That’s right, the saga of my brain dead late 12 hour late payment continues. When I went to pay my bill for the month I noticed that Chase had charged me over $38 in finance charges. The finance charges shocked me, because my old Sunoco Mastercard didn’t charge backfinance charges only charges going forward. Well I already got the late fee removed, so I tried the finance charges. I sent a few stern email and even asked to talk to the supervisor to no avail. Does anyone have experience with the Chase Freedom card customer service? Should I try again [...]
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That’s right, even someone who has a great 5 year track record with credit cards can occasionally make a mistake. This past weekend I submitted an electronic bill pay request for my credit card that was due on Monday. Normally I pay my bills well in advance, but rewards of financial simplicity have started to set in and I only have three bills to pay at the end the month which has dulled my watchfulness. I knew that the payment should take two days to get there, but I just overlooked that for some stupid reason. Other than carrying a [...]
Read MoreAs I was in the line at Home Depot with all the supplies to redo our bathroom, I did something I haven’t done in years The seed was planted by an extremely helpful employee in the bathroom section and by the time I was about to check out with $400 worth of materials the frugal side of me couldn’t resist the 10% off savings of $40 if I signed up for a credit card. After a short walk to the customer service desk, few tidbits of information, and about 10 minutes I had a new credit card with a $10,000 [...]
Read MoreOver the past holiday weekend my family stopped by my wife’s parents house for a quick visit. We had a dinner and were able to catch up a little. One of the things that was brought up was that the neighbor girl (who was my wife’s childhood friend) and her husband had just declared bankruptcy. Actually they declared bankruptcy back in February, but the family just found out about it now. And while it’s not newsworthy that a couple declares bankruptcy, that happens all the time. What makes this case a bit odd in my book is that it seems that it [...]
Read MoreBack in March I dissected the best cash back credit cards to see which one would net me the most free money. My calculations had me receiving $345 dollars of cash back each year from the Chase Freedom card. Well in about 5 months I had the necessary 200 points accrued to request a $250 check, which included the free 50 points($50) after the first purchase. The $250 check arrived without incident after requesting the the cash out through the Chase website. We now average around 40 points a month, because I started routing more purchases through my credit card [...]
Read MoreA co-worker shared this blog post by Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA basketball team, with me and I thought it was fascinating. For those that don’t know Mark Cuban is a rags to riches stories who went from broke and jobless in 1982 to a wildly successful entrepreneur worth 2.8 billion dollars in about 25 years. In this article he shares his tips to becoming rich. Here is my ultra quick summary. Develop personal discipline Live frugally Avoid debt Have cash Find a niche in an area you love Use the cash to seize opportunities when it [...]
Read MoreThe other day when I was prepping for a fantasy football draft, I stumbled upon a video at Yahoo that covered a family who spent only cash for one month. According to the story they saved $1800 (24%) compared to what they normally spent. After I picked my jaw off the floor from being amazed that they could spend almost 8 grand a month, I started thinking maybe I should get in on the savings. Some of you will remember that I’ve recently been introduced to Dave Ramsey and his method of debt elimination set out in his book, Total [...]
Read MoreJust like most of you, I peruse a lot of personal finance blogs. Today I came across one that posed an idea that got me thinking. Not Made of Money posted a nice piece about not buying stuff with a payment mentality. I left a comment saying that I totally agreed that its a great idea to get rid of payments. But what about interest free payments? I used an example of saving enough money for an $800 item then being offered interest free financing at the time of purchase. Would you take the offer or pay in full? In [...]
Read MoreI have already shared my analysis of the best cash back credit card, and for those of us that have the financial discipline and habits to not overspend and pay off the bill each month, credit card rewards can be a nice bonus with relatively little effort. My question is whether or not the fiscally responsible are living off the debt and fees of the fiscally challenged. Before you dismiss me or get up in arms, let’s take a look at the math. Credit card companies card charge about 2% give or take for interchange fees on each transaction. By [...]
Read MoreAbout a month ago, I switched my only credit card from my Sunoco Mastercard which I have had since college to the Chase Freedom card. Why? Because I was leaving money on the table since I wasn’t taking advantage of the new breed of cash back cards that have come out in the last few years. Using my spending history I was able to quickly see how my Sunoco Card matched up to my other options. My Sunoco card offered 4% cash back on all Sunoco purchases and 0.5% up to $7,500 then 1% on everything else. It should be [...]
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