Establish Credit History

Pay down debt: The closer you are to the limits on accounts, the more it lowers your score. Get your available-credit-to-credit-used ratio under 50%.
Loan yourself money: Open a savings account and take a loan with the savings as collateral.
Keep older accounts: You need to show stability on your credit history, so keep accounts that have been established for more than three years.
Check your credit: By law, you're allowed one free copy of your credit report each year from each of the three credit bureaus.

Bill could clear up credit card confusion

Credit cards are a necessity in terms of establishing a history to obtain cash advances for those large ticket items, from furniture and cars to college tuition. But consumers have to watch out for exorbitant interest charges, high fees and costs that accrue long after accounts have been closed.

Entrepreneurs: Don't go it alone

The dream of owning and running a business can be as delicate and fleeting as those that evaporate when the eyes snap open as the alarm clock heralds the start of another day as someone's employee.

But it doesn't have to be that way, according to business experts in Bridgeport. They point to the wealth of organizations — including SCORE, Community Capital Fund and FSW — that are waiting to help people start or expand businesses.

Ann Robinson, executive director of Community Capital Fund, said Thursday her group's goal is to lend $5 million to develop businesses and affordable housing this year, following a record-setting 2006.

Community Capital, formerly Bridgeport Neighborhood Fund and Grow Bridgeport Fund, has been making loans in the community for more than two decades, and has invested in some of the city's best-known businesses and projects, including Ralph N Rich's Restaurant on Main Street and the City Trust renovation project.

Subprime fiasco exposes manipulation by brokerages

TAHER AFGHANI WAS WORKING for discount retailer Target Corp. near San Francisco when friends told him about the riches to be made in Californias Mortgage Alley.

I had never seen so much money thrown around in one weekend, Afghani, 27, says of the Cabo getaway. It was crazy. All these kids, literally 18 to 26, were loadedthe best clothes, the cars, the girls, everything.

Job swop has no effect on credit history

I have booked and entered into an agreement with a developer for a flat. Possession is expected in December. Now I want to add one co-owner into the agreement to take a loan. Will that add to the stamp duty? Is it necessary that the co-owner has to be a family member?

Since you have already entered into an agreement with the developer, adding a co-owner will have stamp duty implications. The co-owner has to be a family member, since banks will not give home loan if the co-owner is not a family member. You can find a detailed response in the link: http://www.apnaloan.com /primers /home-loan-india/clubincome.html

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No loan for land property for those who don't own a house

Demand for land has awaken. In Ankara a piece of land with capacity for 70 villas was bought within seven days. But banks who see land as non-profit investment hesitate to grant loans

Selma ENOL
REFERANS

Land is interesting for those who would like to invest for the future. But it is not easy to obtain a loan for a piece of land because banks hesitate. Except for two banks no banks finance land loans.

Ali etin nder, licensed real estate valuation expert of Capital Markets Board (SPK) says that banks that are trying to sell loans will not be indifferent to the demands of land buyers and are developing products according to the need.

75 % of the guarantee:

Kadir Yldrm, the founder of the RE/MAX Lider Kavakldere Office, draws attention to Turkey's land investment potential and to the fact that land put for sale with acceptable prices and conditions sells fast.

The Bridge Game

Since much of this food contains large amounts of illegal contaminants who is the winner in this part of the Bridge game? Is the toxic food acceptable collateral damage for luring China away from Russia and toward Oceania or simply to impoverish, sicken and weaken Americans? How about that Clinton proposal to grant China a port and free trade zone in Southern California? Was that to draw them toward our bloc or to expose it to Communist influence and lowered wage and health standards? The Bush II version of this plan was to turn over inspections at six of Americas ports to a conglomerate based in Dubai and Britain. It sounds like fanning the flames of pan-Islamic nationalism.* If our leaders are playing to win, at whose expense is the game?

From 1920-48 the British perverted their League of Nations Mandate to establish a National Home for the Jewish people in Palestine (Jordan and Israel), ultimately defining Jewish immigration and settlement, which they were required to facilitate, as illegal while encouraging limitless Arab immigration as well as frequent attacks on the Jews.

Artists in residence

The syndrome goes on display this weekend at the Portland Museum of Art with "Getting Personal: Maine Architects Design Furniture." More than a dozen Maine architects (or, in some cases, architects who regularly practice in Maine) have contributed work to the show, which runs through Aug. 26 . It's no coincidence that the exhibit runs in tandem with the museum's "Frank Lloyd Wright and the House Beautiful" show, which begins June 28. As an architect, Wright was just as concerned with interior environments as he was with a home's exterior design.

Architects were allowed to sketch their furniture designs with no restrictions, and then builders turned those napkin sketches into reality. The 15 resulting designs give an impression that Maine is a state where design is very modernist, and also very wood-centric.