Some links about why Bank of America is evil…
September 7, 2008
Filed under PF, money
Tags: avoid at all costs, Bank of America, BofA
Yay for Blingo!
Blingo is a Publisher’s Clearing House-owned site that uses Google search (and now some others, apparently) as it offers chances to win–and of course its own advertising (not really any more intrusive than Google’s). So a while ago, I installed the Blingo search widget in my Firefox browser, using that for the quick incidental searching I often do. Just a little paradigm shift, but today it made me $5! Not a lot, I know, but more than I would have gotten from using Google! Check it out!
I repeat, closing store cards helped my FICO score
So if you recall, back in February, I closed all my store cards, and by March my FICO score was up 10 points. That post has gotten a lot of comments, most of which I have filtered out because they contain questionable assertions, which I don’t want to be responsible for passing along to people who got to my blog from a search engine query (and obviously need good advice).
I’m happy to report that in April it went up another 10 points, and stayed the same in May. For those of you who thought that something negative came off my credit report at the same time coincidentally and that I was foolish to close all the store cards, I will point out that I’m a very responsible 24-year-old, who has never had a derogatory item. Since I was 16, I’ve had a handful of store cards, and a few bankcards.
Last fall, I was enthralled with the personal finance blogosphere. I read voraciously, looking for tips and tricks from people savvier than I. But now that I’m satiated, I see that online PF sites are no better than their brick & mortar counterparts in the financial sector–everybody wants to sell you something, and/or profit from your dependency on them. Often they retell you the same myths that have been told for years.
All I can offer is my experience: I closed my store cards, continued making on-time payments of slightly-above-minimum, and in two months, my score rose 20 points.
Goodbye, Verizon DSL
So we have to move. Grrr at landlords who spring news of putting the house on the market at the last minute. Grrrr more at real estate jerks who “accidentally” give free reign to all other sketchy “realtors” to come barge in the house at any time.
I was debating whether to continue with Verizon as a DSL provider. It would be easier to just transfer my account to the new address… but I have been paying $22.99 for a few months now (for a DSL “dry-loop”–no landline phone service), up from $19.99 for the first year, up from the original $14.99 bait-and-switch offer.
Could I do without *gasp* home internet all together? No, I thought, not that!
Then today I got an email:
Dear Verizon High Speed Internet Customer,
We are writing to inform you that the rate for your High Speed Internet package is changing to $29.99* per month, no sooner than 30 days from the date of this email.
This new price should appear on your bill within one to two billing cycles. Your service will automatically continue, with no term commitment or early termination fee. If you have recently changed to a different plan, please disregard this notice.
You can learn about additional money saving Verizon plans, such as Verizon Triple Freedom which combines Verizon High Speed Internet, TV service and unlimited calling for one low monthly rate by calling 1-800-567-6789. Or sign up online at www.verizon.com/bundle1 today.
Thank you for choosing and staying with Verizon High Speed Internet. We appreciate your business and we look forward to continuing to serve you.
Verizon Online
To quote my hero, Whitney, “Aw, hells to the no!”
I called to cancel. The CSR sounded slightly stoned. And very Southern, so kudos for Verizon for not outsourcing customer service to India just yet. He couldn’t offer me a better deal because “you’re already… paying… only $22.99.” Only? And that about to change this month to $29.99? So long, Verizon.
Close a store card, the FICO score goes up 10 pts…
March 20, 2008
Filed under PF, money
Tags: credit, credit cards, FICO score, money, PF, shopping
So, I recently closed some store cards which I stupidly opened in my college days, to save that big deal 10%. Best Buy (actually this was my second credit card ever, when I was 18), Target, and Target Visa were long since closed due to inactivity. I closed my Kohl’s card. Good riddance. And my FICO score shot up 10 pts from last month, kinda like Lifehacker said it might. Not bad, eh? So today I remembered I had opened an Express card as well. That one was still open, though it had only been used once in 2005. I shut that sucka DOWN, and it feels good. Wondering if I have more of these out there somewhere…
Tomorrow is Forever
March 13, 2008
Filed under PF, money, work
Tags: film, Orson Welles, personal finance, PF, retirement, TDA
(Tomorrow is Forever is a fantastic film starring my all-time favorite actor, Orson Welles. It is tragically not available on DVD, and VHS copies go for what now feels like a ridiculous price to pay for VHS.)
I don’t know if it’s optimism, Pollyannaism, or just laziness, but I seem to have a block when it comes to planning for the long-term future. I waited six months after starting my job to set up my retirement account. Even then, I left it for a year with employer-only contributions. I wonder what that $1300, with some modest growth, will buy in 2048…? Oh yeah, not much. Thanks, inflation!
So I finally got around to setting up a tax-deferred account (filling in that circle on the employee website was so labor-intensive!). Who knows, I might even start an IRA. Probably not before I turn 25 in August, but you never know. Tomorrow is another day.
how lame can you be?
March 3, 2008
Filed under PF, duraks, money, research
Tags: money, personal finance, PF, plagiarists
Brett Bittner is a fool who steals other people’s work and passes it off as his own. Eddy E smells funny too.
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(I’m really tired of personalfinance.poemshop.info and growingthedream.com stealing all my PF entries and reposting them.
When the dealing’s done
Satiation
A few months back, I got serious (er, even more serious?) about making a side income and improving my finances. I started reading a number of personal finance (“PF,” as they call themselves) blogs. And after reading them for several months–3 of them in my RSS, one as a daily digest email–I’ve dropped them all, one by one. Why? They’re not good writers. Sentence after passive-voice sentence, post after boring post, you might read one good tip in twenty. Don’t worry about missing that good tip, they’ll recycle it into a half-dozen or more posts for you. I realize that blogging is essentially self-indulgent, but pf-blogs seem especially so. When there’s nothing to absorb, it’s usually best just to move on.
Sometimes things do change for the better…. Alibris revisited
So I’m in grad school. Have I written about that? Somehow it’s not as easy to talk about as undergrad, not as fully realized a purpose in my life. Perhaps I’ll write another post about it soon.
ANYway, I had to buy books for this semester. So after comparison shopping on www.addall.com and consulting the cashback prospects at www.fatwallet.com, I decided to shop www.alibris.com for the books. This would be my first time shopping Alibris in nearly five years, since a bad experience left me waiting all summer for an older book which arrived in not the greatest condition.
This time, though, I had shipping confirmations from each seller, quick turn times, and decent books. All in all, not unlike the results from half.com or Amazon, with shipping more comparable to the latter (second party sellers’ shipping, not that lovely free super saver shipping).
