I got a notice today from FNBO Direct that they were cutting their rate to 2.80% so I decided to see what other options were available out there.

DollarSavingsDirect (DSD) is another offshoot of Emigrant Bank. For anyone with an Emigrant Direct account you’ll notice that DSD’s website is extremely similar to Emigrant Direct’s.

They’re still paying 4% and although it isn’t guaranteed to last it’s still a 1.2% higher yield than what I’m currently recieving at FNBO Direct. DSD is also offering 4% 16 month CDs for those interested. There’s a $1,000 balance minimum.

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Back in March of this year (won’t be able to say that for awhile) I posted about why I hate Subway. It’s been frequently viewed and commented on so I felt I should re-visit the subject.

I’m willing to accept that Subways are franchises and different locations may differ from one another in some ways. I have visited Subway franchises and they made me sandwiches that were pretty decent. The one by my house obviously pays higher rents than some of the others and therefore cuts back on higher cost ingredients like meat to improve profit margins.

However, when I go to one Subway, I expect the experience to be relatively the same or on par with most other Subway franchises. I guess that’s just the problem with some franchises. One of the comments on that post was from a Subway franchise owner and seems like someone who cares more about customer satisfaction and following Subway policies over nickel and diming his customers.

I have a Chase credit card with a low $800 limit that I never use. I called Chase to close the card and consolidate the credit line onto another one of my other Chase cards.

I called up Chase and the first customer service representative (CSR) I spoke to spoke perfect English but couldn’t consolidate my cards because the system wouldn’t let her. She said she had to transfer me over to “lending operations”.

As soon as someone at “lending operations” picked up I knew I had been transferred over to a call center in India. The lady said she needed to do a review on my credit profile before she could consolidate the cards. I immediately asked if it was a hard inquiry and was assured it was not. I was put on hold for roughly 20 minutes.

The lady comes back on the phone and then informs me that she sees some alarming items in my credit profile. She then informs me that two accounts (out of 11 total) are showing high utilization and asked me to explain why. The two accounts in question were two recent cards I obtained (from other banks) in the past 6 months that came with relatively low limits, $1,000 and $2,000. I’ve been charging roughly $800 and $1,500 to each card monthly and paying off in full.

So she makes me explain to her why the utilization levels are so high. I explain that the credit limits are low to begin with and it’s not a red flag in that I pay off the cards in full each month. Everything I said flew right over her head. I like how she conveniently ignores my other credit lines such as my Citi Dividend which has a $15k credit line and I charge roughly $50/month to it so they don’t close it for inactivity (it’s my oldest card). She said there’s no way to prove that I’ve been paying off the cards in full each month.

At this point I’m just really annoyed and insulted. I make comments like “Why does this have any bearing on me consolidating my credit line?” and “I make payments in full each and every month on YOUR credit cards so you can verify that at least”. She puts me on hold for another 10 minutes and then comes back on to say she will be able do it. She moved $700 worth of credit line to the other account and then kept the account open with a $100 credit limit. Now I have to call back.

Congratulations Chase on outsourcing the job of evaluating credit risk to a bunch of idiots.

For those that don’t already know. The famed wall street fund manager Bernard Madoff who produced terrific returns for his hedge fund year after year was running a giant $50 billion ponzi scheme in the end.

I was reading a news tidbit about how a judge signs order to protect Madoff investors. Seriously? I know that it’s terrible that people lost money but these weren’t regular run of the mill folks who invested with Madoff. Investment in the fund was only for sophisticated investors. These people were investing the fund to take on higher risks in return for higher gains. The SIPC protects against bankruptcies of broker-dealers and not bad investments. Why are we making it a habit of bailing out the wealthy just because they’re politically connected?

On an interesting side story, many on Wall Street knew Madoff was cheating, but they suspected him of insider trading rather than running a huge ponzi scheme. Shouldn’t the biggest sign of fraud be when people tried to reverse engineer his trades with historical prices to test his “investment strategies”?

Here’s a list of victims of the Madoff fraud which alleges the fraud being nowhere near $50 billion (so far).

For those that are enrolled in the Hilton HHonors rewards program.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Offer valid for HHonors members who register at www.stjude.org/HHonors during the 2008 Thanks and Giving campaign between November 6 and December 31, 2008. Participants earn 250 bonus points per month for each automatic monthly donation for up to 12 months between November 2008 and October 2009, which totals 3,000 bonus points after 12 monthly donations. 1,000 additional bonus points can be earned after the 12th consecutive month of donation. Participants must give in all 12 months consecutively to qualify for 1,000 point bonus. One monthly bonus per account. Offer subject to terminate at any time. Hilton HHonors® membership, earning of Points & Miles®, and redemption of points are subject to HHonors Terms and Conditions.

The 1,000 point bonus might be out of reach since it is for 12 consecutive months of donations from Nov ’08 to Oct ’09 and it’s December already. If you enrolled today 250 points x 11 months is 2,750 points.

You can donate $1/month. I don’t know the point value of HHonors points since I’m not a active member of their rewards program (I hardly ever have a reason to travel and stay at Hilton hotels) but $11 for 2,750 points seems like a deal.

I’m pretty sure Hilton is donating these points to St. Jude’s and deducting the fair market value so I wouldn’t feel too guilty about donating $1/month if you were going to take them up on this deal.

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Whenever I go to the gas station I generally always get $20 worth of regular gasoline. I get $20 because it’s easy to calculate if I’m getting the right rewards (5% cashback) on my credit card statements and I hate it when you ask for a fill up and the amount is $xx.14. They (gas station attendants) will pump up to the nearest dollar even though you’re paying by credit. Sometimes they pump enough to round up that you can smell the extra overflow as you’re driving.

So the other day I asked for $20 which usually gets me somewhere between 3/4 of the tank to full when gas was pricier. The pump auto shuts off at around $18-$19 or so and the attendant comes around to force that extra $1-$2 worth of gasoline into my gas tank. By the time I realized what happened I could already smell the strong scent of gasoline.

FYI, in New Jersey it’s illegal to pump your own gas before anybody wonders why I don’t pump my own. On an interesting side note, you will meet a fair number of people from New Jersey that don’t know how to pump gas because they’ve rarely ever had to do it.

For awhile I’ve been using ebcalc.com and then I realized that the calculator on that website hasn’t been updated with the new fee schedule in a long time. I’ve been miscalculating my eBay fees all summer.

There’s another free and basic fee calculator from Michael Repzynski located here that I’ve been using.

Why use a eBay fee calculator? It’s useful if you eBay things from time to time for profit. If you’re able to buy a electronic widget for $80 that sells for eBay for $100 shipped you can use the calculator to determine that you’ll pay $9.80 in fees($6.60 in eBay fees and $3.20 in PayPal fees). That means you’ll net $12.20 minus shipping costs. However with that low of a profit margin I’d not waste my time since you have to factor in other factors such as your time and risk of buyer fraud.