After the first launch of their “Balance Transfer Sale” which ended on February 2011 with great results, Barclaycard is proud to offer once again to its valued customers a generous 0% on balance transfers, but this time, for 20 months, and 25% off on additional balance transfer fees until May 3, 2011.

Introducing Barclaycard’s second unique “Balance Transfer Sale” incentive for the year 2011, and what’s more interesting is its duration is much longer than the first one. In fact, it is considered to be the longest 0% balance transfer offer in the entire UK market today. For every new customer who signs up between March 15 and May 3 of 2011, they can also take advantage of a 25% reduction on the handling charge when they transfer multiple balances from other lenders (wherein the highest balance transfer shall incur a 3.2% handling fee, with other additional transfers incurring 2.74% handling fees).

Barclaycard Platinum Credit Cards have three different types offered for their valued customers:

1. Barclaycard Platinum Credit Card with Balance Transfer

Choose this credit card if you have a regular income of £20,000 or more, a permanent UK address which is at least 3 months old, and your debt must be not over 10% of your income (mortgage is not included). You must also have a good credit rating and a history of managing credit commitments well of 4 years or more.  You must have no history of bankruptcy as well as no Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) or County Court Judgments (CCJs) in the past 5 years.

This credit card has no annual fee and has a minimum of £250 credit limit, with higher limits depending on the customer financial status. This credit card has a typical 17.5% variable APR on purchases and balance transfers after the promotional period, and a 27.9% rate on cash withdrawals. The promotional period featuring 0% rates lasts for the first 20 months on balance transfers (though subject to a 3.2% fee) and 3 months on purchases.

The 20 months of 0% interest on balance transfers is the main attraction of this credit card, which is ideal for customers who would like to take advantage of this offer above all other features (however, the 17.5% typical APR is quite competitive compared to other credit cards out there). Its rewards program is useful to customers who love to take advantage of cash back offers.

2. Barclaycard Platinum Credit Card with Purchase

If you want extra time out from paying interest on your balance transfer, then this card is for you. Choose this credit card if you have a regular income of £20,000 or more, a permanent UK address which is at least 3 months old, and your debt must be not over 10% of your income (mortgage is not included). You must also have a good credit rating and a history of managing credit commitments well of 4 years or more.  You must have no history of bankruptcy as well as no Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) or County Court Judgments (CCJs) in the past 5 years.

This credit card has no annual fee and has a minimum of £250 credit limit, with higher limits depending on the customer financial status. This credit card has a typical 16.9% variable APR on purchases and balance transfers after the promotional period, and a 27.9% rate on cash withdrawals. The promotional period featuring 0% rates lasts for the first 12 months on balance transfers (though subject to a 2.9% fee) and 12 months on purchases.

The 12 months of 0% interest on balance transfers is the main attraction of this credit card, which makes it as the second best credit card introductory offers available (with the 20 months of 0% interest on balance transfers being the number 1 in their line, of course).

3. Barclaycard Platinum Simplicity Credit Card with a Low Rate

Choose this credit card if you have a regular income of £20,000 or more, a permanent UK address which is at least 3 months old, and your debt must be not over 10% of your income (mortgage is not included). You must also have a good credit rating and a history of managing credit commitments well of 4 years or more.  You must have no history of bankruptcy as well as no Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) or County Court Judgments (CCJs) in the past 5 years.

This credit card has no annual fee and has a minimum of £250 credit limit, with higher limits depending on the customer financial status. This credit card has the lowest interest rates around, with a typical 7.9% variable APR on purchases and balance transfers after the promotional period, and a 15.8% rate on cash withdrawals.

Even without introductory rates unlike the first two mentioned above, this credit card enables you to have an interest-free period of maximum 56 days from date of transaction for purchases if you pay them in full and on time each month. If you repay more of your balance, or by making repayments earlier, you will pay less interest. Because of its extremely low APR, this credit card gets positive reviews from customers who want to benefit from this particular feature.

Aside from helping customers out by cutting the cost of borrowing money, Barclaycard also offers some of the easiest-to-use rewards scheme in the United Kingdom. Widely known as the Barclaycard Freedom, it offers you Reward Money in pounds and pence in thousands of retailers online and throughout the UK as well as other benefits such as Identity Protection Service, Fraud Monitoring, Purchase Delivery Protection, Worldwide Assistance, Travel Service, Mybarclaycard, Emergency Card Replacement and Cash Advance, 24-hour Customer Service Assistance, and the Barclaycard Unwind which lets you have easy access to some of the greatest music tickets as well as live sessions, reviews, news and more. You get to enjoy all of these without the need to carry any other additional vouchers or reward cards. Everything you’ll need is all there in your Barclaycard!

Ever since Barclay’s has launched its very first credit card in the United Kingdom in 1966, they have become famous worldwide, with branches in more than 60 countries. Barclay’s serves both individual customers as well as companies whether they may be large or small. Having maintained a great reputation spanning more than 50 years and is considered as the 21^st largest company in the world, Barclay’s has indeed become an innovative leader in the world of banking and business.

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Discussing buying a domain name or two can be a sore point for a few people. For some, buying domain names is like buying shoes, or bags, or gadgets, depending on what you’re most into – cause some people are also into buying domain names, for various reasons, so they can really go nuts buying domains!

Like, some people buy domain names for investing. If you can come up with a great name, register it and try to flip it later when somebody needs it for a business idea or a product.

Or maybe you’re into niche websites so you need a domain name relevant to your niche for which you’re building a niche site to sell a product or earn money on advertising.

What you will definitely need, no matter what your motivation for buying, is a good domain name search provider that’s easy and fast to use and will provide you with a complete list of the most popular top level domains such as .com, .net, .org and many, many more. And personally, I prefer one that doesn’t try to sell me hundreds of extra “features” before I can check-out. In most cases, I just want to buy the domain and get it over with.

So what top level domain name should you buy?

TLD, top level domain, is the “.com”-part of a domain, also .net, .org., .gov and hundreds of other TLD’s out there. “.com” is the most used TLD so it can be hard to find a good name with .com unless you’re creative and/or come up with a new combination or way to spell something. Of course you can also get lucky and buy a domain name that expires because somebody forgets to renew it. Otherwise you’ll have to pay up to get the domain name you want, if the current owner wants to sell it, that is.

Often you might have to go with a different TLD, perhaps “.net” or “.org”. Back in the days, “.org” was intended for organizations. Today, it doesn’t really matter. But if your site is somewhat aimed towards a local market, you really should consider aiming your domain search at getting a local TLD such as “.se” for Sweden or “.de” for German websites, depending on your country and language of your website. It will look better for your visitors and customers and there’s a chance for better rankings in the local search engines (Google Sweden and Google Germany) by using a local domain name as well.

For some of us, managing money is not as fun as spending them, am I right? But if there’s no money to spend, the fun suddenly disappears. And to have money to spend, you need a budget to manage your money carefully to make sure you can afford to spend money while also keeping a proper reserve for when times might get rough or if you lose your job or business goes down.

In a world where everything seems to be connected and smartphones here and smartphones there, there’s really no excuse for no longer keeping an eye on your money management. You don’t have to use a pen and paper to do it no more, just use your iPhone and/or a web browser.

Meet the free budget software from Mint with which you can easily create a budget based on previous spending. Mint can pull your account data securely and can even warn you when suspicious transactions occurs, like if you exceed your transportation budget by more than what you’re using on average in previous month.

To make it even more visible and easy to understand, Mint offers several pie charts for you to gaze on so you can see what you’re spending all your money on.

The cool thing here, is a synchronized electronic budget on both your personal computer and your iPhone. Just the way it should be. And it’s free!

It’s been about a month since I last posted about PokerStars’ new online poker concept, Home Games, which basically means that you can create a private club within the PokerStars poker software client and invite your friends to join you. So instead of meeting up in person, you can play against each other online, from the comfort of your own home.

You don’t get the same “social” experience and the feel of stacking your chips, but you get to play – privately – against your buddies.

PokerStars also keeps track of winnings, so you’ll have a leaderboard within the Home Games club also, making it easier to find out who has bragging rights till next tournament…

Speaking of tournaments. Luckily it’s possible to also create tournaments within your Home Games club. You can create both cash game table (also play money) or you can set-up a buy-in tournament for whatever date and time you prefer as well as how much the buy-in should be.

One thing I think is lacking though, is the possibility of creating Sit and Go tournaments. It would be cool to have a table ready to go as soon as 6 or 10 players joins it, rather than having to set up a tournament for a specific time.

So, what has happened in the month or so since PokerStars launched this new Home Games? Well, I’ve seen TV commercials advertising Home Games, I’ve seen them on banners all over the Internet (gaming related sites, mostly) and I’ve seen tons of “join my club”-threads on gaming related poker forums. Whether or not it’s a financial success for PokerStars, I have no idea, but it seems to me that people are really digging this new feature.

I’m sure this is not something for the pro’s, but for the average poker player or poker players who also enjoys playing with (against) their friends, Home Games is likely to be even more successful in the future.

Personally, I haven’t joined or created a club myself. I prefer to take money from strangers rather than friends. Or, actually, I might be giving money to strangers, but let’s not get into that now… I don’t play that much anymore to be honest, so whether I win or loose is mostly up to what Lady Luck has up her sleeves for me on any given night, rather than how good or bad I might be.

Check it out, PokerStars Home Games, if you want to hang out with your friends online while playing poker.

There is something about end-of-the-year competitions that make me excited when I know that I can participate and have a chance to win really cool prizes! Talk about ending the year with fun and great memories, plus winning an iPad just for playing a very simple game!

What’s the commotion all about? There is a contest going on right now and it’s going to end real soon.
The Park Inn Hotels are currently running a competition and they are giving away an iPad and a gift card each week! Whether you win or lose, your scores can still be registered and have a chance to win in the draw. It’s basically a win-win situation. All you have to do is Play 4 Park Inn to register your name and email after the game.

Participation in this contest is open to persons at least 18 years of age and residing in the UK, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The contest is running till December 18th, 2010.

Participants only need to play a very simple online game which is called “4 in a row”. After each completed game, the participant should register his or her score online, including his or her name and e-mail address. A maximum of 20 score registrations per week are allowed per participant.

The prizes consist of weekly prizes and one main prize. There are two weekly prizes given away which includes one iPad and one Rezidor Hotel Group gift card with a value of £250 (which can be used at over 200 hotels in 16 countries and can be used at the restaurant, bar or simply on your room; also valid in Radisson Blu and Hotel Missoni, and includes the UK).

The main prize will be given at the end of the contest, wherein there will be one lucky winner among all the registrations of participants. The main prize is a giftcard worth £300 and seven night’s accommodation in one of the three Park Inn Hotels. The winner may choose between the Park Inn Manchester, the Park Inn Berlin and the Park Inn Djerba. Take note that the main prize is a prize for two persons based on double room occupancy.

I have always been a fan of Manchester United football club. Hopefully, if I get the chance to win the main prize, I would choose to go to Manchester. I would be very happy if I get to meet one of my favorite football players such as Wayne Rooney, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra, Nani and Park Ji-Sung.

The Park Inn Hotel contest is going to end soon, so if you’re interested, visit their site and play their game. Who knows, you might be the next lucky winner at http://play4.parkinn.co.uk/

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This is just a friendly reminder to make sure that you scan your old photographs. You know, the ones you had developed years ago and you now have stored away in photo albums in a big dusty shelving unit in the back of your living room? Or perhaps they’re in boxes, now stored in the attic?

It’s funny, cause today we rarely print our photos. We shoot thousands of digital photographs and most of them, if not all, live their entire life inside a computer, only to be seen when you e-mail them, upload them or do a slideshow on the TV. I think printing photographs is on the rise, as more and more people have been shooting exclusively digital for years, now they want to get that “feeling” of having a real photographs between their hands again.

So what about your old photographs which you shot on film and had developed? You probably didn’t scan them into your computer yet, so why not look for photo scanning services if you’re not up for scanning them yourself? After all, digital photos are a lot easier to navigate, index, search and organize, than paper photographs. Not to mention, a whole lot safer, as you can – and you should – make a backup of all your digital data. It’s usually not a matter of if your hard drive will crash, but when. Even though, for example, a fire in your house is unlikely to happen, it can still happen and if it does, your paper photographs are probably gone forever.

My point is – if you haven’t scanned your old photographs yet, you might want to do it before it’s too late – and at the same time, enjoy going through your old photos and memories again, I’m sure you’ll like it. Also, remember to backup your digital photos!

I’ve only owned one sat nav GPS system for a car, ever, which I bought several years ago. Since then, they have become much better, better UI, better GPS reception, better maps, better touch screen etc. I’ve considered many times whether or not I should buy one of the new sleek systems to have one of the best sat nav systems out there, but it’s an expense I simply cannot justify…

Why? Well, iPhone!

The iPhone only comes with built-in Google Maps. It can assist you on the road with driving instructions and such but it’s not very good, it kinda sucks, to be honest. However, there are software in the App Store which you can buy to get a better GPS solution. TomTom and Navigon both have an iPhone version of their GPS software in the App Store and even with local map versions as well, meaning you can just buy East USA if that’s what you need, without having to pay for mid and west too.

But there’s a downside. The iPhone does a decent job of acting like a GPS, but the built-in speaker doesn’t offer quite enough power to spoken instructions to be heard loud and clear if you’re on the freeway, I think. The screen might also not be big enough to touch all the buttons easily, view all the details of your route and such. That’s why there’s still a (small) market for standalone GPS systems like the ones you can find on http://www.satnav-expert.co.uk/.

What GPS system do you use in your car, and why? Leave a comment below!

What to do if I win £40,000? Of course, buy things I would love to have that I thought I can never buy without sacrificing many other things! The first thing I would do is to plan a nice holiday trip for my family, renovate our home, donate some to charitable foundations and to the church (gotta thank God for His blessings, right?) and last but not least, open a time deposit account to save up the remaining money for future use. At least, that’s what I would do.

The only and easy way how to enter this awesome prize draw promotion is by simply buying anything using Paypal. The more times you buy, the more chances you get!

Here are some sites wherein you could shop using Paypal in order to have a chance of winning the grand prize:

• How about buying an Apple iPod Touch at dabs.com?
• Are you a newbie when it comes to capturing great photos? Why not try the HD Ultra Slim Pocket Camcorder at IWOOT?
• How about buying crazy and fun stuff for kids or those who are still kids at heart? From Condiment Guns to Giant Chupa Chups, you will find them all at Firebox.
• If you are into laptops and would love to have discounts, check out the HP Pavilion dm3-1155ea Entertainment Laptop PC at HP.
• Would you like to upgrade your TV but still get it at a great deal? At Richer Sounds, check out their 42-inch LG 42PJ350 – a Plasma TV HD Ready Freeview.

Find out more about Paypal’s promo and check out their terms and conditions at, here.

Enter now for your chance to win a sweet £40,000!

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