LOANS

A loan is a type of debt. Like all debt instruments, a loan entails the redistribution of financial assets over time, between the lender and the borrower. In a loan, the borrower initially receives or borrows an amount of money, called the principal, from the lender, and is obligated to pay back or repay an equal amount of money to the lender at a later time. Typically, the money is paid back in regular instalments, or partial repayments; in an annuity, each instalment is the same amount. The loan is generally provided at a cost, referred to as interest on the debt, which provides an incentive for the lender to engage in the loan. In a legal loan, each of these obligations and restrictions is enforced by contract, which can also place the borrower under additional restrictions known as loan covenants. Although this article focuses on monetary loans, in practice any material object might be lent. Acting as a provider of loans is one of the principal tasks for financial institutions. For other institutions, issuing of debt contracts such as bonds is a typical source of funding. Types of Loans: 1) Secured Loans Subsidized Loans Mortgage Loans 2) Unsecured Loans Personal Loans Commercial Loans 3) Demand Loans

Commercial loans are another name for business loans. This type of loan can be secured or unsecured and is generally designed to help companies fund startup, expansion or operational costs. Funding sources for commercial loans can include commercial lending institutions, banks, credit unions and even private investors. Obtaining this type of funding is often contingent on the creditworthiness of the company in question and sometimes the reasoning or purpose behind the need for funding.

Personal loans are fairly small general purpose lending tools that enable people to borrow money. This type of funding can include unsecured personal loans and secured personal loans. It might also include payday loans, which are very-short term deals that are normally paid off in a day or two. While personal loan rates tend to be lower than credit cards, they generally cost more than mortgage loans. Bad credit personal loans, however, can come at a rather hefty price. This type of funding is generally sought out when people need to borrow a few thousand dollars to do things like consolidate debt, make home improvements or even fund vacations.

Car loans are reasonably short-term lending vehicles designed to help people purchase automobiles. A car loan can come from a number of different lending sources. The sources available can depend on the need for bad credit car loans or used car loans. It is also possible to sometimes refinance car loans to obtain a better deal. This is not uncommon when people make new car loans and discover they can get better terms elsewhere. The cost of borrowing associated with car loans can be impacted by a number of factors. The length of the loan in months, the interest rates involved and the amount of down payment can all affect costs.

Home loans are lending vehicles designed to help people purchase and/or improve real estate. There are a variety home loan options available to consumers, depending on their personal needs and circumstances. Actual mortgage rates can depend on the vehicle selected and the personal credit standing of the borrower. Figuring out which home loans make the most sense will depend on whether a borrower is looking to purchase new or is considering mortgage refinancing. Home equity loans can assist with improvements and there are bad credit home loans that might help people with a troubled credit past buy a place of their own. When home loans are under consideration, it is smart to use a mortgage calculator to estimate the costs of borrowing.

Student loans are lending vehicles designed to fund the pursuit of higher education. While student loan rates tend to be set low by design, it does pay to explore both private student loans and federal student loans for the best possible offers on an individual basis. Options exist in both arenas for bad credit student loans, as well. Repayment of student loans tends to come after graduation in most cases. Borrowers can get an idea of what their repayment schedule will be like by taking advantage of student loan calculators that estimate monthly payment amounts. If the pricing turns out to be too high, student loan consolidation might be worth exploring.

RETIREMENT PLANS
In general, a pension is an arrangement to provide people with an income when they are no longer earning a regular income from employment.] Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is paid in regular instalments, while the latter is paid in one lump sum. The terms retirement plan or superannuation refer to a pension granted upon retirement. Retirement plans may be set up by employers, insurance companies, the government or other institutions such as employer associations or trade unions. A pension created by an employer for the benefit of an employee is commonly referred to as an occupational or employer pension. Labour unions, the government, or other organizations may also fund pensions. Occupational pensions are a form of deferred compensation, usually advantageous to employee and employer for taxreasons. Many pensions also contain an additional insurance aspect, since they often will pay benefits to survivors or disabled beneficiaries. Other vehicles (certain lottery payouts, for example, or an annuity) may provide a similar stream of payments. The common use of the term pension is to describe the payments a person receives upon retirement, usually under pre-determined legal and/or contractual terms. A recipient of a retirement pension is known as a pensioner or retiree.

Types of Retirement Plans Employment-based pensions (retirement plans) A retirement plan is an arrangement to provide people with an income during retirement when they are no longer earning a steady income from employment. Often retirement plans require both the employer and employee to contribute money to a fund during their employment in order to receive defined benefits upon retirement. It is a tax deferred savings vehicle that allows for the tax-free accumulation of a fund for later use as a retirement income. Funding can be provided in other

ways, such as from labour unions, government agencies, or self-funded schemes. Pension plans are therefore a form of "deferred compensation". A SSAS is a type of employment-based Pension in the UK. Social and state pensions Many countries have created funds for their citizens and residents to provide income when they retire (or in some cases become disabled). Typically this requires payments throughout the citizen's working life in order to qualify for benefits later on. A basic state pension is a "contribution based" benefit, and depends on an individual's contribution history. For examples, see National Insurance in the UK, or Social Security in the USA. Many countries have also put in place a "social pension". These are regular, tax-funded non-contributory cash transfers paid to older people. Over 80 countries have social pensions.[4] Examples are the Old Age Grant in South Africa and the Universal Superannuation scheme in New Zealand. Disability pensions Some pension plans will provide for members in the event they suffer a disability. This may take the form of early entry into a retirement plan for a disabled member below the normal retirement age.

ATM
An automated teller machine (ATM), also known as a Cash Point , Cash Machine, or redundantly, and therefore incorrectly, "ATM Machine or sometimes a Hole in the Wall in British English, is a computerised telecommunications device that provides the clients of financial with access to financial transactions in a public space without the need for a cashier, human clerk or bank teller. ATMs are known by various other names including automatic banking machine, cash machine, and various regional variants derived from trademarks on ATM systems held by particular banks. Invented by IBM, the first ATM was introduced in December 1972 at Lloyds Bank in the UK. On most modern ATMs, the customer is identified by inserting a plastic ATM card with a magnetic stripe or a plastic smart card with a chip, that contains a unique card number and some security information such as an expiration date or CVVC (CVV). Authentication is provided by the customer entering a personal identification number (PIN).Using an ATM, customers can access their bank accounts in order to make cash withdrawals, credit card cash advances, and check their account balances as well as purchase prepaid cell phone credit. If the currency being withdrawn from the ATM is different from that which the bank account is denominated in (e.g.: Withdrawing Japanese Yen from a bank account containing US Dollars), the money will be converted at a wholesale exchange rate. Thus, ATMs often provide the best possible exchange rate for foreign travellers and are heavily used for this purpose as well.

CREDIT CARD
Credit cards are issued by a credit card issuer, such as a bank or credit union, after an account has been approved by the credit provider, after which cardholders can use it to make purchases at merchants accepting that card. Merchants often advertise which cards they accept by displaying acceptance marks generally derived from logos or may communicate this orally, as in "Credit cards are fine" (implicitly meaning "major brands"), "We take (brands X, Y, and Z)", or "We don't take credit cards". When a purchase is made, the credit card user agrees to pay the card issuer. The cardholder indicates consent to pay by signing a receipt with a record of the card details and indicating the amount to be paid or by entering a personal identification number (PIN). Also, many merchants now accept verbal authorizations via telephone and electronic authorization using the Internet, known as a card not present transaction (CNP). Electronic verification systems allow merchants to verify in a few seconds that the card is valid and the credit card customer has sufficient credit to cover the purchase, allowing the verification to happen at time of purchase. The verification is performed using a credit card payment terminal or point-of-sale (POS) system with a communications link to the merchant's acquiring bank. Data from the card is obtained from a magnetic stripe or chip on the card; the latter system is called Chip and PIN in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and is implemented as an EMV card. For card not present transactions where the card is not shown (e.g., ecommerce, mail order, and telephone sales), merchants additionally verify that the customer is in physical possession of the card and is the authorized user by asking for additional information such as the security code printed on the back of the card, date of expiry, and billing address.

Each month, the credit card user is sent a statement indicating the purchases undertaken with the card, any outstanding fees, and the total amount owed. After receiving the statement, the cardholder may dispute any charges that he or she thinks are incorrect. Otherwise, the cardholder must pay a defined minimum proportion of the bill by a due date, or may choose to pay a higher amount up to the entire amount owed. The credit issuer charges interest on the amount owed if the balance is not paid in full (typically at a much higher rate than most other forms of debt). In addition, if the credit card user fails to make at least the minimum payment by the due date, the issuer may impose a "late fee" and/or other penalties on the user. To help mitigate this, some financial institutions can arrange for automatic payments to be deducted from the user's bank accounts, thus avoiding such penalties altogether as long as the cardholder has sufficient funds.

DEBIT CARD
A debit card (also known as a bank card or check card) is a plastic card that provides the cardholder electronic access to his or her bank account/s at a financial institution. Some cards have a stored value with which a payment is made, while most relay a message to the cardholder's bank to withdraw funds from a designated account in favor of the payee's designated bank account. The card can be used as an alternative payment method to cash when making purchases. In some cases, the cards are designed exclusively for use on the Internet, and so there is no physical card. In many countries the use of debit cards has become so widespread that their volume of use has overtaken or entirely replaced the check and, in some instances, cash transactions. Like credit cards, debit cards are used widely for telephone and Internet purchases. However, unlike credit cards, the funds paid using a debit card are transferred immediately from the bearer's bank account, instead of having the bearer pay back the money at a later date. Debit cards usually also allow for instant withdrawal of cash, acting as the ATM card for withdrawing cash and as a check guarantee card. Merchants may also offer cash back facilities to customers, where a customer can withdraw cash along with their purchase.