Sneaky Fees from American Express Charges

Posted on May 15th, 2008 in Credit Cards by Smarty

I recently accepted an offer to receive the American Express Business Gold Card and was told that I can link the points to my existing personal American Express Blue Card. I thought it would be a great idea to have two credit cards point to one rewards system.

It turns out that American Express (silently) charges a $10 Linkage Fee for linking the two rewards programs together. I called up the customer service in American Express and asked about the charge.

The customer service department immediately transferred me to the Membership Rewards program. I explained the situation to the representative from the Membership Rewards department, but the lady had an attitude and transferred me to another department.

Finally, I ended up speaking a representative by the name of Michael. I told him that I was not aware of the charge for linking the two membership rewards together and was never informed about it. I asked to have the Linkage Fee reversed.

Michael said that he would have to unlink my membership program for my personal American Express Blue Card to reverse the Linkage Fee. After a few minutes, he was successful in unlinking my personal American Express Blue Card, and left all the reward points in the new Gold card.

I questioned about the reward points staying in the Gold card and he answered that the Gold card has more membership rewards. I think the real reason is that they want to trap me in keeping the Gold card, because it has an annual fee.

I had always been very impressed with American Express and their customer service, but they have let me down this time. I was not happy that American Express is charging a fee to have all the membership reward points together. It is really to their benefit, and both parties would benefit. Moreover, I was not satisfied with their customer service and how they handle this situation.

Carnival of Personal Finance #152

Posted on May 14th, 2008 in News & Opinion by Smarty

Money Under 30 is hosting the latest Carnival of Personal Finance, the 152nd edition. This week’s Carnival is full of excellent articles from all over the web. Here are the host’s Editor’s Picks:

You Don’t Need That! 8 Tricks for Impule Control
10 Steps to Avoid Becoming a Millionaire
From a Yield of -99.79% to +9.99% This Year So Far
The Problem of Accounting and Budgeting For Cash Expenses
Are You Ready for a Disaster?

My article, My Goals and Progress May 2008 is posted on Carnival Of Personal Finance #152.

Cash Advances: Quick Money in a Hurry

Posted on May 13th, 2008 in Uncategorized by Smarty

With the economy in the state that it is these days, money has been tight all over the place. More and more people are finding themselves with money troubles. When times get tough, people turn to alternative methods to be able to make ends meet. One of the most popular of these is the cash advance. A cash advance can get you out of a pinch in a time of need.

Getting a cash advance, which is also known as a payday loan, is a pretty straightforward process. There are cash advance stores all over the country. All you have to do is walk right in, provide proof that you’re over the age of 18, and that you have over $1000 in monthly earnings. Some places require proof of residency and proof of citizenship as well. Payday loans are named as such because they’re normally due at the borrower’s next paycheck, which is generally about a week or two later. People with bad credit might want to try a no teletrack cash advance loan. These are payday loans that do not require credit checks. All they require is proof of income, such as pay stubs or a letter from an employer. These places do take a small fee for the convenience of the cash advance. It can range anywhere from $10 to $30, per $100 that is loaned. It’s a small price to pay when you need cash in a hurry.

Are bill collectors hounding you? Are you behind on your car payments? Is rent due tomorrow, but you don’t get paid till next week? Don’t get discouraged. A cash advance is available to just about anybody. And these days, payday loans are even available over the internet! Getting the cash you need has never been easier. Now you can stop struggling and stop worrying, because cash advances are right at your fingertips.

This is a sponsored post.

 

My Goals and Progress May 2008

Posted on May 7th, 2008 in News & Opinion by Smarty

I had jury duty service on May 1st and May 2nd. As a contractor, the company I work for would not compensate me for the time I spent on jury duty service. However, the government would pay me $40 for each day I served for jury duty service, for a total of $80. Unfortunately, the government’s pay would hardly match my contractual pay, but at least I can use the $80 for lunch and dinner and feel good that I have done my civic duty.

As some of you know, there is a lot of sitting and waiting on jury duty service. I made use of the time and thought about my goals for this month and evaluate my progress thus far this year. Unfortunately, I did not have a laptop with me, so I had to resort to the traditional pen and paper method of taking notes.

Microsoft Money
I want to clean up and update the data in my financial tracking software, which is Microsoft Money. I made tons of trades in my brokerage account from Fidelity, but only some of the trades were recorded. In my effort to keep my account balance up to date, I plan to spend some time to reconcile the transactions for 2007. I estimate it would take 5 - 10 hours to get this job done.
Status: Fidelity Brokerage Account needs to be reconciled
Goal: Reconcile the transactions in Fidelity Brokerage Account by May 31st, 2008

Stock Market
I still monitor the stock market from day to day. I have made several trades last month. The stocks I traded last month were AMD, QID, and more. The stocks on my current watch list are NVDA, WFR, NE, DO, and more.
Goal: Make $2000 in profit for the month of May

e-Commerce Site
I encountered a little set back on this project, because one of my two partners dropped out at the end of April. He was the one with in-dept technical skills and who was responsible for building and programming the website.
My remaining partner and I have little web programming skills. We would have to resort to a third party service to support e-commerce features, such as web templates, shopping card and payment processing. The goal is to have a fully functional website by the end of this month.
Status: One of my partners dropped out of the project.
Goal: Look for a third party service to bring website live by the end of this month.

Related Posts
My Goals and Project Statuses April 2008

Carnival of Personal Finance #151

Posted on May 6th, 2008 in News & Opinion by Smarty

The 151st edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance is now online at Alpha Consumer, a blog authored by Kimberly Palmer for US News & World Report. Kimberly selected these articles for “Editor’s Choice:”

Money Management in Marriage
Real Life Example of Why You Need an Emergency Fund
Gen Xers, Ys: Are We a Bunch of Spendthrifts?
Ten Things You Must Carry in Your Purse or Wallet
Saving For Your Kids’ College

My article, Stock Challenge Results for April 2008 is posted on Carnival Of Personal Finance #151.

Stock Challenge Results for April 2008

Posted on May 1st, 2008 in Stocks by Smarty

The results for the Stock Challenge April 2008 are post below. There were four stocks that were picked: AMD, C, SGP, and RIMM. SGP had the highest percentage gains in April however, the contestant did not fulfill the requirements and link back to the blog.

Therefore, the official winner is The Dividend Guy. His pick Citigroup (C) opened at $22.61 on April 1, 2008 and closed at $25.27 on April 30, 2008, netting a percentage gain of 11.76% in a month. The Dividend Guy will receive the first prize. Vaughan will receive the second prize. Since Siddharth was one of the earlier participants, I will also send him a prize.

I have sold my shares of AMD in April. I lost confidence in the stock, at least for the short term, and have been looking at other stocks.

Transactions
3/18 Bought AMD 500 6.42 $3218.00
4/28 Sold AMD 500 6.05 $3016.98
Total Gains of -$201.02

Updated 5/3/2008
1st Prize of $20 cash was sent via PayPal to The Dividend Guy.
2nd Prize was unclaimed. No contact information was given for Vaughan.
Other Prize was unclaimed. No contact information was given for Siddharth.

New Blog Template Search

Posted on April 30th, 2008 in News & Opinion by Smarty

I am looking for a new blog template that is similar to my current theme. My current template is missing a few things and some people reported issues on how the blog is displayed on Internet Explorer. Please let me know if this blog displays properly for you.

Criteria for new blog template:

  • 3 columns
  • widget ready
  • loads quickly
  • simple to navigate
  • SEO compatible
  • adsense friendly
  • tagline below header

Carnival of Personal Finance #150

Posted on April 28th, 2008 in News & Opinion by Smarty

Carnival of Personal Finance #150 is posted on Lazy Man.

My article, Stock Challenge May 2008 is posted on Carnival Of Personal Finance #150.

Stock Challenge May 2008

Posted on April 25th, 2008 in Stocks by Smarty

Last month, I started the first Stock Challenge in April. We had several participants in April, and hopefully we will have more participants this month. I will post the results and the winners for the April Stock Challenge by the end of next week.

The Challenge
Pick a stock that you think will have the most percentage gains from the open price of May 1st to the close price of May 30, 2008. In the case of duplicates, the first person to post will be declared the winner, so enter early.

Requirements
Pick a stock and reply to the comments of this post for the record with a link to your blog.
The company stock must have a minimum market cap of $50MM at the start of May 1st, 2008.
The company stock must have a minimum stock price of $5.00 at the start of May1st, 2008.
The contestant can only pick one stock.
The contestant must have a blog and post the pick on his/her blog and link back to this post.

Rules
Entries must be submitted by Sunday May 11, 2008. The winners will be announced here after May 31th, 2008.

Prizes
1st Prize - $20 Cash (Payment made by PayPal)
2nd Prize - Choice of book from my collection
*Prizes will be shipped to the winners free of charged. If you are the declared winner, please provide your address to me via email (growingmoney (at) gmail.com).

My pick for this contest
I will pick NVDA.

Carnival of Personal Finance #149

Posted on April 23rd, 2008 in News & Opinion by Smarty

The Happy Rock is the host of the latest Carnival of Personal Finance. Here are the articles selected for Editor’s Choice.

The Choices We Make
This American’s Dream
The Spending Smart Philosophy: Controlling Spending is the Key to Building Wealth
What If Rent Was Already in the Bank?
I Have to Have It: The Impulse Purchase
5 Ways to Survive on One Income
The Psychology of the $1,000 Emergency Fund

My article, My Goals and Project Statuses April 2008 is posted on Carnival Of Personal Finance #149.

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