I’ve been in a bit of a Jane Austen reading mode lately, mostly Pride and Prejudice as it’s one of my favorites. But, in reading the books and watching the films, it struck me that we’ve come a long way in terms of marriage. In Austen’s time, marriage was simply a business arrangement. People married for money and the family connections it provided, very often foregoing any sort of affection for one another. The result was infidelity.
The goal of every reward card holder and frequent flier is to make as many miles as they can, as quickly and as easily as possible.
It’s a loose connection, but here goes: Woody Harrelson went to school at Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana. I grew up in Scottsburg, Indiana, about 20 miles from Hanover. Woody’s character on the sitcom Cheers was from a small town in Indiana. I love Indiana. I love Cheers.
I’m not normally a big fan of Miley Cyrus, but today I wanted to talk about her new song ‘The Climb’. If you haven’t heard the song, I highly encourage you to listen, not because she’s a phenomenal artist – though I think she has potential when she gets older – but because the words themselves are so moving. And, while I think these words are great for every day struggles, I’m a pf blogger so I see the potential for this applying to personal finance.
This is an email that we got recently from a reader:
I have a new Chase Freedom credit card with 1x points that was recently changed over from a Countrywide 2x Visa card. I have not used it since I received it several months ago, as I have another Chase Freedom Plus card that has 3x points in 6 categories that has better reward points. Now my question. I called Chase today as I wanted to find out more information about their 3x reward points in rotating categories. I was directed to a website, http://www.chasebonus.com/freedom31 which I signed up for. But I cannot get any more detail on the web about this promotion! I was told that I can speak to a customer service representative and they will tell me everything I need to know. Basically the promotion runs from 7/1/09 through 9/30/09. There are two categories: (1) Airlines, Car Rental, Hotels and Fine Dining. (2) College Tuition, books, etc . And you get 3x reward points in whichever category is higher at the end of 3 months. But I want something in writing! I spoke to 3 customer service reps plus a manager and they all gave me the same answer. That there is no website that provides this information, and they are unable to send me anything. Why can’t I get more detail about this promotion? Why can’t I get more information about the rotating categories? Any ideas what I can do to obtain this?
I recently got the following question from a reader:
Mr Credit Card
I know this is not really a credit card related question but recently, I got turned down by Direct TV because of my credit. What do I need to do to get a cable tv or satellite tv provider?
The Email
Dear Employees,
We value your continued efforts to make this company a success. Unfortunately, they’re not working and we’re losing money quicker than we can earn it. As you know, our number of passengers has been in decline for sometime, but with the economy and cheaper options available to out customers, well we just can’t afford to continue paying everyone. So, our proposal is that you all take one to four weeks of unpaid time, or you can come to work for free. Personally, we think the second option is a gallant effort and assure you the gesture will not go unnoticed. Please be advised, this is not mandatory; however, failure to find a reasonable solution to this problem could result in layoffs. We thank you for your attention to this matter and look forward to your answer soon. If it is any consolation, Mr. Walsh will also be taking a month off with no pay so that he may spend a little time with the family on his yacht in the south of France.
This is a guest post from Adam Baker from Man Vs Debt. I interviewed Adam a while ago and he had an interesting story on how he got his first credit card in college. I’ve asked him to recount his experience and also to voice his opinion about the recent credit card bill of rights legislation. One of the things that attracts me to Adam’s blog is that he writes really long detailed posts with lots of thoughts put into it. I would suggest that you subscribe to his blog feeds here. Below is his post
The Hilton HHonors Surpass Card is the higher end version of the 2 Hilton credit cards available. In my opinion, this is one of the better hotel rewards credit cards out there in the market. Let’s look at it in closer detail.
I’m all for being frugal, but I think there are some situations where you move past frugal and end up in Cheapsville. As you can guess from the title, there are 10 things I’ve purchased either used or on the cheap side to save a buck, and they all ended with bad results. So, on a personal level, I just won’t go cheap with these things again. To me, it’s better to pay a few dollars more for quality and know that - in some cases - the product will last longer.