(Scoboco)
(boeke)
(kainr)
(Scoboco)
(birdarts)
(kusine)
(ashi)
(Eva_Deht)
(Enokson)
(dmuth)
(krodinjw)
(cavale)
(Enokson)
(RAWRZ!)
(TLFagan)
(dM.NYC)
(Kimaroo)
(Enokson)
(Lindacat)
(Ajruck)
(ckilgore)
(Marvel)
(gregor_y)
(blue_j)
(Enokson)
(Photo: Wrap Media Group)
(SA_Steve)
(SyndProd)
(Plutor)
(cleighud)
( eschipul)
(pbm.)
(TLFagan)
(kusine)
(lindacat)
(sbassi)
(RLHyde)
([RAWRZ!])
(j.buck)
(matneym)
(skampy)
(8one6)
(vxla)
(stirwise)
(DQD)
(SA_Steve)
(_Dinkel_)
(dano)
(voobie)
(sfxeric)
(KitanaOR)
(emrank)
(tillwe)
(ASurroca)
(itsedsy)
(name)
(AlishaV)
(uconn)
(Ingorrr)
(u2acro)
(qwrrty)
(Bonard)
(60 in 3)
(Libelul)
(Mint)
(snakeuvs)
(eschipul)
(Amir K)
(David Ahntholz for The New York Times)
(Benimoto)
(zieak)
(Tracy O)
(spevman)
(Omad)
(dimsis)
The problem is that therapy sounds expensive, but there are actually affordable options out there if you know where to look. Here are some tips. More »
(telethon)
(hectorir)
(avlxyz)
(TKCS)
(Photo: oneiroi)
(Photo: BenFrantzDale)
(Photo: simondhweller)
(Photo: sidewalk flying)
(Photo: Wayne Gunn)
(Photo: Consumerist)
(Photo: Deal Seeking Mom)
(Photo: iwantamonkey)
(Photo: frankieleon)
(Photo: Wm Jas)
(Photo: nate steiner)
(Photo: frankieleon)
(Photo: Superchou)
(Photo: Incase Design)
(Photo: Paxton Holley)
(Photo: joelogon)
(Photo: moriza)
(Photo: Scurzuzu)
(Photo: Great Beyond)
(Photo: laffy4k)
Photo: afagen
(Photo: hartman045)
(Photo:krossbow)
(Photo:wolfclash)
(Photo: Ed McCulloch)
(Photo: Scarleth White)
(Photo:formatc1)
—>Want a bargain on a house? Try snapping something up in on of these 25 US cities that saw the greatest plunges in their home prices in the 3rd quarter: More »
—>A new study says that 26% of US consumers "have no plans to return to their free-spending ways," which probably doesn't sound like good news to retailers. Even worse (for retailers), about a third say they've become less loyal. More »
—>It's time to get ready for Thanksgiving. Stay in budget and manage your time effectively with ShelterPop's pre-Turkey Day checklist. What do you do around your house to prepare? More »
—>If you participate in an automatic savings program like Bank of America's Keep the Change service, where debit card purchases are rounded up and the difference is deposited into your savings account, keep an eye on maintenance fees. James says he was hit with a $5 charge last month because he hadn't met the minimum monthly deposit requirement of $25: "It turns out that I wasn't even accruing $5 worth of change per month, so I was losing more money due to the maintenance fee than I was saving via Keep the Change!" More »
—>WSJ takes a look at the "severance class" - unemployed formerly high-ranking folks burning through their chunky termination pay package to maintain the outward apperance of their pre-pink slip lifestlye. More »
—>If you're a Citibank customer who has one of the bank's two smaller checking account plans—the ones where the monthly fee is waived as long as you use direct deposit or their online bill payment—then maybe it's time to consider taking your business elsewhere. Starting in February, anyone with an average balance of less than $1500 will be assessed a monthly $7.50 service fee, reports the New York Post. More »
—>Frugal Travel Guy has a story of how he was able to get a credit card for his son after the company first denied him. The magic bullet was a well-crafted "reconsideration letter." What's that? More »
—>Could a text message make you save more? More »
—>You blog for 3 years about money, life, and personal finance, all of which are interconnected, and you pick up a few things. Trent from The Simple Dollar shares the 10 most important lessons he's learned since starting his personal finance blog. For starters, number 10, while it's easy to get caught up in trying to save one more nickel off every purchase, "Reliability and functionality worth a premium"! More »
—>If you're still struggling to find a job in the current economy, you'll be happy to know that this morning President Obama is expected to sign legislation to extend benefits for few more months. The New York Times has more info on how the extension will work, and who qualifies for it. More »
—>Perennial Consumerist favorite banker and insurance company USAA announced yesterday that they're expanding eligible membership to all honorably discharged vets, regardless of dates or lengths of service. More »
—>Did you know negotiating a reduced payment payoff with a lender negatively affects your credit score? More »
—>With less than two months left in the year, it's time to start considering year-end money moves to reduce your 2009 tax burden. To help spur some ideas, MSN Money has ten suggestions as follows: More »
—>When news broke back in September that Intuit, the company behind Quicken, was buying personal finance website Mint, everyone wondered how the two services would co-exist. The worst case scenario was that Mint would be absorbed somehow into Intuit's in-house competitor, Quicken Online. Thankfully, it looks like the opposite will happen. More »
—>Are you looking to get a smartphone on the Verizon network anytime soon? Make sure that you like it before you sign a contract, since starting November 15th, Verizon will be imposing a higher early termination fee—up to $350—on contracts for "advanced" devices. That means smartphones. More »
—>Here's the straight scoop on what's up with the story in that "Capital One: Waive Your Rights, Get $10 Off Your Next Overlimit Fee!" post. More »
—>Yesterday I grabbed a notebook app for my smartphone and spent a couple of hours organizing the various content folders—ideas for Consumerist, gift lists for Christmas, things to look up later on a computer—so that I could capture information more efficiently. Wait, why s ths n Cnsmrst? Because The Simple Dollar argues that by keeping a notebook and using it all the time (Lifehacker calls it "ubiquitous capture"), you can end up saving money. More »
—>Are you hitting that stage in life where you're thinking of becoming a homeowner? Morningstar has published two home buying articles that together offer some good, concise advice to the prospective buyer, especially if you're a first-timer. More »
—>A 5-month investigation by McClatchy Newspapers has found that Goldman secretly bet on the housing crash, went out and pimped the dickens out of assets it knew were junk, and may have broken securities laws in doing so. McClatchy found that Goldman... More »
—>Ghosts were not only cruising sidewalks looking for candy this weekend, they had also infested some banking balance sheets. More »
—>Everett says Capital One called him up and made him an offer. If he opted out of at least one of the consumer credit protections enacted by the CARD act, Capital One would drop the overlimit fees from $39 to $29! Woo! More »
—>Could extra fees for using a credit card to pay become the airline industry's hot new trend? More »
—>With credit cards harder to come by and more annoying to use, the prepaid debit card market is projected to explode from $8.7 billion loaded on the cards to $119 billion in 2012, but a good chunk of that is going to be eaten up by hidden fees and gotchas. This sexy graphic visualization shows how. More »
—>Mobile homes have a less-than-stellar reputation, deservedly or not. I know my own mom always warned me against them by saying they were just tornado bait, which was enough to make me leery of even stepping foot inside a friend's mobile home growing up. But if you're not irrationally afraid of tornadoes, a mobile home might be a great housing option if you're on a tight budget or looking to save money, writes Michigan Telephone. More »
—>It turns out more Costco customers use food stamps than CEO James D. Sinegal originally thought, because after a test run earlier this year the company has decided to roll out the program nationwide. More »
—>Attorneys general in 40 states just asked the FTC to step up the fight against debt relief companies that mislead and overcharge consumers, like Credit Solutions of America (CSA), reports Consumer Affairs. More »
—>What recovery? There were 937,840 foreclosures in Q3 in the US, according to RealtyTrac, the highest quarterly level since they starting issuing reports in 2005. Let's take a closer look via giant sexy graphic visualization, inside. More »
—>Brrrr! It's getting cold and it's time to get the ol' homestead ready so Jack Frost isn't picking your pocket through your unsealed windows and faulty furnaces. In the comments section on the popular "9 House Fixes To Save $ Before Winter Starts" post you guys left lots of great ideas on how you're getting prepared this winter, so here's 28 of the best of them so we can all learn and save together. More »
—>We stray into politics often at our peril but I had to share this clip of Sen. Franken kneecapping a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute conservative think tank. In what was supposed to be a hearing on the Medical Bankruptcy Fairness Act, Diana Furchtgott-Roth instead used her testimony to pillory against health care reform proposals not even being discussed. After Sen. Whitehouse asks her if she even read the bill at hand, Sen. Franken goes: "You said the way we're going will increase bankruptcies...How many bankruptcies because of medical crises were there last year in Switzerland?" More »
—>Do you want to save money by making your own meals at home, but aren't sure where to start? Let the blog Budget Bytes help you. It contains not only frugal but delicious recipes (including vegetarian ones) broken down by total cost and cost per serving, but a guide to stocking your pantry when you first live on your own or learn to cook. More »
—>Personal finance blogger Carrie... On the Cheap put together a checklist of things you should do once you've found out your identity has been stolen. More »
—>Homebuyers looking to save money will try to buy without an agent and deal directly with the seller's broker, but beware, they feed on your weaknesses, ignorance, fear, and money. More »
—>The recession has caused many people to look at money and reevaluate their lives in relation to it. There's no doubt that money is important to everyone (after all, it's hard to eat, buy clothes, and have a place to stay without money), but some have come to realize that having lots of money isn't the end-all of life — there are many things that are much more important than accumulating wealth. More »
—>Without warning, Citi decided to close a swath of gas-station co-branded Mastercard accounts nationwide. The trouble seems to have started October 15. Quan was one of the affected customers and the credit card company was pretty disingenuous about it when called. More »
—>Washington is working on getting the up-to-$8000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers due to expire in November extended, and perhaps even expanded to current homeowners buying a new house. [AP] (Photo: sflovestory) More »
—>Zach's $100,000 CD with TD Bank he took out on 10/5 was mysteriously showing a $0 balance and no one seemed able to fix it until we told him what to do. TD Bank PR says it wasn't related to their clusterfunk of delays that started Sep 28. Zach's experience says otherwise. More »
—>I just found this awesome Wall Street Journal front page from 1999 covering the first time the Dow broke 10,000. It's full of unintentionally hilarious crap that gives keen insight into how we got into this economic catastrophe in the first place. Full-size inside. More »
—>John says that his wife's identity was stolen two weeks ago and since TransUnion shows your full credit card numbers on your credit report, the thief was able to run up a $10,000 credit card bill in his wife's name. More »
—>If you're looking for a way to get a good deal on renting an apartment, personal finance blog Wise Bread has some suggestions. Recently, they offered seven tips for saving on apartment living which, surprisingly, didn't focus completely on costs (there are quality of life issues to consider, of course.) Here are their ideas: More »
—>"When I see you, I'm gonna f*** you up," says debt collector "Mickey," pictured at left, on the answering machine of a guy who bounced a check. WTSP obtained the messages, some of the worst debt collector recordings I've ever heard, and you can listen to them here. More »
—>If a retailer doesn't protect your credit card data and it gets stolen, should you be compensated? Not for any unauthorized charges, which are already covered under banks' zero-liability protection, but for the time lost dealing with the problem, for the anxiety it causes, and for any future credit history/score issues it might cause? More »
—>Before winter hits in full force, there's still time to get your house ready with these nine steps that can save you on your utility bills and protect against unnecessary damage. More »
—>The Federal Reserve has released data on consumer debt for August, and for the 11th month in a row we've paid down credit card debt and increased savings. Take that, rate-hiking credit card companies! More »
—>We love free, and we love attempts to make people savvier about personal finance, so we really like this new personal finance website from the University of Idaho. It's got all the basics covered, and there are things like checklists and downloadable worksheets so you can practice what they're preaching. Some of the information is geared specifically to Idaho residents, but for the most part this is useful content that anyone can take advantage of. More »
—>Comcast. DirecTV. Dish Network. Oh, we love to hate them, don't we? But without these (and others), where would we get the mind-numbing entertainment that has America hypnotized? But of course we don't want to pay a lot to be comatose, so that's why Bible Money Matters' suggestions on how to get the best deal when signing up for cable or satellite TV are so valuable. More »
—>TD Bank sent us the following statement - UPDATE: and now a new, revised one - about all the transaction and fee snafus that happened this week after they became one with the Commerce Bank customer data: More »
—>Think it sucks to be a TD Bank customer this week, especially if you were formerly a Commerce Bank customer? Try being a TD Bank employee. One insider tells what it what was like yesterday on the other side of all those (still) unprocessed transactions and new fees. More »
—>Has the slumping economy got you looking for ideas to earn some extra money? If so, personal finance blog Wise Bread can help you out with their list of 10 small businesses that are free or cost little to start up. Here's the list along with their "advice to live by" for each suggestion: More »
—>TD Bank customers, particularily former Commerce Bank ones, are still complaining about their paychecks and other transactions not posting. Other customers said they were being limited to $250 withdrawals. The problems arose Monday after they tried to combine their bank system with Commerce Bank's, which TD recently bought. More »
—>If you've heard us rave about USAA's stellar financial services but grown sad when you learned that it's only available for military-members and their family, have heart: you can get still get access to some of their services like banking and checking. More »
—>Kiplinger has put together a list of ways to reduce costs for auto, home, and life insurance. For auto and homeowners insurance, boosting your deductible from $250 to $1000 can lower your premiums between 15-25%. If you haven't looked at your life insurance policy in a while, don't wait any longer to shop around—rates have "dropped significantly" over the past 15 years but are now on the rise. And when calculating homeowners insurance, don't fall into the market value trap: make sure you're covering the true cost of replacing only the home and what's inside, not the value of the land. More »
—>An update to how the new FICO '08 scoring system got revamped this year: More »
—>Today, Reps. Barney Frank and Carolyn Maloney are going to request that the implementation date for the rest of the Credit Card Act's rules be moved to December 1st of this year instead of February 2010, after seeing companies "jacking up their rates and doing other things to their customers in advance of the effective date" all summer, reports Mary Pilon at The Wall Street Journal. More »
—>As if a global meltdown, precipitous drop in investment value, and widespread unemployment isn't bad enough, now the economic recession is now making credit cards a bad thing. Will the travesty never end? More »
—>The prices of commodities has dropped from their peaks of last year, yet food makers are not reducing consumer prices, reports Marketplace. Now this is rather funny, and familiar. More »
—>If you don't know about the Carnival of Personal Finance, it's a weekly round-up of interesting posts from the glut of personal finance blogs and websites that now litter the web. I discovered two of today's posts—the 23 debt-saving tips and the the alkaline-vs-rechargeables story—through the most recent Carnival. More »
—>If you're still floundering when it comes to paying off debt, here's a great starting place for you. The blog DoughRoller has listed 23 ways to get started on freeing yourself from debt, along with lots of links to tools and other articles or websites that can help. More »
—>Monevator dishes out some general advice on stock investing to keep in mind as the economy (hopefully) starts to turn around and investing no longer becomes a bottomless money pit. More »
—>Discover Card customers received a notice in the mail recently that the card was reducing the "Open Road" rebate on auto maintenance and gas dropped from 5% to 2%. Around the same time, customers have also received notice that the terms and conditions for the card are basically coming in line with the CARD act ahead of schedule. Hmmm, coinkydink? More »
—>Former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain is famous for, among other things, spending $1.2 million to redecorate his office as the company was going down in flames. For some reason, Thain's shopping spree of $87,000 area rugs, a $18,000 desk, and a $35,000 chest of drawers didn't go over well. More »
—>Limes are cheaper than lemons and passengers seem to prefer them — giving Southwest airlines an opportunity to drop the yellow menace and save $100,000. More »
—>CNN profiles a young family living in a Chicago suburb who have decided to carry out an experiment in frugal living—they want to see if they can reduce their expenses enough to get by on about half of what they made before the wife and sole breadwinner was laid off earlier this summer. More »
—>Ex-FICO exec Andy Jolls destroys 10 credit score myths in 60 seconds in this nice lil video. For credit score newbies, it's a nice introduction and for experts it's decent, and short, refresher. More »
—>Google selected me to be one of their "Power Readers," which means you can easily subscribe to an RSS feed with some of the blogs I recommend reading. I encourage checking out The Red Tape Chronicles, Bankrate, Credit Slips, Elliot.org, and Frugal for Life, as well as the other blogs recommended by my fellow "Power Readers." Yes, we all got issued special laser rings. More »
—>With sales and prices up, the only redeeming quality left for PBR is if you perversely enjoy drinking a beer with zero finish. Please, nobody tell the tiny pants set that Miller High Life is 50 cents cheaper and tastes two dollars better. [NBCChicago] (Photo: Ingorrr) More »
—>These days many parents are struggling with saving any amount of money. So imagine the difficulty of trying to tackle the seemingly insurmountable tasks of saving for college and retirement simultaneously. No question, it's a tall order. To give parents some options to consider, US News offers suggestions for dealing with this double-headed financial dragon as follows: More »
—>The blog Personal Finance Hour is the home to a weekly live audio show with personal finance bloggers over whatever topics they like. Sometimes the conversation turns inward and focuses on trying to blog for profit, or blogging as a part time job. Sometimes the conversation is about things like remodeling your home or planning for a vacation. More »
—>Should children have credit cards? Let's ask 'em! More »
—>Did you hear about the identity thief in Seattle who tried to open a JC Penney credit card account with one of the very women whose identity she had stolen? More »
—>I blanched when I saw the subject line, "Mint.com to be acquired by Intuit, maker of Quicken." More like "Mint.com to be acquired by Intuit, makers of crap," I thought. Judging by your comments, I don't blanch alone. More »
—>The San Jose Mercury News has compiled a list of financial tips for people just entering college. These are the sorts of things that will help you avoid racking up huge debts or wasting money you don't have on fees and penalties—and of course they can apply to pretty much anyone, not just college students. More »
—>No longer wishing to compete with Mint.com, Quicken-maker Intuit has decided to buy it. The AP says that the company plans to keep its current offering, Quicken Online, but that it will be aimed at customers who also use its Quicken desktop software. Mint.com will become the company's primary personal finance website. More »
—>The Consumer Reports Money Adviser has compiled a great list of sites that store your personal information and will provide free copies of their reports to you if you ask. More »
—>After the past year's economic slump, it's safe to say that most of our retirement accounts are not what they used to be. So how do you know if the stock market crash has derailed your retirement or not? Of course, the first step in the process is knowing how much money you'll need for those future days on the golf course. Personal finance blog Wise Bread says we all have two main options for determining our retirement numbers, namely: More »
—>Ok, so our collective net worth is down several trillion dollars and personally our fortunes have nose-dived, but at least the recession provides a "learning opportunity." Or at least that's MSN Money's point-of-view. They suggest we've learned (the hard way unfortunately) the following money lessons from the recent recession : More »
—>Josh would like everyone to know that Amber Beyer, Schwab Bank customer service rep, is awesome. Recently he called the bank to tell them about his travel plans. He was so impressed with her knowledegeable and kind service that he was compelled to send a laudatory email to her supervisor, and cc Consumerist. Thus, we enter this chronicle into the halls of legend, the pantheon of excellent customer service known as "Above and Beyond." Here lies the tale: More »
—> It was apparently the least of his problems, but the late King of Pop had less than stellar credit, says TMZ. More »
—>Mankind is plagued by several quandaries: Paper or plastic? Ketchup or mustard? Betty or Veronica? More »
—>The venerable Wall Street Journal recently discovered the classic "EECB" technique we've been telling you about for years. This time, it's health insurance companies, an industry so predicated on denial-of-care-for-profit that a few years ago a class action lawsuit based on RICO statute, invented to prosecute Mafia families for racketeering, was able to make significant headway. Lucky for you, email is much faster than the wheels of justice... More »
—>Obviously a lot of preparation goes into being an athlete, but let's ignore all of that and focus on the gory numbers. More »
—>The Mighty Bargain Hunter blog presents us with a money-related ethical dilemma: what do (should) you do when someone has priced an item way too low? He shares several stories that illustrate how this quandary can occur, and the response alternatives primarily boil down to two options: More »
—>This is a depressing phenomenon, if it's real. According to the Associated Press, consumers are ditching items before they buy them. They've always done this, of course, but now they are supposedly doing it more. More »
—>The choice to have a child is usually not a financially-focused decision. And we're not so crass to suggest that it should be a dominant factor. But the cost of raising a child properly should at least be one of the factors that couples consider before they take the plunge into parenthood. Why? Because raising kids is a very expensive undertaking. More »
—>Should you ever get lost in the Chase bank-by-phone tree, this function map may help you. Or it may explode your brain all over the receiver. The choice is yours. More »
—>Starting Oct 1, AMEX Blue is raising rates on all customers, INCLUDING on OLD balances, AND they are telling customers that you can't just opt out and cancel the card (like normal). Turns out that opt-out we all took for granted was only by the credit card companies' good graces. More »
—>A growing personal finance debate centers around whether or not individuals should have a mortgage when they retire. A surprising number of retirees maintain a mortgage — 4 in 10 in 2007 — but is this good financial management? More »
—>48% of all mortgages could have negative equity, being a debt greater than the underlying house is worth, by 2011, says Deutsche Bank. Someone please tell Brooklyn. After a few weeks of checking out apartments in Gowanus, Park Slope and Red Hook, everyone's asking prices are still like the good times are just around the corner. [FORTUNE] (Thanks to Michael!) (Photo: kevindooley) More »
—>Bank of America isn't the only bank that enjoys canceling their traveling customer's credit cards. HSBC canceled my card while I was living in New Zealand, and as part of their "continuing efforts to fight fraud," sent an active replacement card to my address 9,000 miles away. More »
—>Nothing says "wow I can't wait to see who is on the other end of the line" like a company that programmed their number to show up on caller ID as "NOT A COLLECTER." More »
—>A recent Huffington Post article wondered if talking about personal finance was "the final taboo." Talking about money can feel as revealing as a strip-tease with none of the fun, but for something as complex and individual as your financial future, a one-way conversation with the internet or personal finance columnists isn't enough. More »
—>Bank of America has cut off Shannon's debit card and says she has to get a new one. This would otherwise be a minor inconvenience except for the fact that Shannon is in Irkutsk, Russia on a 2-week Trans-Siberian trek. More »
—>Starting in June, Paypal started assessing a fee of 2.9% on on purchases marked "goods" or services" to personal accounts. They can do whatever they want, but the problem is they were very quiet about it. Almost sneakily so. More »
—>The friendliest bank in the world, USAA, will soon let customers instantaneously deposit checks through its iPhone application. Here's how it works: you snap a picture of the front and back of your check, and send the picture to USAA. That's it. More »
—>Does paying off and closing a credit card hurt your credit score? That's a two-part question. The answer to the first one is no, it helps, and the answer to the second is yes, closing your credit card hurts your credit score. Credit bureau Exerpian's "Ask Max" says, More »
—>To get more mileage out your plastic, Mint.com's got "10 Little-Known Credit Card Perks" to show you. More »
—>$10 copays are history in some doctor's offices these days, as some clinics are requiring the entire out-of -pocket cost up front. But what if you get overcharged? More »
—>Guess what — summer is over. Ok, so it's not technically over. But the carefree, I-don't-have-to-think-about-school part is certainly long gone. Think differently? Just look at the Sunday paper ads, the email promotions and banner ads all over the web, and the signage in almost any store you walk into these days. Oh yeah, it's back-to-school time, baby. More »
—>Save to Win gives Michigan residents the chance to win the lottery simply by purchasing a certificate of deposit. Here's how it works: residents who contribute at least $25 into a Save to Win CD are automatically entered into monthly drawings for a $400 raffle, and an annual drawing for a $100,000 jackpot. Even if you don't win, you still have an interest bearing CD. More »
—>Saving can be boiled down to a few universal financial truths. The sooner you know and internalize them, the sooner you can start enjoying a responsible, sustainable lifestyle. More »
—>Is it okay to lie and make your kid lie if it saves you money and time? This mommy thinks so. More »
—>How would you like to save 4% to 7% on many of your back-to-school purchases? Or maybe you aren't a student but have some fall clothing shopping to do and would like those savings yourself. Or you're been putting off that computer purchase for a few months. Well, with the tax holidays many states are offering, now may be your time to pounce and buy, buy, buy. More »
—>Before buying from potentially unscrupulous merchants, call up your credit card company and ask for a virtual credit card number. The disposable numbers expire after a single use, preventing merchants from signing you up for added or recurring charges. Virtual numbers are available to Citi, Discover, PayPal, and Bank of America customers. More »
—>Society may have come a long way since the 50s, but the grocery shopping tips remain the same. Inside, the wisdom that helped a generation of college-aged mothers conquer the scary supermarket. More »
—>"Let me put it this way. It's like food stamps," said the mortgage modification telemarketer trying to talk consumer advocate and Red Tape Chronicles blogger Bob Sullivan into a new loan. Following the trail of who this guy works for lead Sullivan to discover a new kind of mortgage modification scammer. More »
I am going to be coming in to a large amount of money and I should be able to pay off some of my mounting credit card bills, over $15K. Should I pay it off all at once or space out the payments over 3 or 6 months? I would like to buy a house in a year and want to get the biggest gold star on my credit report I can. More »
—>Depending on the source, the cost of an average wedding in the US is somewhere between a low of $20k and a high of almost $30k. No matter what number you use, that's expensive. But Wise Bread offers us some extreme weddings savings tips than can make the day very affordable. But be warned, there will be lots of compromises. Here are their suggestions and our quick summaries of each idea: More »
—>MoneyRight, a new website from LendingTree, seems at first aimed to take on Mint.com in the easy-to-read/use financial snapshot category of web services. However, it also offers financial advice based on your current situation and future goals. More »
—>The party is over. In advance of credit card reform that was supposed to make credit better for consumers, the banks are making terms tougher and policies less lenient. The result can be very expense for some customers. Have any of these adverse actions happened to your credit card lately? Take our poll. Multiple answers accepted. More »
—>Assuming you still have a credit card, you might not be getting the full use out of it. Most credit cards have certain perks that not everyone knows about. More »
Is a true that after 7 years your bad credits go away? More »
—>If you need the straight story on issues of credit card, debit, and banking fraud and security, something more than "we're taking it seriously," Avivah Litan, VP and distinguished analyst at Gartner research is your go-to-gal. I recently interviewed her over the phone about consumers can protect themselves in an era where just keeping your mother's maiden name a secret doesn't cut the mustard. I learned that you can buy a credit card number for a few cents, losing your Social Security Number is NOT the most dangerous fraud that is likely to happen to you, and how Obama's helicopter plans got stolen thanks to P2P music-sharing software... More »
Russian or Armenian Mob Used "Model Employee" Con at PCH Arco [LA WEEKLY] (Thanks to Angela!)
PREVIOUSLY: Credit Card Skimmers Attack Arco Gas Stations In California
More »
—>What's going on inside the minds of credit card companies now that the CARD credit card reform act is coming down the pike? A customer service supervisor for a major credit card company emailed us to give us the low-down: reduced grace periods, cutting credit lines, increased fees on balance transfers, and, of course, jacked up APRs. Here's the details: More »
—>David paid his credit card one day late, one time, and Chase immediately jacked his interest rate from 12.24% to the default rate of 29.99%. He called customer service and was told he need to pay on-time for 6 months before he could get it reduced. 6 months later he calls back and now they tell him it's 12 to 24 months. A supervisor confirmed this. Say what? That's what he said, and so he wrote Chase a letter, and it got some serious results: More »
—>Listen to the payday loan industry and their apologists and they'll try to tell you that their customers are savvy and just need of a break to tide them over. But a new survey (PDF) shows that most payday loans are to repay other payday loans. Of the 80% of borrowers who take out multiple payday loans in a year: More »
—>Banks are great and all, but everyone should keep a little bit of emergency cash stashed somewhere at home. Frugal Dad offers up a list of seven hiding spots that should beat all but the most determined thieves. More »
—> Let's face it, Michael Jackson had a spotty record when it came to managing his money. Sure, he earned a gazillion dollars making music and was savvy enough to buy rights to Beatles' tunes, but in his latter days he also spent lavishly, millions more than his annual income, and he racked up a sizeable debt. In other words, you wouldn't want him as your financial advisor. More »
—>Bankrate shares 15 tips to protect your stash of cash while traveling abroad. Before leaving, strip down your wallet to the bare essentials, including a backup credit card, and make copies of all financial documents. While abroad, stash the copies and the backup card in your hotel safe, and take common-sense precautions like sticking to legitimate bank ATMs, and avoiding crowds. Hit the link for the rundown of all 15 tips. More »
—>Sources around the country say that the divorce rate is down nationwide, though it's usually higher during economic recessions. One theory as to why: the economy is bad, but people are marrying later and cohabiting more frequently than past generations. More »
—>The baby's on the way! You've got a crib, toys, and a rapidly approaching delivery date. So what else you do need? Kiplinger shares the four must-have financial tools that no new parent should go without... More »
—>Any sort of federal agency to protect consumers from abuse from the financial industry is months, or possibly years, away, notes Linda Stern of Reuters. That's why you shouldn't depend on such an agency to protect you in the meantime. In fact, you can take her advice and use it no matter what happens at the federal level. More »
—>When are we going to pull out of the recession? The Kiplinger Recovery Index thinks it can tell you, using a sophisticated system of red and green colored boxes and checkmarks and X's. More »
—>Our post earlier today about Chase's sudden 150% increase in a couple's minimum payment on their credit card debt brought out a lot of passionate comments from readers—and it also turned into a cesspool of blame. We see a lot of a particular type of sentiment on posts about credit card debt and money management, and it's not helpful. More »
—>Chase just notified Greg that they're more than doubling his minimum payment requirement. Because he and his wife are carrying such a large balance due to a promotional balance transfer offer a few years ago, this pushes their monthly payment to nearly $1,000. More »
—>There are three variables that impact the total return investors receive from an investment: the amount saved, the return rate, and the amount of time invested. Most investors spend a good amount of time and effort trying to increase all three. But what if we can't do all three, if we're inhibited by time, skill, knowledge, or ability (after all, many fund managers spend a lifetime trying to eek out an additional 1% return with limited success.) If we could only focus on one of the factors to impact, which is the best option? What is the best way to maximize investment returns? More »
—>Two Harvard doctoral students in economics compared how credit unions and banks operated their credit card divisions, and concluded that the recent CARD act "is likely to bring about moderate, and even positive, changes," as banks begin to emulate parts of the fairer business model of credit unions. Specifically, they say, all the doom and gloom from the banking industry about how consumers will get shafted by the new rules is mostly fearmongering. More »
Here are 5 personal finance podcasts to subscribe to, download, and argue with during your commute or workout. [Automatic Finances] (Photo: uhuru1701) More »
—>Right after politicians and lawyers, financial planners have to be the most mistrusted, suspected, and questioned profession these days. And with good reason. With the Bernie Madoff's of the world running rampant, fewer and fewer people are willing to turn their life savings over to someone else. (Yes, we realize Madoff was an investment advisor, not a financial planner per se, but you get the meaning.) Well, after reading this, you'll probably be even less likely to hire a financial planner. financial planners won't tell you as follows: More »
—>The Wall Street Journal ran an article yesterday about how to identify and protect loved ones from con artists. One of the problems with being an easy mark—say, because of reduced mental capacity or increasing isolation—is that you get put on a list and passed around to other scammers, says Karen Blumenthal, the author of the piece and a relative of one of these perpetually easy marks. More »
—>If you've fallen into a debt pit and can't make your credit card payments, and now you're watching them steadily mount with penalties, fees, and steep interest rates, consider negotiating a lower payment. The New York Times reports that while most card companies won't admit it officially, they know when they've got a customer who can't pay, and they're much more willing to settle for a lower amount than they were a year ago. More »
—>The Better Business Bureau and Senator Charles Schumer are warning the public to be skeptical of any calls promising to lower your credit card interest rate. While nowhere near at the public annoyance level of the recent car warranty robocaller scourge, they're still out there, automatically dialing people and promising to lower your rate for a hefty up-front fee. The only problem is, they can't do anything you can't do on your own, and unless you're crazy you're probably not going to charge yourself a thousand bucks for the service. More »
—>Credit Karma recently launched the free Credit Report Card service that assigns letter grades to each component of your credit score. If you want to improve your credit score, try to bring up your performance in areas where you have low or failing grades. Not every component has the same bearing on your score, so underneath each section Credit Karma tells you how much weight it has. For those who look at their reports and scratch their head, the Credit Karma report card, which is drawn from your TransUnion report, makes understanding why your credit score is the way it is a snap. Full screen shot inside. More »
—>Rather than layoffs, a number of employers are turning to furloughs - forced unpaid time off - to meet their budgets. According to a NYT article, employees are handling them in different ways. Some use it as chill time. Others keep working anyway without pay, either out of guilt, routine, or fear of an actual layoff. Has your company been hit with furloughs? How are you dealing? Take our poll inside. More »
Given the state of the economy today, is it better for me to reduce my 401k to a minimum and use the extra funds to pay off my credit card debt? This is a good time to put money into the markets, based on my admittedly limited understanding, but with interest rates going through the roof (my personal Chase card went from 12.99 to 23.99), I would like to kick down my cc debt (now at around $6,000) faster. I'm currently only putting 6% in my 401k, and I'm fairly young (35). Have you advice for me? More »
—>Like a tornado, the recession hits unevenly. One house might get turned into splinters, while another is left untouched. Similarily, one friend can still be afford salads and Starbucks for lunch every day while the other has to brown-bag it. The Double-X blog asks its readers, "how do friends in newly different socioeconomic strata adjust?" Answer: most of the time, they don't. More »
—>Kiplinger has a fun, albeit relatively easy, quiz that asks if various financial transactions are worth the cost — if you should you pay a little extra upfront in hopes of saving money — or hassle — in the future. In it they offer the following situations: More »
—>Someone stole reader A's WaMu credit card number and racked up thousands in fraudulent charges, and now WaMu wants A to pay for it. The fraudsters also made a PIN request for a cash advance over the phone, and WaMu said that phonecall orginated from A's parents house. Because of this, which A says is impossible, WaMu demands A be responsible for the charges. He's written letters and called executive customer service and it's gotten him nowhere. His crappy story, inside... More »
Bond traders say stock traders are wrong, the Fed will not increase interest rates this year. [Bloomberg] More »
—>Dan Denton was about to get a much-needed job. Then the recruiters saw his blemished credit report and took away their offer. More »
—>Identity theft is rising in the recession, according to a Brooklyn public defender I talked to at a party this weekend. Most often the crime starts with the perp stealing the victim's checkbook, he said. More »
—>Spotted this sign on a Brooklyn BP gas pump last night, taking pains to point out that they are charging customers the same price whether they use cash or credit. Interesting, because last year around this time we ran a few stories about gas stations who doing the opposite. The thing is, credit card companies charge merchants various transaction fees to process the cards. If retailers can't assess those fees to the customers who actually incur them, the business has to raise prices on everything for everyone. More »
—>How is paying off all your loans and becoming debt-free like training for a marathon? JD, a personal finance blogger who is training for a marathon shares his tips. For instance, running first thing in the morning is a lot like the idea of "paying yourself first." To wit: More »
—>A great way to improve your credit score is to get rid of errors on your credit report that are dragging you down, but how do you start? More »
—>As growing global economic optimism begins to build, the market is betting that the Fed will raise interest rates by the end of this year. This will mean mortgages will get more costly and credit card APRs will rise, but the interest you make off your savings account will go up. [Bloomberg] (Photo: Ben Popken) More »
—>Hopelessness hit 9.4% in May. Oh wait, we meant joblessness. Actually, with jobless claims about half the average loss of the past six months, could hope poised for a comeback? [NYT] (Photo: joshuahoffmanphoto) More »
—>Even though GMAC spun off from GM years ago, they recently changed their name to "Ally" in a re-branding, stain-of-association-removing effort. Their whole game seems to be a USAA for civilians, advertising "No minimum deposits. No fees. No min balance. No sneaky discalimers." Ally Bank is also offering very juicy APYs, like 2.25% for an online savings account, more than double the national average... More »
—>If you have a bunch of variable rate Federal student loans, July 1st could be your lucky day. July 1st is when the interest rates on Federal student loans changes, and one financial id expert is predicting they're going to drop to "historic lows." What this means is you will have an opportunity to consolidate your variable rate Federal student loans together at the new, lower, rate, and save yourself some cash. How much? More »
—>Who couldn't use an extra $100 these days? Chase is giving $100 if you open a new Chase checking accounts. Just go here, enter an email address, take the coupon they send you to a nearby branch, and open a new checking account. Of course, there are a few caveats: 1) You have to deposit $100 into it. 2) The $100 can't come from another Chase account or an affiliate. 3) Within 60 days, you have to either make 5 debit card purchases, or set up direct deposit. 4) You have to keep the account open for 6 months or they take the $100 back. 5) If you don't set up direct deposit and you don't make at least 5 debits a month, you get hit with a fee. Still, a hundred bucks is a hundred bucks. More »
—>Budgets are supposed to leave you money left over, right? Well, the zero-based budget takes the opposite view, and thinks you should allocate every single dollar from every paycheck so that you're left with nothing. Well, nothing that you don't know what you're going to do with. The allocation can, and probably should, include savings, for example. Getting Finances Done shows you how to get started with this budgeting technique that can save you time, headache, and yes, money. To jumpstart things, here's a spreadsheet template you can use. More »
—>Mitchell wrote to us complaining about Walgreen's decision to cancel its EasySaver Rebate program, where customers could submit multiple rebate requests at once and get the money back along with a 10% bonus applied to a gift card. Although the program is no longer with us, it's still very possible to game the reward/discount systems at Walgreens and other chain drugstores to accumulate huge savings. Sometimes you can even make money back. More »
—>Life is full of surprises and challenges. Luckily, there's a tax form for just about all of them. Via Kiplinger's, here's 14 major life events that allow for smart tax-saving moves, and how to make those moves. More »
—>As numerous commenters on our "50 Restaurants Where Kids Eat Free Or Cheap" pointed out, it's easier to get good food at a good price with a nice home-cooked meal with fresh ingredients. Then we have the perpetual dilemma, what to make, and how to make it? More »
—>With times calling for tighter wallets and tighter belts, FrugalLivingTv's list of 50 restaurants where kids eat free or cheap is like manna from heaven. More »
—>Many homeowners that couldn't afford their home the first time around, can't afford it the second or third, a new study finds. Fitch Ratings predicts that 55-65% of home loans getting modified will end up at least 60 days behind within a year. The percentage is even higher for those in subprimes... More »
—>Starting July 24, 2009, WaMu accounts will get fully transitioned to Chase. After that, ex-WaMuers will be able to fully enjoy the benefits of Chase banking, like making deposits into Chase ATMs, the full range of Chase branch banking services, and the luxury of paying Chase's service fees which are higher than WaMu's were. More »
—>For most people, their career is their most valuable financial asset. But for those willing to make the effort, even a small one, there might be something even more valuable—a side business that could potentially turn into a very large source of income. More »
—>Brett Arends at The Wall Street Journal has compared Case-Shiller house price data to annual inflation rates, and speculates that owning a home may not be a very good investment. "You can often do better on long-term inflation protected government bonds," he writes. More »
—>Forbes wanted to know which states had the highest average balances per household in May, so they took the total amount of debt in 50 major metropolitan areas, divided that by the number of households, then divided that by the median household income for that area for May. Here are some of their results. More »
—>Geoffrey Miller, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of New Mexico, says marketers are trying too hard to find a working model of why people spend money the way they do. It really comes down to the human equivalent of "cost signaling" in the animal world—a sort of "peacock feather" display that's supposed to tell peers and prospective mates how smart or sophisticated we are. The only problem is, other people never fall for it. More »
—>President Obama is poised to sign the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act this afternoon. Everyone celebrate by buying lots of steaks and hot dogs and fireworks this weekend. In cash. [AP] (Photo: northernplateguy) More »
—>Seth Green takes you on a tour of his crib in this clip from Un-Broke, a financial program airing next Friday on ABC. "BOOM! That's math all over your face!" More »
—>Some students who didn't read the fine print are finding out too late that what they thought were federal student loans were actually private loans. The mistake is the difference between a 6% and 18% interest rate. More »
—>Get to know the woman behind the patterened jackets: NYTM had an incisive profile of personal finance guru Suze Orman last weekend. At one point, she eats six hot dogs in a row. [NYTM] (Photo: pynchonoid) More »
—>Eric just graduated from an MBA program Monday and landed smackdab in the middle of our job-shriveling recession. So what did he do? To try to land a job at Microsoft, he bought Facebook ads that specifically targeted employees at the companies he wants to work for. It cost him less than $50, and he got over 20 Microsoft employees to contact him offering their help. Here's how he did it: More »
f you are making regular contributions over time - say, investing a certain dollar amount each week or month - buying an index fund is more cost-effective. If you are rolling over a lump sum, however, you might choose an E.T.F. More »
—>Watching this clip of a high-rolling lady who has to remove all her bags of designer clothing from her fancy Range Rover before it gets repossesed made my day. Schadenfreude so good. Even when I learned that Operation Repo is a faux reality show where they do re-enactments of real repossesion stories, it's still all good, especially because of when the real reposesser says that if it weren't for his kind, no one would be able to afford a car. Food for thought. More »
—>A three-digit number that creditors use to quickly evaluate whether to give someone a loan and how favorable the terms should be, the credit score remains something of a mystery to many. How is it figured out? What matters, and what doesn't matter? The exact scoring system is a proprietary secret of the Fair Issac corporation, but there are 5 general categories, each weighted differently, that determine where you sit on the range from 300-850. In easy-to-read outline form, let's take a closer look. More »
—>When we wrote earlier about credit card companies' threats to treat customers even worse in light of Congress passing credit card reform legislation, it ignited a righteous firestorm of consumer rage in the comments. Inside, our favorites. More »
—>NYT: It sounds like most of the good stuff stayed in the Senate Credit Card Reform bill: More »
—>NYT: Bankers are warning they're going to have to "mean up" credit cards if the reforms expected to get voted on today go through. Among the ways people who pay off their bills in full every month and always follow the rules might get dinged: More »
Santana had actually already sought permission from the bank to settle for as little as $10,000. It's an open secret that if a debtor is willing to wait long enough, he can probably get away with paying almost nothing, as long as he doesn't mind hurting his credit score. So Santana knew he should jump at the offer. But as an amateur psychologist, Santana was eager to make his own diagnosis - and presumably boost his own commission. More »
—>So you want to write a budget, but you're not sure where to start? No Credit Needed has a list of ten simple but necessary steps to take before drafting your first spending plan. Most consumers will already have knocked off the basics like putting their checking and savings accounts in order, but everyone can take advantage of tips like tracking your spending for a full month and making sure you have a detailed list of your irregular expenses. Once you've done your homework, check out our guide to writing a beginner's budget and start mapping out your financial future. More »
—>Now that you've checked out what the Credit Card Reform Act is all about, if you think it looks good and would like to see it passed, Consumers Union's CreditCardReform.org has set a toll-free number that directly connects you to your Senator's office so you can urge them to vote in favor of S.414. The number is 1-800-944-6762. They also have an online form you can use. The Senate is expected to vote next week. More »
—>Guess what? There are a lot of pro-consumer changes in how the credit card industry will have to treat you if Chris Dodd's Credit Card Reform bill goes through. Going through the questions you sent in and left as comments, it turns out that a good number of what you're asking for are in this bill. So then, let's check out the latest version bill out and see what changes are in store. I know Alex linked to this as a PDF but these are so important I wanted them posted front and center. More »
—>If you plan on retiring after 2037, you'd better get really serious about saving now. It might not hurt to also take a vow of poverty; that way you'll feel like it's your decision to live off of cardboard and dumpster fruit in your sixties. More »
—>As we prepare to talk credit card reform with the Obama folks, we want to make sure you're all able to follow along at home. Inside, we present a cornucopia of fact sheets, charts, and links about the fight for credit card reform. More »
—>We've got the senior policy guy we're interviewing on Thursday in DC about credit card reform confirmed, it will be Austan Goolsbee, senior economic adviser to Obama. We'll be shooting it in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House. This should make for a good interview! Besides lengthy academic credentials in business and behavioral economics, Goolsbee often acts as Obama's surrogate, is an extemporaneous debate champ, Skull & Bones member, and from Chi-town, so Meg can rap with him about sport peppers. More »
Did you know that in California, if you ask the Subway sandwich mechanic (or whatever they're called) to toast your sandwich, you'll be charged a sales tax, whereas if you go untoasted you won't? Crazy! Thomas Hawk says you should always order your coffee to go at California restaurants, even if you plan on drinking it there, to avoid a similar crazy tax. [Thomas Hawk] (Thanks to Glenn!) More »
—>"Never buy the most expensive home in a neighborhood." "Your age is the percent of your portfolio you should have invested in bonds." "You can withdraw 4% of your retirement savings every year." Many of these sort of short, quick personal finance rules-of-thumb have become so generally accepted that most people don't even question their validity. In many cases, the guidance these sayings offer are quite good. Yet some of them have morphed from solid money advice to almost zen-like statements that are just as likely to be untrue as true. For example, here's one that sparks a lot of debate: More »
—>A reader who works in the chargeback section of a major credit card company has just about had enough with people tossing around "chargeback! chargeback!" as the solution to every customer service problem. While it is a great tool, you gotta make sure you use it right. To help you do that, here's our credit card company insider's guide to the top 10 reasons why your chargeback will get rejected. More »
—>Getting into debt is easy. Winding up in default is easier yet; all you have to do is not pay your bills for several months! So how do you deal when the lender doesn't want to wait around for you any longer and has moved on to more drastic action? Here's three ways, only two of which are advisable. More »
—>Definition: Double-cycle billing or two-cycle billing: When the credit card company calculates finance charges not just for the past cycle (month), but the past two. More »
—>New graduates are about to walk smack into the Great Recession, and they need every bit of financial advice they can get. The Wall Street Journal has five excellent money tips that should apply not just to new graduates, but to everyone. More »
—>Sure, I use coupons, and I'm decent at it, but for me watching this video of the "Coupon Queen" is like a little kid enrolled in her first karate class watching an expert ninja. More »
—>For all the financial news of doom and gloom, the Money Crashers blog reminds us that not everyone is hit hard. In fact, they say that for every person struggling right now, there are a majority of people who are doing just fine in this economic climate (note: no data is presented for this claim, but it does sound at least directionally correct). As such, they list five money-related tips for those out there who are not struggling in this recession as follows: More »
—>Stop the presses! You know how most banks are glad to let you charge more than your credit limit and then charge you fees for the "courtesy?" CreditMattersBlog reports it turns out Chase will let you block these "over-the-limit" purchases. You just gotta call and ask for it, 1-800-432-3117. If you're a Chase credit card customer and sometimes find yourself going over your credit limit and incurring fees, putting an over-the-limit block on your account could be just the thing. More »
—>When the little trolls with the green visors determine your credit score, a big factor in their abacus-shuffling is how much percent of your credit limit you're using. However, it's not just your total credit utilization, all of your credit limits added together and divided by how much of that you've tapped, but also how much of each credit line you're using, the individual credit utilization. Say what? More »
—>With President Obama and Congress threatening to tag-spank credit card issuers, Slate is left wondering why the government doesn't just issue its own credit card. Before you scream "SOCIALISM!," consider the government's heavy involvement in the banking sector, not just through the recent bailouts, but through long-standing institutions like Fannie and Sallie Mae, and Freddie Mac. Credit-worthy borrowers in Germany, France, and India all have access to low-interest, no-fee credit cards issued by their central banks. Would you ever be interested in an Obama-backed credit card? More »
—>The comparison shopping website PriceGrabber.com just completed its "what are you going to do with your tax refund?" survey for the second year in a row, and not surprisingly there are some notable differences between last April and now. The biggest change is among those who plan to spend the money: it was 44.0% in 2008, but only 29.2% this year. More »
— FREE MONEY FINANCE (Photo: donbuciak) More »
—>Asking for a discount. Negotiating for a better price. Haggling. No matter what you call it, the concept is the same: working to get a seller to let you pay a lower price for a good or service than what was initially offered. The Digerati Life encourages shoppers to negotiate on price and offers the following tips (including a story about getting a discount at Home Depot) to make the most of the process: More »
—>Getting slayed by your bills? Gizmodo has a good roundup of how to save money by ditching your landline and tv, and renegotiating your monthly service rates. It's recap and refresher for expert Consumerist readers, but a nice compendium of tactics that can get you started saving money today. More »
—>Last week, New York Times personal finance columnist Ron Lieber discovered that his family's financial planner was being investigated for fraud, because millions of dollars had been transferred out of clients' accounts without authorization. What's funny is Lieber found the financial planner while writing a column on how to comparison shop for one. More »
—>Here's a 24-page PDF of a powerpoint on ATM skimmers that's making the rounds in Australia. If you've been reading every ATM skimming post, most of this is review, but it contains several more examples of what skimmers can look like and what to watch out for. Though it's from an Australian bank, most of the information is general enough to apply to any ATM. A handy document to pass around to friends and family to warn them about ATM skimming dangers. More »
—>How do ATM skimmers work? This clip from UK show "The Real Hustle" shows you, from start to finish, how scammers steal your card info and take out money themselves. (Thanks to bonanzaone!) More »
—>If you're a former WaMu credit card customer and now with Chase, check your bill due dates. They may have changed, according to reports CreditMattersBlog is getting from its readers. Seems WaMu had a 25-day grace period, while Chase has one of "at least" 20. More »
—>Having a baby soon? Congrats! Now you can begin the 18-year process of saving for college (not to mention the even more costly option of paying for their upbringing.) Luckily for you, the New York Times has a simple formula that makes the saving process as painless as possible, requiring only small sacrifices (over a long period of time). They dub the approach "20-20-20" and it goes like this: More »
—>This is the format for email addresses at Capital One: firstname.lastname@capitalone.com. Cheers. More »
—>What if you don't have enough money to pay your taxes right away? There are several options. For starters, you can request a payment extension of up to 120 days after filing to pay in full without penalty. By June, if you haven't paid yet, the IRS will send you a bill and assess a small penalty and start charging interest. For $105. you can also set up an installment plan and pay a little bit each month with each paycheck. Set that up online here. Just don't blow it off entirely, the IRS are a lot more tenacious than BMG. More »
—>They say the only two certainties in life are death and taxes. Only one of these can be cheated, and that's the one they'll dress you up in horizontal stripes for. Some scammers promote schemes that they say you can use to get out of that one, but they're just as legit as the Floridian Fountain of Youth. So, don't be a Ponce (de Lion), and watch out for what the IRS calls the "Dirty Dozen" tax scams: More »
—>Bwahhhh! The Tax Man cometh! Here are 16 red flags to watch out for. If you wave them, it will be like if you called up the IRS and said, "Hello? IRS? I'd like you to come audit my sorry ass six ways from Sunday. Here's my address." More »
—>If you're not done with your taxes, don't worry, just get an extension. Just send in IRS Form 4868 and you'll get 6-months to send in your paperwork. However, you still need to send in 90% of your total tax due otherwise you'll get fines. If you're getting a refund, then no sweat, just send in your extension. Don't feel too bad about not having it together in time, either; according to the IRS website, form 4868 is their most requested document. More »
—>You guys are some thrifty freakazoids. We asked you to submit your money-saving secrets and you dumped like 35 elephants on our heads in comments and emails. We've trimmed that down to 112 . Here they are! Enjoy your savings. More »
—>It's no surprise that a popular purveyor of work-suitable vestments suck lowered a reader's friend's store credit-card limit, but to go from $1000 to $100, that's cold, Banana Republic. Danielle writes: More »
—>Last week Bank of America decided to hike rates on millions of credit card customers. They said that if you carry a balance and have an interest rate below 10%, starting in June you're likely to see it spike into the double-digit category. BoA said it had to do it because these customers were "underpriced relative to market conditions." But according to at least one email, Bank of America might be underrepresenting the number of customers caught in its interest rate dragnet... More »
—>Check it out, we're in the New York Post today. They picked up our reader Dan's story about finding an ATM skimmer at a Chase/WaMu, along with the skimmer spotted by Gizmodo reader Sean after they ran Dan's story. Neat! More »
—>Rosemary writes that Bank of America just increased the interest rates on her two credit cards by 12% and 15% because the balances were too high, after slashing the credit limits on both cards a month before. She's frustrated, of course, but like everyone else who's been hit with these increasing fees, she's sort of stuck with their decision. But Mary Schwager at Examiner.com suggests you try placing your account on hold for six months or so, at which point your creditor may be less terrified of the economy and willing to work with you. More »
—>There are two common feelings that many of us have regarding our work lives: happiness that it's Friday (TGIF!) and dread that it's Monday. In other words, we're less than thrilled with the satisfaction we get from our jobs. Trent at The Simple Dollar brings up this age-old issue and suggests five steps for making the move to a career/job you might actually enjoy (though you'll likely earn less doing it) as follows: More »
—>DoomNasty tells us he's been hit three times in the past week with phishing attempts. The first two were text messages from Alarion Bank, asking him to call 1-877-240-6149 "to find out why my debit/atm card was blocked. I do not have an account, and Privacy Assist shows no account was created behind my back." The third was from 201-968-0007, but no message was left. He traced the number to Liquidity Solutions, Inc., who told him that "one of their numbers got hijacked and the hijacker is phishing for banking info." More »
—>Medical bill too high? Have you tried haggling? NYT writes:
More »
—>Since you guys liked yesterday's post where a reader found an ATM skimming device so much, Network World has got a bit of "Rogue's Gallery" of the credit card-number stealing machines so you'll better know what to look for out in the wild. For instance, this photo shows how thieves will mount a camera on the ATM so they can record you typing in your PIN. It's placed over the statement dispenser using plastic that matches perfectly with the "host" ATM. Sneaky. More »
—>You're cut off! JPMorgan Chase and Citi announced they'll no longer accept mortgages submitted by mortgage brokers. The move seems to be a way for the banks to exercise more control over the loans they undertake. At first blush, this sounds like a good thing, for banks to be looking their borrowers in the eye, a throwback to the days when credit was earned instead of splooged out like candy in a parade (days epitomized in this 1950's short, "The Wise Use of Credit," posted inside...) On the other hand, it could be more just a way to snag market share and shut out the competition, which can lead to higher interest rates, borrowing costs, fees, and lower service. More »
—>Personal finance guru Suze Orman is changing her tune about credit card debt. Before unemployment reached a 26-year high — nearly every expert advised people to pay down their credit card debt before starting an emergency fund. Now it seems that the advice has changed. More »
—>A House subcommittee wants to legalize payday loans with interest rates of up to 391%. Lobbyists from the payday industry bought Congress' support by showering influential members, including Chairman Luiz Gutierrez, with campaign cash. The Congressman is now playing good cop, bad cop with the payday industry, which is pretending to oppose his generous gift of a bill. More »
—>We're less than two weeks away from April 15, and while many are basking in the glow of a nice tax refund (though we shouldn't be letting the government use our money for free, but that's a different post), others are just starting their tax return preparation for this year. As such, it seemed appropriate to give them some last-minute advice courtesy of three pieces from Yahoo: More »
—>After he got some overdraft fees that he felt were unfair, Karney Hatch decided to put the banking system on trial, and make a documentary about it. More »
—>Want an extra $1,000? The Wall Street Journal has a list of seven things that you can easily stop buying without making drastic changes to your lifestyle. More »
—>For some reason, there's little more difficult money-wise than talking to our loved ones about money. We're not so sure why this is the case, but for some reason the financial conversations aren't that easy between one generation and the next. The Wall Street Journal brings up the issues associated with family money discussions in a couple of recent articles... More »
—>Oh noes! The Hungry Hungry Hippo Banks are trying to gobble up your happy money fish! You only have 5 days left to get them to stop by writing the Fed and saying NO to banks default stuffing you into an overdraft fee programs. Send an email to regs.comments@federalreserve.gov with "Docket No. R-1343" in the subject line. Or you can use this online form. More »
—>We're always telling people to save their money — but that's just because we're overcompensating for a society that spends too much. It is possible to be too frugal and you risk regretting that you didn't have a little more fun while you had the chance. More »
—>What are your money-saving secrets? One Consumer Reports staffer recommends cutting open tubes of toothpaste to get at the last bit. I've heard that one before, but another new one was to "step on your toilet paper rolls." That way it doesn't dispense as fast thanks to its ovular shape and you save on sheets. I think you guys can top that and so does Consumer Reports, so submit your money-saving secrets in the comments or to tips@consumerist.com, subject line: "shhmoney." Besides getting featured here, the best ones might end up in a future Consumer Reports magazine article! "No idea is too small, wacko, or miserly," says the Consumer Reports editor-in-chief. More »
—>Are you the type of person who saves hot sauce packets? Well, we have good news. Reader Dennis has discovered that it takes 35 Taco Bell hot sauce packets to refill your store bought hot sauce bottle. More »
—>Did you know that you might be able to negotiate CD rates with your bank? I didn't, until I read a recent Bankrate post about it! More »
—>The "Dollars & Sense" column in the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel has an interesting list of ideas for how to instill some financial competence in your child. It starts with the basic skill of learning how to delay gratification, then moves on to increasing levels of personal responsibility, so that by the time you're dealing with a teenager who craves independence, you're handing out a full year's allowance in January and tasking him with managing it properly. More »
American capitalism's in crisis, and the public has lost confidence in banks, money managers and business reporters - even the Treasury Department. Friday, on To the Point, If the smartest guys in the room aren't reliable, who do you trust with your money? Will the US become a nation of online traders? More »
—>10 lies we tell ourselves that get us into and keep us stuck in credit card debt: More »
—>In Suze Orman's most recent book, "2009 Action Plan," she urges people with credit card debt to pay off their balances as quickly as possible using the high interest first method. "The fact that you pay just the minimum is a huge warning signal to your credit card company," she writes, "that you may already be on shaky ground." Now she's changed her mind and says you should just pay the monthly minimum and put the rest of your money toward building an emergency cash stash. Based on the way credit card companies have been behaving, we think she has a point. More »
—>Tired of using a two credit card system to maximize his cash back returns, I did an analysis to determine the single best cash back credit card. Here's what I found: More »
The market has continued to rally for the past five out of 6 days (it took a break on Monday). Yippie! [WSJ] More »
—>The more credulous you are, either because you're new to the whole line-of-credit experience or because you're uneducated, the more likely you are to mistake a high line of credit for an indication of your future earnings potential. You can see how this can lead to bad things, as noted by the researchers who studied this unfortunate problem earlier this decade. Luckily, the savvier you get about credit cards, the less influence your credit limit has on you, which is yet another great reason to make financial literacy education mandatory. More »
—>Ever notice how most of the people bitching the hardest about the recession are old people? Here's an alternative view, and how the economic meltdown might just be the best thing ever if you're under 35, have a job, and aren't strapped with debt. [MSN] (Photo: hanapbuhay) More »
That's why credit-card companies have had to rein in their lending and shed accounts. Since that risks shrinking profits, they're also trying to get as much as they can out of their existing customers, by doing things like sharply increasing their interest rates. More »
—>Tell the Feds that you don't want your bank levying overdraft fees on you until you say, yes Mr Banky, I want to end up paying $28 for a Coke. The Feds are considering Regulation E: R-1343 and of critical concern is whether overdraft fees will be opt-out or opt-in. Obviously people shouldn't overdraft, but what started out as a service for customers has, in some cases, turned into kicking a guy in the nuts while he's down and taking his wallet. More »
—>We've seen how available balances can disappear when lenders cut credit card limits, but SmartMoney points out that lenders can cut your limit below your current balance, causing all sorts of problems. They'll send you a notice, of course, but you may not receive it for several weeks. Your best bet is to set up your own alert system. A web-based financial service (like Mint) will send you an email or SMS alert if your available balance drops below a specified threshold. More »
—>Yesterday was coin-jar payout day for me. I got $120! Woohoo! And since I took my can to the Penny Arcade at TD Bank, formerly Commerce Bank, they counted my change for free, unlike the Coinstars in supermarkets. Perversely, the past few weeks as my coin jar got close to full , I started to really look forward to getting change, to the extent I started to develop some irrational behavior... More »
—>Markets rose Thursday for the 3rd straight day. While champagne corks should stay stoppered, that's still something that hasn't happened for a long-ass time (January, if we're going to get technical). [Bloomberg] (Photo: sdsparks) More »
—>First-time home buyers can get a tax credit of up to $8,000 thanks to the stimulus bill Obama signed back in February. You qualify if you bought between April 9, 2008, and November 30, 2009. To get the credit, use IRS Form 5405, "First-Time Homebuyer Credit." Since house prices are going down, the credit isn't anything to go and sign for a new crib this afternoon. But if you already got a home or were planning to, it's extra jingle in your coin-purse. More »
—>Even eternal stock market optimists are losing their nerve these days, but Fidelity's Peter Lynch still says, "But at some point in the future, I think you'll look back and see that we've gotten through this," and that "stocks turned out to be the best bet." Personally, I've started to look at it as throwing money down a magic wishing well, or planting magic seeds that will take 10 years to grow (it's amazing how adding the word "magic" to anything makes it a little more psychologically palatable). [NYT] (Photo: ynskjen) More »
—>Nick Kapur at The Motley Fool says that men trade stocks more frequently than women. This is not a good thing; the result of all this hyperactivity and overconfidence is lower earnings on your investment. He writes, "Worse still (for unmarried guys like me) is that single men trade a whopping 67% more than single women, earning them annual net returns of 2.3% less! The authors cite increased trading costs, taxes, and a greater tendency to speculate as reasons for this underperformance." More »
—>If you're having problems with your credit and need some help, consider calling a legitimate credit counseling agency for assistance. Here's how you find a reputable one that won't scam you. More »
—>Want more bang for your buck at the bar? Take a cue from James Bond and order a martini. Alcohol-to-price, it's the best value out there. Gin, dirty, up, with olives for me, please. Mmmm. (Photo: boyghost) More »
—>Someone wrote to us this week that a person in his family is terminally ill, and that he was told "that the cost of the casket, funeral, viewing, and burial would possibly exceed 12,000 dollars." He thinks that's an "exorbitant amount of money," and so do we. There is no reason to pay that much money for a kick-ass funeral that people will be talking about for years to come. You don't need to be a cheapskate to manage this, either—you just need to be aware of your rights and know what traps to watch out for. Here's our list of what to do the next time you have to plan a funeral. More »
—>Here's a way to get around the worst part of CDs (certificates of deposit) which give you a higher guaranteed interest rate but lock your money in for a certain period of time: Make a ladder! More »
—>Anyone had enough bad news lately about the economy? Layoffs, the stock market diving, bailouts, government debt, the housing crisis — all of it can add up to some pretty somber feelings. And the fact that it's been going on for awhile now can drag anyone down. We're not going totally Pollyanna on you, but we do share the sentiments of the Wall Street Journal that maybe we should stop complaining and be a bit thankful. Turns out that doing so could put you in the middle of a growing trend: More »
—>Like many credit cards, Citibank is cutting people's credit limits left and right but apparently if you call up and ask to get your credit limit back to where it was, they'll do it for you. Classic tactic: Conduct adverse action, easily fix it for the small amount of people who complain, profit from the difference. As ever, squeaky wheel gets the grease. More »
—>With the stock market gyrating wilder than a dashboard hula doll, you probably want an investment that won't depress you when you open the paper. Certificates of Deposit or "CDs," an insured savings account with a guaranteed interest rate may sound like the antidote, but even they are not without risk. More »
—>R wanted to get started paying off her Capital One credit card but after missing one month's payment she started a fee pigpile. She got overlimit fees, and then so many extra fees started piling on that she wasn't ever able to pay them off enough to bring her balance back under her credit limit. R wanted to get started on debt reduction snowball method but could never get that first ball started because the fees were too high. Tugs at the regular customer service line to try to get some fees waived were fruitless. To untangle this Gordian Knot R had to pull out her mighty sword of executive customer service. Her story, inside... More »
—>Americans took their cost of living raises and stuck them in their piggy banks, says the Commerce Department, pushing the savings rate to a 14-year high. Not long ago we had a savings rate of 0.1% — now it has skyrocketed to 5%. More »
—>Capital One CEO's email address is rich.fairbank@capitalone.com. More »
Great idea from reader CumaeanSybil: "One thing I've been doing lately: every time I buy something on sale, I take the difference from regular price and put it in savings. It keeps me motivated to seek out sale prices and coupons, because I like seeing that account grow." More »
—>Here's a good way to save a bundle on your bundle of joy - share a sitter with a neighbor. By dropping off her 15-month-old at a neighbor's place 4 days a week, Real Simple reader Maureen Dempsey says she saves ~$400 a month. The article doesn't specify it but I imagine babysitter watches both kids at the same time for a little bit more but not as much as hiring two separate sitters. Plus Maureen's kid also gets to interact with another kid at the same time. Surviving the recession is all about working together and splitting up costs. [via Real Simple] (Photo: Ordinary Guy) More »
—>Here's an internal AmEx doc with what customer service reps should say when people call up asking about the $300 to pay off and close your account program, or, as they term it, the "Balance Down Initiative." The sheet was obtained exclusively by creditcarforum.com. My favorite part is the answer for if people who weren't chosen to participate ask if they can join. The correct response is, "We apologize, but we can only honor this offer for selected cardmembers. However, if you're interested in paying down your balance, I can help you with that." Full doc inside... More »
—>Every time you darn your socks, a child goes hungry. More »
—>American Express is so desperate to clean liabilities off its balance sheet that it's paying some customer $300 if they will pay off their balance in full and close their credit card. The offer is only good if you get a card in the mail from them about it with a 14-digit RSVP code. Thanks for playing, don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. More »
—>A hard plastic travel soap case makes it a snap to keep your digital camera safe from getting bonked around. If your camera is small enough, an Altoids tin works too. Spotted this in the March issue of Real Simple (which I found a copy of left on the train, so I get +5 frugality points). More »
—>In case anyone forgot how the global economy came to teeter on the brink of collapse, CNN recently needed to help a reader figure out the difference between "living within your means" and "living below your means." Let's see if we can't constructively add to the conversation... More »
—>With the economy in the dumper, saving money is back in style. Simply comparing the number of "how to save money on (fill in the blank)" articles this year versus a couple years ago, our informal research shows the relationship at 234,000 to 1. Ok, so we made that up. But it does seem like savings tips are all the rage these days. Unfortunately, the key is finding new money saving ideas... More »
—>This a freakin' awesome cartoon that explains how the credit crisis began, played out, and exploded in our face. I know you've seen and heard a million of these by now, but this one is highly visually engaging and entertaining, enough so I could see it being used in the classroom and kids not getting (too) bored. Graphic designer Jonathan Jarvis. Especially good is how it explains leverage. More »
—>Too often, when we post about undeserved credit card rate hikes, a few readers will justify the credit card company's actions by pointing out that the OP is, in pure business terms, a bad customer. If you're a consumer, this is the worst way to visualize your business relationship with your credit card company. Here's why. More »
—>David's effective APR on his Bank of America credit card is now 91.29%. It's not a typo or a scam, it's math. More »
—>Beverly, who always pays on time and recently started paying off her balance in full every month, just saw the rate on her Capital One card more than double, from 13.9% to 29.4%. That'll teach you to not help sink the economy, Beverly! More »
—>Are you addicted to debt? And I don't just mean addicted like oh I'm addicted to curly fries, they're so delicious, I mean addicted like a psycho-chemical need to keep slamming that credit card through the swiper. Maybe you know someone like this. Take this 15 question quiz, and if you answer "yes" to 8 more, you could be an addict. More »
—>Invest in petty vices. More »
—>Sometimes when people have trouble saving at least 10% of their income on a regular basis, it's because it hurts too much. After you pay the bills, set aside money for groceries, booze and guns, it seems you don't have enough left over to save with. So, what you can do is exploit "out of sight, out of mind," More »
—>Freelance Switch has 10 deductions freelancers can take. For instance, if you have a cellphone as a second line and primarily use it for business, deduct it. Work from home? There's the complex but worth it home-office deduction. The "research" category is very useful, especially for journalists and writers. Just about any piece of entertainment can go in there. Hey, you got to keep in touch with the zeitgeist, right?' More »
—>How long will it take your portfolio to recover from this financial Armageddon? NYT's cool calculator tells me it's going to take about three years. Check it, just punch in how much your portfolio was worth at its peak, its current value, how much you contribute on a regular basis, and play with the annual return. It generates a nice Times-quality graph of how long it's going to take you to get it all back, and what the outlook is for years to come. Good way of putting the whole shebang in perspective. More »
—>Slate's James Scurlock has some harsh words for Suze Orman. He says she's a liar who is more interested in shilling cruises and luxury car leases than anything else. More »
—>Would you buy a credit score that lenders don't even use? Check it, when Consumer Reports went over the the fine print, Experian's "VantageScore" says that it's "for educational purposes only." And their "PLUSscore" is "not currently sold to lenders." What good does that do you? None. It's just something for them to market and make money money off people who don't know any better. More »
—>Ronnie Sue's recent trip to Germany was a financial nightmare. Though she warned her bank she would be traveling to Germany, when she arrived, she couldn't withdraw needed cash. The bank gently suggested that Ronnie Sue draw cash from her credit card, and even offered to refund any cash advance fees. It wasn't until Ronnie Sue whipped out her AmEx that she learned it had been silently canceled two days before she left... More »
—>Banks love fees. Want to wire money? Need to pay a fee. What to stop a check? Need to pay a fee. Need to use the bathroom? Gotcha! More »
—>Next Saturday is Valentine's Day, and with the economy in the tanker many people are looking for celebrating the day of love without spending a fortune. Fortunately Trent at The Simple Dollar has several good suggestions for celebrating cupid's day on the cheap. Here are some of our favorites: More »
—>Chase has emailed its customers a friendly reminder that if you can't pay your taxes this year, you can charge them on your Chase credit card! Even the IRS site suggests you consider using a credit card if you can't pay your debt. However, before you do something as debt crazy as charge up a high credit card balance, consider the following points and make sure you're doing the most financially responsible thing. More »
—>A new system for determining your credit-worthiness, FICO '08, rolls out this Thursday, and there's nothing you can to do stop it. By these 6 changes, ye shall be judged: More »
—>By making one simple change, you can use the same amount of money to pay off your credit card faster. More »
—>Perhaps you can use this new study to trick yourself into curbing your spending. Researchers found your brain interprets the difference between increasing from 3 cents 300 cents as being bigger than going from 3 cents to $3. So if you're trying to talk yourself out of buying something that's $200, visualize it it for a second as costing 20,000 pennies. More »
—>The nation's economic woes make debt collection a topic du jour, but while there are some good bits mixed into the Washington Post's article, "When Debt Collectors Disrupt Dinner," it probably should have been titled "What Debt Collectors Would Like You To Say And Do When They Call About The Credit Card." Read it with a shaker of salt. Read on for the good, the bad, and the lazy reporting, plus what you should actually to protect and exercise your rights as a debtor... More »
—>One of our readers was able to save $89.76/year in surcharges on his Verizon bill by changing his primary area of use to NJ from NY. More »
—>Bankruptcy is not a get out of jail free card for your debts, it's a nuclear weapon. If you use it, expect to be considered credit unworthy for a decade. More »
—>Nothing sucks like getting stranded internationally without cash, which can happen if your bank confuses your sudden overseas withdrawals with potential fraud and puts a block on your account. That's why it can be a good idea to call your bank up and have them put a note on your account to say when and where you'll be traveling. ING Direct customers, for one, go to their checking account maintenance page and fill out the form that asks about travel info. Sure you could probably just call to get the block lifted but then you have to buy a card with one of those funky chips in it and figure out the international calling code and whatnot. (Thanks to Brandon Savage!) (Photo: piglicker) More »
—>Are you smarter than a credit card? You're not if you're not paying off more than what the credit card company requires you to each month. More »
—>One thing you probably didn't hear about the bailout is that it extended the required mailing date for 2008 1099-Composites from Jan 31 to Feb 17. So don't get freaked out and run down to the dirt road to the mailbox to keep checking for it. Just sit back on the porch and wait for your little post-Valentine's tax present to arrive. (Thanks to Chris!) (Photo: booleansplit) More »
—>Martin discovered he was able to get Citibank to extend his grace period from 20 to 25 days. It seems all you have to do is ask! Here's how he found out. More »
—>When Chase completely takes over the old WaMu credit card division in March, a new super-power will be granted to WaMu credit card customers who also have a Chase credit card, reports CreditMattersBlog. As long as you have a zero balance on one of the cards, the two cards will be combined and your Chase's credit limit will now be the sum of the two credit limits. WaMu cardholders without a Chase card will get to convert their cards into Chase cards. More »
—>Yay, New Jersey! They've got a bill in the works that would require all high school seniors to learn basic personal finance skills, like writing a check, managing credit card debt, and getting a mortgage. Excellent, kids should graduate high school knowing cosine and cosign. More »
—>Well, as if the state of the economy isn't giving us enough pain, here's a reminder for you: tax time is on its way! We know — we're piling on. One issue each of us faces is whether to do our own taxes or have someone else do them. MSN Money notes that 62% of Americans have professionals do their tax returns and offers three questions to help us decide whether to do our own taxes or not: More »
—>Ten Simple Ways to Make Your Boss Think You're Brilliant (And Indispensible) [Dumb Little Man] "Here are ten simple, no-effort ways that will make your boss think you're both indispensable and brilliant." More »
—>Stop the presses! Brian was able to get Chase to reinstate his promotional APR even though he accidentally set up in the auto-payment system in a way that incurred late fees. His secret? Asking politely and making a cogent argument that positioned his request in a manner any business would understand. His strange-but-true tale, inside. More »
—>People are cutting back from outsourced services and opting to do things themselves, like cleaning the house, walking the dog, making their own coffee, cutting their hair, or packing their lunch. Those who do say it saves money and gives a feeling of self-reliance. What have you started doing yourself lately that you used to pay people to do? More »
Part of the new year and the new year is getting rid of unnecessary clutter, like rewards points! Here's 4 ways to increase your chances of losing your credit card rewards points. More »
You're fired! Now what? It's the nightmare scenario, and you can prepare for it by conducting a financial drill. Take a moment and pretend you have no income. Ask how you would pay pay for rent and food, and what lifestyle changes you could make on two week's notice. To guide your planning, the New York Times has a few unorthodox and downright scary suggestions that are worth considering in a worst case scenario. More »
—>Credit card issuers are panicking, cutting credit lines and entire cards. This can have a negative impact on your credit score, here's a few ideas on how to defend against it. More »
—>Debt collectors are illegally harassing Vincent's parents for debt their son owes. Vincent died last year at 27 from a sudden heart attack during a softball game. "I’m afraid to pick up the phone in my own home," said Roco Crimeni, father. "That’s the hard part, to tell them my son is dead. How many times do I have to repeat it?" More »
—>We've already noted that author Eric Tyson believes Jim Cramer's stock advice is worse than a coin toss. Now Tyson takes on the advice of "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" author Robert Kiyosaki. In summary, Tyson berates Kiyosaki's disdain for mutual funds and refutes many of the arguments Kiyosaki uses to favor real estate over them. Tyson also points to a larger review of Kiyosaki's teachings that is, shall we say, less than complimentary. More »
—>Here's our weekly roundup of the best personal finance news. Inside: investing lessons, gadgets to buy, mentoring, career tips for women, and fixing money mistakes. More »
—>Here's a cheeky guide for sorta-lazy people to survive being laid-off. Number one: Kiss the ass of ex-coworkers you hate. More »
—>A customer service rep (CSR) for U.S. Bank's 24-hour banking hotline has stepped forward from the shadows to reveal 12 tips that can save customers money and time. Insider tips on how to get fees refunded, how "available balance" is a lie, and why you should demand the Portland call center when you have a fraud problem, inside... More »
—>The Boston Globe says that credit card users are noticing a mysterious charge for about 25 cents from Adele Services in Melville, NY. The trouble is, "There is no business by that name listed in Melville, or registered to any business anywhere in New York, for that matter." No one knows yet whether these small charges are tests for larger unauthorized debits, or if this is the entire scam. Either way, check your statement and be sure to file a dispute—and request a new card—if you come across it. More »
—>How you relate to money money could have a lot to do with emotional connections you made to money at a young age, and these so-called "money scripts" can be a blindspot that's causing you financial pain, reports WSJ. More »
—>Why waste precious cash at Borders and Barnes & Noble when you can go to the library for free? It's a simple question that is causing traffic local libraries to spike as flocks of new patrons register for library cards. We've praised libraries before, but it takes a depressing recession to convince people that yes, even they could use an extra buck in their wallet. More »
—>Not all money is created equal. It costs retailers extra in fees when you use a credit card, a costs that gets passed right back to you in the form of higher prices, and how much that is depends on which credit card you use. To see how much more expensive your credit card is making life, enter the first 6 digits of your credit card over at truecostofcredit.com, a mashup developed by reader Sean Harper and his friend. This is the bank identification number and cannot be used to steal your credit card, so don't worry. If you rather not do that, you can also see the results for an AMEX, a debit card, Mastercard rewards card, or a Visa rewards card. Of the project, Sean writes: More »
—>Taxes aren't that far off, and the IRS is here to help you give them less money, or take longer in giving it to them! Here's 9 ways they can make your tax life easier. More »
—>"Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan" is free to download from Oprah.com for the next week. Unlike last year's "Women & Money," this book is intended for pretty much everyone. We haven't read it, so here's a line from the Amazon editorial review: "There are safeguards to put in place, actions to take, costly mistakes to avoid, and even opportunities to be had, so that you are protected during the bad times and prepared to prosper when things take a turn for the better." More »
—>Retentions, the place where you threaten to cancel because service sucks and they throw goodies and freebies and discounts at you to get you stick around, the place where dreams come true. Here's two numbers to directly reach Sprint's Retentions Department: 800-235-1185, 888-211-4727. (Photo: SlapAyoda) More »
—>8 Bad Work Habits (And How to Break Them) [Yahoo Hotjobs] "Experts offer this list of common bad habits at work — and how to break them." More »
—>The Wall Street Journal covers a new study that determines the best and worst jobs in America using five criteria: environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands and stress. When all was said and done, all the data weighed and all the experts consulted, one occupation stood head and shoulders above the rest: mathematician. Yep, you read that correctly. Here's why it took the top spot: More »
—>Got a Federal tax question you can't figure out? Input your question at FreeTaxQuestion.com now through Jan 31st and they will call you back within 24 hours with an answer or guidance. Limit one question per person. More »
—>Save money on your cellphone bill by checking out to see if you can get an employer discount! Here's the necessary info for every major cellphone provider: More »
—>Hey, did you know that people who don't use their cellphone very often can save money by switching to a pre-paid cellphone plan? They're not just for people who can't get regular cellphones anymore! In fact, many smart, frugal people avoid contact hassles and save money by getting a pre-paid phone. More »
—>A Bloomberg investigation found that some insurance policies with the AARP stamp of approval actually cost senior citizens more, and part of that money is getting kicked back to AARP in the form of "royalties" and "fees." Essentially, the AARP is taking a cut of your premium before passing it on to the insurer. These payments have gone from 11% of AARP's revenue in 1999, to 43% in 2007. One man found he was paying twice the average for his car insurance. When walked into the the group's brass and marbled headquarters, flashing his 20-year AARP card, to find out where his money was going, he was told the AARP doesn't give tours. More »
—>Do you stop and pick up change that you find on the ground? No? Well, if you did — how much money do you think you could collect? Marketplace Money talked to some people who make change hunting a hobby — and they say every penny is worth stopping for. More »
—>Gripped by "catatonic fear," banks still aren't thawing credit markets, "leaving taxpayers propping up an industry that won’t lend to them." [Bloomberg] (Photo: The Joy of the Mundane) More »
—>This year, many investors learned the hard way the difference between a money market account and a money market fund. Do you know the difference? More »
—>Phishing attacks are pretty cleverly designed, because they skip most virus checkpoints altogether and go for the true weak spot in human-computer interaction, the human. Lorrie Faith Cranor, a computer security researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, has been studying phishing attacks to identify new ways to fight them. More »
—>The web is full of financial resolutions for 2009, telling us all what we should and shouldn't do for the next year. And whether or not you're the resolution type, it's probably worthwhile to review what some of the leading financial publications are recommending. After all, aren't we all interested in ideas for improving our financial lives? More »
—>How can an educational institute act in its students' best interest if it stands to make money off of increasing their debt load? The symbiotic relationship between universities and credit card companies is being questioned more than ever by student groups and politicians, writes the New York Times. More »
—>If you're a saver, the Fed flipped you the bird this week. They dropped interest rates and introduced "quantitative easing," two things that will make interest rates plummet. Here's how you can protect yourself. More »
—>Here's our weekly roundup of the best personal finance news. Inside: 2009 work resolutions, job search tips, avoiding Ponzi schemes, achieving financial success, and unusual home threats. More »
—>In a not-so-shocking analysis of one of the most-watched TV investment advisers, author Eric Tyson argues that Jim Cramer's actual stock-picking performance doesn't match the strength of his bellowing. More »
—>KidsSave is a kid-centric application (Windows XP only, with an OS X version coming out next year) that lets your child track allowances and other types of "income" and teaches the benefits of saving. More »
—>Why pay people for your own money? Via FatWallet, here's a big daddy list of all the banks that refund your ATM fees, regardless of who owns the ATM. More »
—>In California? Unemployed? The Screen Actors Guild guide to California Unemployment benefits is easier to use than CA's hard to navigate unemployment site, and the advice is general enough to work even for non-thespians. [SAG] More »
—>AMEX is now cutting people's credit limits for shopping at the wrong store. More »
—>The popular personal-finance dashboard site Mint.com launched a free iPhone app. Now you can enjoy the ease and power of Mint anywhere your $99$197 Walmart phone goes. Screenshots inside... More »
—>Are you earning at least 4% in your savings account? If NO, do yourself a favor: Open a high-yield online savings account and start adding some serious muscle mass to your savings. Here's the skinny: More »
—>Here's another reason to wean yourself off of credit cards, and build up a robust emergency fund, in 2009: the credit card party is about to really dry up, says one analyst. More »
—>CNet has an article about a couple who saw the writing on the wall, recession-wise, and canceled their satellite TV package. Surprisingly, they are, in fact, still alive and not at all depressed. More »
—> For many of us, this is the first recession where we are responsible for our own financial well-being. How should we react? What habits are important during a long, deep recession? More »
—>Meet Steve and Annette Economides. They are raising a family of 7 in Arizona on an annual income of about $44,000. More »
—>Our weekly roundup of the best personal finance news. Inside: Good charity-dar, scam detection, snow-removal tactics, rebuild your 401k, and warnings about store credit-cards. More »
—>Intuit will rescind the controversial new $9.95 fee for each additional printed return, in response to angry customers online who, among other things, slammed TurboTax's Amazon rating to one star. [Press Release] (Thanks Craig!) More »
—>Did your Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) suddenly trail off in the forest recently? Here's some straight-talk on why, and what, if anything, you can do about it. [Examiner.com] (Photo: Getty) More »
—>FICO: I'll show you mine if you show me yours. Take our poll and see how you measure up. More »
—>USAA Mag has 5 good ideas for getting in good shape for tax season before the closing bell rings on 2008: More »
—>Do you want to be one of over eight million identity theft victims? No, but most of the services sold by "identity theft protection" companies you can get for free. Here's how. More »
—>Ever feel like the poor state of the economy is impacting every area of life? Well, it is! A few examples popping up in some surprising places, like animal shelters... More »
—>If you're worried about your end of the year finances, Time has 10 money moves that you'll want to make before Dec. 31. [Time] More »
—>10 ways to cut your medical bills [MSN Money] "The best time to ask about fees and negotiate prices is before you get treatment. That can be a remedy for any unpleasant surprises when payment comes due." More »
—>Looking for a "fire and forget" way to track your expenses and receipts? Check out Xpenser. You can submit data from any device or even phone them in, and Xpenser takes care of putting it all together. Plus it's free. [Xpenser] More »
—>Here is a sexy graph breaking down the S&P's performance from 1825 to present, fitting each year into a column based on that year's annual returns, from -50% to +60%. More »
—>UPDATE: TurboTax Price Hike Reversed After Online Outcry More »
—>What do you do if you were a perfectly fine renter, left the place in great shape, but your landlord won't refund your security deposit? More »
—>If you have some extra cash right now, there's a big sale going on right now you should know about. It's called the stock market. More »
I am going to meet with him after work today, but was wondering, what sort of things do I need to look out for, and know, going into this? This is my first mortgage ever (I'm 21) and don't know too much about what's normal and what's not. If you could give me any hints or suggestions, that'd be awesome! Thanks so much, and have a great day! More »
—>If you have bad credit and have been thinking about working with a credit repair firm, think again. Credit repair services aren't doing anything that you can't otherwise do for yourself. They review your credit history, lodge disputes, follow up, rinse and repeat. The appeal of a credit repair service is that they spend all that time resolving issues so that you don't have to. They can't take legitimately negative things off your record and they can't work magic. Any firm that promises or guarantees to improve your score isn't telling you the whole truth and you should watch out. More »
—>Statistics show that 80% of credit histories have at least one error. Most of them are minor and inconsequential but some can have an adverse effect on your credit score, often costing your thousands on mortgages and car loans. I believe credit bureaus were so lackadaisical about accuracy because it forced consumers to buy their credit reporting services. You wouldn't know there's an error unless you paid Equifax for a copy of your report. Fortunately, federal law now makes it possible for us to police our own records and force bureaus to correct them, all on their dime. Here's how: More »
—>I got my first credit card from one of those guys on campus with a folding table and free tshirts. Back then, they gave give credit to anyone who could fog a mirror. No income? No assets? No clue? No problem! The tshirt wasn't even cool, it was for AT&T, and I got it as easily as my first beer. Nowadays, what the meltdown of our financial system and all, they actually have some requirements to pass before giving you a credit card. Crazy. So what's a young consumer looking for fresh plastic to do? More »
—>We know the credit markets remain seized: late on Black Friday when no one was listening, the Federal Reserve issued a statement that its emergency lending to banks had increased over the prior week. Thus, massive amounts of money continue to flow to large financial institutions in an effort to stimulate economic activity, but by all appearances the money is not flowing into the broader economy. Quite the contrary; as the Fed lowers rates and adds record amounts of loaned cash to bank balance sheets, big banks are actually increasing consumers’ cost of borrowing and reducing their lines of credit. Witness Citibank's recent adverse actions against cardholders. More »
—>Simple (and complex) investment strategies [Bankrate] "What's the best way to invest? The jury is still out on the best strategy, but here we present several approaches used by professionals." More »
—>It took 18 months for the FDIC to figure out that banks' practice of clearing checks largest to smallest makes banks a lot of money. More »
—>Ever wonder what the "right" tip was to give a service provider? Well, wonder no longer as Yahoo Hotjobs offers the following tip suggestions for a variety of workers: More »
—>Reader Andrew would like everyone to know that he's able to get 20 extra uses out of his Neutrogena skin cleaning face wash by dribbling a bit of water in the top. He writes, "The resulting soap isn't much thinner than the original formula; it foams up and cleans just as well." Congrats, Andrew. Now, if we can just get you to not buy the unnecessary metrosexual cleansing product in the first place then you'll really be set. More »
—>A salesman at a major electronics retailer told FreeMoneyFinance a bevy of tips you can use to bargain down the prices in-store on big-ticket items, like: More »
—>11 ways to strike gold on Black Friday [Consumer Reports] "We've compiled the following savvy-shopper's guide." More »
—>If you're looking to refinance a home and have cash and good credit, now is a good time to pull the trigger. Yesterday the government announced the latest Federal golden bandaid: a pledge to inject $800 billion directly into the credit markets, news which pushed national average mortgage rates for a 30 year fixed to 5.81%, down from 6.07%, according to bankrate. Bankrate also suggest that if you're trying to refi to act quickly, before rates rise or home values drop. More »
—>CreditMattersBlog explains why that new AMEX contract language we wrung our hands over this morning is nothing to fret about. More »
—>Yet another success story for our "Just Ask To Pay Less Money" technique. Commenter tinyrobot was paying too much for Time Warner Cable, so he called them up and told them so. Now he pays less. It's not a Thanksgiving miracle, you can do it, too. More »
—>Federal regulators took extreme steps to prop up Citigroup, backing $306 billion of mainly real estate loans and securities and directly injecting money by buying $20 billion of preferred stock. The $20 billion of stock will pay an 8% dividend. Regulators will also get an additional $7 billion of preferred stock. Citigroup will basically halt dividend payments for 3 years and limit some executive pay. It will also implement the FDIC's loan modification plan, which is close to the one it had already announced for itself. More »
—>You would think tough times would be boom times for debt collectors, but debt collection company First American Recovery Services is filing for bankruptcy. "The amount of debt out there is 10 times what it had been, but the ability to pay is less," Tim Smith, FirstSource Advantage collections vice president told The Buffalo News. Don't dance on their grave quite yet. The debts will just get sold to someone else, and usually each generation of debt owners has successively less scruples. But you have to wonder, how long before there is just too much debt that's just too hard to collect in time before the statute of limitations expires? More »
—>You know who is making money despite the total eclipse of your 401k? Campbell Soup Company. That's right. When you're broke — you eat soup. But which soup should you eat? More »
—>Whoever came up with the name "courtesy overdraft fee" is one smart cookie. They figured out a way to let you do something you don't want to do, charge you a fee, and make it sound like they're doing you a favor. WaMu is one of the few banks that let you... More »
—>4 Common Resume Blunders [Yahoo Hotjobs] "Keep yourself in the running by avoiding these resume mistakes." More »
—>Mr Bill says his latest dealings with Capital One have him "wanting to spit venom." Whence this reptilian impulse? There is apparently no structure to refinance your loan with them. They consider it makes you a new customer, and they aren't making any new loans. This takes several hours and several phone calls to figure out. There also seems to be no way to pay off a loan with a credit or debit card. This also takes several hours and phone calls to figure out. It's really just totally frustrating for Mr. Bill. "What is this, 1987?" he writes. So he's taking his business elsewhere. His misanthropic misadventure, inside... More »
The NRDC has released some numbers about video game consoles and their power consumption. If you're one of the 50% of gamers who leave their consoles on all the time — you're wasting a lot of money. More »
—>Here's how Stephanie saved $230 on her cable and phone bills after following the tips in "3 Ways To Lower Your Out Of Control Cable, Internet And Phone Bills" More »
—>How the heck do they figure out your FICO credit score? The five different factors, in order of decreasing importance are: 1) payment history 2) amounts owed 3) length of credit history 4) new credit 5) types of credit used. For a bit more detailed explanation on how each of these plays out, the "What’s in your FICO score" at myFico.com is a good place to start. More »
—>Want to break your Sprint cellphone contract without paying an early termination fee? On January 1, 2009, Sprint will increase the Administrative fee to $.99 per line. Because this is what is known as a "materially adverse change of contract," and because of the basic contractual principle that you can't change someone's contract without their explicit permission (not the tacit, "opt-out" kind), you can use it to argue that the fee renders your contract void and you can end service without a termination fee. You do have to be willing to argue without giving up with a number of different Sprint employees first, like Matt did... More »
—>I'm really interested to see what happens with "Black Friday," the hectic shopping day after Thanksgiving where retailers traditionally mark down their products for Christmas deal-seekers, this year. As the shark has been so thoroughly jumped on this shopping spree, the deals have gotten worse and the retail trickery more tricky, so can a consumer still make out? More »
—>Yesterday I was on a conference call where a lady who's been writing consumer journalism since before I was even born, in response to me saying how we repackage useful information and make it funny and make jokes and put up pictures of cats, asked me if the site actually helps anyone. I told her quite firmly and loudly that we do and gave examples, and here's another one to throw on the evidence pile. Kevin writes: More »
—>Personal finance blogger JD Roth is on a mission to help us all save a bundle during the holidays. First he shared a ton of frugal Christmas ideas, and now he's posted a list of 34 gifts you can make yourself. A few of our favorites include: More »
—>It's not a "budget," it's a "spending plan," and here's how to make one. [WSJ] (Photo: Jeff Keen) More »
—>Back to Basics: Start doing the little money-saving things again [Mighty Bargain Hunter] "Here are thirteen of those little money-saving things that you can do to lessen the pain during these trying times." More »
—>Blogging Away Debt wrote about the 7 things she did recently to cut her finance charges from $400/month to zero, and one interesting one was using a loan from peer-to-peer lending site Prosper.com to get a break on interest rates: More »
—>Whether you're trying to get out, or stay out, of debt, these five posts are a good way to get inspired to stick with your goals:
- Reader Pays Off $14,330 In 20 Months With Our Tips
- How I Talk Myself Out Of Buying Stuff
- How To Get Out Of Debt
- Paying Cash-Only, Family Spends $1,800 Less
- How To Go 30 Years Without A Credit Card
—>Ramit over at I Will Teach You To Be Rich has thrown down a challenge. Can you save $1,000 in 30 days? He, like us, is annoyed with crappy frugality tips that will save you $1 a week, and promises to post decent money saving tips every day in November. If you follow them, he thinks you'll be able to save $1,000 in 30 days. More »
—>Sarah has $40k+ in student debt that went into default after she got sick and had to spend a lot of money on medical care. She's been paying it off, but one of the companies that owns one of her loans, NCO Financial, has told her that unless she signs a legal document that says she can pay $260 a month, they're going to place her account back in collections and start harassing her even more than they are now (they're already calling her daily at home and work)... More »
—>Bank fees are increasingly disproportionate to the cost of business they're supposed to cover, as shown inBankrate's latest annual survey of consumer banking costs.
- Average NSF (non sufficient fund) fee: $28.95, a 2.5% increase from last year
- Average ATM surcharge is $1.97, up 1%
- The minimum balance required to avoid fees on interest checking accounts at a brick and mortar bank: $3,461.84, up 4%
- The average minimum required to open an online checking account: $650.81, up $517.48
—>Chase will turn 400,000 high-interest option-ARM mortgages into lower-cost fixed ones, the bank announced this Friday. Foreclosure processes on the loans will be stopped for 90 days while the procedure gets set up. Banks mainly have latitude to adjust the mortgages they themselves own. The complexities of modifying a loan that may have been sold and repackaged into a security are intricate. For one, hedge funds have threatened to sue banks if they modify the loans underlying their bonds. So hooray for the lucky 400,000. Only a few more million to go. If you're a homeowner facing foreclosure and you're unable to get your lender to work with you, try contacting the HOPE NOW hotline at 1-888-995-HOPE for free advice from a home preservation counselor. More »
—>Security researchers uncovered over half a million bank account logins stolen via a sophisticated trojan horse known as Sinowal. The data goes back to 2006, an unusual longevity for a trojan horse. Not mentioned in the news reports: who's to say this is the only cache? [NYT] (Photo: Darcy McCarty) More »
—>GDP fell .3% in the 3rd quarter of 2008, compared to 2.8% gain in the second quarter. While a recession is technically defined as two consecutive quarters of negative GDP, everyone can see the party is cashed. Marketwatch wrote, "Economists expect the economy to contract in the final three months of this year and the first three months of 2009, with the nation's unemployment rate pegged to rise near the 8% mark." Housing bust + oil shock + financial crisis + rising unemployment + high levels of personal debt and low saving rates = sad America. This can mean only one thing. Now is the time to enact my plan for WPA-style moon-farming programs. More »
—>At first glance, this ad for CreditReportAmerica seems to have the credit score system reversed, with 350-619 listed as "excellent" and 750-840 listed as "poor"...but then you realize it's actually a graphical depiction of the system shady mortgage brokers used to get when whoring up the sub-prime mortgage orgy. Travel blogger Mark Ashley says he spotted the ad on the frontpage of Yahoo Finance. At the bottom, the ad says the service does not include credit scores. Remember folks, the place to get a free credit report is annualcreditreport.com. More »
—>The NES collection agency is coming after Nancy for a debt on an account number she's never owned. She's trying to beseech BoA billing for a resolution and to fix her credit history. That may be completely the wrong way to go about it. Here's her story: More »
—>Trick and treat 'em: Halloween decorations [Bankrate] "Throw a frightfully wicked Halloween shindig that will spook your guests, not your wallet." More »
—>Personal finance columnist Liz Pulliam Weston saw Rebekah's story yesterday, "Is It OK To Use Credit Cards For Everything, If You Pay Them Off Every Month?" and wanted to clarify something important. If you pay off the cards in full, the balances reported to the credit bureaus will not be zero. More likely, it will be the balance from your last statement. Liz writes: More »
—>Reader aishel says that he saved $323.40 yearly on his Comcast bill just by asking! Yes, it can be just that easy. More »
Aug. 5, 1931. I went to the fruit market house this evening. It was almost deserted. The farmers cannot sell their produce because men are not working and it has become fashionable for each family to have its own vegetable garden. More »
—>With the stock market so scary right now, investors are looking for a sure thing, especially those approaching or in retirement. Enter the equity index annuity, which promises you'll never lose money but if the index it's tracked to, like the S&P 500, gains, you'll get some of that. Though your maximum upside is capped and you have to agree to keep your money in there for a fixed term or suffer stiff early-withdrawal penalties. Annuities are infamous for being extremely complicated and festooned with bizarre fees, but, that aside, NYT Your Money reporter Ron Lieber analyzed a typical equity index annuity and found it was a bad bet. Here's how the numbers played out... More »
—>Spotted woodendesigner's "My "At Least I Have A Fucking Dollar" Dollar" photo in The Consumerist Flickr pool. Here's the backstory: "I got this dollar as change but did not notice until a few days later. I laughed because it really just sums up everything that has been going on with the stock market and in a way everything that I have been going through lately. I have been very hesitant to spend it and now after shooting it for you people to enjoy I have decided that I am going to save it..... Even though they also dated it on the back ( 9-20-07) so it was actually written a year ago." More »
—>Capital One wrote to explain why they were changing lowering the minimum balance calculations, as we posted about yesterday. Pam Girardo in Capital One External Communications wrote: More »
—>Consumer Reports says that despite an overall downturn in appliance purchases, one category is up 13% from last year. Freezers! More »
—>A former Chase call center rep tells the story about this one thief who was able to rip off one customer for over $40,000, thanks to his constant outwitting out the internationally out-sourced security department. It wasn't that hard. Over and over again, he was able to commit credit card fraud just knowing the guy's name, social, and mother's maiden name. More »
—>UPDATE: Capital One Explains Minimum Balance Calculation Changes More »
—>Reader R. kinda messed up his credit years ago. He's a good boy now and his credit score is 700+, but now RSI Claims Process Services is hassling him about a 12-year-old credit card debt. They scared him into thinking they're going to send him to jail and managed to squeeze a $100 "good-faith" payment out of him, but now he's got second thoughts. And with good reason: the statute of limitations on the debt has well passed and threatening to send a debtor to jail is a violation of Federal law. Here's his story and our advice... More »
—>barter for goods and services instead of buying them. Yep, bartering, the age-old method of economic exchange, is making a big comeback — though now it's a high-tech operation that doesn't limit you to your own set of acquaintances. We wrote about this back in July, but an economic practice that has survived from the beginning of our society deserves more than one post. Smart Money has 5 new tips it says will help you save by trading goods and skills you already have: More »
—>If you or someone you know still scratches their head when trying to understand how the financial crisis began and played out, the Washington Post has a 3-minute slideshow with voiceover by business reporter Frank Ahrens that clearly and succinctly explains how it all happened. The pictures are pretty, too. More »
—>Monday's brief hope of a better week for stocks was exactly that as the market continued its downward spiral through Friday and international indexes suffered body blows. [WSJ] More »
July 30, 1931. Magazines and newspapers are full of articles telling people to buy stocks, real estate etc. at present bargain prices. They say that times are sure to get better and that many big fortunes have been built this way. The trouble is that nobody has any money. More »
—>5 Memberships Worth Signing Up For [Yahoo Finance] "There are some paid memberships that do pay for themselves — and quickly." More »
—>We've offered our suggestions for what to do in these uncertain financial times, but many of those ideas focused on hunkering down and riding out the storm. But what if you want to do more than that? How can you thrive in spite of the economy? More »
—>I wanted to find out what Robert Allen's "get-rich-quick in real estate with no money down" promise was all about, so when I saw a full page ad in the Daily Post advertising one of his free seminars recently, I went and checked it out. I'll give you a full run-down later, but here's the quick and dirty, and what I can tell about how the darn thing seems to function. More »
—>9 of 10 American families shop at Walmart at least once a year, says USAToday, which puts the retailer in an excellent position to tell us something about consumer behavior. So, what has Walmart been observing? "Disturbing behavior." More »
—>Robo-scammers are ringing up consumers and pretending to the Better Business Bureau, saying, "We're from BBB – Because of bailout, we can offer you a low-rate credit card." In this iteration, we see several three common scam characteristics combined: *Unexpected communication * Automated communication * Mention of topical event * Use of recognizable institution's name * Money-saving opportunity. Investigators were unable to tell the exact nature of the scam. It could be been to steal your account numbers, or it might have just been a marketing affiliate's sleazy way of generating leads for a credit card company trying to get people to transfer their balances. Complaints have been received about the scam at a BBBs serving Washington, West Oregon and Northern Idaho, as well as Midland,Texas. More »
—>Robert Allen promises to make you millions teaching you how to buy real estate with no money down. Unsurprisingly, Ripoffreport is littered with complaints about his company and those that use his name. Here's the story they tell: More »
I have a card with one bank (that I am trying my hardest to pay off ASAP) that is 24% APR. It is killing me. A week or two ago, you had an article about a woman who paid off all her credit card debt over the course of 20 months or so. Good for her and it was a good story. One thing about it had me wondering though. She said that she negotiated with her lenders to get lower interest rates on her cards. How do you suggest I do that? More »
—>According to the credit report, AMEX says Dan's father-in-law closed a credit card he had with them while he was in a coma. Now Amex is using that to come after the mother-in-law for $15,000. Read the rest of the story, inside... More »
—>During one insomnia-filled night, the blogger behind No Credit Needed decided to make this flowchart to illustrate how they make their financial decisions. Pretty neat. I think there should be an extra step before the Make Purchase that says, "Am I Sure I Still Need And/Or Want This Item?" Large version inside. More »
—>Lifehacker has 10 neat IKEA hacks. That's right, toss the manual and start making your own cool Scandinavian-infused furniture mods. In particular, I enjoy the tutorials on making an Allen wrench drill bit and embedding scrap bowls into your counter top. I remember reading one time on the IKEA hacker blog about how you could "make" a couch by binding together a series of the same chairs with plastic ties. That was pushing the bounds a bit, but most of these are straight-up useful, especially if you're a nerd. More »
—>Kiplinger's is more optimistic than we are, so they had the cheerful idea to put together a list of 10 things that are going right for consumers — despite the financial apocalypse. Hooray! More »
—>Beware these 5 insurance traps [MSN Money] "You might think your pets, your kids' toys and your personal problems are your own darn business. But insurers watch these things — and they could cost you." More »
—>We spent yesterday at Finovate, a yearly roundup of new personal finance services available online. Here's a recap of some of the afternoon presentations, including a mortgage comparison service that promises greater transparency, a new credit simulator feature from Credit Karma, and a site that uses reverse auctions to get banks to bid on your money. More »
—>Round 2 of the Finovate presentations includes online financial planning, the "match.com" of stocks, and Facebook banking. Let's dive in and find out what they're all about: More »
—>Antarctic explorers trudge across the icy wastelands, heavily laden with rucksacks, bound together with rope. This is a good metaphor for understanding the credit crisis, and Paddy Hirsch from American Public Media is going to lay it down on you. Oh no! There's a crevasses. Yay! Here comes Henry Paulson to come save the banks in his helicopter. The money meltdown is definitely much more digestible, and fun, in stick-figure and whiteboard form. Full video inside. More »
—>I've been dispatched by our cigar-chomping editors to midtown NYC to check out the 14 new personal finance software apps getting demoed at Finovate 2008. I'll be reporting here and letting you know about the latest tools from the frontlines of the personal finance revolution. More »
—>The debate on the BBC news right now is who is cooler, America or Europe. Europe is getting props for acting speedily and decisively in contrast to Paulson's pace, which is getting characterized as dawdling and indecisive. Some of the very policies Treasury derided, they're now considering since Europe enacted them. The ex-Reagan economic adviser talking head says it's nationalizing risk, a backdoor way of calling them socialists. However, it wasn't until Europe's "socialistic" actions did the markets rebound. Who is right? Only time will tell; we'll see if the rally sustains or is just another fitful shiver in this economic fever dream. The key here is confidence, and it seems to be the most precious and rare commodity on the face of the earth right now. More »
WooHoo! I got a job! Right out of college and everything. With an awesome sign-on bonus! Now what am I supposed to do with all this money? I know I have options. Stock Market (HA!), bank, and under my pillow. I would put it in the bank but I have a wedding coming up in less then a year to pay for and I want to know my options for making good quick investments. Please help! More »
—>Reader Ozzie points us to video game developer Ashley Cheng's blog post about budget gaming. The tips are basic, but it's good advice nonetheless. More »
—>Slate tested a slew of personal-finance tools recently, and Mint and Quicken Online were the top two winners, with Mint only a point behind. Besides the advertising disguised as "ways to save," one area where Mint lost points was not being able to create custom categories. Three days later, Mint announced that they were enabling custom categories. So, in a do-over, Mint would probably win. Plus it's free. UPDATE: Quicken Online just launched a basic tier of service for free. The dance continues! More »
—>The Leading Hotels of the World want you to know they are still committed to offering 6,000 five-star hotel rooms for $19.28. The contest, originally conceived as a way to honor the association's 1928 formation, is proving ironically successful, fusing a modern giveaway with 1928 technology. That whole email do-over idea? Silly! Forget it even existed. The group has gone and hired themselves some internet sherpas to help run the contest, and here's what they've come up with.... More »
—>If you use coupons in a store, your fellow shoppers are probably negatively judging you as being cheap, according to a new study. The stigma extends to those around the coupon redeemer as well. However, if you're hot, you get a reprieve. The study had people watch consumers cash coupons, and then interviewed the participants afterward for their reaction. The stigma is lessened if you don't know the person using the coupon, the coupon is of high value, if they're in a different line, and if the coupon-user is a hottie. Researchers proposed that the reason for the coupon-hating is "the modern consumer tends to prize status and luxury over thrift." More »
—>In order to stem the tide of panic-stricken morons taking out all their cash from banks and further destabilizing the financial system, the US is considering a proposal to completely back ALL deposits. This would mean that there would be no deposit insurance ceiling. So even if you had more than $100,000 in the bank, even if you had $1,000,000 in the bank, the government would give you back ALL of that money if your bank failed. The proposal is only in discussions right now, and several different agencies would have to agree that there was "systemic risk" in order to enact it. Europe has already guaranteed all deposits, however, and in order to keep large corporate accounts from emigrating overseas, the US may be forced to follow suit within a few weeks. More »
—>A few weeks ago, part of our advice on how to handle these tough financial times was to increase your emergency fund. Obviously this is something that most people would like to do — have more cash in their lives — but how exactly can this be accomplished? MSN has some suggestions on how to find some extra cash: More »
—>With the Dow currently below 8600, stocks are continuing their downward spiral this week, the but the WSJ tells us 3 ways why it's totally different from 1929: More »
—>Let's say that like so many storied former-investment-banking-giants, you, the average consumer, have found yourself over-leveraged (wink, wink) and are looking to clean up your act before the whole thing falls down around you like the house of cards it is. Well, since you can't increase revenue at will, you'll have to decrease your costs. Where should you start? Here are 5 expenses that you can cut right now — so you can take the extra cash and throw it at your debt. More »
—>3 safe places to stash your cash [CNN Money] "Despite the current market turmoil - rest assured - there are still places where your money has some degree of protection." More »
—>Kiplinger has two quizzes named "Financial Truth or Bunk?", and they go through some of the more popular tips you've heard about personal finance, including lines like:
- You can't lose money investing in bonds.
- Stay-at-home moms or dads need life insurance, too.
- Don't buy a red car — it'll cost more to insure.
- Dollar-cost averaging boosts investment returns.
- The percentage of stock in your portfolio should equal 100 minus your age.
—>Six central banks of the world did a coordinated interest rate cut to try to help the credit crisis. The group included the US and the European Central Bank. What does this mean for your wallet? It's possible, at some point, that you'll be able to get or renegotiate loans or mortgages to a better interest rate, and you're like to see saving account rates drop, but given the apocalyptic economic climate, don't count on it happening anytime soon. More »
—>I'll be reporting from the Finovate 2008 personal finance tool conference on October 14. There's 24 presenters from places like Mint, Yodlee, Quicken and Wesabe. Here's the complete list. Some of these services you've heard about or may use yourself. What questions would you have me ask them? What improvements can be made? What would you love to see in a personal finance tool? Let me know in the comments and I'll do my best to do your requests justice. More »
—>Some punkass debt collector called trying to get a hold of some lady he thinks my girlfriend knows. Here's roughly how the conversation went. Keep in mind I had just put a bunch of peanuts in my mouth... More »
—>Saw this site, moneyaisle.com, where banks compete with the best rate to get your business in a high-yield savings account or a CD. Sounded interesting, so I tried it out. I said I had $5k to deposit. The best rate they had was 3.51%. In less time it took for that rate to load, I went to Bankrate.com and found a place - yes, the banks on both sites are FDIC-insured - offering 3.91%, and only requiring a $1000 deposit. FAIL. More »
—>The headlines are screaming that America is more addicted to debt than crack. Then there are people out there who actually have a psycophysical need to spend spend spend. Are you one of them? Is your partner or friend? These are the 12 warning signs to watch out for... More »
—>The Illinois Food Bank Association issued a challenge to Illinoisans — could they survive by spending only $25 a week for food? $25 a week is the average weekly food stamp benefit that an individual receives in Illinois. Could you make such a small amount last while still eating nutritious meals? More »
If you find yourself in one of those moods where you just “have to have it”, and end up in the store staring at it, talk to yourself about it. List all the reasons you want it (want, not need), and all the reasons you don’t want or need it... More »
—>Just saw a (horribly produced) ad last night for freetriplescore.com, the latest in a long string piece of crap "free" credit score sites. As Chris Walters noted when he wrote about it, for the most part it's a ripoff. But maybe there's a way to pull a fast one of you own and get a free credit score... More »
—>For several years and in different forms, Citi has had an interesting idea to get you/help you to pay off your credit card called the Citi Payment Partner Program. How it works is if you enroll and make above the minimum payment due for four months, on-time, at the end they will match 10% of the amount you paid off above your minimum payment. The max cap is $550. But there are two important caveats: More »
—>Jerry Bruckheimer turns the lens of his celluloid cyclops away from exploding airplanes to exploding credit card debt in an adaptation of Confessions of a Shopaholic. There's a scene in the trailer where our heroine has frozen her credit card in a block of ice (see "Stop Spending By Freezing Your Credit Card In Ice") and, stricken by a frenzy, she chops and hacks at it and uses a blowdryer to free it. Sort of amusing, although most people I've read about who freeze their credit card usually don't ever crack them open. Full trailer inside. More »
—>If you feel at a loss for words to describe the now global financial cover, this spoof cover floating around the internet for September's Economist says it all: "Oh fuck!" Download the large version, suitable for framing or desktop wallpaper, inside... More »
After falling 800 points in a single trading session, the Dow pulled back to finish down just 369.88. [NYT] More »
—>Stuck in a $14,300 debt hole, reader Trixare4kids was able to dig herself out using tips she learned about on Consumerist.com. Let's learn how she attacked her personal finances and learned to live frugally, and did it all in 20 months. More »
—>If you've got a few credit cards lying around that you haven't used in a while but don't want to lose, you might want to talk them out for a walk. More »
—>I'm not convinced that they're totally necessary but if you're going to look for a financial planner, here's how to go about it. While some financial planners argue that fees, investment returns, education and experience aren't that important when selecting a financial advisor, impartial observers almost always disagree. Case in point is US News' listing of six steps to finding a good financial planner. Their suggestions are as follows: More »
—>There's a happy ending to our story, "Always Look A Gift Check In The Mouth" about the guy who opened up a new bank account just to deposit a check he thought might be fraudulent and indeed, turned out to be. Fred writes: More »
—>All of a sudden, everyone is interested in how their banks, credit cards, credit scores, credit reports, mortgages, and money actually work. Staying out of the red is the new black. Have you found yourself talking more about money matters and strategies with friends, family, co-workers, and even strangers? More »
—>Knock $4,000 off your utility bill [CNN Money] "Invest $1,500 in insulation and maintenance and get over twice that in energy savings the first year." More »
—>Don't bother getting up early tomorrow to submit your Leading Hotels Of The World do-over app in the hopes of snagging a $19.28 hotel room. All the registrants just got an email saying it was postponed. Here's their full email: More »
—>Brandon Savage writes that he's having success with saving by taking the advice in our "Get Rich By Saving Every $5 Bill" post. Since starting in August, he's got $425 in additional savings this way. Here's how he does it: More »
—>If you've bought stocks through E*Trade, make sure you log into your account at least once a quarter. That way you can see if there's any alerts on the account, like the one telling you about the "inactivity fee" for not executing at least one trade per quarter, the fee that they'll sell some of your stocks to pay for. This happened to reader Brody, who writes: More »
Word is Sovereign Bank and National City Corp are "next on the FDIC's to-do-list." [Clusterstock] More »
—>"Leading Hotels Of The World" was supposed to have a sick deal today where you could get five-star hotel rooms for $19.28 per night, but the inevitable short supply and online stampede left many futilely clicking refresh for over two hours as the servers crashed. Instead of polite bellboys, many consumers were greeted by the message, "Just a moment, please...Due to the overwhelming number of consumers participating in this promotion. We regret to inform you due to technical difficulties beyond our control the 1928 promotion has been suspended indefintely. [sic]" Irate would-be customers left messages in various forums describing their experiences... More »
—>Kiplinger's has put together a list of 10 things that you, fair consumer, can expect from our new post-wall-street-apocalypse economy. Should you be scared? Maybe. More »
—>Citi's been burned enough by its cardholders' profligate spending, apparently. Check out the message on this activation sticker on a new card. We like the inclusion of a sort of Yin-yang background, as if to remind us that debt and repayment are equal elements of the consumer credit world. A balance must be maintained! Just, you know, not so high a balance that you can't make your monthly payments.(Thanks to Jerry!) More »
After reading these 10 links, the I Will Teach You To Be Rich blog believes they will make you smarter than 99% of other people about the financial crisis, what it means, and what to do about it. [I Will Teach You To Be Rich] More »
—>Seeing the greatest single-day point drop in the Dow is probably not the kind of history anyone wants to be living through right now. The failure of the bailout bill to pass caused a big freakout in the market, which thought we were going to get a bailout today. But before you click the button to transfer all your investments to 0% return T-bonds (aka I give up on investing), first ask yourself if that's really in line with your long-term investment goals. Secondly, realize that point-wise it might the greatest drop, but it's not the greatest drop percentage-wise. In other words, we've been here, and bounced back, before. If you're decades away from retirement, today's plunge is a buying opportunity. Here are some thoughts about fighting the urge to panic. More »
—>One unpleasant surprise about switching to USAA from Washington Mutual is that I could no longer download all my transactions in .CSV format. When I was with WaMu, this made it very easy to import all my banking into my tricked out Excel sheet I use to manage my finances. USAA only lets you download in Quicken or Microsoft Money's proprietary formats. Cutting and pasting the transactions as they appear on the website, even in Print mode, still is less than perfect. What I found out though is you can use a personal finance management site like Mint or Wesabe to do most of the grunt work for you. UPDATE: Reader Stephen pointed out there is a handy link at the bottom of the USAA page that lets you export as .CSV. I didn't see this link because I was looking at the "download fund activity link," which doesn't have a .CSV option. More »
—>What do Wachovia customers need to do now that Citigroup owns your ass? Absolutely nothing. You can do all your online and offline banking just like nothing happened. No temporarily held funds, no chained and locked bank branches. Everything is the same. Even your bank's regulator remains the Office of the Comptroller of Currency. Down the road there will likely be a few alterations, most of them cosmetic. Read our post "Insiders: Probable 1-Year Timeline For Customers In WaMu To Chase Transfer" for some of the changes you can expect. More »
—>The FDIC is going to make two changes to their coverage. One affects beneficiaries and one affects trust accounts, according to a bank insider who participated in teleconference call the FDIC held banks this morning as a refresher course on FDIC coverage. The big news is that the "qualifying beneficiary" rule is gone. Here's the specifics: More »
—>Now that Washington Mutual completely imploded on its garbage-pile avalanche of home mortgages, this old WaMu commercial from August 2006, starring Scott Adsit pre-30 Rock, takes on a new, darker, meaning... More »
—>8pm eastern, I'm going to be on CNBC's "On The Money" tonight hosted by the fastest-shootin' personal finance expert in the West and East, Carmen Wong Ulrich. We'll be fielding questions from consumers wanting to know what money moves to make and I'll chime in with the Consumerist.com perspective. Should be interesting! Got bumped, but should be back on again sometime soon. More »
—>As an aside, WaMu's charter was under the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS). Chase's bank regulator is the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Whether being a Chase customer was your choice or not, if you ever have a major complaint about Chase regarding what you feel is on the bank's part malfeasance, you'll want to send it to the OCC. More »
—>The Feds seized Washington Mutual and JP Morgan bought it, but don't fret, all your accounts ok. Online banking is completely functional. If you held WaMu stock, on the other hand, it's now effectively worthless. Depositors began fleeing WaMu on September 15, the day Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. In all, they took out about 9% of WaMu's deposits, or $16.7 billion. Regulators say this left WaMu without enough capital to keep functioning. The shakedown and bailout continues apace. What new surprises will the government bring us today, Monday, or even over the weekend? At least this one didn't require taxpayers to foot the bill. More »
—>Bank crisis: 10 things to know now [MSN Money] "If your bank goes bust, how do you get your money out? Are credit unions protected? What about investments? It's time to get your ducks in a row." More »
—>Warren Buffett buys $5 billion in Goldman Sachs stocks, causing a subdued "yay" to rise among investors. Is the contemporary equivalent to J.P. Morgan helping to calm the Panic of 1907 by walking onto New York Stock Exchange and buying bank stocks? More »
Wall Street Fighter has a list of 18 money management websites, to handle everything from making zero-commission stock trades to dunning your family for past-due IOUs. [Wall Street Fighter] More »
—>I was just on CNBC's "On The Money" and heard from one homeowner who was frustrated that no one at Washington Mutual would return her calls or letters in her attempts to renegotiate her mortgage. I told her it was time to contact executive customer service and/or launch an EECB. I received a few emails after the show from other homeowners in the same situation, so here is all the executive customer service contact info we have for various banks. More »
—>The FBI has launched a fraud probe into Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and AIG. Sounds kinda like a move to placate the masses. "We're on it." No doubt in response to the seething outrage sweeping the nation over the size and audacity of the bailouts, however needed they might be. Sounds like an easy job. Sorta like dipping your hand in a barrel of ink and trying to pull up black stuff. More »
—>September 24, tomorrow, is the last day to register for the class action against TransUnion for selling consumer's private data to businesses without permission. If you held a credit card between January 1, 1987 to May 28, 2008, you're eligible to receive benefits. You can choose from one of three options: More »
I wish someone could just explain this whole thing to me. How does it affect someone who has no stocks, investments etc. and just does the old fashioned "saving" I'm serious I don't understand. More »
—>The number for Wachovia Auto Loan Executive Customer service is 877-250-2265. More »
—>If you're wondering how we got into the big money mess, Kiplinger has a nice and easy 15 step guide to the market meltdown. They trace the origins back to 2000, when the Federal Reserve made the federal funds rate, the interest rate banks charge each other for short term loans, very low. Then we go through the speculative bullshit of the subprime mortgage market, the various imaginary castles built on top of it, and then just how everything went to pot once the naked emperor was revealed. No blame-casting, just the straight up facts. More »
Bank Of America's site has been down for several hours today. Coincidence? Related to its purchase of Merill Lynch? Outcome of market turmoil? Uncertain, but it is certain that BoA customers can't do any online banking right now. UPDATE: It's back up, but so slow as to make it practically nonfuctional. [cNet] More »
—>Wall Street is dead. According to its Journal, it died last night when the Federal Reserve agreed to convert Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the last remaining mega brokerages on Wall Street, into bank-holding companies. The Wall Street that was, "a coterie of independent brokerage firms that buy and sell securities, advise clients and are less regulated than old-fashioned banks," is no more. In exchange for access to more Federal loan money, and not having have to mark its assets at market value, the two companies will be subject to tighter capital requirements and more government regulation and oversight about how they do their business. This will blunt profits, but that seems in order considering the run racked by so much reckless profiteering, for so long. More »
My brother who is a junior at college sent out a bunch of applications for college grants and other sources of funding to pay for his education. Late this summer he received a check in the mail sent to him from one of the organizations that he sent an application to. The check wasn't huge, but the $3500 would come in handy, and certainly would have been a huge help in paying for his books, and housing. When the check actually came in the mail it was just a check, nothing else, no letter of congratulations, explanation or anything else telling him why he had received the money... More »
—>Payment Reporting Builds Credit (PRBC) is an alternative credit reporting agency that will record your payment histories for things like rent and utilities bills. PRBC says you can then use this verified credit history to supplement your FICO score and credit history from the big three reporting companies. It's meant in part as a way to help people who don't have extensive standard credit histories, or who have always paid monthly expenses on time but have other blots (like medical bills) on their official credit histories. More »
—>Markets rallied in late trading in the biggest gain in six years, emboldened by news that Washington wants to create a new agency that will buy up ALL the bad loans on these financial companies' books. The initiative would be an attempt to fashion a holistic solution instead of bailing out each individual bank as it fails. This would cost many more billions of dollars and require Congressional approval. In order for all those CongressCritters to keep their jobs, there is talk that the deal would be packaged with another stimulus package perhaps including more rebates, along with food stamps and unemployment benefits. More »
The people who ran the financial firms chose to program their risk-management systems with over-optimistic assumptions and to feed them oversimplified data. More »
—>5 Simple Steps to a Successful Cover Letter [Yahoo Hotjobs] "[Here's] an easy-to-follow, five-step formula for cover letter success" More »
—>For Washington Mutual direct deposit customers, to protect yourself no matter who takes over and how good they are at handling WaMu's computer systems, Carmen Wong Ulrich, host of CNBC's personal finance show "On The Money," wants you to hit Print. When that direct deposit hits your account, she wants you to go to your WaMu online banking account and make a printout of your statement. That way if it somehow gets lost in the shuffle, "go right up to the bank with your paperwork." It would probably get eventually sorted out anyway, but this way can help expedite things, just in case. More »
—>The housing crisis. The stock market plunge. The banking industry in shambles. What's a person to do in the midst of all this financial turmoil? We thought we'd offer our suggestions for making it through the rough waters many of us are facing: More »
—>BillShrink's free credit card comparison service launches today, and you should check it out to see whether your current credit card is the best available option for you. The great thing about BillShrink is it doesn't try to get you to sign up for a particular card—it simply aggregates the information on each one, then helps you quickly navigate your options to find the best choice for your specific needs. (The site makes money when you sign up for a new service.) More »
laserjobs: The way things are going the FDIC will probably end up with WaMu. So as long as you are under the FDIC limits you will probably be with the safest bank around soon: WaMu Federal. More »
—>WaMu has begun to try to sell itself. So far, no takers. If no one buys it, one of two things will happen. Either it will be placed into a conservatorship, like IndyMac, or form a bridge bank, a kind of temporary bank. So the question for depositors is: wait to find out who your new masters are, or pull out now and decide for yourself? More »
—>Regulators are trotting around Washington Mutual trying to get banks interested in buying it. It's sort of like in the old days when the local beauty queen, last scion of the largest landowner in the county, would get maimed in a horrible combine accident and the town elders would trot her catatonic body around to arrange a marriage so all her fields wouldn't turn fallow and destroy the local economy for years to come. Wasn't that given treatment in Faulkner? As I Lay Hemmoraghing Equity? More »
—>Having trouble getting a car loan? You're not alone. "Gas at $4 a gallon changed the type of vehicles people buy. The credit crunch, however, has changed their ability to buy," says a car dealer. Higher interest rates, higher down payments, fewer loans, and high aversion to dings on your credit report, this Kicking Tires post has more from the front lines about banks' new level of pickiness when it comes to putting you in your next jalopy. More »
—>WaMu's stock is up this morning after the new CEO said the S&P rating downgrade to junk was based on "market conditions" and not their financial condition, and an unsourced Daily Mail article said Chase was going to bid for the beleaguered thrift. More »
—>I went into a Brooklyn Chase today to see if, in the wake of the concerns about them going bust, Washington Mutual customers were switching over. I went up to the manager and said, "I'm a WaMu customer —" "—God bless your soul," he interjected. More »
—>NYT's Ron Leiber breaks down what you need to know and do if you are or were a customer of Merrill Lynch, Lehman, or AIG... More »
—>The scary headlines about WaMu's stock slide have a few readers worrying if now is the time to pull their deposits. I'm a WaMu customer myself and I say no. For now, though I could be wrong, this just looks like more hot panic sweeping the market. First off, you're FDIC-insured up to the first $100,000. You will get your money. Secondly... More »
—>Forget the sub-prime meltdown and get with the subterranean housing craze. This book - linked in one of Chris's posts but I just had to bring it to the front page - has everything you need to know about building a house underground. The most amazing thing is that there’s ways to do it to get light from all four sides. The penultimate amazing thing is not being buried alive while you sleep. More »
—>Consumers Union (CU) filed a petition with the FTC Thursday to protect consumer gift card holders more when retailers go bankrupt. For as long as the stores remain open, CU wants companies to have to hold gift card funds in a secure trust, unless bankruptcy courts say otherwise. Currently... More »
—>Re: Countrywide Sends Fraud Alert Letters: 'Your Info May Have Been Sold," Reader Esqdork writes, "Yesterday, I phoned Countrywide to get them to extend the credit monitoring service [that they offered in their apology letter] to my co-borrower and was promptly hung up on." The only surprise here is that they even picked up in the first place. More »
—>6 Ways to Save on Beer, Wine and Liquor [Smart Money] "Here are six ways to save on your favorite vintage, malt or brew." More »
—>"Saving up." It's nearly an alien concept in this "buy with debt" world, but into that breach steps SmartyPig. The site lets you set and save for specific goals in their online savings accounts at a competitive 3.9% APY savings rate. There's all sorts of built-in graphs and widgets to track your progress, but then you can make it social, if you like, by making a page where your goals public and having friends and family or other random people on the net (export to Facebook, etc) track and root for your progress, or even contribute to your goal. More »
—>Got a problem with your federal student loan? The Federal Student Aid Ombudsman specialists are here to help. First they've got a bunch of tips for you to fix your problem on your own. If all those don't work, contact them by phone, fax, or mail and they will help you out. For reals. This is reader Trey's great experience with them: More »
—>It used to be that $1,000 was a good amount of money. Then again, it used to be 1980 once too. More »
—>Palisades Collection is offering Jeremy a great deal: he can pay half off his debt of $237.64 and get the account settled! Small snag, though, Jeremy never ordered the Verizon service they're trying to collect on, the debt has passed the statute of limitations, and he got it expunged from his credit report years ago. Still, Palisades persists in sending collection notices for him to his grandma's house. What's a boy to do? Read on and find out. More »
—>It's scary times for investors, so Bankrate has "6 Deadly Investing Mistakes" to avoid, most of which involve you not freaking out. More »
—>What do you think of Bank of America's "Keep The Change" program? How it works is every purchase you make with your BoA debit card you make gets rounded up to the next dollar. The difference between that and the actual price gets moved from your checking to your savings account. The idea is to help people save. Good idea, but there's some potential downsides I can see: More »
I received a letter from Countrywide today that says: More »
—>My friend and I used to pretend to be crafters, and we would email elaborately ridiculous project descriptions back and forth to each other as examples of that past time gone wild. Now we must put down our imaginary glue guns and denim swatches to pay homage to Pamela Cole Harris, who does this stuff for real. Below, see what happens when a kindly scrapbooker goes insane. More »
—>Many of you know that if you're late on your credit card bill payments they can raise your rates as high as 29.99%, but that's just for scalawags, right? Nope. JLP at All Financial Matter's brother was late twice on his Bank of America bill, once by three days, and once by one day. That was enough to make Bank of America say, OMG, this guy is way too risky and we need to penalize him and send his rates as high as they can legally go! More »
—>Sick of overdrafts? Don't feel like juggling your bank balance in your head? Quickenbeam from Intuit is a new free service, in beta, that lets you check your account balances, no matter what bank you have, from your cellphone. More »
—>When insurers don't pay the full amount of the bill, health-care providers are going after patients to make up the difference. It's known as "balance billing," and it's often illegal, BusinessWeek reports. Under state and federal laws, doctors and hospitals generally need to be dealing with the insurers, instead of pressuring vulnerable patients. Have you had any success with fighting balance billing? Leave your story in the comments. More »
—>Having trouble finding the mailing address for any of the three major credit bureaus, TransUnion, Experian, Equifax? Here they are: More »
—>Mythbusters host Adam Savage is retracting comments he made at a hackers conference where he said an episode exposing security flaws in credit card RFID technology was squelched by credit card company lawyers. In a new statement Adam says, " If I went into the detail of exactly why this story didn't get filmed, it's so bizarre and convoluted that no one would believe me, but suffice to say...the decision not to continue on with the RFID story was made by our production company, Beyond Productions, and had nothing to do with Discovery, or their ad sales department." More »
—>At Bank of America, your accounts are Buddhist. As in, undergoing "eternal return," where accounts that have been closed and passed on will reemerge, rejuvenated, reopened, even if you closed them long, long, ago. Reader Chip writes: More »
—>By switching to only paying for everything in cash, as we wrote about here, one family ended up spending 24% less in a month, $1800 less. To get there they cut up 8 of their 9 credit cards. The last one they froze in a glass of water in case of emergency, another technique we recommended before. "I don't have enough money in my purse to go buy this new dress or this new shirt that I want, so you don't even step foot in the store, because you don't have the money...You don't make all those extra purchases that you really don't need." Marissa Farhat told Good Morning America. More »
—>The number of credit card offers clogging mailboxes took a nosedive in this year's second quarter, 1.54 billion vs 1.8 billion for the same period last year. An aftershock of the credit crunch and sub-prime meltdown, the decrease reflects a shift in the banking industries thinking, trending towards higher standards from its borrowers than merely the fact that they are carbon-based lifeforms. A good way to take that number even lower is to register with OptOutPrescreen.com and stop the tide of credit card offers almost entirely. More »
—>The CreditKarma.com site we told you about in our roundup of "5 No BS Ways To Get A Credit Score For Free" has changed its calibration system so the free, advertising-supported, credit score it gives you is now on the 300-850 range, just like your FICO score. It's still not your FICO score, but it does make the approximation, based on TransUnion data, more relevant. If you're do some major money moves, like getting a mortgage, you would still want to pay for the FICO score for total accuracy, but if you just want a general sense of how you're doing, CreditKarma.com is a great way to do it for free. More »
—>Last week the Wall Street Journal asked how far people would go to keep their dog (or really any pet for that matter) alive. As an example of the two ends of the spectrum, they suggested the following, starting with the "not much" line of thinking: More »
—>Using Your Health Savings Account as a "Super Roth" Investment Vehicle [Free Money Finance] "If you can afford to delay using your HSA funds and instead leave them invested, your payoff in retirement will be substantial." More »
—>The central bank of Iceland has increased overnight borrowing rates to 15.5%, meaning you can get some damn high yields investing in their currency. Those numbers piqued my interest. More »
—>When reader Nick tried to sign up for ATT "naked DSL" or "dry loop" service (getting DSL without having paying for a landline), a curious thing happened. More »
—>Wamu's fraud department has a problem sending letters. Just like another reader, Kristin, we posted about, Rob is having trouble disputing fraudulent charges on his account. He followed their every instruction, except to respond to the second letter WaMu sent out. How could Rob do such a foolish thing? Because it never showed up in his mailbox, a point, WaMu seems to think, is owing to, not their incompetence, but Rob's general lassitude and weakness of character. Or something like that. Here's Rob's story... More »
—>To save money on heating costs this winter, consider joining or starting a fuel oil co-op. What's that? More »
—>According to reader Caleb, Wells Fargo seems to have recently crippled their loan repayment system in a way that makes it impossible for borrowers to pay off loans the way they want to. That is, unless you prefer to let your highest-interest loans ride for as long as possible while you pay off your lower-interest loans... More »
—>Last year, Gpotato.com fraudulently took $50 from reader Adam's Paypal account. He disputed the charge, Paypal agreed it was fraud and returned the funds, and Adam closed the account. Now all of a sudden Paypal's internal collections agency is calling up Adam and making rude and insistent demands that he pay this $50 immediately. More »
—>Do you have so many credit cards that you could sew a pair of pants from them? Confused as how to get rid of them? Try this handy Excel spreadsheet to generate a custom strategy for becoming debt-free. More »
—>Last week we reported that some types of unwanted robocall telemarketing will soon be banned. If you're on the receiving end of Leverage Connections' prerecorded harassment—they frequently operate under the generic names "Consumer Services" or "Credit Card Services"—you'll finally have a way to formally complain to the FTC about them. Why would you want to complain? Because they're the scammiest, most obnoxious robocall telemarketing company we've seen so far—even though what they do is apparently legal. More »
—>BusinessWeek has put together one of those accursed slideshows of 25 ways to save money, and while a lot of them are things you've heard before (use credit cards wisely! buy generic or used!), there are a few less common tips that you might not have considered. Here are four that caught our attention. More »
—>Banks need your money. They're not doing too well on their own, and you're not screwing up enough to generate the fees they need to make their shareholders happy. That's why they've set up sneaky ways to maximize your every mistake—or in some cases, ways to change the rules so that you make new mistakes where you didn't before—in order to penalize you. Here are five things SmartMoney says to watch out for. More »
—>Ready for some tough love about how to improve your financial situation? Jeffrey Strain, the man behind SavingAdvice.com, has put together a list of six "awful truths" about personal finance for TheStreet.com. The reason they're "awful," he writes, is that "these truths mean that the each person must take more responsibility and make hard decisions that they would rather leave to others." More »
Is [it] a biologically driven disease of the brain, a learned habit run amok, an addiction in its own right or a symptom of the other dysfunctions—most notably depression—that so often accompany it? More »
—>Using Your Health Savings Account as a "Super Roth" Investment Vehicle [Free Money Finance] "If you can afford to delay using your HSA funds and instead leave them invested, your payoff in retirement will be substantial." More »
This week, personal finance website The Simple Dollar ran a series of "Big Debates" that discussed some common either/or finance choices, including the merits of using or eschewing credit cards, whether to pay off debt or save for retirement, and the advantages of 401(k)s versus Roth IRAs. More »
—>A Consumerist reader was surprised to find that Citibank had applied a finance charge on a zero balance account. She did what every good Consumerist should do: prepared her evidence, jumped quickly ahead to a live person on the Customer Service side, and resolved the issue. Here's what happened: More »
—>When should you spend to save? [MSN Money] "Are warehouse store memberships a good deal? How about extended warranties? It all depends on the products — and on you, the shopper." More »
—>It's been suggested that your career is your biggest financial asset because it fuels all of your financial progress — it grows your net worth, pays for your living expenses, sends your kids to college,funds your retirement, and the like. That's why we protect our careers with products like disability, medical, and life insurance, because without the ability to work — even for a limited amount of time — most of us would experience severe financial hardship. More »
Good Housekeeping has an extensive article detailing the 5 most common money mistakes that people make, from spending too much on "bargains" to letting their children blow their budget by not standing up to whining and teaching their children the value of things. [Good Housekeeping via Digg] More »
—>Man, remember those mortgages made in 2006? That was some bad juju. Whooee. But if you thought those were bad, wait till you get a load of the mortgages made in 2007. As the graph shows, people are defaulting on them at an even higher rate than the '06 ones. How could this be? By 2007 the bubble was popping and lenders could all see that they needed to stop giving making loans to underqualified borrowers, right? That was exactly the problem: "Mortgage originators who profited handsomely from the housing boom "realized the game was completely over" and pushed mortgages out the door," reports WSJ. More »
—>"Maybe I should call the E*Trade Baby. He might give me better customer service." Matt's mother died last year and he has been trying since last year to liquidate her E*Trade CD and put it in the family trust. Every other financial institution has been able to liquidate the assets with no problem, but it seems after blowing their wad on funny Superbowl ads, E*Trade has nothing left over for customer service. Here's Matt's story, and our advice on how can get his problem fixed: More »
—>The Promotion That Got Away: 5 Ways to Bounce Back [Yahoo HotJobs] "Nearly everyone has been passed over for a job they 'deserved.' If and when that happens there are five important steps to take." More »
—>Though the average cost of a wedding is up for debate — "experts" report different numbers, though most agree it's between $25,000 to $30,000 — the fact is that an average wedding in America can be pretty darned expensive. And while you can take steps to save a bit here and there, there is one area that you'll need to focus on if you want to save big bucks: the reception. More »
—>Claudia's father couldn't get a loan because Sears reported to the credit bureaus that he was dead. In fact, it was her mother who had died. After complaints, Sears credit cards, run by Citibank said they fixed the problem. Then Claudia's dad tried to get a loan but couldn't. His credit score was zero. More »
—>Credit card companies are raising interest rates and canceling cards left and right. Bankrate has seven ways to avoid getting caught up in the "risk repricing" spree. It all comes down to keeping everything looking normal. More »
—>What do those little letters, CD, ER, SR, etc, after a brand name drug's name mean? The exact terminology varies, but they usually translate to the same thing: unnecessary ripoffs. More »
—>The world's greatest bank thief is in custody. For ripping off over 45.7 million consumer's credit cards from TJ Maxx, and other retailers, authorities pressed charges on Miami mastermind Albert Gonzalez and 11 others. The stolen numbers were sold to other scammers who manufactured fake debit cards and drained their victims' accounts. The breach stemmed mainly from TJ Maxx stores using an unsecured wireless router. More »
—>With all the focus on the girl rocketing across the desert in a supersonic purple dildo, Washington Mutual forgot to mention one thing. When you sign up for a new account with them online instead of in person, be prepared to be treated like a criminal at every turn. Here's Brett's story of why he and his partner don't bank with WaMu, and never will again... More »
—>Some of the winners of ABC's Extreme Makeover Home Edition (EMHE) got a boobie prize. The Free Money Finance blog has found a few examples of EMHE recipients now in foreclosure, because after the workmen, camera crews, and glitz left, they were left with more house than they can afford. In one case, the town is hosting dinner raffles to help keep the family afloat. Here's an extreme makeover for you: how about giving the people a house that fits their budget? I guess that doesn't sell as many Twinkies. More »
—>It's no secret that prescription drugs are expensive, but it is a bit of one that they don't have to be. Dr. Edward Jardini's book, How To Save On Prescription Drugs, has 20 methods that anyone can use to drastically cut the costs of long-term medications, without sacrificing quality. Here's 14 of them: More »
—>"Jurgis" writes, More »
—>Tip for the savvy traveler visiting New York: all the McDonald's in New York have ATMs with only 99-cent fees. However you will probably have to put up with a freelance "doorman" bumming for change on your way out. More »
—>If arguing for completely getting out of your AT&T early-termination-fee isn't your thing, you can try doing what Felix did and get 75% off it. More »
—>According to Bankrate, 57% of Americans do not have a will, leaving their personal finance, guardianship of children, and many other end-of-life decisions in the hands of strangers (state judges.) The lynchpin of a solid estate plan is having a will, but Vanguard suggests you also need the following assembled to leave your loved ones in good shape following your death: More »
—>5 Mortgage Fees to Watch Out For [Smart Money] "Here are five fees to watch out for and how to avoid paying them." More »
—>Piggybacking is back in, baby. FICO was all set to terminate the credit-score boosting technique of adding another authorized user to an account held by someone with good credit, but they demurred. Piggbyack away, little money pigs. Here's how it went down... More »
—>On a tight budget and using equal parts willpower and behavior self-modification? Stay away from the cookie places in the mall. The September 2008 issue of ShopSmart says studies show that even just catching a whiff of your favorite treat can increase your urge to splurge. More »
—>If your FDIC-insured bank implodes, how long does it take for the FDIC to start paying depositors? Ever since IndyMac imploded, the question has no doubt been on many people's minds. One reader emailed me saying that he had asked the his banker about how long it might take. Allegedly, the banker squirmed around before finally saying that the FDIC had 20 years to pay people back. This is not true. More »
—>HSBC sent around a big cheery email to let everyone know that they've extended the promotional 3.5% rate on their online savings account until September 15th. More »
—>Popular personal-finance management site has added some cool new features. You can now add your student and auto loans, monitoring balances and getting reminders when it's payment time. Over 1000 lenders were added. Mortgages are now supported, letting you set auto-reminders for when payments are due. The site also now tracks your credit card interest rate, sounding the klaxons when your rate goes up. This gives you a chance to negotiate a better rate (here's a sample script) or port your balance to a lower-rate card (here's how). More banks and other features have been added, with investment and home value support on the way, bringing it closer to the promise of being your free one-stop total web-based personal finance dashboard. More »
—>Credit cards are so much worse than you thought, according to the 2008 Consumer Action credit card survey. Creditors have carte blanche to do pretty much whatever they want, including randomly changing terms, conditions, and rates, even to cardholders with perfect payment histories and pristine credit scores. More »
—>Consumers in Washington D.C. have apparently flocked to credit unions since the district outlawed payday lending last year. Payday lenders whined that lending without 300% APRs was utterly unaffordable, but credit unions are proving that it's possible to make long-term, low-dollar loans with interest rates as low as 16%. More »
Here's the clip of the To The Point radio program I was on yesterday. There was a bunch of people on, you can hear me at 23:30 talking about the Grocery Shrink Ray and 37:30 talking about the customer service hotline Sprint set up for Consumerist readers. It's a great show and I love Warren Onley's voice, but I have some issues with the advice some of the other guests gave on the show that I need to address. Here's what I would have said had I been asked some of their questions... More »
—>There's a woman who saves every $5 bill she gets, blogs Get Rich Slowly. She's been doing so for three years and has saved $12,000. More »
—>Here's four summer camps where kids will learn something really useful: how to manage their money. What a cool idea. I wish I had gone to one in my youth. More »
—>The smartest advice I ever got [CNN Money] "40 great minds share the best money lessons they ever learned." More »
—>Over at ABC News columnist David McPherson is responding to some reader backlash stemming from an article in which he used an example of somebody retiring with $500,000 in an IRA. The readers accused him of being out of touch with reality. Well, rather than apologize, he's upped the ante. Now he says you'll need $1 million to retire. More »
—>Reader MG is a fan of the site and a public librarian and has written a list of 7 ways that your library can help you during a bad economy. Libraries are an excellent resource and they're pretty easy to use. Don't worry if you're not a big reader, there's lots more stuff to do at the library besides just checking out books. More »
—>Lauren was shocked to find five charges for a total of $200 on her account from a pizza place she hadn't been to in months. They were all levied from one Uno Chicago Grill during a day she wasn't even in town. What she found out about why they happened in the first place was even more disturbing, and annoying. More »
—>Pew! Pew! Grocery Shrink Ray zapped Skippy Natural Peanut Butter. You know what's really going to be something? When they start raising the prices on all the products they shrunk. Then we'll see some real purchasing power loss. More »
—>It seems that there is nothing a consumer can do to completely prevent a merchant from putting an unauthorized charge through on their account. Even if that account is closed or you're using a "single-use" or "virtual" credit card, fraud-prevention cards with disposable credit card numbers that change after you use them once, you're not 100% secure. How come? Well, we'll tell ya. More »
—>IndyMac bank going under probably has you wondering, is my bank next? Various analysts are predicting that hundreds of small and regional banks could collapse in the next year. Here's the top 10 list of the nation's most troubled banks... More »
—>Where to Find the Best Savings Rates [Smart Money] "Here are the five highest yields with the fewest strings." More »
Apart from the quite adequate assortment of calculators, it's all a big heap of plain-Jane articles slotted into categories by simple tags. More »
—>The New York Times had an article today about the 10 year anniversary of the unlimited MetroCard and how it has transformed way people use the subway. They even included a graph that showed how many times people are using their cards in a month. What they didn't mention is that a lot of people are buying the card and not hitting the "break even" point of 46 rides per month. Hmm. More »
—>Watch out for fraudulent charges from Bestsmartstore.com on your credit card statements. Consumers are complaining about unauthorized charges for $4.95 or $4.99 for "e books" they never ordered or received. E-books are a favorite tool of online scammers as, if they ever got caught, they could just point to a few PDFs on their computer and say that's the inventory of their legitimate business. If you get one of these charges, do a chargeback on the card and cancel the card immediately. More »
—>Perhaps this British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card's interest rate is in "metric" APR, but if not, no matter what side of the pond you're on on, or road you drive on, you must agree that a 43.5% variable interest rate is bollocks. Who cares how many bonus miles you get, they're just going to get devalued anyway. More »
This morning, very early in the morning, we were on KTLK in Minnesota talking about, yep, you guessed it, the Grocery Shrink Ray. Clip is here. And earlier this week we were featured in an article in the UK's Observer. More »
—>Is your supermarket the victim of The Grocery Shrink Ray, the force that is shrinking how much product you get while keeping the price the same? Here are three antidotes: More »
—>Are you smarter than a credit card company? They've got billions riding on their belief that you're not. Check out these 10 methods, via the Americans for Fairness in Lending, credit card companies use to make extra money off you that you may not even be aware of, knowledge that could save you hundreds in extra fees. More »
TV stations looking to save money can do so by interviewing guests remotely over Skype, as WTVT in Tampa did, live, with me this morning. No more paying for car service or bottled water! More »
—>If you're trying to get your mortgage modified or just a question answered but find yourself stymied by your loan servicer's slow or lack or response, you can write what is termed a qualified written request (QWR) under section 6 of Respa, The Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. Under federal law, they have to acknowledge the letter within 20 working days and respond in 60. Inside, a template to follow for drafting a QWR... More »
—>Seven Websites That Saved Me Money in the Last Week [The Simple Dollar] "Here are seven websites I used to directly save money over the last week, my exact purchases and savings, and how much cash they saved me." More »
—>Since the Dow made it look so fun, the S&P today dipped into its first official bear market since 2002. A bear market is usually defined as a 20% drop in securities prices from their high (Not a hard feat when the financials were hyped up on imaginary money from worthless mortgages). Is it time to sell, sell, sell? Not unless you're retiring tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. Investopedia says the best thing to do when you see a bear in the market is the same as when you see one in the woods: "Tuck in your arms and play dead!" In other words, don't go crazy selling stocks at a loss. In both cases, fighting back can leave you bleeding, although toughing it out won't be a pleasant experience either. And if you have money leftover after filling up your car, it's actually a buying opportunity. Which I guess is like playing dead in front of the momma bear while your buddy gathers up all the cubs while mamma is occupied and then later you and your buddy train them to harvest honeycombs for you. More »
—>In an effort to spur retail sales, many states offer sales-tax holidays each summer — periods of time where sales tax is temporarily suspended on certain products. This year the slumping economy has some states enhancing their efforts by extending the holiday dates and broadening the list of eligible products. Smart Money lists each state sponsoring a sales-tax holiday as well as the applicable dates and details of each offer. It also suggests a few helpful hints for making the most of a sales-tax holiday as follows: More »
—>Reader MervinGleasner has Hello Kitty to thank for his unique method of curbing personal spending. In a comment on our "Succeed Through Self-Undermining!" post, he writes: More »
—>8 ways to ruin your chances to retire [Bankrate] "You can stay shackled to a job until your last gasp if you follow these steps." More »
—>As we've noted, the tough economic times are forcing many people to look for creative ways to save money. The Wall Street Journal reports on one age-old method that's gaining popularity: More »
—>Finally having lost over 20% from its October high, the Dow has entered into a bear market. An unrelated story about an investor-fleecing hedge fund manager who tried to make his disappearance prior to his incarceration look like he took his own life provides context in a Google Trends graph. More »
—>Reader Isreal has made an exciting discovery. Foaming hand soap is basically just less viscous regular, cheaper hand soap. By watering down cheaper hand soap, you can save money. More »
—>Our post on freezing your credit cards in a block of ice got me thinking. Anything that slows, stops, or impedes making transactions can be used as a technique for limiting your spending. Whatever it may be, cutting up your credit cards, locking up most of your money in an account it takes 3 days to transfer from, giving yourself an allowance, it will be a variation on a single principle: It's easier to put a hard limit on the future then to make the right decision in the impulsive moment. Installing some kind of an automatic hiccup can help break you out of your desire-driven action and give you the breathing room to step back and make the right choice. So if you have trouble with overspending (or overeating or any kind of bad habit) and your sheer willpower is sometimes lacking, aka, you're human, try brainstorming ways you can trip yourself up. The world is full of obstacles, it shouldn't be too hard to find one. More »
—>To help ease the pain of higher gas costs, starting July 1st the IRS will increase the allowable business deductible for business vehicles from 50.5 to 58.5 cents per mile. The IRS is also going to raise the rate for calculating computing deductible medical or moving expenses from 19 cents to 27 cents a mile, also starting July 1st. The rate for charity services, requiring an act of law to change it, remains at 14 cents per mile. If you've been meaning to claim business mileage deductions, July 1st will be a great time to begin. Here's info on how to get started. More »
—>Got a Chase credit card? Check your bill to see if the due date shrunk. For the past ten months, the due date on reader NDphoxylady's four Chase credit card due date was the fifteenth. Then, without warning or notice, it became the tenth. NDphoxylady only noticed when she was charged a $39 late fee and a $20 finance charge. When she complained to Chase, they told her that simply changing the due date on the bill was adequate notice. Nu-uh More »
—>A survey by Kelley Blue Book says that new car shoppers are giving up Starbucks to help offset the cost of $4 gas. Sorry, big green mermaid lady! The KBB study results reveal that 28 percent of new-car shoppers have stopped going to Starbucks or other coffee houses entirely, and 21 percent indicate they are going less often due to skyrocketing gas prices. More »
The FTC claims that CompuCredit didn’t properly disclose that it monitored spending and cut credit lines if consumers used their cards at certain places. Among them: tire and retreading shops, massage parlors, bars, billiard halls, and marriage counseling offices. "What they didn’t say was that you could be punished for specific kinds of purchases." More »
—>9 big credit card myths [MSN Money] "What you don't know could hurt you." More »
—>Billshrink.com is going to bring a never-before-seen level of transparency to consumers looking for the best credit card offer. Think of it as a turbocharged dashboard for navigating the credit card market. The site launched earlier this year as wireless plan comparison service, but with personal debt at record highs and personal savings rates at record lows, the credit card vector is potentially even more important and useful tool. I sat down with CEO Peter Pham yesterday as he showed me the actual website in action. More »
—>Although we are not technically in a recession, it's starting to feel like one. As gas prices and unemployment continue to rise, we've rounded up a collection of useful advice for the current period of economic austerity. More »
—>If you're entering the work force for the first time (although this probably pertains to lots of older employees too), all the details of insurance, taxes, and 401(k)s can be daunting/boring/confusing. Ron Lieber at the New York Times has pared away the extraneous bits and created a "primer for young people starting their first job," including helpful advice like why it's important to get health insurance, how to fill out your W-4, and why it's good to take advantage of the built-in "raise" that comes from a company-matching 401(k). Sure, this is all basic stuff, but that's the point. Ya gotta start somewhere. More »
—>If you have trouble controlling the amount and frequency of your credit card purchases, try putting your credit card in a glass of water and putting it in the freezer. This makes it so every time you want to use your credit card, you'll have to wait for the credit card to melt. By the time the ice has thawed, your desire to impulsively purchase may have evaporated as well. I read about this in Predictably Irrational; Dan Ariely called it, "The Ice Glass Method." Apparently, it doesn't ruin the credit card, although it will if you try to microwave-defrost it. This method is probably only good for people who do their shopping sprees in-person. Online shopaholics would just look through the ice. More »
—> More »
—>A MasterCard spokesperson has confirmed, just like we've been telling you all along, that a store cannot refuse to sell you something solely because you refuse to provide additional identification along with your MasterCard. The only time it's ok is if it's required for shipping, or when you're at a gas pump or making orders via internet, phone, or mail, in which case they can use the MasterCard Address Verification System (AVS). But if you're in a store, right in front of them, in the flesh, it violates their MasterCard merchant agreement. Consumers experiencing this can fill out a Merchant Violation form found in the FAQ/Contact US part of Mastercard.com. Full statement, inside... More »
When I asked for more details, the representative (who sounded like he was from India), took vengeance on my account and told me he was closing the account and that there was nothing I could do. When I asked for his manager, he said “There is nothing he can do, the account is closed.” —CLICK— And that was the sound of him hanging up the telephone. More »
—>I'm in the middle of reading The Road, and couldn't help draw 5 lessons about frugality from Cormac McCarthy's tale of a father and son scrapping out their survival in the middle of post-Apocalyptic America. More »
—>Last-minute Father's Day deals [CNN Money] "With only a few days to spare, here are a selection of luxurious presents that dad will love, with deals that would make him proud." More »
—>Want to get some kind of money plan in place but spreadsheets cause hives to burst all over your face? Then you might like The Envelope System, and No Credit Needed's video explaining how it works. Basically, you cash your entire paycheck each pay period and then put every dollar in a series of envelopes in different categories, with set limits for each category. Once you've spent the envelope for that category, no more spending in that category. Change goes into a piggy bank. Excess left over at the end of the pay period goes into savings or to paying off more debt. As a very "analog" "lo-fi" "old-school" method of budgeting, the envelope system is hard to beat. More »
This blogger will save $350 a year with his decision to stop drinking soda. [No Credit Needed] More »
—>CheapStingyBargains says that rather than relying on a butcher, it can be cheaper just to buy a whole piece of meat and cut it up yourself: More »
—>8 Ways to Hit an Amusement Park on the Cheap [Smart Money] "Cheaper gate prices are a good start, but savvy consumers can cut admission costs even more. Here's how." More »
—>Personal finance blogger JD Roth at Get Rich Slowly has been interviewing Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, about a new concept of retirement: the mini-retirement. Ferriss suggests that instead of working and saving during our careers to eventually retire and enjoy life, that we instead plan regular times of "retirement" throughout our lives. He deems these "mini-retirements." Mini-retirements seem like they could be the same as either sabbaticals or vacations, but they differ in the following ways: More »
—>Even people who are financially well off can be at risk of slipping into debt, especially in a staggering economy. There are plenty of doctors, lawyers and stock brokers who are currently on debt-management plans, according to David Jones, president of the Association of Independent Consumer Credit Counseling Agencies. Some of the warning signs of excess debt include: relying on home-equity credit lines or credit cards for everyday purchases, making only minimum payments on extended lines of credit and taking cash advances from one source of credit to pay another. To help save you from a downward-spiral into debt, Consumer Reports has put together a handy list of rules for smart borrowing. Here's one of our favorites... More »
Lila got her Washington Mutual debit card pickpocketed while traveling in India. Naturally, her account was drained. She filed a fraud report with Washington Mutual and a got a temporary credit issued on the account while the case was investigated. Less than 3 days later, the credit was reversed without warning. It's not WaMu's policy to reverse provisional credits in these matters before 30 days have passed to investigate, and not without warning. None of the various reps and fraud personal could explain why this happened, nor could they give her her money back, nor could they connect her with anyone who would or could do anything. Supervisors are mysteriously never around. It's a good thing she already had some Rupees in hand when the theft occured, or Lila could have been stranded in the Himalayas while WaMu reps were busy playing Snood. Her complaint letter, and our advice on how to be more effective, inside... More »
—>Whether it's because of frequent flier miles that are impossible to redeem, overly complicated terms and conditions or reward credit cards with high APR's, credit card reward programs are usually a rip off, according to CNN Money. Consumer Reports says that about 85% of American households participate in at least one rewards program which encourage consumers to spend more money but often turn out to be more trouble than they're worth. To help you wade through the confusion, Consumer Reports has assembled 7 tips to help you make postive use of credit card reward programs. The list, inside... More »
—>Budgeting a key part of travel, but your usual budgeting tricks lose their potency when you leave home. Get Rich Slowly compiled a handy list of budgeting tips to keep you from overspending on your next vacation. More »
—>Why should dealers tell you what you can and can't charge to your credit card? Cars represent a jackpot of credit rewards that every consumer is entitled to collect. There's nothing stopping from charging your new car straight to your credit card, if you storm the dealership armed with the right tools... More »
—>Check-altering criminal mastermind Frank Abagnale has five ways to lockdown your checking account and secure your identity. Check fraud isn't an anachronistic threat like Communism. Determined thieves can easily use your checks to steal your cash and your identity. Here's how to stop them... More »
9 Ways to Save on Gas This Summer [Smart Money] "When you add these seemingly small things together, it adds up to hundreds of dollars in savings." More »
—>If you're the type of person who never uses your ATM card—and we really mean never in this case, you might want to call your bank to find out if there's a minimum activity threshold to hit to keep it from being deactivated. A reader tried to use her Bank of America ATM card recently and kept getting an "invalid transaction" error at every ATM. She called the number on the back of the card to ask what was going on: "I was told that since I hadn't used my card in a couple of years it was closed, even though the expiration date is several years in the future, and I hadn't received any note that suggested I should cut the card up into tiny pieces." More »
A site where people post a picture and talk about the stuff they bought with their stimulus payment. [How I Spent My Stimulus] More »
—> More »
Plant a garden, harvest savings [Bankrate] "A productive patch can really cut food costs, even after you account for the investment in gardening tools, seeds, water and time." More »
—>USAA is like a unicorn in a pack of walruses: a financial services company that truly cares about its customers and really helps them out. Not as some kind of lucky exception, but as a matter of policy. Reader "Mary Marsala With Fries'" story, about how USAA opened up several cans of whoop-ass on an Enterprise facility that was trying to screw her over on charges, is yet further proof. More »
Reader Todd decided to call Bank of America up to test whether our story "BoA Closes Your Credit Cards If You Ask Why They Increased Your APR" was really true or not. Turns out, it is. More »
—>Yesterday I walked away from Commerce Bank victorious: my entire balance in my wallet, my fees reversed, and my account closed. I had an account there that I just sort of kept as a "money in a book" account. You know, you hide money in a book on your shelf so you forget about it and one day when you really need some extra scratch you realize, hey wait, I've got that money in a book. Except this way I wouldn't run the risk of forgetting which book it was. In retrospect I realize that was kind of a half-stupid, half-smart idea. That's how I roll. Another way I roll is a little policy called, "You don't get to steal my money." More »
—> More »
—>The guys who brought you "The Ghetto Big Mac" have a new video up about the the hilarious and not-so-hilarious realities behind check chasing joints (with guest appearance by yours truly, Ben Popken). Besides the part where Internet Celebrities Rafi and Dallas try to cash an oversized check at one of these places, what I like best about this video is that it actually makes a sound case for check cashing places at times. If there's no banks around in a poor neighborhood, what other choice do you have? Especially when banks have constructed all sorts of fees to discourage patronage by lower-income customers. Like Dallas says in the vid, "You really know you've made it when you move from check cashing fees to ATM fees." More »
Here's a list of 21 recommended finance books for people at every level of financial experience, from novice to "I could have written that." [SavingAdvice] More »
Trent at The Simple Dollar blog has a post about how to say no, especially to charitable requests. One of his readers describes the problem: More »
—>Ron Lieber kicks off his inaugural Your Money column by presenting five excellent principles to help guide your financial decisions. More »
If you're a podcast sort of person, Get Rich Slowly has a list of 12 personal finance podcasts that they say are the best of the bunch—informative, entertaining, well-produced, and unique. "Money Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for a Richer Life" is their top choice: More »
—>Crissy Thompson (pictured left) is among the coupon clipping elite. 11Alive News followed her around one day to learn some of her secrets. At a local Publix, Crissy managed to get two-thirds off her grocery bill and at CVS picked up $140 worth of goods for $5. Often, she spends only $10 a week on groceries and that's with 3 kids and a husband. Check out some of her techniques and her favorite coupon web sites, inside... More »
—>4 Credit-Card Protections Shoppers Should Know About [Smart Money] "Thanks to some little-known credit-card protections, shoppers don't have to get stuck with unwanted or broken merchandise." More »
Sallie Mae has publicly apologized for a coding error, potentially affecting around 1 million customers, that caused some consumers credit scores to drop over 100 points, and some consumers report that their dinged scores are already back up. If your score is not back to normal and you are in the middle of a transaction where your good credit is at stake, Sallie Mae said it will provide a credit reference letter. You can also call Sallie Mae customer service at 1-888-2-sallie. Sallie has pledged that the fix is in, but consumers can still take matters into their own hands by pulling their free credit report from annualcreditreport.com and disputing the incorrect information with Experian. Note, it's against Federal law for creditors to report false information to credit bureaus, and consumers can sue violators up to $1,000. More »
—>Consumers are complaining that a change in how Sallie Mae decided to recode some loans caused their credit score to drop by over a hundred points. That's enough to make a $93,240 difference in a home loan's total cost. Here's what happened. More »
—>It's almost part of human nature to make investing more complicated than it needs to be. Seemingly endless investment options, elaborate tax shelters, real estate "no money down" programs and the like certainly muddy the investment landscape. But CNN Money has taken the opposite view and attempted to simplify a model portfolio into a list of only seven basic investments... More »
Are you managing your aging parents' finances, or looking for a good financial advisor of your own? The AARP has just released a new booklet called "A Financial Professional's Guide to Working With Older Clients" (PDF). [AARP] More »
They tell us if we can get someone to sign up, and be approved, that we have guaranteed that that customer will shop at our store, on average, three times more often than they would have if they didn’t have a card with our store’s name on it. More »
—>Some homebuyers are pissed because when the actual line item fees for various closing costs come in less than the estimation, their closing agents are simply pocketing the difference. How do you fight back? This article on LawyersandSettlements says, More »
—>Eight Ways to Slash Travel Costs [Yahoo Finance] "Get creative with these eight tips, travel off the beaten path a little, and save some of your cash for when you get home." More »
Now that interest rates have fallen, online savings accounts aren't offering the same kind of return as before, but you can still stay liquid and get more than what you get in a brick and mortar bank. Here's some online saving accounts offered by FDIC-insured banks ranked by the interest they pay out: More »
—>The IRS has a tool that lets you find out when your Stimulus Payment will arrive. Just punch in your social, filing status, and number of exemptions on your 2007 taxes. Its usefulness is limited, though, as it can't tell you when your payment arrive until about a week before they send out the check. More »
—>If you have a problem that regular customer service hasn't been able to solve, give this gal working in the Chase Bank executive customer service office a shot: 713-262-3866, Michelle Crabtree. Although, she figures in an upcoming reader complaint, and not favorably. If you have a specific credit card complaint, that info is here, and the general Chase Bank executive customer service desk is 800-242-7399. More »
—>It's evident the pendulum swung too far in terms of giving away too much credit, but now it seems to be swinging back in the opposite direction just as hard, with banks getting too tightfisted, even when it doesn't make sense. For instance, the APR on James's BoA credit card jumped from 9.32% to 13.99%, and shortly after he called to see about getting it back, they closed all three of his credit cards. One was a Gold account with a lifetime APR of 7.99%, the other had a 1.99% APR. Just last month, he received an offer to transfer $15,000 to the 1.99% card. Obviously at least one department in Bank of America thinks he's a good credit risk. It appears some other expressionless faces of the massive dodecahedron that is the entity called Bank of America disagreed. More »
The ChargeBackBureau sells merchants a blacklist with names of customers who have done chargebacks. Merchants are supposed to be able to access its lists and deny transactions to customers if they see they're chargeback-prone. When a consumer is put on the list, they get sent an email warning them they're "going to have trouble purchasing goods or services on the Internet in the future." ChargeBackBureua's headquarters are conveniently located in Panama, which is convenient for its American clients, as such databases are illegal in the US. Chargebacks are an important tool for consumers to fight back against merchants who won't give you what you paid for. Here's how to do one. If a merchant won't do business with you because you stood up for your rights before, then you shouldn't do business with them either. More »
—>I asked Mint.com whether they would be adding some features to their new investment tracking tool similar to what they do with credit cards and banks. When you add your credit cards and banks to Mint, it has a section where they recommend different credit cards to switch to and show you how much savings or lower APR you can get. In response, CEO Aaron Patzer said that in the future they will identify the lowest cost brokerage for you based on how often you trade and with how much money, as well as, and, this is very important, exposing management fees and expense ratios.Very cool. Investors could really benefit by such transparent access to investing-rleated feesFor a good perspective on how fees can really chew up your nest egg, read our post, "How Your 401(k) Is Ripping You Off" More »
—>The number of people filing for bankruptcy continues to increase, as bad mortgages and the rising price of [insert noun here] squeezes every last penny out of debt-laden consumers. The American Bankruptcy Institute says the number of filings was up 47.7% in April from a year ago, and up 7.1% from March '08. More »
—>I got to check out personal finance management site Mint.com's new investment-tracking component before the private beta launches tomorrow. You can now add Brokerage, IRA, 401k and 529 assets. The two biggest things it offers are line graphs, and a way to see all the fees, dividends, deposits and withdrawals in one, clear, organized window. Unlike with the credit card tracking, they don't seem to be making any suggestions about how you might save money by switching to a different investment firm. You also can't yet push assets between accounts through Mint. As before, you will have to give up your username and password to your various financial services to let Mint scrape the data. The new brokerage features are hardly mind-blowing, but by having investment-tracking now Mint can basically be your entire financial dashboard, you just can't touch all the levers yet. Sexy screenshots, inside... More »
—> More »
—>Some economists think we're starting to pull out of our not-recession. For those of us who believe them and want to save without putting too firm a dent in our wallets, consider these twelve tips endorsed by the Wall Street Journal. More »
In a surprising departure from the norm, the government is actually cracking down on some of the more egregious credit card practices. Usually they say that including more tiny print is sufficient enough consumer protection. Some things they're addressing: creating a mandatory minimum payment period, forbidding double-cycle billing, and prohibited APR from being raised on an outstanding balance. The proposals are simply that, proposals, at this point, with finalization expected by year's end, and we'll see what happens after all the exceptions and industry lobbying groups get factored in the equation. The specific anti-consumer credit card practices getting attacked, inside... More »
"People are not willing to modify their lifestyle in order to live on what they earn - that is the real problem." Larry Winget, author of "You're Broke Because You Want To Be" on the root cause of the current economic crisis. [AllFinancialMatters] More »
—>This lady is trying to eBay her family's $103,245.11 in debt. It comes with her house and car (loving family not included). I guess it could be useful if you're trying to decrease your tax liability, or you just want to feel part of the credit crunch crisis. Maybe you could work out a Prince and the Pauper thing. More »
Going broke on $100,000: A sample budget showing how easy it is for a family making six figures and with 2 kids to get sucked into deficit spending. [Dr. Housing Bubble] More »
—>The champagne is dry and crusty, and all the hundred-dollar bills used to light cigars have crumbled into ash. It's time to tighten our belts and get real about spending less and saving more. Here's 10 ways to save some serious cash... More »
—>According to Yahoo Finance, there are several things you can do if you are one of the many homeowners who found out that their home equity line of credit was frozen by the lender. If your HELOC is frozen you can: More »
—>CNN asks some money experts for tips on how to teach kids about personal finance. Laura Levine, the executive director of Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, says she uses a special piggy bank for her 3-year-old son—it has four chambers, "one for saving, one for spending, one for donating and one for investing," and helps teach him that money is not just for "one thing." More »
20 different ways to make good use of carpet remnants. We like the idea of having them in the car for throwing under the tires in case of too much mud or snow. [Frugal For Life] More »
Brita wants you to keep paying $6-$10 for their disposable water filters, but here's a way to refill your own for $.50. [Instructables] More »
(Photo: powerbooktrance)
—>If you have an open home equity line of credit you were counting on for renovations or other projects, you might want to read CNN Money's article about how lenders are freezing them around the country. The main triggers for HELOC freezing are credit score changes and a rapid drop in home value in your area. The freeze may also be a computer-determined action, so if your HELOC suddenly goes away and you don't think it was justified, it may be worth checking your FICO score and then contacting the lender to reopen the line or renegotiate it. More »
—>Fun fact, it seems like Commerce Bank employees only get one fee reversal per customer account. I had three fees, two cycle-service charges and an "account inactivity" fee. The supervisor agreed to waive the two cycle service charges but wouldn't budge on the inactivity fee. I popped back in a few days later and tried speaking to a different rep to see if I would have better luck. He wasn't able to do it for me and he was even surprised to see that the two cycle service charges were gone. "I've never seen more than one of them waived before," he said. "I guess they must have had two different people punch in requests..." So that sounds like the normal rule might be only fee reversal per employee per customer account. Just something to keep in mind should you be doing fee battle with Commerce Bank. More »
This guy says he saves $500 a year on groceries by buying the whole cow from local farms. [Lifehacker] More »
—>Are credit card companies cracking down on "app-o-rama" (AOR) gamers, those folks who do a slew of credit card applications at the same time for to get as many bonus offers, credit lines, and 0% balance transfers as they can? After some of these FatWallet forum members did an AOR, all their credit cards were closed with one bank. For one guy, stook2001, this meant five new Citicard credit card accounts as well as three already existing Citicard accounts in good standing. The only reason given for the closing was the number of inquiries on his credit report. AOR thrived when credit card companies were throwing all sorts of enticing promotional offers in a desperate drive to get more customers. Now that credit card defaults are rising and credit card companies are trying to get rid of customers that might end up as liabilities, AOR could be just as on its way out as a no-doc stated income interest-only option-ARM mortgage. More »
—>The personal finance blogger at Can I Get Rich on a Salary has detailed nine ways he believes people can become rich. His list includes the following: More »
—>FatWallet forum member NewNole2001 details how they just finished paying off $9,482 in credit card debt. Here's how Nole did it: More »
—>Consolidation loans are no longer profitable for Sallie Mae, so it's saying goodbye to them. SmartMoney points out that ultimately this shouldn't matter for students taking out new loans, since the original point of consolidation—converting lots of variable rate loans into a nice predictable fixed rate loan—is no longer relevant (all federal student loans are now disbursed with fixed interest rates.) SmartMoney says if you still have variable rate loans you need/want to consolidate, check out the government's consolidation offering—"You're likely to pay the same consolidation rates you'd pay if you did so with Sallie Mae," they write. More »
—>I was talking to a high-up marketing type person from Citicards recently and she wanted to know what Consumerist readers were complaining about with regards to the little plastic devil she pushes. She told me how Citicards had recently stopped doing Universal Default, which is where if you're late on your payments with one creditor, other creditors get to treat you like you defaulted with them and spike your APR. She said she was personally appalled after finding out that her company had the policy in the first place, but then struggled with how to tell customers about it, because, she said, "It's like telling people you stopped beating your wife." More »
—>Without a doubt, your career is your most important financial asset. As such, most financial experts will suggest you should do all you can to make the most of it and maximize your compensation. But is there a limit to what you can and should do to make more money? Blogger Penelope Trunk cites a new book that says good-looking people make more money than not-so-good-looking people. And well they should. The facts suggest that good-looking people make more for their companies and thus deserve higher pay... More »
—>Dan sent us this pic he snapped in a local Kmart and writes, "I remember a previous post on a Wal-Mart card that offered a 2-liter bottle, but I guess inflation caught up with big K as they are only offering 20-oz." More »
—>U.S. News & World Report posted an excellent six-question financial literacy quiz that most 12th graders can pass. Can you? More »
An up-to-date list of credit cards with reward-point incentives for signing up. [Blueprint For Financial Prosperity] More »
—>How can you avoid an IRS audit? There's a .58% chance if you make 20-50k that you'll be audited by the IRS, but that still adds up to 259,794 unlucky people. Here's some strategies on how you can avoid becoming one of them: More »
More debtors are behind their loans than at any time since 1992. [American Banker's Association] More »
Warren Buffett invests like a girl, and you should too. [The Motley Fool] More »
A roundup of some of the most popular banks for high-yield online savings accounts. [Five Cent Nickel] More »
—>What do you do if you have a flight planned on one of the three airlines, ATA, Champion and Aloha, that filed for bankruptcy and terminated all flights this week? First thing to do is if you paid with a credit card company, call them up and ask for a refund. An ATA insider tells us, "When an airline bills you for your ticket, they don't receive payment—the money's escrowed until you fly or the terms of the contract are met, i.e. one year validity limit, so the bankruptcy doesn't affect those customers." Elliot.org has the run-down of other options: On the press release level, United Airlines has agreed to take on Aloha Airlines passengers, but anecdotal evidence suggests the ground-level customer service reps are bungling the hand-off. Southwest has agreed to rebook ATA passengers, but the language suggests this deal is only good for flights that were codeshares between the two airlines. Lastly, if you bought your ticket with ATA by check or cash, you can claim a refund, for probably a fraction of its value, after the airline is liquidated. More »
Citibank's online banking site was down all day yesterday for some readers. Some folks were told a server went down, others were told it was a system upgrade. The site is supposed to be back up today. More »
—> Pssst, wanna make an easy $20? Just give all your bank account and personal data over to ConsumerSay, a consumer opinion and behavior tracking firm owned by Lightspeed Research. Jen, who sometimes fills out surveys for freebies and cash, got an email from them offering her $20 for only 5 to 10 minutes of her time. Oh, and all of her financial transaction data. More »
—>Today's consumer world has become increasingly fragmented and difficult to navigate, so we here at The Conglomerist put together a helpful guide on how to be a savvy shopper. It's a five-step process consisting of Research, Shopping, Paying, Customer Service, and Disposal. After the jump, let's get started with learning about how to use our dollars more wisely... More »
After spending a year (one of the worst of my life) working at a debt settlement company, I feel that I am obligated to warn as many consumers as possible about how badly you can ruin your financial situation by using one of these companies. My new job is at an all natural bakery, I no longer wish to swerve my truck into a tree on the way to work. Debt settlement is the process of eliminating your debt by ceasing payment to the creditor, and then negotiating with the card companies or collection agency to pay less than the balance owed. The debt settlement company charges a rather hefty fee for this service; however, the consumer should be saving money on the deal because they are paying significantly reduced balances to clear their debt. This is how it is supposed to work. This is not how it usually works. More »
—>Have you heard of "credit card shaving?" In this version of credit card fraud, thieves try out 16-digit number sequences until hitting one that works. Then they take gift cards from stores and shave off the digits and glue them onto a credit card. They scratch the magnetic strip so the clerk has to enter the credit card number by hand. It's apparently all the rage in Portland There's no defense against it except to monitor your statement for suspicious charges. More »
—>Frugal For Life points us to four sites that can help provide a lucrative reunion with long-lost cash with only a few minutes of work. We once found our parents several thousand dollars using New York's unclaimed funds page. Hit the jump for other sources of surprise cash. More »
—>I had a weird unpaid debt listed on my credit reports, some video store I used to go to in college. I guess they thought I had an overdue video? Anyway, they never sent me any notice about it but yet on my credit report it was listed that I never paid Integral Recovers Inc, who also have never contacted me, some $250. So, about three months ago, I filed a dispute notice with TransUnion, the one credit bureaus report it was listed on, and today I got a nice letter saying they deleted the item. It was all very easy, I just went to annualcreditreport.com, checked my credit report, went to the dispute item area, printed out the one-page form, filled it in saying that I was disputing because I never got any notice about the debt, and mailed it all off. Took less than 10 minutes, tops. Be sure to check your credit report from all three credit bureaus at least once a year for errors and file disputes when information is incorrect. Otherwise, your ability to get credit might be unfairly affected. It's easier and faster than you might think! More »
—>What does it take to get hungry, naive, and cash-strapped college students to sign up for crappy credit cards at on-campus booths? Not much. Based on a survey of over 1500 college students, here is the list of the most common and their percentage as documented by the Public Interest Research Group in a new campaign available on their microsite, truthaboutcredit.org. Nothing like a tshirt with a 23% APR. More »
—>Stories are emerging of Bear Stearns employees with significant losses in their company stock-based retirement holdings. Examples: a nine-year employee has reported losing $600,000 and a seven-year veteran lost $400,000. Similar stories are likely to emerge in months to come. And though subsequent reports may not feature staggering amounts like these, there are sure to be many with losses that are devastating to their personal finances. This situation underscores a basic guideline of investing: don't put more than 10% to 20% of your portfolio value into your company's stock. Why? More »
—>Consumer advocate radio show host Clark Howards thinks most people are kidding themselves when they spring for a debt-consolidation loan:
It's been my experience that when people do a debt-consolidation loan, all they really end up doing is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. With one transaction, their credit card bills suddenly stop, and those people then say, "Oh, how nice, it's all so tidy now, I now just have everything on one convenient bill."More »
"Frugality is driven by a pleasure of saving, as compared with tightwaddism, which is driven by a pain of paying."
That's one of the findings of a new study comparing people's spending habits. Here's how the differences between tightwads and spendthrifts break down, according to the survey of 13,327 people: More »
—>Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's Mad Money is now something of a laughingstock, after telling viewers on March 11th not to "move" their "money" from Bear Stearns. More »
—>Seems whenever you check out at a store these days the clerk is always asking if you want to sign up for the store credit card. They'll tell you that you can save 15% today, but what they're not telling you is how high the interest rate is: an average of 21.96% and in some cases, as high as 23.99%, says a survey by Congressman Anthony Weiner. That's almost as high as the default rate you would pay on a normal credit card. Before biting, make sure you read the disclosure agreement in full to find out the APR. If you end up not paying off that balance in full, that one day of savings could eventually be erased by compounding interest. Inside, the interest rates and grace periods for the in-store credit cards of 35 top retailers... More »
Research shows that, despite charging high interest rates, payday lenders don't make much money than typical businesses. [Credit Slips] More »
Maybe I'm skimming the wrong articles and half-listening to the wrong news reports, but in all this belly-aching about declining consumer spending one thing seems to be missing. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, I don't seem to see any mention of the fact that consumers have been overspending for so long and it might actually be economically healthier in the long-run for there to be a cutback. IANAE (I Am Not An Economist) but it seems to me that if you just keep building magic castles on magic castles, eventually there will have to be an implosion. The earlier it happens, the less catastrophic the end result. More »
Jared Bernstein, an Economic Policy Institute senior economist, notes that taxpayers have in the past spent half to two-thirds of their rebate checks. However, he points out that the current economic conditions are unique. More »
—>We recently received our "Economic Stimulus Payment Notice," and it seems worth far less than the $41.8 million the Treasury spent on printing and mailing. The letter contained no surprises, but did extend the tantalizing possibility that we would receive "a notice and additional information shortly before the payment is made." Check out the full letter and a handy eligibility chart, after the jump. More »
—>Cash-strapped colleges are partnering with banks to transform student IDs into debit cards. The deals are a windfall for the institutions, but force students to open accounts laden with hefty penalty fees and surcharges. More »
—>Andrew's wife got mugged, the thief rand up purchases on her credit card, and now CapitalOne has sued them for $1200 and won. How can this be? Andrew writes:
In May of 2005 my wife was mugged at one of the elevated train stations in Chicago. After calling the police and filing a police report, she started calling each credit card company to cancel each account. Except she forgot about one card, her CapitalOne card. A card hardly ever used and only had a $500.00 limit...More »
—>It seems like there are a million different ways to teach kids about money. And of all the ideas available, Wall Street Journal personal finance writer Jonathan Clements often has some good, albeit unexpected thoughts: More »
—>I'm sick of paying ATM fees so I just finished switching to my USAA debit card for my cash money needs. They refund up to $15 of ATM fees per month and don't charge you any fees for using other people's ATMs. I'm still keeping my WaMu account but I took my WaMu debit card out of my wallet and just funded my USAA account with some money. Not that I have a problem but I think this will also help reduce petty cash spending. Plus, by using cash more often that means I'm getting more change, and all my coin change goes into my piggy bank (60% full at the moment, looking forward to the day I take it to the Commerce Bank "Penny Arcade" coin-counting machine). With the specter of a recession giving us all wet willies, are you making any changes to your personal finance system? More »
—>We've all been there, that sickening feeling as you reach for your back pocket, only to find your wallet gone. A frantic search turns up nothing. You feel sad. But you wouldn't feel that sad if you had photocopied the contents of your wallet. Then you would have a legal copy of your license to use until it got replaced, and all your account numbers and the phone numbers you need to call for replacements. So take a second this weekend to pop your wallet into the photocopy or scanner and keep the paper in a safe place. You might be very glad some day that you did. More »
—>"[Debt] Collectors actually care about consumers... They want to teach consumers how to get out of debt. They're trying to put themselves out of business." - Rozanne Andersen, general counsel of ACA International (formerly the American Collectors Association) as quoted in this morning's NYT article, "Debt Collectors Try to Put on a Friendlier Face." As times get tougher and the options for borrowing from Peter to pay Paul shrink, more accounts are becoming delinquent. This means booming business for debt collectors, but increased activity could bring scrutiny from politicians and regulators, as well as consumer backlash. So, infamous for harassing debtors with abusive and threatening language and incessant calls (all violations of Federal regulations), the industry is trying a new tactic: playing Mr. Nice Guy. They're conducting personal finance management courses, writing columns about how Abraham Lincoln couldn't pay his debts, and opened a full-time lobbying office in Washington DC this month. More »
—>Obsessing over a number that's only three digits long sounds a little OCD, until you realize how much a hundred or so points on it can cost you. I'm referring to credit scores. This three-digit number that lenders use to determine how favorable a loan to give you can affect many of your financial transactions, but it especially becomes a big deal when you take out a mortgage on a house. Let's look at a home loan for $300,000 with two different sets of scores: More »
—>Are you trapped in a payday loan death cycle, or have a friend or family member who is? See, the problem with a payday loan is that some people aren't able to pay the first one off (if you don't have money in the first place, you're not going to be any better off two weeks later!), and then have to take out more and more loans to cover each loan they couldn't pay off. Not only is there high interest, there's fees. A former PayDay loan lender on personalbudgettraining.com shares his advice for breaking out of the debt trap.
If you can't get out of this right now, start by advancing $50 less per pay period. Take the difference of what you were paying us in fees and start paying it into an emergency fund. Grab a job delivering pizzas, babysitting, whatever, and pay it into an emergency fund. Borrow less and less from us. Use the EF for actual emergencies. Once you are out of this, don't get back into it.Earn more, borrow less, and pay off more. More »
—>Want a lower interest rate on your credit card? Call up your credit card company and say, "I think I've been a good customer. I'd like to stay with you, but I really want you to lower the rate on my card. Can you help me?" If they say no, ask to speak to a supervisor and say the same thing. CBCnews approached 10 shoppers at random in a mall and had them call up their credit card company and tell them exactly what we told you. Six of them got their interest rate reduced. Those sound like odds worth playing to me. More »
—>If you're a stock or mutual fund investor, odds are you've had second (or third or fourth) thoughts about what to do in this mostly down rollercoaster of a market. Between episodes of popping Tums and chugging Pepto-Bismol, it's likely that you've contemplated selling your stocks and waiting on the sidelines until things settle down a bit. CNN Money says that while this might seem like a wise path, it's exactly the wrong thing to do. They list four reasons why you shouldn't sell now, but the one that stands out among the pack is their reason no. 3 — you underestimate the risk of being out of stocks: More »
How retailers trick you into buying more crap than you really need. Mmmm, delicious sample day at Costco. [Joe Consumer] More »
Check your credit card statements for fraudulent charges from a company called "ICH Services," reports KETV. They're defrauding consumers across the country at $9.95 a pop with unwarranted credit card charges. If you notice it on your bill, call up your credit card company or bank and dispute the charge. And since your information is now in the hands of criminals, you may want to close down the account and get a new card while you're at it. More »
—>With all the swirling confusion about whether or not we're in a recession, this Barnes & Noble display completely devoted to Money For Dummies books is a clarion blast of yellow: we're in deep doggy doo. This wasn't simply in the business and finance section, mind you, this was the window display. More »
—> RacerX at "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Money" has posted the 6 ways he and his wife save money when they go out to eat. Following all of them would make for a noticeably different experience at your favorite restaurant—perhaps more than you'd like. But even adopting a couple of these tips could knock 10% or more off your next fancy meal with the significant other. More »
—>Erica writes:
Recently, my husband and I got two new Chase credit cards in the mail. I didn't look closely, assuming that this was a new card for our never-used Chase Mastercard account. This account has been around for seven years, but we prefer another card with a rewards system; the Mastercard account is open only to benefit our credit rating. Therefore, no urgency in activating it — I dropped it in the bill pile to deal with later.More »
—>People who are not normally required to file taxes will have to do so this year if they want a piece of the 2008 economic stimulus rebate. This applies to low-income works, and Social Security, Veterans Affairs Recipients, and Railroad Retirement recipients. In partnership with the IRS, the following sites are offering free tax prep and electronic filing if the only reason you need to files is to receive a stimulus check: More »
—>The Red Tape Chronicles reports bank fees are so hard to find that even the government can't find them. A recent investigation by the Government Accountability Office released this week couldn't find the fee schedules at 1/3 of the nation's banks. Not only does this make comparison shopping impossible for the consumer, they're breaking federal law, the 1991 Truth in Savings Act and Federal Reserve Regulation DD, which requires fees to be posted clearly and conspicuously. Violations are rarely punished with any severity, meaning, as Red Tape Chronicles writes, "it's far more likely that you'll get a parking ticket for breaking parking rules outside a bank than it is the bank will be fined for disobeying federal lending laws." More »
I recently reached what I bet is a rare milestone: I have now gone 30 years, basically my entire working life so far, without a credit card. More »
—>Here's a question where money meets ethics: should kids be paid for good results in school? No, we're not talking about parents dishing out the occasional $5 or $10 bill to junior for getting an "A". Instead, there's a new sheriff in town. Now schools and teachers are doing the giving and are handing out much more than most moms and dads. The details:
The fourth graders squirmed in their seats, waiting for their prizes. In a few minutes, they would learn how much money they had earned for their scores on recent reading and math exams. Some would receive nearly $50 for acing the standardized tests, a small fortune for many at this school, P.S. 188 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.And it's not only the kids making money off the scores... More »
The net result here is if your CEO with a large balance uses an index fund with no kickbacks for his 401k, and other participants use expensive funds, they are in essence making a contribution to their CEO's 401k because his higher account balance gets the brunt of the revenue share "kickback."Wisebread asks, "If your boss is getting a kickback from those fees, do you think he will work diligently to help you find a 401(k) with reasonable fees?"For more about the dirty secrets in 401ks, check out our post, "How Your 401(k) Is Ripping You Off."(Photo: Getty)
I made an electronic payment online with my one of my bank's check card. Turns out this was the wrong one, and I immediately canceled the payment (as there's a very easy to find and large button allowing you to do this immediately as well), and resubmitted it through the correct bank. So, to sum up, the payment was made, about two weeks before it was due. I figured all was cool and I was being a good customer for paying more than the minimum balance, way ahead of the due date, online, so there wouldn't be any "problems" with a check or the postal service. Then I look on my statement and I've been charged a $35 Returned Payment Fee.More »
—>Here's the fees a MoneyGram check-cashing place near me will charge you to cash your checks: More »
—> Like so many of us, Stewart at My Family's Money has always wanted to own a monkey. His reasoning is sound: "They are ridiculously awesome and having one as a pet would be even more awesome." Stewart decided it would be a good idea to estimate the total lifetime cost of owning a monkey. We think he's playing a little fast and loose with the numbers, but then again where do you go to get hard stats on monkey ownership? Not from our lazy Census takers, that's for sure. More »
—> A hyper-vigilant Chase CSR canceled a woman's credit card and issued her a new one when she called in to confirm her interest rate, because Mint was showing a slightly higher rate. A Mint representative confirms that "while we can generally get pretty good info about APR, APR can vary widely by customer & there won't always be a 100% match (that's why we allow customers to edit their account information)." More »
—>Capital One accidentally sent a customer with a closed Capital One credit card a check for $500. She cashed the check and now CapO wants its money back... so badly that they reopened the closed credit card just so it could bill her. They also added a $1.42 finance charge. When asked by The Oregonian, a consumer advocate and official with the Office Of The Comptroller of Currency both said they had never heard of a company reopening a closed credit card for this reason before. What a brilliant new scam, here's a check for $500 dummty dum dum two months pass oh wait guess what that was actually a loan, pay up, bitch. In all seriousness, don't cash unexpected checks, you're just asking for trouble. More »
—>Thomas writes:
If you don't use your Juniper iTunes Rewards VISA (issued by Barclay's) for an entire year, they close the card and report to the credit agencies that you requested to close it. I've learned that when I called to inquire about a lower rate on 2/26, the agent canceled my account.More »
—>Economically tight times can increase the pressure on an already tense personal relationship, as in this absolutely despicable case of domestic abuse: WJXT reports that a 77-year-old man beat up his 74-year-old wife, "because he was upset about the high cost of gas for driving her to and from dialysis treatments." Signs of the times on the road to hell. More »
—> Here's a perfect example of what a ripoff rent-to-own or "lease-purchase" (to use the Kelly's phrase) arrangements are to the consumer. This $250 Wii console can be yours for only $79 a month, and after 12 months, it's yours to keep. By that time, you will have paid $948 for it. By comparison, if you charged it to a credit card with 18% interest, you could pay $23 a month and have it paid off after 12 months. Kelly's offer will cost you $673 more than paying with the credit card. More »
A debt-blogging couple in their forties celebrates one year of paying off debts, going from over $41,000 in the hole to owing only $11,596. [NeedToBeDebtFree via BloggingAwayDebt] More »
—> Still looking for an affordable e-filing solution for your taxes? The finance blog FiLife "tested every one of the free tax filing services available through the IRS' Free File program, then posted the results in a detailed, easy-to-read comparison chart. More »
—>If you live in the New York Metro area, tune into NBC channel 4 like right now to see a followup on the widespread HSBC fraud story we broke. They interview Corey, the fiance of Emily, a Consumerist reader and HSBC fraud victim. WNBC tells us that the FBI said they they were generally aware of fraud in the area, but not this specific HSBC matter, and will be looking into the case. It's par for the course that the bank would be more interested in avoiding bad publicity quiet than going after the scammers stealing your money. UPDATE: Just watched it, HSBC is saying that a credit card payment processor lost the customer data and so other banks could be affected too. However, when WNBC contacted other banks, Chase and Citi said they had not heard of missing money, Mastercard said they have not issued a system-wide alert, and VISA said they're looking into it. More »
—>When you get a new or replacement credit card in the mail, you have to call the number on the back to activate it, or else you can't use it, right? Wrong. Despite the sticker on the back that says, "For security purposes, this card is not active," credit card companies are mailing out cards that can be used without phone activation. This is a problem if the letter containing your credit card is intercepted by an identity thief, like what happened to reader PC Guy. The kicker? He didn't even request the card, it was a forcible reissue when his store-branded card switched from Visa to Mastercard. His story, inside. More »
—>If you have your own business, you can write off your expenses. This reduces you income, and lowers your tax bill. Sadly, you can't just write off whatever you want. More »
—>Rob writes:
I was the recipient of an international wire transfer into my Netbank Checking Account for $1000 EUR (about $1400 US) on 2007-08-08. After I noticed the amount didn't post to my account, I contacted Netbank and the sending bank in Spain. The sending bank generated a multi-page "proof of transfer" document and indicated the money had been transfered. Netbank never got back to me. This began the 7 month nightmare of dealing with an inattentive bank in the middle of it's being seized by the FDIC that continues to this day.Pictured: CEO Arkadi Kuhlmann perched atop his Harley-Davidson in the ING-Direct company lobby. More »
—>Donald writes:
First and foremost i would like to thank you for the wonderful site. The information found here has been extremely useful. With that said i just want to share with you a success story i had with getting Bank Of America to lower the interest rate on my Apple GoldReserve Line of Credit. This story does not start out so nicely though.More »
—>If you want to improve your credit score, a score from 300-850 that lenders use to determine whether you qualify for a loan and how much interest to charge you if you do, you'll want to know your "reason codes." These are 2-digit numbers that come with you credit score when you purchase it. Each bureau usually gives you four reason codes with their report, so get your score from each one for a total of 12. One wiki tutorial says that reason codes are listed in order of importance. Armed with that, The Mechanics Of Credit site decodes all the reason codes and prescribes solutions for each one. With this info and tactics, you should be able to boost your score a couple of points and save a bundle. More »
More »
—>There was a NYT op-ed last week, "Go On A Savings Spree," suggesting that, as opposed to the tax-rebate stimulus, the best way to heal the economy is for the government to create universal mutual funds for every tax-payer. At one point, author Dalton Conley writes, "Some research suggests that asset-holders behave more responsibly and are more civic-minded than those without wealth. After all, they have a stake in the future of the economy and their community...Investing motivates people of all income levels to defer gratification and become knowledgeable about the economy and society." More »
—> Joseph writes in with a helpful reminder:
Now might be a good time to remind people that they can opt-out of pre-screened offers of credit. In light of the HSBC debacle I've been victim of, I checked out my credit report yesterday. I was amazed at how often the major credit card companies (AMEX, Capital One, Bank of America, etc...) access my credit history in order pre-screen me for promotional purposes. Consumers can opt-out at: www.optoutprescreen.comMore »
Bank of America still isn't giving customers, and now, reporters, a straight answer when asked why they've been jacking up people's interest rates to 23, 29%. [Star-Telegram] More »
—>This college grad decided to live on the streets with just $25 and a gym bag to see if he could make it without any of the trappings of his upbringing, privileges, or contacts. After 10 months, he was moving into an apartment, bought a pickup truck, and had a savings of around $5,000. The point of the story is supposed to be that people are poor because they have bad attitudes. Which is technically true, but maybe he should do an experiment to see what being born poor will do for your "positive outlook." More »
—>Everyone with an ATM card is used to paying withdrawal fees when using another bank's ATM and it's no big deal, it's only a buck or so, and the ATMs are so convenient. If that screen said, "This ATM will charge you $4.75 to withdraw money," you might look around to make sure you hadn't accidentally stepped into a casino or strip club. But since many banks charge you an extra per-transaction punishment fee for using another bank's ATM, that's exactly what's happening. You just don't notice because it gets lumped together into one ATM fee on your bank statement. Not only that, but these fees are slowly and steadily on the rise, as seen in this NYT graph. Average ATM surcharges by "other banks" have gone up from $.75 to $1.75 from 1999 to 2007. Average punishment fee for cheating with another bank's ATM has gone from $2.00 to $3.00 in the same period. Obviously, one way to beat the fees is to only visit your bank's ATMs. Another is to bank with a place like USAA, which refunds other bank's ATM surcharges. Any other solutions out there for ending the fee spree? More »
—>Keith writes:
On Friday February 15th I called HSBC customer service. I explained that there was a $1,000 difference between my "Bank Balance" and I was concerned because I hadn't used my ATM card. They said that the money was "on hold." They could give no further explanation. I pressed them and said "How is it possible that $1,000 of my money is out in space" They had no reply. I asked to speak to a supervisor to which the person I was speaking to refused and said "They have the same information I do and they are not available." I was talking to outsourced "customer service reps" from the Philippines so I hung up and dialed 716.841.7212 again. I kindly explained my store from scratch to Helga REP # 6124, also in the Philippines, not Buffalo, NY. She said the same thing as the guy before (at least they were consistent), and refused to let me speak to a supervisor.More »
—> A law professor and associate professor of geography set out to create the most comprehensive map of U.S. payday lenders to date. What they found, to their surprise, was "a surprising relationship between populations of Christian conservatives and the proliferation of payday lenders." And it's not a side effect of a poor population that happens to be Christian, according to the authors: "Our research showed that the correlation between payday lenders and the political power of conservative Christians was stronger than the correlation between payday lenders and the proportion of a population living below the poverty line." More »
—>Our brain nearly broke looking at this graph the New York Times published this weekend called How Americans Spend Their Money (click to enlarge). By the looks of it, poor people spend twice as much as they earn in taxable income. Rich people outspend the middle fifth on financial stuff by a factor of ~20:1. What the middle fifth and the lowest fifth spend on goods and services is closer than what the middle fifth and the highest fifth spend. The lowest fifth financial flows are very much in the negative. And that's about all the staring at a crazy graph we can do for the moment. What other trends can you see? More »
—> Now you don't have to dress up in corporate casual-wear and spend half the day screaming in a studio audience to get something free from Oprah, because for the next day she's giving away digital versions of Suze Orman's new book "Women & Money" on her website, from now until 8/7c February 14th. Downloads are available in English and Spanish versions, PDF only. More »
Here's 20 plus ways to get of your debt forever. Probably the most important one is changing your attitude and making debt something that you've decided to rip into with ferocity and persistence. [Dumb Little Man] More »
—> More about Bank of America's inexplicable rate hikes against good customers who never pay late: the Charlotte Observer talks to some recent recipients of BoA's infamous rate-increase letters from the past few weeks. The first person they talk to is a 60-year-old woman who "had never been late on a credit card payment, just refinanced her home at a lower interest rate, and just been rewarded by her credit union with a lower rate on her credit card there." Bank of America just raised her card from 13% to 24.99%. More »
—>Want to teach your kids about personal finance? Then pull out the classic board game "Life." Personal finance blogger Life teaches several practical money lessons including: More »
—>Eric writes:
You've had a lot of press about the stimulus plan that's about to send some cash my way. There's been coverage all over the place, and everyone misses the most important part. What, EXACTLY, do I have to do to get this credit? I know I qualify. Do I have to send in an extra form? Is there a box I check? Am I supposed to expect the gov't to actually do something right and take care of it themselves?Yes. This is (probably) the easiest $600 you will ever made. Just file your taxes, sit back, and wait for the hot government scrizzle to come pouring into your mailbox. More »
9 ways to do Valentine's day inexpensively. The hanging out in the back of a bookstore, reading books and talking quietly idea sounds nice. [The Simple Dollar] More »
—>People who get a lot of speeding tickets also engage in risky investing behavior, according to a new study. Finnish researchers compared a speeding ticket database and a database of all the trading portfolios of Finnish households. Their findings suggest that for these speeders, a sensible long-term investment strategy simply isn't interesting enough for them. They crave the thrill and excitement of churning over their investments more frequently. Each successive speeding ticket and investor received correlated to an 11 percent increase in their portfolio turnover. On average, the stocks they bought didn't do any better than the ones they had just sold. More »
—>Taking a private loan from friends or family can be a win-win proposition, not necessarily a shame-filled dish with a side order of failure. Private loans are an ideal way to reduce the amount you need to borrow from a bank—instead of paying loan application fees, processing fees and higher rates, you can save money while offering attractive yields to your friends and family. More »
—>UPDATE: Stimulus Checks Will Not Cut Into Your Rebate More »
—> It seems that some bottom-feeding debt collection companies—the ones who buy old debts that are frequently beyond the point where you can be sued for collection (what the FTC calls "time-barred debts")—purchase old debts, mark them up with incredibly high penalties and fees, then "forgive" them and write them off as tax losses and send the debtors 1099-C forms—which means you have to pay taxes on the forgiven amount. If this happens to you, here are a few things you should consider first. More »
—>All across America people are collecting forms, sorting receipts, and assembling documents — all in an effort to deal with the dreaded tax man. For many, the whole prospect of filing taxes is a frightening experience, but it doesn't have to be that way. Yahoo Finance lists seven common tax terrors and how you can deal with each of them. Their list includes: More »
—> BusinessWeek has just published an article about Bank of America's recent surprise mailings in January to some of its customers, announcing "that it would more than double their rates to as high as 28%, without giving an explanation for the increase." These customers have good credit scores and hadn't made any late payments, and those who called Bank of America to ask why this was happening weren't given clear reasons. Industry experts say Bank of America has reached a "new level" of "lack of transparency in raising rates," beyond anything Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase currently practice, because BoA is apparently using some undisclosed internal metric to determine who gets the rate hike. More »
—> This morning, Mary logged onto her USAA bank account to check her balance and was surprised to find that her rent check had been cashed twice while she was asleep. She was eventually able to get through to a human and get the problem addressed, but it wasn't easy. And she may not have been the only one affected. More »
—>Mortgage Professor has a great no-frills online tool for tracking the wholesale mortgage rates. Just go here, Select your geographic area, and time period to look at. Choose whether you want your data in chart or table format (I suggest table, as the chart data isn't as up to date), and what kind of mortgage you want to look at. You can further sort the results by FICO, loan purpose, loan size, type of documentation, or size of down payment. The data comes from Amerisave. A great way to check out mortgage rates, and how strong you have to be to get them. Plus, you can use it to compare how much of a markup your broker is charging. More »
9 Things Star Wars can teach us about frugality. Number one: "1) They do their own maintenance and repairs. Rebels don't take the x-wing into the local Space Lube Garage." [Wise Bread] More »
—>"When I have a client I really don't like — he's a pain in the ass — that's when I charge as much as I can get out of them," one mortgage broker told the Joe Consumer blog. That's right, a lot of mortgage broker fees are bullshit. It's important to get a good faith estimate and shop around for things like your title and escrow. More »
—>The February issue of Kiplinger's has advice for how to save a million dollars at any age from 25-55. The longer you've got the easier it sounds, of course.... and the more inflation will take a toll on your million. Even so, interesting stuff. More »
—>800-889-9939 is the number for Capitol One's U.S.-based Senior Customer Service reps. They take escalated calls for credit limit increases, fee waivers, account term changes, or interest rate decreases. More »
Oh how the mighty have fallen. HSBC Direct's online savings rate is now a paltry 3.55%. There just ain't the same money in saving money as there used to be. More »
—>Rising defaults and people behind on their payments have credit card companies retreating from the marketing and lending orgy of the past few years. Here's what the different banks are doing to shore up their positions: More »
—>Countrywide Home Loans was racist and automatically put African-Americans into exotic and expensive sub-prime loans they didn't want or need, and couldn't afford, according to a former employee. This employee worked there for two years up until the sub-prime meltdown. They write:
"...a customer would be qualified for a loan because their credit score and other factors based on the written product description, however, when I went in to put their (this only happened to African-Americans) - they were not qualified for the loan product and had to be referred to Countrywide's subprime mortgage company Full Spectrum. Full Spectrum offered higher rates and fees. I got wise one day and started not inputing the race so the computer could give me "approval."More »
—> Do you enjoy confessing embarrassing details? Mint, the personal finance new kid on the Internet block, is offering up to $5,000 (paid directly to your credit card bill) to two people with the most horrifying personal finance disasters. The winners get free financial counseling as well. You can submit text—"sob stories"—up to 1000 words, or a video—"trainwrecks"—up to four minutes or 20 MB, whichever comes first. If you were paid to do any writing over the past year, you're ineligible (we already checked). More »
—>Paul writes, "Did you know a "closed" checking account is never really closed? Today I walked to the local BofA for the third time to close a checking account that every month seems to magically re-open with a $5.95 account fee. What the manager told me was quite shocking." More »
—>For products that don't kill you, we usually pay 6.9%, but for some states have seen fit to tax cellphones at exorbitant rates, like Illinois' 21.05% or New York's 21.71%. Why? Probably because people don't notice or complain very much and so the states get tidy chunk of extra revenue. One Forbes writer who moved from New York to L.A. was still stuck paying New York taxes, the highest in the country. When he complained, Verizon said they couldn't do anything because they link area of primary usage to your area code. If he wanted to pay L.A. rates, he would have to get an L.A. number, and give up his New York number. Instead, he went and bought a phone in Idaho, provided an Idaho address, and switched to paperless billing. Now he enjoys the small potatoes rate of 7.71%. He admits that this "probably crosses the line." One must also admit that cellphone taxes have crossed the line, as have cellphone companies that shortcut the Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act by determining the "area of primary usage" based on your area code or billing address, instead of detecting where you actually use the phone the most. Inside, a list of cellphone taxes by state. More »
—>Moriconi writes in to tell us how he was able to save $950 this week by uprooting the hidden fees and renegotiating the things in his life he was paying too much for. Awesome! Here's his true story: More »
—>With the economy on the brink of recession, many folks are concerned about their jobs. Will the company downsize or have temporary layoffs? Will employees be asked to forego raises or (gasp!) take pay cuts? The Wall Street Journal addresses this issue head-on and lists eight tips for recession-proofing your career. They offer some good suggestions, but here are two we especially like: More »
—>Every year, as way to make itself feel important and useful, the federal government makes modifications to the tax code. Here's a detailed breakdown of all the changes for 2007 and how they affect your wallet, from AMT exemption amounts, to deductions for business-related mileage. More »
You will immediately know the exact amount of days you have to live in your house payment free. We stay on top of your walk away plan and keep you up to date with weekly progress emails. We also will notify you if the lender is taking longer than expected subsequently giving you more time in your home payment free.It's like a spoof, except real! More »
—> If you're single and earned less than 26,000 last year, or married and together made less than $52,000, then you can qualify for a tax credit of up to $1000 if you contributed to a retirement savings account during the year. To get the maximum credit, you'll need to have socked away $2,000 and earned less than $15,500 as a single tax filer ($31,000 if married). And yes, this is a credit, not a deduction (something this writer has confused in the past), so it can make a significant difference on your final tax bill. More »
—> When Cindy X pulled her credit report from TransUnion recently, it was blank. "I am 48, have an active credit history, and my other credit reports were accurate," she writes in to Kiplinger. TransUnion, however, told her that she was on her own to fix the problem and would have to contact her creditors individually. More »
HSBC Direct lowered its online savings account rate to 3.8%. Now my bet in moving all my money to E*TRADE, currently running at 4.4%, has paid off. More »
—>Baking soda is a magical substance with all kinds of crazy uses. Here's 10 things you can do it with it that you might not know about: More »
—>Eat that chicken and your wallet takes a lickin. The CEO of Tyson Foods, makers of fine chicken, beef, and pork products, said in a conference call yesterday, "We have no other choice but to raise prices substantially...We are raising prices because we can't absorb these costs. Despite concerns about the economy, people have to eat, and they will continue to eat protein." 2008, the year of tightening wallets... and belts? More »
—>A story in Bob Sullivan's new book Gotcha Capitalism shows one of the first points when companies realized they could make more money by getting rid of their customers. The year was 1995, and First National Bank of Chicago decided to charge customers a $3 fee for talking to a teller. The move was lambasted in the press and by comedians, and analysts predicted a severe decline in profits as customers fled in protest. Instead, First National Bank's percentage of customers producing an "adequate return" went from 33% to 45%, and profit went up 28%. How does this work? Bob writes:
...satisfying the right customers is the goal, but pissing off the wrong customers is equally important...[D]epositors with large accounts were exempt from such fees...Only irritating customers with tiny bank accounts who asked a lot of questions went elsewhere....Chasing away undesirable customers with outrageous fees has been an important element of the banking business ever since.And every other service industry as well. More »
—>Last Thursday we polled our readers for what they plan on doing with their money when they get their tax rebate checks. The result is that Consumerist readers mainly plan on using their money in precisely the opposite way that the politicians want them to, paying off debt (46.3%) and saving it in the bank (30%). All the other options combined, which would have a supposedly more directly stimulating effect on the economy, add up to only 23.8%. Food came in at 1.5%, depreciating assets 8.2%, discretionary spending 4.5% and stimulating the critical beer and cigarette industries 9.6%. It seems our readers are more concerned about their personal finances than the national economy. Good. Maybe if more people were like them we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place. More »
—>Smarting from its continued failure to check the expansive growth of the unitary executive, the Senate has decided to assert itself by derailing an agreed upon economic stimulus plan. Senate leaders are now insisting that the stimulus plan contain an extra $25 billion to fund road work, tax cuts, and extend unemployment insurance. More »
—>Accord was reached and the economic stimulus plan has passed. Here's a brass tacks breakdown: More »
The Administration and Congress have negotiated the outline of how the proposed economic stimulus plan will play out. Here's how much in rebates you could be getting back, depending on your situation: More »
On investing in scary times: "The bottom line: If you don't have a plan, develop one. If you do have one, stick to it," - Larry Swedroe. [All Financial Matters] More »
—>If you're uncertain about something on your taxes, you can get free tax advice over the phone until Jan. 31, thanks to a special TurboTax promotion at FreeTaxQuestion.com. Just enter your question and name, phone, email, and best time to reach you, and an IRS enrolled tax pro will call you and help you out. If you're worried that this is just a lead generation ploy, use a disposable email address and disposable phone number. The FiLife blog tried it and had to submit their question twice, but they got it answered and answered good. They said that TurboTax was casually mentioned among the array of options one could use to finish filing, but there was otherwise no overt product pushing. More »
—>So, of course, one day after I post about how great E*TRADE's 5.05% savings rate is, it drops to 4.4%. Truth be told, that was kind of unsustainable with the federal interest rate at 3.5%. It will still probably be higher than the rates offered by the other players which have like HSBC Direct (currently 4.25%), ING Direct (currently 3.6%), and Emigrant Direct (currently 4.55%). Tears, tears. More »
—>Many people are so fixated on saving for retirement that they forget to plan what they'll do during that time. If you cut out your days of work, you now have 40-60 extra hours in your life. What will you do with that time? After all, there's only so much golf you can play. More »
—>Today's interest rate cut means online savings accounts lovers will once again experience heartbreak as their high-interest accounts become even less so. There is still one company offering rates from the what now must be seen as halcyon days; E*TRADE's online savings accounts give you 5.05%, though it's not without caveats... More »
—>The Federal Reserve Board cuts interest rates again, now down to 3.5% from 4.25%, in a rare move outside the normal meeting schedule. The reduction is meant to stimulate growth as banks will lower their loan rates for certain kinds of loans. Here's how things will go for the consumer: More »
Here's another fraudulent charge to watch out: charges in the amount of $9.45 or $9.40 from your checking account from an "advertising company" called HBS. A reader says it happened to him, and when he searched online, he found others, a good number of whom had ordered credit reports from Equifax... [800notes] More »
—> For about $1400, you can raise your FICO credit score by 35 to 40 points through companies like TradeLine Solutions, writes the New York Times. Lots of subprime mortgage holders are turning to these companies in a last ditch effort to game the FICO system, in order to avoid rate adjustments that might send them into foreclosure. Of course, knowingly misrepresenting your credit score might count as loan fraud, points out a FICO representative. More »
The average age of new car buyers in January 2007 was 43. In January 2008, it was 48. This suggests that as the economy tightens, younger car buyers are staying out of the new car market. [Kicking Tires] More »
—>Banks love graduation almost as much as parents. You're finally on your own, able to afford food, rent, and beer, so why shouldn't the banks—the kind, selfless banks that let you save while you slaved for knowledge—now sink their teeth into your anorexic accounts for a hearty bite of their own? FiLife compiled an excellent list of bank policies so students know how their institution plans to celebrate their impending graduation. More »
—>Keeping a second credit card won't lead to financial ruin, and may prove useful in several situations. Bankrate offers six reasons to stash away a spare card. More »
—>On Tuesday we speculated that the surge in credit card fraud and forcible card reissues our readers have been reporting to us were the result of a recently discovered breach at a "major retailer," and now GE Money Bank reported that the data of over 650,000 customers of JC Penney and hundreds of other retail stores is missing. Are these two events related? The official line is no. GE Money Bank says the data, which was stored on magnetic tapes, "was created in such a manner to make unauthorized access extremely unlikely and difficult, even for experts with specialized knowledge and technology." But guess what? More »
Here's 10 top questions frequently asked about starting a Roth IRA. Don't have one? Why not? They're a great no-brainer way to save for retirement. [Yahoo! Finance via Money Crashers] More »
—>Are you totally clueless about your taxes? Don't worry, the government is here to help! The IRS puts out a 300-page document called Publication 17. It can serve as a getting started guide for doing your taxes and answer questions like what to do when you have a baby, retire, or sell stock. Pub 17 also covers some of the new changes in store for 2008, like the expiring capital gains tax, IRA deduction increases, changes to child's investment income, and ever so much more. No, you don't have to read the whole darn thing. It's a PDF so you can search for specific keywords and phrases. If you're doing your taxes yourself and have some basic questions you need answering, Pub 17 is a good place to start. More »
—>Wayne shares a cool Chevy/On-Star/Verizon billing hack that reduces his monthly bills:
I just bought a new Chevy Trailblazer which came equipped with On-Star and hands-free phone service. The hands-free service was provided through a pre-paid plan with Verizon Wireless. I called Verizon and they actually put my Chevy onto my already existing Family Plan for $9.99 a month. Now, my car is a giant cell phone with all the same calling features of a regular phone ( Verizon to Verizon for free, free evenings and weekends, etc... ).Sweet deal, no doubt it would work for any other car prequipped with On-Star. Anyone else hack their car's hands-free service in a similar way? More »
—>I saw a big billboard for Jackson Hewitt showing a broadly smiling woman of indeterminate ethnicity holding a fistful of money that she just got by getting a refund anticipation loan, and it reminded me of how we need to do our annual telling of people to once again stay away from said refund anticipation loans. More »
—>From the folks that brought you the credit score system in all it's glory, here's MedFICO! It's a new business project underway with the goal of assessing patient's ability to pay their medical bills. The system would gather patient's bill payment history from hospitals around the country and then assign patients a score similar to a credit score. Critics are worried if the same problems with people getting erroneous information in their credit report and then having an insanely difficult time cleaning it up would also affect MedFICO. They also worry whether hospitals would use MedFICO to determine the level of care offered, like whether the person gets a hospital stay or not. FICO scores are now being used by some employers to screen out potential employees, would they use MedFICO to see who might take a bigger chunk out of the health benefits? More »
—>
Mr. Kuhlman, More »
—> Consumerism Commentary wants you to "put your savings in hyperdrive." Funny, we thought that's what we already did, which is why our savings raced light years away from our bank account. But Flexo, in his series of posts this week on how to save, uses a more grounded definition of "hyperdrive" and offers suggestions like opening a high yield savings account, saving your spare change (or the contemporary equivalent of spare change if you pay with a debit card), and automating your savings. Yes, these are simple suggestions, but that's what makes them easy to remember and easy to implement. More »
—>Sarah Harper was surprised to learn she would have to keep making payments on her cat's "wellness plan" even after the cat was dead. She was told that she had signed a one-year contract and would have to honor it. Though the service sold by Banfield pet hospitals is packaged like and sounds like insurance, it's not, it's a payment plan. The media kit Banfield sends to reporters explicitly says "wellness plans are not insurance policies." The contract does say that owners will still have to make payments even if the animal has passed away. However, brochures provided to consumers don't say anything like that, instead saying things like it's, ""the best preventive care your pet needs to maximize its life," and that after you enroll, "your pet is on its way to a happier, healthier and longer life!" Catveat emptor. More »
—>Would you like to make some extra income in 2008? So would I. I'm on a quest to earn an additional $10,000 this year above and beyond the typical cost-of-living adjustment I expect from my job. And to get kick-started, I've listed 11 ways to earn extra money including tips on getting a higher salary, starting side businesses, and even doing simple things like maximizing investments and checking to see if you're due any money from abandoned accounts. For one thing, consider turning your hobby into an extra income. This could be anything from starting your own website to monetizing your artistic penchant to launching your own blog to creating crafts to whatever. More »
—>Anecdotal evidence suggests that a recently reported data breach by an undisclosed "major retailer" has resulted in a jump in consumers having their debit cards forcibly reissued, or calls from their bank to verify their recent purchase history. The problems seem to have started just around Christmas time and have continued into mid-January. More »
—>A Washington Post personal finance columnist got her identity stolen and someone tried to use it to buy $812.18 worth of running shoes. Somehow, the thief had gotten access to the Nancy Trejos personal information and stolen her Bank of America debit card number. The crook placed an order online with the store and arranged for an in-store pickup. The clerk grew suspicious when the woman couldn't produce the card used to place the order. More »
—> The Tennessee State Board of Education is expected to pass a bill on January 25th that will make Tennesee the eighth state (after Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, South Dakota, and Utah) to require that its high school students take a personal finance class before graduation. More »
—> Here's one reason to use an online service to store financial data: no buggy updates to deal with.* Intuit's December update for 2006 and 2007 versions of QuickBooks Pro on the Mac platform wiped the user's Desktop folder and anything stored there. The company released a patch, but it didn't work if you launched QuickBooks while connected to a wireless hotspot, oops. The latest patch, so far as we can tell, simply disables any further updates to the application—on January 3rd the company "began automatically feeding a patch to Mac QuickBooks users that permanently switches off the program's upgrade mechanism to prevent a repetition of a data disaster." In the meantime, since they can't offer a way to fix the deleted Desktop folders, they're offering rebates to users who buy a copy of the data recovery program Data Rescue II. More »
—>Ever wonder if that 1897 silver dollar Uncle Joe gave you was worth anything? Who knows, maybe that trip to Hawaii you've been yearning for is simply sitting in an old box doing nothing (or perhaps it would pay off the debt you racked up this holiday.) How are you supposed to know if a coin has any worth above face value? Money blog Consumerism Commentary tells us that four simple factors determine the value of a coin including: More »
—> With its new Google Gears functionality, Buxfer might finally be the answer for people who want the bells and whistles of an online personal finance website (hello Mint!)—charts, pretty colors, and general infoporn goodness—without having to blindly trust an unknown company with sensitive data such as bank account or credit card numbers (goodbye Mint!). The service uses Google Gears to store account login information and credentials on your own computer, then syncs the data collected with the Buxfer servers, writes VentureBeat. More »
—>They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and the adage applies very well to keeping your car running right. Here's 7 common sense things you need to be checking on your car on a regular basis to save yourself a lot of money in the long run. We found the tips in the summer 2007 issue of our USAA member magazine. They're all pretty obvious, which is why you'll be smacking yourself in the head if you don't do them, so read up and make sure you're on schedule. More »
—>"Why can't I get my credit report?" one of our 16-year-old readers (obviously precocious in the personal finance responsibility department) wanted to know. It seems if someone under 18 tries to get it online, say through annualcreditreport.com, they're told no. It turns out you can order your report, you just need to do it by an old-fashioned letter. You'll want to to include in your request your name, address, and Social Security number. This is good not just for go-get-em kids like our reader who want to make sure no one is buying a $40,000 boat with their credit, but also parents who want to protect their children from identity theft. The addresses for each of the bureaus follow. More »
—>The web is full of opinions listing the pros and cons of making extra mortgage payments, but there are surprisingly few pieces on how extra payments impact your mortgage payments. Turns out that the answer depends on which of the four main types of mortgage you have. Yahoo Finance gives thoughts on each of these including standard fixed-rate mortgages, standard adjustable-rate mortgages, interest-only mortgages, and home ownership accelerator loans. A few interesting highlights listed from least responsive to most responsive extra-payment home loans: More »
Should you go cash only to deal with a debt addiction? It can't hurt. [The Simple Dollar] More »
—>Dirty dolls? Acne medication + sunlight = awesomely removing pen marks from dolls, blogs Baby Toolkit. Acne meds are diluted benzoyl peroxide. This reacts with the UVs in sunlight to release oxidizing agents that dissolve the pen marks, without bleaching the doll or removing paint. Instead of tossing out that dirty doll, you can clean it up. More »
—>The FICO system, whose credit scores lenders use to determine whether you're credit-worthy and how favorable to set the terms, is set for a makeover. An article in today's WSJ reveals more of the changes in store than previously disclosed, here's how they'll affect your credit score: More »
—> Today, Congress approved a one-year postponement of the Alternative Minimum Tax, which is good news for an estimated 25 million Americans (mostly middle-class) who would have qualified for it this year. The IRS said that due to the last-minute nature of the change, some refunds may be delayed: "Changes in the tax code require substantial work, especially in reprogramming I.R.S. computers." The IRS says that "within 72 hours it would post on its Web site revisions to a dozen forms affected by the change." More »
[via Caveat Emptor] More »
—> Would you pay $36 a year to access Quicken on your iPhone? What the hell, why not, right? You already paid for the iPhone! That's probably what Intuit is hoping—and the zillion-dollar iPod accessories market proves there's a lot of "blue ocean" for businesses that want to fish in Apple waters. It launches the product as a web service on January 8th, 2008, with an iPhone-friendly flavor also available then. There are plans to roll out "tweaked" versions for other mobile devices at an unspecified point in the future. More »
Lazy, fat, inbred, black, pathetic, stupid, liar, thief, nigger. Those are some of the defamatory words Merchants Retail Credit Association (MRCA) used on Dolores Madduxes' family when they tried to collect on a debt Dolores Maddux, who is dead, owed CitiFinancial. For these violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Madduxes sued MRCA and won $854,389.81. Even delinquent debtors have rights and it's important to know them and call an attorney if they're being violated. More »
—> Nothing say Christmas like a list, so here's another one. Here are some of the best personal finance ideas blogged this year, chosen by Mrs. Micah: Finance for a Freelance Life. Her top pick is the "debt snowflake" from the blog PaidTwice—it describes the act of finding lots of little ways to supplement your standard income, so that you can add mass to your "debt snowball" to make it more effective. More »
—>Here's how reader Andy Alt saves his money while still rewarding himself:
Roughly 65% of the money I make goes directly to a savings account (the other 35% goes to rent, health insurance, cell phone bills, gas, auto insurance & food). After I take care of the necessities, I tell myself that for every $10,000 I save (usually takes 2-3 months) I allow myself to buy something cool that I want around the $1000 range. Since summer, I bought a Macbook with 4GB ram, a 1966 Fender Pro Reverb amp and am ready to make another purchase (perhaps a scooter or used motorcycle) once I hit my mark again. More »
—>Personal finance columnist M. P. Dunleavey lost $10,000. Her year-end financial review showed an inexplicable, gaping hole in her bank account. Where did the money go? Large hidden bank fees? Identity theft? Drugs?
I ran through the numbers again with my husband, and he reached the same conclusion: approximately $10,000 was missing in action. That was the vacation we didn't take, part of the new roof we might need, some terrific wine we didn't drink. Now we really wanted to know where that money went. More »
—>BillMeLater is a new service that does what its name says: you can buy something paying using BillMeLater, they'll front the cash, and send you a bill later, but, FiLife reports that what the name doesn't tell you is that using it could temporarily damage your credit score. More »
—> Kiplinger's idea of a good Christmas present for a teenager is helping them start a retirement account. We kind of think the average teen is going to have a hard time understanding why that's a "better" gift than, say, a game system, but the underlying idea is sound. As long as your teen worked at some point in 2007—even babysitting counts—he can open a Roth IRA. But other people (that means you) can fund it, up to the amount the kid earned in wages. More »
—>As long as they're still plugged in, most appliances are still sucking energy out of the wall, and dollars out your wallet. GOOD magazine made another one of their pretty graphs, this time featuring a large vampire, to show how much energy and money devices continue to leech. Some people, to combat this vampiric gadget effect, have most of their devices hooked up on powerstrips so they can fully cut power to all non-essential items with just a flick of a few switches. More »
—> Wesabe, the popular personal finance website, has unveiled a new mobile version that "lets you check your balances, see recent transactions, and... enter cash transactions, from any mobile browser." To save time, you only need to enter the most basic information via your phone—you can add the details to the entry later from a standard web browser. More »
The fed rate cut means yields on money market accounts and online savings accounts are more than likely going to fall, making it a good time to look to switch money to certificates of deposit, as long as you don't mind the illiquidity. Here are the best 3, 6 and 12-month CD rates right now with reasonable minimum deposit requirements. More »
—> Several retailers are offering special deals on expensive HDTVs this season—things like no payments until x date or zero percent financing—but PC World cautions that they're not always the bargains they appear to be. Their advice: "Cash is always best. If you need a special promotion to buy an HDTV, you can't afford it." More »
—>Signs point to a 1/4 point interest rate cut today. What this means for you: More »
—> It's not as sexy a topic as dog treats, but it's an important one: tax planning mistakes. More specifically, how to avoid some of the most common ones. Kiplinger lists 11 frequent mistakes you should be aware of if you don't want an unpleasant surprise come April. More »
—> J.D. at GetRichSlowly was asked by a reader for suggestions on good presonal finance books to give as a gift this year. He points out that giving such a gift is a sensitive matter, since it can be received poorly if the recipient isn't in the right frame of mind. On the other hand, he writes, "It was because a friend gave me a copy of Your Money or Your Life that I finally turned my finances around." Here are his suggestions for books geared toward children, teenagers, young adults, and "old folks." More »
—> Now that Ohio has made personal finance basics a mandatory requirement to graduate from high school, people are starting to look at the problem of who teaches it and what it consists of (just look at the comment threads in the two related posts below to see the wide spectrum of opinions and personal experience anecdotes). A new Ohio State University study has found that the current level of teaching is all over the place—and the people teaching it have widely varying levels of knowledge about the subject matter. More »
—> We may indeed have a nation of financially illiterate youths, but despite cries for increased financial education in public high schools, the one program that's historically addressed this—"checkbook math"—has never enjoyed a reputation as a "real" math class because the actual math skills involved are so basic, and it's being phased out as most students avoid it because, as one student says, it "doesn't look good for colleges." More »
Eager young college students are ripe targets for the hordes of credit card marketers that blanket campuses every year. But they're adults, right? They can make rational personal financial decisions themselves and in the absence of any education about how the credit system works, right? Survey results tell a different story: More »
—>There's a huge gap between many Americans' perceptions of what life in retirement will be and the practicalities of what their finances will allow. The former is often a time of limited work, relaxation, and enjoying the twilight years of life while the latter forces decisions about working longer, relying more on relatives, and doing without past pleasures and purchases. This gap exists for good reason — it's expensive to retire in the United States. The amount of savings needed to support today's retiree, who can be expected to live a couple decades or so longer, is mind-blowing and, for many, unattainable. More »
—>J.D. at Get Rich Slowly has made his final payment and is now free of consumer debt. He still has a mortgage, but has eliminated $35,000 of consumer debt that began with a $500-limit department store credit card. More »
—>Robert and Helena shredded all their credit cards and arranged them to spell out "NO NEW DEBT" to cement their commitment to getting out of credit and living a debt-free life. According to the blog post over at JosephSangll where this picture appeared, the couple haven't incurred any new debt in the two months since taking the picture. For some people it just takes a little ritualistic madness to break the cycle of debt dependency. More »
—>What's your tax refund for 2007 going to look like? Go to this withholding calculator at the IRS website with your paycheck at your side, answer the questions, and they'll give you a good estimate of what your refund will be. They will also give you suggestions for changing your withholdings. More »
—> The basic principle of "life planning"—that to succeed at managing your personal finances, you have to incorporate personal elements like your values and beliefs—seems reasonable enough, but rushing to B&N or Amazon to buy yet another financial advice book sure feels an awful lot like more of the same. However, since this excerpt is basically the preface to the book, we thought it was worth sharing. It's like browsing in a bookstore without having to leave your desk! $avings! More »
—> This list of ten tips to reduce taxes was published nearly a year ago, but they're still relevant, and we thought now would be a good time to share them before Kiplinger releases its new "10 Ways" list later this month. Among the tips: make sure you load up your retirement accounts and flexible spending accounts, and remember that the government gives you a 2 ½ month grace period on reimbursing yourself from an over-funded flex account. More »
—>E*Trade increased the rates on a variety of banking products this week in an effort to woo back depositors spooked by their recent troubles. Here's how they're looking: More »
—> A Kiplinger reader shares his strategy for getting ridiculous rate increases on his three credit cards rolled back to their original rates. It's a technique that's probably familiar to a lot of Consumerist readers when negotiating for lower rates in general: be polite but unyielding, know where you stand as far as leverage (it helps to have a perfect history with the company), start with basic customer service, and then escalate as needed. More »
—>Almost every time we write about fraud or identity theft, savvy readers will point out in the comments that many card companies offer temporary credit cards—virtual accounts tied to your real one that expire after one use, or a few days, or after a certain spending limit is reached. We thought it might be a good time to remind readers about these services, as well as password-protected and so-called "anonymous" credit cards. More »
—> Citadel Investment Group has agreed to provide E*Trade with $2.5 billion in cash to bail it out of trouble, reports BusinessWeek. The cash includes a purchase of $3 billion worth of E*Trade's "toxic, asset backed securities" at 29 cents on the dollar, for a total cost of about $800 million. In exchange, E*Trade's CEO Mitch Caplan must resign. More »
—>Here's a slice of national average interest rates for credit cards, CD's, auto loans, mortgages, and home equity, via Bankrate. More »
—> If one of the goals of credit card marketing is to give customers the illusion of choice and control, then Capital One has just outdone itself with its new Card Lab, where you can construct the card offer you desire from a menu of options. Your available options are determined by which general credit score category you pick: Excellent, Above Average, Needs Improvement, or Limited History. When you select certain options, others go away. At the end, you've self-selected the "perfect" offer, and possibly saved yourself from the hundreds of thousands of junk mailings* Capital One would otherwise send to you on a daily basis. More »
—> Michelle Slatalla, the Erma Bombeck-David Pogue hybrid who writes casual articles about the Internet for the average person (she's the mom who pestered her daughter on Facebook this past summer), has published a Chatty Cathy review of personal finance site Mint.com. Her verdict: it's nice to not have to go to multiple sites; the aggregated information is a good feature; security worried her at first, but she's okay now that she knows Mint is a read-only site and they don't have her account numbers, just user names and passwords; and she has actually used the ads that Mint displays—not to open new lines of credit, but to negotiate lower interest rates for existing accounts. More »
—>Consumers can be cued to spend more through a series of simple "priming" questions. A study in the Journal of Consumer Research split subjects into two groups. One was asked a series of questions about the contents of their wallets: Did they have any library cards? Did they carry pictures or cash? How many other wallets did they own? The other was asked about their financial portfolio. More »
—> We focus so much on identity theft and safeguards against it that it may seem like freezing your credit is the only solution in a world of identity thieves. That may or may not be an accurate assessment (ask me the next time my credit card is duped), but credit freezes aren't for everyone. Consumerism Commentary offers a sort of beginner's guide to the topic for readers who are trying to decide if it's right for them. More »
—> Okay, so Jack Hough's column in SmartMoney this week is really just an extended ad for his new book. But in this case, the content of the book is something valuable that we think a lot of Consumerist readers will want to know about: how to identify reliable stock picking strategies. More »
—>Some wily retailers would have you think the day after Thanksgiving is some sort of "Black Friday" where you're supposed to get up before the roosters and claw with other shoppers over "amazing" deals. Actually, it's really "Buy Nothing Day," where, in solidarity with anti-consumers around the globe, you don't spend any money at all. Some might argue you're swapping one mob mentality for another, but at least one costs less. More »
—>So you're an old geezer and you're ready to start enjoying all the money you saved up for retirement. If you're under 70.5, this is the order you should spend your assets in, according to the Autumn 2007 Vanguard report: More »
—>Here's 5 common myths people tell themselves that can end up bungling their retirement savings plan, cribbed from the Autumn issue of the Vanguard market report. More »
—> If you're like approximately 25% of the writers at The Consumerist, then prolonged talk of budgeting makes your eyes glaze over with boredom as you imagine yourself somewhere else doing something fun, like playing a video game or looking at pornography. Here, then, is a list of 10 so-called "easy" ways to save money, none of which require that you read a book or finally open that Quicken box your parents bought you two years ago. Many (or most) of the ideas may be of dubious value, but nobody said being lazy was profitable. More »
—> Kiplinger set itself three basic rules to follow for affordable holiday entertaining: "make it a team effort" by splitting hosting duties or having guests bring food, "borrow what you don't have," and " be creative." Following these rules, they came up with ten ideas for holiday get-togethers that even people on tight budgets can pull off. Here are the first three. More »
—> Trent at The Simple Dollar read a new finance book every week for a year, ranking them according to how original and useful they were, and now he's compiled a list of his top ten picks. According to Trent, if you read these ten books (and maybe the ones coming in at #11 and #12), "You'll have absorbed basically all the useful material in every book on the list."
His top pick is "Your Money or Your Life," by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, a "big picture" book that looks at how and why you spend your money. More »
—>"I am 19, and have never owned a credit card, only debit cards. I have had a 47.50 (or so) debt in the past due to a large overdue fine to a Hollywood Video. I took my sweet time in paying that off and now after one credit card refusal, I expect that it has damaged my otherwise non-existent (to my knowledge) credit score, which (if I understand things right) puts me in a heck of a hole. How do I get out of it? I'm assuming that not building any credit, then going into debt just messed me up and I need to know how to get things right, but if I can't get a card, how can I get good credit? This is a really unpleasant situation, especially with Christmas coming around. More »
—> Don't open any new lines of credit or go crazy with the credit card purchases between your home loan's approval and the actual closing date, warns Ilyce R. Glink (doesn't it look like we just tapped a bunch of keys at random to spell that name?) at Inman Real Estate News. Your lender will pull a second credit report before closing to make sure that you're still capable of paying your loan—so if you've done anything in the interim that could impact your ability to pay, rest assured it will show up. More »
—> All Financial Matters offers six interesting ways to cut costs between now and the end of the year, and although we don't completely agree with a couple of suggestions, we still think it's worth a look.
1. Actually look at the price tag before you buy each and every thing for the rest of the year.
2. Avoid items marketed for the season. Their example: red and green candles work fine—you don't need "Christmas" candles. More »
—>Finding your credit score can be hard if you've never done it before. There's scam sites, conflicting information, and the credit bureaus offering their own version of the credit score. But if you want your FICO, the real score looked at by lenders to determine your credit-worthiness and interest rates, here's where you can go: More »
No Credit Needed offers these "ABCDEs" for getting yourself out of debt. More »
—>These days, when some people want to buy stuff, they whip out the plastic. For life's emergencies, this is sometimes unavoidable (if you don't have an emergency fund), but there's some items you know will need to be replaced and you have a decent idea of when. In those cases, Bankrate writes, you can borrow a technique used by condo-associations called replacement planning. To wit: More »
How to write a will online for less than $100. [US News and World Report] More »
"If you aren't willing to own a stock for ten years, don't even think about owning it for ten minutes." - Warren Buffet. [via Money Crashers] More »
—> NBC's TODAY show has a new series called "Make Your Life Better TODAY," and they're asking viewers to send in their personal finance questions so they can address them on-air: "Whether you're single or married; young or old, we want to know your concerns about debt, retirement, investments, savings and more." If you fit one of the following scenarios, they might even want to bring you on the show to find out who your baby daddy is. Or maybe so Ellen can cry at you? Something like that—all that daytime TV sort of blurs together. More »
—>"I took your advice a while ago on asking your credit card company politely for a lower APR. I asked Discover Card to give me just that. More »
—>The Washington Post profiles a couple with over 20 different credit cards. The Chengs keep four in their wallet and a sticky note to tell them which card to use for which purchases. This year, they made $1,093 from spending $47,800. The Chengs are part of a growing breed of people who try to play the rewards programs offered by credit card companies for fun and profit. But the game has gotten harder. Credit card companies give more like 1% back instead of the 5% of yesteryear, points can be voided if payments are late, and there's those will-o-the wisp airline miles... More »
—> Onoodles writes, "I've managed to put away 20k into a Roth IRA. I started it directly through one mutual fund and now I'm looking to move it to a discount brokerage firm to diversify. So my question is, which one is the best?!" For a general overview and comparison of leading brokerages, we suggest looking into SmartMoney's 2007 Broker Survey from a few months ago. And note that by going with a discount brokerage firm, you'll likely be trading better customer service, research tools, and trading tools for cheaper fees. More »
—> Too many people wait until they hit rock bottom before seeking help from credit counseling agencies, says a New York credit counseling service. The consequence is that consumers end up limiting "the options available to them without having to make major, and often very difficult lifestyle changes. If they wait too long, debt repayment plans become unaffordable—leaving them more vulnerable to losing assets or having to file bankruptcy."
So how do you know when it's time to ask for help? If your monthly payments are exceeding your monthly income, it's probably a good time. To find an agency, check out wikiHow's How To entry, and use this list provided by Bankrate to ensure the agency will be able to provide the services you need. More »
—>Bankrate shares three ways consumers can take advantage of the recent federal interest rate cut. More »
—> This professor of finance proposes you take all the fun out of wildly overspending on last-minute gifts for friends and family, and replace it with the measured, predictable joy of a spreadsheet. However, if you follow his advice, the odds will be much better that you'll end the year with healthier checking and credit card accounts. More »
—>As health care costs continue to rise and talk of some sort of reform remains a large part of the upcoming presidential elections, some companies and businesses are taking matters into their own hands. The latest idea is to charge higher health insurance fees to people with less-than-stellar health. Here's how it works: all plan participants start with the lower costs and are then screened medically. If their scores are found to be lacking, they are assigned to a health coach to help them improve. If the participant decides he doesn't want to bother, he's charged more. The details: More »
—>Person-to-person lending site Prosper.com lets you take and make loans to other average citizens. Prospective borrowers register and let Propser review their credit history. They can request from $1,000 to $25,000 in an unsecured loan and specify an upper limit of interest they're willing to pay. Then, other users check out the borrower's profile and decide whether to fund them. You can bid as little as $50 on other people and fund multiple borrowers, spreading out the risk. Depending on the type of loan, you can earn upwards of 9% interest on your investment. The loans are for three years and there's no prepayment penalty. More »
—>I was listening to one of personal productivity maven' David Allen's teleseminars and he said something incisive about the impulse to buy fancy stuff. People think they want to buy a sports car, Allen said, but maybe what they really want is the sense of freedom they think a sports car will give them. Advertisers understand this and use it to get you to buy stuff. It's the principle of "selling the sizzle, not the steak." More »
—>The worst part of cutting your expenses is also the worst part of going on a diet. Boredom. Not being able to do exactly what you want, when you want to do it is boring. "Grown up," but boring. More »
—> If you keep trying to save money and failing, there's a good chance you're possessed... by "financial demons," says Kiplinger. Here's a list of six common ones and how to exorcise them, before your credit rating goes all Linda Blair on you. More »
—>Frugal For Life lists some of the things we tell ourself that rationalize irrational buying decisions, things like "I've been working really hard" or "this one little thing won't be a big deal." One that I've been guilty of is, "I have plenty of allocated disposable income and I never got the nice things as a kid that other kids got so now it's my turn to have the toys." We all do it, the trick is to catch yourself doing it and counteract the impulse by asking if the purchase is really important, necessary or of good value. What do you find yourself telling yourself makes you spend or spend extra for the upgrade? More »
—> If it's truly going to be a surprise, there's not much you can do on the day it happens, other than roll with the punches and maybe meet up with some friends after work for a beer. However, you can take some important steps to insure that you're well-protected if you ever find yourself in this situation, so that you can improve your odds of landing another job quickly, before that creepy desperation sets in and you start to make recruiters and HR specialists uncomfortable. Consumerism Commentary describes 5 ways to prepare yourself for unexpected "career mobility." More »
Keeping up with the Jones may seem hard, but here's an easy way to be better than 73 % of rich parents: talk to your kids about money. A survey by PNC Wealth Management found that only 27% wealthy parents had discussed family budget with their children. More »
—>The sad news is that 1 in 3 lottery winners are in serious financial trouble or even bankrupt within 5 years. Why? The suddenly wealthy often never learn to manage their money. More »
—> When we posted about "30 Rock" last Friday, a reader SHOUTED IN ALL CAPS that someone—either NBC, or Tina Fey, or maybe The Consumerist, we're not sure—is a government shill for basically being paid by the gov to write about financial advice. Turns out Mr. Shouty is right, sort of: the U.S. Treasurer, Anna Escobedo Cabral, was on the radio news program "Marketplace" a couple of weeks ago to talk about how she's been meeting with the creative teams of soap operas and telenovelas to find ways to incorporate financial storylines into their plots. More »
—>The best way to escape from our mindless purchase economy is to ignore your credit cards in favor of pure, reliable cash. Credit cards undoubtedly have value - purchase protection, rewards, convenience - but only for consumers who use credit responsibly. No Credit Needed wrote a useful guide for anyone willing to live the credit-free life. More »
—> NBC is taking the "workplace comedy" concept to new levels of realism, by including a couple of scenes about a major character's lack of a savings plan in this week's "30 Rock" episode. After being awarded a $10,000 "GE Followship Award" for being such a great follower, Tina Fey's character stuns her boss by revealing she doesn't have a 401(k)—or, apparently, even a savings account. More »
—>After reading our posts about getting your credit card APR lowered by threatening to do a balance transfer to a lower rate credit card, Brandon got his Citibank Mastercard APR lowered from 15.74% to 1.99%. It's an introductory rate that goes up to prime plus 4.99% after a year, but it's definitely worth it for the time being. A factor that probably helped him was the $10,000 balance he was carrying, making his business more valuable to Citibank. More »
How one blogger bought a used minivan without borrowing a dime, just straight-up cash on the barrelhead. [No Credit Needed] More »
—> Organizations like the Jump$tart Coalition and NFCC have rolled out programs that help you teach your kids about the ins and outs of credit cards, credit ratings, interest rates, etc., but Janet Bodnar at Kiplinger says that there are some basic facts that you should focus on. She thinks too much detail bores a kid; we think it depends on the kid, but agree that at the very least, hitting each point on the following list would give your offspring a decent foundation for making good credit decisions. More »
—>Geezeo is a personal-finance management site that helps you keep track of all your accounts in one place. Like Mint.com, you give it all your account user names and passwords to use it. Also like Mint, Geezeo is a front-end system, but based on CashEdge instead of Yodlee. Unlike Mint, it has support for tracking your car loan, mortgage, and brokerage accounts (although they don't interface yet my my fave, Vanguard), with plans to add support for student loans.... More »
—>Bank of America gave Timothy a fun new "change in terms" yesterday that says if he pays late on his Visa at least twice in 12 months, they're reserving the right to jack his rates up to a higher APR. It could go high as up as an effective APR of 32.24%. Hey, gotta make up for that 32% earnings drop somehow. More »
—> If you're the type of person who thinks "discretionary spending" means "I can buy what I want, when I want," read this person's idea for how to create an Impulse Buy Savings Plan. It gives you a methodology where you can effectively trap your impulse purchases in a cooling-off period, while also seeing how that money would look if it were saved instead. More »
—> Sometimes parents like to drive their kids crazy by showing up on Facebook, or listening to rap music, or professing that Zac Efron is a cutie-patooty, but Grad Money Matters suggests a whole new level of annoyance: use their Halloween candy to teach them about money. Here's how: on Halloween night, you buy all their candy off of them, then give them a pre-set limit of how much they can spend each day to buy choice pieces back, and as the days go along, you drop the "prices" on the candy so that they can purchase more if they want or forego the sweets in order to increase their savings. More »
—>5) Cable. Your Excuse: "But, but, but I need cable! I get a good deal! It's only $100 a month! I use it a lot! It's bundled with my phone and my internet. I'll only save $30 a month if I cancel it." More »
—>Some people think that using Mint.com is crazy because of the security risk of handing over all your banking user names and passwords. FiLife asks them some tough questions about their security procedures and gets straight answers, like:
Let's say you get hacked. Banks normally would protect me if they get hacked, but do I lose my protection if I'm using Mint to access the bank but the breach happens through your systems? You're legally protected for $0 liability on credit cards and $50 on bank accounts if fraud is reported within two days. These rights are not voided by using Mint, Yodlee, Quicken, Microsoft Money or similar programs.They also say all user names and passwords are kept on Yodlee's servers, not anyone else's. Every lock can be picked, but we're more concerned about identity theft resulting from our local big box retailer's lax security procedures than from Mint.com. More »
—>"I love new clothes. However, I like getting rid of the clothes just as quickly to go buy new ones." More »
—> SmartMoney reviews four of the most popular, or at least best-publicized, online budgeting and finance-tracking services: Clear Checkbook, Mint, Wesabe, and Yodlee Money Center. They've created a simple chart comparing features, to help you decide which best meets your needs—for instance, whether you want text message alerts, or the ability to manually enter transactions, and so on. The most robust offering of the four is Clear Checkbook, although it's missing a couple of nice features that the otherwise paltry Mint offers (specifically, text message alerts and merchant-based spending breakdowns). More »
—>The annual Kiplinger's "Best Of" guide is out and here's their picks for best credit cards. Best... More »
—>Here are the national averages for credit card interest rates, according to Bankrate. How does yours compare? More »
—>The Chief Family Officer blog outlined her strategy for paying off student loans faster. More »
—> A lot of financial advisors have suggested investing in gold lately, since the U.S. economy seems headed for the crapper and gold tends to increase in value as the dollar plummets. And a lot of people seem to be following that advice, because gold is up above $750 an ounce now, "its highest level since 1980," says SmartMoney. But gold investments can change value quickly and can be even more difficult to predict than regular investments, so don't go all Scrooge McDuck on the gold hoarding. More »
—>American Express ranks highest in customer satisfaction in the J.D. Power and Associates 2007 Credit Card Satisfaction Study. They said there's two types of customers. One is transactors, who pay their bill off in full each month and for whom membership benefits are the most important drivers of customer satisfaction. The other is revolvers, who don't pay their bill off in full each month, and for whom APR and fees are the most important drivers of customer satisfaction. So if we flip this survey over.... More »
—>About a month ago, a video was going around (that we, regrettably, linked to) saying that if you pried open a 6 volt battery, you would find 32 AA batteries, but it now turns out it's a hoax, riffing off the (truthful) reports that 9v batteries contain 6 AAAA batteries. 6v batteries, however, contain four 1.5 volt D-cell batteries. More »
A 2001 MIT study published in Marketing Letters found:
In studies involving genuine transactions of potentially high value we show that willingness-to-pay can be increased when customers are instructed to use a credit card rather than cash. The effect may be large (up to 100%) and it appears unlikely that it arises due solely to liquidity constraints.No wonder Dave Ramsey encourages people trying to get out of debt to cut up their credit cards. More »
—>
I have had a Capital One Mastercard for about 10 years. My interest rate has been 4.99% for as long as I can remember. I received my statement for October to find that my interest rate had jumped from 4.99% to 13.5%. More »
—> David over at MoneyNing urges us to all take action on the money tips we read online—not just read them and then forget them, or dismiss them as unrealistic, or tell ourselves they don't apply to us. "We read the tips, agree that it makes so much sense, then we sit there and flip on TV to watch other people make money while we spend money watching them." More »
—> VirginMoneyUSA, which launches today, is a lending service designed to manage personal loans between friends and family, by taking care of documentation, repayment schedules, and reminders. At first glance, the service sounds like an intrusive middle-man; however, anyone who's ever been on either side of a personal loan knows how delicate the situation can be, so we can understand the appeal of putting some distance between the personal relationship and the fiscal one. More »
—> A columnist at Get Rich Slowly describes how her family learned to focus on getting the most use out of the things they purchase, rather than using them once or twice and then moving on to the next new thing. While it sounds like an obvious tip, it can be a little harder to practice in real life—but, she writes, the results can be eye-opening. More »
Widows finds that she's lost more than just a husband, she's also lost decades worth of credit history, as creditors are unwilling or unable to transfer the joint accounts into her name. Takeaway: married couples, make sure your credit history is correct and listed under your individual name. Free credit report copies available at annualcreditreport.com. More »
—>This graph from GOOD and FutureFarmers shows the number of graduating seniors with more than 40,000 in student debt by 2004. More »
—>There are times in life when you need to give someone a gift to show you appreciate them and the Starbucks gift card just won't do. More »
—>Validas is a new service that aims to help consumers save on their cellphone bills by analyzing their cellphone bills and providing suggestions about how they could adjust their plans and save money. To use it, you create an account, validate your email address, download your cellphone bill from your cell provider's website, upload it to Validas for processing, then wait a few seconds for your report. More »
—> WiseBread asks an interesting question this week: what's your frugal obsession? You know, that one thing you can't stand spending money on: "Some people refuse to pay for bottled water; others refuse to shell out $4 to rent a movie when they can get them from the library for free." Responses so far include software, soft drinks at restaurants, and gift wrap. More »
—> A.G. Edwards has a short online quiz that determines your "nest egg score" based on criteria like how long before you plan to retire, how aggressively you invest, and where you live. It's not meant to provide an in-depth portfolio review, just a quick sketch of where you stand—you'll get a score very similar to a credit score, along with a comparative national average and a list of tips on how to improve your score. More »
—>Sellers of pre-packaged fertilizer would rather you didn't know but human urine has been used since ancient times as a plant fertilizer. It contains loads of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which is good for plants. Best of all, it's free. Make sure to dilute it with at least 10 parts water to 1 part urine, or risk burning the roots of some plants. A report published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found that using human urine as fertilizer didn't change the nutritional content or the flavor of cabbages on which it was used. More »
—>If your empty wallet makes you feel the same, one way to boost your spirits is to get rid of crap around your house you don't need, writes Debt-Proof Living.
2. CURB THE CLUTTER. I don't care how clean your house may be, if you have clutter it's pulling you down. Clear your closets, drawers, cupboards, garage and counters of everything that you do not need or brings beauty to your life. Clean open spaces, tranquility and simplicity chase away feelings of poverty. Clutter invites chaos which leads to depression and feelings of deprivation.Toss it, garage sale it, give it away, burn it. Unnecessary objects steal energy and attention. Freeing up physical space frees up psychic space and boosts your mood, maybe even giving you enough energy to tackle a project that will more directly impact your bottom line, like figuring out a way to make more money, or reducing expenses. More »
With all the talk about people finding out their no-money-down, interest-only, and option-ARM mortgages weren't such a great deal, it's refreshing to hear these pieces of advice about the fiscally conservative way to buy a house, via Moneycrashers: More »
—>Swiping the plastic so much your credit cards have skid marks? Via Kiplinger, here's six warning signs to watch out for that might indicate you're abusing your credit cards. More »
—>If you have kids and aren't teaching them about money, you're setting them up to be one of those clueless college kids with a free burrito and $12,000 in credit card debt. Don't do it! More »
—>The dollar has hit new lows, but fear not, thrifty globetrotters, there's still countries with weaker currencies than ours. What they lack in fiscal might, they make up for in natural beauty and exotic locales. More »
—>So you just found some awesome interest rate at an online bank. Only problem is, you've never heard of the place before. How do you know if your money is secure? More »
—>Mint.com, a new free personal finance management site, is easy to get started, though we're not sure we're completely satisfied with where we end up. More »
—>J.D. over at Get Rich Slowly really likes comic books. More »
"He lives cheap because: "Sooner or later they fire everybody."" [Frugal For Life] More »
—>Remember those cold winter nights when your family stayed up late and fought to bankrupt each other? Recall the number of times you cheered a little metal dog (or hat or thimble) to move around a square board quickly? Recollect regularly screaming "come on seven!" only to roll a six? Who knew that all that time you were really learning about personal finance? Well, Blueprint for Financial Prosperity now knows this was the case. He's detailed eight personal finance lessons he learned from Monopoly. More »
—>We checked HSBC Direct's front page daily after the Fed interest rate cut, in fear that our fave online saving account would also cut its high 5.05% interest rate. We chuckled as complaints rolled in about people's various money market accounts getting their rates trimmed. After we were lulled into a false sense of security and stopped checking, a reader pointed out that HSBC has slashing the rate to 4.5%. Noooooooooooo... More »
How one blogger paid off $11,500 in 10 months using the "debt snowball" method. [No-Credit Needed] More »
—>Grad Money Matters debunks 82 of the head games we play with ourself that keep us from handling our money the way we should. More »
—> Trent at thesimpledollar.com is on a mission to cut the extra fat from his budget, and he's found that one step is to reduce the amount of unused power that goes into his home. Everything you leave plugged in continues to draw a small amount of power, and although the cost for these small drains is minimal on a per-item basis, they can add up faster than you think. More »
—>Been looking over your portfolio and noticing a bit of this, some of that, and a touch of whatever else you could find? Us too. If your portfolio looks more like a stamp collection — filled with one of everything — then consider simplifying your strategy. It will not only make your money easier to manage, but will also benefit your bottom line, according to CNN Money. They suggest a simple, two-part strategy for maximizing your investment returns... More »
—>The Fed cut interest rates Monday, but what does this mean for your wallet? More »
—>Kiplinger has launched a new site designed to teach the basics of money management and handling your personal financial life. If you're getting started, or starting over, there's numerous good articles here about budgets, investing, picking banks, retirement plans, insurance, etc. etc, delivered in the straightforward and personable manner for which Kiplinger is known. More »
—>The free personal finance management site Mint.com opened to the public today. More »
—>About.com has an good tip to remember when trying out personal budget spreadsheets: More »
—>We always knew one of the biggest scams in college was the school bookstore, but we never realized that you could actually try borrowing textbooks from the library. The blogger behind The Baglady certainly did: More »
—>Besides losing your job, another argument for building an emergency fund, an on-hand reserve of several months pay, is "budget breakdown." More »
—> "If you fail to follow some little-known rules for calculating your home mortgage deduction, you may be writing off too much interest. Instead of saving on taxes, you could wind up owing them," says Business Week in next week's "Personal Finance" column. More »
—>RateState put together a free "zero based budget" excel sheet which you can use to get a handle on your personal finances. The idea behind it is that every single dollar you earn will get allocated to a specific category. There is no money sloshing around, you have total mastery over all of your money. More »
—> If you compulsively shop, shop to cheer yourself up, experience regret after spending money you don't have, run up high credit card bills, and generally behave like a freshman college student at your first beer blast, then... well, we don't want to go all Dr. Phil on you, but you might have a little bit of a problem. Sharon Epperson, author of "The Big Payoff," offers 9 tips on how to curb your addiction. More »
—> Mighty Bargain Hunter offers some advice on what to do with your next windfall—it doesn't have to be a lot of money, just a little more than you planned for in your budget, leaving you happily able to pick and choose how to spend or invest it. More »
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 More »
—>Most money-management systems presuppose a steady paycheck, but No Credit Needed shows how you can track your dollars even if you aren't sure of when they'll arrive. More »
—> We know some of you would love to buy a new car every year. Others want to drive the same car forever, but realistically, when should you find a new (to you) ride? More »
—>Blogging Away Debt made this graph to show how much their family reduced energy consumption by installing compact fluorescent light bulbs and unplugging a freezer in the basement. The chart shows a decrease of around 2-3 average kilowatts hours per day, resulting in electrical bills that were about a half as much as before. More »
—>A nifty idea for increasing the benefits of coupons is to start or join a coupon train. More »
—>A Visual Guide to the Morningstar Mutual Fund Comparison Tool [Generation X Finance] "This tool allows you to compare one fund against another, or many other funds and display the results in an easy to read format." More »
—>ForbesAutos interviewed Wayne Gerdes, a "hypermiler" who can squeeze 84 miles per gallon out of a regular Ford Ranger pickup truck, or 180.1 mpg from a hybrid electric Honda Insight. Here are 10 of his techniques for achieving startling fuel economy: More »
—>Free Money Finance has a good post on combining the cashback powers of American Express Blue Cash and Chase Freedom Cash Visa Credit Cards for maximum moolah back in your pocket. More »
—>Forbes magazine has released a list of the top 10 least expensive cars to own. The list is interesting because it takes into account things like depreciation and maintenance costs, rather than just listing some cheap-ass cars. More »
A reader reports that thanks to a big update over the weekend, customers haven't been able to connect to Chase services via Quicken, MS Money, or Quickbooks, though web browsers still work. Seamus writes, "The worst part is that only about half of their support staff are even aware of the problem, and no resolution time has been given. Another "upgrade" gone wrong!" More »
—>Helpful household tip site Gomestic teaches us how to store our food so it will last longer. Here's one tip we didn't know: More »
This frugal mother keeps all the ketchup packets she ever gets from fast food places, puts them in a kitchen drawer, and when the ketchup bottle runs out, spends an hour with a funnel and scissors, refilling the bottle. Imagine how much more money she could have saved, in real dollars and health costs, if she forwent fast food in the first place. [Wisebread via Blogging Away Debt] More »
Historically, September is the worst month for the S&P 500. Now we don't feel so bad about our portfolio. [All Financial Matters] More »
—>Bankrate is reporting that the average new car will cost half of the average family's income. How depressing! More »
The Consumerist asked some top personal finance bloggers to give a short summary of their single best piece of financial advice. Get Rich Slowly quipped, "Personal finance is easy. It's simple. There is one fundamental law that governs your money. If you master this, you have mastered the entire game: To gain wealth, you must spend less than you earn." More »
—>Blueprint for Financial Prosperity has listed 5 ways that going paperless in your personal finance can save you money. More »
—>Some people are bad with money and they waste it constantly on stupid crap that they can't afford and they are sad all the time and have no friends... That's not you. More »
—>New Jersey is no longer the wealthiest state according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Maryland, you've finally arrived! More »
—>Thanks to universal default, in which one credit card issuer can elect to raise your interest rate if you fall behind on the payments on another credit card, consumer advocates urge extra carefulness when paying large medical bills by credit card. Instead, first try working out an extended payment plan with the care provider. More »
—>Reader Lyn sent us a budget system he drafted that has worked well for his household, as well as friends and family. More »
—>Like using different credit cards for different rewards programs but get tired of the bulk? Enter the $99 iCache, an electronic device as thin as a Razr cell phone, that carries all of your credit cards in the writer portion, and then temporarily writes the credit card info onto a card. The card is good for one swipe and then the card goes blank again and ready to be rewritten. The unit is protected by a fingerprint scanner. More »
—>Rebutting "Ideas For Living Without Credit Or Debt," Blueprint For Financial Prosperity came up with 10 reasons why credit and debt can be great. Here's a good one (and one that we ourselves have made in the past): More »
The series is full of good, basic information on the fundamentals of retirement planning — a great resource for those wondering how to plan for retirement as well as those who need a brief refresher course on the subject. More »
—>Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Spirals cost 37 cents more per box than regular Elbow variety, despite the former weighing 1.75 oz less than the latter, reports the thoughts on technology blog. This breaks down to a difference of $.06/oz, vs $.14/oz. That's 24% fewer noodles, with a 133% price increase. More »
100 things you can make yourself instead of buying them. [Simply Thrifty] More »
—>It's easier to understand the subprime mortgage meltdown and how it's erasing gains in the global markets with the humorous little metaphor we heard offered on the BBC world service this morning from the editor of Britain's MoneyWeek magazine. She likened the "eventuality" (seeing as we're not quite ready to call it a crisis yet) to a butcher shop. It used to be that retail banks kept mortgages on their books for the life of the loan, but within the past five years, they realized that you instead of just eating the porkchop among your family, you can chop it into "tiny bits" and make them into "loads and loads of sausages" and sell them to everyone. More »
Smaller-fries investing diversely will still experience queasiness, but they're seen as pulling ahead in the long-term; it's more the fancy pants cats using esoteric financial instruments like hedge funds and derivatives who have the most to fear in the current crunch, NYT reports. More »
Get exhibitionist with your money online and share your personal finances with strangers using Web Worker Daily's 10 Ways to Socially Manage Your Money. More »
—>Leo at Zen Habits has listed 10 ideas for living without a credit card or any debt. More »
—>Those with option-ARM mortgages ratcheting up to a higher APR in October, take note: A well-polished piece of advice for home owners is that mortgage payments, including principal, interest, insurance, and taxes, should not be more than 28 percent of your gross monthly income, according to the August issue of the USAA member magazine. Individual situations may vary, but the basic idea is not get more house than you can afford. Around 28% gives you enough to take care of day-to-day living expenses and food and gas and going to see Transformers and whatnot. More »
—>The Donald's lost 80% of their $60 mil stock portfolio after following the advice of Piper Jaffrawy, which told them to keep their money in Level3 Worldcom stocks well after the tech bubble imploded, the New York Times reports. As of April 18th, 2001, the firm still rated Level 3 a "strong buy," even though the stock had dropped to $13.06 from $50... More »
—>Financially speaking, your career is your biggest asset and you need to do all you can to maximize the financial benefits from it. Furthermore, most people also want to enjoy what they do for a living since a good part of their lives is lived at work. So if you're in a dead-end position or if you really hate what you're doing, Yahoo offers some concrete steps you can take to make a change: More »
—>Bankrate has put together 4 lessons you should teach your kids about money. More »
—>We know you don't really like having money. That's why we've put together these 10 tips that will help ensure you never will: More »
—>Before you tell an employer you're willing to move to another job in another city, CareerJournal says do some soul-searching and ask yourself the following questions: More »
Interested in personal finance, but don't know where to start? MyMint has 70 tips spanning credit, investing, finance in relationship, housing, retirement, and more. More »
Debt isn't just for the poor: This guy's household makes $163,200, but they're over $536,000 in debt. [Saving Advice via Mighty Bargain Hunter via Blogging Away Debt] More »
All-encompassing directory of retirement planning tools and calculators. [All Financial Matters] More »
Spending Diary is a free and simple online way to track your expenses. [Spending Diary] More »
Wesabe, the personal-finance social networking site, introduced a Firefox extension to ease member's upload and access to banking data. [Wheaties For Your Wallet] More »
—>People just starting to get out of debt often struggle to decide where to allocate their money. Each person needs to make their own list based on their own priorities and circumstances, but Debtor's Anonymous member Wittygal's payment priority list may serve as a decision guide: More »
With milk prices expected to reach $5 a gallon, buying and freezing gallons in bulk doesn't sound like such a crazy idea. [Frugal For Life] More »
—>This chart, via OnMyOwnTwoFeet, shows the incredible costs if you incur $5,000 in credit card debt and only make the monthly minimum payments. By the time the debt is paid off, you'll have effectively paid double the original debt. More »
Try putting money in front of any noun. All of a sudden, it sounds much better. Try it. Money couch! Money shoes! Money cat! More »
List of Debtor's Anonymous meetings by state. [Debtor's Anonymous] More »
—>
A CreditCards.com survey found that 90% of respondents thought their household had "average" or "less than average" amount of debt. More »
—>Money has a new column written by an anonymous financial planner (and you know how much we love that sort of sh*t), who says that if your financial planner is honest, he or she will tell you how you're making them money. More »
—>Here's an idea for people trying to get a lock on their spending but find writing down everything too fascist. What about taking a picture of everything you buy with your cameraphone and uploading it to Flickr? More »
—>The 401(k) is one of the best ways to maximize your retirement savings. After all, if the company matches your contribution, you start off with a 50% to 100% gain right off the bat. That said, many employees are not making the most of the potential locked in their 401(k)s. Here are some of the most common mistakes, according to Vanguard: More »
—>If you're not one to budget, you probably spend whatever you think you can afford. This might be more (or less!) than it really should be. More »
—>No matter your spiritual disposition, those guys who wrote the Bible knew a thing or two about holding on to your shekels. More »
—>A Look At The Consumer Action Handbook [The Simple Dollar] "I thought I'd give this free document a walk-through similar to one of my book reviews." More »
20 must-know credit scoring terms so you will know how to understand your credit report [Bankrate] (don't forget you can get your free credit report at annualcreditreport.com) More »
—>Do you have a problem with compulsive spending? Debtor's Anonymous, yes, there is such a group, has 12 warning signs to watch out for. More »
The 7 myths of college financial aid (p.s. WSJ is free online today) [WSJ via AllFinancialMatters] (Photo: elle_rigby) More »
—>Want to know the one tip that will make you a successful investor? No, this isn't a sales pitch for some get-rich-quick stock trading program. It's a bit of good investing advice from Business Week on the factor that most separates excellent investors from average Joes. More »
Meals for $3 or less is a blog full of cheap eats. [via Lifehacker] More »
This is pretty much the quintessence of how many people get stuck in debt (it was certainly true for us): "...we were spending more than we made because we thought we would make more money later to pay it off." More »
How much should I put in my 401(k) vs my RothI RA vs straight-up savings? More »
You can apply the principles of the Getting Things Done book to all aspects of your Consumerist lifestyle, from following through on a resolution to draft a budget, to remembering to call customer service, to funding your IRA. More »
—>Another factor to consider when choosing a mutual fund are its 12b-1 fees, which are basically money the fund managers take out to pay for running and marketing the fund. More »
—>We're trying to learn more about mutual funds, which we find quite frightening, so let's start by breaking down some terms, like R-squared, a measure of volatility. Here's what Vanguard says: More »
NetworthIQ is a kinda neat online service where you enter all your assets and debits by category and it gives you an aggregate personal finance "IQ" number to track over time. [via Poorer Than You] More »
—>The Cheapest Days to Buy Certain Items [Smart Money] "We talked to the experts, and narrowed down the best days of the week to buy certain items." More »
Inflation eats up most of the appeal of zero-coupon bonds. More »
—>Here's a cheap way to replace your cellphone if you lose it while under contract. Just go to Walmart and buy one of their pre-paid cellphones, then call up your provider and ask for them to activate the phone under your account. You'll need the provide the serial number and the ESN of your old phone. Those are found underneath the battery (so it's a good idea to write them down BEFORE you lose your phone). More »
—>Your savings can earn upwards of 4 more percentage points of interest, if you put it one of these high-yield online savings accounts. Here's seven to check out. More »
The Richest Man In Babylon is an excellent personal finance primer told through a series of easy-to-understand parables. More »
—>With energy costs seeming to go nowhere but up and a growing "green" movement, you gotta love tips that save energy and money. Yahoo Finance has a list of seven eco-friendly ways to cut energy costs. Following even just a few of these can save you big bucks. Our favorites: More »
—>"I had this thought a few days ago, I have 2 credit cards (that I keep paid off, woo!) and my woman who just graduated college is thinking about getting one. Now the question I had was, I got my cards without too much thought involved as to what would be the best option for me, they are OK cards, maybe the best, but i don't know this. When I read your "10 commandments of credit", I realized that consumerist would be the perfect place to ask the question: what credit card is best for a first time CC? Are there other cards that are more fitting for someone with more established credit history? What is the consumerist card of choice?!" More »
The key to escaping living paycheck to paycheck is to not just spend less than you earn, but to save it as well. More »
How to claim the interest on your college loan as a tax deduction. More »
Mint has collated a collection of thirty free ebooks on personal finance and money management. The selection ranges from budgets to credit cards to mortgages to general consumer advice. Each one is in PDF format. Check 'em out and get your learn on. More »
—>• The Next China: Five Emerging Markets To Watch [Seeking Alpha] "...countries that offer equally compelling investment prospects but are still off the screens of most investors." More »
6 ways to set your budget on auto-pilot and not have to worry about it. More »
—>Get Rich Slowly has a story about "Gillian," a woman who came asking for advice on setting up a budget so she could save money and stop charging emergency expenses on her credit card, but was unwilling to actually cut her expenses. We found the story hilarious because it seemed so familiar... More »
—>iBank is a friendly-looking budgeting software program for Mac with a diverse set of robust features. More »
6 regular people share their tricks for staying on within their spending limits. More »
—>If you're trying to get your spending under control, try taking Bankrate's 7-day budget challenge. More »
—>If you're biking along and need to tighten something up on your bike, like your bike seat, here's a trick to remember even if you forgot your hex wrench. More »
—>One time we had this huge credit card debt that we just let sliiiiiiiiiiide. When we finally owned up to it, the debt collector told us that the credit card company said we could just pay 85% of it if we paid it all at once. More »
—>Zen Habits has posted a simple guide to setting and achieving life goals, and we think it's great. A lot of life goals have a personal finance aspect, and this guide can help you get yourself organized so that you're not just dreaming of a the day where you have the things you want, you're actively working towards that future. More »
—>"Credit Card Arbitrage" is when you take out a 0% balance transfer check from your credit card use it to make money. Here's the basic gist of how to do it, and some of its dangers. More »
—>WSJ round up seven mind games people play that can have them short-changing their personal finances. More »
—>We're not the only ones irked by the Maxed Out documentary. More »
—>Reader and security researcher Nweaver has blogged the precautions he takes when managing his personal finances, from credit cards to debit to his brokerage account. More »
—>Our tip box is organized by complaint category. In the "banks" section, email after email starts roughly the same way, "I overdrafted my account and then a series of horrible events ensued." More »
—>The longer you hold stocks, the better your inflation adjusted returns are, AllFinancialMatters demonstrates. For instance, compare the S&P 500 Annual Real Returns from 1926-2006 with a 1-year holding period vs a 20-year in the picture above. More »
—>If you, like me, are a mosquito magnet, summer weather brings with it a particular kind of dread. Though my Brooklyn neighborhood would hardly be confused with "nature," our wee outdoor space can feel like the Everglades. Since I tend to obsess about spending summer as bugless as possible, I thought I'd share a few tips for fellow urbanites. More »
—>Losing your wallet is a major drag but if you act quickly you can mitigate the fallout, writes The Mint Blog: More »
—>Usually one has somewhat of an advance notice that they're going to miss a mortgage payment, so before that happens and the bank comes to take your house away, Kiplinger's advises calling up your lender and discussing one of these four options: More »
—>Social finance sites are evolving from utilities that track spending into resources that can provide useful, personalized advice. The sites allow anyone to anonymously upload and tag banking records and credit card statements and receive advice tailored to their particular financial situation.
Some of the sites, such as Wesabe.com and Geezeo.com, include many of the same features offered by popular software programs such as Intuit Inc.'s Quicken and Microsoft Corp.'s Money, such as the ability to track spending in different categories and from different sources in one place. But they also allow users to get feedback from peers that is tailored to their specific circumstances. Some allow users to rate the quality of other members' tips or provide feedback on various products or services they've used.Have you found the advice from social finance sites useful? Share your experiences in the comments. — CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER More »
—>Retire at 40: Here's how [MSN Money] "Take 20% of your gross income every month, invest it in a balanced index fund and leave it there, then retire 20 years later with enough for a lifetime." More »
—>For the new investor considering mutual funds, one important comparison basis is their expense ratio. More »
—>Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of Vincent Ferrari's famous "Cancel The Account" recording of his attempt to cancel AOL. More »
—>Bakery Thrift Stores offer past-dated baked goods at a fraction of the cost. You can get day-old bread for 50 cents. We learned this after asking our fellow passengers, "What the heck is a bakery thrift store," visions of donated, somehow ironic loaves passing through our head. More »
Today, I mailed off my last final exam and finished my undergraduate degree requirements. "Luckily," I was able to finish through online correspondence courses with my university, something I've slowly been chipping away at for the last three years. Yes, that's three years after my intended graduation date. More »
You're too far in debt ... More »
—>Here's 8 personal finance tips Damon Darlin distilled from two years worth of his Your Money columns in the NYT: More »
—>How can I raise my credit score? [MSNBC] "...the first step in raising your score is to make sure the information used to calculate it is correct and up-to-date." More »
—>Let's say you're the kind that can make money but don't know what to do with it once it's yours. Or perhaps you know a bit about personal finance but need some help on the more complicated matters associated with managing your money. Or maybe you don't want a thing to do with handling your finances — you simply want to turn them over to someone else. In all of these cases (and several others you can likely imagine), you may be in the market for a financial adviser. But the world of financial planners is full of sharks, say CNNMoney and USAToday:
In most states, anyone can call themselves a financial adviser, even if they don't have any training.So how do you pick a financial planner who knows what she's doing and who won't rip you off by only working to turn your money into her money? A couple thoughts... More »
—>Have you heard of Matthieu Laurette? From 1993 to 2001, he fed and cleaned himself by buying almost only products with "Satisfied or your money back" or "Money back on first purchase" items, then filing the rebates or writing to the companies and saying he wasn't satisfied. More »
—>We understand that investing in index exchange trade funds (ETF) can be a good option for beginning investors, but what if you're also looking at mutual funds, and you want to compare purchase costs between the two? More »
—>Dollar cost averaging (DCA) is a method of investing whereby you spend a fixed amount on a stock per month, regardless of price. More »
—>Based on your suggestions, we redid The Consumerist ACSI fund mock portfolio. We changed it from 100 shares to $1000 worth of each company, rounded down to whole shares. This way the highest stocks won't have an undue influence on the portfolio's performance. More »
—>We made a mock portfolio buying 100 shares of companies scoring high on the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). More »
—>• What Do You Look For In An Online Bank Account? [Money, Matter, and More Musings] High interest rates, easy synchronization with other bank accounts, absolutely zero fees and seven other factors you should consider when selecting an online bank account. More »
—>Using a back-tested paper portfolio and an actual case, the authors of a study published in the Journal of Marketing found that companies at the top 20% of the the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) greatly outperformed the the stock market, generating a 40% return. More »
The clip follows Jack as he learns to put aside frizzy peach delights and going to the movies all the time in order to save up for a camera. More »
—>Throwing off all the debt shackles remains an illusory proposition for many. But after the initial exhilaration wears off, the financially manumitted can find themselves feeling like they're standing alone in a trackless prairie, asking themselves, what do I do now? More »
—>What credit cards charges the least for overseas purchases? More »
—>These 102 money-saving tips are dead simple, which is why it never hurts to be reminded of them. More »
—>Freight shipping can be a cost-effective moving solution but there's some aspects of it you should first be aware of. More »
—>Instead of dealing with the possibility of Uhaul's messed up reservations and callous customer service, not to mention their high price for long-hauls, embrace the power of freight truck shipping. More »
—>Lost an important document? Misplaced your birth certificate, driver's license, passport, social security card, property deed, title insurance policy, mortgage, car title, marriage license, divorce paper, or diploma? More »
—>Blueprint for Financial Prosperity is doing a neat thing where he looks at his site stats to see what Roth IRA questions people are typing into Google that direct them to his blog, and then he answers them in a post. More »
—>The personal finance rule-of-thumb regarding saving has historically been that each of us should sock away 10% of our salaries for retirement. But this old rule is coming under an increasing level of scrutiny from all sides — some saying we need to save more, some arguing that we're already saving too much, and others replying there's no one answer that fits everyone. Is it any wonder we're all confused? More »
—>Earlier we talked about how secured credit cards can be useful tool, but it's important to be aware of their risks. Disreputable secured credit card lenders are infamous for preying on the unsuspecting with hidden fees and charges. Bankrate writes: More »
—>Secured credit cards can be a good way for people with no or bad credit history to gain, rebuild, and get access to credit. People like students, debtors and n'er-do-wells. More »
Smart kids start saving for retirement early. More »
Frugal For Life has a couple of tips for saving money on fees. For one, she advises swiping debit cards as credit because some stores will charge you to process the transaction otherwise. More »
—>Want to get some investment advice that is expensive and doesn't perform any better than other, less costly options? If so, ask your broker or financial advisor for investing advice. They're much more likely to point you toward an investment with a "load" — a fee that ranges in price but generally runs 3% to 5% of your investment's value — simply for them "recommending" it (some would say "selling" it is more accurate.) More »
—>Danny Lipford, home improvement personality, reminds you of the steps you need to take to document your valuables for police or insurance. More »
"The Simple Life Goodbye to having it all" Time Magazine, April 8, 1991 More »
—>To creditors, you are a walking, talking, three digit number. Creditors use that number, your FICO score, to judge your credit worthiness. A good FICO score can lead to favorable terms, but unless you pay a fee or sign up for a free trial, your score is cloaked in a shroud of secrecy. Until now. More »
—>Swiffer duster refills are expensive, but reader Jen says you can get more uses out of your Swiffer duster cloths by handwashing them with laundry detergent. More »
—>A worker in the credit industry, Derek, gave us some tips to help young Paul boost his access to credit so he can live his American Dream. More »
—>Here's an idea for a spare computer you have lying around: make it into a secure banking device. More »
—>Tired of living paycheck to paycheck? Here's some advice on getting your money situation together. More »
—>Credit unions are nonprofit, cooperative, member-owned banking institutions, so they're less likely to screw you with fees and rules than the major commercial banks. More »
Both Quicken and MS Money sneak these "sunset" clauses in their end user license agreements, giving them carte blanche to completely disable major parts of their functionality if they feel like it. These features include online bill pay, downloading any financial information, portfolio tracking, and more. Basically, all the cool stuff. More »
—>When we posted our scrappy guide to making your first budget, many readers chimed in with what personal finance software they enjoyed, many of them free. Here's a roundup of the results: More »
—>Krunk4Ever! says that if you use dryer sheets you can extend the life of your dryer and prevent it from catching fire by washing the lint filter with hot soapy water and a brush once every six months. More »
—>UPDATE: Curbly might recommend, but it seems our readers don't, with comments like: "Suck", "Make[s] a racket," and, "Dismayed." Oh well. More »
—>Despite being a broke fool who let his landlord auto-deduct from his bank account, Mike was able to get all his money back from his landlord, using two of consumers most important tools: persistence, and sheer force of will. More »
—>Money, Matter, and More Musings has a roundup of stratagems for seeing your FICO score without subscribing to costly services. In case you don't know, a FICO score is a 3-digit number lenders used to determine your credit worthiness. It's based on your credit report info. More »
—>Readers submitted their tips for saving and making a small amount of money in the comments on "30 Ways To Save A Dollar Day (Or More)." We enjoyed them so much brought them out for all to see and benefit. More »
—>Federal law limits your liability to $50 if your credit card is stolen, but what about your debit card? It all depends on how fast you report it; the sooner the better, and if you wait too long, you're totally screwed. More »
—>WikiHow has a primer on saving your home from foreclosure. If you find yourself unable to make payments... More »
—>A. writes: More »
—>Frugal For Life has a new list of over 30 ways to improve your money situation by small measures, either by cutting down, saving, or finding new ways to make money. More »
—>Mike is broker than a joke. More »
—>0% balance transfers can be a great tool to cut down credit card debt as you're, obviously, paying nothing for interest. However, you need to know the rules of the game and how to play by them, or you could wind back up with a nasty APR. FiveCentNickel breaks it all down for you. He warns, More »
—>401k's are critical long-term investments too often forgotten by job-switchers. They are vastly more important than the staplers and pens most people remember to box up.
Consider: Some 7.5 million Americans took about $440 billion in distributions from their 401k plans in 2004, according to Brightworks Partners research. Of the 7.5 million, 6.25 million were job changers and 1.25 million retired. Of the 7.5 million, 55% had 401k balances greater than $5,000.Thanks to a law enacted in 2005, people leaving their jobs with less than $5,000 in their 401k automatically have their plan rolled into an IRA. More »
—>The "Snowball" method for paying off debt is very popular, but what about one offered by Suze Orman? Which one results in paying the least money and getting out of debt the fastest? First, take a peek at JLP's description of both. More »
Much like previously-mentioned BillMonk and iOWEYOU, Buxfer can track who owes what part of the joint gift, rent or dinner bill for a group. Like Wesabe, it also tracks personal transactions with tags. Two nice bits at Buxfer I liked immediately: the ability to sign in using an existing Google, Yahoo or Facebook account (it doesn't force you to create yet another login!) and the ability to SMS transactions to your account (like Adam's BudgetBot.) Buxfer is definitely worth a look for folks looking to track their money more closely.Let us know what you think of apps like this in the comments. Are they useful? Should we pay more attention to them? —MEGHANN MARCO More »
—>A former burglar chatted with the Personal Finance Advice blog and gave some good tips on how to hide your money at home. More »
Taxes: Breaking Changes To How You Claim College Deductions More »
A snip from The Net Worth Workout: A Powerful Program for a Lifetime of Financial Fitness More »
—>We got a flier in our recent USAA bill announcing they're now letting customers deposit checks from home. Just sign and scan your checks and send it in through the USAA website. As far as we know, USAA is the only bank to offer this service to consumers. More »
—>Ramit drew up a clever graph to explain why you can't keep your long-term savings goals. More »
—>Yahoo launched a new personal finance today site to help you manage your money. More »
—>Blueprint For Financial Prosperity highly advises you open a Roth IRA right now if you don't got one, sucka. More »
Payday lenders receive buckets of bane for preying upon low-income, under informed borrowers, as ruminated upon in a recent NYT piece: More »
—>FreeMoneyFinance has a nice piece on why he invests mainly in index funds. More »
—>Here's a sure-fire way to save money. More »
Here's how Consumerist readers responded to a poll about how they go about setting their personal budgets: More »
—>We and our girlfriend's 12 month apartment lease ran out and so we signed another lease, but our rent stayed the same. More »
—>Apropos of yesterday's budgeting poll, Intuit released a new patch for Quicken 2007. More »
—>How can you make sure you're not paying too much real estate tax? More »
Blueprint for Financial Prosperity scrutinized the new IRS rules about charitable donations and found an important change. More »
—>AllFinancialMatters lays down the math on why two-cycle billing sucks. More »
—>ViolentAcres, a self-described mean blogger, went from riches to rags to riches. Here's how she got from the second to the third. More »
—>Free Money Finance, an excellent personal finance blog, just posted a roundup of ALL their money saving posts. We like: More »
Blueprint For Financial prosperity has put together a list of the cards offering higher-than-normal cashback returns, and what transactions they're best suited for. More »
—>If you need to fill out that whole corporate casual section in your closet, save some bucks by shopping in a department store. Blueprint for Financial Prosperity writes: More »
Many banks have updated their interest rates recently. Where's the hotspots to parkk your checking and savings? More »
Broke again? Here's a handy calculator to show you how much money you're tossing down the bottle or needle a month and year, along with all the great things you could've bought instead. More »
—>You''ve got until Tuesday, April 18th to file your taxes, if you live in Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, or the District of Columbia. Everyone else, your taxes were due yesterday. More »
