Banks for You!

If yours is the likes of a gaming or pharmaceuticals business frowned upon in the UK or in certain reputable offshore jurisdictions you may find it hard to operate your company. Fortunately Belize is the one offshore centre where legitimate yet difficult to place businesses can incorporate and bank.

In the past those who have quite legitimately attempted to run the likes of gaming or pharmaceuticals companies have found it incredibly hard to get company formation and bank account solutions.  The prejudices such companies face regularly makes it difficult for them to effectively run the financial side of their business, and as a result some look offshore for help.

However, favourable and respected jurisdictions such as the Seychelles can also err on the side of over-caution when it comes to such types of so-called ‘difficult to place’ businesses, and as a result companies can be crippled and restricted. 

The good news is that a respected provider of offshore solutions has recently managed to negotiate the creation of a perfectly suitable structure for these types of businesses.  So, for those who are legitimately involved in the legal side of the adult, gaming or pharmaceuticals industry, read on to learn how your business could finally operate with confidentiality offshore.

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Conversations with security experts often leave me paranoid, and my recent chat with Gartner’s Avivah Litan was no exception. We were talking about how banks try to spot fraud with credit and debit cards, and she tossed in an aside about how easy it is for bad guys to swipe data from gas pumps.

Apparently, many older gas pumps don’t encrypt the PINs you enter when you use your debit card. If a criminal can get a key to open the pump—not all that hard to do if you have a disgruntled or otherwise cooperative gas station employee to help—then a card-skimming device can be installed inside to scoop up the PINs along with the information contained on the magnetic stripe.

So far from being safer to use at the pump, as this horribly incorrect Yahoo! Answers entry contends, debit cards can be far more vulnerable than credit cards. A bad guy with your debit card info and PIN can swipe money directly from your bank account. (The criminal gang that compromised debit cards at Michaels recently did exactly that.) With a credit card, on the other hand, you don’t have to pay bogus charges. Those are

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About two years ago, I bought a new car but was lied to about how much it would cost. After a year I simply could not afford the car and could not refinance as I was incredibly upside-down. The auto lender wasn’t willing to help, so I did a voluntary repossession. Nissan came after me for the balance remaining after auction but eventually wrote it off as a bad debt (this shows on my credit report). The debt has been sold twice to collection companies that call me on my cellphone and at work but don’t leave messages. I can see they’re checking my credit but they haven’t reported the debt on my credit report. Is this legal? I feel if Nissan wrote the debt off (and I am suffering from that via credit reporting), there should no longer be debt to collect.

Answer: When a lender charges off a bad debt, the debt itself doesn’t disappear. The lender is simply declaring that it doesn’t think it will be able to collect. The debt ca

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MSN Money recently had a story about how a third of the loyalty rewards points Americans earned go unused–a loss that averages $205 per person per year. That’s a lot of dough to just let expire.

Here’s how to make sure you’re not letting free money slip through your fingers:

Keep track. Just as it’s easier to monitor all your financial accounts if they’re aggregated on one Web page, it’s a lot easier to keep track of your loyalty rewards programs when you can see them at a glance and they’re automatically updated. I use TripIt Pro to track my travel-related points and miles, but also recently signed up for UsingMiles.com, a site that promises to help me use those rewards to find flights, hotel rooms and upgrades. Another site to check out is AwardWallet.com, which specializes in alerting you when your points and miles from a wide variety of programs are about to expire.

Know their value. When researching free travel, UsingMiles.com simultaneously shows you the lowest cash price for the same flight or hotel room, which can help you decide whether you’re getting good value for your points. That’s something

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That’s when I’ll be speaking at an event to benefit WISE, Women Investing in Security and Education. WISE is a terrific  nonprofit organization that helps women and girls learn about money in non-threatening environments.

The event runs from 6 to 8 p.m. at Costa Mesa’s Center Club and includes an appetizer reception (because you can’t learn on an empty stomach!). I’ll be talking about “How to Survive and Thrive in the New Economy” and answering participants’ questions about money.

Admission is $40 if you get your tickets before May 20 and $45 at the door. Parking is included.

I’d love to see you there.