Credit card companies stuffed all the crazy they could into their contracts in advance of the CARD act taking effect. This time they might have taken it too far, even for banks. Shoulda read that boilerplate!
#599; The Boilerplate Clause [WonderMark] (Thanks to MercuryPDX!)
Mom and Dad always wanted you to be a lawyer but who wants to dump all that money down the tubes and read those boring books? Well, no longer! Some burnout is selling his law degree from a fancy university on Craigslist! [More]
Here is some Countrywide executive customer service info. Even though Bank of America acquired Countrywide, some of this contact info is still valid. Former Countrywide customers who experiencing post-integration account difficulties have reported success using it. [More]
There’s a reason why same-sex couples end up spending an average of $12,300 more over the course of a lifetime in tax prep fees: it’s more complicated! To help guide gay couples through the murk and mire, NYT Bucks Blog has a comprehensive guide to pitfalls and considerations to keep in mind when filling out those forms. Gay rights may divide our country, but nobody likes doing taxes.
Tax Tips for Same-Sex Couples [NYT Bucks Blog]
It’s invisible to you but each time you swipe your credit card, a fee fairy gets its wings. An interchange fee fairy, to be exact. How does it work? This chart from the Government Accountability Office attempts to shed some light on the murky world of merchant processing fees. Did you know that over the past 10 years, while the technological costs of processing transactions has gone down, interchange fees have more than doubled? A cost that then gets passed on to you in the form of higher prices. [More]
A hacker has stolen the tax information for over 1,000 Latvian companies, and is now revealing, via Twitter, which banks did not take the paycuts they promised in return for government bailouts, and which are awarding secret bonuses. [More]
If you’re looking to get rich, a CBC Marketplace hidden camera investigation reveals that Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad” seminars should probably be avoided. They attended a $500 3-day workshop and found it was little more than some very poor real-estate investing advice – tricks like “lease options,” “pre-foreclosure” and “buy 10 condos, get 1 free” – sprinkled on top of heavy upsells into the $12,000-$45,000 “advanced” training courses. In a new twist, the instructor tells everyone to go raise their credit card limit by $100,000 so they will have the money they need to start investing in real-estate, and even gives them the scripts to do it. [More]
Two Simple Equations that Lead to Financial Success [Free Money Finance] “If you master these two equations alone, you will become wealthy.”
The 20 best money Web sites [CNN Money] “These sites have tools you can trust to help you make better money decisions.”
A Lavish Wedding Costs More Than You Think [Wall Street Journal] “The true cost of these things is more than most people realize. If they did the math, they’d probably get married in flip-flops.”
Seven Rational Things to Do When Financial Panic Hits [The Simple Dollar] “Here are seven things that you should attempt to do [when faced with a financial crisis.]”
Lifetime cost of bad credit: $201,712 [MSN Money] “If you’re not doing all you can to keep your credit scores high, you’re borrowing trouble — and you could pay a very heavy price.”
If you’d like to save more money but find yourself unable to set anything aside after you pay your bills and buy such necessities such as MAD Magazine and lottery tickets, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance editor Janet Bodnar is out to help you. She put together 10 ways to trick yourself into saving. [More]
Be careful if you call Bank of America. You might wake the beast. April called BofA about a credit card that she hand’t used in a while to see about getting her interest rate reduced. At first they told her she qualified for a new card with an APR 10 points lower, but then the bloodshot eye of the guardian cast its fell gaze upon her for the first time in years and something nasty happened… [More]
Like the nerdy girl in the movies who loses her glasses and gets a new haircut and all of a sudden she’s popular, consumers who pay off their credit card bills in full every month may soon find themselves the center of some unexpected courting. [More]
Greg wrote to us and said that he’s in the market for a new credit card: “I canceled my Chase card because they raised my interest rate to 29.99% + prime. What credit card companies should I be looking at for a replacement card? What are their perks, their drawbacks?”
I spoke with Samir Kothari, the co-founder and vice president of products at BillShrink.com, to see what he thinks about the CARD Act and how it will change the credit card marketplace.
Life can get a little humdrum sometimes, so why not shake things up with an IRS audit? You can’t just check off a box and get an audit, you’ve got to earn it. You’ve got to provoke them. Here’s 10 ways to get some IRS agents knocking on your door: [More]
Going from strip poles to iron bars in one night, a Consumerist reader says he got tossed in jail when he refused to give a strip club his thumbprint. Their ATM was broken so he had to pay his tab using a credit card cash advance. The club demanded a thumbprint and he refused, so cops that were already there threw him in jail. Was this legal? [More]
Here’s the new design for the back of the 2010 penny. Instead of the Lincoln Memorial there’s now a shield, or maybe a tiny badge that you can flash whenever you want to announce, “I have jurisdiction over your pocket change.” No, I’m pretty sure it’s a shield. [More]
Store brand is the new black. Nielesen says that buying of generic brands has increased 8% since 2007. Name brand purchases have dropped ~4%. But here’s a question: what’s what’s never okay to get as a store brand? For me, it’s tomato sauce. It’s like pouring ketchup on your spaghetti. [Boston Globe via NYT Bucks Blog] (Thanks to James!) [More]
Justin says he couldn’t pay his Citibank credit card balance because he lost his card and couldn’t log into the system because he hadn’t yet received his replacement. As a result, he was stuck with an interest rate hike and a missed payment fee. [More]
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