Proof of Identity

Most lenders of traditional and online loans will not loan money to individuals if those applicants cannot provide some sort of proof of their identity. This means you must have a valid government issued identification of some type. Even something as simple as a driver’s license will be sufficient.

Proof of Residence

Many lenders require that you be able to prove that you do in fact live where you say you live. This can often be verified by providing the lender with a copy of a recent utility bill or the contact information for a landlord. Having a verifiable residence is an indication of stability, something that lenders tend to desire when it comes to lending anyone money.

Proof of Income

Demonstrating that you have the ability to repay the loan is extremely important. To that end, providing verification of employment or documentation that confirms other streams of income will be part of the application process. Provide legal documents such as employment check stubs, child support payments, dividend payments or any other documentation that proves you have consistent income that can be used to repay your debt. Even short-term lending arrangements, such as payday and similar types of online loans, will require verification of income before the loans can be approved.

Credit Ratings and Scores

Lenders not only want to make sure you have enough money coming in to honor your debt, but that you are up to date on your current obligations. For this reason, lenders will often order credit reports from at least two of the major credit reporting agencies. A great deal of attention will be given not only to your credit score but also any positive and negative feedback that current and former creditors have submitted to the agencies. For this reason, it’s a good idea for the applicant to order copies of his or her reports ahead of time and go over them carefully. If any data on the reports is outdated or incorrect, steps should be taken to update the reports before applying for any loan.

With so many loan options today, it is sometimes confusing to know exactly how to prepare before submitting a loan application. Check with lenders in advance, since most will provide a breakdown of the information required as well as any supporting documentation. Taking the time to assemble the right data in advance means there are no delays in considering the merits of your application and receiving an answer. Assuming you do meet all the lender’s criteria, the application will be approved and the borrower can begin to use the proceeds from the loan for the intended purpose.

As a disclaimer, I’m not sure who wrote it originally, but if I find out, I will give credit where credit is due.  Now enjoy!

Ways to Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity. (Thanks to my wife for forwarding this!)

1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.

2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don’t Disguise Your Voice.

3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, Ask If They Want Fries with that.

4. Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label It ‘In.’

5. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso.

6. In The Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write ‘ For Smuggling Diamonds’

7. Finish All Your sentences with ‘In Accordance With The Prophecy.’

8. Don’t use any punctuation

9. As Often As Possible, Skip Rather Than Walk.

10. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.

11. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is ‘To Go.’

12. Sing Along At The Opera.

13. Go To A Poetry Recital And Ask Why The Poems Don’t Rhyme?

14. Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area And Play tropical Sounds All Day.

15. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can’t Attend Their Party Because You’re Not In The Mood.

16. Have Your Co-workers Address You By Your Wrestling Name, Rock Bottom.

17. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream ‘I Won!, I Won!’

18. When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking lot, Yelling ‘Run For Your Lives, They’re Loose!!’

19. Tell Your Children Over Dinner. ‘Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go.’

20. And The Final Way To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity…….READ THIS AGAIN AND LET YOURSELF LAUGH A BIT!

A link in an email can be part of a phishing scam or linked to a virus. So even if it seems to link to a well known organisation, you should still double check. This is especially true when it comes to organisations that are expected to take your payment details, like eBay, Amazon, banks and even supermarkets.

To check if it’s the real McCoy, right click on the link and choose “properties” to reveal the link’s actual destination. Then see if the address makes sense. If it’s different to the organisation’s normal web address, then it’s almost certainly bogus – even if it’s just one character out. So get into the habit of looking at web addresses very carefully indeed. If you’re providing personal details of any kind you need to make sure the site is real and secure. Identity theft is common online, but is totally avoidable and all internet users should know certain facts to avoid their bank accounts being accessed.

How do you know if a site is secure? Well, if you’re a regular online shopper or use a range of personal finance tools, or if you receive your bank statements and access your bank account online, you should know to check for two key things:

1.      A padlock in the browser window to signify that the site has a security certificate

2.      An address that starts ‘https://’ – rather than the usual ‘http://’

If you’re asked to enter bank details or private information and these two key features are missing, you are doing so in a site that is not secure. And remember, if you’re ever asked for full details of personal information like your user name or password, when you are normally only asked for some of it, something isn’t right.

A further word of caution – just because these features appear in an email before you click on the link, don’t assume they are real. Furthermore, when you double click the padlock, the security certificate for the site should be displayed. So if you ever get a warning that the address of the site does not match the certificate, do not continue.

That’s why it’s good to get into the habit of entering the address of any banking, shopping, auction, money management or financial transaction website into your browser yourself – don’t just depend on the email links, no matter how convenient that might seem.

Finally, make sure you’ve installed the latest version of your web browser – Internet Explorer version 7 and Firefox version 2 have built in filters to detect fake sites – and check your credit card statements and online bank accounts regularly, to make sure nothing is amiss.