*Note: This is a sponsored post

With the economy in flux and gas prices at an all time high (I think a barrel of oil hit $129 today), it’s important to be frugal with money, and intelligent about how you’re spending what you have. Getting into debt, or getting further into debt, can cause many problems in the long run. It can have a negative impact on your credit score, which can prevent you from getting loans for a home or a car, it can suck up your cash resources, and it can become an overwhelming burden that is hard to escape.

That said, having credit cards such as visa credit cards can help increase your credit score if used wisely. What I mean by this is using the card to make purchases you can afford, and paying it off at the end of the month, before needing to pay the finance charges.

Keeping your balances low or at a zero balance can help increase your credit score. If you’re wisely using a credit card, paying it off every month, the credit bureaus will look at that as a sign of fiscal responsibility, and will likely increase your credit score. If you have a very low credit score, and are in need of a bad credit credit card, there are some available that you can get, however, keep in mind that the interest rate will be higher (because people with bad credit scores are tended to be looked at as being “higher risk”).

If you currently have a lot of credit card debt, it’s ok. Work to pay off one card at a time (the one with the highest interest rate), and pay minimum balances on the rest. Once you’ve paid one off, start on the next one, and work towards paying them all off. Credit cards can be a double-edged sword. They can provide a lot of benefits such as providing greater spending power and helping increase credit scores - and some even offer airline miles and more. If they’re not used wisely, however, they can cause a lot of problems, and are an easy way to get into a lot of debt.

Moral of the story: If you’re looking to get a credit card, be wise about how you use it. Pay it off every month, don’t spend more money than you have, and carefully consider what cards you choose to carry.

Note: Credit cards can provide a needed means of capital for small businesses. I believe the same rules of thumb applies with business credit cards, however, they can be extremely useful if you’re looking to purchase products for your business. Again, be wise in how you use credit, but they can be extremely beneficial in helping get your business up and running.

I was reading this morning about the different candidates running for president, and I’m pretty open to hear what everyone has to say. For me, the most important thing is someone that is fiscally conservative - either Republican or Democrat. One thing that greatly concerns me is any implications that political decisions will have on my small business, and whether decisions made by politicians will make it difficult for us to keep it running.

I was reading today about Hillary Clinton’s Universal Health Care plan, and I became pretty concerned. She wants to require all businesses (small ones included) to offer health insurance to all employees. I think that it is a noble plan to try to get everyone health insurance (believe me, I’ve been in the boat of having a hard time getting insurance), however, by forcing small businesses to offer this, all this will do is force small businesses to lay off people because they can’t afford to insure all of their employees. I say this from the perspective of a small business owner. Granted, there may be some tax cuts offered, however, any additional expenses will really push some companies over the edge, and either force them to close, or lay off employees.

Requiring all businesses to offer insurance to all employees is not the way to go. Hopefully there will be someone that comes along that has a feasable idea of how to handle this problem. Mitt Romney did a good job in Massachusetts - I’d like to hear what other candidates propose.

I run an internet marketing company, and when I was setting up our phones and internet lines, I went with one of the bigger phone companies in Utah, Qwest. After all, their motto is “Spirit of Service.” I thought that they would do a good job, and they were a big company because they were good.

I was wrong.

Month after month, our bill got bigger and bigger, and we weren’t making any more long distance calls. In addition, the bill was around $200 per month more than what I was quoted by their salesman. I grew so frustrated with them that I decided to switch my phone lines to another company, Eschelon, who has been good, for the most part. (Our voicemail stopped working for a few days with them, which was a pain.)

Despite switching carriers over a month ago, I received a bill today for long distance calls made over two months ago. I called Qwest to see what was going on, and they said they had no control over when the “3rd party company” sent them the bill for long distance. They told me to call that company - they couldn’t do anything.

Qwest, it turns out, is a very dishonest company that quotes low prices to sucker people in, but once the contract is signed, they raise the prices to outrageous levels. I’m looking into MStar. They have great internet and phone rates. I hope they’ll be better than Qwest.

What Qwest needs to learn is customer service, how to retain small business customers, and to price their services competitively. It’s not good business practice to build your busines by ripping other companies off. They didn’t even care when I called and told them my frustrations. They didn’t even try to convince me to stay - they just don’t care enough about small businesses. Qwest - you need to make some changes.