Five Dollar Bonus!!!
Five!
Five dollar!!
Five dollar bonus!!!!!
I recently logged int0 my Discover credit card account saw that I had some cash back money waiting on me.
I have a balance of $46.97 in my account which I could redeem for cash OR I could get a CVS gift card for $50 by using up $45. Woo hoo.
Guess which one I chose.
Well of course I chose the CVS gift card since you all know how much I love to go shopping for stuff at CVS…especially when I get it for FREEEEEEEE.
Sneaky Credit Card Trick
While I believe that credit cards a great tool if used correctly I must admit that I almost got in trouble with a sneaky credit card trick. I pay all of my credit cards automatically via ING so that I do not have to deal with the hassle of writing checks.
I have a system to pay my credit cards where the two cards I use on a regular basis (to earn cash back) get paid four times a month based on my budget for what is put on that card. I have an idea of what I put on each card and divide that by four and ING sends that one fourth payment every week to the card. The amount is more than the minimum payment would be and since I am paying multiple times I do not even have to worry about the due date.
Chase (ing) MyPoints
I have used MyPoints for years now because I love the rewards that I get from them. MyPoints is a program that basically pays you to read their advertising emails from partners. You get points for every email that you click through and then you can redeem these points for gift cards to certain retailers.
If you would like to try MyPoints let me know and I can send you a referral and we BOTH win!!!!
I used MyPoints to get gift cards to restaurants like Red Lobster (my favorite!!!) and also recently to stores like CVS where I can get stuff for free!
Credit Card Craziness!
Credit card companies sometimes do some really strange things that just confuse me. I have a card that I do not use currently because I am getting better offers from some other cards.
I received a new card in the mail from the company and this immediately spurred me to check my credit report because I had not ordered a new card. The expiration date on the current card was far away and since I was not using the card I knew exactly where it was and that the balance was zero.
Debt Update: January 2009
It is time again to take stock of how much I owe and the progress I have made towards paying off debt. I have updated my NetWorth chart and as you can see it is still in the negative but slowly creeping upwards.
I have also made some progress with the Debt Payoff chart and I am slightly above halfway done with the original debt. Here are the next two targets in my snowball debt payoff plan:
Capital One Card
Lending Club
I currently have $298.50 left on Capital One and with a few micro payments, or snowflake payments I am going to have this card paid off by February.
Suze Orman On the Oprah Show
In case you missed it Suze Orman was on the Oprah show yesterday trying to give people tips on how to have a better financial management plan in 2009.
She gave a few tips that we PF bloggers talk about all the time such as having a plan to pay off your credit card debt. Suze noted that in today’s economy the best way to get rid of credit card debt was to pay the higher interest card first. She gave the following scenario:
line up credit cards in order of highest interest first
pay the minimum on all cards
0% Balance Transfer Offer That I CAN Refuse
Normally I encourage people to take up 0% balance transfer offers and I wish I would get more offers myself. However, I must warn you that just because it says 0% that does not mean it is always the best deal for you.
I just got an offer for a 0% balance transfers from one of my better cards….but after reading it carefully I decided to refuse the offer. Here are the terms:
* 0% until 04/09
* 4% balance transfer fee
Snowflake Target (Christmas Resolution)
Welcome to How I Save Money!
Most people wait until New Years to make resolutions or to set goals. I am making a Christmas resolution to pay off a credit card by March.
I have written about my snowflake process before and how I take any extra money to pay towards certain targets.
My next target is the Capital One credit card which currently has $727 at 0% interest rate. I had been paying the minimum on this card because it was at a zero percent interest rate and my money would have been better put to use elsewhere.
