Sometimes the best stumps for reform come from the mouths of jesters. Consider this bit from Maria Bamford:
I am in the process of refinancing my home loan and my sister just asked me to help her cosign for a used car loan. If I agree to cosign could this negatively impact my home refinance?Thank you.
Have you been checking your credit card or checking account statements regularly? If not, you should be. You may notice some new, mysterious charges. In 2007, I signed up for a checking account with Citizens Bank that came with a free rewards program whenever I used my Mastercard debit. Fast-forward to 2009, and suddenly theres a $25.00 service charge on the account. After seeing this, I did what anyone with vague, unexpected charges on their statement should do: pick up the phone. Dont bother Googling it or e-mailing customer service or sifting through your statements to try to figure it out on your own. Go straight to the source. And say this:
Recently, I told you about the efforts of some credit card companies to begin offering simple or “vanilla” credit cards. This effort appeared to be a reaction to President Obama’s call for simplified financial offerings for consumers in the wake of the banking crisis.
This is a guest post from Matt B. Matt writes about all aspects of personal finance at Financial Methods. Please visit the site and let him know what you think.
More Value
Pretty much the whole point of being a reward card guru is trying to get the most value out of your miles. In the past I have written about how I once recommended that someone use Membership Rewards miles to transfer to Al Nippon Airways to redeem a flight award on South African airlines. The point is that there is often a very convoluted way to get the most miles out of your credit card.
This is a guest post from Jeff Rose. Mr. Rose is an Illinois Certified Financial Planner and co-founder of Alliance Investment Planning Group. He is also the author of Good Financial Cents, a financial planning and investment blog. You can also learn more about Jeff at his website Jeff Rose Financial.
College students often fallen easy prey to scams. And by scam, I don’t mean the whole system of going into debt for a marginally useful degree (jury’s still out on that one…). Students are increasingly finding themselves the victims of phishing schemes, identity theft, credit card fraud and other scams that can be devastating to a financial fledgling. The problem is that college students are inordinately trusting, optimistic and desperate – qualities that are deepened when the cards are down across the global economy. This trifecta of vulnerability is easily exploited by the unscrupulous and the pain ripples outward from there, affecting the parents, the school, banks, the student body and even the credit industry. While the government does its best to reign in the scammers, for now, it’s up to the individauls to remain vigilant. Here are a few tips that will help.
Anyone who has a credit card knows by now that card issuers are clamoring to enact new rules before the CARD act becomes effective in February.
Two unrelated topics today:
Annual Fee Flexibility
Yesterday, I noted that most problems I have with credit cards are typically resolved with a single phone call, without resorting to “executive email carpet bombs” or seeking publicity. This is due to the hyper-competitive nature of the industry. Today, I read an example of this happening for another consumer. The Consumerist reports on a Citibank Amex card holder named Chuck.