I have done work in web development and in I.T. over the years and was recently inspired by this angle on obtaining advertising income. The long and short of it is that you develop a site targeted at a specific keyword. Instead of a page or blurb, an entire site is devoted at one keyword and because of this, top results are achieved.
My first such endeavor is with Trojan Condoms.
For those of you that are sick of Comcast’s policy of rate limiting file sharing traffic or traffic they deem to be filesharing, it is time to rejoice. They have agreed to change their policy in fear of FCC action and due to public outcry. More here.
I found an interesting article on how to remove credit inquiries from your report. Credit inquiries are playing a bigger and bigger part in the calculation of today’s FICO scores. It is important to stay on top of them.
With the tightening credit markets we have to stay on top of our Experian, Equifax and Transunion scores and credit reports. Real life real estate has a great audio in mp3 format from last week on the topic.
I bought my 2000 Toyota Tacoma new in 2001. It had sat on the lot for a year because it was a 4 cylinder 4×4 but I didn’t care. It was just what I wanted and overall I have been very happy.
The one exception to the truck and from what I hear, Toyotas in general, is that the check engine light. For the first 4 years I brought the truck into the dealership every time the check engine light went out. The would run a diagnostics check for the better part of a hundred dollars and would come back with a damaged part to replace. It was always a part I had never heard of that didn’t seem to effect functionality in any way. I would repair it and pay a few hundred dollars in the end. One time the part ended up being the sensor itself and it cost over $400 to repair it!
The last few years I have refused to do anything about it, especially when it has not effected performance. I had planned on buying the tool to test it myself (which is about $100) but never got around to it. There isn’t an issue driving around with a check engine light as long as it doesn’t bother you. That is until it is time for emissions. Long gone are the days when they will put a hose over your tailpipe and run a machine. Now they go straight to the computer. If there is a check engine light you automatically fail.
When it was time for me to have my emissions test recently, the engine light was of course on. I went in and had them run the test. They found a problem with a part that I have never heard of and I replaced it. I then was told to drive it for 50 miles and come back for the emissions test (The computer will report that it was just recent if you try and test it too quickly and my truck needs 50 miles. Other vehicles may need more or less). Well… I took too long and the light came back on at 150 miles. Arrgh! I then figured I just needed it to reset it, drive it 51 miles and have the test.
The problem was either buying the machine or going to a shop where they do it for free. I planned on going to a shop but I hated the idea of wasting their time to have my computer reset when I had no intention of buying anything from them.
I went away on a trip came back and the battery in my truck was dead. I had to replace it with a new one, which I did. I turned on the truck and it started and… NO CHECK ENGINE LIGHT. I drove it 53 miles and pulled in to the emissions test and… PASS!
I can’t believe that in this day and age cars are using a type of memory that requires a battery. The moral of the story here is to pull the wires to your battery to clear your check engine light and then reconnect them, drive the minimum amount of miles for the test and show up to pass the test. My cost: 20$ for the test, $50 for the battery. Your cost: $20 for the test!
Please consult your auto professional before performing or not performing any repair. Any action you take is at your own risk! We take no responsibility.
So I still have an email address that I have never released or used, ever. It is an address@comcast.net and was given upon sign up for the cable Internet service. I initially setup my email reader with the account so it still fetches it but I forget about it because nothing is there.
I received more spam to the address today with this header:
by sccrmxc24.comcast.net (sccrmxc24) with SMTP id <20071008203015s2400cd6vve>; Mon, 8 Oct 2007 20:30:15 +0000 |
The message is:
If you no longer wish to receive emails from us you may visit our Instant Removal Link
or you may write to:
200 S Wilcox St # 242 Castle Rock, CO 80104-1913
It is interesting that comcast either sells, allows access to or has had their databases broken into. No online storage of data is safe!
I recently reported about getting cut off by TransUnion’s TrueCredit and have been looking for a new service to use to monitor my credit. A poster over at fatwallet.com mentioned a strategy where you sign up for a trial and then cancel. Subsequently, you are offered a significantly reduced subscription fee of $29.95 for the year. The bottom of this post will include the steps for your strategy.
The recording says limited time so take advantage while you can and you can call and cancel right after signing up!
I had previously reported about True Credit by Transunion and how great I thought the service was. There is even a way to get the service via Walmart for a reduced fee.
As any reader of this blog knows, I am passionate about credit and my credit reports and score. I find the system very interesting and challenging. I found True Credit via the guys at fatwallet. The site allows you to pull your credit every 24 hours so you can monitor changes and unauthorized pulls. It is really critical to do so if you need to use it by getting credit cards or getting real estate loans, etc.
I pulled my credit via True Credit (www.truecredit.com) almost daily. I probably have averaged 5 pulls per 7 days since I joined. I received an email a few days ago saying that my account was suspected fraudulent and that it was being shutdown. It also had a number to call and inquire about it. I called shortly after receiving the email and asked what gives. The gentleman on the phone was very respectful but said the automated fraud detection system had targeted my account because of usage patterns. He told me that he would submit my account for review because I called.
Today I received an email that permanently killed my account. The actual text of the message is below:
You recently contacted our Customer Service department in regard to our notification that your TrueCredit membership and billing was being frozen due to excessive access to your account. As our customer service team communicated, our Compliance Department has reviewed your account in order to see if you qualified for reinstatement.
After a thorough investigation, it is our conclusion that your account should not be reinstated due to an access pattern which indicates potential fraud or a deliberate intent to tamper with the credit scoring system. Your access, billing and all account related email alerts have now permanently been terminated as a result.
While we regret any inconvenience this may cause you, it is our policy to protect the security and integrity of the credit reporting system.
TrueCredit Legal and Compliance Department
There is a technique that has been used by certain individuals that has been termed Bumpage or B*. It is something that is often referred to but rarely explained.
Credit Reporting Agencys keep records of credit users like you and me in their computer systems. They keep track of various information including credit pulls. These are requests for your credit profile. They may be made by you or your creditors or by potential creditors.
When you or I go out and apply for new credit, the credit card issuer will pull our credit profile from one of the three credit reporting agencies: Transunion, Equifax or Experian. When your credit is pulled for new credit, the pull is recorded as a hard pull. A hard pull indicates to other creditors that you have recently applied for credit. This may mean a new account will show up shortly or that you are in a situation where you need more credit and may be a higher risk. Hard credit pulls will negatively impact your score in the short term and lose their effect with time.
You can pull your credit at any time and it will register as a soft pull and it will not affect your credit. You have the right to pull your credit at any time.
Now, in simple terms, two of the Credit Reporting Agencies (Transunion and Equifax) store your credit pulls in a database with limited allocated storage. They keep both the hard pulls and soft pulls in one place. When enough soft pulls are on file, they will begin to bump out the hard pulls. From what I have read it seems to occur somewhere between 30 to 50 pulls.
Theoretically a person could apply for a bunch of credit cards and then continue to pull their credit and the hard pulls would not show up after some time. This bumping of hard pulls is what is known as bumpage. TrueCredit seems to think that anyone who pulls their credit on a regular basis is doing it for bumpage. I wonder how many other good customers they will get rid of? Maybe they just want a bunch of customers that pay monthly and don’t use their service!
I change my initial position on True Credit to downgrade. Consider other services.
Okay, everyone has heard before that you should pay more than the minimum payment on your credit cards when you are carrying a balance. This makes sense because you will be paying less interest next month and so on and so on. However, it is not so clear when you are doing 0% balance transfer deals like I am.
The point in doing 0% balance transfers is that you are trying to borrow money for nothing and loan it out to get interest. It is a simple concept. Why would you want to pay more than you have to while you have the money at 0%?
The credit card issuers keep track of your payments and whether or not you are paying above the minimum. Paying more than the minimum implies liquidity. I have had an Advanta Business card since last year that I have a 0% balance transfer deal going with. I have made all of the payments on time and no problems. I have a relatively low limit with them, however, and they have repeatedly denied my requests for a credit line increase.
I had heard about the concept of paying more than the minimum before and put it into action last month. I paid $2 more than I was required to. Today I tried a credit line increase and got 30% more than I had! It should work on more than just Advanta as well!
I have spent a lot of time applying for and using business credit cards. Why?
My favorite card is the American Express Simply Cash. I have been charging expenses for which I am getting reimbursed. This card is at 0% for up to 12 months so I just pay the minimum balance. I take the reimbursements and put them in my ELoan account which pays 5.25%. The card also automatically gives me back a rebate for auto gas and some other purchases and 1% for everything else. This means at a minimum I will make about 6.25% on everything I charge!
Apply for the card here.
Read my American Express Simply Cash review and my AMEX credit line increase review.
I previously posted the thread about the three Chase business cards after I had applied for them.
They arrived yesterday with respectable limits: $12,000 on the Chase Business Rebate Visa and $8,000 on the expired. I will be using these cards to balance transfer and earn interest.
No word on the third card? A creditor is required to send you a denial letter if that is their decision. I would think the GM Chase Business Card would the easiest to get because it is cobranded but we will see.
It looks like they all showed up as a single pull on Experian. That is the bonus of applying to the same creditor but not always the rule. I applied for three cards but they were all different products in the eyes of Chase and the GM card is a completely different entity so I expect to end up with all three.
These two included balance transfer checks with the card which is a nice bonus. Chase, however, is known to waive balance transfer fees so I will try on the phone first to get them to waive it. Otherwise, I’ll write the check to myself and deposit into the checking account and pay the $75 per card.
$20,000 @ 5.25% = $1,050 - $150 (potential balance transfer fees) = $900 with no accounts on the personal credit report!
My interest in real estate is based on the desire to obtain a portfolio of properties. I had always thought, however, that it would be worthwhile if I were to buy just one home and save my commission. Here are the calculations to determine if it is worth it. I calculate a per hour rate for the effort I have had to put into it.
The total hours required assuming you pass both tests the first time is 90 hours.
The houses that I am interested are in the $300,000 range. The total commission on the house is usually 5%. This is typically split 50/50 between the selling and buying brokerages. The rate that the salesperson receives can very greatly but it is not unheard of for a salesperson to negotiate a very high rate for their personal transactions. The broker will often deduct expenses before this cut as well. I will assume the salesperson can negotiate for at least a 65% commission.
I have worked 90 hours and got paid $3,875. This ends up being $43 an hour. Thats a decent wage. Hopefully I gained some knowldege along the way too and was able to negotiate a better sales price, see through the mortgage scams and write up a beneficial contract.
If I already had a house and it was in the same range I would end up with close to $100 an hour for the work I did. Most people will own more than one home in their lifetime so this could pay off for you!
Wish me luck on the state test!
With all of the online transactions and credit card applications we go through there is a need to keep copies of documents for future examination. Printing them to files is ridiculous in this day and age. Adobe came out with their landmark product Acrobat in the 1990s.
I work on different information contracts regularly and buying licenses to Acrobat gets expensive. I found a nice free alternative to it with lots of features: PDFCreator.
It installs as a printer and then when you print you get this screen with many more options than Acrobat:
Download PDFCreator here.
Below are three cards that are good candidates for the interest rate arbitrage a.k.a. make money via balance transfers. These are all from Chase. The good things about that is that the credit report pulls are likely to be from the same creditor and Chase has been known to waive balance transfer fees. These are also business cards which means they don’t show up on your personal credit report (inquiries will show only)!
Chase Business Rebate Visa
0% for 12 billing cycles on balance transfers and purchases, 3% balance transfer fee (capped at $75), no annual fee, 3% cash back on some purchases and 1% for others
Apply expired.
Chase Platinum Business Card
0% for 12 billing cycles on balance transfers and purchases, 3% balance transfer fee (capped at $75), no annual fee
Apply expired.
GM Business Card (Chase)
0% for 12 billing cycles on balance transfers and purchases, 3% balance transfer fee (capped at $75), no annual fee, 3% cash back on some purchases and 1% for others
Expired…
I just did a spree of applications recently and included these three cards. The best way to use these cards is to apply online for the instant approval. Next, call Chase up and request a balance transfer conditional upon them waiving the 3% fee. They will often oblige the request. I will still be transfering my full credit line on each irrespective of them waiving the fee because for every $10,000 in credit limits they offer me I should make a bit over $500 (5.25% savings) minus $75 transfer fee for a net of $425. This is a great deal for a few phone calls when you consider they won’t show up on your personal credit report!
P.S. Always read the terms and print them in case you have any question in the future. I pdf the terms and conditions of cards I apply for and file them away.
Managing your credit report is an art as much as it is a science. We previously reviewed the criteria used to determine your credit score. You might be a someone who uses their credit for interest rate arbitrage or a person who has a balance from a long ago purchase, either way promotional rates end. What do you do when the 0% or low % APR is over?
This just happened for my girlfriend. She is carrying $4,000 of an old balance and last month she got nailed for close to $50 in interest. This is something that should never happen but does, even to the most diligent of us.
Her response was to spontaneously call up on a 0% Bank of America offer she received in the mail. She was instantly approved but… for only $1,500. This wasn’t going to do her much good. My solution for her was to apply for another specifically chosen card.
Her income is average but her credit history doesn’t show large credit lines. This is a problem. High credit limits yield high credit limits. Low credit limits yield low credit limits. She needed another card, one that would satisfy the entire balance. We also needed to act quick before the new inquiry and new account show up on her credit report.
The Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards is the card I chose for her. 0% APR until 4/1/2008. No balance transfer fee. 10,000 Thank You points (good for $100 to Best Buy) after the first purchase. Plus, this card is an American Express which is a brand known for giving high credit limits. She applied online (see details below) and was instantly approved for about $5,500. She requested the balance transfer yesterday and everything is on track. When a month goes by, we will ask for an online credit increase to decrease her utilization. 4K/5.5K is in the 70s for percent utilitization. It is generally accepted that staying below 50% is best for your score.
Sign up by May 15, 2006. http://www.signup.citicards.com or call 1-800-601-8358. Use offer code F2C5.
Now back to the original question about what to do with credit cards you aren’t using. She has two cards now, the one she spontaneously applied for and the old one that has the expired offer. The quick and easy answer is to never close a credit account especially when there is not an annual fee.
Length of credit history is a big chunk of your score and closing your account ends an old line. She has a relatively short history and only 3 cards now. Keeping the spontaneous one with a low limit will only help her down the road with history although she may take a small hit in the short run (1-3 months) for the two new accounts.
If she were like me with a bunch of cards, it would make sense for her to consolidate lines. You can have many cards with the same bank. When an offer ends or is about to end, call them up and ask them to consolidate the limit to the oldest card you have with them. This will give you a bigger limit shown on your credit report.
The long story short is consider the results of credit actions. Closing an account when you are done with it seems to make sense but in fact hurts us in the eyes of creditors.