Website Reviews SmartLiving123

January 21, 2011

December 26, 2010

December 23, 2010

www.USBank.com/Credit-Cards – USBank Credit Cards

Filed under: Finance — Tags: , , — Paul @ 2:49 am

To apply for a USBank credit card, go to www.usbank.com/credit-cards.

US Bank is a major retail bank in the United States of America. It is the sixth largest bank by deposit based in the US, and has more than 3000 branches over 24 US states. A big part of its business is the issuing of credit cards for retail customers. At this web-page, you can get an overview of all the cards issued by US Bank.

US Bank credit cards can be divided into 3 categories according to their benefits and purpose including: rewards, basic, and student. The rewards cards issued by USBank are especially popular. The most popular one is the FlexPerks Cash Rewards Visa Card. The most attractive feature of it is the 1% cash back on all purchases without limit. There is also no annual fee. Introductory features include 3% cash back on all gasoline purchases for the first 90 days, and 0% introductory APR for the first 6 months on balance transfers. Finally, it also includes free extended warranty coverage, which doubles the manufacturer’s warranty period up to 1 year, as well as free collision and damage insurance on rental cars, which allows you to decline the collision coverage offered by rental car companies and saves you cash. Note that to use these free additional features, you must charge your purchases or your rental cars to the USBank FlexPerks Cash Rewards Visa Card.

In addition to the FlexPerks Cash Rewards cards, US Bank also has many other rewards cards that offer rewards in various forms. For example, US Bank offers several travel rewards cards, which allow you to accumulate frequent flier miles every time you charge purchases onto them. Currently, airlines participating in USBank travel rewards program include AeroMexico and Korean Air Skypass. USBank also offers retail rewards cards, with rewards that are tied to specific retailers. For example, USBank offers an REI card, tied to Recreational Equipment Inc stores. REI is a consumer cooperative that specializes in selling outdoor and sporting gear. If you shop frequently at REI stores, this one may be worth your while. It has no annual fee, and you get 5% cash back on all REI purchases, as well as a 1% rebate on all other purchases. In addition to the REI card, USBank also has tie-ups with other retailers such as Gymboree and Harley-Davidson.

If you are interested in any of these financial products mentioned above, visit www.usbank.com/credit-cards for more information.

December 18, 2010

www.citibank.com – Citibank Student Loans Information

Filed under: Finance — Tags: , , , — Paul @ 2:21 am

To apply for Citibank student loans, go to http://www.citibank.com.

This site is the official internet presence of Citibank. Citibank is one of the Big Four Banks in the United States. It is the consumer banking arm of Citigroup, the financial institution that was rescued by US taxpayers during the 2008 financial crisis, and is now majority-owned by the US government. The bank receives savings and checking deposits from consumers, and offers a wide variety of loan products, including credit cards, mortgages, personal loans, and student loans.

If you are about to attend college, you should begin to familiarize yourself with the process of financial aid and student loan application. To facilitate this process, Citibank has also set up another website, www.studentloan.com, to help educate students who are looking for a student loan. For example, before applying for a loan, you should first arrive at an estimate of your financial needs during your education. The amount of money you need depends on the school you are going to, as well as the various grants and scholarships that you may have been offered. You should also look at federal loans and grants that may be applicable to your situation. In general, it is usually best to take advantage of and max out any federal loans and grants first, because these are usually offered at a subsidized interest rate, and have relatively loose repayment terms. Only after you have maxed out your federal loans should you turn to private educational loans to fill in any financial gaps that remain.

Once you have finished your preparation work, you should check out what specific student loan products Citibank has to offer. To do this, click on the “Lines and Loans” tab, then on the “Student Loans” option, to see the private educational loans that Citibank offers. There are three classes of student loans offered by Citi. The first class is a loan for general undergraduate and graduate education, payable over 20 years after graduation. The second class is a loan specifically for medical, dental, veterinary, and pharmacology students, payable over 25 years after graduation. And the third class is a student loan for specifically for law students, payable over 20 years after graduation. On the same site, you can also begin the application process by clicking on the “Apply Now” button. The interest rate that you are offered will depend on your field of study, as well as on the credit scores of your loan guarantors, and therefore will be known only near the end of the application process, after you have provided all the pertinent information.

To learn about Citibank student loans, go to www.citibank.com, or www.studentloan.com.

December 15, 2010

www.citimortgage.com – Check Current Citi Mortgage Rates Online

Filed under: Finance — Tags: , , , , — Paul @ 9:31 am

To check current mortgage rates offered by citibank online, visit http://www.citimortgage.com.

For a quick look at the approximate rates that are being offered, you should move your mouse over the “See Today’s Rates” button, and the current fixed rates in California will pop up. Both the 30 year and the 15 year fixed rates are shown. The rates are listed under the columns of “Interest Rates”, “Points”, and “APR”. If you are trying to compare Citibank mortgage rates with that of another bank, the correct rate to use for comparison would be the annual percentage yield “APR” rate, which takes into account points and prepaid interest among different lenders. Note however that the APR may or may not include application and appraisal fees, as well as title insurance.

Mortgage rates offered by banks vary depending on many factors, including your state of residence, your credit score, the duration of the loan, and your income level. For a more comprehensive look at Citi mortgage rates that take into account some of these factors, you need to click on the “Get your new home mortgage started today” link, which leads you to a page with the “Customize my rates” button. Clicking on that button takes you to a comprehensive mortgage interest calculator. At first sight, the calculator looks very forbidding, because of the large number of fields on it. However, many of these fields are automatically calculated from the values you enter, so the actual number of fields you have to enter is very small. The most important fields are right on the top of the calculator, marked with red asterisks. These are the location of the property you want to buy, whether it is a primary residence or a vacation home, and the expected purchase price. Based on your entries in these fields, the monthly homeowner’s insurance and taxes will be automatically calculated. The downpayment is also automatically set at 20% of the desired loan amount. Note that if you cannot pay a downpayment of at least 20%, you will be hit with a higher interest rate and be required to purchase additional mortgage insurance. Conversely, if you enter a higher downpayment, you can get a lower interest rate. Finally, you need to enter your monthly income and expenses. Once you have entered these fields, just click on the “Save and Continue” button, and you will be presented with a variety of mortgage options based on your inputs, including both fixed and adjustable interest rate loans of various durations.

To check today’s citi mortgage rates online, go to http://www.citimortgage.com.

December 10, 2010

www.wachovia.com/mortgage – Wachovia Mortgages

Filed under: Finance — Tags: , , , , — Paul @ 8:27 pm

To find out more information about Wachovia mortgages, or to check the balance on your existing Wachovia mortgage online, go on to www.wachovia.com/mortgage.

This site will automatically redirect you to https://www.wellsfargo.com/wachovia/mortgage/, which is the central site for Wells Fargo mortgages. Of course, Wachovia bank itself is now a division of WellsFargo Bank. During the financial crisis of 2008, Wachovia Bank was found to be holding too many adjustable rate and subprime mortgages which were in danger of going bad, and suffered from a near bank run. After the failure of Washington Mutual bank, Wachovia suffered $5B in withdrawals in a single day in September 2008, and was forced to by the government into being taken over by Wells Fargo Bank. Hence their websites are now in the process of being replaced by WellsFargo sites.

Previously, you could check your Wachovia mortgage balance directly on www.wachovia.com/mortgage. However, since the site has been replaced by the Wells Fargo mortgages site, the same Wachovia mortgage login must be accessed via the “managing your account from Wachovia Online Banking” link. Once you have clicked the link, you will be directed to the Wachovia Online Banking site, where you should choose the “Online BillPay” to pay your monthly mortgage. From the same site, you can also access your  savings or checking account, or securities brokerage account.

Wells Fargo is in the process of converting all Wachovia mortgage accounts into Wells Fargo accounts. Eventually, nearly all Wachovia mortgages will end up being Wells Fargo mortgages. So, this is a good time for Wachovia customers to begin learning more above Wells Fargo mortgages. Conveniently, now that the Wachovia mortgage login site has been replaced by the Wells Fargo mortgage site, you can learn about their mortgages on the same site. If you click the “Learn More” button near the bottom of the page, you will be directed to the WellsFargo Home Mortgage website where you can check up on the latest rates offered by the bank. In addition to rate information, there are many tools available on the site which can help a mortgage holder. For example, there is a set of tools which can help you determine whether you will save money by refinancing your mortgage, including a refinancing calculator which can help you estimate how long it’ll take for you to break even if you refinance.

To log into your Wachovia mortgage account, or learn more about WellsFargo mortgages, visit www.wachovia.com/mortgage.

www.frivschool.com – Play FREE Online Games | Friv School

Filed under: Finance — Tags: , , , , — Paul @ 2:16 pm

Play free online games at http://www.frivschool.com.

Www.frivschool.com is a site where you will find safe and free Flash games that are appropriate for children of school-going age. The games are arranged as icons on the website, which the 250 games being laid out in a grid on the site. You are told the title of the game when you mouse over an icon. Clicking a specific icon launches the game. Because the games are all flash-based, you probably can play the games with any Flash-capable browser on both PCs and Macs.

One example of a game at www.frivschool.com is “The Last Village”, located on the 5th column and 9th row on the site. This is an Age of Empires type game where you are the head of an Indian Village in North America which is under attack by invading Europeans. The aim is to protect the village from oncoming attacks. You have access to resources such as wood, gold, iron, food, and the population of your village. You can also build fighting units, each of which is led by a commander. Each commander has his own special attack. There are five types of units that you can produce: swordsman, bowman, spearman, gunman, and spell caster. On the top right of the screen is the minimap. On the minimap, you are able to see the positions of your own units and the positions of the invading units. You will also see the condition of the village buildings. Like Age of Empires, you can build various buildings with the resources, which will produce various units or various improvements that will help you protect the village. Not every building can be built on every spot, and when you mouse over a spot on the map, the buildings that can be built on that spot will light up. There are a variety of buildings that you can build. For example, you can build a blacksmith which will make weapons and armor and make your units more powerful, or you can build a sawmill which will harvest wood and give you more wood every turn. Buildings can be upgraded so that they become more powerful. Every turn, you are also allowed to move your commanders one space, through the “Strategy” button. You can also set traps on empty squares so that the enemy will step into them. Every turn, there is a chance that an enemy will start an attack from one of the squares outside the screen. Your job is to move your commanders into their path to block and kill them. If the enemy reaches your town center and successfully burns it down, then the game is over.

If you want to give “The Last Village” a try, or try any of the other 249 free flash games there, just pay a visit to http://www.frivschool.com.

December 9, 2010

Online.CitiBank.com – Apply for Citibank Credit Cards Online

Filed under: Finance — Tags: , , , , — Paul @ 7:47 pm

To apply for Citibank credit cards online, you can go to online.citibank.com.

This site is an alias to the www.citibank.com site, which is the main site of Citibank, a major global financial institution that is headquartered in the United States. It has gained notoriety as one of the more prominent banks which had to be rescued by the US government during the financial crisis of 2008. Today, the bank has largely recovered from the financial crisis, and has resumed its full range of operations. In the consumer banking sector, the bank receives customer deposits and issues credit cards.

What kinds of credit cards are offered by Citibank?

On this web site (https://online.citibnak.com), you can browse on the cards issued by the bank by clicking on the  corresponding tab on the top of the page, and then the “Credit Cards at-a-glance” link. This will lead you to a page which shows you the most popular credit cards available at Citibank in 3 card categories : rewards, business, and college student cards. The most relevant facts about each card, such as the APR and the rewards, are listed next to the cards. You can also click on the “Get Details” button next to each card to get a more detailed list of the terms and conditions associated with each card. At the bottom of the page is a “Check all credit cards” link, which will lead you to a page which presents all 23 credit cards issued by the bank. You can view them in a list format, or in a grid format. You can also choose up to 5 of them and compare their features side by side. And you can begin an online application immediately for any of these cards.

How can you apply for a Citibank credit card?

At the pages above, each credit card has a bright red “Apply Now” button associated with it. Simply use the “Apply Now” button, fill out a short form, and then wait for Citibank to email you with the results. There will be an automated check of your credit score and history based on your social security number which you provided, and if successful, a new card will be issued in your name. The card will arrive in a few days by regular mail.

To  file a Citibank credit card application online or learn related information, visit online.citibank.com, and then click on the “Credit Card” tab.

December 4, 2010

MyAlaska.state.ak.us – MyAlaska Unemployment Insurance Benefits Application Online

Filed under: Finance,Government & Local Politics — Tags: , , , , — Paul @ 12:37 pm

To file for Alaska unemployment insurance benefits online, visit https://myalaska.state.ak.us, the MyAlaska web site.

How to file for unemployment in Alaska

If you lost your job and have difficulties finding a new job, you may need to file for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits to get some financial compensation. For Alaska residents, there are two ways to apply for unemployment benefits. One is online at myalaska.state.ak.us, the other is over the phone.

If you prefer to file a new UI claim on the phone, you can call the Alaska’s Unemployment Insurance (UI) claim center in your area. In total, there are 3 UI claim centers in the state of Alaska including the Anchorage, Juneau and Fairbanks UI claim centers. Here are their telephone numbers respectively: 1-907-269-4700 (Anchorage), 1-907-465-5552 (Juneau), and 1-907-451-2871 (Fairbanks). There is also a toll free number that you can use 1-888-252-2557. When calling this phone number, your call will be routed to the UI claim center near your location.

If you want to apply for UI benefits online, you should go to the MyAlaska website at myalaska.state.ak.us. This web site comes with internet security features so you will see an “s” after “http” in its URL. Before using the services provided by this web site, you should check whether your web browser is compatible with this site. Usually in order to use this site, both Cookies and JavaScript should be enabled. To run the web browser compatibility test, you simply click on the link “Browser Compatibility” link. If your browser is compatible, it should pass the test without any problem and your status should be “passed”. They will also show what type and version of web browser that you are using now.

The My Alaska web site is established for multiple purposes. It serves both individual and business users. To apply for AK unemployment benefits on this web site, you should click on the link “Unemployment Insurance Benefits” under “Individuals”. If this is the first time for you are visiting this site, you need to create an account. During the new account registration process, the username, password and the secret question and its answer will be created and your email will be asked for. The username and password is very important for your Myalaska account login purpose. So you should put them in a safe place. If you forgot your username, you need to provide your registered email so that they can send your username to your email. You can also retrieve your forgotten password, but the process is a little bit different.

In your MyAlaska account, you can apply for Alasak UI benefits. There are some info about you and your last job required for your application such as your name, social security number (SSN#), the contact info of your lost employer and so on.
There are many things that you can do in you MyAlaska account. For instance, you can file bi-weekly benefits even though the bi-weekly benefits can also be applied on the phone by calling VICTOR, an automated telephone claim filing system.

Website for MyAlaska UI claim online: https://myalaska.state.ak.us

December 2, 2010

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