May 31, 2007
Just a quick followup on my earlier article about Citi Dividend Platinum Select cards being converted to Dividend World MasterCards. KMC of AdvancedPersonalFinance e-mailed me to share the following bit of information:
“A friend’s wife is setting up a business and she’ll be taking credit cards. On the schedule of fees, they specifically mention several cards including ‘World Mastercard‘ for special treatment… Merchants must pay an additional fee when customers use these kinds of cards.”
Just as I suspected, this “upgrade” isn’t motivated by a desired to reward you “due to your noteworthy card history.” Rather, it seems to be driven by a desire to increase merchant processing fees. Not terribly surprising, but I though y’all might be interested.
Here’s a quick tip for saving money on your life insurance policy… Pay the premiums annually if at all possible. Most insurers give you the option of paying monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually. But guess what? Paying more often than once per year typically costs more. While insurers typically don’t disclose the effective annual rate of this additional payment, which is essentially interest, you can figure it out yourself using this calculator.
Take, for example, a $360 term life insurance policy. Let’s assume for the moment that the monthly payment option requires twelve payments of $32. That’s just two bucks extra per month… Totally worth it for the added flexibility, right? Well, if you do the math, that two bucks works out to an APR of 14.3%! That’s a pretty steep price to pay in order to avoid paying your premium up front.
As it turns out, it’s just this sort of billing practice that got Zurich Direct into hot water last summer. As a result, we ended up receiving a whopping $2.52 from the settlement even though we always paid for our policies annually.
May 30, 2007
Last week I asked for help with a somewhat complex tax situation. Here we are a week later, and fortuantely I feel as if I have a better handle on the situation. For the finer details, it’s probably best to go back and read my original call for help and then come back here for details on the resolution. [more]
May 29, 2007
Well, it looks like the 0% balance transfer game (see also my list of 0% balance transfer credit cards) has now officially hit the mainstream, as MSN/Money had a story about it last week. In the story, they describe 0% balance transfer ‘daredevils’ who use these transfers to borrow a ton of money and stick the proceeds in the bank, thereby pocketing a bunch of interest without having to pay anything in return. [more]
May 28, 2007
May 25, 2007
The other day I received an automated call from Citibank saying that they are planning on ‘upgrading’ my Citi Dividend Platinum Select card to a Dividend World MasterCard. They went on to say that, pursuant to a post card that they sent me sometime in the past few weeks, they would be automatically converting my card and issuing a new number in the next few weeks if I didn’t call 1-800-950-5114 to opt out. [more]
It’s been a busy week fraught with tax quandaries and boxes full of bricks. And now… Guess what? School’s out for summer ’round these parts as of today! In other words, we have a couple of ecstatic kids that are just days away from being bored out of their minds. Anyway, what follows is a quick look at some of the most interesting articles that I ran across over the past week. Enjoy! [more]
May 24, 2007
FiveCentNickel participated in two carnivals this week. Here they are along with links to my articles that were included in each.
The Best of Me Symphony included “How I Dodged a Speeding Ticket.” Also included was “Allowance Insights” from raising4boys.com.
The Carnival of Personal Finance included “The Importance of Buying Flood Insurance.”
I have a tax-related question that I’ve been having trouble getting answered, so I thought I’d throw it out here in hopes that someone can provide any insight… Besides, I’ve searched high and low and haven’t been able to find an answer online, so if we can get this sorted out here, it’ll be available for others to stumble across. This question actually first came up in the comments to my article on how to prioritize your retirement contributions and I’ve been struggling with it ever since. [more]
May 23, 2007
If you regularly read personal finance weblogs, then you know that writing about one’s “net worth” is a fairly popular topic. While I understand the importance of metrics for tracking your progress, I have to admit that I’ve never been a big fan of net worth in its purest form… That is, how much money you’d have if you liquidated all of your investment accounts, withdrew all of your funds from the bank, sold everything that you own that has any value whatsoever, paid off all your debts, and then threw the remainder in a giant pile. [more]
