With some banks, you can make more withdrawals than the number that they allow but you will have to pay an additional charge for that. (v) One more point that you have to check is the notice period before you can make a withdrawal, which is typical of most savings accounts. If this period stretches out to too long (in some banks it could be as much as three months), the account may not be suitable to your needs. They know that investing in the stock market can be a great way to secure their financial future but they are just a little unsure how to go about it. To answer their question of "what is the first step to investing?" really requires a question in return because it is important to find out the kind of investment they mean. Those nice friendly guys at the loan company who wanted to increase your credit card limit only last month now turn into Don Corleone and the boys from Mob! They start to slap on late charges and the exorbitant interest now starts to attract interest on itself and, and Well you get the picture. So what do you do when you find yourself facing sudden debt? If they combine their outstanding finances into a one debt consoilidation loan they can usually reduce their monthly outgoings quite considerably. It is not just the reduction in the amount of money they have to find each month that makes debt consolidation loans so appealing to people. Perhaps the greatest benefit of all is the peace of mind such loans can bring. While the opening and closing prices clearly refer to the price at the opening or closing of the stock exchange each day the bid and ask ones perhaps are not so obvious. The easiest way to remember is to realize they are stated from the brokers point of view. This means that the ask price is the price being asked for by the broker and the bid is what they will bid for any stock you wish to sell. Ok the minuses include horrendously high rates of interest but on the other side of the coin they can be invaluable in emergencies. Just don't use them as long term loans because they were never designed for that kind of borrowing. If you are finding that you have outstanding balances of two, three or more credit cards you will probably be well advised to look into taking out a debt consolidation loan.