New Credit Card Rules
The Federal Reserve’s new rules for credit card companies mean new credit card protections for you. Here are some key changes you should expect from your credit card company beginning on February 22, 2010.
What your credit card company has to tell you
- When they plan to increase your rate or other fees. Your credit card company must send you a notice 45 days before they can
- increase your interest rate;
- change certain fees (such as annual fees, cash advance fees, and late fees) that apply to your account; or
- make other significant changes to the terms of your card.
If your credit card company is going to make changes to the terms of your card, it must give you the option to cancel the card before certain fee increases take effect. If you take that option, however, your credit card company may close your account and increase your monthly payment, subject to certain limitations.
For example, they can require you to pay the balance off in five years, or they can double the percentage of your balance used to calculate your minimum payment (which will result in faster repayment than under the terms of your account).
The company does not have to send you a 45-day advance notice if
- you have a variable interest rate tied to an index; if the index goes up, the company does not have to provide notice before your rate goes up;
- your introductory rate expires and reverts to the previously disclosed “go-to” rate;
- your rate increases because you are in a workout agreement and you haven’t made your payments as agreed.
- How long it will take to pay off your balance. Your monthly credit card bill will include information on how long it will take you to pay off your balance if you only make minimum payments. It will also tell you how much you would need to pay each month in order to pay off your balance in three years. For example, suppose you owe $3,000 and your interest rate is 14.4%–your bill might look like this:
New balance $3,000.00 Minimum payment due $90.00 Payment due date 4/20/12 Late Payment Warning: If we do not receive your minimum payment by the date listed above, you may have to pay a $35 late fee and your APRs may be increased up to the Penalty APR of 28.99%.
Minimum Payment Warning: If you make only the minimum payment each period, you will pay more in interest and it will take you longer to pay off your balance. For example:
If you make no additional charges using this card and each month you pay. . . You will pay off the balance shown on this statement in about. . . And you will end up paying an estimated total of. . . Only the minimum payment 11 years $4,745 $103 3 years $3,712
(Savings = $1,033)
New rules regarding rates, fees, and limits
- No interest rate increases for the first year. Your credit card company cannot increase your rate for the first 12 months after you open an account. There are some exceptions:
- If your card has a variable interest rate tied to an index; your rate can go up whenever the index goes up.
- If there is an introductory rate, it must be in place for at least 6 months; after that your rate can revert to the “go-to” rate the company disclosed when you got the card.
- If you are more than 60 days late in paying your bill, your rate can go up.
- If you are in a workout agreement and you don’t make your payments as agreed, your rate can go up.
- Increased rates apply only to new charges. If your credit card company does raise your interest rate after the first year, the new rate will apply only to new charges you make. If you have a balance, your old interest rate will apply to that balance.
- Restrictions on over-the-limit transactions. You must tell your credit card company that you want it to allow transactions that will take you over your credit limit. Otherwise, if a transaction would take you over your limit, it may be turned down. If you do not opt-in to over-the-limit transactions and your credit card company allows one to go through, it cannot charge you an over-the-limit fee.
- If you opt-in to allowing transactions that take you over your credit limit, your credit card company can impose only one fee per billing cycle. You can revoke your opt-in at any time.
- Caps on high-fee cards. If your credit card company requires you to pay fees (such as an annual fee or application fee), those fees cannot total more than 25% of the initial credit limit. For example, if your initial credit limit is $500, the fees for the first year cannot be more than $125. This limit does not apply to penalty fees, such as penalties for late payments.
- Protections for underage consumers. If you are under 21, you will need to show that you are able to make payments, or you will need a cosigner, in order to open a credit card account.
- If you are under age 21 and have a card with a cosigner and want an increase in the credit limit, your cosigner must agree in writing to the increase.
Changes to billing and payments
- Standard payment dates and times. Your credit card company must mail or deliver your credit card bill at least 21 days before your payment is due. In addition
- Your due date should be the same date each month (for example, your payment is always due on the 15th or always due on the last day of the month).
- The payment cut-off time cannot be earlier than 5 p.m. on the due date.
- If your payment due date is on a weekend or holiday (when the company does not process payments), you will have until the following business day to pay. (For example, if the due date is Sunday the 15th, your payment will be on time if it is received by Monday the 16th before 5 p.m.).
- Payments directed to highest interest balances first. If you make more than the minimum payment on your credit card bill, your credit card company must apply the excess amount to the balance with the highest interest rate. There is an exception:
- If you made a purchase under a deferred interest plan (for example, “no interest if paid in full by March, 2012″), the credit card company may let you choose to apply extra amounts to the deferred interest balance before other balances. Otherwise, for two billing cycles prior to the end of the deferred interest period, the credit card company must apply your entire payment to the deferred interest-rate balance first.
- No two-cycle (double-cycle) billing. Credit card companies can only impose interest charges on balances in the current billing cycle.
Source: Federalreserve.gov
It’s April 1st
Google’s new name and the description on their blog today
“4/01/2010 12:01:00 AM
Early last month the mayor of Topeka, Kansas stunned the world by announcing that his city was changing its name to Google. We’ve been wondering ever since how best to honor that moving gesture. Today we are pleased to announce that as of 1AM (Central Daylight Time) April 1st, Google has officially changed our name to Topeka.
We didn’t reach this decision lightly; after all, we had a fair amount of brand equity tied up in our old name. But the more we surfed around (the former) Topeka’s municipal website, the more kinship we felt with this fine city at the edge of the Great Plains.
In fact, Topeka Google Mayor Bill Bunten expressed it best: “Don’t be fooled. Even Google recognizes that all roads lead to Kansas, not just yellow brick ones.”
For 150 years, its fortuitous location at the confluence of the Kansas River and the Oregon Trail has made the city formerly known as Topeka a key jumping-off point to the new world of the West, just as for 150 months the company formerly known as Google has been a key jumping-off point to the new world of the web. When in 1858 a crucial bridge built across the Kansas River was destroyed by flooding mere months later, it was promptly rebuilt — and we too are accustomed to releasing 2.0 versions of software after stormy feedback on our ‘beta’ releases. And just as the town’s nickname is “Top City,” and the word “topeka” itself derives from a term used by the Kansa and Ioway tribes to refer to “a good place to dig for potatoes,” we’d like to think that our website is one of the web’s top places to dig for information.
In the early 20th century, the former Topeka enjoyed a remarkable run of political prominence, gracing the nation with Margaret Hill McCarter, the first woman to address a national political convention (1920, Republican); Charles Curtis, the only Native American ever to serve as vice president (’29 to ‘33, under Herbert Hoover); Carrie Nation, leader of the old temperance movement (and wielder of American history’s most famous hatchet); and, most important, Alfred E. Neuman, arguably the most influential figure to an entire generation of Americans. We couldn’t be happier to add our own chapter to this storied history.
A change this dramatic won’t happen without consequences, perhaps even some disruptions. Here are a few of the thorny issues that we hope everyone in the broader Topeka community will bear in mind as we begin one of the most important transitions in our company’s history:
* Correspondence to both our corporate headquarters and offices around the world should now be addressed to Topeka Inc., but otherwise can be addressed normally.
* Google employees once known as “Googlers” should now be referred to as either “Topekers” or “Topekans,” depending on the result of a board meeting that’s ongoing at this hour. Whatever the outcome, the conclusion is clear: we aren’t in Google anymore.
* Our new product names will take some getting used to. For instance, we’ll have to assure users of Topeka News and Topeka Maps that these services will continue to offer news and local information from across the globe. Topeka Talk, similarly, is an instant messaging product, not, say, a folksy midwestern morning show. And Project Virgle, our co-venture with Richard Branson and Virgin to launch the first permanent human colony on Mars, will henceforth be known as Project Vireka.
* We don’t really know what to tell Oliver Google Kai’s parents, except that, if you ask us, Oliver Topeka Kai would be a charming name for their little boy.
* As our lawyers remind us, branded product names can achieve such popularity as to risk losing their trademark status (see cellophane, zippers, trampolines, et al). So we hope all of you will do your best to remember our new name’s proper usage:
Finally, we want to be clear that this initiative is a one-shot deal that will have no bearing on which municipalities are chosen to participate in our experimental ultra-high-speed broadband project, to which Google, Kansas has been just one of many communities to apply.
Posted by Eric Schmidt, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Topeka Inc.”
Revision no help for tough governance exam
A new qualification is available for experts in IT governance. It’s so hard that you can’t revise for it, only take it and hope you are good enough to pass, as Gary Flood reports.
Sorry if the above seems off-putting, but the organisation behind the certification is adamant that becoming Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT (CGEIT) can never be seen as something achieved by any kind of brain dump.
However, practitioners of the disciplines around effective IT governance are unlikely to be offended – and in fact are probably not that surprised at this high barrier, given that the new exam is from the same body that twice a year whittles down 250 proposed questions for another of its exams to a mere 23, which in turn get heavily rewritten.
I am referring to the new qualification coming out of Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), the body behind the control objectives for information and related Technology (COBIT) IT governance standard.
December 2008 saw the first delegates sit the CGEIT, which becomes the third qualification available from this group, complementing its 20-year-old Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and seven year old Certified Information Security Manager (CISM).
‘We see a clear emergence of what might be called a new class of professional, the IT governance specialist, and this qualification is a reflection of that trend and a way to recognise that unique skill set,’ says Howard Nicholson, business analyst for the City of Salisbury in Southern Australia and chair of ISACA’s CGEIT Certification Board.
Like its two stable mates, CGEIT now becomes a biannual exam event, with the next round set for June 2009. Not surprisingly, given its tender age, CGEIT is a minority sport in terms of uptake at the moment, with just around 1,000 holders as of the start of 2009. Note that the holders didn’t all physically sit the exams, which are offered globally, last December – only 300 or so candidates so did, and the 1,000 only represents half of all those who applied in the first place. The others who hold the certificate are ‘grand fathered’ – see below.
The exam is a stiff test of whichever candidate makes it through to sitting it, as it seeks to examine the six identified relevant domains of IT governance and a number of related sub-domains and tasks. ‘We don’t expect candidates to know all of this but they do need to demonstrate a high level of base competency. We also expect them to be able to write a clear narrative of what they are doing in their day jobs so as to demonstrate their suitability.’
Just sitting the exam isn’t even the end of this process; each paper is examined blind by up to three assessors and a work reference from a peer also needs to be considered. Plus, the qualification needs to be scrutinised on a rolling three-year basis to ensure the holder is still up to the mark.
Multiple choice/ pass by regurgitating the supplier’s book type of exam this just is not, or as Nicholson puts it: ‘Don’t even bother sitting this if you don’t work in this area.’
ISACA, in a process it calls ‘grandfathering’, invited applications from IT governance professionals to be considered for being granted the qualification based on experience alone, with the median amount of such real-world exposure to governance issue of the successful candidates being around eight years.
One such ‘grandfathered’ new CGEIT holder is Jo Stewart-Rattray, director of information security at the Australian arm of chartered accountants RSM Bird Cameron, who thus now holds all three ISACA qualifications. Was it worth it?
‘Having these qualifications has absolutely helped me,’ she told IT Training. ‘The Federal Government here in Australia did some research into market credentials in audit and IT security some years back and identified these as having very strong value. In my job I have also found that clients recognise their worth and I think have a higher level of confidence in the consultant assigned to them if they see them, as they have such a high “experiential” component, not just showing you’ve acquired a body of knowledge.’
ISACA may not be massively well known outside the audit, assurance and IT security domains – but has undeniable credibility in the areas its 86,000 members operate in. Indeed, in 2009 the body is celebrating its 40th anniversary, no less; some 18,000 professionals annually undergo the CISA process, for example, with a global tally of 60,000 such exam holders now in the market, while CISM is up to about the 10,000 level.
Those involved with the ISACA certification family see the addition of CGEIT as underlining a growing global interest in compliance, set, they believe, for even more focus in light of the ongoing credit crunch.
ISACA certifications not only have this very determined focus on real-world experience, they don’t have the traditional tertiary (apprentice/beginner, mid-level and master) structure of, say, the traditional MCSE et al: one just passes, or doesn’t. The body claims a CISM or CISA is roughly equivalent to a postgraduate diploma (and presumably values the new CGEIT at an equivalent level).
We said ‘just passes’; and we weren’t joking. Derek Oliver, CEO of UK audit specialists Ravenswood Consultants, founding chairman of ISACA’s CISM Test Enhancement Committee and a former member of the group’s CISA Certification Board, is both a CISA holder and a developer of both it and the CISM exams; as far as can be done, he provides the nearest thing to third party training one can get for ISACA qualifications – though he is ‘still thinking’ about whether or not to take on CGEIT work as well, he says.
He told IT Training he’d hate to sit the CIS again as it is so tough – and that CISA has a quite remarkable 55 per cent failure rate first time round. ‘These aren’t exams you have reading lists for, and we will never ask you a question you can get from just reading a book, there are no “definitional” questions at all - this is all about practical experience,’ he warns. ‘I tell people that the best way they can prepare for an ISACA exam is to sit one.’ Oliver is convinced that the chance is worth taking: ‘In the UK and US, basically for a junior audit job it’s “CISA preferred” and for senior jobs – “CISA required”.’
This exam machismo must be slightly tempered by the fact that there at least a few ISACA-sponsored guides and ‘candidate manuals’ available. But there is no denying that ISACA and the group of highly expert professionals it represents (note that non-members are welcome to sit the exams – though they may pay a bit more than their enrolled colleagues) do feel that having these letters after your name really does mean that you have earned them.
Where will CGEIT go next? We suspect that it forms the first attempt by ISACA to start framing a COBIT professional qualification itself. In the meantime, we can only point any IT governance practitioner who thinks they have the grey hairs to prove they truly know what they are talking about to the CGEIT door to see if they can pass the exam you can’t revise for.
To find out more:
ISACA homepage
The CGEIT
NIGC Fees: 2010 Preliminary Rate
The NIGC has adopted preliminary fee rates of 0.00% for tier 1 and 0.060%(.00060) for tier 2 for calendar year 2010.
The fees are to be sent in two semi-annual payments on June 30 and December 31. Send your payment to
Finance Department
National Indian Gaming Commission
1441 L Street N.W., Suite 9100
Washington, DC 20005
Use calendar year 2009 assessable gross revenues for computing the fee payments for 2010.
Visit this link to download a copy of the NIGC Bulletin and a copy of the Federal Register notice.
eGuru.info is not responsible for any errors in the information furnished above. Be sure to contact NIGC directly to confirm the fee rates.
Common red flags to identify fraud
These are broken down into three groupings: common personality traits of fraudsters, common sources of pressure, and changes in behavior.
COMMON PERSONALITY TRAITS OF FRAUDSTERS
Live beyond their means.
Have financial difficulties.
Have a wheeler-dealer attitude.
Are domineering and controlling.
Have an unusually close relationship with customers or vendors.
Express irritability, suspiciousness, or defensiveness.
Do not like people reviewing their work.
Have a strong desire for personal gain.
Have a “beat the system” attitude.
Have control issues and unwillingness to share duties.
Refuse to take vacations.
Often work excessive overtime.
Complain about inadequate compensation.
Outwardly appear to be very trustworthy.
Work performance is often “too good to be true.”
Often display some sort of drastic change in personality or behavior.
Are unable to relax.
COMMON SOURCES OF PRESSURE
Medical problems — especially for a loved one.
Unreasonable performance goals.
Spouse loses a job.
Divorce or family problems.
Starting a new business or current business is struggling.
Criminal conviction.
Legal problems.
Excessive pressure from within the organization.
Excessive family or peer pressure for success.
Instability in life circumstances.
Purchase of a new home, a second home, or a home remodel.
Needs to maintain a certain lifestyle (e.g., “champagne tastes”) or outdo others in regards to material possessions (e.g., “keeping up with the Joneses”).
Excessive gambling.
Drug or alcohol addiction.
CHANGES IN BEHAVIOR
Suddenly appears to be living a more expensive lifestyle.
Starts to carry unusual amounts of cash.
Appears to be buying more items — houses, cars, boats, clothes, jewelry, electronics, etc.
Brags about new purchases.
Creditors and bill collectors show up at work or call frequently.
Borrows money from co-workers.
Becomes more irritable or moody.
Becomes unreasonably upset when questioned.
Becomes territorial over his or her area of responsibility.
Will not take vacation or sick leave or only takes it in small increments.
Works unnecessary overtime.
Turns down promotions.
Starts coming in early or staying late.
Redoes or rewrites work to “make it neat.”
Mentions family or financial problems.
Exhibits signs of a drug or gambling addiction (e.g., absenteeism, becomes manipulative, looks ill, inconsistent or illogical behavior, loss of sleep or appetite).
Exhibits signs of dissatisfaction (e.g., decrease in productivity, change of attire, irregular schedules, frequent complaining about inequities, or work issues).
Note that these are only warning signs that may indicate that the risk for fraud is higher rather than actual evidence that fraud is occurring. The existence of one or two flags is not something to be overly concerned about as many employees can demonstrate one or more. However, if multiple flags are present that span the three groupings and accounting irregularities or weak controls are identified, then additional investigation should be performed by a qualified auditor or fraud investigator.
Source: The Institute of Internal Auditors www.theiia.org
Innovative project managers use ‘think time’
This is a good project management article by Jay Rollins.
If you find yourself using the same PM solutions over and over again, you may need to carve out some “think time” to help stay innovative.
———————————————————————————-
I recently attended a project management seminar in which one of the speakers noted that a project manager must be systematic and innovative. The systematic part is a no-brainer; in order to be successful at managing a project, a project manager must understand what step goes before another step. A systematic approach by its nature is linear; it may be multiple paths performed simultaneously, but each individual path is still linear. But the innovative part may not come as naturally to many project managers.
The act of innovating is defined as “the introduction of new things or methods.” In IT, we know that there is always a better way; the same can be said for how we manage a project. There are aspects of a company’s culture, personalities of key stakeholders, constraints, and limitations that call for a project manager to innovate.
For instance, you should view the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) standards as important guidelines but not as exact rules on how to manage every detail of the project. Also, you should constantly challenge yourself to come up with a new, more efficient way of doing something. Innovative project managers take “think time” to look at the challenge from multiple angles and truly challenge how they have always done things.
I’ve seen project managers automatically re-use what went well during the last project (I’ve even done this myself); it makes life simple because the outcome is pretty predictable. But over time, you might find yourself going with a solution because you’re familiar with it and not necessarily because it’s the best one for the job.
The challenge for project managers is twofold:
- Whenever you get that squishy feeling that occurs when facing a new challenge, and you’re tempted to take one of your “comfortable” tools out of the toolbox, stop and take some time to think and innovate. Instead, come up with the best tool for the job.
- When faced with a familiar challenge that you have the perfect tools to address, stop, take some think time, and look at the challenge from different angles. Now that you have used this tool successfully for so long, is there a way you can improve it, upgrade it, or replace it with the younger, sleeker model?
Think time takes discipline. I don’t know any successful project manager who isn’t driving projects at 100 mph with their hair on fire. Taking think time when time is at a premium has the best results; this think time is akin to the planning phase of a project. When the stakeholder wants to take action immediately, a wise project manager will understand that the more time spent in the planning phase leads to more successful project outcomes.
Source: Techrepublic.com
Build a customized Gantt chart view in Microsoft Project
The number of views into Microsoft Project’s scheduling data can be overwhelming. The delivered views on the Microsoft Project view bar include the Gantt chart, resource usage, task usage, and resource graph views. When you combine these views with the entry, cost, tracking, and variance tables, it can get confusing.
Novice project managers remedy this problem by adding every column of data that they’ll ever need into the Gantt chart view. The end result is there are too many columns in one view, and it creates information overload. It quickly becomes difficult to navigate, print, and manage the project data (Figure A). (I’ve inherited project schedules that had more than 20 columns in a single Gantt chart view.)
Figure A
This Gantt Chart view has too many columns. (Click the image to enlarge.)
One solution is to create a custom view that provides the core schedule data needed to define, track, and update your project schedule. For the past few years, I’ve been using a custom view called myGantt that provides all the data I need to update project progress and track the project schedule (Figure B).
Figure B
A look at myGantt view. (Click the image to enlarge.)
You can create your own myGantt view by following these steps.
Create a set of custom tables and views based on the delivered entry and tracking tables
By creating custom tables and views, you’ll import the same data and still be able to switch back to the delivered Gantt chart and standard tables. If you don’t create a separate set of tables and views, any changes you make to the underlying tables will affect the standard views in Microsoft Project.
- Go to View | Tables | More Tables and select the Entry table.
- Click Copy and rename the table to myEntry (Figure C).
- Click the OK button.
Figure C
This is the myEntry table.
Create a custom myTracking table
- Repeat steps 1-3 from the previous section and use the Tracking table.
- Edit the table to include these fields: Name, Actual Start, Actual Finish, Baseline Start, Baseline Finish, % Complete, Actual Duration, Remaining Duration, Baseline Duration. If you’re tracking effort-driven tasks, you should include Actual Work and Baseline Work fields.
- Click the OK button.
Create a custom myEntry view
- Go to View | More Views.
- In the View Definition dialog box, enter myEntry for the Name, select the myEntry Table, set the Group to No Group, and set the Filter to All Tasks. Click the OK button. (Figure D)
Figure D
myGantt View Definition dialog box.
Create a custom myTracking view
- Repeat the steps above and use the myTracking view.
Create a myGantt combination view
The combination view splits the Microsoft Project workspace into two panels; this allows you to see the entry and the tracking data all in one view.
- Go to View | More Views | New.
- Enter myGantt for the Name and select myEntry for the Top view and myTracking for the Bottom Views Displayed (Figure E).
Figure E
myGantt View Definition dialog box.
- Click the Show In Menu checkbox.
- Click the OK button.
Test your view
By clicking the Show In Menu checkbox, you should see the myGantt view in your View Bar and in your View menu.
- Go to Click On View | myGantt. The myGantt view from Figure B will be displayed.
With this view, you can click on one task in the upper window pane and view all the relevant tracking data in the lower pane. By highlighting multiple tasks, you’ll receive all the key information you need to track your schedule.
Primary benefit
The key benefit of this myGantt view is the amount of time you’ll save switching between different views and inserting or hiding different columns. With one combination view, the project manager is able to view the baseline dates, the actual dates, and the impact of those dates to the forecasted schedule. Using this single combination view, you can record the actual duration and the remaining duration to generate an objective percent complete. The supporting Gantt chart can still be formatted to view the critical path or other Gantt chart wizard graph charts. You can also change the upper and lower window panes based on the tracking or the resource utilization needs. Since you created custom objects, you can easily revert to the original views by clicking the Gantt chart icon and removing the split view.
You can change the upper and lower window panes based on the tracking or the resource utilization needs. Since you created custom objects, you can easily revert to the original views by clicking the Gantt chart icon and removing the split view.
Source: Techrepublic.com
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