"Musical Numbers: Bonds" [Slate's The Big Money]

• homemade truffles
• homemade hand warmer
• gingerbread house
• gift of time or skill
• personalized calendars
• gourmet salt assortment
• love coupons

He also lists additional sites that offer "thousands of other great Christmas crafts." Among all of these ideas, there's bound to be something to appeal to almost everyone, giving us the option of giving less expensive yet oftentimes more heartfelt holiday gifts.

But these ideas come with a warning as well — that in order to complete many of them, you need to get started soon. So, what are you waiting for?

A Do-It-Yourself Christmas: 34 Great Gifts You Can Make Yourself [Get Rich Slowly]

— FREE MONEY FINANCE (Photo: saramarie)

Two websites are making saving for college almost as easy as using PayPal.

• Upromise allows you to contribute to any of their 529 savings plans.
• FreshmanFund allows you to contribute to any plan, including those hosted elsewhere.

The Gift of College Savings, Now Made Easy Online [The Washington Post]
RELATED: 529 College Savings Plans By State

The TimesOnline article says,

An investigation, whose report was issued yesterday, found that only 1,000 of UBS's 20,000 American clients with Swiss bank accounts had declared their accounts to the IRS.

UBS will not hand over identities of all 19,000 of these customers because, sources say, it does not follow that every undeclared account has broken US tax law. Instead it will identify only those it believes may have engaged in tax fraud, although that number is expected to run into thousands.

Since the U.S. economy is failing at a record rate, we can understand why the U.S. Government is digging behind this centuries-old couch for extra money.

UBS closes Swiss accounts of US clients [TimesOnline]
(Photo: Getty)

Third-party debt collectors are regulated by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) which is overseen by the FTC. Here are few practices which are prohibited under the law:

Harassment
Debt collectors cannot make threats of violence against consumers or publish lists of those who don't pay their debt. They may contact you in person, by mail, or by fax but can only call you between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. unless you have agreed to alternate hours. They are also not allowed to use obscene language or call repeatedly (i.e. several times a day).

False statements
Debt collectors cannot misrepresent themselves. They cannot not falsely imply that they are attorneys, government agencies or that they work for a credit bureau. They cannot say that papers being sent you are legal forms if they are not, or say that they are not legal forms if they are.

Unfair practices
Debt collectors may not collect an amount greater than your debt, unless your state law permits it. They cannot use deception to make you accept collect calls or pay for telegrams. They also cannot threaten to take your property or contact you by postcard.

Linda Sherry of Consumer Action recommends that if a debt collector contacts you, the first thing you should do is ask for proof of the debt which should consist of a paper document with your signature stating that you applied for the debt. Also, be aware that some debts have a statute of limitations which could be from 3 to 15 years. Check your state's laws to see if your debt is still collectible because once you pay a portion of the debt the clock resets again.

You can stop a debt collector from contacting you if you submit a written request to them. Once they receive the letter, they cannot contact you again except to tell you there will be no more contact. Additionally, if you have an attorney presiding over your debt, they must contact the attorney instead of you.

Just because you are in debt, doesn't mean that debt collectors have the right to harass you or operate outside of the law. If you feel that a debt collector has violated the law, you can file a complaint with your state's Attorney General office and the Federal Trade Commission.

Debt collectors on the rampage [CNN]

Fair Debt Collection Practices Act [FCC]
(Photo: Getty)

“Timing is everything in business,” says Lorenzo, author of Career Intensity: Business Strategy for Workplace Warriors and Entrepreneurs. If the company and industry are doing poorly, it may not be the best time to ask for more money. But if business is booming, especially if you’ve played a key role in the company’s success, make your move. Special opportunities can provide a natural springboard for a raise: after you’ve received an award, saved significant money for the firm, or agreed to take on additional responsibility. Finally, consider the corporate calendar; you may get better results if you ask while the next year’s budget is being developed.

One major point to make — the key to asking for a raise is noted in the first sentence: you must deserve it. Otherwise, all the asking/begging/pleading in the world will likely fall on deaf ears. Check the blog post for more steps to asking for a raise and details on each one.

How to Ask for a Raise [Free Money Finance]

(Photo: Getty)

It's not new news that in most U.S. cities it's a buyer's market in real estate. But even though buyers are very likely to get a great home purchase versus even just two years ago, there are a few simple steps they can take to get an even better deal. Smart Money suggests the following as steps to paying as little as possible:

• Assess the seller's situation
• Research comparable homes
• Find out how long the home's been for sale
• Request other financial incentives
• Take a different tack with new construction

Sure, sellers can still rebuff a decent offer even if these steps are followed, but coming armed with the facts makes it much harder for them to do so. Furthermore, with so many similar properties on the market as competition, most sellers will be at the mercy of a well-educated buyer.

5 Ways to Negotiate a Better Deal on a Home [Smart Money]

— FREE MONEY FINANCE

(Photo: improbcat)

n+1: So can you tell me what happened with Bear Stearns? What were the steps?

HFM: Bear was a bank that was very involved in the asset-backed and sub-prime market. Both as a principal and as an agent.

What happened this summer was funds managed by Bear Stearns—not things on their own books, other people's funds that they manage, other people's capital—those funds were heavily leveraged and invested in asset-backed securities. Those funds blew up—they went into uncontrolled combustion. They failed very quickly. One day they were there, the next all the assets were marked down, then they were insolvent and folded up. Now that's not Bear Stearns' capital, but there were guys sitting in the Bear Stearns office.

n+1: Which is where?

HFM: On, uh, 47th and Madison. Just down the street.

n+1: And they were sitting there; they had a little hedge fund—

HFM: Which means they raised money form outside investors—they get paid based on how the fund does, they get a percentage of the profits. And they traded in sub-prime assets where the capital was given to them by outside investors.

n+1: These were 10 guys?

HFM: I don't know the size of the team, but they were sitting there, buying asset-backed securities backed by sub-prime mortgages, they were borrowing a lot of money, they used the capital they had, they borrowed outside money, they bought sub-prime mortgages. They were highly, highly leveraged. 50:1 leverage.

n+1: Why was Bear Stearns in particular doing this?

HFM: Bear Stearns supposedly had an expertise in sub-prime and asset-backed securities; it is an expertise of theirs. They're still alive.

n+1: Really?

HFM: You know when somebody falls off a motorcycle, and they want to harvest their organs, they're still alive until they harvest the organs. Right now Bear Stearns, there's an EKG, it is pinging, they're technically still alive and JPMorgan is waiting for the healthcare proxy to sign and say they can start harvesting the organs. This is where Bear is right now. They had an expertise.

n+1: So it was 100 billion dollars? How much money?

HFM: I don't know. It was not huge. 1-2 billion dollars each. In that range. Which doesn't make them huge funds. Modest funds.

But from that moment forth, people on the market speculated as to how many similar kinds of assets Bear Stearns must own on its own books. There was a cloud of suspicion over Bear Stearns. As it turns out, I don't know that they were in that much trouble. They were probably much more careful with their own money than outside money, but once there's a cloud of suspicion the information asymmetry that exists between people outside the firm who don't know what's going on, and inside the firm, can create a crisis of confidence.

n+1: Can't the firm say, "Look, we have this, we have that..."?

HFM: What are they going to do, are they going to show you every instrument they have on their books? People don't know what these instruments are worth. Like an asset-backed bond—what's it worth? Nobody knows what's it worth, there isn't a market for this anymore. It's not like there are three bond issues, and that's it, there are thousands, and each one is backed by thousands of mortgages, it just becomes an information-processing problem. You simply can't prove to me in a reasonable amount of time that everything's fine.

n+1: They don't have other instruments besides mortgages?

HFM: They do, they have their building, that's one of the things that is probably worth the most. But Bear was involved in a lot of the asset classes that had problems. First it's sub-prime mortgages, then it's leveraged loans—they're exposed to all these things, 30 times levered, so a very small diminution of the value of these assets could mean that their equity is worth nothing. And it's just going to be impossible for these guys to prove to everyone's satisfaction in a short period of time with a high degree of precision that their assets are worth what they say they're worth. There's been a cloud over Bear Stearns for 8 months and in retrospect people were critical of their management for being insufficiently aggressive in trying to persuade people that everything was fine. They simply asserted that everything was fine.

n+1: Wouldn't it have been better to let them go bankrupt?

HFM: And let their counterparties face the music? Maybe, but the parlous condition of the financial system as a whole I think persuaded the Fed that this is not the time to experiment and see how interconnected the system has become.

If we were in a calm economic environment and Bear, for non-systematic reasons, failed—say they put all their money into cheesesandwich.com or something, and they failed for that reason, then it might be appropriate to let them go bankrupt because the rest of the financial system would be stable. Even if it inflicts losses on the rest of the financial system and causes a lot of brain damage for me, it won't be a risk to the system as a whole.

But every bank out there to some degree or another is suffering the same problems that led to the cloud of suspicion over Bear. So this is not a great time to test a proposition that the financial system can cope with disorderly unwinding of all these contracts.

Financial Meltdown [n+ 1]
(Photo:Getty)

This week, things are are looking up. Hager, a Jersey City, N.J., resident, went on one interview for a fraud investigator job at a mortgage insurance company and another for a position underwriting employee dishonesty insurance. Executives at the latter told him they'd make a decision within 10 days.

He doesn't know what next week will bring.

"It's always flowed for me," said Hager, 29, who discovered his love of math and finance in high school in Proctorville, Ohio, about three hours southeast of Columbus. "I've always had a job and every time I changed jobs, it was for advancement. Now, it's like 'What do I do with myself because I can't wait for that next step.' "

Hager has joined nearly 125,000 others on Wall Street and at mortgage firms and other financial companies who received pink slips since the start of 2007. It seems that nearly every week another financial firm lets go of thousands of workers at all levels. With the market flooded, it's hard for the unemployed to land a job, experts said.

10 resumes a day, no takers [CNNMoney] (Thanks, Matthew!)

The Fed says:

Recent information indicates that the outlook for economic activity has weakened further. Growth in consumer spending has slowed and labor markets have softened. Financial markets remain under considerable stress, and the tightening of credit conditions and the deepening of the housing contraction are likely to weigh on economic growth over the next few quarters.

Inflation has been elevated, and some indicators of inflation expectations have risen. The Committee expects inflation to moderate in coming quarters, reflecting a projected leveling-out of energy and other commodity prices and an easing of pressures on resource utilization. Still, uncertainty about the inflation outlook has increased. It will be necessary to continue to monitor inflation developments carefully.

While the cut was larger than the Fed's normal quarter-point moves, investors were initially disappointed that the central bank did not cut rates by a full percentage point.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 100 points within two minutes of the Fed's mid-afternoon announcement but it then resumed climbing and was up nearly 200 points within the first half-hour after the announcement.

Fed Cuts Rates by 3/4 Percentage Point [Portfolio]
Fed Cuts by Three-Quarter Point, Suggests More Reductions Likely [Wall Street Journal]
Federal Open Market Committee Statement [FED]

Clinton's plan:

• Cap credit card interest rates at 30 percent. (The Government Accountability Office reports that 1 in 4 credit cards charges higher rates.)
• Stop credit card companies from increasing rates without written consent from consumers and prevent rate increases because of missed payments on unrelated accounts.
• Require card companies to explain terms and fees clearly to consumers.
• Increase government regulation of credit cards and other credit products through the creation of a Financial Product Safety Commission.

Obama's plan:

• Create a five-star rating system for credit cards so consumers have a better sense of the fees and rates associated with each card. Card companies would have to display their star ratings with their application materials.
• Write a credit card "bill of rights" that would stop credit card companies from making "unilateral" changes to the terms of cards as well as apply interest rate increases only to future debt. It would also stop card companies from charging interest on fees, something the Clinton plan includes as well.

By the way, if you feel like adding to our $943 billion revolving tab, all campaigns accept contributions by credit card.

The Democratic Candidates and Your Credit Cards [Alpha Consumer]
(Photo: Getty)

The state's largest payday lender, Advance America, claims the bill would either force them to close shop or accept losses of $100,000 per storefront. They are "very concerned" for the future of the 200 employees statewide who make their living cheating hard-working consumers.

...others argued that payday loans are an option that consumers need; without them, they said, people could be driven to less-savory choices, may depend more on their towns' welfare departments or have to scrimp on necessities. Other options facing someone who's broke - such as bouncing a check - are much more costly than a title loan, they said.

Sen. Bob Clegg recounted times of struggle in the 1970s and 1980s when he had to turn to the "black market" to tide him over. "You can fail, or you can take another chance," said Clegg, a Hudson Republican. "My position, I took another chance."

He would be too embarrassed to go to a welfare office, he said, and would rather "stand tall, make my deal with them and then make my payments because that keeps me a man."

Payday loan limits passed [Concord Monitor]
PREVIOUSLY: Payday Lenders Can't Afford To Lend You Money At Only 36%
(Photo: taberandrew)

ABI Executive Director Samuel J. Gerdano said the situation is likely to worsen in 2008. "The roughly 40% spike in consumer bankruptcies during 2007 presages even higher filings this year, as the heavy consumer debt load is made worse by the home mortgage crisis," Mr. Gerdano said.

"Consumer Bankruptcy Filings Rose 40% in '07" [Wall Street Journal]
(Photo: Getty)

They range from an urban college like the Cooper Union in New York's East Village to Deep Springs College, a remote, all-male school deep in the California desert. Many are specialized institutions, often focusing on engineering, such as the F.W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Mass.; or on music, like the Curtis Institute in Pennsylvania. A handful—the College of the Ozarks or Berea College in Kentucky—have mandatory work-study programs. Perhaps the most well-known of them is the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., which offers free college tuition in exchange for five years of service after graduation.

RELATED
Slideshow of tuition-free colleges [BusinessWeek]
(Photo: BusinessWeek)

Counselors have tried to keep up with the increasing demand for their services—Neighborworks, one prominent organization, trained 1,678 counselors in 2007 compared to 143 in 2004. More counselors are asking for foreclosure prevention training, and the organization is now offering stress management training as well. But the total number of financial housing counseling has remained about the same in the past several years due to limited government funding. And now, with a drastically increasing workload, organizations are worried that they won't be able to offer competitive salaries to retain counselors at a time when they're most needed.

"Counselors stressed out by desperate clients" [CNN Money]
(Photo: Getty)

From the press release by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who co-sponsored the bill with Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.):

The Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act of 2007 would:

• Give victims of identity theft the ability to seek restitution for the loss of time and money spent restoring credit and remedying the harms of identity theft;
• Expand the jurisdiction of federal computer fraud statutes to cover small businesses and corporations;
• Eliminate the prosecutorial requirement that sensitive identity information must have been stolen through an interstate or foreign communication and instead focuses on whether the victim's computer is used in interstate or foreign commerce, allowing for the prosecutions of cases in which both the identify thief's computer and the victim's computer are located in the same state;
• Make it a felony to employ spyware or keyloggers to damage ten or more computers regardless of the aggregate amount of damage caused, ensuring that the most egregious identity thieves will not escape with a minimal, or no, sentence;
• Eliminate the requirement that the loss resulting from damage to a victim's computer must exceed $5,000; under this bill violations resulting in less than $5,000 damage would be criminalized as misdemeanors;
• Add the crime of threatening to obtain or release information from a protected computer to the definition of a cyber crime and expands the definition of a cyber crime to include demanding money in relation to a protected computer, where the damage to the victim computer was caused to facilitate the extortion. By expanding this definition, violators of this provision are subject to a criminal fine and up to five years in prison.

RELATED
Details of bill at Library of Congress (Since it was just introduced yesterday, not much information is available yet in the public record)
(Photo: Getty)

•The option to pay less than the minimum monthly interest owed on the loan is valuable for people with good self-control whose income fluctuates a lot. They can pay just a little in lean months and catch up in fat months. It's good for lenders, too, because they don't have to foreclose on people who fall behind, which is an expensive process. People with steady incomes don't need this feature, but having it doesn't hurt them.

•The fact that the loan is an ARM—namely, its rate fluctuates with market interest rates—is especially valuable to lenders. This is a subtler notion, but the idea is that if there are going to be a certain number of defaults in a pool of mortgages because of random bits of bad luck like a job loss or a divorce, the lender would prefer that they be concentrated during periods of high interest rates. Why? Because when market interest rates are high, the lender that forecloses and gets back (most of) its money can redeploy the cash in high-yielding alternatives. The lender would prefer not to foreclose and get its money back when rates are low and other options are unattractive. An ARM loan achieves what the lender wants. Borrowers, meanwhile, are neutral about whether they default in periods of high or low market interest rates.

•Finally, the economists say the optimal loan contract would outright ban getting a new loan from a different lender. There are no such bans. But they say that the prepayment penalties that are common in subprime loans are a good second best. How could that be? Because lenders will offer more favorable terms if they know that they'll be able to hang onto the loan long enough for it to be profitable. If they fear that the borrower will refinance at the drop of a hat, they'll give less favorable terms.

BusinessWeek cutely suggests that if the research is right:

...maybe it makes sense to get people to behave rationally through extensive, even expensive, consumer education.

A change can stem from late payments of any kind, a drop in your credit score or the addition of new lines of credit. Bryan found out limits on three cards were actually cut after he took out a home equity loan to pay off some debt.

"Taking out the home equity loan may have possibly been the factor that lowered the credit line," Bryan said.

Consumer advocates say lowering limits is a better way to manage risk than hiking interest rates, but these cuts can lead to trouble if you are not aware and prepared.

"If you don't know your credit line has been dropped, you could go over the limit. And, with most card issuers, that means you'll pay a hefty over the limit fee," Gerri Detweiler, a credit card expert, said.

Some Companies Lowering Credit Card Limits [Chicago Tribune]
(Photo: mojojornjorn)

The card provides APR-free financing for up to 36 months; there is a $25 fee for missed payments, according to the customer service rep we spoke with, but never an interest rate. Minimum monthly payments are $25 or 4% of your bill, whichever is higher.

CarePayment is provided through arrangements with hospitals, so you can't go out and apply for the card yourself. Usually a participating hospital will offer it to you automatically if they feel you will have trouble paying off your bill. Otherwise, you can contact your hospital's billing department and ask them whether they offer it. If your hospital doesn't offer it, you might want to ask them to look into it, as it's a good way for them to recoup money from the patients least likely to be able to otherwise pay their bills.

"Hospital Charge Card: Don't Leave the Ward Without It" [Wall Street Journal Health Blog]
(Photo: Getty)

Sure, the market going ape-shit last week is disturbing, especially if you have investments, but SmartMoney says "long-term investors should probably resist the urge to jump... committing the dreaded deed of selling into a falling market would almost certainly scorch a portfolio."

Credit Crunch: Winners and Loser of the Current Subprime and Credit Market Turmoil [Financial Times via The big Picture]

Experts Say Selling Into Decline a Bad Strategy [SmartMoney]

(Image: Financial Times)

If you need mortgage satisfaction documents from a loan you've paid in full but don't know who to contact now that the original lender is out of business, contact your State Attorney General's office.

If you've been pre-approved for a home loan when the lender goes bankrupt, you should call the lender directly and ask point blank if they will be able to make your loan, says Dana Dratch at the Chicago Sun-Times. If they say they can't, ask whether they can make arrangements to pass your loan application over to another lender.

Top Tips: If your mortgage lender goes under [CNNMoney]

(Photo: Getty)

Accounts To Have

Credit Card: Yes, you should have a credit card - one that offers rewards and a low APR - that you religiously pay off each and every month lest you undermine your other financial planning efforts.

Accounts To Avoid

• Store-branded cards: The APR on most store-branded cards outweighs any short-term benefit, like: "10% off today's purchase!"
  
• Finance Accounts: Don't buy appliances on the installment plan. If you need a loan, go to your bank.
  
• Additional Checking or Savings Accounts: Unless you are approaching the FDIC insurance ceiling, stick with one bank.
  
• Reward-less Credit Cards: If no reward programs match your needs, choose a card that offers cash back; just don't miss out on the fun altogether.

Five Accounts You Absolutely Must Have (And Four You Don't) [Blueprint For Financial Prosperity]
(Photo: edwaado)

]]> Consumerist-278567 Sun, 15 Jul 2007 10:12:49 EDT Carey http://consumerist.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=278567&view=rss&microfeed=true Don't spend much time thinking about the future? Flying cars? What you'll eat? Where you'll sleep?
If you have less than 25k saved you're in good company, or at least, there are lots of you. 50% of workers 35 to 44 have less than that amount saved. 1/3 of those aged 45 and over did too. 25% of people surveyed had no savings at all. No savings account. No retirement account. No investments. Nothing. Zero. Bad Idea. From CNN:

All but the lowest earning men should have accumulated in a nest egg 12 times their income by the time they retire, EBRI estimates. That's $900,000 for a man earning $75,000. A woman, because of a higher life expectancy, should have 14 times her income

Damn. Women live so long they can pull that "put one penny in a savings account and in the future you'll be a zillionaire, but it'll only pay for one dinner" thing from Restaurant At The End Of The Universe.—MEGHANN MARCO

Have less than $25K in savings? Get in line[CNN]
(Photo:boostventilator)

]]> Consumerist-252287 Fri, 13 Apr 2007 19:17:08 EDT Meg Marco http://consumerist.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=252287&view=rss&microfeed=true Consumerism Commentary has an update on the current online checking and savings rates.

UFB Direct and OneUnitedBank are leading with 5.31% and 5.3% respectively. We've never heard of these two banks but their websites say they're FDIC insured.

There's 9 others on the list to check out, including the one we've got our dough in right now, HSBC.

Not included on this list is that ING Direct just started offering 4% on their checking.

You deserve much better than the .25% (or whatever the horrible number is) interest your savings is getting right now. Give an online checking and savings accounts a try. Your money will be working for you for once. — BEN POPKEN

Current Checking and Savings Account Rates [Consumerism Commentary]
(Photo: darkmatter)

]]> Consumerist-242815 Thu, 08 Mar 2007 20:19:41 EST Ben Popken http://consumerist.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=242815&view=rss&microfeed=true In this restive spot after Thanksgiving and before Christmas-time madness, why not start getting your taxes together? Blueprint For Financial Prosperity has a roundup of useful tax time articles. — BEN POPKEN

• Offsetting Your Stock Gains With Loses & the Wash Rule
• Claiming the Energy Savings Tax Credit
• Home Office Deduction for BusinessesWhat you you need to know about home office deductions.
• Six Great Tax Breaks
• 10 Common Tax Filing Mistakes.
• More Tax Deduction Talk. Charitable donations, refinancing points, and education related deductions.
• Deduction Donations - IRS Tax Rules. An untrained look at deductions for charitable donations.
• Retirement Savings Credit. Read this if you earn under $25k.
• Understanding Capital Gains and Losses
• Understanding AMT
• Education Credits!

]]> Consumerist-218167 Wed, 29 Nov 2006 19:16:49 EST Ben Popken http://consumerist.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=218167&view=rss&microfeed=true USATODAY research indicates banks typically process checks in order of highest balance, maximizing overdraft fees charged to the customer, critics contend.

"There is no excuse to process the transactions this way," says Jean Ann Fox of the Consumer Federation of America. "The only reason is to charge more fees."

Banks disagree, saying customers would rather have their electrical bill bounce than their mortgage payment.

One thing is certain: keep an eagle-eye on your balances and payments. Laxness or gaming the float is a sure path to snowballing overdraft fees. — BEN POPKEN

Banks' check-clearing policies could leave you with overdrafts [USATODAY via Blueprint for Financial Prosperity]

]]> Consumerist-216754 Wed, 22 Nov 2006 14:37:21 EST Ben Popken http://consumerist.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=216754&view=rss&microfeed=true Ok, so it's pretty obvious that when picking a rewards card, you want one that gives you beer money, not free toasters. A toaster is a depreciating asset, which are for rappers, not smart persons like yourself.

So which cashback card do you pick? Many offer 1% of your total purchase amount as cashback, but My Money Blog recommends the Fidelity Investment Card with its 1.5% cashback equivalency.

To get that extra cash, you'll need to take a few extra steps.

Every dollar spent equals 1 point. 5,000 points equals a $75 deposit into a Fidelity account.

If you don't feel like parking your cash in a Fidelity account, there's no fee for transferring out the cash into your back account and keeping the Fidelity balance at zero. If you don't have a Fidelity account, you will need to make an initial $2500 deposit to open one, but you can withdraw it right after.

It won't mind, it's only a bank account.

Why You Shouldn't Settle For a 1% Cashback Credit Card [MyMoneyBlog]

]]> Consumerist-209209 Fri, 20 Oct 2006 19:49:02 EDT Ben Popken http://consumerist.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=209209&view=rss&microfeed=true • How Vanguard makes it easy to open a simple IRA with direct rollover. This link assumes you 1) have a job 2) are vaguely conscious that your diluted Social Security bennies aren't going to be enough to fund your Soma addiction in your sunset years.
• How to pick the best reward card. What would I like better in a few months, a toaster, or more beer money?
• Sign up for a BofA account and get a free iPod nano. The hidden cost is that BofA sucks.
• eLoan joins the high-yield online savings game with 5.5% interest. What are you getting on your brick and mortar bank savings now? 2%? 1? Point?

]]> Consumerist-208913 Thu, 19 Oct 2006 22:15:09 EDT Ben Popken http://consumerist.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=208913&view=rss&microfeed=true

Earlier in the week, we got someone $2.94. A major coup. But now, we've managed to get someone $100, thanks to last month's Get $100 From Bank of America post:

I just checked my new Bank of America account and only after 30 days they have credited me $100 for the new account.

I never would have known about this sweet deal without you guys.

And for what it is worth, I never had to make that second deposit they claim you need to make to get the $100. Easiest $100 ever!

You guys are great and I love your site, keep up the good work!

We love you too, Meta! Anyone who signed up for this, check your bank accounts. If the $100 is there, buy us something pretty. Ben would like to request some frilly undergarments; I would be partial to Jascha Heifetz's 65 CD RCA collection.

]]> Consumerist-202880 Mon, 25 Sep 2006 05:50:34 EDT consumerist.com http://consumerist.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=202880&view=rss&microfeed=true Months back, we dismissed some advice on lowering your cable bill (try to cancel and then saying you change your mind if they don't lower your bill) with a snarky retort. We viewed it as spineless capitulation of consumerist ideals

We understand where we were coming from, but we've since read enough reader horror stories to understand that we can't expect a fair shake from any company, and going off to a competitor for lower rates just ends up with you getting reamed with a more alien protuberance. Consumers need to use every tool at their disposal — including lying, cheating and manipulation — to get good service. The days of Geneva Conventions and conscientious objectors when dealing with Corporate America are behind us: we're at war, and if a company isn't willing to give you fair service through diplomatic means, you'd better be ready to open their gullet with your teeth.

Having changed our minds, it's good timing that the Personal Finance Advice Blog has updated their advice on lowering your cable bill through the art of misleading feints and strategic deception. 15 minutes on the phone with a CSR can net you the same amount that $4,500 in a 5% account will earn in a full year. Let's all abandon our morals and just do it: at the very least, calling up and trying to cancel all our monthly bills in pursuit of discounts ought to supply us with prime 'Readers' fodder.

50% Off Cable TV Bill [PFAdvice]
Previously: How To Lower Your Cable Bill And/Or Self Respect

]]> Consumerist-183900 Wed, 28 Jun 2006 07:41:25 EDT consumerist.com http://consumerist.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=183900&view=rss&microfeed=true Unbelievably, there's only so long you can draw out a career as a throat gobbling doofus in Hollywood. So it's to Dustin Diamond's credit that he somehow managed to stretch what should have been a two year stint as 'Screech' on Saturday Morning television into a career that spanned two decades. The man became the definitive television doofus in the minds of many Americans, a favorite subject of drunken conversations about what child actors had most likely gone on to become gay porn stars.

Now Screech is back and he needs your help, because he's homeless! After they just wouldn't let him play Screech anymore, Dustin Diamond's moved to Wisconsin and bought a house on a land contract. But over the next few years, the property value went up and the bank told him he had thirty days to pay $250,000 or move out.

As an out-of-work child star, Screech's credit is terrible, so he turned to his Hollywood contacts and was told that finance genius Arthur Giraldo of the New York Capital Exchange would be able to set Screech right. But then Giraldo fucked him over too, despite the fact that Diamonds did a lot of shrill... um.... screeching about being a famous Hollywood Star!

Now Screech is selling t-shirts out of the back of a van by the river to try to pay for his house. Why not go on by and lend your support to the most grating personality in the history of Saturday morning television?

Save Screech's House!

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]]> Consumerist-180914 Thu, 15 Jun 2006 06:54:28 EDT consumerist.com http://consumerist.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=180914&view=rss&microfeed=true You just know your entire industry is gang raping the pooch when statistics like these are coming out:

• 90% of US bank account holders want their banks to strengthen security and scrutinize suspicious transactions. Hello, Citibank? This means you.

• 60% of account holders want their banks to contact them when they detect a suspicious transcation. Hello, Citibank? This means you.

• 75% of account holders believe a user name and password to be inefficient security. Hello, Citibank? This means you.

• Almost 80% of account holders won't respond to a bank email because of phishing scams. Given that one of The Consumerist's diumvirate lives in Ireland and routinely gets emails from Citibank, claiming a security breach on his nonexistent account... Hello, Citibank phishers? This means you.

The sample on the poll was only 402, so it might not be as bad as all that, nationwide. But one interesting thing to note was that the poll was conducted in November, 2005 — in other words, before some of the more recent mind-blowing security breaches at companies like, you guessed it, Citibank.

Consumers Want Better Online Banking Security [Consumer Affairs]

]]> Consumerist-166105 Mon, 10 Apr 2006 05:55:12 EDT consumerist.com http://consumerist.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=166105&view=rss&microfeed=true

For those who haven't had a chance to play with it, European money is actually rather cool. Bills are colored fluorescently and each denomination has a different size, making it easy to distinguish a specific bill simply by blindly rooting in your pockets Each denomination also has radically different designs. But they are all very serious, and we mourn some of the bills that the euro replaced — such as a 50 franc bill with children's book character The Little Prince on the face of it. Yes, it was very much like having Bugs Bunny on the front of a $1 dollar bill. But our currency could only be improved by that.

As for the Euro, bills are colorful, yes, but are missing some of the playful frivolity of the old currencies. So we can't help but wish that these counterfeit Euro bills being passed off successfully in Germany were real. On these bills, the grim, humorless visages of snooty European politicians are replaced by come-hither porn stars and cheesecake hunks, and the ring of stars usually on Euro currency has been replaced by a ring of hearts. (Correction: Jeez, I'm an idiot. Despite the fact that I've been handling euros on a daily basis for about four years, I didn't realize they didn't have faces on them. Leonard corrects me after the jump!)

The police aren't amused, but we are. Buying things should be more fun.

Counterfeit European Porn Bills [Impact Lab]

Update: From Leonard, who pays more attention to the money in his billfold than I do:

There are no people on our beloved Euros. See http://www.euro.ecb.int/en/more/communication/download1.html or http://www.europa4young.de/enoten.htm Why? Can you imagine who would be on the 500 Euro bill. It would have to be a german-born Englishman who grew up in France to later become king of Spain only to marry the italian prime-minister.

We couldn't cope with that, so we put bridges and other buildings on there. Mind you the Buildings are not real, but just represent different styles found throughout europe.

Cheers
Leonard

]]> Consumerist-160593 Wed, 15 Mar 2006 04:48:34 EST consumerist.com http://consumerist.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=160593&view=rss&microfeed=true Our luscious sisters over at Lifehacker have called our attention to this advice on lowering your cable bill:

When you make the call, you don t want to be demanding or set limits that force you into cancelling if you don t want to. Therefore, when you call, say something along the following lines: Hello, I came across this advertisement for XX Satellite TV that is offering a monthly subscription for $XX. Although I like my current TV, this offer is making me seriously consider switching. I was wondering if you can offer a similar price"...

This approach should work if this is the first time you are trying to lower your cable monthly rate. For those that have done it a number of times, some cable companies are becoming a bit stricter. I have one friend who insist on the way to continue to get the best price is to say you are going to cancel and if they won t offer you a better price, cancel. Most of the time they will relent before actually cancelling and the few times they haven t (he s been doing this for years) he simply calls up the next day and says he s changed his mind and wants to continue the service.

Good advice! Draw a line in the sand, then spinelessly capitulate. Oh, it probably works nine times out of ten, but this is just the sort of advice that makes companies treat their customers like slavish buying mongrels. Why expend effort trying to keep your customers happy when they'll just come crawling back anyway?

]]> Consumerist-155174 Thu, 16 Feb 2006 04:11:59 EST consumerist.com http://consumerist.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=155174&view=rss&microfeed=true