Archives for September 2006

Free MLB Jersey + iPod Nano with Bank of America Credit Card

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

Bank of America (merged with MBNA) is offering a free baseball jersey as well as an iPod Nano with their MLB Extra Bases card. Looks like you need to spend $2,000 on the card with 90 days of account opening to get the iPod. Pertinent fine print quoted below.
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My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.


Sleeping In Airports To Save Money

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

So while in London, I’m going to visit a friend in Southern England, and I’m going to get back into London late that night for an early flight back to the States. So basically I was looking at paying $100 for a hotel so I could sleep for 6 hours between the train ride and my flight. Although I’ll have a decent amount of luggage… I was thinking… maybe I could just go straight and sleep in the airport? Would that be impossible? stupid? Of course, I run off and google “sleeping in airports”…

…And find SleepingInAirports.net! Complete reviews of every major airport in the world. Marvelous. Checking out the London Gatwick Airport page, comments range from the promising “I was able to stretch out on the padded, armless seats” and “the soft backed chairs in one of the closed cafes could be placed together to make a nice bed” to the more forboding “GOT ROBBED OF MY MONEY PASSPORT PHONE CAMERA TRAIN TICKET ETC.” and the hilarious (well, not for him) “a small child wiped her Big Mac on my face”. Maybe I need to pay Priceline another visit…

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.


Priceline Tricks – 4 Star London Hotel For 50 Pounds A Night

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

Everyone’s heard of Priceline.com and Hotwire.com. In exchange for a great deal on airfare or travel, you give up some flexibility and information. That is, you don’t get to find out which airline or hotel you’re using until you’ve committed your money.

This lack of information spawned sites like BetterBidding.com and BiddingForTravel.com provide. Inside the forums, people share their bids, if they won, and what they won. There are also a few useful tips that novice users may not be aware of, like how to get “free” rebids. For example, maybe you bid $50 for a hotel room and got rejected. With the right information, you can try rebid again at $55 or $60 without having to change your original search parameters. Using this combo of history and multiple bids, you can avoid overbidding and get the best price possible.
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My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.


Sold All My Individual Stocks Today

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

A few years ago, I commited a few thousand dollars to “play money” with which I was supposed to use to learn to become a stock market wizard. I later increased it to $5,000. I learned some basics like the different types of trades, bid/ask spreads, P/E ratios, growth rates, and started buying and selling stocks in $500 increments ($5/trade, so 1% commissions in and out). I really never got around to learning anything in-depth, as I started reading numerous books that convinced me that it was highly unlikely I could ever beat the market over the long haul. Not impossible, but unlikely. Although I read a lot of various investing sites that talk about individual stocks, none of them have really convinced me otherwise.
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My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.


Frugal Travel Tips to London and Paris?

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

Time to cross another ocean! I’m going to London for a conference next week. My flight and most of my hotel stay is all paid for, but I’m going to try and tack on a few days for personal leisure. (That’s my cheap travel tip – take advantage of business trips!). I’ve already been there about 5 years ago as a backpacker, so I’ve hit most of the touristy spots.

Similar to my San Francisco itinerary, eating the food is right up there with seeing the sights. My usual thing is to go for small hole-in-the-wall food stalls, simple food like pub grub, and also fancy restaurants that do a nice prix fixe lunch for less than $25. For activites, I like to try off-the-beaten path stuff. I know London is like New York City and even more expensive, but if anyone has been recently and has suggestions please leave a comment!
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My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.


ANII.OB now listed as BTCP.OB

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

Despite some last-minute scares, for those keeping track of the Advanced Nutraceuticals reverse split that I am participating in, it looks like there has been some progress. From their most recent SEC filings and more specifically this press release:
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My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.


Citibank May Start Charging Balance Transfer Fees

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

I just received some bad news – it looks like Citibank may very soon start to charge balance transfer fees on several of their credit card products. So if you have been on the fence about taking advantage of one of their offers, now may be a good time. I don’t see any changes yet, many still say “no balance transfer fees with this offer”, but I will be updating my prescreened best offers list as I find them.

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.


Using Desire and Greed For Motivation

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

On the path to financial freedom, it’s easy to get bored and unmotivated. The thing about goals like an early retirement is that they can feel just too distant. I mean, there are always those articles about how you can still retire even though you’re 50 and broke, right? Why worry now?

When I get that way, I actually try to channel my inner greed. Let’s take a new cell phone that costs $100. In order to justify buying it, I’ll need to somehow generate at least $200 of “new” money – either by making more of it or saving more than last month. That way, I’ll still have $100 to put towards my net worth, but I use my toy fixation to drive me.

My only problem? Recently, I can’t find anything I want that badly. Computer? Nah. Digital Camera? Cell Phone? Clothes? DVDs? Video Games? Nope. What’s wrong with me?

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.


Google Maps + Craigslist = Fun Real Estate Browsing Tool

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

What do you get when you combine the real estate listings on Craigslist and cross-reference them on Google Maps? HousingMaps.com. Only for major metro areas, but it’s still a neat tool.

Craigslist seems to have much more extensive listings for rentals than houses for sale, but more and more real estate agents are putting some of their listings to join the For Sale By Owner crowd. A friend of mine just bought a FSBO house off of Craigslist, and I’m told he got a good deal. Mostly it’s just another way to waste time browsing properties I can’t afford, but who knows, you may get lucky too.

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.


Capital One: Great For International Travel

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

In my post about the Best ATM or Credit Card For Foreign Travel?, Capital One was a promising option as it had no issuer-based foreign currency surcharges, unlike the 3% charged by Citibank or Chase.

However, it was not entirely clear if they waived the 1% fee charged by Visa/Mastercard. After my trip to China, I am happy to report that the 1% Visa/MC fee was indeed waived, at least for me. I came to this conclusion after using historical exchange rates courtesy of Oanda.com.

Here are some examples for Chinese Yuan on June 6, 2006:

Capital One USD to CNY exchange rate: 7.997 to 1
Interbank Rate USD to CNY rate: 8.01 to 1

And another example for Hong Kong Dollar on June 12, 2006:

Capital One USD to HKD exchange rate: 7.762 to 1
Interbank Rate USD to HKD rate: 7.76 to 1

They were essentially the same, varying less than 0.2% (and sometimes even in my favor!). As you might have guessed, the interbank rate is the rate that banks charge each other and is usually the best rate available. Retail exchange rates are usually more expensive either way by a certain margin. If there was a 1% fee, the exchange rate for CNY would have been about 7.93 to 1 or so, giving me less yuan for a dollar.

This may have been for my specific Capital One card, but I don’t think so. I have a GoGash card that gives me 1% flat cashback, so in addition to avoiding conversion surcharges I even got 1% net back on my purchases. Thus, even though Capital One is weird in reporting their credit limits, I’m still keeping this one around for international travel.

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.


TD Ameritrade iPod Bonus – More Details

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

I’ve been too trained to read the fine print on all these offers, and I missed the big bold print on this TD Ameritrade iPod Offer (expired) I mentioned yesterday that reads “Open an additional TD AMERITRADE account and receive a FREE Apple? iPod? nano!” So this one will actually work for existing account holder like myself.

You must open with $10,000 and keep it in there for 9 months to get the iPod. Thanks to some research by reader Brandon, one low-risk option is to buy a 9-month CD from Ameritrade paying 5.10% APY. Currently, top 9-month CD yields are at ~5.60%. The 2gb iPod Nano has a retail value of $199. I’d estimate the resale value at about $150 since you will get it in 8 weeks. Overall, this deal has the potential to make the equivalent of about 7% APY on the $10,000, or at least $100 more than putting it in another CD. Not bad if already have $10k you won’t need for 9 months.

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.


New Home For Carnival of Investing

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

Although it’s far from finished, the Carnival of Investing has a fresh new home at it’s own domain. As a collaborative effort between me and another avid money blog reader/friend, there will be two people to make sure it runs smoothly. There are lots of new changes in the works, so please update your bookmarks. Right now the Carnival needs new hosts!

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.