All Posts Tagged With: "credit cards"
Credit card rewards that are worth looking into
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Sun, Oct 25 2009 | 0 Comments
Did you know that your credit card may be hiding some quite interesting and beneficial perks that you might be missing out on?
The following perks are from Citi:
- You have dedicated “concierge” staff to assist you. – There is a 24 hour personal concierge service that is around to make dinner reservations for you, get tickets to events, locate hard to find items, and even coordinate business arrangements worldwide. They can also assist you with gift selections and other requests that are said to “simplify your life.”
- You also have extra car rental insurance. Citi provides up to $50,000 in secondary coverage against collision or theft when you get a rental car and charge it on the card and decline the rental company’s insurance.
- There is also retail price protection. – This protects your stuff if it gets stolen or is accidentally broken up to $500 for the first 90 days of purchase when it’s put on the card.
- You have a price protection. If you purchase something with your card, except for online purchases and some excluded items, you have 60 days to find the same item for a lesser price you will get refunded up to $250 of the difference.
- You are not liable for unauthorized purchases online or offline.
- If an airline looses your luggage, you are eligible for up to $3,000 in lost luggage coverage for not only you, but also your dependents, when you charge your fare.
- You also have roadside assistance.
There are other perks that other companies may be willing to give you for just asking. Now that credit cards are charging more fees, however, it may be more difficult to come across any real rewards.
Related posts:Credit card perks that you may find yourself missing out on
Tags: luggage, roadside assistance, hard to find items
Getting your employees to be more motivated
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Tue, Oct 13 2009 | 0 Comments
While many employers take the approach that their employees do not have to be motivated or that their salary should be enough motivation, there are small things that employers can do to get their employees to go above and beyond what is expected of them just by offering small employee incentives.
Rewards Programs have been successful for credit card companies to get customers to sign up for cards based on what they purchase the most. In most cases, the credit card companies have seen a lot of success through rewards programs because customers will spend more money on the credit cards to get the rewards rather than using cash or debit cards.
Incentive programs have been used with success for more than just credit card companies. I remember being offered incentives for fund raising programs while I was in elementary school. Everyone always wanted to sell the most candy bars so they could get the “big” prize. People will work for something if they think they can get it for free. Even recently, Disney is offering a free day pass to one of its parks if a person signs up to donate a day of their time to one of the sponsored charities listed by the company.
An employee program could be based on a similar structure as the credit card program. It works for employees that are compensated with commissions. The more that the employee does, the more money he or she can make. If an incentive program is used, you may be able to entice your employees to do more work or be more productive with their time for a minimal cost.
Related posts:What will the credit card companies do?
What are the lies that got you into credit card debt?
Tags: candy bars, incentive programs, debit cards
What are the lies that got you into credit card debt?
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Thu, Oct 08 2009 | 0 Comments
Here are some pretty common things that people tell themselves right before they find themselves in credit card debt:
- It’s an emergency.
- We deserve it.
- It’s a bargain.
- It’s not that much money.
- The payment is small.
- The card rewards make it worth it.
- There’s an offer of zero percent APR on purchases.
- Balance transfers are zero percent APR also.
- Its for my business.
- I’ll pay it off after graduation.
Here’s some truths to these lies that people tell themselves:
- First of all, many times credit is not used in emergency situations. Sometimes we convince ourselves that credit cards will only be used in emergency situations and some people are able to stick to that rule, but not most.
- No one deserves anything that they haven’t earned and later in life, they will be happy when they can afford something nice with the money that they’ve made working instead of paying interest on a splurge when they were younger.
- A credit card is never a bargain. You will always pay interest. If you have an interest free card, it won’t remain that way forever and you HAVE to pay it off in order to keep from having to pay the interest. Did you know that even when you go to the furniture store and they say “no interest for 24 months!” or something like that, if you don’t have the furniture paid off by the end of those 24 months, you will have to pay interest on the entire purchase price, not just what you owe.
- It’s not that much money on the purchase maybe, but over time, the interest adds up and it becomes a lot of money.
- The payment is small because it is meant to ensure that the credit card companies get the most amount of money they can from you. The smaller payment you make, the more interest the company will earn from your money.
- The rewards are never worth it. Haha.
- See number 3.
- See number 3.
- Businesses sometimes need loans to start up. However, if you’re going to take out money for your business, perhaps you should consider small business loans first. The interest rates are much smaller. However, if you can avoid it, why would you want to start your company in debt.
- Haha. College procrastination at it’s greatest. I paid my credit cards off before graduation because I knew I had a crazy high student loan bill. Not everyone will have such an outrageous loan payment, but if you do those credit cards will likely be put on the backburner for awhile.
What will the credit card companies do?
Wells Fargo wants to stand out and raise credit card rates
Tags: balance transfers, credit cards, emergency situations
Strange things that Wal-Mart has banned
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Mon, Oct 05 2009 | 0 Comments
An article written by Ethan Trex for Mental Floss brought up a few really interesting items that, over the years, Wal-Mart has banned from its aisles.
The first thing on the list was Midge, Barbie’s pregnant friend. Midge was part of Mattel’s “Happy Family” set. It’s not like she was trying to promote some kind of immoral family life either; Midge came with a husband and a son. When people started to complain that there was a pregnant Barbie, the doll got pulled.
A pair of underwear also found itself under fire when a cheeky saying on the pair “who needs credit cards…when you have Santa” got people fired up. Wal-Mart pulled the panties soon after they were released around Christmastime in 2007. With this one, yea, I can see how this could be particularly awful. Like the original poster said, this would be better on a t-shirt; harmless. But on a pair of Juniors’ underwear it’s a bit too much. It’s like seeing “sexy” costumes on Amazon for pre-teens (those get pulled as soon as people start noticing).
Even though 1995 was nearly 15 years ago, it’s not like it was before the Women’s Movement. In the Miami area, there was a shirt with Margaret from Dennis the Menace on the front. The shirt said “Someday a Woman Will Be President” and it was pulled from shelves of the Wal-Mart stores. Luckily, after some idiots got it right, the shirts were put back out on shelves, but not until they had been sitting in stock rooms for months.
Wal-Mart has always been known as a family-oriented store; or at least it has tried to be known as a family friendly store. So, it censors albums and even some movie titles (they required that Zach and Miri Make a Porno be shortened to simply Zach and Miri). Well, for reasons other than the movie being a bit raunchy, Wal-Mart did not sell the movie Superbad in Hawaii. Why? They pulled the movie from shelves after the governor asked them to because the movie came with a little fake ID like “McLovin’” had in the movie.
Wal-Mart really has some strange rules and while trying to maintain the company’s family friendly persona it has really made some interesting choices as to what it will and won’t stock. You can find some other really interesting things that the store has decided are too risque for its shelves at the source.
Source
More strange indicators of the economy
Target, Wal-Mart, and Best Buy all try something new
Tags: underwear, company, interesting things
Being a spendthrift and how to get over it
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Sun, Oct 04 2009 | 0 Comments
A spendthrift is someone who spends money; a lot of money and it can be considered wasteful the way he or she spends it.
Have you watched the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic? I watched it a couple of weeks ago, and while my shopping habits haven’t really gotten THAT out of control I have made a couple of splurges in the past that I know haven’t been the best shopping decisions.
It can be difficult to go from being someone who buys what they need and picks up a few extra things as well to someone who buys the bare minimum of what they need from the grocery store, often foregoing their favorite brands for the cheaper, generics, brands that are on sale, or the brands that have the coupons out that week.
The best, and easiest way, in my opinion, to go from someone who spends money to someone who saves money is to watch the flow of cash out of your bank account, closely. If you can watch that balance drop, then you are going to be far more likely to put down the debit card and head for the door.
Of course, there are times when shopping is more of a habit than a hobby and sometimes you may actually need to talk to someone about your “problem.” In the movie I was talking about earlier, there is a scene toward the beginning when the main character, who has maxed out her credit cards and can’t pay the bills, sees a really expensive green scarf on a mannequin and the mannequin starts talking to her (in her mind). The mannequin tells her that she needs the scarf and somehow she pools the money together to get it.
Thiis is just one example, even though it is a fiction example, of how shopping can actually become an addiction.
My biggest tip that helps me though, and I know I’ve said it a million times, is to MAKE A LIST. If I have a list, I won’t spend as much. If I have a list, there is a lesser chance that I will bring home things that are not on the list. If I make a list and arm myself with coupons, my savings are even greater (however, you have to remember not to buy something just because you have a coupon, make sure that you need it).
Related posts:Money saving tips for moms
Tags: grocery store, credit card, Money
