Current research figures suggest that over 80% of all internet users do online banking, and that the demand for the online savings account is at an all time high. Online banking has created some win-win situations for both the banks and for consumers. Online only banks have significantly lower overheads than traditional banks as they do away with the need for expensive branch networks. The win for consumers not only comes in the form of added convenience with access to your account 24/7 but because banks can pass the savings onto consumers in the form of lower fees and higher returns. The key reason quoted for the attractiveness of the online savings account, is the higher interest earnings draw card.

When selecting an online savings account, there is no one size fits all product. Your financial behaviour is a key factor in choosing an online savings account- especially in as far as transacting volume and saving patterns are concerned.

Here’s what to look out for when comparing online savings accounts.

Interest Rates

Check the interest rates payable on the account and compare them to others on the market to ensure they are competitive. Make sure you know if the interest rate is a standard variable rate or simply an introductory rate for a fixed period, e.g. 6% for 12 months. Check how interest is calculated and paid. The most common method used is to calculate interest daily and for it to be paid monthly.

Minimum Deposit

Look out for the minimum deposit required when opening an account. Many online high interest saving accounts have no minimum deposit required but there are some that may require an initial lump sum, say $2,000 to open the account.

Account Fees

Check whether there is any fees payable on the account. These may be in the form of a monthly account fee or usage related fees such as charges for making a transaction or contacting customer services via phone instead of online.

Interest Penalties

There may be indirect account fees payable too. Look out for online saving accounts that charge an interest penalty when withdrawing money from your account. A common penalty is that you may earn no interest for the entire month in which a withdrawal is made.

Read beyond the headlines

Make sure you understand the full details of the online savings account offer that you see. A promotion may advertise ‘earn up to 6% interest’. In this case you’d want to see if all your money would be earning the 6%. Some banks have a range of interest rates that apply depending on how much money you have in the account. Ideally every dollar should be earning the same high interest rate.

Accessing your money

Before applying for an account, think about how you may need to access the money and how quickly you’d need to access it. Many online banks work by linking your savings account to your normal everyday bank account. This is cost effective and often fee free but may take a couple of days for the money to get to your bank account. Some online banks provide an ATM card providing instant access to your funds.

Build your savings wealth faster

It’s easier to set up an online savings account and then neglect to add money on a regular basis. When applying for an account you should think about setting up a regular direct debit from your everyday bank account. By making a regular deposit each month you’ll soon find your savings and interest earnings starting to add up.

The Good News

The good news is that many of the online saving account offers on the market are very competitive and you will find a range of offers with high interest rates, no minimum balance requirements and no fees or penalties. Just be sure to compare the variety of online savings accounts available before you apply online.

In this article I will discuss the benefits of a little known but very important plan called a family income plan which is also known as family income benefit. I will explain how the plan works and further I will go into how this type of plan can benefit the average client looking for life insurance.

First of all it is important to understand the various needs for life insurance and therefore have a greater understanding of were exactly the likes of family income plans fit within good financial planning.

There is generally only a handful of reasons one would have life insurance. The obvious ones are family protection and loans or mortgage protection. Mortgage protection or loan is quite simple you have a liability of a certain amount of money, so best advice dictates that you should insure exactly that amount in the event of death, and if funds allow in the event of a critical illness. Family income benefit does not cater for mortgage or loan protection for reasons that will be later explained.

Family protection is where family income plans fit perfectly. Family protection is all about making sure that your family or your dependents are adequately taken care of financially in the event of your death. In order to suitably meet this need you invariably have to have a figure to insure, an amount of money that your dependents would need in order to maintain their standard of living in the event that the worst actually happens.

A lot of people tend to use their incomes as a good benchmark to work from when ascertaining what level of cover they actually need. The reason for this is during life you may support your family to the tune of 25,000 for example, so it is fair to say that in the event you die they would need 25,000 per annum in order to maintain their standard of living.

Before the likes of family income plans people only had lump sum insurance plans to to take out as protection. This meant people would have to work out what size of lump sum they needed if they wanted an annual benefit of 25,000. Due to the fact tat they would never know what future inflation or investment returns would be meant this was far from an exact science and again from a good financial planning point of view was a poor and risky way to work.

Along came family income benefit. In short this plan pays out the annual required benefit. So if you wanted 30,000 per annum you took the plan out with that level of sum assured and then if the worst happens the plan pays out 30,000 per annum.

The plan went a bit further to ensure that it did the job correctly, by including something called indexation. This meant that each year the value of the benefit actually increased to ensure that if and the when the worst actually happened the amount your loved ones would receive would be the right amount regardless of how high or low inflation had been. Furthermore once claimed it would continue to rise with inflation making sure that continued to maintain that value from the benefit.

So in summary if you are looking for family protection and it is a level of income you are looking to protect, which 99% of time it really should be, then family income benefit is generally the right plan for you. It will ensure you have adequate cover to protect your family in the event of your death and it will continue into the future with inflation protection as a result of the indexation benefit available as an option within the plan.

When people are young, the last thing they want to think about is cheap life insurance. Even entering into a marriage or another permanent relationship will probably not provoke the issue. It is only when the first child is on the way that most couples sit down to discuss the unthinkable. The reason? The acceptance of children into your life is the acceptance of a responsibility to see them through to adulthood with the fewest problems possible. There has to be a financial safety net in place in case one parent falls. What happens if both parents die, say, in a traffic accident? This brings us to the first issue. It does not matter whether both parents will continue to work or one will stay home to look after the children. Whatever insurance is put in place must cover both partners. That way, a survivor will hopefully have enough money to complete the children’s upbringing. If a relative is to assume the care of your children after you are gone, a lump sum will ease the children into a new home. To estimate how much insurance, you will need to “guess” how much it will cost to care for your children. This will be particularly important if any child has special needs. So, if the survivor is the homemaker, he or she will need to replace the missing income. If the homemaker disappears, the earner will need to add in the costs of a “nanny”, i.e. one or more people to run the household while the survivor is out during the working day.

Then, continuing in the thinking the unthinkable mode, you will need to keep the insurance under review. This covers a number of different possibilities:

• your children’s health or needs may prove to be more expensive than you had predicted so increasing the amount of coverage may be necessary;
• if money was tight and you took out a term policy, now may be the time to convert it into a whole life policy; or
• you may want to make the children the beneficiaries of the policy if divorce is possible.

One other option to consider while the children are babies is to insure their lives. This is very cheap because their average life expectancy is long. It provides against the slight risk that, should they develop a chronic illness later in life, they might otherwise be refused insurance.

For you as parents, there are lifestyle issues to consider. You will get discounts if you quit smoking, drink only moderately and reduce your weight, all of which extend your life expectancy. You will also get a lower premium rate if you give up dangerous sports or hobbies. Finally, you need to think about a slightly different risk. Even though you may be perfectly healthy now, this may not last. Should you develop cancer or heart disease, there will be no further life insurance quotes. This is now a balancing decision based on your worst fears and your financial situation. As a young healthy person, you will get low life insurance rates. It can benefit you to take the maximum you can afford early in your life. If necessary, buy convertible term insurance. This starts off cheaply and you can covert when you can afford it.

Debit consolidation assists people in organizing their insurmountable debt from credit cards and collection accounts as they juggle car loan payments, mortgages, and family living expenses by offering loans to pay off the outstanding debt. Many companies that offer programs for people in such a position often work as non profit organizations, funded by the state, to reduce the overall debt.

Depending on income and monthly expenses, the debt consolidation provider will work with those in serious financial assistance, devising plans that allow for minimum monthly payments to repay the lump sum loan amount that settled all outstanding debt. Debit consolidation providers assure the client the means to continue meeting those bills that can’t be rolled into such a program such as rent or mortgage and automobile loan payments.

The debt consolidation providers will contact creditors on the debtor’s behalf and negotiate settlements on remaining balances for a certain amount of time for the term of the loan to be repaid. Although non for profit, the debit consolidation providers apply interest and fees depending on the length of the debit consolidation loan for their services, but the financial hardships of the clients up to that point would hardly affect one’s decision for assistance in a situation that has gotten out of their control.

Accumulation of debt is never intentional, nor is it indelible. Debit consolidation providers are the leading lenders to offer clients the freedom to eliminate debt without tightening the budget to the point where daily living becomes strained.

In conclusion, by working with the best debt consolidation provider you can find, you get just benefits, do your research and go with a trusted and reputable one. It is in your best interest.

Life insurance for many people is something of an enigma. There are many different companies offering BMO life insurance, TD life insurance and CIBC life insurance to name a few, but many people do not agree the sentiment of needing money after your death. But the fact is everyone is not well settled and this set of people they can make do with the money to secure their future and family future on their behalf. However for certain groups it is absolutely paramount that they do and it can be the difference between your family surviving without you or struggling and being moved out of their home.

In order to understand who needs to get insured for life, it is important that firstly you get thorough understanding of its exact nature and its provision. Essentially, this type of insurance does prove their values after you have died, but unlike other forms of insurance it obviously you are not the one receiving the cash. Rather the recipients of your insurance will be those left behind – namely this is normally your family.

When you take out this insurance then, you are guaranteeing that your family will be able to continue to enjoy their current way of life should you die. Essentially then, you pay out your insurance on a monthly basis, and then your family gets the payout after you die. This payout depending on your policy can be a one off lump sum of money, or it can be several smaller payments depending on what you prefer. However, either way it will ensure that your family gets some money after you die and they don’t have to face both the huge emotional turmoil and the financial problems of losing their main income at the same time which could result in their becoming in debt, having to sell the house, or losing out on your children’s education etc.

It is very important then for anyone who is supporting a family to get insurance so that they can continue to do so and be confident that they will at least be supported financially. This doesn’t mean just taking insurance if you’re old or unwell however, instead it’s important for anyone who has a family – as you never know what’s waiting around the corner. However it is fair to say that certain situations and conditions might make life insurance more important.

At the same time not just the main ‘bread winner’ should take insurance but also important for anyone else supporting the family either emotionally or financially to do the same. If you do not take such insurance then your husband would have to either stay at work and put the children in care during the day, or take time off and be faced with serious financial difficulties. Remember that all of these different demographics will not necessarily need or be able to use the same policy. The policies vary from person to person based on their individual needs and differences.