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#Post#: 3170--------------------------------------------------
Re: Money
By: Kerry Date: November 2, 2015, 12:20 am
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I heard on the radio today how people use the phrase, "Thank
you, Obama." Sometimes it's sarcastically. Then one person
made a joke, saying, "Look how low the price of gas is. Thank
you, Obama." That got a laugh out of me because we know if the
price of gas was at $5 or $6 a gallon, there'd be Republicans
blaming him for it; but if the price goes down, they would never
give him credit.
No doubt though with all the gas I use, it's saving me money. I
closed out October's books on my budget and did $600 better
than by the schedule. And most of the bills due in November
have already been paid. I also have cash lying about waiting
to be deposited with my next Dominos check; but I didn't include
that in the figures. I won't deposit it all though since my
mechanic gives me a discount when I pay cash, so I like to keep
some cash about.
Now I'll pay some tax that I could put off paying until
December. I might as well pay it now and get it out of my mind.
That's something under $600. Next year, it will be about
$100 less if I pay sooner.
#Post#: 3171--------------------------------------------------
Re: Money
By: bradley Date: November 2, 2015, 12:03 pm
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The price of gas could be attributed to him if he had actually
done something to cause that to happen. Being in charge of a
country doesnt mean that all things good or bad are the fault of
the leader. But yes, I agree, that if gas was high, they would
blame him. I remember not long ago that many economists in
this nation and others, said that a massive war would begin
soon, with Russia, China, and the middle east invovled, if the
price of gas didnt go back up. And yet that didnt occur
either. There has always been and always will be people who
find doom behind every spilled milk, to match those who refuse
to see danger when its become obvious to most. And glad that
you are doing so well with your budget, many find it difficult
to hold to budget.
#Post#: 3174--------------------------------------------------
Re: Money
By: Kerry Date: November 4, 2015, 5:46 pm
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[quote author=bradley link=topic=345.msg3171#msg3171
date=1446487386]
The price of gas could be attributed to him if he had actually
done something to cause that to happen. Being in charge of a
country doesnt mean that all things good or bad are the fault of
the leader. But yes, I agree, that if gas was high, they would
blame him. [/quote]Carter got blamed for high price, that's for
sure. He got blamed for lots of things I don't think he caused.
In fact, I'd blame Reagan for some of those things.
[quote]I remember not long ago that many economists in this
nation and others, said that a massive war would begin soon,
with Russia, China, and the middle east invovled, if the price
of gas didnt go back up. And yet that didnt occur either.
There has always been and always will be people who find doom
behind every spilled milk, to match those who refuse to see
danger when its become obvious to most. And glad that you are
doing so well with your budget, many find it difficult to hold
to budget.[/quote]We are seeing some conflicts but not a massive
war as of yet. Saudi Arabia is broke. Venezuela is broke.
Iran is probably broke. Russia is going broke. China is going
broke. Some of the military conflicts now seem related to the
cost of oil; and the UN seems unable to take strong action to
defuse tensions.
If the UN had been able to take action in Syria, that conflict
would have been over long ago; but the way the UN is set up, one
country can veto important resolutions so nothing gets done.
The US would veto anything Russia proposed, and vice versa.
Thus there is no unified effort by the entire world to solve the
problem. In fact, the US is actively trying to undermine the
legitimate government of Syria -- actively supporting rebels or
we could call them terrorists.
If things continue to worsen in some of these countries, it
could lead to a massive war; and as I see it, the Obama
administration is doing nothing to try to prevent it.
[hr]
Have you ever filled out the online surveys companies have on
their sites? I used to think they were a waste of time,
designed to make people feel good about the company by
pretending they care. Now I'm not sure since a while back, I
filled one out at Barclay's saying how customers redeemed their
cash-back points was absurd. First they had copied other sites
and used the word "shopping cart." I said, I'm not shopping for
anything. I'm trying to get my cash back. Why use such a
confusing term? Then I told them too the way their site was
set up required me to navigate through three webpages just to
redeem my points.
When I redeemed my points the last time, they had changed it.
The option to redeem points for cash was there, and I could do
it with one or two clicks of my mouse. It was really easy. The
other options were there too if I had wanted to "go shopping."
I can't be sure my "feedback" was responsible for that; but I
think maybe it was. At any rate, it is a lot easier to do now.
Now I ran into worse problems with my new credit card! If I
sign in to my bank account as usual, I can see both my bank
account and the credit card account. I can access either.
That part is good; but I could not find how online how many
points I had. Nowhere! I finally clicked on some link and
thought it was where I could find out many points I had; but it
said I wasn't signed in. I was signed in! I could see both my
bank account and the credit card account!
I called the phone number, went through the complicated punching
in of various numbers and the like before I got a person. She
then asked me again to verify things. What is my Mother's
maiden name? I said, "Everyone on the internet knows my
Mother's maiden name." I told her. What I found frustrating
about this is that I wasn't trying to do anything with my
account. I was looking for information, and they don't need any
information from me for that. Well, she said their computer
system wasn't set up yet to redeem points online. I was
flabbergasted! She referred me to some technical fellow, and
just before she transferred me, offered to give me his number.
I said, "No, thanks, I didn't need it if she was going to
connect me."
When I got him, it was more "security questions" and the like;
and he told me I had only $13 in redeemed points. I said I
realized I didn't have many points. A little later, he
repeated that; and I snapped. I said, "I know I don't have many
points. I can see how many I have from the paper statement I
got. I don't need you to tell me how many points I have. I'm
trying to figure out how to redeem the points so I know how to
do it later."
He then admitted there was no way to do it online. . . yet.
If I wanted to redeem points, I had to call someone on the
phone! I could find out how many points I had online however
by creating another account with them, registering another
account -- and he gave the url for that! That took a long time
of course. I used the same sign information of course. So now
I can see how many points I have by going online. But still no
way to redeem them online.
To make matters even worse, a day or two later, I got a
promotional mailing from them about how wonderful and easy
things were. In short, they launched a new credit card line
with who knows how many customers before their computer software
was set up to handle it.
I guess sooner or later, people can go "paperless" since the
promo said we could; but when I had visited the site, it said
that option didn't exist yet. This is the same bank that
pressured people into going paperless by beginning to charge
monthly if you wanted a paper statement for your checking
account. They launched their new credit cards the way the
government did Obamacare.
As I'm writing this, I got a follow-up call from them. They
were trying to spy on their customer service reps. How did she
do? She did fine! She wasn't the problem. It's the big boys
at the top who messed up. They made the decision to launch the
cards before the software was ready. And I just checked -- the
computer people did fix the paperless option. For all I know,
the computer people were overworked. At any rate, it's the
guys at the top who made the decision to go ahead while things
weren't ready.
People go to business school and I guess they learn things
there; but then they get out and get hired and think all they
have to do is set goals and the "little people" below them will
be able to make sure everything gets done the way the big boys
say. If things go wrong, the big boys blame the little
people. The newspaper business is like that too; and the
people at the top are often out of touch with reality.
The phone company is crazy. When I enrolled in their auto-pay
system, they said it could take a month before it went into
effect! In other words, there was no way I could know if I
had to pay the bill by going online to do it or if their
auto-pay system would take care of it. Now why so long? The
electric company was a lot easier to set up; and I knew that the
next bill would be paid by auto-pay. Yes, the phone company
is crazy. They begged and begged me to go paperless to save
them money; and yet they were sending me mail for a while at
about one a week trying to get me to improve my internet
connection. I'm already not getting the speed they say I would
-- why would I pay them more?
The world's gone mad, I think. I also got an ad from American
Express saying, "Welcome back" on the envelope. Huh? I've never
had an American Express card. Never. What are they talking
about? I threw it away unopened.
Then I am still getting offers from Discover. Probably not for
a loan, probably for one of their cards. I throw them away.
If they wanted to make me jump through hoops and wanted to see
my tax returns before giving me a cash loan, why would they
trust me enough to give me a credit card? Discover Card seems
desperate for business. A few months ago, it seemed like I was
getting an offer about once a week. Why so desperate for
business?
What I'm hoping for is that when I pay off the balance on the
Barclay's card, they'll make me an offer for a lower rate of
interest if I transfer balances from other credit cards. I
should be able to pay it off completely next payment. The total
owed to the credit cards hasn't come down that much since I paid
the taxes, but it did come down about $800. With the taxes
paid, I should be able to pay down the credit cards more.
Maybe not though. Dominos got more drivers; and I'll be happy
if they cut my hours. I should still be able to make a sizable
dent in the credit cards every month.
#Post#: 3176--------------------------------------------------
Re: Money
By: bradley Date: November 5, 2015, 12:12 am
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Wow! You have run into some very incompetently run programs.
I have been blessed with ease of access toward online billing
and billpay. I pay most of my bills online, but since Emmy is
not computer oriented, I have monthly bills listed on a sheet of
paper, and if I were to expire, she could use that info to take
control of them by paper and checks and mailed payment.
#Post#: 3183--------------------------------------------------
Re: Money
By: Kerry Date: November 8, 2015, 1:52 pm
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[quote author=bradley link=topic=345.msg3176#msg3176
date=1446703935]
Wow! You have run into some very incompetently run programs.
I have been blessed with ease of access toward online billing
and billpay. I pay most of my bills online, but since Emmy is
not computer oriented, I have monthly bills listed on a sheet of
paper, and if I were to expire, she could use that info to take
control of them by paper and checks and mailed payment.
[/quote]She isn't interested in getting into computers enough to
do the bills that way? Some people aren't, I guess. I know I'
was confused about the current status of my phone bill for quite
a while. I set up an auto pay thing; but it wasn't clear to me
if it would take care of my next bill or not. It took a while
of researching things, but I found out it wouldn't. I have to
keep going online to look at my bills there; and when a bill
says it will be paid automatically, then that's when it will
take effect.
Seeing how well things are going at the moment financially, I
decided to start contributing $50 a month to Kiva rather than
the previous $25. I think I already wrote saying I had set up
the Kiva account to revert to them automatically if the account
went inactive -- that way if I die, they get the money to help
run things. And it's one less thing for my relatives to worry
about if I die. If I ever needed cash, I could still get it;
and that is one thing I do like about Kiva. It would just
take some time to get it.
#Post#: 3207--------------------------------------------------
Re: Money
By: Kerry Date: November 11, 2015, 6:39 am
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Ha, got another "offer" from American Express, looked at it and
it looked attractive so I visited their website. After sending
me mail soliciting me, they turned me down! They had a phone
number to call if you wanted to, so I did. I got the usual
machine-run system; and after several minutes of the usual
nonsense of punching in numbers, the robotic voice said no one
was there and real people would be in at such and so hours,
Mountain Time. I hung up in disgust. Why didn't they tell me
what hours to call on their website if I wanted to talk to real
person? Why give out just the number? They also gave the
hours very fast, so fast I couldn't remember them or write them
down; and to be honest, I'm not on Mountain Time and don't feel
like adjusting to it just to suit their schedule. What if
someone went to China and needed to contact them? Should he get
up in the early morning hours or something just to get through?
Maybe their name says something -- maybe they aren't even
trying to be a global business.
I think it was my phone company that is canceling payments via
American Express. Their site said if you were used to doing
that, to make other arrangements. I can see why. Lots of
businesses won't take American Express because they charge the
merchants more than Mastercard /Visa.
I was going to do whatever it is to get them to stop sending me
offers; but now I think I'll let them -- out of curiosity and so
they can keep wasting money.
I got my statement from Barclay's today and I paid the balance
off in full even though the payment is not due until December 1.
Now I'll sit back and see if they send me an offer to
transfer balances from other credit cards.
#Post#: 3208--------------------------------------------------
Re: Money
By: Kerry Date: November 11, 2015, 7:21 am
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Just checked online. Barclay's had on online offer, so I put
in a request there for a balance transfer from another card --
the one with the highest interest rate. The top fee was $99
but the low interest rate is good until August, and even after
that the higher rate will be a little under what I'm paying now.
#Post#: 3210--------------------------------------------------
Re: Money
By: bradley Date: November 11, 2015, 9:38 am
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Yes, keep trading down for better interest rates, as long as its
mastercard or visa. But keep a copy (screenshot or paper in
the mail) of the offer, as I have had times that credit card
companies change from the good rates to bad ones and hope you
dont notice. One of those couple of times, one company screwed
up, I caught them and they had to make it good and I got an even
better rate than originally advertised.
#Post#: 3241--------------------------------------------------
Re: Money
By: Kerry Date: November 16, 2015, 9:46 pm
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[quote author=bradley link=topic=345.msg3210#msg3210
date=1447256298]
Yes, keep trading down for better interest rates, as long as its
mastercard or visa. But keep a copy (screenshot or paper in
the mail) of the offer, as I have had times that credit card
companies change from the good rates to bad ones and hope you
dont notice. One of those couple of times, one company screwed
up, I caught them and they had to make it good and I got an even
better rate than originally advertised.
[/quote]It's too late for that I think, Brad. I can only hope
everything is fine as it is.
I had some bad luck today though. Just after my papers were
done and I fueled up, a light came on saying check the
electrical system. Well, my mechanic was able to look at it
and fix it today -- a piece of good luck -- but the alternator
was almost $300 and I was late for work too. Then my other car
had a flat tire which I noticed when I got up early Monday
morning, and that should be ready to pick up tomorrow if the
tire gets repaired or replaced. Oh well, things happen. I am
glad the alternator didn't start quitting on me just as I was
beginning the paper route.
#Post#: 3245--------------------------------------------------
Re: Money
By: bradley Date: November 16, 2015, 11:28 pm
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I had just paid about $400 about 2 weeks ago for a new radiator
as the old one had a leak. But the coolant was still leaking
in other places, they checked it out today and found 2 small
leaks from radiator hoses, so I am getting all new coolant hoses
on the 24th, more cost, ahh well. Such is life heh? Cant
take it with us, so we might as well use it for needful things.
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