How to Improve Your Online Shopping Experience

 

The holidays are coming and what better way to purchase unique gifts for your loved ones than shopping online. To help you, we’ve listed down some tips and tricks on how you can get the most out of your online shopping purchases this gifting season.

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  1. Practise Couponing

Using coupons won’t make you look cheap, it’ll make you appear as a smart shopper. So be sure to check for discount coupons before making any purchases online.  Most online shops offer discounts as a part of their marketing strategy, and they often post these vouchers on their websites, blogs and social media accounts. Another trick to easily find online shop coupons is to install a plugin called Honey in your browser. This plugin automatically searches for vouchers for any product, and applies the biggest discount available during your checkout.

  1. Compare Product Prices

Aside from using coupons, learning how to compare product prices will also help you get the most out of your online shopping purchases. You can do this by simply listing down a good number of websites and the prices for a particular item, and contacting a specific seller to see if they’ll be able to match the lowest available price of the product. If that specific seller really wants your money, then there’s a good chance that they’ll give you a good discount on the product.onlineshopping5

  1. Opt for Refurbished Items

Unlike what most of us believe, refurbished products actually have better quality than non-refurbished items. The reason behind this is because refurbished items have undergone thorough inspections and quality assurance more than the non-refurbished ones before being placed in the market again. So the next time you purchase some gift items, particularly gadgets, be sure to take a look at the refurbished section first.

  1. Purchase From New and Smaller Shops

Although purchasing gift items from well-known online shops has its own advantages, do try looking out for smaller but trustworthy shops. Their listings will likely be cheaper and their customer service support will likely be more direct, personalized and responsive compared to those of bigger and more popular shops. You might even find some unique items that most popular online stores don’t have.

Making the most out of your online shopping experience is actually easy. All you’ve got to do is put the aforementioned tips to work, conduct multiple checks before checking out your cart, and avoid shying away from good discounts. With this, you’ll definitely turn from a rookie shopper to one smart online shopping expert.

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Withdrawing Money Safely

ATM Safety Tips

Criminals and lawless citizens all over the world are being more creative and bolder when it comes to getting what they want and inflicting fear and harm to others. Unfortunately, Singapore is not an exception to this. The number of listed cases of robberies in Singapore are growing, much to the alarm of the Singaporean citizens.

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For our part, the most vital thing we can do is to protect ourselves from being vulnerable to these incidents. Here are some helpful tips to be safe when using the ATM.

  1. Always check before using.

Do not simply rush to the most convenient ATM location to withdraw money. It is crucial that we check the ATM machine and the surrounding areas first before using it. Choose the machine in an area that is well-lit and well-guarded. Check also if there is a CCTV unit monitoring the area. If possible, avoid using an ATM that is obstructed from the view of the public.

ATM machines just outside banks are your best bet because it’s also guarded by the security detail of the bank. ATM machines inside malls are also good to use because they are near an establishment that is well-monitored.

  1. Have someone accompany you.

Using an ATM when you are alone increases your chances of getting mugged on the spot. When you are with a friend or a family member, there is an extra pair of eyes watching your back.

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  1. Your card must be protected.

Banks often tell their clients to have their cards ready before approaching the ATM machine. Standing there while rummaging through your bag for your card gives robbers an opportunity to pounce on you. After using it, quickly place it back inside your purse. Don’t just leave it lying around.

  1. Protect your PIN.

Commit your PIN to memory. Don’t write it on a piece of paper or anywhere where just anybody can get a hold of it.

Being vigilant will help us not to be victims of violent crimes. As they say, awareness is half the battle won. Always keep these tips in mind when you plan to withdraw money in an ATM. Stay safe.

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Learning Credit Card Don’ts and Action Plans  

 

There are a lot of experiences – good and bad when we are in our twenties from the excitement of getting that first pay check to our first self-funded bank accounts and credit card. All experiences, whether good or bad are meant to give us a lesson. In this case, let us dwell with our newly found financial power – credit card.

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Having a credit card gives us power to purchase whatever we want (as long as it is within the credit limit). However, if we do not know how to deal with it, it can ruin our life and our future. As early as now, we have to identify bad habits and curb it before it is too late for our finances. Here are the don’ts and action plans:

1.Credit card payments: When we take on the responsibility of having a credit card, we have to remember two things – the cut off and the due date. Cut off refers to time covered by the billing period. This is usually sometime mid-month. There is no escaping our due date. We have to remember that if we do not pay at the right time, the bank will levy 3-4% of interest. The action plan is simple: never forget the due date.

2.Paying minimum only: If we have the money, why not pay all the credit card debts at one time? If we pay minimum and leave the rest next month, there will be new expenses. If this is our habit, we should not be surprised if our credit debts are piling. The action plan is to pay the full amount so we won’t worry about the amount the next month.

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3.Unsupervised auto debit: Today, we do not need to worry about our monthly bills because we can just link it with our credit card. While this is convenient, this is a little risky because we are allowing the companies to automatically deduct the amount. The best thing to do is to be careful when we link our credit card.

4.Know our worth: Even if we think we have a good career, it is still better if we check how much money is coming in so from there we can assess how much we are going to splurge.

If we want to keep away from debts, we should not consider credit cards because it can really take a toll on our finances. At the end of the day, everything will depend on us.

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Useful Tips for Single People to Save Money

Married people often joke around that their single friends have it easier with life. There are no kids to take care of, no house mortgage to pay and no educational plans to save up for. These assumptions are not entirely true. Married couples fail to realize that single people also face financial pressures and problems.

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Single people often have to pay for their own rent, without anybody to split it with.  They are also more inclined to eat out and spend their money in bars and clubs to socialize with friends. Single individuals tend to overspend so we’ve compiled some tips to help them save up and cut back on the unnecessary expenses.

Think twice about who you hang out with. If you hang out with friends who love to go to expensive restaurants for weekend dinners or those who go to go clubbing on a regular basis, maybe it is time to hang out with them less. It’s a proven fact that we are more inclined to spend a lot when we are in the company of people who also like to spend a lot of money.

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Exploit your resources. If you are living alone in a spacious house with multiple rooms, you can rent out the excess space to get more income. You can even share the rent with a friend or a relative. It’s also time to check out your closet for some clothes and other items that are not of use to you anymore. You can organize a garage sale to gain profit. The upside of being single is that you can do whatever you want with your belongings, and in this case, you can use them to your own benefit.

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Finding A Financial Planner for Your Future

If you do not know what financial planning in Singapore is, it is making better use of money than simply keeping it stashed at home or in savings account in a Singapore bank. Nowadays with a financial planner, it is much easier to get monetary advice on products. There were times when inflation was not a problem and people’s incomes were not affected by price rise. A financial planner singapore is essential for planning for an unpredictable future. They could afford to keep their money in homes or banks for future use. Having a financial planner to look through your finance planning is important as there are many factors that affect your wealth management and life insurance plans. A financial planner can help you to do all these planning. But today, it is not just saving but investing this saving in profitable schemes in Singapore that promise higher rate of returns that are necessary to have a secure future. That is when a local financial planner comes in to give advice. Liabilities and responsibilities of kids and wife, apart from thinking about life after retirement, have today made financial planning a must for all of us, and thereby having to rely on a Singapore financial planner. They also help to regularly review your wealth management policies during meetups to ensure that you have the right policy for your future. There is a great need and high demand of experts who can do this financial planning for us, such as mapping out our life insurance plans. These financial planners are professionals who have a better knowledge of various investment schemes than common people and can suggest people a better way of investing to secure their future. Being a financial planner is not a simple task as it involves many aspects like wealth management.

In fact, financial planning for individuals, corporations, organizations and groups has today become a very lucrative career of sorts as more and more people wish to secure their future by hiring the services of Singapore financial planners to evaluate their life insurance policies. Knowing this, financial planning Singapore is an emerging field that has a lot of potential in terms of future growth as people are becoming aware of the need for financial planning by a financial planner but find themselves unable to invest in profitable schemes. These Singapore experts are known by many names such as financial advisors, planners, financial managers, wealth managers, life insurers, and so on.