The web is littered with mortgage banks and brokers.  Most people however feel that they’re best off sticking with their local bank, the bank they’ve dealt with for years when it comes time to get a mortgage.

That, however might lead to you paying more than is necessary, and even getting scammed by your own bank on a grossly inflated interest rate.

Victoria mortgage rates expert Liz Prins dug up some interesting tidbits from the Bank of Canada lending industry report.  She found that the BoC comes right out and admits that people who don’t shop their mortgage rates around end up being charged far above fair rates by their big banks.

Her recommendations (featured on the Victoria Real Estate blog) are:

-Even if you can afford it, shop around for a better rate.

-Realize banks often charge younger customers lower rates anticipating that they’ll be better “long term” customers for the banks.

-Try going through a broker that represents multiple lenders to compare rates.

Thanks to Liz for the heads up and be careful out there!

Payday loans can be a handy way to get some short term money without resorting to asking friends and family.  That said, the user fees, interest and other associated costs can leave you exposed to scams and overpayment.

Prior to seeking out a payday or short term loan, you need to think about whether a payday loan is right for your particular situation.

Don’t Become Reliant on Payday Loans Long-Term

Payday loans are designed to only be used once in a while, not every month. If you’re finding yourself using a payday loan service month after month, it might time to look into getting some debt counselling.  Services are available in most US states and Canadian provinces to assist you in developing a plan to get out of a short-term borrowing cycle.  (Special thanks to Payday Loans Canada for the Canadian markets tip)

Make Sure You Read the Fine Print

Take the time to fully consume the contents of your loan agreement.  Don’t rush into it: if you feel you’re not sure yet, or have hesitation about any clauses, put those questions to the lender immediately.  Keep a record of anything you sign, and hang onto it for a couple of years at least.

Make sure you understand when your repayment is required and ensure you have the money in your bank account to cover it.  Fees for overdraft and other bank charges can really take a bite out of your short term income if you’re not careful.  If for some reason you can’t repay your loan, be sure to get in touch with your lender ASAP and work out alternative payment arrangements.

Consider Other Credit Instruments

Payday loans might not be the best tool for you to use.  Again, if you’re going back for a payday loan again and again, you might be shooting yourself in the foot.  Look for other options available to you like prepaid Visa cards or other debit tools that don’t put you in the hole constantly.  You may also want to talk to your employer about doing some overtime or finding some other means to generate some short term cash.

The bottom line here is that the longer you put off dealing with your debt load, the more exposed to interest charges and fees you’ll be from short term funding providers. Be smart and know your options!

Does this sound familiar: a great new development billboard is posted in a ‘hot’ area of town, the site has been cleared for construction and ‘units are pre-selling fast’.  All that’s required from you is putting down 5% of the total purchase price as a cash deposit with the expectation that construction will be complete in two years or less (on average).

What many investors don’t realize however is that often the development deposit offering is simply a ‘taster’ to determine if there’s a market for the development in the first place.  Basically it amounts to a market survey on demand for developments in that location from investors.  That’s great for the developer, but what happens if they decide not to proceed with the project?

Here’s a few tips:

1) Read the fine print:  Be sure you fully understand the refund policy on any deposits you put down.

2) Consult a lawyer: Spending a couple of hundred dollars to find out what’s legally required of you and the deposit terms is well worth it.

3) Research the developer thoroughly:  Many developers use shell corporations that differ from project to project.  Make sure you research the person behind the development company and not just the company itself!

Stephanie from Victoria Real Estate notes: “There’s no need to find out the hard way what your rights and obligations are with pre-purchases and deposits on undeveloped projects.  Do your due diligence up front and save yourself untold grief later.”  Good advice indeed.

Before you choose any teacher to work one-on-one with your child, often in an unfamiliar environment, you need to make sure that a) the teacher is qualified and b) that they’re bonded and safe to spend so much time with your child.

We always recommend doing a personal background check on the person that you’re looking into teaching your child.

A quick Google search for the person’s name can turn up a lot of information, particularly legal cases or other issues involving the teacher. The same goes for Facebook, checking the appearance of their Facebook profile can give you a sense of the teacher’s general demeanor and appearance.

Additionally, it’s best to check their qualifications with the appropriate board or association that the instructor is claiming to be associated with.  It’s scary how often credentials aren’t back-checked to ensure your potential teacher is really qualified.

Once you settle on an instructor, if the lessons take place at the instructors’ home or studio, be sure to stay present as often as possible at the beginning to ensure you get a good ‘vibe’ off of the interactions the teacher has with your child.  If anything doesn’t seem ‘quite right’, you should reconsider and find another instructor.

For instance, Piano Lessons Calgary openly invites parents to sit in on their child’s piano lessons as long as they like to ensure they’re comfortable with their child’s instruction and environment.  Truly an example for all teachers to follow.

If you’ve used Google recently to look up a computer problem or in search of a software update to get your latest gadget working you’ve likely noticed the proliferation of sites advertising ‘instant’ fixes for complex computer problems.

Here’s a good example: if you’re using Windows Vista and looking to play your older 3D games, you may run into a common error message indicating that a “d3drm.dll” file is missing or required in order to play said game.

Flipping over to Google, you search for the file name: “d3drm.dll vista” and Google returns:

The first couple of non-ad search results consist of instructions for downloading the DLL file you need to play your game on Windows Vista, thus actually solving your “d3drm.dll” problem.

The “Sponsored Links” however offer a couple of “3 minute” fixes for solving your missing DLL problem.  Sounds great right?

Clicking on the first add for “FixDlls.com” takes us to a page pitching a download of a registry cleaner application that encourages you to download the program and then buy it to fix the “problems” or “errors” it finds on your system:

Oddly though, none of the “errors” it offers to repair are DLL problem related despite the “Eliminate DLL Errors” headline.

So why advertise like this?  Obviously, the hope is that if they can bait-and-switch the “solution” to the problem you’re searching Google for, and get you to download and run their registry scanner program they can fabricate other “errors” that will scare you enough into buying their application.  Whether the software utility solves your original issue or not is irrelevant, you’re now on the hook for $49.95…

But Shouldn’t All Software Programs Be Free?

The issue here is not the fact that the company is selling their software program.  Legitimate software developers put an immense amount of work into building applications that fix problems and save people time.  They’re certainly entitled to be paid for the service their utilities provide.

But is this bait-and-switch advertising actually being done by the software companies themselves? Or is it a deeper symptom of the shift that’s taken place over the past few years in the software industry toward outsourcing marketing to 3rd party ‘affiliate marketers’?

Outsourcing marketing to 3rd party sales agents (or ‘affiliates’) can be an attractive proposition for a software company looking to increase their advertising presence and reach with minimal internal advertising spend. And since Google Adwords is the primary method more aggressive affiliate marketing agents use in capturing web traffic, it results in the kind of search results shown here.

Software Companies Need to Keep Their Affiliates In Check

Overall, Google does a pretty good job of forcing affiliates using their Adwords system to add value and provide a reason for being shown in the sponsored search results, but the software companies that have affiliate marketing programs for their products need to a better job of ensuring their affiliates are advertising accurately and not simply making unsubstantiated claims that their products can fix any and every PC problem out there.

The FTC is of course keeping a closer eye on affiliate marketing tactics, but no one is better positioned to control rogue affiliate marketing than the affiliate program’s originator.  There’s also more and more sites that are popping up offering cracks for these software programs as people get sick of paying.  For instance, Regcure license key and Driver Detective Keygen both offer access to registration paths that have keys.

Have you noticed this trend in the consumer software business?  Share a comment!

If you’ve logged into your Facebook account since this past Thursday, you might have noticed something’s different…  That’s right, those are scammiest Facebook ads you’ve seen yet.

According to insiders, on Thursday an edict came down from the ‘executive level’ to dramatically loosen the ad quality standards for Facebook’s image and text advertisements.  Up until this point, potential advertisers and their ‘affiliates’ (commission-only marketing agents) have had to meet stringent discretion guidelines to ensure users weren’t being scammed by fraudulent advertisements and ‘exclusive offers’.

The floodgates however are now open…  According to a source close to these advertisers, Facebook has decided to allow all kinds of formerly regulated advertisements including:

• “Work-at-Home” Scams
• “Free Trial” Diet Products that bill your credit card well before the trial period ends, then refuse to let you cancel
• “Free Federal Grant Money” rackets where you pay get a list of ‘secret’ free grant programs (no such thing as a free lunch)
• “Free Ringtone” subscription services (The Florida Attorney General’s Office had a field day with this one)
• “Free IQ Surveys” that feed you a bunch of easily answered questions before you are required to pay to see the results.
• “Cash4Gold” Programs encouraging you to shove your jewelery in an envelope and mail it in for a third of its actual value

The list goes on, reports also indicate ‘male enhancement’ products are making it through to users.  Facebook has reportedly also significantly increased the daily spending limits for shady advertisers, enabling them to spam a wider array of users.

Some recent gems:

Wads of cash and the illegal use of celebrity images may be bringing in the clicks, but when users end up getting ripped off by all of these “free” offers, chances are they have every right to as why Facebook is suddenly allowing all this crap.

Are they that far behind MySpace in advertising revenue that they need to stoop this far?  Or is this just a grand fishing experiment to find out how much scammers are willing to pay when they’re not having any luck with legitimate advertisers?

Post a comment with the most ridiculous Facebook ad you’ve seen this week…maybe we can get them to rethink spamming their users