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| Tax Treatment of REIT Investments | |
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| The Good and Bad of Credit Cards | |
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| Consigning Clothes: Five Steps to a Cleaner Closet and a Fatter Wallet | |
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| 5 Things You Need to Know About Retiring | |
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| Some Negative Effects of Raising the Minimum Wage | |
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| CD Laddering: The Best of Both Worlds | |
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| Can I get an auto loan with bad credit? | |
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| How to Understand the Market Value of Debt | |
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| What should I consider when leasing a car? | |
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| What to consider when choosing an auto loan. | |
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Emergency Cash and Emergency Money Plans - Financial News, Explanations, Calculators and Cheat Sheets
Tips on Protecting Yourself in Cash Competitions
While it is always fun and exciting to win material prizes like gadgets, cruises and jewelry, nothing beats winning cash in online and offline cash competitions. After all, you can spend your money anyway, anywhere you like, even spend it to buy yourself the gadgets, cruises and jewelry that are more to your personal preferences.
Types of Cons
Still, you must beware as not all money competitions are true to their advertisements. Many have been conned into joining the competitions, often investing their time, effort and money to join only to be told later that the winners were pre-drawn, thus, making your chances of winning zero! And don't think either that only fly-by-night operators are guilty of this misconduct because even venerable broadcast organizations have been found guilty and subsequently fined.
And even when you have indeed won money in cash competitions, you might as well forget about it, thanks in no small part to the so-called prize indemnity insurance. Basically, the promoter of the money competition need not gather the cash necessary to pay the winner but instead pays the insurance company in the event that a prize must indeed be paid. You, the winner, might have to wait just a little while longer to claim your prize, if it ever comes to you.
There are many other types such as spending money on postage and calls for a prize that has a value way below the costs involved to claim it.
Things to Remember
Fortunately, there are ways to protect yourself against cons that masquerade as cash competitions. The following are the most important:
Determine how many entries are allowed per person especially if the prizes are limited in nature. Keep in mind that the more entries allowed, the lower your chances for winning anything and we mean anything. Plus, there are also networked competitions where every Tom, Dick and Harry in the entire world and their organizations can join in, thus, further lessening your chances, if that is at all possible. And if you do win, you will realize that your effort has just been wasted, no thanks to the taxes and the money needed to claim it.
Know the period when the competition is running. The longer it runs, the higher your chances of being conned. In fact, many organizers have run away with the money in the time the competition opens and closes for business.
Keep in mind that not all that glitters is gold. The organizers can take pictures of a brand-new car but actually offer a secondhand one. This goes true also for looking at the big prizes since the fine print will say otherwise.
Beware of the so-called free cash competitions for many reasons. For one thing, you might be asked to pay a fee in order to redeem your prizes, which will negate winning the prize in the first place. For another thing, you might just find yourself on the mailing list of spammers and, worse, become the victim of hackers.
However, if you do find cash competitions that are reputable and reliable, then you have just won the jackpot, sort of. Compete in them as actively as can and you might just win the big prize!