"This is Peggy . . ."

You know that Discover credit card commerical, where "Peggy" is the male customer service representative with the thick accent and he gives the confusing run around to the consumer's credit card problem.  Well, I had a similar problem with Capital One and as a result I have closed my Capital One account.

As you probably know if you read this blog regularly, we don't use credit cards for day to day expenses.  But we do have a credit card and we do use it for travel expenses.  Back in May 2011, I went on a girls' trip to Las Vegas and ended up charging an outing on my credit card.  We didn't get what we contracted for and I learned a few lessons that I wanted to share. 

First, and I'm not sure if this is actually a tip that will work, but I learned not to sign a credit card slip for an outing before the outing is underway.  The company used the fact that I signed the credit card slip against me in the credit card dispute.  I had been drinking, we were in Vegas after all, and the slip was presented to me to sign before we got on our way.  When you sign the slip you are, evidently, aknowledging receipt of the services and since the service had not yet started I should have said I won't sign until the end of the night.  However, I'm not certain that we would have been able to go on the outing until I signed the credit card slip, so perhaps the suggestion should be to make some notation on the slip that I was being asked to sign before we got underway.  

Second, we did a charge back and when I received the letter from Captial One setting forth the company's response I should have responded in written form with my evidence.  Instead, I opted to call Capital One, which was an option presented in the correspondence that I received, but then spoke to a "Peggy" person, who did not speak English as a first language and told me that that I did not need to do anything that the dispue had been resolved.  I had plenty of evidence that we did not get the service we paid for, but I never presented such evidence in writing because I was told I did not need to.  Unfortunately, the person who was telling me what to do or not to do, was wrong or did not understand my questions (because of the language difficulties) and the end result was that Capital One counted my failure to respond, in writing, as agreement to the company's position (which again consisted of presenting a copy of the contract and a copy of the credit card slip signed by me).  Going forward, I will always respond in writing.

The Hazards of Debit Cards

We use our debit cards for 90% of our day to day transactions. We like debit cards because we can keep track of our spending, we avoid debt by avoiding credit cards and by spending present dollars, we stick to our budget and our allowance system since we are limited in what we can spend.  90% of the time our debit card system works well, but everyone once in a while something goes wrong and since our debit cards are tied to our checking accounts, when things go wrong they can go way wrong.

Mr. Sam recently ordered car parts (for our antique car, his hobby) that totaled about $300.   Since the purchase exceeded $300, we discussed and agreed that he could go forward with the purchase (one of our rules requires us to discuss and agree on any purchase over $300).  He waited until the second half of the month to make the purchase so that he would have more than enough money to go forward with the purchase.

Unfortunately, the car part company put the $300 transaction through three times on his debit card which triggered an overdraft to our main account.  Ugh!  I was furious and disappointed and I really want to call the company and chew them out.  Luckily, Mr. Sam noticed the problem the day it happened so he got on the phone with Wells Fargo and the car company to work a solution.  The car company had reversed the two extra charges and Wells Fargo agreed to forego the overdraft fee, but it took a number of calls and about and hour of time.

Vacation Season

I have posted before about our vacation budgeting/planning system. I have used this system now since 2007 and it continues to work well for us. We just returned from a long weekend trip and the known costs, the rental cottage and the fishing trip, were prepaid prior to the trip.  The remainder of the trip expenses were budgeted, as previously explained, I normally budget $100 day for each of us and we save that up in our ING travel/vacation account.  However, this trip was more of a nature/relaxing trip and we didn't come close to spending that much each day.  My annual girls trip, over Memorial Day weekend, is coming up so I'll put the money we didn't spend back into our ING account and I have just a few weeks to get ready for the next trip.

2012 Savings Goals - Mid-April Report

(1) Max out 401k(s) - $10,705 (31%)(goal is $34,000)
(2) Max out IRA(s) - $1500 (15%)(goal is $10,000)
(3) Add to e/r fund - $ 2800 (28%)(goal is $10,000)
(4) Pay down mortgage - $1245 (25%)(goal is $5,000)
(5) House projects - $350 (7%) (goal is $5,000)
(6)  Trading account fund - $0 (0%(goal is $5,000)

Total - $16,600 (24%)


At present, we are about $3300 behind on our 2012 goals.

We have started to put money aside for the funding of our 2012 IRAs.  But, because Mr. Sam's employment status is somewhat precarious (his division is in the process of being sold to another company) we are putting that IRA money into an ING sub-account.  We won't invest these monies until we have confirmation that Mr. Sam has a position with the new company or has a new job.

If you are funding your 2011 IRA, Monday, April 17th is your last day to do so.

2012 Savings Goals - April Report

(1) Max out 401k(s) - $10,105 (30%)(goal is $34,000)
(2) Max out IRA(s) - $1000 (10%)(goal is $10,000)
(3) Add to e/r fund - $ 2400 (24%)(goal is $10,000)
(4) Pay down mortgage - $1245 (25%)(goal is $5,000)
(5) House projects - $300 (6%) (goal is $5,000)
(6)  Trading account fund - $0 (0%(goal is $5,000)

Total - $15,050 (22%)


At present, we are about $3500 behind on our 2012 goals but we are slowly starting to catch up from our slow start this year.  We have paid off the credit card, which we used to pay for Mr. Sam's recent certification class.  He has another class he wants to take and we are hoping that the company might pay for this one, if not that will be another $2500 on education this year.

We are going away this weekend, trip has been paid for already and daily spending money was saved in our ING travel/vacation savings account.  Just have to stop at the bank tonight and make a withdraw of the cash for day to day spending.

Ouch!

Got gas this morning on my way to work.  $4 a gallon for regular and $60+ to fill up my tank.  Ouch!

Check out this handy county by county map of average gas prices.  According to the map, my county, Palm Beach, has the highest average gas prices in Florida, along with Collier County on the Southwest coast.  If you zoom in, you can get the actual prices of gas from station to station and I determined that I'm actually paying more at my local station than other stations in the vicinity.  But, my local gas station has the best cafe con leche so on an early morning fill up, like today, its worth it to pay more for my gas to get my hands on that yummy cuban coffee.

Above and Beyond

Recently, I gave Nordstrom (and I really want to add an extra S on the end of its name) a hard time for stalking me  on the interwebs offering me products that are no longer available.  As an aside, they are still stalking me and still offering up that great tweed coat that isn't available.

As I mentioned in the stalking post, I recently purchased a number of items from Nordstom during their half yearly sale.  I normally have my online orders sent to my office, since  I know someone will always be available to sign for the package.  As such, I received two medium size boxes from Nordstrom this past week.  I promptly unpacked the boxes and repacked into one box for ease of transport.  When I got home, I was going through the packing invoice and the items received when I realized that three small fashion bracelets that I ordered for gifts were missing in action.

The next day I called Nordstrom and explained my problem to a very nice woman, not located on the other side of the world I might mention, and she asked whether I had checked the packing material, because they often tuck small items into the packing paper.  Uh oh, I thought, I promptly pulled all the packing material out and tossed it and since it was the next day the cleaning folks had already come and gone and emptied my office trash.  Being the honest person I am, I told the Nordstrom customer service rep exactly what I had done and further told her that I assumed I had tossed out the missing bracelets.  I wasn't too upset, these were fashion bracelets that had cost about $10 each that I had bought as gifts for my god-daughters and my niece, so if they were gone they were gone and I was out $30.

Well, imagine my surprise when Nancy told me they would send out three replacement bracelets and would send them second day so I'd have them sooner rather than later.  She told me it was always possible that they the bracelets, since they were small, had not made it into the box and since there was no way to check they would rather send me the replacements.

I say, such customer service is above and beyond and one of the reasons that Nordstrom is on my fave list.

You Are Doing it Wrong - Nordstrom Spying Addition

I am a fan of the Nordstrom stores.  Good quality products, friendly and helpful service and an unbeatable return policy.   As a result, it is one of my go to stores both as a brick and mortar store and for online shopping.  I recently bought a bunch of stuff during their half yearly sale.

After my post on Dynamic Pricing, I've been paying attention to what advertisements follow me around on the web.  And Nordstrom has been stalking me left and right throwing up photos of products it thinks I might like.  And they are getting the photos right, but why would they offer me something I like that is out of stock?  They keep throwing up this photo of this very cute Nanette Lepore tweed jacket, but it is completely out of stock.  I really can't figure out the point of this type of stalking.

The same thing happens on Amazon, if I buy an iPhone charger to leave in my car, Amazon then offers me more iPhone auto chargers.  How many cars does Amazon think I own?