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:
personal finance
Email Address Format For Capital One
By 4.15.09
This is the format for email addresses at Capital One: firstname.lastname@capitalone.com. Cheers.
What If I Can't Pay My Taxes?
By 4.15.09
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.
Beware The "Dirty Dozen" Tax Scams
By 4.14.09
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:
16 Ways To Get The IRS To Audit You
By 4.14.09
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.”
Get An Extension On Your Taxes
By 4.14.09
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.
112 Ways To Save Money
By 4.13.09
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.
Banana Republic Lowers Credit Card Limit From $1000 To $100
By 4.13.09
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:
BoA Hikes Rates On Millions Of Credit Card Customers
By 4.13.09
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…
NY Post Picks Up Consumerist Reader's ATM Skimming Story
By 4.12.09
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!
Definition: Balance Chasing
By 4.11.09
Balance chasing is a practice credit card companies are using to reduce their risk, find out what it is and what you can do about it.
Hit With A Credit Card Rate Hike? Try Freezing The Account
By 4.9.09
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.
5 Tips For Getting Unstuck From A Miserable Job
By 4.9.09
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:
Reader Receives Three Phishing Attempts In One Week
By 4.8.09
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.”
Rogue's Gallery Of ATM Skimmers
By 4.7.09
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.
