MakeUseOf Directory » Finance

CreditKarma: Calculate Your Credit Score For Free

Hammad — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:01:52 +0000

If you want to check your credit card scores, and you are in the mood to save money over the expenses you incur from your credit card, check out CreditKarma.

CreditKarma is an online website that allows users to calculate their credit card score and never get into credit card debt. Yes, the service is totally free and secure. The website also provides the users with a credit report card, which you can analyze to save money.

Using the service is simple and easy. All a user has to do is create an account on the CreditKarma website. Once done, you can login into your account configure your credit card and then start checking reports and get free analysis over a period of time.

Features

Free service – does not require the user to use charged third-party tools or services.
Save money – get analytical reports and summaries to help you save money.
Automatic e-mail alerts and credit score simulator also available.

Check out CreditKarma @ https://www.creditkarma.com (via LifeHacker)

Itemize: Track Your Purchase Receipts at One Place & Get Bargain Deals

abhijeet — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 03:09:09 +0000

Itemize is a web based service that wants to help you track all your shopping receipts at one place. The digital receipts can be forwarded via email, auto-imported or data can be manually entered. Now, once you provide all this information and also tell them the stuff you like in various categories, Itemize provides you bargain deals from merchants which have affiliate links on which Itemize makes commissions. This is their revenue model and they are pretty open about it in their FAQ page.

They do not provide much details about their user interface on their homepage, which means you need to sign up and use them to see how it works. The way it works is simple though so you shouldn’t face a problem getting started.

Features

Track purchase receipts from one single location on the web
Get discount deals tailored to your tastes
Free to register and use.
Similar tools: OneReceipt, Lemon, Doxo, MyThings and ShoeBoxed.
Also check out another cool billing organizer: How To Use Mint To Manage Your Budget & Spendings Online.

Check out Itemize @ www.itemize.com (By Abhijeet from GT Mobiles)

PayPal Send Money: PayPal’s Facebook Application For Sending Money With eCards

MOin — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 21:01:08 +0000

If you are friends with somebody far away and see on Facebook that it is their birthday, you cannot do much but post a birthday wish on their wall. You could go the extra mile and send them an eCard as well. But it still will not equal an actual present unless, of course, you use PayPal’s Facebook application called Send Money.

Send Money is a Facebook application that facilitates peer-to-peer PayPal transactions through Facebook. PayPal has launched this application basically as a way to send eCards to friends. Cards can be sent with payments included so your friends can buy themselves presents.

The cards you can send through the service correspond not only to birthdays but to other occasions as well such as anniversaries, congratulations, etc. Apart from regular limits and international fees, the transactions are free since they are peer-to-peer.

Features:

A user-friendly web service.
Lets you send PayPal payments through Facebook.
Payments are included in eCards.
eCards cover various occasions and situations.
Also read related articles: Use PayPal Mobile To Pay On The Go With Your Paypal Account and 9 Tools PayPal Users Should Know About.

Check out PayPal’s Send Money app for Facebook @ apps.facebook.com/paypal_sendmoney (via Mashable) (by MOin from Thumb Press)

FinancialHealth: See How Healthy Your Finances Are

TehseenBaweja — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:01:44 +0000

We all run around all day trying to earn money, save it or paying it off. But how do we know how we are doing when it comes to financial health? FinancialHealth is a simple quiz created by CNN that lets you see how you are doing when it comes to debt, house payments, insurance, investments and emergency savings.

Just enter your age and some financial information then the tool will compare it to accepted standards and let you know how you are doing. For example, if your debt payments are less than 36% of your annual gross income, you are in a good position. It also looks at things like portfolio diversification and company stock. If you are doing poorly in a particular area, it will give you additional information.

Features:

Check your financial health with a simple quiz.
Covers topics like debt, house payment, investments and more.
No registration required.
Similar tools: WhereMyMoneyGoes, VisualEconomics, TaxACT, and CalcMoolator.

Visit FinancialHealth @ http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/financialhealth/index.html [Via LifeHacker]

BillBaba: Set Payment & Debt Reminders, Analyze Your Spending & Record Financial Goals

MOin — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:01:43 +0000

Getting a strong grip on your finances is essential if you hope to fulfill any financial goals. But normally because of mismanagement and forgetting things, our finances are in a mess that is difficult to disentangle. Here to help you with the situation is a free to use web service called BillBaba.

BillBaba helps you at different fronts of your finances. Firstly it helps you set up reminders for payments. These reminders can be delivered to you via email, phone, and Facebook. The information of bills and their payments can all be recorded online to note where your money went. Your spending is then analyzed through graphs and you can immediately spot which areas you are overspending in.

You can also keep a track of money owed to you by friends; the site then automatically sends them reminders in case you forget. Finally the Financial Goals section helps keep a track of your goals and dedicate savings to them.

Features:

A user-friendly web service.
Helps manage your finances.
Can set reminders for payments and debts.
Helps keep track of financial goals.
Similar tools: Thrive, BudgetPulse and PocketSmith.
Also read related articles:

Check out BillBaba @ www.billbaba.com (by MOin from Urban Savior)

Skyclerk: A Great Web App To Manage Company Finances Online

MOin — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 01:01:10 +0000

An increasing number of companies are looking for ways to operate in a paperless manner. But the accounting portion of a business remains mostly on paper. Here to help change that is a web service called Skyclerk.

Skyclerk is a web service that lets companies monitor their finances online. By creating an account on the site you can start adding incomes and expenses to a finance stream. You can label expenses and details to them for better organization. Others can be added to your Skyclerk account to help feed transactions as soon as they happen. Your ledgers keep a balance of your finances at all times showing your net profit or loss and total income and expense amounts.

Skyclerk offers its users a free account with a limitation of 3 users and 20 transactions per month; to remove these limits you can opt for the site’s premium services that cost $9 per month.

Features:

A user-friendly web service.
Helps manage a company’s finances.
Lets you easily feed in your transactions.
Lets you add partners to your account.
Keeps a ledger for net profit / loss.

Check out Skyclerk @ www.skyclerk.com (by MOin from Urban Savior)

Splitwise Guest Calculator: Calculate How Much You Owe Your Friend For Staying At His Place

MOin — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 21:01:58 +0000

Nowadays apartment rents are expensive. Therefore when you ask to crash at a friend’s place, the right thing to do would be to pay him back for your stay. To determine the appropriate amount for this you can use the web app called Splitwise Guest Calculator.

Splitwise Guest Calculator is a free to use web app that lets you calculate the amount you owe your friends for staying at their place. The app is quite simple to use – you enter in the rent amount, its frequency, the number of people that normally live in the apartment, and the number of nights you will be staying. Just enter in this information, click on the Calculate button and the amount you owe will be displayed.

With the amount the site also ‘guesses’ whether or not your hosts will be expecting a contribution at the end of your stay.

Features:

A user-friendly web app.
Lets you calculate how much you owe for staying at your friend’s.
Factors in total rent, people living in apartment, and duration of your stay.
‘Guesses’ if your hosts will be expecting a contribution.
Similar tools: BillMonk, PayMeBack, YomTicket, WhatsYourShare and Billster.

Check out Splitwise Guest Calculator @ www.splitwise.com/calculators/guest (via Life Hacker) (by MOin from Urban Savior)

TheBirdy: Track & Analyze Your Spending Habits

Umar — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 23:01:01 +0000

Numerous web apps now let you enter your income and expenditure to be graphically viewed and analyzed. But each time you enter your financial data you must open up a separate browser tab for the app. Here to eliminate this inconvenience is an expenditure-analysis web app called Birdy.

Birdy is a user-friendly web app that helps analyze your expenditures and spending habits. Unlike similar websites on which you have to log in to feed your data, Birdy emails you every day; you respond to this email with your expenditures.

The format you follow is quite simple; for instance if you spent $2 at McDonalds, you simply include in the email “$2 mcdonalds #food” to log the expenditure into the food category. Similarly you can include details of all daily expenditures in separate lines of the email; your data is displayed as a pie chart and plotted against time.

At the end of the week or whenever you want to view this data you can log into your Birdy account and visit your dashboard to see these graphs. The dashboard is also where you can include additional expenses you forgot to include in the emails.

Features:

A user-friendly web app.
Analyzes your expenditures.
Lets you feed your expense data to app via email.
Graphically analyzes your expenses.
Similar tools: Grndctrl, Spendful, Accpal, BudgetTracker, BudgetPulse, Thrive, and BillFloat.
Read about 5 Personal Finance Sites That Will Help Get You In Shape.

Check out TheBirdy @ www.thebirdy.com (By Umar from AllThatIsApple)

Pawngo: An Online Pawn Shop

Umar — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 21:01:48 +0000

People often feel uncomfortable going to pawn shops because of the way they are perceived. Here to make pawning your items much easier and even take loans against them is a web service called Pawngo.

Pawngo is a wonderful service that acts like an online pawn shop. The site can quote you initial item prices after you send in your item’s description. You can also directly mail your items to the address mentioned on the site to speed up the process. While being an online pawn shop is certainly a great feature, the site’s forte is offering 90-day loans against your items at a nominal interest rate.

Watch video:

Features:

A user-friendly web service.
An online pawn shop.
Provides quotation on items after send their description.
Offers 90-day loans against your items at a nominal interest rate.

Check out Pawngo @ www.pawngo.com (By Umar from AllThatIsApple)

Vogogo: An Electronic Payment Solution Supporting Various Payment Types

MOin — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 03:01:42 +0000

Site owners providing premium services and various other business owners could surely benefit from an electronic payments solution that supports various payment types. Vogogo is exactly that solution.

Current in its beta, Vogogo is a brilliant electronic payment website. It accepts from within its own site as well transaction from bank accounts and credit cards. Being free for in-network payments, the site does charge a suitable fee regarding other payments: the site charges $0.99 for electronic cheque and electronic bill payments; for credit cards, the charges are 2.2% plus $0.25. These are all prices in Canadian dollars. For property owners who rent out their property the site offers a vertical called RENT that helps streamline their payments. This is achieved by Vogogo lettings its users schedule automatic payments and transactions – a feature that will definitely be appreciated by the site’s users.

Features:

A user-friendly web service.
Offers electronic payments solutions.
Supports various types of payments including bank transfers and credit cards.
Lets you schedule payments.
Fully functional beta within Canada. US launch later this year

Check out Vogogo @ www.vogogo.com (by MOin from Urban Savior)