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Photo Credit: by alborzshawn

Welcome!

If you’re visiting from US News’ AlphanConsumer, thank you for visiting my blog. The post was inspired by my last 2 apartments.

Here’s an overview of some of my most popular posts to get started:

Banking

• Does Your Bank Care About Online Banking Security?
• Another Reason Why I Hate Bank of America
• Make Banks Treat You Like The Valued Customer You Are
• Bank of America Raises ATM Fees

Budget & Savings

• His, Mine, and Ours: How We Pay Our Bills and Budget
• Rebuilding An Emergency Fund
• Eat Healthier & Save Money: Brownbag Your Lunch
• Build a Doable Budget in 2 Weeks
• Easy Ways to Get an Emergency Fund Started

Credit Cards

• How to Use Credit Cards Wisely
• I Got a Lower Rate on the Credit Card I Use
• Rich College Student: Understand Your Credit Cards
• Top 5 Credit Card Mistakes

Debt

• Worst Credit Card Offer I’ve Seen
• 5 Ways to Get Out of Debt
• Pay Off Debt First or Start Savings (Chicken or the Egg)

Education

• Getting The Most Financial Aid
• CLEP Can Reduce Your Student Loans
• Which Foreign Language Should I Learn?

Life

• What’s in My Wallet?
• Frugal Pet Care
• How to Avoid Arguing About Money
• 3 Ways To Wisely Spend Your Bonus
• Family and Finances

Here’s a series describing our struggle to get our money back from a car mechanic’s negligence.

Car Repairs Gone Bad Series:

• Car Repairs Gone Bad: When a Shop Refuses to Pay for Damages
• Car Repairs Gone Bad: When a Shop Refuses To Pay Part Duex
• Car Repairs Gone Bad: When a Shop Refuses To Pay Part Three
• How to Pitch Your Story to the Local News
• Small Claims Court: Basic Information
• Our Day in Court
• Win in Court!

Feel free to subscribe to my site to get the latest delivered to your inbox.

Photo Credit: The Consumerist

Credit card (and other) debts can grow like weeds. Try to tame the it before debt gets out of control. I’ve many of these lessons from experience.

• Remember real money (yours) is involved. You have to pay this back and it will be with interest. Cash advances typically have a higher interest rate than standard purchases. I learned this the hard way. I feel so stupid knowing I spent YEARS paying off a card filled with stupid charges.
• Review your monthly statements. Identity theft is becoming more common and a good habit is to look at your statements every month. Sometimes credit card companies make mistakes on charges. I login to my credit card account every couple of days to see if anything suspicious happens. I need to work on checking my paper statements.
• Pay your bills on time. A good credit history can help when looking for a home as a higher credit score leads to lower interest rates. I had a bad habit of losing paperwork, so I automated all my bills. It saves on late fees and stamps. Many banks have online bill pay as a feature.
• If you can, pay the full amount owed. Credit card companies might call you a “deadbeat“, but at least you’re not tied to them each month. If you can’t, then pay as much as you can. Try a debt snow ball or even snowflaking. Find money in your budget to eliminate your debt.
• NEVER, EVER lend your credit card to anyone! Even if it is a trusted family member or family. This account is tied to YOU and you will be held responsible.

I amazed at how long it took me to learn these lessons. What do you personally do to keep credit card dbt at bay? How many credit cards do you use?

I’m so glad Ana from DebtFree Revolution brought this scheme to her readers’ attention. I felt so outraged about this rate jacking that I want to pass this on to people that could possibly be affected.

Business Week released an article about the rate hike. Even Bank of America’s spokesperson had no reasonable explanation.

Bank of America had sent out a letter to its customers notifying them that their rates would increase. In fine print there was an opt-out clause requiring them to send a letter to Bank of America. Interestingly, calling the bank is not an option. If they did not do this then their old balances and new balances would increase.

The shady part of this hike was how Bank of America was calculating it. Business Week explains it:

What’s striking is how arbitrary the Bank of America rate increases appear, credit industry experts say… JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Citigroup (C) announced ahead of Levin’s hearing that they would stop the practice of raising card rates based solely on FICO scores.

But Bank of America appears to be taking an even more aggressive stance because, beyond credit scores, it is using internal criteria that aren’t available to consumers. That makes the reason for the rate increase even more opaque.

I’m glad we didn’t get a credit card from Bank of America. What can you do? Here’s some things I thought:

• If you have a card with them and a balance on it, please opt-out of this rate hike. They make it difficult, but spare yourself a larger headache.
• Try to pay the debt off as soon as possible. You may want to use your income tax return if you got one.
• See if you can transfer the balance to a card with a lower rate, preferably one with 0%.
• Try to pay the debt off as soon as possible.
• If your Bank of America card is one of your oldest cards, don’t cancel it, as it could lower your FICO score. Just don’t carry a balance on it.

I understand banks are a business. What I don’t get is when they try to increase revenue by hurting their customers. That’s so short-sighted. If you’re looking for a different bank, try ING Direct or a local credit union. I use both and I’m satisfied.