My Credit Card Got Stolen!

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On Friday March 30th, I was reading this article on MailOnline.com and it talked about “‘One of the biggest credit card heists in history’: Ten million Mastercard and Visa customers hit by data theft”.  By a coincidence, I checked my credit card on Saturday March 31st and see a mysterious

via Mailonline.com

via Mailonline.com

charge of $90.48 from soccer.com.

This is the first time my credit card has ever been stolen so I wasn’t sure how to react.  It was my Chase Freedom card that got stolen.  I called the Chase credit card customer service and spoke to someone about it.  They insisted that I close the card, so I agreed to close the card.  They sent me a new card on Monday via express UPS and this was all free of charge.

I also called the merchant, soccer.com and told them about my situation.  They looked up the order and were able to find it.  They cancelled the order and I’m happy to know that no one is getting free soccer cleats off my bill!

Readers, if you suspect fraudulent activity on your card, I suggest you close the account immediately.  I received a new card on the following business day, and it is like nothing ever happened.  This was an easy process because I was lucky enough to see the charge that day.  I wonder what would have happened if I had waited until I received my credit card statement?

Also, the merchant and the credit card company have the address where the soccer cleats were being delivered, why don’t they call the police to investigate?  Does that make anyone else mad that they don’t do anything? (I’ll leave this topic open for debate.)

 

Readers, did you every have your card stolen?  How did you handle the situation?  Were you liable for any of the charges?

 

Did you like this article? Please subscribe to After College Money for FREE!

 


Book Giveaway: Creating Success from the Inside Out by Ephren Taylor and Emerson Brantley

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Hi Everyone,  I started my first contest for my blog.  I am giving away a hardcover copy of Creating Success from the Inside Out: Devlop the Focus and Strategy to Uncover the Life You Want by Ephren Taylor and Emerson Brantley.  I read this book and it is a great book to help someone get into the entrepreneurial mindset.

I am using rafflecopter.com to manage the giveaway.  I hope this will get some followers to my blog.  The contest ends on May 2nd, 2012 and I will announce the winner’s name on the widget and send them an email.  Good luck everyone!

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The Power of Cash on Hand

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Cash is King.  Nothing beats cash in terms of liquidity.  Checks, credit cards and debit cards all pale in comparison to the power of cold, hard cash.  Even gold does not beat the liquidity of modern US Dollars.  Try to buy groceries with gold right now and the cashier would say “I’m sorry sir, you cannot buy groceries with THAT.”  The increased liquidity of cash carries with it some benefits that you may not know about:

An everyday liquidity crisis

Ever tried to park your car and realized you had no quarters?  You just faced a liquidity crisis.  You know that you have more than enough money in your checking account to cover the $2.00 it costs to park your car for 2 hours.  But the meter doesn’t take checks, it wants quarters.   Now you can decide to either A. Park somewhere else, or B. Park there anyways and face a parking ticket.  Because of your liquidity crisis, you have to pay a $40 parking ticket if you choose to stay in the spot.  A parking ticket is nothing more than a penalty of liquidity.

A simple way to avoid this is to stock your car with a $20 roll of quarters.  This way, you will always have enough to cover the parking meter and you can put a few extra quarters in for good measure.  This trick has saved me a lot of embarrassment on dates!

Friends that owe you money

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3 Reasons Why You Must Learn How to Invest

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Steve&John

If you are young, you must learn how to invest.  Now is the time.  You are still young and have all the time in the world to make mistakes and build your confidence in investing.  Even if you have only a little money to invest,  I suggest you learn now, at an early age.  Here are three reasons to start investing NOW:

1.  Compounding interest is on your side when you are young

The younger you are, the more time you have to invest your money.  The more time you have to invest your money, the more your percentage rate of return matters.  Here are two examples below.  Steve, the first chart, chooses to keep his money in a bank savings account, which yields 3% a year for 50 years.  John, on the other hand,  learns how to invest his money and averages a 10% return on his money for 50 years.  The results are below:

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Book Review: You Call the Shots

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Hi Everyone, I am writing my first Book Review post.  I have read countless books on personal finance and self improvement and I found many of them useful.  I would like to share them with you and inspire you to read some for yourself.  In my previous post, “How to Become a Master: Personal Finance Edition“, I explained how important reading is to becoming great at a subject.  These book reviews will help you gather information to make better personal finance and business decisions.

Additionally, I am testing out the Amazon Affiliate Program to see if I can make some income from book reviews.  I am telling you this so that my blog is transparent and so you know that I have a stake in these book reviews.  Still, I will try to review these books as best as I can, and I will try to offer my unbiased opinion.

You Call the Shots by Cameron Johnson

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How to Become a Master: Personal Finance Edition

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Last week, I wrote an article called: How to Become a Master:  5 Steps.  I realized that while the article was informative, it was rather abstract and it did not discuss personal finance.  I would like to extend that article into the realm of personal finance.  In this post, I will use those 5 Steps to help you improve your personal finances.

 

1.  Look at people who are successful and imitate them until you achieve similar results.

If you want to master your personal finances, look first to other people who are already successful.  Read biographies on the people who are successful.  Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett and Michael Dell all have books that outline their successes.  Read the books about them.  Learn their techniques and see how their strategy worked for them.  By doing this, you will absorb their knowledge and it will become your own to use.  If you only get one small tidbit of info from a book you read, you will still be better off than if you hadn’t read it.  Continue to learn and you will benefit.  In the future, I will write Book Reviews for every personal finance book I read, as I tend to read a lot.

Also, read personal finance blogs!  The Yakezie Network has a treasure trove of free information.  you will begin to see that Personal Finance is a lifestyle, and you will gain support from the other members of Yakezie.  Reading will you help you so much with your personal finances, I cannot stress it enough.

 

2.  Analyze why some things work and other things do not work.

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How to Become a Master: 5 Steps

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This is personal finance blog, but ocassionally I will delve into self-help philosophy.  In this article, I will discuss 5 steps on your road towards mastery.  Not only will this help in your personal finances, I believe that reading this article will help you master whatever your goal is in life:

 

1.  Look at people who are successful and imitate them until you achieve similar results.

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Guest Post: Tips and Tricks to Trade Student Loan Debt and Save Money

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Here is a guest post from my friend Myrina Stein, you can follow her on Twitter (@MyrinaStein):

 

In recent times, almost all students are turning to student loans in order to meet their education expenses, but eventually incurring overwhelming student loan debt by defaulting on it. Therefore, regardless, student loan debt is one of the most common financial obligations these days. Once you incur the debt, it’s yours for life or at least for the life of the loan. Moreover student loan debt cannot be wiped off through settlement proceedings or bankruptcy. Some attempt to avail a settlement offer for student loans to achieve a debt free life, but the wisest way to avoid paying a huge interest rate is paying the loan in full. Considering all these factors associated with student loans, trading student loan debt seems to be the best way to pay it off and earn money.

So let us take a close look at some important tips and tricks to trade student loan debt.

  • First and foremost, complete as many credit card offers as possible for new students while in school. Make sure that the cards are used only for credit repair. Once you graduate, you have six months before you start repaying the student loan debt. Your aim is to get a good job within the period so that you can repay the loans as soon as possible. So as you get a job, make a repayment plan that includes credit cards.

  • Then contact a credit card company and request an introductory offer or zero percent interest rate to transfer all your student loans onto the card. Also request the company to provide you with the longest repayment time, along with zero percent interest rate.

  • Follow the monthly repayment schedule to repay the student loans applied to credit cards. Make monthly payments on time in order to repay the loans as fast as possible. However, since your interest rate is zero, you will have to pay only the principal amount which will save your money. Money saved is money earned.

  • Then contact the second credit card company and transfer the remaining balance on your debt onto the card just one month before your previous introductory offer gets over. Then again start paying only the principal amount and save money.

  • Finally, transfer the remaining balance on your debt, if any, onto the third credit card that offers zero percent interest. Then pay down the principal amount. You may continue to move the balance on your debt onto a new card till you have paid off your student loan debt in full. This way you will be able to pay off the debt faster than you thought before and save considerable amount by not paying interest.

In conclusion, since student loan debt cannot be paid off with settlement proceedings or bankruptcy, so it is best to repay the debt by moving onto one credit card to another.

 

Assert Yourself to Save Money

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Assert Yourself to Save Money

Electronic banking has made our lives much easier.  We can check our balance from home and manage a budget at our computer.  However, you should be careful when you use these services.

The ease of these services come at a cost, and a hidden one at that.  Electronic banking has services set up to benefit the bank at the expense of the customer.  Features such as “Overdraft Protection” charge you an overdraft fee every time you use it.  Now, don’t think that “the 1%” is plotting to take all your money.  When the banking company developed their software, they had to make a decision of what happens in an overdraft situation.  The bank designed the software to cover their own asses rather than the customer.

But, you can fight these charges.  You must speak up in order to save money.  Here are 3 examples of how I was able to save money:

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A Fellow Blogger’s Contest

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This is a short post for Sunil at www.easyextramoneyonline.com  He currently has a contest where he is:

Giving Away $1,500, an Apple Ipad 2, a FREE VACATION and a $25 Amazon Gift Card in Celebration of my 6,000+ Subscribership Mark

I think this is a great idea, and I’m sure it will get him more readers/subscribers.  A contest looks like a great way to drive traffic to your blog.  I would like to try one in the future, I will keep you posted.

Here is the link:  http://www.easyextramoneyonline.com/blog/2012/02/giveaway/