CC BY-SA 3.0 NY

Cleaning is one of the domestic chores most people hate and now two of the largest on-demand cleaning companies have joined forces in a multi million euro venture.

Helpling an established on-demand cleaning service has purchased Hassle.com a web site that connects householders with cleaners for a reported 32 million euro all in stock.

Hassle which was founded in 2011 and offers it’s cleaning services in the United Kingdom, Ireland and France for around $15 an hour whist German based Helpling offers a similar service at around the same hourly rate.

Helpling only began trading in January 2014 and has previously raised $62 million in venture funding. This purchase will give Helping access to the UK market where it currently is not represented.

This amalgamation is partly seen as a defensive move to fight possible competition coming from Handy and Homejoy in the US.

Handy an online provider of on-demand cleaning, plumbing and other home services is trying to yie up a deal with Homejoy that specializes in home cleaning services.

Handy has grown tenfold in the last year in both revenues and customer bookings acquired Mopp in the UK as a start of their international expansion.

Handy has tied up a deal with Airbnb to provide their hosts with a full service at a discounted rate.

CC BY-SA 3.0 NY

New credit card codes have been issued to show the difference to credit card processors between licensed state-run, legal online gambling, and illegal online gambling transactions.

The new credit card codes are;

1. State-run online lotteries (7800),
2. State-run online casino games (7801),
3. State-run online dog/horse racing (7802).

The idea is to make the difference obvious between legal online gambling transactions and illegal online gambling transactions and help to ease the worries of the card issuers.

This does not mean a blanket acceptance of online gambling by the card companies and companies such as Bank of America, American Express, PayPal and Wells Fargo all refuse to process online gambling transactions.

Some small banks will process the online transactions but it has not given these major banks a change of heart when it comes to accepting credit cards for use with online gambling.

One major processor Santander has now stopped processing online gaming transactions and this has led to a decline in Mastercard use.

PartyPoker one of the major players in online gambling has reported an increase in the success rate for both Mastercard and Visa giving approval for online transactions since the new codes started to be used.

Pala Interactive have reported a doubling in the approval rate of MasterCard users and an increase of Visa approvals.

The banks are nervous about federal laws as currently only 3 percent of the US population lives where legal gambling is permitted.

The future for credit cards to play a major role in online gambling looks good as more states legalize the activity and banks become more comfortable with concept of credit card use for gambling.

Credit card image from Picserver

CC BY-SA 3.0 NY

There are constant reports in the media regarding unscrupulous locksmiths and whilst this only affects a very small proportion of all locksmiths you still need to be careful when choosing a locksmith.

Try to choose a local locksmith who is community based rather than a multinational chain who farm the work out to any locksmith in the area. This will also speed up the process and keep your costs down.

Assuming you have time and it is not an emergency such as locking your self out of your home then try to get a recommendation from family or someone you trust, failing that look for online reviews of the locksmith you are considering using.

Some locksmiths specialize in certain types of work so make sure the locksmith you have chosen is confident they can carry out the work.

Check out the address of the locksmith to ensure it exists and whenthey arrive check out the signage on their vehicle.

Ensure the company is licensed and that the locksmith is certified, well trained, insured and bonded.

You need to confirm with the company that they check thoroughly the background of all their employees and that they don’t farm work out to other locksmiths.

Always check that the locksmith has the correct identification when they arrive and if necessary check by telephoning the company.

Check out how much the job will cost, hourly rate, call out fees etc and try to get an exact figure for the job.