David Makes Cents .com

Every year, US credit card holders shell out over $12 Billion in credit card penalties, and this is in addition to interest charges, balance transfer fees, annual fees and cash advance charges! With penalties ranging from $15-$40 or more, it’s a real pain in the butt when they happen to you.It’s illegal for credit card companies to hide credit card fees but they are experts at burying them in fine print or making them difficult for card holders to understand. So it’s important that you know how to reduce the chances you’ll get innocently dinged for late payments and that you know what to look for in the fine print when you are shopping around for credit cards.

Tricks Credit Card Companies Play to Make You Pay

*If you don’t carry a balance, you don’t pay interest, right? Guess what, some credit cards make sure you give them something by charging a fee when you don’t carry a balance.

*If you send your payment with a regular envelope instead of the pre-printed envelope that came with your bill, some credit card companies will wait up to 5 days to record your payment after receiving it. Others may hold up your check processing if you write something in the “memo” area while it gets passed between departments.

*A few years ago, as long as your envelope was postmarked by your due date you were all right. Now most credit card lenders require your payment to be in their hands to count as on-time.

*Many credit card companies have chosen to shorten your billing periods from 31 to 20 days. That means more payments per year and less time to get your payment in.

*Some credit lenders purposely send out your statement a bit late so you have less time to get your payment in.

*If you get dinged with a penalty and it pushes your balance above your credit limit, guess what – that’s right, another fee plus you’re likely to see your interest rate increase also.

*A universal default clause gives your creditor the right to raise your interest rates when you miss a payment on another bill. Not all credit cards have this clause, but an estimated 40% do according to the Institute for Consumer Financial Education.

What you can do:

1. Set up automatic withdrawal from your checking account through online banking. Just make sure you always have enough money when your payment typically goes out or you’ll get smacked with an overdraft charge.
2. Send in your payment by mail the day you receive your statement (and use the envelope they provide you).

Check your statements each month for late fees to make sure you’re not getting penalized for one of the above tricks unknowingly or as a convenient “error.”

If you dispute your credit card penalty, you may have some clout if you carry a balance, threatening to move your balance to a low APR credit card. Rather than lose your business, your credit card company may reverse the fee. Even if you really did get your payment in late, if you make a call, you’ll probably get your penalty credited to your account if it’s your first penalty.

About the guest blogger:

Linda Bustos writes about using credit cards wisely for CreditorWeb, where
you can learn about credit cards and compare credit card offers online.

Filed under: Credit Cards, Frugal, How to Save, Investing by David - 3 Comments →

With this poor economy, money is tight for everyone. So I figured I would give all my readers some information on how to cut costs and save on their electricity bill. I did a bunch of research and compiled a list of ways to save on your electricity bill. One of the sites I found said you could save over $2,000 dollars a year using their tips. I have included their tips along with many others. Enjoy.

Kitchen

1) Keep your refrigerator at 37°- 40° F and your freezer at 5°F.

2) Keep your refrigerator filled to capacity

3)Vacuum the condenser coils (underneath or behind the unit) every three months or so.

4)Do not put uncovered liquids in the refrigerator. The liquids give off vapors that add to the compressor workload.

5)Allow hot food to cool off before putting it in the refrigerator.

6)Plan ahead and remove all ingredients for each meal at one time.

7)Reduce your refrigeration electricity usage by 40 percent by replacing a 12-year-old or older unit with a new unit. An Energy Star^® unit will lower usage even more.

8)Select a refrigerator or freezer that is just large enough for your needs

9)Look for energy-saving features such as the power-saver switch and improved insulation materials.

10)Use the self-cleaning cycle only for major cleaning jobs. Start the cycle right after cooking while the oven is still hot

11)Use your microwave oven whenever possible, as it draws less than half the power of its conventional oven counterpart and cooks for a much shorter amount of time.

12)Rearrange oven shelves before turning your oven on - and don’t peek at food in the oven! Every time you open the oven door, 25°-50°F is lost.

13)Wash only full loads of dishes - but do not overload dishwasher.

14)Scrape food off dishes and rinse them with cold water before placing them in the dishwasher.

15)Soak or pre-wash only in the cases of burned-on or dried-on foods.

Laundry

16)Follow detergent instructions carefully. Adding too much detergent actually hampers effective washing action and may require more energy in the form of extra rinses.

17)Set the washing machine temperature to cold or warm and the rinse temperature to cold as often as possible.

18)Wash only full loads of clothing- but do not overload machine.

19)Hang your laundry outside when weather permits.

20)Clean the lint filter thoroughly after each use.

21)Dry towels and heavy cottons in a separate load from lighter-weight fabrics.

22)Avoid over-drying. This not only wastes energy, but harms the fabric as well.

Water Heater

23)Reduce your water heating bill by 10 percent by lowering the water heater temperature from 140°F to 120F°. (Keep the temperature at 140°F if you use a dishwasher without a temperature booster.)

24)Once a year, drain a bucket of water of the bottom of the water heater tank. This gets rid of sediment, which can waste energy by “blocking” the water in the tank from the heating element.

25)Insulate your hot water supply pipes to reduce heat loss. Hardware stores sell pipe insulation kits.

26)Take showers instead of baths.

Lighting

27)Clean your light fixtures regularly.

28)Turn off lights when leaving a room.

29)Provide task lighting over desks, tool benches, etc., so that activities can be carried on without illuminating entire rooms.

30)Use compact fluorescent bulbs

Heating

31)Set the thermostat as low as comfort permits. Each degree over 68°F can add 3 percent to the amount of energy needed for heating.

32)In the winter, the air is normally dry inside your house, which is a disadvantage because people typically require a higher temperature to be comfortable than they would in a humid environment. Therefore, efficient humidifiers are a good investment for energy conservation.

33)Close heating vents and radiator valves in unused rooms. Make sure that drapes, plants, or furniture do not block registers for supply or return air.

Air Conditioning

34)Attics must be ventilated to relieve heat buildup caused by the sun. If necessary, improve attic airflow by adding or enlarging vents.

35)Set your thermostat to 78° F, or as high as comfort permits. When the weather is mild, turn off the AC and open the windows.

36)Close cooling vents in unused rooms and keep doors to unused rooms closed.

37)Check and clean or replace air filters every month.

38)Schedule periodic maintenance of cooling equipment by a licensed service representative.

Computer

39)Laptop computers use about 15-45 watts, far less than desktops( they use anywhere from 65-250).

40)A screensaver that shows any image on the screen doesn’t save any energy at all. Make sure you put your computer to sleep or just turn it off if you are not going to be using it for a while.

41)Buy an LCD monitor and get rid of your old CRT monitor. An LCD is generally over twice as efficient.

42)Turn off appliances that no one is using Turning off TV’s, lamps, computers, VCR’s, ovens, and other appliances that no one is using can reduce electric energy consumption. Appliances still consume electricity even when they are off.

Sources: http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/ , http://www.eei.org/ , http://www.getrichslowly.org/ , http://www.electricityforum.com/

If you know of any tips that I missed, please feel free to leave a comment with your tip.

Filed under: Economy, How to Save, Uncategorized by David - 3 Comments →

I stumbled across this video today and thought I would share it with my readers. It goes over the basic ways to save for retirement. I know a lot of people haven’t even begun to save so for you, this is a real good source of information. If you have been saving for years and pretty much know what you are doing, you may want to skip this post.

post continues after video

 

 

I’ll outline what the video went over that way my rss readers and those who just don’t want to re-watch it can still get the info.

1) Start Early : Maybe this should be changed to ‘Start Now’. The best thing you can do to get ahead for retirement is to start early. Even if all you can save is $20 bucks a week, in the long run it will add up very quickly.

Example: If you did save $20 per week, starting when you are 18 and kept doing that until retirement at 65, you would have $271,429 by retirement assuming a 9% return on investment. That’s probably not enough to retire off of, but it is a great start and hopefully you would be able to contribute more than $20 once you are older and making more money.

2) Capture the match: Most companies will match part of your contributions. The idea is to contribute enough to get the full matching benefit of your company. Otherwise you would be throwing away free money. They are willing to give you money if you save for retirement, why wouldn’t you want to do that?

3) The 15% solution: This “solution” is the so called rule of thumb for retirement. Generally speaking, if you save 15% of your annual income a year, you should have enough to live off of comfortably. This 15% includes any money that your company matches for your 401k. Remember you get a tax break as well for contributing to your 401k so its not nearly as much of your money as you might think.

4) Diversify with a Roth IRA: The great thing about Roth IRAs is that when you take money out of them come retirement time, you pay no taxes on withdrawls. This can be used to help manipulate your retirement income during retirement to help keep your taxes low. You should only contribute to this after you have gotten your full company 401k match.

5) Play catch up: This is for my readers in their 50s. You are allowed to contribute and extra $5,000 to your 401k and an additional $1,000 to your IRA. Try to take advantage of this if you can, especially if you didn’t start early like you probably should have.

Filed under: How to Save, Investing, Retirement, Uncategorized by David - 2 Comments →