New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Verizon Wireless has announced plans to charge many customers a $2 convenience fee every time they pay their monthly bill.

The charge applies to any customer who pays their bill for that month by phone or online using a one-time payment on a debit or credit card. However, customers who agree to have an automatic recurring charge to their debit or credit card every month will not pay a fee.

In addition, customers can avoid the fee by paying at a Verizon store; mailing a check or by paying online or over the phone with an electronic check, or Verizon gift or rebate card.

Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) is the nation’s largest wireless company with 91 million customers. Company officials said the fee would help to address the costs incurred by the company for customers who make single bill payments on their debit or credit cards.

Analysts say that payments by debit and credit cards cost more to process than other payment methods because of bank fees. The new fee takes effect on Jan. 15.

Although other wireless companies do not have a similar program, several do charge fees under certain circumstances.

Sprint charges certain customers who have a spending limit on their accounts a $5 monthly fee if they don’t enroll in a program to have automatic payments. T-Mobile charges customers a $5 fee if they make phone payments that involve speaking to a company representative.

View full post on All Stories

Tokyo, Japan (AHN) – Japan’s debt rating was downgraded to Aa3 from Aa2 by Moody’s on Wednesday. The cut came over concerns about the level of the Asian giant’s budget deficit and borrowing.

However, the rating agency said Japan’s outlook was stable. Although Japan is the world’s third largest economy, it has the highest public debt level among developed nations.

Japan is in a recession and registered negative growth rates for three straight quarters. Japan’s economy contracted at a yearly rate of 1.3 percent during the second quarter of 2011.

The country is still recovering from being hit by a massive earthquake almost six months ago.

On the same day of Moody’s downgrade, Tokyo announced the release of $100 billion foreign exchange reserves to the Japan Bank for International Cooperation to help exporters and increase imports, Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said.

Japan holds $1.07 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, which is the second largest in the world next to China.

The release aims to battle the strong yen, which has been rising to post-World War II highs since the March 11 earthquake. The strong currency is undermining Japan’s recovery.

Thomas Byrne, vice president of Moody’s, agreed that the yen’s continued appreciation is bad for the Japanese economy and could even worsen Tokyo’s fiscal problems.

Moody’s also cut the ratings of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group by one step following the rating agency’s downgrade of Japan’s credit rating.

Moody’s said that one factor behind its doubt over the ability of the Japanese economy to recover is the country’s power problem caused by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which led to the reduction of the country’s nuclear power output and an order for residents to reduce use of electricity.

View full post on All Stories

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Standard & Poor’s said on Thursday that it may downgrade the U.S.’s AAA credit rating. The ratings agency says that Washington has a 50% chance of a credit rating cut.

The S&P warning came a day after another ratings agency, Moody’s Investors Service, made a similar warning because of the growing possibility that the U.S. may default on its debt due to lack of agreement by political leaders over raising the country’s credit limit.

S&P hinted that it may lower by one or more notches into the AA category in the next three months the U.S. debt rating if the agency comes to a conclusion that Congress and President Barack Obama could not agree on a credible solution to the problem in the near future.

The U.S. has enjoyed the AAA rating since 1917.

Washington has an August 2 deadline to raise the government debt limit from the current $14.3 trillion, but both sides appear not willing to compromise on their respective positions on how to cut the nation’s debt through reducing spending and increasing taxes.

S&P said that if the situation continues, Washington would be forced to drastically cut spending to avoid a default. This, in turn, would create a negative impact on the American economic, which has yet to recover from the global financial crisis in 2008.

The agency said the effect of a U.S. default on consumer sentiment, market confidence, and economic growth will be long lasting. Because of these red flags, Obama told lawmakers on Thursday an agreement on a debt deal must be reached within the next 24 to 36 hours.

View full post on All Stories

Beijing, China (AHN) – Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s announced that it had downgraded its outlook for China’s property market to negative from stable over concerns about the government’s decision to tighten its credit policy.

China’s central bank announced on Tuesday that it planned to tighten credit to curb borrowing in the wake of soaring inflation in the country. The central bank on Tuesday effectively reduced the amount of cash the nation’s banks could lend with a decision to raise the reserve requirement ratio to a record high rate of 21.5 percent.

Raising the reserve requirement came on top of interest rate increases four times since October in an effort by the central bank to rein in inflation. The central bank also made those moves because the government is trying to prevent property prices from soaring to bubble-high prices.

Bei Fu, director of corporate ratings at S&P’s, explained that the agency expected the next six to 12 months would bring more negative rating actions for Chinese developers. Tighter credit in the country is expected to result in weaker property sales.

View full post on All Stories

New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Citigroup admitted on Thursday that its security was breached by cyber thieves who gained access to thousands of data of the bank’s North America credit card customers.

The bank disclosed that the hacking incident was discovered after routine monitoring.

Citigroup said it is contacting clients whose information such as names, credit card numbers, residence and email addresses were exposed. The number of affected customers is about 210,000 or 1 percent of the bank’s 21 million credit card clients in North America.

The bank said other vital data such as Social Security number, date of birth, card expiration date and card security code were not accessed by the hackers.

It declined to provide more details on the incident, but said the company has put in place enhanced procedures to prevent a repeat of the hacking incident.

Citigroup warned the affected card holders to be on the lookout for scams, phishing and phone calls that would claim to come from Citibank and their subsidiaries.

View full post on All Stories

View full post on All Stories

Cash Loans are finances given to people who want money immediately to fulfil some of their urgent demands. These advances have several benefits. However the best feature of this is that the cash is made available instantly to the debtor within a time period of 24 hours. The loan approval is given within an hour of submission of the application. Also there is no requirement to place any collateral, any faxing documents and also there is no credit check. Thus, the pace of the lending process speeds up which results in faster customer service.

Without credit checks Cash Loans are made available to those borrowers also who do not have a very good credit standing giving them a chance to prove themselves and helps them to enhance their credit score. The only drawback that these credits suffer from is their high interest rate. T with so many benefits, one drawback can be overlooked.

These short term credits which are not granted to the applicants for more than a month are available over the web. This online method is simpler, more convenient and hassle free without any documentation requirements.

View full post on All Stories

To benefit the advantages of these funds you presently need to give in your personal details in an application form that is provided to you on line for free. You may require giving in your name, residential address proof, depository account number, an ID proof, and some more details. There are no official procedures involved in availing these loans. The borrower only has to look in that the submitted data is true; if any untrue data is found in the application letter your request for the same gets rejected.

The cash that you borrower beneath these credits carries along high interest rates which are very unaffordable if the repayments are not done in time. The only way to keep these deals under control is that you need to repay the amounts in time. The interest rates are high in these credits as the lender does no ask you to place in any collateral nor do they need to give in any credit verification test.

If the borrower desires to avail a different kind of loan he can visit the internet and get a deal of his kind which means a deal that is affordable. There are many on line lenders and the applicant has the liberty to check or compared these contracts with the other on line contracts.

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The Obama administration has found an unexpected ally in a ratings agency in the White House’s battle with Republican legislators over spending cuts and hiking the federal debt limit. On Thursday, Moody’s warned that it may downgrade Washington’s credit rating if the U.S. debt ceiling is not hiked soon.

Moody’s said that the U.S. credit rating could downgraded because of a very small, but increasing risk of a short-lived default, which would likely translate into higher interest rates at a time when the country’s recovery is again on the slow lane.

The ratings agency anticipated there would be a political battle between the Obama administration and Republican legislators before the debt ceiling would be lifted, but Moody’s said that it failed to consider the worsening conflicting positions between the two parties. Washington wanted to raise the debt limit to $16.7 trillion from the current $14.3 trillion, but with no major spending cuts.

Moody’s warning came on the heels of a lower outlook by Standard & Poor’s of the AAA U.S. debt rating to negative from stable because of the political wrangling.

The House voted on Tuesday not to hike the federal debt limit without major spending cuts. At the Wednesday White House meeting of Republican legislators with U.S. President Barack Obama, the legislators asked the administration for a detailed plan on budget cuts to solve the impasse.

House Speaker John Boehner justified the lower house’s refusal to give in to Obama’s request because raising the debt limit beyond spending cuts would cost jobs for Americans. Obama, however, warned that failure to hike the debt limit soon would lead to dire consequences for the fragile, but recovering U.S. economy.

View full post on All Stories