The Wall Street Journal Web site referenced one of my articles today!
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Monthly Archives: January 2009
Saving a few bucks from the cable company
Until September of 07, we’ve never paid for cable. NEVER. We’re not big TV watchers, even still, but I missed seeing the hockey games and the football games. Our antenna was only reliable if the cloud cover was “just right.” Additionally we love some of the eduucational programs that come on the History Channel and Discovery Networks for Destiny.
We gave in and shopped around and bought a cable package from Comcast that gets us a fair price on our Internet, Telephone (free nationwide long distance) and Cable with an “on demand” feature. (This means our preschooler can see Barney anytime, 24-7).
We’ve been glad to watch the games and such but as we’re exploring ways to cut costs, my husband called Comcast this morning and asked outright for a lower bill. They sort of chuckled ands said “well, your current package costs what it costs, and that’s kind of how it is.” He agreed and said that in that case, he would like to reduce our cable package. The result? Instant backpedaling!
The very helpful billing person suggested that a better program would be to look for a “repackage” of our current deal–and sure enough, there was one, at a rate $25/mo lower. Thanks Rob! Now we’re saving another $300/year!
Now we’re talking! I’m thinking about calling the garbage company and seeing if they offer any similar “repackaging” deals.
Give it a try! Saving you $.02 today.
Where’ve I been lately?
Need to know if you need to refinance?
I saw an article in the Feb 2009 issue of MONEY magazine about if it’s time to refinance or not. I’ve been wondering this myself, as in my other business (I own a mobile notary service) I’ve seen a lot of refinancing going on.
Here’s a paraphrazed version of Money’s three part test as to if you should refinance or not:
1. Don’t bother if you need a jumbo mortgage–the rates in this realm aren’t really coming down.
2. If you have a fixed rate of 6.1% or higher, it might be worth it. Remember, a refi may cost you a few thousand dollars. They suggest that if you come down one percentage point in APR it will save you money over time.
3. If you have 20% equity. Per MONEY, you’ll need this plus a FICO Score of 740 plus to get the lowest rate plus no points.
Based on this test, I’m not going to refi at this time, I think we’re likely as low as we’re going to get (fixed at 5.25%, and the lowest rates are going on 30 year fixed is 5.1%) On a loan as small as ours, it isn’t worth the hassle, especially as we have plans to sell within a year.
Side note: One thing I LOVE about being a full-time freelance writer now–all of my newsstand magazines are tax-deductible.
Just my $.02 for today.
New Credit Card Rules for 2010
One year until credit cards get a makeover courtsey, the US Government.
These rules won’t apply to me (I hope not to you either) as I plan on being out of Credit Card debt by March (it can be done!). However, if you’re still going to be working on credit cards for 2010, here are a few new rules that should benefit you the consumer.
1. Unless you’re more than 30 days late on a payment, card issuers won’t be allowed to jack your rates up! Right now, they can raise interest rates to anything they want, anytime they want (Hey! Who died and made them God?).
2. All bills must clearly show your terms, fees and total interest paid. No more annual slips of paper buried inside your “privacy policy” in a bulk rate mail envelope during the middle of Xmas shopping season.
3. Issuers will give you 45 days notice for new terms and rates. By comparison, now they only have to give you fifteen days notice.
4. After 2010, interest wil be calculated only on what you owe–now they can charge you on this and last month’s balance. (>@*U)@*%??) And we the consumers let them get away with this?
Free financial management tool!
If you’re like me, and not a big fan of those personal finance tools that require you to enter every single expenditure and bill payment into a system to see your spending habits, I may have something for you.
Mint.com is available free of charge and online. It connects online to your bank accounts and credit cards and downloads the transactions. All you have to do is log in and categorize them–I categorized 90 days of transactions in a couple of hours and have found the daily maintenance part very simple. Two to three minutes to categorize a day or two or even a week’s worth of transactions. The other benefit is that it will tell you via email or text message when you’re over your budget in any category that you preset.
I highly encourage you to give this a try, its the easiest personal finance tool I’ve ever found (arguably even easier than my checkbook ledger).
Just my $.02 for today.