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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Online Money Management
Do you have several places your money is coming from and going too? Is it hard to keep track of all of your money? Would you like to take your little check book to the world of the web? Then I recommend the totally free and totally amazing Mint.com!

Currently on Mint.com I am tracking my two credit cards, my checking account, savings account, retirement account, and my student loans. When a payment is due for my CC or (starting in a couple of months) my student loans, it will automatically e-mail me or I can have it SMS me (all optional).

Not only that but it also helps budgetting by automatically categorizing all of your purchases and Mint will tell you if you go over your budget. To lazy to make a budget? Well Mint will make one for you based on your average for each category.

If you are smart your next question would be: "Justin, isn't unsafe to store all of your bank/CC/Loan/Investment information on one website? What if you get hacked?" Mint does not actually store any of that information, so if someone got into your Mint account all they would see is how much money you have (or do not have) and would not be able to do anything malicious. http://www.mint.com/safe.html has more info.

So anyway, this post is now finished, and believe it or not I am not even getting paid to do it. Mint.com is totally free and the above mentioned features are only some of the things it has to offer, and more stuff is on the way. I been using it for a year now, so I thought I would share it all with you.

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  ¶ 11:00 PM -  0 Comments - Links to this post

Friday, July 11, 2008

Credit Cards Rules and Laws
Consumerist.com has run a story about 10 things you may not know about your Credit card. Here they are:
  1. Unsigned Cards Are Not Valid And Merchants Can And Will Refuse Them
  2. The Maximum Liability For Unauthorized Use Of A Credit Card* Is $50 According To Federal Law
  3. Merchants Cannot Require You To Present ID, Unless Your Card Is Unsigned
  4. Merchants Cannot Require A Minimum Transaction Amount
  5. Merchants Cannot Charge A Surcharge For Using A Credit Card, However, They Can Offer A "Cash Discount"
  6. Many Credit Cards Have Programs That Will Automatically Double The Manufacturer's Warranty And Other Excellent Benefits
  7. Merchants Are Not Allowed To Make You Give Up Your Right To A Chargeback
  8. Merchants Are Not Allowed To Place A Hold For The Estimated Tip
  9. If Merchants Suspect You Of Fraud They Are Supposed To Call With A "Code 10"
  10. If Merchants Break These Rules, You Can Report Them To The Credit Card Company     
What I found particularly interesting is the #4, the minimum transaction. I come across this a lot, and my own work was guilty of this for awhile. If I do come across this I will definitely report them!

To find out more information, head to the Consumerist.com website.

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  ¶ 4:18 PM -  5 Comments - Links to this post