over many years, and in the second you will be in debt for longer. Both mean you will pay end up paying more in interest.

Remortgaging is one way to reduce the amount you pay on your mortgage, and if you are on a standard variable rate it will certainly be worth investigating. This may involve some upfront outlay in arrangement fees from the new lender and early repayment penalties from your existing lender, so these will have to be weighed up against the savings you will make. My advice is to speak to an independent mortgage advisor, who will be able to tell you whether this is the right course of action for you and, if it is, find the mortgage that is best suited to you.

There is little you will be able to do with other debts secured on your home. If you can afford it you may be able to reduce the term of the loan (and therefore increase the monthly payment), but secured loans are usually the cheapest way to borrow money. If you have extra money available to put towards your debts you would be better off paying off credit cards and overdrafts first.

Credit and Store Cards

After loan sharks, store cards are one of the most expensive ways to borrow money, with monthly interest rates of 2% not uncommon. If you have available balance on your credit card you should immediately transfer your store card balances over, and then cancel your store cards.

Many companies offer 0% introductory rates on credit cards, so if possible you should transfer as much of your debt as possible to one of these. However, make sure you know what the minimum payments is, how long the introductory rate lasts for and if there are any penalties for transfering debt to another card once the introductory rate has finished.

Unsecured Loans

Depending on when you took out the loan and the type of loan you have, it may be possible to move it to a different provider at a lower interest rate. This may be to a 0% credit card or another loan.

You should, however, be careful not to extend the length of the loan. As with mortgages, the longer the loan, the more interest you will pay, so even with a lower interest rate you may end up paying more for it. If you transfer it to a credit card, be sure to pay at least as much each month as you were previously; this way you will finish repaying it quicker. Also check with your current lender for any penaltys for paying off the loan early. If there are any this may negate the benefits of moving it for a better deal.

Hire Purchase & Finance Agreements

As with unsecured loans, you can pay off a hire purchase or finance agreement early, usually subject to a penalty, without being liable for future interest. The way to work out whether it is worth doing this and transfering the debt to another provider is to ask the finance company for an early settlement figure. If you can obtain a loan for this amount at a lower interest rate, and not extend the length of the debt, then you should do so. You can then choose whether to carry on paying the same amount each month to clear the debt earlier, or put the savings towards paying off any more expensive debts.

Game on with psx4iphone, the Playstation 1 emulator for iPhone and iPod touch

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. The unofficial Playstation 1 emulator is officially here and just in time for Christmas! In fact, if you have a Jailbreak iPhone or iPod touch you may already have it in your hand. Just check the Installer.app for psx4iphone to add it to your device. You can also try the manual installation method if you don’t want to run Jailbreak.

Once the emulator is installed, you need to select the games you want to play, but take note, not all games are created equal here. Some run great, some not so well. Please let us know which games are the best. Read all about psx4iphone at the developer site at www.zodttd.com.

Source: http://www.touchtip.com/

Stream iTunes to your iPhone or iPod touch while you surf the web

Simplify Media, the iTunes plugin that lets you share your entire music library over the internet, now works with iPhone and iPod touch. Unlike similar applications, Simplify Media does not use Safari to stream music. This allows you to surf the web while you and your friends listen to your iTunes library from anywhere you have Wi-Fi access.

To install Simplify Media, you will need a Jailbreak iPhone or iPod touch with the AppTapp Installer. Then go to AppTapp and look for Simplify Media under the multimedia category. When you run it you will need to sign in with your Simplify Media username and password. Download the desktop version of the software for Mac or PC to create your free account. Be sure you have a Wi-Fi connection because EDGE won’t cut it. And you might want to check out the iPhone demo at the Simplify Media web site.

Source: http://www.touchtip.com/

iPhone and iPod touch helping doctors help you

We knew we should have listened to our mothers and became doctors instead of web developers. At least we’d spend more time using these cool iPhone tools to improve patient care instead of surfing YouTube all day. These three new medical applications indicate that the iPhone and iPod touch are starting to make their way into doctors’ offices and hospitals.

1. Drug Information - Epocrates web-based drug guide

2. Practice Managment - Software from MacPractice

3. Health News - The Chondriac health news reader

Drug Information

Having free drugs at your fingertips may sound like a dream to your friends in Amsterdam, but over here it might get you arrested. With this free drug database from Epocrates (now optimized for iPhone and iPod touch), it’s like having a drug dealer on speed dial. Well, okay, maybe more like a pharmacist.

Epocrates has long been regarded as the gold standard of mobile reference tools for doctors and clinicians, and their applications run natively on a broad range of mobile platforms (Palm, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry). They have recently released an iPhone optimized version of their web-based drug reference tool, Epocrates Online, which features drug content written for the health care professional. We would love to see the entire Epcocrates mobile suite running native on the iPhone, and perhaps we’ll get our wish after Apple releases the SDK next year. Until then, you’ll need a PDA or Smartphone to use the native Epocrates applications. In the meantime, you can access the Epocrates Online drug information with iPhone or iPod touch at m.epocrates.com/iphone.

Practice Managment

For professional grade practice management software on the iPhone, you may find what you need with MacPractice, offering specific solutions for medical doctors, dentists, chiropractors, and optometrists. MacPractice software is very robust with the ease-of-use design that Macintosh is famous for. And MacPractice now has iPhone and iPod touch access built in, allowing you to use several key features from the convenience of your Apple device.

• Log in to view patients with appointments any day
• Search for a patient
• View patient contact information
• Tap to email a patient
• Tap to call a patient
• Review patient Rx history

Health News

There is no shortage of health-related news web sites available, but Chondriac (a new tool from mobile app creators, dataXform) makes it much easier to read that news on your iPhone or iPod touch. The news is organized nicely into categories for men, women, and children. There are also news categories for specific diseases and ailments, along with hooks to topical health care blogs. The app is very responsive and features the intuitive slider UI common in many iPhone web applications.

Point your iPhone or iPod touch to www.chondriac.com to start reading health care news today. You can also access Chondriac using Safari 3 from your desktop computer and the same URL above.

source: http://www.touchtip.com/

With Quicken Online, the iPhone is so money

There is a new breed of personal financial management applications that don’t require you to be an accountant in order use them. Sites like Wasabe and Mint are targeted to younger people that don’t need advanced features and are just looking for an easy-to-use system to view and manage their finances while getting advice along the way. Both of these web apps are great in their own way, but each lack mobile access for iPhone and iPod touch. On January 8th, Intuit comes to the rescue with the release of Qucken Online, a simplified version of their desktop software that features an optimized interface for the iPhone.What makes this so exciting? Imagine using your iPhone as a register for checks and credit card expenses. Tap in your expenses as you make them and this gets reflected in your Quicken Online account instantly. This is extremely handy for shared accounts where multiple users need to see actual financial positions in real-time, instead of what the bank happens to know about at that time. Intuit also plans to integrate Quicken Online with TurboTax next year (for the 2008 tax year), a move that will assure this web app the top position among its competitors.

Quicken Online connects to your bank accounts and credit cards to give you a picture of your cash flow, and it knows how to connect to over 5,000 banks and credit card institutions. Online bill payment services will not be included in the launch but will be added in future updates. The service does detect which of your expenses are bills, then sends reminder alerts by email or SMS before those bills are due.

Access to Quicken Online is priced at $2.99 per month (after a 30-day trial). Sign up for the beta today at http://www.quickenonline.com/.

source: http://www.touchtip.com/

iPhone and iPod touch: Tips when using Wi-Fi

See the iPhone User's Guide or iPod touch Features Guide for information on configuring Wi-Fi. Check these suggestions if you run into any issues using Wi-Fi. For best results, make sure you are using the most recent iPhone or iPod touch software.

Try renewing DHCP lease at commercial hotspots

If you are having issues using a commercial (paid) Wi-Fi hotspot, like at an airport or coffee shop, try renewing your DHCP lease.

1. Tap Settings > Wi-Fi Networks, then pick the network.

2. In the DHCP panel, select the Renew Lease button.

If this does not resolve the issue, then you might want to try, "iPhone Basic Troubleshooting or iPod touch: Basic Troubleshooting.


If iPhone Wi-Fi connection reverts to EDGE

If you're trying to connect to Wi-Fi and it looks like you're connected, but when you access a web page, it goes back to EDGE, it may be due to a known issue if wireless router is using MAC Address Filtering and the iPhone's MAC address has not been entered into the filter list. This may also occur if the WEP password was entered incorrectly.
If you experience this and use WEP Password, on the iPhone tap Settings > Wi-Fi. Then tap More Info ( > ) next to the Wi-Fi network name and tap Forget this Network. Then try accessing the Wi-Fi network again. Alternatively, turn off WEP encryption on the wireless router.
If MAC Address Filtering is enabled on the wireless router, make sure iPhone's Wi-Fi address (in Settings > General > About) is entered into the router's filter. See the documentation that came with your wireless router for additional information.


Weak iPhone Wi-Fi signal

If you are having issues using the Internet, checking email, checking stocks, or other data activity with the iPhone (the possible error message could be "could not connect to server") and the Wi-Fi icon is showing very weak signal, try turning Wi-Fi off on the device so that the iPhone can use EDGE (tap Settings > Wi-Fi and the set Wi-Fi to off).


"Unable to Join Network Failure (error -3)" connecting to Wi-Fi

If you are receiving the error message "Unable to Join Network Failure (error -3)" on the iPhone or iPod touch when attempting to connect or join to your Wi-Fi network, verify your Wi-Fi Network Name (SSID) and Security setting (WEP password, WEP hex or ASCII, WPA, or WPA2) for the device.
On the Wi-Fi Access Point/Router, you should verify if MAC address filtering is turned ON or OFF on the router, whether the security settings on the router match the iPhone or iPod touch (WEP password, WEP hex or ASCII, WPA, or WPA2), and try disabling (QoS) quality of service if that feature is turned ON for the router.
If you are still receiving the error message "Unable to Join Network Failure (error -3)" on the device when attempting to connect or join to your Wi-Fi network after trying the above suggestions, tap Settings > Wi-Fi > Other (under Choose a Network) and then enter the Wi-Fi Network Name (SSID) and select your Security setting and enter your password.

No Internet access when switching networks

If you are switching between different Wi-Fi networks and you are unable to access the Internet on the iPhone or perform other data activities thru Wi-Fi, try turning Airplane Mode on and then off (tap Settings and turn Airplane Mode on and then turn Airplane Mode off). For iPod touch, turn Wi-Fi off and then back on again (tap Settings > Wi-Fi and turn Wi-Fi off and then turn Wi-Fi on). If the issue continues, tap Settings > Wi-Fi > Other (under Choose a Network) and then enter the Wi-Fi Network Name (SSID) and select your Security setting and enter your password.