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Tag Archives: credit

Halfway Through The Year

10 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by cosmichomicide in Changes & Progress, Cheapskate, Health, Home

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credit, goals, home, money, organize

Time to catch up and review.  We finished the guest bathroom, it looks great.  We’ve got the house scheduled for painting.  I’ve lost 15 pounds.  The heir finished up his school year and is now a senior.  All the credit cards and credit lines are paid off and current.  Things that weren’t on the list are changing cellular companies which saved $15 per month plus netted us 2 smartphones instead of one and unlimited data (that’s going to be my next post ’cause I’m danged impressed with T-Mobile right now).  Next up is taking a good look at my insurance policies – which I’m woefully behind on.

I’m not where I wanted to be with certifications, but that’s the focus of the next month and a half.  I’ve also been a slack blogger, but that’s sadly nothing new – I did add it to my regular to-do list so hoping that will improve things a bit.  I did complete a long term goal and haunt Craigslist until I found the perfect porch furniture – it’s gotten a huge workout.  By the end of summer I’m aiming to have the porch repainted, my hanging baskets up, cushions for a freshly painted porch swing and a ceiling fan over the table.

So much for a laid back summer, but I’m pretty happy with how the year has gone so far.  Happy June, everyone!

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Let Someone Else Do The Work!

03 Saturday Mar 2012

Posted by cosmichomicide in Changes & Progress, Cheapskate, Minimalist, Paperless

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credit, goals, money, paperless

  • The problem:  Too much manual labor on finances, too much paper.
  • The resolution:  Review 2011 for the timesappers and eliminate them.
  • The long term solution:  Set up autopays, paperless billing and notifications.
  • Before:
    Already on autopay: 3
    Not on autopay: 7
    Already paperless: 1
    Not paperless: 9 – yikes!
    With text or e-mail notifications: 6
    Without text or e-mail notifications: 4
  • After:
    Autopay: 7
    Not on autopay: 3
    Paperless: 7
    Not paperless: 3
    With text or e-mail notifications: 8
    Without text or e-mail notifications: 2

Step by step:

  1. Make a list of all regularly occurring expenses or deposits, noting whether they are paperless, autopay, online, and provide notifications or alerts.
  2. Determine what is needed for tax records (mortgage, credit cards, banking statements) and set up an alert to download and store to secure location.
  3. Access or enroll in all online programs, change passwords, record information needed to access in secure location.
  4. Identify which accounts are EPP (equal payment plan) or can be EPP and enroll.
  5. For each account:  enable paperless, enable notifications and alerts, enable autopay
  6. For each *changed* account: pay existing balance, check accounts for the next 60 day to ensure they are being paid.
  7. Review the prior year for occasional payments such as insurance.
  8. Add autopay dates to calendar or financial program with alerts.
  9. As appropriate, review costs and contracts, make adjustments or changes as needed, set alerts for contract expirations.
  10. Schedule regular transfer from checking to savings.

A few issues did come up – one of the utilities only allows you to enroll in EPP in June, so I set an alert in Outlook for May so I’d be ready to go for that.  Still battling my way through enrolling in anything online for my internet/TV – even calling technical support doesn’t seem to be getting me anywhere.  Not enrolling one of the credit cards for autopay was by choice, though I may change that down the line.  All in all I eliminated quite a few paper bills and one online bill paying day per month and one “drive around and pay the Luddites” day per month, which should save a good deal of time (and paper) over the course of the year.

Update: Banking Consolidation

04 Saturday Feb 2012

Posted by cosmichomicide in Changes & Progress, Cheapskate

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credit, goals, money

I actually did finish out January’s goals – with the exception of the goal of posting them.  I did change one to finish up with my banking move and complete a larger goal – snagging one of those nearly impossible to get historically low mortgage rates.  Which I did.  I also can see the light in the the banking consolidation tunnel that I started down ages ago.

The scenario was this – years ago I had all of my accounts at Wachovia and my mortgage was at one of those little banks that no longer exists.  In fact, I had accounts there that were the evolution of my passbook account from when I was a small child.  Well, Wachovia bought my little mortgage bank and then First Union bought them.  And then, due to divorce, I needed to refinance.  And they wouldn’t even talk to me.  No interest at all.  So a friend points me to a mortgage banker at SunTrust who was terrific and got my mortgage refinanced – and then, several years later, refinanced again at a better rate.

All good.  And then SunTrust waves a “great” checking and savings account deal as well as an equity line “just in case”.  Sounds good, so I start moving accounts (see, I liked the consolidation idea even a few years ago).  Three months into my “no fee, best of breed” checking, I look on my statement and see $25/mo fees.  I call and get told that my mortgage has dropped under their “free” threshold.  I’m paying thousands a year in interest and they want to charge me $25/mo for not owing them enough (and believe me, I owed plenty in my opinion).  I switch to their budget no-frills checking, shred the debit cards and let the two accounts there gather dust.

Flash forward to the economy starting to tank and interest rates dropping at the same time as the credit card companies decide that they are going to jack up everyone’s rates (good customer or not) since they are sure the new “don’t screw the consumer” laws are going to cut into their multi-million dollar executive bonuses.  I sensibly use my equity line to consolidate now high interest card balances.  (Don’t worry, there’s a point to all this.)

Slide farther into the economic crash and interest rates are at a historic low, I have accounts at 2 banks, Wells Fargo has bought Wachovia and I start getting letters about impending fees for breathing inside their brick and mortar.  So, back in December, I pick my little local bank (their products were a bit better than the credit union and their ATM use was free across any bank’s ATM) and I open accounts there with a bit of windfall cash.  Now I have 6 accounts across 3 banks.  Time to consolidate, yes?  Should be easy, yes?  Hah!  I take my excellent FICO, steady job, paid off credit cards, home equity and cash in the bank and start the refinance process, figuring that’s step one.

Welcome to the world of low interest rates, decreasing home values and insanely difficult to get loans.  First I discover that the last three homes in my neighborhood were sold at bargain prices by owners desperate to get out from under their mortgages.  Yay.  My appraisal comes in 4K too low to avoid PMI since I am also paying off the equity line as part of the move – I call around and discover that is about the norm in my area at the moment.  OK, no problem, fast way to fix this is subordinate the second and drop it out of the loan – 48 pages of paperwork and a $200 check and it’s just a matter of waiting a couple of weeks for SunTrust to agree.  Mid-January (3 weeks after I submitted my request) I call and am told they are “working on December 5th requests” – and were rather snotty with me about it.  Yoiks!

Back to the little bank where we sharpen our pencils and move the equity line instead of paying it off.  In the meantime, I close the Wachovia and SunTrust savings accounts – BOTH have repeatedly called since then to “get me back” (they need to get in the frozen hell line with the cable company).  So January ended with 4 accounts at 3 banks and a closing date for my refinance – February should end with 2 accounts and a mortgage at one bank.  Finally.  Oh and interest checking, free ATM and checks and no fees.  What a concept and what a long annoying trip it’s been.

Banking Change (Step-By-Step)

18 Sunday Dec 2011

Posted by cosmichomicide in Changes & Progress, Cheapskate, Paperless

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credit, goals, money

The first thing in changing banks is to check out the options.  Things to watch out for are, of course, fees.  Some banks (mostly local) and credit unions don’t have them, some have requirements to avoid them.  If you have enough cash to waste laying around in a barely any interest account, I’ve discovered that you can get “free” checking & debit transactions by simply giving up any opportunity to make your money work for you – though truthfully, I do tend to keep a reasonable amount for emergencies in a savings account, so as long as the required is savings and not huge, this is an option.  An easier method is by setting up a direct deposit to checking – most were happy to waive fees if they knew your cash was coming to them week after week, month after month.  Finally, you can go in debt – if you can place your mortage at the institution and it is high enough to meet their “must owe us” number, they figure they are getting plenty off you in the interest.  Downside of this, as I discovered, if you are responsible and pay down your mortgage, they start to charge fees the second you cross the threshold.

Picked a bank or credit union?  Great!  Open an account (or two – go ahead and do that savings account now as well).  Get your debit cards, checks, deposit slips and routing numbers ready.  It’s a fresh start so make a pretty file folder (yeah, paper) to keep it all in.

Next up – what is linked to your current accounts?  You’d be surprised.  Go back at least a year and look for linkages.  Utility bills and such that are monthly are easy – the sneaky ones are those once or twice a year things like insurance.  Or things that pay into your accounts – PayPal and such.  Start making a list and adding your new account to the setup – it takes a week in some cases for that account to be “approved” for paying and you don’t want to be late on anything.  This is a good time to set up autopays if you can – I like to do the autopays from credit card and then pay the cards off each month – that way I get the rewards points (which covered a LOT of Christmas this year, BTW).  Keep a close eye on balances as you switch over – your old bank would dearly love to hit you with a charge or fee of some sort.

Direct deposits – change them about a week after your big bills are paid.  This will give you a couple of weeks to switch payment accounts and buffer up the new accounts so next month you are using them for everything.  Beware that with paychecks this may mean a few caveman weeks of paper checks – this too shall pass.

Safe deposit boxes – close the old, open a new (if you really need one).  Why would you need one?  Wills, those CDs & DVDs of family pictures you scanned, insurance policies and other similar stuff.  Don’t have that stuff?  Put it on your list to do first thing.

Checks & deposit books from the old bank – tear off a few and tuck them in the “closed account” banking folder.  Shred the rest.  Get copies of or scan all your statements.

Debit cards – activate the new bank cards, shred the old bank cards.  Don’t keep these a second after you close the account – far too easy to screw up and grab the wrong card.

Bank credit cards – don’t close these.  No, really.  Closing these out can have a negative effect on your FICO.  Be sure you know the impact on your credit score before you nuke these.  Also, be careful to charge something to them regularly (I like small monthly charges like a gaming account or somesuch) and pay that off unless your card has a fee for that (yeah, really – I’m not kidding).  At some point in the future we are going to shop better cards, but for now, leave these alone.  (Don’t forget to link payment to your new bank, though.)

Think you have it all?  Then, at the end of the month (preferably in line with your statement period), close those old accounts and move the cash.  Double check that all you checks and debits have cleared – you should have put that checkbook and card away a couple of weeks ago, but be sure to ask your spouse/pet/significant other as well.

Congratulations!  You have completed your move and have a fresh, new, untainted set of accounts at a carefully selected financial institution!

Back to Living Frugally… Banking

14 Friday Oct 2011

Posted by cosmichomicide in Changes & Progress, Cheapskate, Paperless

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Tags

credit, goals, identity, money

First – a tale of two “banks”.  I’ve had my accounts at Bank #1 since my grandfather took me to get my first passbook account in LaGrange, NC.  If you don’t know what a passbook account is, you actually had a book and when you made a withdrawal or a deposit, it was actually written in and stamped by the teller.  Said teller also made you feel important, no matter how small the transaction.  I’ve kept those accounts through various jobs and marriages and businesses.  When I divorced years ago and needed to refinance my house to remove my ex-husband from the mortgage, Wachovia (who had held the mortgage for more than 10 years) literally did not want to talk to me about it.  I asked a few friends in various areas of the real estate and finance industry and got a recommendation to a mortgage banker at Bank #2.  She was terrific, got everything taken care of at that point and even (true to her word) called back when my “not so great deal in the long run but good for the short haul” mortgage was going to go south and worked through a refinance to a fixed 30 year.  Note that for all of this I had a steady income and solid FICO.

Fast forward – I now have checking/savings at Bank #1, mortgage and equity line at Bank #2.  Bank #1 seems to have trouble remembering our names when we go in the bank and the annoying little changes start.  Bank #2 offers us their “best checking and savings line” if we move since our mortgage is there.  After several months, I go look at the offer and yes, it comes up far higher than Bank #1 by comparison.  Not wanting to change all the ePay and autopays immediately, I take a block of cash and open the Bank #2 accounts with the intent to move over gradually.  Good thing I didn’t because 2 months in I start getting $25 monthly fees for having the account.  I go down and inquire and am told that my “total accounts” there don’t meet their “minimum” (by $2000 – remember, I have a mortgage there, so we are talking less than 1%).  They switch me to their budget checking which doesn’t have a monthly fee, but will suck out cash anytime I do anything.  We run our debit cards through the shredder and pack away the checks to make sure we don’t use them ever.

Where are things today?  Bank #1 has officially become Bank #3.  Bank #3 has added fees, changed my account types “to better serve me” and signed me up for some monthly fee protection garbage that apparently activated when my husband requested a replacement debit card.  Bank #2 is now charging a monthly fee to use their debit card.  I’m sure that Bank #3 is not far behind.  And I’m shopping for a financial home – again.  Interest rates are lower than when I last refinanced and I am well past the break even point on the last one, so savings will be worthwhile.  My FICO is good to excellent depending on which of the big three you ask (and well over the “get the good rates” number).  I have a solid employment history, low debt and substantial equity even with the housing crash.  Basically, I’m a danged good customer and I’m hoping someone out there is still interested in that.

Based on research over the last month the first two candidates are a small local bank and my employer credit unions.  My requirements are:  no-fee debit card transactions, electronic banking, no monthly fee checking, competitive mortgages, mobile banking, no “super sekrit special programs that enroll you without warning” and helpful customer service.  I do want all my main accounts, mortgage and regular transactions to be with the same institution for simplicity, though I’m not adverse to putting one of the savings accounts at another, just in case.  Results (and former bank names) coming in subsequent posts, so stay tuned. 🙂

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