Buxfer: Free Online Personal Financial Adviser

The World Economy not in the great shape at the moment. But what can you actually do to fix the state budget? You can not also help the states, counties, and cities to improve the financial situation, jeopardized with the thinning stream of the tax money coming to the budgets due to the unfortunate economic situation. But you can definitely work on your personal budget to prevent and avoid personal financial crisis. At least, you can try, and the free financial services, proposed by Buxfer will be able to help you with this not very easy task.

Overview

If you do not have a program you use to track your accounts and cash flow and are looking to get started, a service you might want to look at is Buxfer. This free service combines all your account information into a single view you can use to track your entire financial picture without having to log into each different site. Buxfer automatically categories your purchases so you track what is going where. Additionally, Buxfer offers the ability to track group spending and IOU’s. This is ideal for roommate situations or where you are commonly sharing the cost of different services over time.

Buxfer is Verisign and McAfee secured so this service appears to be safe to use.

What can you use the application for?

Buxfer is a wonderful site that helps its users taking good care of their personal finances, including financial relationship among their friends and groups in a very easy manner. The concept of keeping track of one's money online has been coupled with creative and innovative methods to give the users a comprehensive overview of their monetary status. Buxfer lets it users set up budgets, know where and with whom they spent the money, who they owe how much, split bills, assign tags to transactions, settle accounts online, synchronize with different banks and credit card companies and access the service while on move via their iPhones, Twitter or a simple SMS. The users can not only get to read the detailed analysis of their expenses but also it is represented beautifully using graphs and charts. All these features make the service more attractive and interesting to use.

What is the history and popularity of the application?

Buxfer is something that originated out of need. The originator of the idea, Ashwin Bharambe badly wanted some kind of an application that could help him keep track of his enormous list of expenses and bills. As a result of all this frustration, he ended up writing up a program for him and his friends to manage the monetary affairs among them. The concept was a hit among the group and this prompted him to co-partner with his another classmate, Shashank Pandit, to build a website. It was launched in December, 2006 and that is how Buxfer came into existence. It is actually an amalgamation of two words- 'bucks' and 'transfer' (xfer, for short). The creators were desirous of giving shape to a concept which would make tracking monetary transfers easy, effortless and fun.

What are the differences to other applications?

As far as other services on the net are concerned, Buxfer stands out owing to its highly creative and visually attractive design. The graphs and charts of all kinds which are used to represent and categorize the money transfers are a sheer treat for the users. It has a large number of useful features and the interface is easy to understand and work with. Perhaps Buxfer stands midway, ahead of some and behind of a few.

How does the application look and feel to use?

Buxfer has a white background that helps in enhancing the color of graphs and charts displayed on it. The entire set up seems to be simple and elegant. Instructions are written in simple words and working on the site is fun. It provides a subtle and calm environment and the site does not seem to be crowded. Pie charts, bar graphs etc. make the appearance nice.

How does the registration process work?

Registering with Buxfer is simple. One only needs to provide his/ her email address and a password. The email address has to be verified within 24 hours. It takes a few seconds to move on to the next page wherein the new user is asked to set up the account by providing the name of his/ her financial institution and account nickname. Instead, one has the option to go directly to tracking finances with friends. Once there, the user can add friends, tag transfers, use analytics or view the summary of his account. However, registration is not mandatory here if one already has a valid id on Facebook, Open ID, Google, AOL, Yahoo or Windows Live.

What does it cost to use the application?

The gamut of services offered by Buxfer is free of any charge. They have a tie- up with Amazon to facilitate online money transfers. As of now, the site does not generate any revenue but it has plans in store to come up with a lead generation system for marketing purposes and adding special features for individuals and groups. There are no annoying advertisements to pop- up and neither are users bothered with marketing messages.

Who would you recommend the application to?

The site is highly useful and functional for students. It can be used by those who are still in college or by fresh graduates. It is specifically recommended to the younger section of the society. It makes splitting, managing, tracking the money easier and lot more fun for its young users. However, it restricts itself to somewhat simpler tasks. High- end financial planning and advices can not be expected here.

Buxfer Features

• Detailed analysis using colorful graphs and charts and comfort to add tags, allowing for better visualizing where the money is spent.
• Auto- synchronization with banks or credit cards accounts.
• Creation of groups to make shared expenses simplified.
• Spending controls by setting up budgets and mobile alerts.
• An iPhone interface, an SMS-based mobile system, and widgets on Google Inc.'s iGoogle and NetVibes Inc.'s homepages
• Online money payments using Amazon.com.
• Easy accessibility while on the move via iPhone, Twitter or an SMS.

PROS:

• Simple to setup new accounts.
• Simple Gmail-like design: No overpowering colors or over the top Web 2.0 schemes.
• Simple yet effective tabs structure: They keep it simple, but the options they give you are very useful.
• Useful graphs and charts: Charts that give you good, useful information.
• Balance and spending alerts: keeps you up to date on what money is coming in, or out.
• Budgets: Ability to track and stay within a budget in one or multiple areas.
• Ability to track spending for groups: track what you owe, or what others owe you. Also gives you ways to pay them.
• Users don't have to provide login information for their accounts.
• Provides mobile access in a variety of ways.

CONS:

• Problems in setting up accounts with some banks.
• Limited options for investment and savings accounts: No simple way to setup 401k accounts or some other more advance savings options.
• Clunky importing of data: Some data imports re-imported the same data as new transactions.
• Free membership is limited to 5 accounts.

Video Presentation (Web Interface):

Buxfer Free Financial Assistance

Video Presentation (iPhone Interface):

Buxfer Free Financial Assistance

Website: http://www.buxfer.com/

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.appappeal.com/app/buxfer/

http://www.biblemoneymatters.com/2008/03/3-weeks-with-buxfercom-review.html

http://www.consumersearch.com/personal-finance-sites/buxfer

Free Legal Access to Your Credit Reports

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months. A credit report includes information on where you live, how you pay your bills, and whether you’ve been sued or arrested, or have filed for bankruptcy. Nationwide consumer reporting companies sell the information in your report to creditors, insurers, employers, and other businesses that use it to evaluate your applications for credit, insurance, employment, or renting a home.

The three nationwide consumer reporting companies have set up a central website, a toll-free telephone number, and a mailing address through which you can order your free annual report. To order, visit annualcreditreport.com, call 1-877-322-8228, or complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form and mail it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. The form is on the back of this brochure; or you can print it from ftc.gov/credit. Do not contact the three nationwide consumer reporting companies individually. They are providing free annual credit reports only through annualcreditreport.com.

You may order your reports from each of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies at the same time, or you can order your report from each of the companies one at a time. The law allows you to order one free copy of your report from each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies every 12 months.

Warning. Only one website is authorized to fill orders for the free annual credit report you are entitled to under law — annualcreditreport.com. Other websites that claim to offer “free credit reports,” “free credit scores ”, or“ free credit monitoring” are not part of the legally mandated free annual credit report program. In some cases, the “free” product comes with strings attached. For example, some sites sign you up for a supposedly “free” service that converts to one you have to pay for after a trial period. If you don’t cancel during the trial period, you may be unwittingly agreeing to let the company start charging fees to your credit card.

Your credit report has information that affects whether you can get a loan — and how much you will have to pay to borrow money. You want a copy of your credit report to:

§         make sure the information is accurate, complete, and up-to-date before you apply for a loan for a major purchase like a house or car, buy insurance, or apply for a job.

§         help guard against identity theft. That’s when someone uses your personal information — like your name, your Social Security number, or your credit card number — to commit fraud. Identity thieves may use your information to open a new credit card account in your name. Then, when they don’t pay the bills, the delinquent account is reported on your credit report. Inaccurate information like that could affect your ability to get credit, insurance, or even a job.

Note that under federal law, you’re entitled to a free report in some additional cases, besides the once-a-year common rule: if a company takes adverse action against you, such as denying your application for credit, insurance, or employment, and you ask for your report within 60 days of receiving notice of the action. The notice will give you the name, address, and phone number of the consumer reporting company. You’re also entitled to one free report a year if you’re unemployed and plan to look for a job within 60 days; if you’re on welfare; or if your report is inaccurate because of fraud, including identity theft. Otherwise, a consumer reporting company may charge you up to $10.50 for another copy of your report within a 12-month period.

Source: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre34.shtm

Personal Free Online Math Assistant

Some online professors are concerned about the new search engine WolframAlpha and its potential to give students the answers to assignments. WolframAlpha calls itself a "computational knowledge engine" and has the ability to calculate problems and deliver solutions - even for questions that no other user has ever asked.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported:

"The latest dilemma facing professors is whether to let students turn to a Web site called WolframAlpha, which not only solves complex math problems, but also can spell out the steps leading to those solutions. In other words, it can instantly do most of the homework and test questions found in many calculus textbooks...

Unlike Google, WolframAlpha features a supercharged math engine based on the Mathematica software used by many researchers. It makes a graphing calculator look like a slide rule."

Since WolframAlpha demonstrates how math equations are solved, students could easily get around the "show your work" requirement that is often mandated to make sure a calculator isn't used.

Perhaps online professors will need to come up with a new way for students to prove that they're working on their own. Or, perhaps it's time to embrace technology and let students use the problem-solving programs that will only become more common in the future.

The website is free for personal noncommercial use with no registration. The data comes not from the web, like in the regular search engine, but from WolframAlpha's internal knowledge base. Some of the data in that knowledge base is derived from official public or private websites, but most of it is from more systematic primary sources.

For those, who are in love with browser plug-ins, there is an opportunity to get extension for FireFox and Internet Explorer, or to Windows Vista Desktop or iGoogle.

And for Webmasters, especially specializing on the math related topics, there is an easy opportunity to embed the search box in the body of the site for the visitors’ convenience.

Web site access: http://www.wolframalpha.com/