Adventures of Sam

Drinking and Shopping Don't Mix

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Tue, 21 May 2013 21:27:00 +0000

I enjoyed this fun Atlantic Wire post on shopping under the influence.

I have been to enough Palm Beach charity events over the years to understand the silent auction (and live auction) bidding dollars go way up the more people drink.

As such, I would add a section to the article that one should generally get a pass for shopping/bidding at charity auctions, since its for charity.

Otherwise, I thought the suggestions in this guide were great. Definitely leave the credit cards at home if you are shopping after drinking and have a friend there to talk you out of bad ideas.

I often find myself in trouble when it comes to art, because (1) I love original art, (2) I'll spend good money for art, and (3) I'm often admiring art while holding a glass of wine. So I stick to my rules and anything over a $100 requires a cooling off period. I'll take a photo of the art with my iPhone, I'll take a business card, but I generally don't buy art on a first viewing.

NetWorthIQ

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:25:00 +0000

Although I lost my blog link to our NetWorthIQ.Com profile, it looks like the system is back up and running. Whoo-hoo!

2013 Goals - May Update

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:59:00 +0000

(1) Max out 401k(s) - $15,736 (45%) (goal is $35,000)
(2) Max out IRA(s) - $6,013 (55%) (goal is $11,000)
(3) Add to e/r fund - $3,600 (36%) (goal is $10,000)
(4) Pay down mortgage - $1,660 (25%) (goal is $5,000)
(5) Trading account fund - $50 (1%) (goal is $5,000)
(6) House projects - $900 (30%) (goal is $3,000)

Total: $27,959 (41%)

We are about $1400 ahead of where we should be.

Otherwise, we continue to chug along. I've got some unbudgeted car expenses coming up, new tires, new breaks, tune up, etc. which is likely to run more than a thousand. My eating out/ordering in expenses continue to be high. The busier I am at work, and I'm super busy right now, the more I spend on eating in because I don't have the time or energy to prepare food. Last week I spent close to $100 on eating in (yikes!) which is way too much.

I was trying to get into networthiq today, and its not working. Another yikes! I love that site and I have a lot of data stored in it, so I'm trying not to freak out and hoping it will be back up and running shortly.

Dow Closes Above 15,000

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Wed, 08 May 2013 12:45:00 +0000

Did you hear that the Dow closed above 15,000 yesterday for the first time ever?

How did you celebrate? Me, I updated our NetWorthIQ profile and reviewed our Roth IRA holdings, which is where we hold individual stocks, to see if there are any holdings we should be selling.

ProFlower's Scummy Scam

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Fri, 03 May 2013 12:25:00 +0000

At one point I used to regularly use ProFlowers as my go to company to send flowers across the miles. It was so easy as I had all my information and my recipients' information stored. I could just log in, click, click and click and flowers would arrive for birthdays, Mother's Day and other occasions. But there was a reason I stopped using them and that reason reared its ugly head this past week.

I had a coupon code for ProFlowers and since Mother's Day and a birthday is coming up I figured sending flowers would be easy for both. I logged in, picked my flowers, one arrangement was $25 and the other was $29 with my coupon code. And then onto easy step two, picked my delivery day, clicked on my recipients (data already saved) and then went to check out.

Ugh!! Now I remember why I stopped using ProFlowers, when I went to check out, up popped charge after charge. Delivery charge, delivery day up charge, care and handling charge. That discount coupon doesn't end up being much of a discount with all the charges at the end. The total for the two arrangements was more than $120. In the end I cancelled the order, just can't give my business to this company even if its super easy.

For one of the recipients, I have a local florist that I will order from (have used them before and they do a great job). I'll figure out something for the other recipient.

Ask, and you shall receive

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Thu, 02 May 2013 12:32:00 +0000

I have been a DirecTv customer for years. We also have an HBO package which includes access to HBO Go. HBO Go is a great service, we can watch any and all HBO series, including past seasons and current seasons, on an iPad or iPhone anywhere (assuming access to WiFi) at anytime.

But, there is a down side of DirecTv and HBO and that is the price. While, I feel like we get a lot of enjoyment out of the service, DirecTv has been inching up and inching up in price. So I've developed a habit of calling once every 13 months or so and asking for a discount. I used to call armed with information from their competitors, but now I just call up and tell them I want to keep our same services but I want to pay less and it seems to work.

Last night I called, and I received a $10 discount on our DirecTv package and then I spoke to someone in the premium channel department and received a $10 discount on our HBO package. The general discount is good for a year and the HBO discount is good for six months. So in 5 minutes I saved us $180.

This is a good lesson for all who are working on killing debt, sticking to a budget or increasing savings. While you may have to cut certain things out in your quest for improved personal finances, there are also opportunities to keep the same services but pay less.

When we were killing our credit card debt in 2007 I regret that I never called, on the cards that were not 0%, and asked for reductions in interest rate or some other accommodations. Last year, we combined and redid our car insurance (more than 5 years after we got married). We dramatically increased our coverage and saved a ton of money (which we put towards our umbrella insurance policy). We could have saved thousands of dollars over the 5 years of insurance status quo, but we didn't make the time to investigate our options.

2013 Goals - April Update

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:54:00 +0000

(1) Max out 401k(s) - $13,392 (38%) (goal is $35,000)
(2) Max out IRA(s) - $6,010 (55%) (goal is $11,000)
(3) Add to e/r fund - $3,200 (32%) (goal is $10,000)
(4) Pay down mortgage - $1,245 (25%) (goal is $5,000)
(5) Trading account fund - $50 (1%) (goal is $5,000)
(6) House projects - $800 (27%) (goal is $3,000)

Total: $24,697 (23%)

We are a couple of thousand ahead of where we should be. I'm not sure how that happened except that Mr. Sam is ahead on his 401k contributions which may have occurred when he received his bonus but just showed up now.

An Interesting Analysis of the Envelope System of Budgeting

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 13:18:00 +0000

I enjoyed this interesting post from Slate by Emily Oster on the Dave Ramsey envelope budgeting system.

While I am a big fan of Dave Ramsey's philosophy and we utilized his snowball system of paying down our unsecured debt, I've never used his budgeting plan.

Rather we use a allowance system which works like this. I pay all the fixed and semi-fixed bills, the mortgage, car insurance, utilities, etc. Then I allocate and move money to savings which can include savings for upcoming annual bills, i.e. property taxes, or upcoming expenses, i.e. vacations.

Then each of us receives the same amount for day to day discretionary spending which includes groceries, gas, dry cleaning, personal expenses, gifts (but not holiday spending), eating out, entertainment. And part of the reason for this is our expenditures in these categories changes from month to month as Ms. Oster pointed out.

Example: You go to the store and milk is more expensive than usual (something about the sequester?) Because you have your limited grocery envelope, you have to respond to this by buying less of some grocery. You could buy less milk, or fewer veggies, or less pasta. However: It may very well be that you’d rather keep with your normal grocery purchase and cut back somewhere else—say, two fewer lattes this week. But because the “coffee” budget is separate from the grocery budget, you end up with the same number of lattes and fewer bananas.

Additionally, neither of us likes to feel overly restricted so with one pot to spend on day to day spending we can spend as we like on different categories but we restrict the overall amount of money.

How do you budget your day to day expenses?

Remote Check Deposit - Follow Up

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:33:00 +0000

Earlier, I posted about Wells Fargo's new remote deposit feature which allows you to take a photo of your check and deposit it remotely.

Since its a new month, I used the remote deposit feature of our first two rental checks received in April. I found the feature easy to use and saved me the 10 minutes of running to the bank to deposit the check at the ATM (times two, saved me 20 minutes).

My only complaint is that I'm limited to $1000.00 remote deposit per day. However, I'm not clear if that limitation is per account (we have different accounts set up for our rental properties). So, for the first two rental checks, just under $1000.00 each, I received the checks on separate days and was able to remotely deposit both. But, the third rental checks is $1500.00 and it was rejected when I tried to deposit it using the remote deposit feature. I'm going to call Wells Fargo and see if I can get my daily balance bumped up to $1500.00 per day.

You know its spring in Florida when . . .

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 12:28:00 +0000

You know its spring in Florida when you are at the Super Wal-Mart at 6:00 a.m. buying rat traps.

Now I'm not in charge of rat wrangling, rather Mr. Sam is takes care of this landlording task (thank goodness). So, he was at Super Wal-Mart early this morning buying traps.

Here in Florida we have problems with roof rats due in large part to our climate and the abundance of fruit trees. And, at one of our rental properties, we have a beautiful, big mango tree that produces tons of fruit. This tree produces so much fruit that its more than our tenants or ourselves could ever eat.

I've heard about some food pantries that run back yard fruit drives so I'm looking for an agency that is local to us where we can donate these mangos. In the meant time Mr. Sam is over at the property setting up traps.

Remote Check Deposit

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 08:00:00 +0000

Between the collection of rent checks and reimbursements from work, I can find myself at the Wells Fargo ATM depositing checks multiple times in one week. While I'm happy to have the money, each of those trips to the ATM takes at least 15 minutes. And, for some reason my local ATM seems to be out of order on a regular basis so at least one in ten trips requires a second trip to the next ATM.

I just recently learned, while I was at the ATM on Saturday, that Wells Fargo now has smartphone deposits. I already had the Wells Fargo app for my iPhone so it was easy to simply click on a tab on the app to add remote deposits to my available services. One of the helpful Wells Fargo bankers walked me through how it works and the process is super easy. You simply sign into your account on your iPhone, you select mobile deposit from the menu options, take a photo of the front of the check and then the bank, select the account where you want the money to go, type in the amount and deposit the check. Then you hold onto the check for fourteen days and then destroy it.

I'm very excited about this new option and I think its going to save me at least an hour of time a month.

Free Credit Report

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:49:00 +0000

Following up on my earlier post about free credit reports, I decided it was probably time for me to review my credit report. My last review of my credit report was when we were refinancing our primary home last summer and at that time I purchased my report and score from MyFico.com.

This time around I obtained my report from the official site where consumers can obtain a copy of their credit report from the big three agencies. Most of the information appeared to be accurate and up to date, with the exception of my home address, which is reported with a variety of errors. But, I was pleased to see that our home mortgage was accurately reflected as paid in full with Wells Fargo and our new refinances loan with CitiMortgage.

The most interesting part of the report, to me, were the credit inquiries.

American Express is, basically, in love with me in that they inquire as to my status every other month. In 2012 they checked on me six times and I haven't had an account with them for more than 10 years. Clearly, they want me back.

I also was intrigued by the number of credit inquires that occurred in the month following our mortgage refinance. Clearly those who would offer us credit received some kind of notification that we had just taken on a new loan.

2013 Goals - Post Bonus Update

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 07:00:00 +0000

(1) Max out 401k(s) - $7644 (22%) (goal is $35,000)
(2) Max out IRA(s) - $4508 (41%) (goal is $11,000)
(3) Add to e/r fund - $2400 (24%) (goal is $10,000)
(4) Pay down mortgage - $830 (17%) (goal is $5,000)
(5) Trading account fund - $50 (1%) (goal is $5,000)
(6) House projects - $600 (20%) (goal is $3,000)

Total: $16,032 (23%)

With Mr. Sam's added bonus monies, we are currently $109 ahead of where we should be for the year. Whoo-Hoo!! I doubt it will last, but I enjoy being ahead.

Bonus Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 14:57:00 +0000

Mr. Sam recently received a small bonus at work. Nothing huge, but every little bit counts.

First, the bonus was subject to his 401k withholdings, so a chunk has gone to the 401k, which left a couple thousand.

Second, since its Mr. Sam's bonus he wanted to take a chunk, a third to be specific, and put it in his everyday checking account. His point is that he struggles with our allowance system (true) and he'd like to have a cushion. I wasn't in favor of this plan because I believe that Mr. Sam will spend as much money as is available to him (hence the allowance system) and that this "cushion" won't last 90 days. But, he convinced me to let him try* and I guess we'll see what happens. We probably should have made a friendly wager.

Third, the rest of the money will be put towards our savings goals.

*In our house any expenditure over $300 has to be discussed and agreed and we counted this experiment as such. I don't want the impression to be that Mr. Sam's is "hen-pecked" as this rule works both ways.

The Doctor Will See You

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 12:19:00 +0000

I'm not surprised at all about that this NBC News.com article identifies south Florida as a hot spot for identity theft by and at health care providers. Time after time staff at Florida hospitals and doctor's offices are in the news for stealing patient's Social Security numbers for identity theft purposes.

Think about it, every time you see a new doctor and fill out an intake form there is a spot for your Social Security number and most people think you have to provide it. "Quick said: 'you do not have to provide your Social Security number, but you do have to provide enough information for you to be distinguishable from other people.'"

I stopped providing my SS number to doctor's offices long ago and from time to time I get some push back on it. A couple of years ago I was trying to make an appointment with a new health care provider, a dermatologist, and the intake person would not give me an appointment unless I gave her my Social Security number. I declined and sought out care from another provider. That has been the only time I had a real problem with declining to provide the number to a health care provider.

If you are utilizing a government health care insurance system, i.e. Medicare, Medicaid the VA, you, unfortunately, have to provide your Social Security number because that is the way those programs identify you. But most private insurance companies no longer utilize Social Security numbers as an identifier and there really is no reason for a doctor to need this information from you except to increase there ability to collect a debt.

This handy list from the IRS provides the situations where there is a legal requirement to fork over your numbers.

Free Report or Free Snoop

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:12:00 +0000

You may have heard that public officials, like Hillary Clinton and Vice President Biden, as well as celebs, like Beyonce and Jay-Z, were the victims of hacking and that their personal finance information was disclosed.

Well now, it sounds like, according to this report, that some of that information came from AnnualCreditReport.com. AnnualCreditReport.com is the site which the three credit reporting agencies set up so consumers can gain free access to their credit reports. Scary stuff to hear that, possible, hackers were able to defeat the security features of the site (which I've had trouble answer for myself). But, I guess, now that I think about it, if your bio details are out in the public domain someone with time and energy could probably answer the questions posed by this site.

The last time I checked my credit report was right before our refinance. This news story reminds me that it is probably time to check again.

Sounds Familiar

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 13:49:00 +0000

Today on Slate, in the Dear Prudence column there was an inquiry from a young professional swimming in debt.

I’m an attorney with a mountain of student and credit card debt. Before I got married, I told my wife about this, but thought I owed about $100,000. It turns out to be about $170,000. When I finally added up the total eight months ago and told her, she accused me of lying previously. My job barely pays me enough to cover our monthly expenses, but I’m supposed to be moving up. I continually look for new jobs and am trying to advance in my company, but that takes time. My wife is in her early 30s and is desperate to have kids and buy our own home, but she insists we can't because of our financial situation. When I have gone to interviews and was not hired, she blamed me for doing something wrong to blow it. A few days ago she found out one of her friends had a couple interviews for a much higher paying job. She became extremely frustrated, insulted my work ethic, and now won't speak to me. I don't know what to do. Should I stay in a relationship that is this unsupportive?
—No Pots to Piss in

I'm afraid this is a common problem, and it seems to only be getting worse and college, graduate school and professional school go up in price. A quick review of the ABA tuition charts show that tuition at a private law school in 2001 ran about $23,000, but in 2011 was up to $39,000. According to the New York Times, 90% of law students finance their education and the average debt in 2001 was $70,000 and in 2011 was $125,000. So, $170,000 in debt for a private law school education doesn't seem that far off from these "average" numbers.

Here is Prudie's response:
Dear Pots,
It’s too bad your wife is incapable of procuring one of those high-paying jobs she thinks are so easy to get. Sadly, there are so many young people in your situation—people who wonder if crushing debt will ever allow them to start families or have a normal life. When you told your then-fiancée you were one of those burdened people, the two of you should have looked closely at your finances and started figuring out a long-term plan toward solvency. If that didn’t interest her, she should have walked. Instead, you now have another burden: a punitive spouse who blames you for everything. I hope your health insurance covers couples counseling. Even if it doesn't, paying for a few sessions will clarify whether you can save a marriage in which you get the silent treatment because someone else got a job.
—Prudie

Before Mr. Sam and I moved in together we had a major financial summit, in which we brought our credit reports and a list of debts and assets. At the point of our financial summit we were in love and in a committed relationship. I remember that I was worried about what I was going to learn and if it was going to impact our relationship and our plan for the future. Luckily, his disclosure was better than I thought and I could see a way forward together. But, we didn't actually create a joint plan for killing the debt or for our financial futures until a couple of years later when we were married.
For the couple in the Dear Prudie column, it seems like they didn't have a financial disclosure discussion until they were already engaged and the disclosure wasn't complete. I also find myself wondering about the wife's career and how much she is contributing to killing the debt.

How about you, did you have a financial summit with your significant other before you married? Have you walked away from a relationship due to a person's poor financial skills/habits? Has student loan debt impacted your life choices?

Chase-ing My Credit Card Payment Date

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 18:27:00 +0000

I'm not a fan of credit cards, but we have one general credit card (Chase Rewards) which we use for travel, both business and pleasure, and we've used it for a couple of recurring charges including a charity payment and an alarm payment related to one of our rental homes.

Since I don't use a credit card with frequency I seem to struggle to integrate payment of the bill into our spending plan. Last month I paid the Chase bill on the last day of the month and had to have an interest payment reversed (there was a snag with their system). This month, I missed paying the bill all together by two days. I just paid it in full, the statement charges, charges to date this month, and the late payment, but I know they'll ding me for interest as well next month.

Part of the problem is that the Chase bill due date is the 5th of the month. Based on how I get paid, how we collect rent from our tenants and how I pay our bills I don't normally pay the beginning of the month bills until the end of the first week. So this month, March, I've not paid our early month bills yet. I plan to pay them on Thursday when I get paid. As such, the timing of this bill has tripped me up a couple of times.

The other part of the problem is that I was waiting on a $700+ reimbursement from my company due to travel in Feb. I've asked my assistant to timely process my reimbursements, but it is still taking too long to get my money back (which is why I put it on the credit card in the first place) and I'm reluctant to pay the bill with my present cash. But of course, the end result is that I only deposited my reimbursement check this morning and I still had to pay the Chase bill out of my own pocket.

Brainstorming about this problem, I have already sent Chase a message to see if the due date for the bill can be changed to the second half of the month or changed to a date later into the month. I'm also just going to have to come to terms with paying the Chase bill even if I'm awaiting funds from my company. I should realize that I will have gotten a 15 or 20 day float and paying the bill myself will only mean the loss of those funds for a few days.

Happy St. Valentine's Day - Part III

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 13:39:00 +0000

Last week, in honor of St. Valentine's Day, I posted about the marriage tax penalty.

So if you were feeling blue about having to pay more in taxes as a married couple I'm here to let you know that you probably are wealthier if you are married.

Sure when two people combine household there is a certain level of savings by combining forces. But, that doesn't appear to be the only reason. Most interesting to me is that the education and capability for wealth may be coming before marriage since college educated folks are more likely to marry.

But, stay married as those who divorce are financially worse off, on average, than those who never married.

Speaking from my own experience, even though Mr. Sam brought a fair amount of debt into our marriage, getting married has dramatically increased our combined net worth. As of January 2013 our combined net worth is $1,143,223. In December 2006 my "individual" net worth was $582,800 (this number included the primary home that we bought together and also an investment property that we bought together). In 2007 our combined net worth was $807,539, which means that in six years of marriage we jointly increased our combined net worth by $335,694 (or about $56,000 a year).

2013 Goals - Update

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 12:22:00 +0000

I'm not sure why it takes us so long each year to shake of the holidays and get going with our New Year's financial (and other) goals. But here we are, its after Valentine's Day and Mr. Sam just got our Excel chart put together for our 2013 savings goals. I have not updated our spending plan for 2013, but hope to do that this Saturday.

So, with out further ado, here is our first 2013 savings goals update.

(1) Max out 401k(s) - $6160 (18%) (goal is $35,000)
(2) Max out IRA(s) - $1008 (9%) (goal is $11,000)
(3) Add to e/r fund - $1600 (16%) (goal is $10,000)
(4) Pay down mortgage - $830 (17%) (goal is $5,000)
(5) Trading account fund - $50 (62%) (goal is $5,000)
(6) House projects - $40 (13%) (goal is $3,000)

Total to date is $10,048 and we are about $500 short of where we should be.

Happy St. Valentine's Day - Part II

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 20:06:00 +0000

Are you planning to get engaged or married over St. Valentine's Day?

If so, there is a tool that let's you know whether you'll end up with a marriage tax bonus or a marriage tax penalty. But, first you'll need to get your hands on your intended's tax return as the tool needs some serious data to give you an accurate result.

A marriage tax penalty is when:

a wife and husband pay more income tax filing jointly as a couple than they would if they had remained single and filed as individuals.

A marriage bonus occurs when:

a couple pays less tax filing jointly than they would if they were not married and filed singly.

Marriage penalties only hit couples where both spouses work. And, under the 2013 Fiscal Cliff work compromise, it appears that the marriage tax penalty has gotten worse for those at the upper end of the income range. I'm still trying to sort out all the tax changes from the Fiscal Cliff compromise, but this article from Bloomberg provides some guidance on the various thresholds for when higher taxes and higher tax rates kick in.

I try not to get into politics here at Adventures of Sam, so I don't want to get into a Republican/Democratic Party debate on taxes. But I'll state for the record that I'm actually in favor of higher taxes and I'm in favor of a progressive tax system.

But, I'm not in favor of a system that provides for a marriage tax penalty on $150,000 in income. Higher tax rates kick in at $400,000 for an individual and $450,000 for a married couple. Sure, if a couple is making more than $450,000 a year its hard to have any sympathy for them. But, think about a hard working professional couple in which both spouses are putting in 12+ hour days, they may have significant student loans that paid for those professional degrees, a mortgage, expenses related to kids and our government is penalizing (with higher taxes) either the wife (more often its the wife) or the husband for having a professional career. I'd like to see the marriage penalty reduced even at the higher income levels, if higher tax rates kick in at $400,000 for an individual than maybe the higher tax rates for couples should kick in at $600,000 or something like that.

Happy St. Valentine's Day - Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 18:24:00 +0000

Happy St. Valentine's Day to you!

What are you doing to celebrate heart day? Are you sending flowers, going out to dinner, buying gifts for your spouse, your children or your dog? Do you boycott Valentine's Day as nothing more than a Hallmark holiday?

The Atlantic has a great series of charts showing how much is being spent for today and on who. Not surprising to this dog owner, a lot of people buy gifts for their pooches.

Besides a few heart shaped dog treats for Snarfle I "spent" the following for Valentine's Day. First, one of the organizations that I support has run a Valentine's Day fundraising event for the last few years. Donate $20 and they'll send a Valentine's Day card to someone in your honor. I did three of those cards, so that was a total of $60.

Then I sent my nephew, niece, god-daughter and her sister Valentine's Day cards which enclosed checks. $50 each for my nephew and niece, and $30 each for my god-daughter and her sister, so that is a total of $160. Then I send a few regular cards out to a few folks, so I'll say $5 in additional cards and postage. That gives me a grand total of $225.

You'll probably notice that Mr. Sam is not on this list . . . Like Christmas, we don't gift to each other on Valentine's Day either.

How about you, how much did you spend on St. Valentine's Day?

ING is no more . . .

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 18:53:00 +0000

Boo hoo, ING is no more. Just went to sign into ING and now its Capital One 360. The rest of the site, the features, the set up, the multiple accounts, automatic debits, transfer system all appears to be the same.

As I've previously posted, I'm not a Capital One fan (they screwed me over on a credit card dispute after giving me the wrong information). Since I'm only earning .75% it won't take much for me to move our money away from Capital One 360 the first hint of trouble. According to my research Ever Bank is offering 1.05%.

Debit Card Diversion

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 20:19:00 +0000

We use our debit cards for 95% of our day to day transactions (the other 5% is cash). As a result, I review our accounts online at least two or three times a week.

In the middle of last week I noticed a "funny" transaction that was in my pending transactions. What was funny about it? First, it was a debit card transaction and I do all of my transactions as check card (meaning I don't enter my PIN code). Second, it was an online transaction for an entity that I did not recognize. So that would mean that my PIN code would have been used for an on-line transaction, something that I never do. I checked with Mr. Sam, as he sometimes uses my debit card, and he didn't recognize the company name either. But, since the details on my pending transactions become clearer when they are no longer pending I figured I would give it a day or two.

So on Friday, at happy hour, I went to pay the check with my debit card and it was declined. Yikes! First, having my card declined embarrasses me no matter what. So I called Wells Fargo and it was tough getting past the questions they use to verify that I'm me. Besides giving them the charge/debit card number, my on-line id, the answers to my security questions, they also had to verify recent transactions not just on my personal account (the one tied to my debit/charge card) but on my other accounts.

Once I had verified that it was me, the representative from Wells Fargo indicated that my card had been flagged for fraud based on recent transactions. She read through the transactions, totaling almost a $1000 and I confirmed that those transactions were not mine (the charges took place at stores that I don't shop at and further took place in another state that I have not visited recently). So my card was canceled and my friend paid the happy hour bill.

When I got home I went through my online history and called Wells Fargo back, as instructed, and challenged the other transaction that I had eyed earlier in the week and another pending transaction that had occurred in Ohio (I live in Florida). The transactions that the Wells Fargo representative had covered with me on the phone had all been trapped by the fraud algorithm so that money was never debited from my account. The second Wells Fargo representative that I spoke to flagged the pending transaction and indicated that they would give me a conditional credit on the first transaction that had gone through and debited my account.

The next day, on Saturday, I visited my local Wells Fargo branch and they gave me a temporary debit/charge card while I await my new card. The pending Ohio transaction never debited my account and has disappeared as of this week from my online statement.

In the many, many years that I have had a debit/charge card with Wells Fargo (f/k/a Wachovia and First Union) this is the first time I've had a fraud problem. I was impressed that Wells Fargo's fraud alert system caught the vast majority of the fraudulent charges before they made it to my account and the money was debited. I was also happy that Wells Fargo promptly provided a conditional credit of the one debit card transaction and that money was in my account the next day. I am also happy that I have a temporary debit/charge card to use while I wait on my new card.

28 Tricks from ZenHabits

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 12:55:00 +0000

28 helpful tricks from ZenHabits to help you stay on track with your 2013 goals.

Hint # 13 resonated with me since its so similar to the $100 and $300 rule. When you think you want something, put it on the planner a month from now. When that month rolls around and you still want it, OK.