Sunday, July 8, 2007 

Common Mistakes Motorcycle Buyers Make When Looking For a Motorcycle Loan

Whether interest rates are high or low or its the end of a model year with lots of incentives, motorcycle buyers tend to make the same mistakes when shopping for a motorcycle loan. Here are four common mistakes motorcycle buyers make with motorcycle loans.

Shopping for a motorcycle before shopping for a motorcycle loan. Many motorcycle buyers enter the showroom looking for a motorcycle before they determine how much money a motorcycle lender is willing to loan to them for the purchase of a motorcycle. There is no need to shop for a $20,000 Harley Davidson motorcycle, if a lender is only willing to provide a loan amount of $10,000.

Additionally, once motorcycle buyers enter the showroom slick salespeople often pressure them into motorcycle loans with much higher internet rates than they could have gotten had they shopped for a motorcycle loan at a bank, credit union or online. Salespeople do not like motorcycle buyers to leave the dealership to get a motorcycle loan. In the salespersons mind this only increases the chance of loosing a sale and commission. Therefore, salespeople frequently try for a quick sale which normally results in pushing motorcycle buyers to get motorcycle financing at the dealership.

The bottom-line is that it is always best to shop for a motorcycle loan before entering the showroom.

Diving into the unknown motorcycle loan. Motorcycle buyers often jump into motorcycle loans that they do not completely understand or may not be the best alternative for them. For instance, in todays age manufacturers frequently run credit card motorcycle loan promotions on their private-label credit cards. But these promotions typically offer a low interest rate for a short term like 12 or 24 months and have a much higher interest rate after the short promotional term. On a credit card promotion if motorcycle buyers can not afford to pay off the loan during the short promotion period, then they are typically better taking a slightly higher interest rate on an installment motorcycle loan for a longer term.

Borrowing too much.

The most common mistake the first time motorcycle buyer makes in not having a clear sense of how much motorcycle they can afford. This is especially true for young motorcycle buyers who look to buy the top sport bikes that cost up to $10,000 - $15,000. What they fail to realize is that financing a $10,000 - $15,000 motorcycle can stretch them to thin, resulting in them having little cash to enjoy themselves and the motorcycling lifestyle. They may also have too little cash to pay for insurance, maintenance, registration or new accessories for their motorcycle.

Not asking the right questions.

The first warning sign that motorcycle buyers should see is that if they do not understand the type of motorcycle loan, then they should be sure to ask a lot of questions.

Here are some good questions to ask:

Is the interest rate fixed or variable? If fixed how long will it be fixed for?

Are there circumstances that can make the interest rate on the motorcycle loan change in the future?

What happens if a payment is 30 days late? Does the interest rate increase?

What happens if a payment is 60 days late? Does the interest rate increase?

How long is the term on the motorcycle loan?

If the loan is an installment loan, does it use rule of 78 or simple interest? (Simple interest is always better because it does not penalize the motorcycle buyer if the loan is paid off early.)

What is the down payment requirement to get the motorcycle loan?

Is full coverage insurance required?

How much is registration and are these fees included in the motorcycle loan?

Are there any administrative fees to get the motorcycle loan and if so how much are the fees?

Overall, motorcycle buyers can avoid these common mistakes by spending a little extra time focusing on shopping for a motorcycle loan and asking lots of questions.

Copyright (c) 2004, by Jay Fran This article may be freely distributed as long as the copyright, author's information and an active live link to http://www.motorcycle-financing-guide.com is published with the article.

A complimentary copy of any newsletter or a link to the site where the article is posted is greatly appreciated.

 

Lotus Notes Domino and Microsoft CRM Integration

Well, even if the combination might look very unusual, we see the coexistence of these two systems, especially in large corporations, non-profit organizations. Technically Lotus Notes Domino has parallel structure, including Domino email server. Lotus is extremely flexible and you can program your own CRM or purchase CRM for Lotus, however Microsoft CRM has Microsoft SQL Server database and very simple Sales automation module. Lets look at the integration reasons and scenarios. Be sure that each specific case requires custom programming, tuning and support.

Why Lotus & MS CRM? There are several reasons to combine the two. First Lotus Domino has very long history and is present on the market over 15 years. Corporations might have business system built upon the Lotus Notes Domino platform and it is not desirable or even feasible from the complexity standpoint to phase it out. The second reason is possible IT strategy to balance multiple platforms to avoid over-dependence on one vendor (such as Microsoft). There might be also licensing issue if corporation has several hundred Lotus licenses it doesnt want to lose them and pay for 200 Microsoft CRM users. In this case MS CRM might be the solution for Sales department and all the other departments should stay on Lotus

Lotus Domino as Messaging for MS CRM. There is no need to program this custom piece, just use MS CRM Lotus Domino connector, supported by Alba Spectrum Technologies. It has advanced functionality, versus standard MS CRM Exchange connector. Instead of using GUID in the email header, it scans Contacts, Accounts, Leads emails for matching.

Lotus Workflow. Workflow is possible in Lotus and MS CRM. In Lotus, however workflow is the most advanced. You can use Lotus Workflow and then upon the completion it can transfer control to Microsoft CRM. This is typical Microsoft CRM SDK (to program MS CRM) and Lotus Java Agent programming from the side of Lotus. Lotus workflow may work with integration to your ERP/Accounting application, such as Microsoft Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, however this is outside of the scope of this article.

Lotus/CRM Activities Synchronization. One of the popular requirements is the synchronization of Microsoft CRM Activities: Appointment, Phone Call, Fax, etc. with Lotus TOTOs. This should allow users work on the same project sharing Lotus and MS CRM data space. If you need help in the integration or customization, feel free to call us: 1-630-961-5918, 1-866-528-0577, help@albaspectrum.com

 

Microsoft CRM Messaging through Lotus Domino eMail Server - Balanced Solution

Microsoft CRM and IBM Lotus Notes Domino seem to be taking completely different paths and if company is Microsoft oriented - we see MS CRM, MS Exchange, MS SQL Server, SharePoint, etc. In the case of Lotus Domino - it is opposite - Lotus is corporate Information Media and could technically play CRM role with internal messaging coming through Lotus Domino server. However realities of modern corporation give us multiple examples when Microsoft CRM and Lotus Domino should coexist in compromise. There are several reasons why corporation doesn't like to stick to one platform:

1.Balancing several platforms not to be trapped to the one-vendor solution. Imagine, that you placed all the eggs into one basket and then this basket went into the trouble (lawsuit, bankruptcy, mismanagement, hostile takeover - to name a few in the life of the modern American corporation)

2.Legacy-dependence. If your corporation uses such product as Lotus Notes/Domino for 10 plus years - you can expect that majority of documents are stored in the Lotus databases. Just conversion of this legacy database is multi-million dollars project. And again - we could not predict the future accurately - who will win or lose - IBM or Microsoft - or maybe they will merge

3.Procedures and flowcharts. Nowadays corporation works and builds its business model around computer business system, consider things like users training, functional flowcharts/diagrams, reporting to investors, IDE with company vendors and customer. And we'd dare to say that these things are computer application platform dependent (even being designed in the heads of corporation founding leaders as abstract business processes - then they were placed into the computer platform and had to fit to its pluses and minuses)

Considering these arguments and having multiple requests from Microsoft Business Solutions and directly from our prospects and customer, we have realized the connector, which allows Microsoft CRM use Lotus Domino email server with similar messaging functionality as Microsoft Exchange 2003/2000 Microsoft CRM Exchange connector needs to be installed and its DLL based functionality is superceded by our own DLL, which communicates with Lotus Domino server via Java Agents

You can always have us help you with the integration and customization. Call us: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918.

About me

  • I'm ianyrky
  • From New York City, Hawaii
  • Hi! I'm Karen Cheng. I'm a web designer, mother of two, Australian born Chinese living in Perth, Western Australia.I'm married to a yummy guy named Andrew. We have two boys - Callum, who is 3 years, and Sean, who is 1 year old.
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