personal finance
Personal Finance Roundup
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.”
USAA Lays Smackdown On Shady Enterprise Rental
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.
We're Not Kidding, BoA Really Closes Your Account Just For Asking About Your Interest Rate
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.
How I Got Commerce To Refund $45 In Cycle Service Charge Fees
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.”
"Checkmate," The Straight Dope On Check Cashing Joints (Cameo By Ben Popken)
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.”
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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]
How To Say No To Charities
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:
Five Easy-To-Follow Principles To Safeguard Your Financial Future
Ron Lieber kicks off his inaugural Your Money column by presenting five excellent principles to help guide your financial decisions.
The Best Personal Finance Podcasts
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:
Meet Crissy, The High Priestess Of Coupon Clippers
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…
Personal Finance Roundup
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.”
Sallie Mae's 100+ Point FICO Drop Error Getting Fixed
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.
FICO Scores Drop Over 100 Points After Sallie Mae Recode, Potentially Millions Affected
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.
Your Complete Portfolio in Only Seven Investments
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…
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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]
