Product Review: GetLower home refinancing

About the company: “With interest rates at historically low levels, you can refinance your existing home loan and save thousands of dollars a year. Current rates available from some of our partners are under 4.5%, and reducing your interest rate a few points can be worth tens of thousands of dollars over the life of your home loan. With GetLower.com approved lenders competing for an opportunity to service your loan needs, we put you at the head of the pack. Get started refinancing your home loan needs today or to find out what rates are currently available visit our resource center.”

The big pitch: Multiple Offers. Get Lower Rates. Get Started Today.

GetLower.com provides a wide range of financial services including home loans, personal credit, banking, real estate, insurance, utilities, and a ton of other resources. You can learn more about each financial category on the site itself, and should you decide that you need a little help in that area, they will find you the best deals in the marketplace.

Looking for a Real Estate agent in your area? GetLower.com will help match you up with the best agents available. Their search engine simply asks you the geographic location in which you want to search for a home, number of rooms in the home, price of the home, and the like, and they then do the busy work for you.

If you have questions about a loan, GetLower.com provides online loan calculators that can help you determine the amount of payment on a loan based on the amount of the loan, term of the financing, and the annual interest rate. Just type in the information and - bam! - GetLower crunches the numbers so you don’t have to.

Have you moved to new area and are in need of utility services, or do you want to see if there is a better utility plan available in your area? GetLower enables you to search for utility companies for long distance, broadband, local, and media services. You can even search based on the extent of options you desire, if you want to combine services, and the state in which you live.

Bottom line, we see a whole lot of these 'lender search engines' at Product Trends Magazine, and many of them are no more than a portal to other companies with not a lot of value added. With GetLower, we see enough content and information present to make this a definite first stop. It's worth your time, and that's more than many of its competitors will be able to say.

The Product Trends rating: GetLower.com provides a robust, extensive list of resources that ranges from loans and credit cards to real estate and utilities. The online calculators and service locators serve as comprehensive, useful resources to any visitor, and we like the way it all comes together. To top it all off, GetLower is approved by the Better Business Bureau. Five stars. --Reviewed by Jillian Dobbs

To try GetLower for yourself, click the image below:

Product Review: PaycheckToday payday loans

About the company: “With PaycheckToday, even if you have bad credit, you can still get quick cash for emergencies. Payday advances, also called payday loans, cash advances, instant cash loans, payroll advances or paycheck loans, are short-term loans that can be taken against a future paycheck. If approved, your loan proceeds will be deposited directly into your personal bank account. When your loan payment is due, the finance charge will be automatically debited from your checking account unless other payment arrangements have been made. Cash Advance Network loans require no faxing. Just fill out the online application for instant pre-approval.”

The big pitch: Applications are pre-approved in just 30 seconds! Based on your application, you may qualify for a payday loan up to $1000 - Your credit rating just isn't important!”

As a rule, we don't really like the payday loan industry. It seems that there are just too many outfits out there preying on the desperation of people with poor credit, charging them an arm and a leg, and leaving them worse than when they started out. That said, some payday loan companies seem to be working hard at making sure that their service is one that their customers an rely on - and PaycheckToday is just one such company.

If you are between a rock and hard place for money, a cash advance can sometimes be a necessity if you are living paycheck to paycheck. Cash advances are often used for rent and other life expenses, but as the holidays near, many people need just a little bit of credit to help them over the hump.

www.paychecktoday.com provides lightning fast service - you can be approved within the hour and the money is deposited into your bank account the next business day. This process is dependent upon PaycheckToday receiving all the required information, which makes it essential to supply the proper information so the process won’t be delayed.

What type of information is required when you apply for a cash advance from PaycheckToday.com? They will require personal, employment and banking information. Personal information includes such things as the loan amount (up to $1,000), name, social security number, address, etc. Employment information includes such things as the name of your employer and whether you work part time or full time. Banking information is necessary so they can put money into your account - and take that money back when your loan is ready to be repaid.

Worried that your credit rating blows? Don’t worry. PaycheckToday doesn’t run a credit check on you before deciding whether you should qualify for a loan. All they need to know is you have an income, and you're basically good to go.

So if you need a cash advance, and you're fully aware what a payday loan entails, take a look at PaycheckToday and give them a try. As always, we recommend you read all the fine print and ONLY take on a payday loan if you feel confident about the company you're dealing with, but we've seen plenty of lenders out there with a lot less to boast about than PaycheckToday - so make them your first step.

The Product Trends rating: If you need a cash advance of $1,000 or less, then this is a great website to check out. You can be approved within one hour and have the money deposited in your account within one business day. As far as payday loans go, that's a great start. Four stars. --Reviewed by Jillian Dobbs

To try PaycheckToday for yourself, click the image below:

Product Review: LoanHounds loan searcher

About the company: “LoanHounds brings new mortgage, refinance, debt consolidation, home equity and other mortgage loans to you through a network of the country's largest lenders and top mortgage professionals who compete for your business. LoanHounds mortgage lenders have processed more than 2.1 million mortgage loan requests and have facilitated over $10 billion in closed mortgage loans. Fill out one simple form and request up to four mortgage lenders in our network to contact you. It's that easy. No wonder LoanHounds is the fastest growing mortgage loan quote site on the internet.”

The big pitch: Four LoanHounds mortgage lenders will contact you within 24 hours with an offer of a loan. No commitment, no fee - just mortgage lenders fighting over your business!

LoanHounds makes the process of finding and acquiring a loan very easy. The LoanHounds.com website enables you to find a quote on several different types of loans, from a vareity of options.

Do you need a quote on mortgage options? Loanhounds.com saves you time and money by bringing the different lender quotes right to you, so you don’t have to scour each of the lender’s individual websites.

When you put your details into the LoanHounds website, a maximum of four LoanHounds lenders receive your contact information and get busy offering you a great deal. That's the concept, but the question for us was, how do we know these lenders are any good? LoanHounds says, "The LoanHounds mortgage lender network is comprised of the top professionals in lending. Each company must respond within 24 hours, provide competitive rates through volume pricing, correspondent lending, or warehouse credit lines, and have a track record of closing loans on time with no hidden fees."

That's good enough for us!

LoanHounds strives for 100% customer satisfaction and tells their customers to stay in touch and let them know how their lenders perform, so as to ensure they always keep a good crop of agents.

If you are looking for credit card information all in one place, LoanHounds provides links to several different credit card lenders. You can find the right credit card for your needs by clicking on direct links to credit card lenders where you can apply online and may be eligible for instant approval.

Lastly, LoanHounds.com features a home loan blog, where you can find current news regarding mortgage rates, loan advice, refinancing, and debt consolidation. In our testing of the company, we found the information on this blog to be great all by itself, even if you don't use the loan finder service.

The Product Trends Rating: If you are looking for a way to access several financial lenders all at one website in the comfort of you own home then www.loanhounds.com is for you. Find mortgage, credit card, personal loan, auto loan, and payday loans all in one stop. Four stars.

To try LoanHounds for yourself, click the image below:

Product Review: Planet Loan financing search engine

About the company: “Planet Loan is the 100% advertiser supported loan search engine. We are not a lender or broker. When you choose to inquire with a lender or broker who advertises on Planet Loan, your information remains between you and that lender(s). Advertisers are solely responsible for keeping their information current.”

The big pitch: Purchase, refinance, cash out your home’s equity, loans for those with damaged credit, get a personal loan…it’s your choice!

Planet Loan is an online loan search engine where you can search for financial information regarding home loans, mortgages, debt consolidation, personal loans, auto loans, commercial loans, credit card finder, and student loans.

Using this website, you can get a quote on all different types of loans from home equity loans to construction loans. Specify your location and you’ll receive a free quote in hours. You can also search for loans based on your credit standing, or find information on loans available to you whether you have good credit or damaged credit.

Have you been thinking of getting a credit card? Do you need a personal credit card of business credit card or both? Either way, you can find information regarding credit cards at www.planetloan.com using their “Credit Card Finder”, which allows you to search by credit card type, including: standard credit cards, specialty credit cards, secured credit cards, platinum credit cards, student and business credit cards.

PlanetLoan is 100% advertiser supported, which means that when you do a search on credit cards, for example, a listing of the advertisers that pay for this service will display advertisements for their credit cards. Now, that means your results may skew a little towards their partners, but it also gives you a lot to choose from in terms of applying for the credit card by simply clicking a direct link. You also have the option of seeing if you are eligible for instant approval, and if you are, who cares whether the company bought and ad or was simply listed there as an option – the point is, you’re gonna get your loan!

Speaking of credit cards, www.planetloan.com provides a listing of vendors that offer credit repair and credit report services. Check out your credit before you apply and you just might save yourself some time trying to figure out your financial situation.

Planet Loan, like most websites of its ilk, offers an online financial calculator to help you solve your financial questions, including calculators that aid you with home and personal financing, investment loans, and retirement calculators. The calculators are presented in a format such that they match frequently asked questions, and in our experience testing the website out, we found it pretty darn useful.

The Product Trends rating: This website provides a myriad of information that may take some time to sift through. However, it is a great way to have a bunch of different options presented to you in one simple table format, which allows you to comparison shop between different financial providers, all in the one website. Four stars. ---Reviewed by Jillian Dobbs

To try Planet Loan for yourself, click the image below:

Product Review: Betfair Sports Gambling Exchange

About the company: "Betfair is the world's leading online betting exchange, a concept it has pioneered. Driven by cutting-edge technology, Betfair enables punters to choose their own odds and bet against each other, even after an event has started. Betfair processes more than 3m transactions a day and at peak times matches more than 12,000 bets a minute."

The big pitch: You choose the odds you're prepared to accept, or lay odds for other users to bet with you!

If you've ever been involved in sports betting, you've probably cursed, like we have, the fact that if you don't like the odds on offer, you're kind of screwed. If you're convinced that the New York Yankees will beat the Houston Astros, but the line is heavily in New York's favor, you can either bet a lot of money to win not much back, or you can win not a lot of money and barely even make a profit.

But Betfair changes all that by hosting the world's first betting marketplace where you, the user, decide what odds you're prepared to take on just about any sport there is, and other users either accept those odds and take your bet, or set their own odds that they hope you'll agree to. Think of it as eBay for sports gambling odds.

The reason this is a good thing is simple - somewhere out there, there's a sucker who honestly believes the Tampa Bay Devil Rays will beat the Boston Red Sox, and they believe in that theory so much that they're prepared to offer you good odds in the hope that they'll win your money. You, on the other hand, know better, so you take that knucklehead's bet and when the Sox cream the Dev's, you clean up.

If you've ever wanted to be a sports bookie for a day but didn't have the resources to do so, this is your chance. If you've ever wanted to add a little spice to the Denver Broncos game, but didn't have any buddies around to bet with, this is your chance. And if you've ever wanted to bet on the NHL, profesisonal handball, greyhound racing, snooker, rugby league, Australian Rules football, darts, cricket, chess and whether or not the FTSE-100 will go up or down today... this is your chance.

When you make your bets, there's no tax to worry about and no commission to Betfair itself. In fact, you only ever pay a commission on your NET winnings in a given market - so if you lose, there's no fee beyond the money already lost. If you win, you can keep on gambling and pay a 1.5% commission to Betfair on your FINAL winnings, which is fair enough. On top of that, Betfair's research has found that, on average, the odds you get through their website come out to 20% better than what you get from professional bookies.

Now, if you've been reading this far, I'm thinking you have one very important question left, and it's one of those questions that are always worth asking when a casino or gambling website is involved - is the company behind it reputable. Well, let me tell you this: In 2003, Betfair won the Queen's Award for Enterprise in the UK, which allow them to carry the Queen of England's emblem on the website until 2008. This award is only given upon recommendation of the Prime Minister of England, and following a full assessment by the UK Department of Trade and Industry, so that's a pretty big deal. The half million bets lodged daily through the service are the cherry on top. Join today!

The Product Trends rating: In all honesty, we love this concept and believe it's the future of online gambling over the next decade. As thousands clamor to play online poker (which you can also do at Betfair), the next big thing will be person-to-person bookmaking, and Betfair is the only place we'd trust to do that properly and securely. Five massive stars.

To try Betfair for yourself, click the image below:

Product Review: AccountNow Vantage Debit Credit Card

About the company: "AccountNow, headquartered in San Ramon, California, is the premier provider of financial solutions for the millions of US consumers who do not have established credit or traditional banking relationships. Our money saving offers give consumers an alternative to "traditional" checking accounts and access to the financial and payment systems, including Debit MasterCard cards, and Pay Anyone bill payment Customers can rest assured in knowing their money is safe - protected by FDIC Insurance and the MasterCard Zero Liability Policy for unauthorized use."

The big pitch: An easy approval, no paperwork, simple enrollment debit credit card with guaranteed approval.

If you've ever tried to set up a bank account in the USA without great credit or proper ID, you know that it's nearly impossible. Every single bank in the land will refuse you a bank account if you don't give them several copies of ID, and when you have your account, they'll charge you a fortune in fees just to get to your money.

Recently, because many people don't like their SSN being available to anyone who works for a bank, or anyone who buys customer information from the bank, or anyone who hacks customer information from the bank, a new trend has emerged - that of the easy approval, no paperwork, easy enrollment debit credit card.

How does this help you? Simple. It means that you can have a bank account that is totally secure, linked to a credit card, usable in ATM machines, has easier access, lower fees, is FDIC insured, and requires no credit check for you to be approved. The AccountNow Vantage debit Mastercard can save you hundreds of dollars in check cashing fees, bill paying expenses and paycheck direct deposit costs, because it's designed to do what your bank just won't.

First of all, it works exactly like a credit card, in that you can withdraw money from any of over 900,000 ATMs, or just swipe your card like any other Visa or Mastercard purchase. You can write up to 7 free 'online checks' to pay bills, you're guaranteed approval, so there's no credit check and no security deposit, and the card itself and the bank behind it is 100% insured with the FDIC, and also adheres to Mastercard's Zero Liability plan, which ensures that should anyone use your card illegally, it won't hurt your hip pocket.

Enrollment is simple as you can imagine. Just give your name, address, phone number, social security number, date of birth, whether or not your employer uses direct deposit for your paychecks, and what design you want your credit card to have. After you've done that, the system will approve you automatically, right there and then.

Your previous banking history just doesn't matter. Your credit history? Irrelevant. Previous bankruptcies? No problem. All they want to know is that you're real person, over the age of 18, and that you actually reside in the US.

Now, the only question left is, 'Why is it so easy with AccountNow?' and the answer is simple. This is a 'debit' credit card, which means you must deposit $100 to activate the card, and you'll be drawing from the money that is already deposited in your account. No, it's not as good as being given a $10,000 credit line, but if you just want an easy to use bank account with an easy to get debit card that works like a credit card, this is the plan for you.

But before you kick in for one, you should know the deal with fees. Firstly, when you send them a wire transfer to deposit money in your account, that'll cost you $10. You can avoid this, however, by banking online or sending a check, so no problem there. Next, if you go over your limit, they'll hit you with a $29 overdraft fee, which is nasty, but if you keep a positive balance, again that's not an issue. The aspect of the AccountNow Vantage Debit Mastercard that gets us more than a little annoyed is that if you try to use your card and it gets declined, they'll charge you 50c. Why? What's the point in that? It doesn't cost them anything to refuse your card, so why charge you for the privilege?

Aside from that minor piece of extortion, most of the other fees are reaosnable, if they even exist. Online web service is free, so too is your monthly online statement. If you want a paper version, that's a $5 charge, and if you need to talk to their customer service people, they'll charge you $3... and they'll ALSO charge you $9.95 in monthly maintenance fees.

Deposits are free, signature purchases are free at stores and restaurants, but ATM purchases range between 25c and $2, and even if all you do is ask for a balance inquiry, they'll STILL charge you for the privilege, in this case $1.

The Product Trends rating: The risk here is negligible, because you're only using your own money, which makes interest rates irrelevant, but the downside of that is that AccountNow will burn you on little fees and charges at Every. Single. Turn. If you're smart, you can avoid most of them, but not all, which leaves us thinking that if you can't get a bank account elsewhere, and you're prepared to take a few fee hits to get one, then this is the card for you. Otherwise, you might want to keep looking. Two stars.

To try AccountNow Vantage Debit Mastercard for yourself, click the image below: