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July 31, 2007
Quickly find higher CD yields
Here's a quick, easy-to-use tool to quickly search for high yielding CDs. For example, this spring you could have locked in 10% in a one-year, federally insured CD. The catch? Well, you needed to belong to the Dearborn Village Community Credit Union in Michigan and the rate was only good for the first $1,000 on deposit.
Still, if you want to find out if you can qualify for local deals, check out BankingMyWay.com. It's free. Just type in your ZIP code to look for deals. You can also search for internet deals, too.
For example, I found out I could get 7.00% on a $1,000, 12-month CD special that Patelco Credit Union is offering for new members. Not bad!
Posted by brian at 02:42 PM | Comments (2)
July 28, 2007
No love for dimes except this one
Last year, I wrote about the U.S. Mint completely disregarding the humble dime, while putting out new nickels, quarters, dollar coins, and fancy new bills. I also found the "Dimes Must Die" web page, where a guy builds up a good case for getting rid of the dime.
Anyway, here's a fun story about one man's journey across the U.S. to deliver a dime worth $1.9 million from one rich person to another rich person with nothing better to spend his money on.
Posted by brian at 01:29 PM | Comments (2)
July 27, 2007
Making money on balance transfers
I've written about this trick before and you probably already know about it, but the Wall Street Journal finally wrote about it last month. Here are some interesting quotes regarding low, introductory interest rate balance transfer offers.
In short, you make money by borrowing the money at 0% interest with a balance transfer check, park the money in a high yield money market account until the introductory period expires, then pay back the credit card company, pocketing the interest.
The WSJ found Ira Stoller of Butler, N.J. who says he makes about $1,300 to $1,400 a year this way. "It's not a get-rich-quick scheme, but it sure does pay for vacations," says the 71-year-old salesman. Assuming he's earning 5% interest on those balance transfer funds, Ira apparently manages to borrow about $26,000 - $28,000 at a time from credit card companies. But I've got Ira beat - right now, I've got about $42,000 working for me - $22,000 courtesy of Citibank and $20,000 generously on loan from Chase, all at 0%.
Credit card companies have caught on, of course, and now it's harder to find a balance transfer that doesn't impose a fee, usually 3%, on the transfer. The key is that they often cap the fee or sometimes you can get them to waive the fee. For example, Citibank waived the fee and Chase capped it at $75 for my two offers. Since I'll make a few hundred bucks in interest, even after taxes, it still makes sense to pay the $75 fee.
The WSJ says only a small number of their cardholders play this game but that credit card companies are making it tougher. For example, interest-free balance transfers time periods are being reduced from twelve to six months and tacking on fees. Previously, such fees were often waived or capped at $50 to $75. But recently, Bank of America and Chase eliminated their transfer-fee caps on many offers, while Citibank raised its maximum fee to $250. Dammit!
"We've been aware of the phenomenon," says a spokesman for Citibank, a unit of Citigroup Inc. A spokeswoman for Bank of America Corp. says the interest-rate trick was "not at all part of the decision to go to uncapped balance transfers," which is obviously a lie.
The good news is that competition among card issuers for new customers is so intense that companies can't afford to do away with the generous offers altogether. American Express Co., Citibank, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America, for example, say they still offer no-fee, 0% balance transfers to selected customers.
The Chase offer below is 0% APR for 12 months with a $75 balance transfer fee. So if you invest the money at 5% and clear 3% return after taxes, you'll need to transfer about $6,000 to clear about $100.
Posted by brian at 02:54 AM | Comments (2)
July 26, 2007
Pennies are now worth 2.4 cents
The metal content of pre-1982 pennies is now worth about 2.4 cents with copper trading around $3.50 per pound. For pennies made after 1981, most of the copper has been replaced with zinc and they're worth only about 0.9 cents. The same situation applies to nickels - there's almost 7 cents worth of nickel in a nickel. If you're curious, you can check those prices here, based on current metal prices.
This has happened before. Before 1965, dimes, quarters, half-dollars, and dollar coins all had 90% silver content. That's why it's fairly common to find 1965 dimes and quarters in your change but it's next to impossible to find 1964 or older versions of those coins - I've only found two and I've been on the lookout for 20 years. (The trick is to listen to your change - a silver quarter sounds a lot different than those of today). The value of 1964 and older silver coins is over 10 times the face value, in part because of the silver content and in part because people hoard them.
Anyway, back to pennies. Why not collect the coins, melt them down for their metal value, and make some money? Well, in December the U.S. Mint, which closely follows the price of copper and nickel, made it illegal to melt pennies and nickels. Exporting coins for melting also is illegal. Travelers may legally carry up to $5 in 1- and 5-cent coins out of the U.S. That's right - if you're heading down to Mexico with more than 10 rolls of pennies to buy your tequila and firecrackers, be prepared to face up to five years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines.
Instead of building a smelt in your backyard to melt your pocket change, you could sell them to someone else. A $50 bag of 1981 pennies went for $87 on eBay today plus $15 for shipping - after all, a $50 bag of pennies weighs about 30 pounds.
I doubt most people are going to sort their change to pull out the 1981 and older pennies, though, unless copper prices really go up. After all, those CoinStar machines I see in the supermarket that charge 7 cents for every dollar to sort change are really popular.
Posted by brian at 10:05 AM | Comments (1)
July 25, 2007
Quickly compare your rent to your neighbors
Our landlord does not charge us nearly enough rent. I know this because I check out craigslist from time to time and compare properties in this area. Luckily, our landlord seems more intent on having good tenants than charging us market rates, so we're definitely not putting in a meth lab.
Anyway, here's a nifty tool called Rentometer to help you figure out what your neighbors pay in rent. Type in your address and rent and it brings up a google map with the rents in nearby places that have the same number of bedrooms. I don't know how accurate it is and it lumps together condos, single unit houses, and apartment complexes. The real value is that it provides a snapshot of the median rents in a given area. This way you can quickly find a location in your price range if you're thinking of moving.
Plus, if you check back once in a while, you can see if rents are rising and you're getting a good deal or if rents are falling and you need to approach your landlord for a decrease in the rent. You can also use What the Neighbors Pay website to do a similar sort of analysis.
Finally, just for people in San Francisco, you can use this neat tool to look at rents over time in "the city" - excuse me, "The City" - based on craigslist posts.
Posted by brian at 02:35 PM | Comments (2)
July 24, 2007
Freecycling - Finding and giving away free stuff
Here's a nice story out of my hometown of Tucson. Deron Beal sent an e-mail to his friends and local nonprofits suggesting they start an online service that would enable people to donate used household items to local residents and in 2003 the Freecycling Network was founded.
The goal is to lend a helping hand to those in need and to minimize waste by giving lightly used items a second life. With more than 4,000 "Freecycle communities" and 3.5 million users, it's caught on quickly.
To try it out, go to Freecycle.org and sign up for free. Then you'll receive email listings for free things and can start offloading things you want someone else to have.
Posted by brian at 10:40 PM | Comments (2)
July 21, 2007
Cheap airfares - best of the best search engines
Apparently, the best travel websites do not include Orbitz or Expedia, at least according to ConsumerSearch.com. Three of the four sites they really like are completely new to me.
Best travel search engine: Kayak, which gathers fares from other airline websites and search engines like Orbitz and Travelocity. Kayak will also help you with rental cars and hotels.
Best discount travel site: Hotwire, which is the best source for bargain flights, according to Consumer Search. However, you won't know exactly what time or what airline you've agreed to fly until after your purchase.
Best international travel site: Mobissimo, which has the largest international supplier network. The site also includes a blog that tracks bargains on airfares and hotels.
Finally, Airfarewatchdog, helps you find the cheapest tickets offered directly by airlines.
Posted by brian at 02:10 PM | Comments (1)
July 20, 2007
New bonuses
I put a bunch more bonuses below in the new table. You should be able to sort the bonuses by Company, Bonus Amt, etc. by clicking on the headers.
Normally, I would say to stay clear of E*Trade. I just hate their customer service and usually their bonus incentives to open accounts stink, like a $50 bonus when you fund a account with $25,000. But right now you can pick up an easy $25 with a deposit of only $1. Hey, maybe you'll actually like E*Trade.
Posted by brian at 10:27 PM | Comments (2)