<$Tuesday, January 22, 2008$>
How to get a credit report that's really free
| Money Smart Life has an unfortunate article up about how to get a free credit report that directs you to Freecreditreport.com. A lot of people make the mistake--including myself--of thinking that this is the web site where you get the free annual credit report that the reporting agencies are required to give you by law, and I'm sure FCR capitalizes on that assumption with all of their advertising. But what they don't make clear when you sign up is that when you register to get your free credit report from them, you're also signing up for their credit monitoring service. If you don't cancel this service within thirty days, they'll start automatically charging your credit card. Last year I was really bad about not checking my statements, and I ended up paying twice the fee for a year (for both my and my husband's reports) without realizing. As soon as I found out I canceled it, but they don't make that process particularly easy, either. That's $310 I unwittingly spent for my "free" credit report. The actual free credit report site, set up by the three major reporting agencies in compliance with federal law, is Annualcreditreport.com. You won't get your credit score, but you will get all three reports with no hidden fees or strings attached. You can get each report once a year, but you don't have to get them all at the same time, which means you can stagger them out and check up on your credit three times a year at no cost. They also provide enough information for you to get a reasonable estimate of your credit score by using the FICO Score Estimator, which is also totally free. Monitoring your credit is a smart thing to do. Just be careful of getting sucked in by misleading advertising. Labels: credit cards, debt reduction, evil, finance+blogs, freebies |
<$Monday, July 16, 2007$>
This Is Your Life On Consumer Debt
| As mentioned previously, the husband and I are searching for a home that's closer to my work, and we're still having no luck. Our hunt for a rental house or duplex has been so dismal that we've decided to expand our search to townhouses, four-plexes, and even apartments, if all else fails (we've both had scary fire-related experiences in previous apartments, so we're aiming to share walls/floors/ceilings with as few neighbors as possible; neither of us is too keen on trusting the common sense and fire-safety skills of strangers to keep from destroying everything we own or, y'know, killing us in our sleep). Even so, our hearts' desire is to find a house. More accurately, our hearts' desire is to BUY a house, but with our consumer debt being what it is, that's just not possible right now, and won't be for several more years. That's just one of the things we can't have because of our debt. I'm not whinging here; insert clichéd idiom about lying in made beds. We're not victims of anyone or anything other than our own poor impulse control and lack of wisdom and foresight (I'm sure my husband would appreciate it muchly if I would point out that by "our" I mostly mean "my," seeing as how I racked up the majority of our debt all by myself before he ever even entered the picture). My intent is to share this as a cautionary tale to anyone who might be thinking it's not such a big deal to carry a credit card balance (or multiple balances, as the case may be). Having said that, I should also cop to the fact that this post's inception was a big ol' whine-fest, held in the midst of a pity party, hosted by yours truly, where the guest of honor was Sulky McPoutsalot. After a weekend spent crunching numbers and figuring out that no, we can't afford a house right now, and no, we can't afford a vacation this year either, and by the way, those cars that you can't afford to replace need some major TLC if they're going to last as long as you need them to, and we can't really afford that right now either…my own darn fault or not, I was bummed. Even worse, I've got my husband in this mess with me. HE can't afford to do any of this stuff, either, because of MY credit card debts. That, dear readers, is depressing. So let's recap, and have a look at all of the things that, thanks to only about $7,000 in credit card debt, are out of reach to a thirty-four year old, married, childless semi-professional with a pretty decent job and a few alternative income streams: This is not even to mention the fact that I haven't updated my work wardrobe in almost a year, I've taken to cutting my own hair, ditto cutting my poodle's hair, we only go out to the movies or out to eat once in a blue moon and almost never both in the same month…. The point is, while frugality can be a satisfying, and even fun, challenge, forced frugality bites. Especially when you feel like you're so far behind your peers that you might never catch up. So take heed, boys and girls. Credit can be a good thing in responsible hands; but carrying a balance could very well screw up your life for years. It's bad! Don't do it! Labels: credit cards, evil, personal |
<$Tuesday, July 3, 2007$>
Financial Housecleaning
| Every few months or so, I try to remember to look over all of my statements with an eye toward "cleaning up" and doing away with any financial chaff--cancelling services we're no longer using or getting our money's worth from, negotiating lower fees and interest rates, etc. This past week has been one of those times. I haven't had a lot of success this round, but even so, here's what I tackled this time around: Credit cards - Both of my credit card companies have been bombarding me with checks and balance transfer offers. I plan to shred the checks, of course, but first I thought I'd see if they were willing to negotiate. First I called Discover. That account is currently 0% interest, so I have no reason to transfer it elsewhere, and it's the lowest priority on my list of debts to eliminate. We originally opened this account because it gives us a 5% rebate on every gasoline purchase, and intended to use it solely as a gas card. But then we got greedy with our honeymoon cruise excursion packages and ended up maxing out the small limit I requested when I opened the account. Now I make a payment large enough to cover our gas budget each month, and by the time we've bought all of our gasoline for the month it's usually maxed out again. So I called Discover and told them I would be thrilled to give them all of the money I'm currently giving to Citibank, if they would increase my credit line enough to accommodate the transfer. The custserv rep I spoke with put through a balance increase request, but it was declined. He promised to push it through the appeals department, and told me to check back in twenty-four hours to see if my request was approved. I checked back. It got approved--for a fraction of the amount I requested. Boo. At least now I don't have to worry about going over limit if I have to fill up my car before my next payment posts. Next, I called Citibank. I thanked them kindly for their balance transfer offer and pointed out that they are my highest interest card, even at the transfer rate they're offering, and it sure would be nice if they could just lower my interest rate. They told me they didn't have a lower rate to offer me at this time. Again, boo. Looking back, I should have asked for a supervisor, told them about the offer from Discover, and informed them that if they didn't lower my rate, I would go ahead and transfer as much as I could of my Citibank account over to Discover. Maybe after I finish this post, I'll get up the nerve to call back and try that tack. Maybe. Success Score: Cell Phone: Next up, I realized that my husband and I are both relying almost solely on our unlimited text-message package to communicate, both with each other and with our friends, and most months we barely touch all of the minutes that we're paying for. So I called T-Mobile to point this out and ask if they had any dual-line plans with fewer minutes. This rep sounded genuinely regretful as she informed me that we already have their cheapest dual-line plan, and that it would cost us more to switch to two of their lowest individual plans. Again I say: Boo! However, she went on to hint, imply and otherwise inform in as roundabout a way as she could without coming straight out and saying so and raising the ire of her supervisors, that I might have more success if I wait until my contract is up, shop around for better deals with other providers, and then call back with that information as leverage. She also mentioned that I should keep an eye on their web site, where they occasionally offer better, limited time deals. So at least now I have a plan, and hope for cutting down that bill in the future. Success Score: Cell Provider - 1; jeanjeanie - Half a point, for at least ascertaining some useful info. Internet Access: A year ago, I signed up to a deal with Netscape offering a year's worth of accelerated dial-up for $9.99. Shortly thereafter, our computer up and died. I held onto the account hoping we'd replace the computer fairly quickly, but that didn't happen, and eventually I completely forgot about the account. Until a couple of months ago, when I noticed it showing up on my Citibank statement. I called to cancel it then, but they reminded me that I signed up for a full year, and couldn't cancel it without a steep fee. Having only a couple of months left, the fee outstripped the remaining monthly charges, so I let it set. But today, I realized that the year is up this month, so I called back to cancel. This time, after having to answer a lot of questions, insist that we really, truly, honestly and deeply don't want, use, or need the service, and that no, I don't want to pay to use it as web mail, thank you so much, I got them to cancel it. So that's ten bucks a month we'll be saving from now on. Every little bit helps, right? This one gets a Yay! Success Score: Internet Provider - 0; jeanjeanie - 1 Banking: Several months ago, I opened up a high yield savings account with Citibank, lured to them by the siren call of a $20 sign-up bonus if I kept my account open for 90 days. At the time I intended to do just that, get my $20, and find a better rate elsewhere, so, not having memorized my husband's SSN and not wanting to bug him, I didn't add him as the account's beneficiary. Since then, we've actually saved up a nice little fund, and the fact that he can't access it has been bugging me. I also realized that, shockingly, Citibank doesn't have any branches or ATMs in our area, so it's not going to be that easy for me to draw the money we need once we find a new place to live, either. Even so, I kept procrastinating on moving the account. Until today, thanks to Blogging Away Debt, who posted a reminder about some ING referral links she still had available that would get me a $25 sign-up bonus. So I opened a joint account with my husband and initiated a funds transfer, and got rewarded with my bonus right away -- I didn't even have to wait 90 days. Thanks, Tricia! And also: Yay! Success score: jeanjeanie - $25! Disappointed as I am with the credit card and cell phone results, I'm still better off than I was when I started. In a couple of months, I'll re-evaluate everything and try again, and this time I'll be a little more savvy when it comes to the credit card and phone companies. Labels: credit cards, evil, money management, saving+investing |
<$Friday, March 30, 2007$>
Adventures in Prosper-ity
| Prosper.com is a pretty recent discovery for me, having only learned of its existence a few weeks ago. But in that time I did a lot of researching, soul-searching and discussing with my husband (you can read all about it here, I signed up and went through the borrower verification process in the hopes of borrowing enough to consolidate my credit cards. On Monday, I finally posted my listing. I was immediately advised that the interest rate I asked for is too low for my credit grade (when you sign up, Prosper obtains your credit score from Experian and assigns it a letter grade. Mine is a high D). With only two days until my listing expires and only three bids, I suspect that they're right. Now I'm a little uncertain on how to proceed. Once my listing expires I could relist at a higher rate, on the theory that the high interest rate will make my listing more attractive to lenders, it will have no problem getting fully funded with time to spare, and at that rate the competition will kick in and my interest rate will get bid down to something more manageable. But I'm paranoid that that last part won't happen, and I'll get stuck with a rate that's almost as high as what I'm already paying, and monthly payments that are also just as high, and that would defeat the entire purpose of taking out the loan. I'm wondering if I should try to get a bank loan before I relist. We haven't even tried that option, because we both just kind of figured that with our low credit scores we wouldn't be able to get one without a co-signer, and we really don't want to involve a third party if we don't have to. I just think co-signing on a loan is a bad idea and not something to be done, and I hate the idea of asking anybody to do it. At this point, though, do we have anything to lose by applying for a lower rate bank loan? I don't really see how we do. I'm also concerned/immeasurably pissed off about the over limit alert that just hit my credit report, thanks to Discover heaping service charges (one of which, an identity theft protection charge, I didn't even realize I had signed up for) on top of my not-quite-but-almost maxed out account right before closing the statement so that I couldn't possibly post a payment in time to fix it. When I posted my listing on Monday, my credit grade was low, but my report was totally clean going back five years. I don't know how this new pimple will affect my chances for getting a loan with either a bank or Prosper. I'm just praying that it won't impact my score, and I'm also disputing it and trying to get it removed. So anyway, that's where I currently stand with Prosper: 3% funded, two days to go, and having doubts as to whether that's really the way to go, at least until I've tried another option. I've got the weekend to think about it and talk it over with my husband, but if anybody's got any advice that could sway my decision either way, I'd really love to hear it. Labels: credit cards, debt consolidation, evil, Prosper |