Last year around holiday-time, we heard a lot about layaway: “It’s coming back!” “Helloooo, 1980s, your purchase-plan just called.” In particular, Kmart earned buzz with its layaway program last year, and now offers layaway items on Sears’ purchases as well.
But is layaway really a big deal?
Last week, banking powerhouse JP Morgan Chase launched a charge card for small businesses. This is the first charge card to be offered by any major Visa/MasterCard issuer, as American Express locked up that marketplace a long time ago.
The new business charge card is called Ink Bold, and, as with any charge card, monthly balances must be paid in full each billing period. Ink Bold most closely resembles the Gold Card from American Express OPEN. Let’s compare some typical features:
If you or someone you buy for is planning to dress in costume for Halloween, you can save big money by taking care of those needs right now instead of a couple of days prior to October 31st.
For the younger set, Toys “R” Us/Babies “R” Us lets you save $10 on purchases of $30 or more if you’re a new “Bill Me Later” customer, subject to credit approval.
For a very limited time, Restaurant.com is offering gift certificates worth $25 for the price of $1. Just enter the Discount Code NINETY at checkout and hit “apply.” Oh, and be sure to say “no thanks” when they ask if you want to complete the survey, because if you click “yes” you’ll get charged an additional twenty bucks.
This offer is good for 99 hours starting 9/9/09, so act quickly!
Yeah, between summer vacations and back-to-school, my wallet’s pretty tapped out. Yours too? How about a nice change of pace: free stuff!
Disclosure: Some links point to CardHub.com or FindHub.com, which are both owned by the same parent company as this blog.
Do you feel guilty that even though a dollar doesn’t go as far as it used to, you’re still not clipping coupons out of the weekly newspaper circulars? “Couponing” is one craze that we should all take advantage of — especially with so many grocery stores now offering double-coupon values when you give them a single coupon — but it’s such a pain in the neck! First you have to get your hands on a local newspaper, then go through the slippery circulars, clip the coupons you think you might actually need while avoiding the ones that make you want to buy unwanted items, then organize them in some sort of order, and finally, remember to take them to the grocery store. It’s exhausting.
Happily, a new online company has taken the hassle out of coupon-clipping. Shortcuts.com, a service of AOL, offers free online grocery coupons that link to your grocery store loyalty/rewards card.
Well, the Cash for Clunkers program, aka CARS, ended on August 24th. The original $1 billion, which lawmakers thought would last until October, was gone within two weeks, which prompted lawmakers to grant another $2 billion towards the program.
Ultimately, CARS increased car sales, and the sales of more environmentally friendly cars, while removing junkers from the road. It offered a shot in the arm to ailing car dealerships and the U.S. auto industry at large.
Ever had a retail experience that made you grind your teeth? The worst part isn’t necessarily the money lost in a bad deal, but the overwhelming feeling of powerlessness that goes along with it. There are, however, many ways to regain the upper hand. Here are a few options.
The Better Business Bureau: The national BBB has an online presence where you can submit consumer complaints. You enter your Zip code onto the home page and they route you to your local BBB. The site is easy to use and yes, it garners results. I had a bad experience with a cellular carrier and submitted a complaint through the Web site. Then I forgot about it. Within two weeks, though, I received phone calls from the office of the president of my cellular phone provider. When they didn’t reach me at home, they called my cell phone (I’d provided both numbers on my BBB complaint). They handled my complaint expediently and I feel much better about the process.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted 316-109 Friday to augment the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) program by $2 billion. The additional funding will be transfered from energy stimulus funds.
Fears that the “Cash-for-Clunkers” program would die within days of its initial approval spurred the House to call a vote, an action that came within hours of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s report that the program would soon run out of funding.
As I prognosticated before the bill was even signed into law, many carmakers have jumped onto the Cash-for-Clunkers bandwagon and are offering additional incentives. It definitely pays to do a bit of research at your local dealerships to see if you can qualify for additional trade-in cash or special financing. (But do it quick, because unless Congress extends the program, it could be over as soon as this weekend, according to White House press secretary Robert Gibbs). In the meanwhile, read on for a rundown of offers from major auto companies.
Under the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) program, the lease period for new vehicles must be at least five years. As such, Toyota has created special five-year leases specifically for the CARS program. Sixty-month leases are in place for the Camry, Corolla, RAV4, Tacoma, and Yaris models. To find the special offers available near you, visit Buy A Toyota and type your Zip code into the “Special Offers” box in the lower left-hand corner.
Have you visited the Web site Restaurant.com? It lets you search for participating restaurants by Zip code or region, offers descriptions and menus of the restaurants you’re interested in, and then you can purchase gift certificates online and print them from your computer for immediate use.
The gift certificates can be purchased in different denominations, at a steep discount. Right now, they’re offering $10 gift certificates for $4, and $25 gift certificates for $10 apiece. This is a pretty good deal, but it’s about to get sweeter: I’ve found a secret promotional code that lets you buy a $25 gift certificate for TWO DOLLARS. And there doesn’t seem to be a limit to the number of certificates you purchase!
Spoiler: yes! Yes! YES! Longer Answer: Yes indeed.
I purchased a farm share in early May (and wrote about it on Wallet Blog on May 11th). My main motivation was twofold: helping local farmers while encouraging my family to eat better. For $15.38 a week, I would receive one small box of mostly local vegetables, which I’d pick up at the Tuesday afternoon farmers’ market in my city.
Want to save 40 to 80 percent of the cost of a domestic Total Knee Replacement, heart procedure, plastic surgery, or another, typically high-cost medical procedure? You might look into medical travel, which can save you up to 80 percent of the typical costs for an equivalent procedure in the United States.
“If the procedure you’re considering costs more than $6,000 in the United States, it might be worthwhile and money-saving for you to evaluate a medical travel option,” said Patrick Marsek, Managing Director of MedRetreat and co-author of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Medical Tourism.”
If you’re eager to get rid of some of your unwanted items/wedding gifts/whatever, Amazon is one of many companies that will allow you to hold an online tag sale. One way to do this is to sell directly on Amazon.com, but another option, particularly if your items are books, videos, music, or video games, is to use Amazon’s Easy Sell with Fulfillment by Amazon. The programs are quite different from one another.
When you sell directly on Amazon.com, you will be notified when an item has sold, but you have to mail it yourself. The company gives you a $3.99 shipping credit and takes a small fee. This is the option to choose if you’re really looking to make money, though it takes more time because you need to pack and ship the item yourself, which can be a pain if you are selling a large amount of items.
I recently found a great high-yield savings account. United Federal Credit Union has introduced a 6.01% APY Interest Plus Checking account on balances up to $25,000 for qualifying members. The rate is guaranteed “until at least 2010,” and the account also includes “free ATMs nationwide.”
Unfortunately, I don’t qualify for this credit union. I can’t become a member based on this list, nobody in my family is a member, and I don’t do business in their geographic area on a regular basis.
Campbell Norwood has written a book that will be of great interest to our Wallet Blog “Deals” readers. Titled Recession $urvival Guide: Low-Cost and No-Cost Strategies to Spend Less, Save More!, her book is full of low- and no-cost opportunities for stretching one’s household budget.
“I wrote the Recession $urvival Guide from the perspective of knowing that there are a lot of families in our area, and around the US, who have never dealt with economic recession. They’re scrambling, embarrassed, and don’t know what to do,” Norwood said. “My goal is that readers will be empowered to make no-cost and low-cost changes.”
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, aka FDIC, has voted to bar shaky banks from hiking up interest rates to attract more customer money. This change is known as Section 29 and will go into effect on January 1, 2010. Section 29 says that banks that are struggling to stay in business will only be able to offer interest rates with a top limit of 75 basis points above the national rate. The national rate is an average of all rates paid by reporting banks.
As a result, you will be getting the best interest rates from well-capitalized banks and we should expect around 3 percent of banks to be affected by Section 29. Some higher-yield banks, such as Ally, the institution formerly known as GMAC Bank, which has been advertising all over the place and boasts of high capitalization, will likely be able to continue offering high interest rates to its depositors.
The Senate’s “Cash for Clunkers” bill passed Thursday, as an addenda to the war-spending bill. It was approved by the House last week. The bill allows for trade-in vouchers of up to $4,500 for owners of gas guzzlers who want to buy or lease a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle. If signed into law by President Obama, the program is likely to go into effect in August.
Called “Handouts for Hummers” by critics, the program is less green than advocates had hoped, and will not do an extraordinary amount to limit the United States’ dependence on foreign oil. Car owners could get a $3,500 voucher for trading in an under-18 m.p.g car for one that gets at least 22 m.p.g., or $4,500 if the new car gets 10 m.p.g. higher than their existing vehicle. Truck, minivan, and SUV owners will receive a $3,500 voucher for buying a similar new vehicle that gets at least 2 m.p.g. higher; that voucher will increase to $4,500 if the new truck/van/SUV gets at least 5 m.p.g. higher than their existing vehicle.
ENERGY STAR is a government program to help encourage energy efficiency while reducing harmful greenhouse gases. Products stamped with the ENERGY STAR logo meet strict energy-efficiency guidelines set by the EPA and the US Department of Energy. But you might not know that when you purchase ENERGY STAR-compliant products, you might also save a bundle of money, in the form of tax credits and deductions, and rebates from the ENERGY STAR partner corporations.
ENERGY STAR offers tax credits to consumers who make qualifying home improvements or purchase electric, hybrid, or other alternatively fueled automobiles. It also offers tax credits for home builders and tax deductions for energy efficient commercial buildings.
Staycations are all the rage right now, and it’s no wonder: for a fraction of the cost required to go away this summer, you (and your nearest and dearest) can have a dynamite week at home! Here are my suggestions, under the subheads of On the Cheap, Party Fun, and Splurge a Bit, that will make you feel so happy that once you’re back to work, people will be envious of your new relaxed glow.
ON THE CHEAP
On May 21, the House Energy and Commerce Committee formally adopted a White House / Congress compromise that includes a “Cash for Clunkers” amendment within the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act. The amendment is designed to cut greenhouse-gas emissions while stimulating auto sales.
If ACES becomes law, the program will be authorized for up to one year and provide for approximately one million new car or truck purchases. ’Cash for Clunkers’ would offer vouchers worth $3,500-$4,500 to people who trade in old gas-guzzlers for new cars and trucks. Car buyers would receive a $3,500 cash voucher for trading in any vehicle that earns less than 19 mpg and purchasing one that gets at least 22 mpg. If the new car gets more than 10 mpg better than the old one, the cash voucher would rise to $4,500.
As the temperature rises, so do energy bills. Here are some simple tips that will help you limit your energy costs this summer.
DIY Energy Audits: No need to hire an expert for this one. Visit the Department of Energy’s Web site and do a critical walk-through of the energy demons in your home.
Looking for a checking account that handsomely pays you back? Focus Bank of Missouri and Arkansas is offering a “MAXimum Free Checking Account” with no monthly service charges, no minimum balance requirements, and no direct deposit required.
Balances up to $25,000 earn a whopping 4.51% Annual Percentage Yield (APY). MAXimum Free Checking account holders also enjoy ATM fee refunds up to $25 per statement cycle, free wallet-style checks, free ATM/debit card, free 24-hour telephone banking, free online banking, free bill pay (with eStatement sign-up), and free direct deposit/automatic drafts. Additionally, qualified customers receive a $500 overdraft privilege, though if you’re earning 4.51% APY, I’d say that it behooves you to maintain the largest account balance possible.
Are you interested in saving money, while promoting your local economy and eating delicious, even organic food? Me, too. I’ve found a way that my family will get garden-fresh organic produce for half of what I spend at the grocery store for non-organic fruits, veggies, and herbs. The answer? Purchasing a CSA FarmShare. Read on…
Look: I’m no hippie and I wear leather shoes – this was a purely economic and gastronomic decision. I want to eat good food that hasn’t traveled across the country to get to me, because when you can buy strawberries in Massachusetts in March, that’s a pretty good sign that they’re non-native. As such, my requirements were stringent: I needed local, weekly pickups of a box of food manageable to the size of my small family.
Term life insurance is temporary protection for people with limited budgets. You can get a great deal of coverage for a relatively low premium rate. It’s particularly appropriate for situations where your beneficiaries would need additional help – say, to pay off a loan or provide for the needs of your children – in the event of your death.
My husband and I signed up for term life insurance upon the birth of our first child and that was pretty much the first day I ever felt like a grown-up. He’d just quit smoking and I hadn’t lost my baby weight yet, so our rates were higher than I expected but worthwhile for the million bucks he or I would get if the other partner kicked the bucket.
