Sadly I can say with absolute certainty that I am very seldom wowed by a business’ customer service. In most instances you are lucky to get someone to pick up the phone let alone actually help you with your problem. Even when you get the help you need they certainly aren’t going to compensate you for whatever inconvenience you suffered. Or will they???

Lets go back in time, you may have caught my review of my new Ally checking account. I mentioned their customer service was pretty good during the account setup process but I wasn’t prepared for what happened last night.

When I opened the account they were pretty speedy about getting me my ATM card. I got it in the next week and then a few days later I got the PIN letter in the mail. My biggest reason for getting the Ally account was that they will reimburse you for all of your ATM fees. You can imagine my chagrin when I hit the ATM at work and was denied access to my cash. It was the first time I tried to use the card so I figured I just didn’t get the PIN right, seemed reasonable so I didn’t think anything of it.

I got home that day and called the automated number to change my pin but the machine and I didn’t agree. I finally decided I wouldn’t have a problem remembering the pin so I forgot about it until yesterday. I went to the grocery store to pick up some things and the guy forgot to ring up a drink so instead of throwing another $1.85 on our joint account so I paid with Ally card. I rang it as an ATM transaction just to check and low and behold SUCCESS. It was obviously a problem between the keypad and me. Or was it.

As I was making dinner last night my phone rang with a strange 877 number. I am usually reluctant to answer but I did. It was a representative from Ally, they called me to apologize for the problems I was having with my ATM card. I was pretty taken aback as I had never had someone call me about a problem before. Honestly that would have been enough for me to call it stellar but then they told me they would be depositing $25 in my account for my trouble.

Like I said in the beginning of this article, I do not regularly end up having a good experience when I deal with customer service. In fact I count the good experiences on one hand, and honestly on two fingers. I was amazed that they would not only call me to apologize but then offer me something to compensate me for my trouble. I must say I am more impressed in these few weeks with my Ally checking account then I have been with my iGobanking account in over a year.

Related posts:

1. Ally Checking Account Review
2. Bank Accounts Aren’t Just About Great Rates
3. Can you Build a Credit History Without Getting a Credit Card

The New credit Card Act commenced on 22^nd February, 2010 and brought with it a series of issues that will be affecting both the consumers and credit card companies. The whole process kick started on May, 2009, when Barack Obama signed a new legislation: Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (Credit CARD Act). The perspective was to compel the credit card firms open up more regarding their fees, interest rates and other issues to ensure a better service to the consumers.

Before diving into any controversy, it is important to know what the provisions of Card Act are. Here are snippets of the most important provisions of the act:

• This bill has come up with certain restrictions on credit card companies regarding charging fees and high interest rates. So it has been passed that all credit card firms will have to give a prior notice of at least 45 days to cardholders in order to make any changes in interest rates.
• Credit card companies cannot hike up the rates of interest in a retroactive manner on the existing balance of the cardholder. This can be done only if the cardholder has not made a payment for 60 days or more. However, if there is payments are made on time, original rates have to be restored by the credit card company.
• Prior to the Credit Card act, users had to pay balances with lower rates of interest. But now as the act puts it, balances with higher rates of interest need to be paid first.
• Credit card companies cannot issue or market cards to people who are below 21 years of age.
• As the new law commences, card issuers will be given a reasonable amount of time for paying monthly bills. It is also put that statements would be mailed out 21 days prior to the payment overdue.
• It has been proposed to limit the fees charged for going over-limit.
• The new credit card is like a sigh of relief who had to pay account-opening fees for subprime credit cards.
• Consumers can also set a credit limit and that can be less than the limit offered by the credit card issuers. Card issuers must get permission from card users for processing over-limit transactions.
• Card users will be now free from extra charges to pay bills until it becomes an expedited payment.

These were a brief overview of the new credit card act that is trying to create a consumer friendly environment. But are there any unintended consequences? Is it really going to slash the credit card companies? Grapevine has it that, there might be a reduction in airline miles, bonus offers and cash rewards. A lot of controversies are also arising around the new annual fees that never existed before the new act was passed. It is also said that people might face difficulty in obtaining a credit card irrespective of their good credit score. Washington Times had anticipated something a few days back when Erik Benrud, the finance professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia said, “…restricting the price, banks can charge customers,….they are going to start cutting back their lending.” To this, Gail Hillebrand, financial services campaign manager at Consumers Union exclaimed, “You mean, if they can’t rip us off they are going to give us less credit?”

So one can well imagine what kind of controversies is arising and now that the act is in force, it is important to understand where it is steering. The main essence of the act is to offer relief to consumers so that they do not have to take credit card debt consolidation as the only option. If you look at the trend, people often consolidate debts to deal with a bad credit history and this is very much true about credit card debts. The President described the new rules as “Credit card companies provide a valuable service; we don’t begrudge them turning a profit. We just want to make sure that they do so while upholding basic standards of fairness, transparency, and accountability. Just as we demand credit card users to act responsibly, we demand that credit card companies act responsibly, too. And that’s not too much to ask.” The new bill is a great initiative to help young people and students to stop unfair fee traps, increase accountability and protect their financial health.

It had been stated earlier in 2009 that the Americans haven been facing a huge crisis in order to pay more given to long credit card contracts and unfair practices. So President Obama said, “With this new law, consumers will have the strong and reliable protections they deserve. We will continue to press for reform that is built on transparency, accountability, and mutual responsibility – values fundamental to the new foundation we seek to build for our economy.” He kept on emphasizing on various measures for protecting consumers throughout the campaign in the Senate. This was contributed and seconded by leadership of Chairman Frank and Representatives Maloney and many other eminent Senate personalities. This bill was indeed a breakthrough by the Federal Reserve for fighting against unfair transactions and dealing with disclosures to allow consumers a better financial environment.

The Better Business Bureau also ran a survey predicting that in 2010, U.S will have around 181 million card holders. So the Better Business Bureau advises people to read through the provisions of the act and get accustomed to the fine print of the Credit Card Act of 2009. As Paula Flemmin, the spokesman of BBB said, “consumers need time to understand the fine print of their credit card agreements and the fees that can chisel away at the family finances. The new Card Act provides more consumer protections, cardholders still need to keep an eye on changes to their accounts and respond quickly if they aren’t satisfied.”

This was a guest post by Dorothy Anderson. Dorothy Anderson is a finance blogger at OVLG. She offers advice to people on debt consolidation.

Related posts:

1. Wealthy Bloggers – March 2010
2. Can you Build a Credit History Without Getting a Credit Card
3. 2010 IRS Tax Brackets

For some reason there always seems to be people hating on net worth calculations. I understand some of the issues with it, particularly related to the iliquidity of some of the assets included in the calculations.

I personally don’t include any fixed assets in my net worth. No house and no cars. I do include retirement accounts because they are “cash” accounts which will provide cash flow in the future. I don’t think you can simply look at current cash, you have to also consider what you are putting away as future cash flow. The net worth calculation certainly isn’t the end all be all calculation of our success or failure with our finances but steady increases in your net worth is a good judge of your ability to save for the future.

***The net worth was converted from Australian dollars to US Dollars using WolframAlpha.

Related posts:

1. Wealthy Bloggers – February 2010
2. Wealthy Bloggers – January 2010
3. Sunday’s Sites – Wealthy Bloggers 2nd Edition

If you are responsible of doing the cooking at your house you know there are days when you just don’t feel like expending a lot of effort to make dinner. These days are when you tend to fall back on your standby meals.

I am convinced that every home has a couple of standby meals that they know they can throw together when they don’t want to worry too much about cooking. This is one of those standby recipes in our house. It takes 5 hours but it is a set it and forget it kind of meal. Almost anyone who comes over and eats this one with us ends up adding it to their arsenal.

Ingredients

2-3 FROZEN Chicken Breasts
~28oz Salsa (I use Pace Picante)
1 Can Black Beans (drained)
1 Can Whole Kernel Corn (drained)
8oz Package of Cream Cheese
Cooked Brown Rice

Directions

Mix the salsa, corn, and black beans in a crock pot. Place the chicken breasts in the crock pot and submerge them in the salsa mixture. Set the crock pot on high for 4.5 hours.

After 4.5 hours pull the chicken out and shred it using two forks. Place the shredded chicken back into the crock pot. Cut the cream cheese into cubes and mix it into the crockpot. Cook it for an additional 30 minutes.

Stir the mix together and then serve it over the cooked rice.

Alternative Serving Options

The great thing about this chicken mix is it’s versatility. The once cooked the mix can be used for just about anything. We like to serve it over rice but you can use it for filling burritos, tacos, as a dip, and a nacho topping. Your options are only limited by your imagination.

Related posts:

1. Is Bulk Better?
2. Frugal Monday Meals – Nachos
3. Friday Finance Followers – Eat More Chicken Edition

myFico is turning 9 years old and in honor of their anniversary they are offering a 30% discount on all of their products, excluding free trials, when you use coupon code “myFICOis9”

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Related posts:

1. Can you Build a Credit History Without Getting a Credit Card
2. 26% Off MyFico Standard – Coupon Code
3. 25% Off all MyFICO Products with Coupon Code

For those of you who haven’t heard about it, the Yakezie challenge was started by Sam the Financial Samurai as a way to challenge his peers to improve their Alexa search rankings. I am part of this group of “Yakezie” as he calls them and I am using this challenge as a way to hopefully promote my blog further and increase readership. The challenge has really resulted in a smaller subset of the personal finance blogging community rallying around each other to help promote their hard work. When I started the challenge my Alexa rank was 185,584 today it is 151,739 which is almost back to where I was in September 2009. I owe a lot of that increase to the Yakezie challenge and making me aware.

As a reader there are two ways you can help us out:

1. Install an Alexa Tracking Toolbar: Firefox/IE or Chrome So your site visits count towards our rankings
2. Review our sites on Alexa: It is easy to leave a review, here is a link to my Alexa Review page

Now that you have installed the toolbar and reviewed Suburban Dollar check out these great posts by some of my fellow Yakezie:

@DeliverAwayDebt asks if you can be content while in debt. I think people can certainly be content while in debt but that doesn’t paint the right picture of the article. Jeff discusses how you can be content while working to pay down you debt. Making sacrifices doesn’t have to mean you can’t enjoy yourself.

@EnemyofDebt wrote EOD Short Story: Episode 1. This was a clever little back and forth between a downtrodden gent and life himself. Life is doing his best to make the debtor wise up and get motivated to crush debt. I agree just as much as the next guy that debt is evil, but I also think we should live in the now and not hope for something better down the road. The key is balance and restraint and you can be both debt free and have a good time.

@ExtremeJacob likens a family budgets to a sinking ship, constantly “leaking” money. I thought the comparison was clever and not necessarily off target but not everyone wants to wear the same two pairs of jeans and one pair of shorts. I personally only own two pairs of jeans but several pairs of shorts. Spending money and enjoying life doesn’t necessarily mean you are “leaking” money out of your budget. What good does it do me to keep my ship tight if I can’t enjoy the cruise.

@WellHeeledBlog says we should spend time not money to improve our performance. I agree with this post 100%, you can not purchase performance. A $400 driver isn’t going to improve your golf game if you hook it every time. That isn’t the club’s fault it is your crappy swing. You can’t buy performance but by taking the time to invest in improving yourself your performance will increase.

@FiscalGeek has a pocket sized solution to your budgeting woes. By taking paper and magically folding it you can carry your budget around in your “manpurse” or wallet. Personally I have way to much stuff in my wallet already but this is a pretty neat solution to carrying around just about any document you need in a small form.

Related posts:

1. Friday Finance Followers – Who Needs Sleep Edition
2. Friday Finance Followers – Finding Your Focus Edition
3. Friday Finance Followers – Bring It Edition

March is here finally and hopefully winter will finally stop. I am sick of snow and cold weather. I live in the south east, this isn’t supposed to happen. I have seen more snow this year than in the previous 16 years combined. It is starting to wear on me. I miss my barbecue and interaction with people outside of my immediate family unit. Bring on the warm weather! Luckily the markets seemed to have thawed a little at least as most of my accounts are showing positive movement over last month. It always makes me happy to see green on the charts as opposed to red.

We are still making slow progress on the student loan which is starting to wear on me. I need to lock it down and knock it out. We are still working on getting the rest of our “Mommy/Daddy” time paid off from the good old Credit Card. Should get it taken care of this month, or so I am told. There is nothing more I hate than seeing a number on that line in this table.

Related posts:

1. February ‘10 Update
2. September ‘09 Update
3. May ‘09 Update

Ally bank who who prides themselves on being free of red tape and offering no nonsense savings accounts and CD’s is now offering an online checking account. I recently talked about problems with my online checking account and Ally has taken all those things I hate and made them disappear with their Ally  Interest Checking account. I feel like I got the real pony from the commercial, not the toy one. Here is the skinny on their checking account offering:

Account Features

• .50% Interest Rate as of
• $0 Monthly Fee
• Free Bill Pay and online banking (duh!)
• Free Debit Card and Checks
• No ATM Fees at any ATM
• Postage Paid Deposit envelopes
• Direct Deposits available immediately
• ACH/ETF’s available 3-5 days

About the ATM Fees

Saying you won’t be charged an ATM fee is a bit of a stretch on Ally’s part. Let’ rephrase it to you won’t be responsible for any ATM fees you are charged. The ATM you are using is most likely going to charge you for the transaction, Ally will reimburse you for all ATM charges at the start of the next billing cycle. Downside is you lost interest on that $2.00 fee, upside is you didn’t lose the $2 and .50% of $2 isn’t Jack.

Opening an Account

Opening an account takes five steps which they say you can complete in approximately 10 minutes online, I was able to get mine done from start to finish in 3.5 minutes. It was by far the easiest account opening experience I have had yet with an online bank.

What you need on hand

• Social Security Number
• US Mailing Address
• Funding Account Routing Number
• Funding Account Account Number
• A PEN!

The process itself is pretty straight forward. You first need to define if you want a single or joint account, you then select your account type, opening deposit, and account nickname. You then have to fill out the standard personal information including your SSN and date of birth. You then need to fill out the information for the funding source of your new account, including how you want to verify the account if you choose to keep it linked.

When you complete the process you are given the option of ordering an ATM Card and checks and presented with your account information, including your account number. Here is where I screwed the pooch, I forgot to PDF this page or write down my account number. That account number is pretty damn important when you want to setup direct deposit and link other accounts. WRITE IT DOWN. The online interface doesn’t have anywhere that it shows your complete account number so you are going to have to either wait on your checks/welcome letter or get on the horn with customer service.

Why I am Switching

Ally is everything my current online checking account is not.

1. They reimburse me for my ATM fees which I am going to get because no matter what bank I am with their ATM’s are never near where I am. It is Murphy’s law.
2. They aren’t going to hold my paycheck hostage for three days. My current online account holds my direct deposits hostage, I hate that I have to wait three days after I get paid to touch the money.
3. Their Customer service is awesome (well so far). Before I opened the account I used their online chat to pick their brains and they were super helpful answering my questions. After I opened my account I used their online chat to get my account number I failed to write down super helpful again. Unfortunately I forgot to write it down before I closed the window.

If this sounds like something that is up your alley then pop on over to Ally and open an account

Related posts:

1. Managing a Checking Account
2. Ally Bank Review
3. OnBank Account Review

It is never too early to start saving for your kids, and it is never too early to start teaching them how to manage their money. The value of saving is something most people didn’t learn until it was too late. Which brings me to today’s story… I have to preface the story by saying something about my oldest son. He has a memory like an elephant and a bed full of stuffed animals that he has collected over the last 3 years. He is also obsessed with Spiderman. Tonight he got to put on his Spider Man PJ’s, and underwear. To which he replies “Now I am all SpiderManned up Daddy,” my response “good for you.”

The kid loves his stuffed animals and refuses to sleep if anyone of them is missing. He will gleefully account for all 10+ items in his bed before turning in and heaven forbid he be missing one. Tonight my wife is putting him down to bed and he says “Mommy how come I don’t have a Spider Man toy/doll.” My wife told him that he has plenty of animals in his bed and doesn’t need a Spider Man. In typical three year old fashion he adamantly insisted on her getting him a Spider Man.

Now parents who find themselves in this situation could take it one of several ways. The first option of course is to just say no you don’t need any more toys. You could also give in to the demands and promise to purchase a Spider Man, possibly adding in only if they are good this week. A third way would be to calmly explain how anything in excess is not good and that possibly if you give up some of your existing toys you could then discuss purchasing a new Spider Man toy. There isn’t anything wrong with any of these choices, and I am sure there are several other options, my wife’s solution was perfect.

My wife told him “If you want to get a Spider Man toy you will have to save up your money and buy yourself one.” Little Man’s response was simply “I am too little to buy things mommy.” Of course he isn’t too little which my wife quickly explained and countered with “But I don’t have any money” which isn’t entirely accurate as he currently has well over $150 in his piggy bank (don’t ask).  My wife made the first allowance pact at this point, seems a little crazy for a three year old to have an allowance but I think it is smart to start early and teach our children that if they want something it isn’t free. He will now earn $1 for every night he remembers to feed the dog, payable on Fridays. If he wants the toy he can purchase it when he has enough money.

I think it was a great way to handle the situation, big pat on the back to the old lady for that one, now for the next lesson we will have to cover the importance of saving some of what we make for bigger purchases and our futures, but I think that can wait a little while.

What do you think? Is 3 too young to have an allowance or is it a good way to teach kids about money?

Related posts:

1. Carnival of Money Stories – Baby Faces Edition
2. Citi Credit Cards for College Kids
3. Pay Your Mortgage Off Early

So I guess sleep is optional right? Lately I have been running on caffeine and will power. I am trying to get a little bit of a side business running doing some web development and thesis customization. If you are a Facebook friend you have seen my fan page invite. I haven’t really made a formal announcement on my blog as I want to try to focus on local business. If you are looking for some help with Thesis or Wordpress or want a custom site design check out my new venture Suburban Media. I would love feedback on the site too, just drop me a line if there is something you think is off.

Here are the links for the week:

@EnemyofDebt Introduced his March 2010 Manage Your Money Challenge. This challenge features the budgeting application PocketSmith and includes some pretty gravy prizes. Stop by and enter the challenge and checkout PocketSmith.

@MJTM asks why everyone hates on financial planners. I don’t think everyone hates on financial planners. I don’t know very many of them but there is certainly a time and place for everything. If I had a moderate to decent amount of money manage I would certainly be looking for professional advice.

@Matt_SF lists out the fastest ways to go broke. I agree with most of these but my children aren’t making me go broke, I have less money but more joy. It is one of those trade-offs you have to be willing to make. Same thing with divorce, is it really worth the drama just to save money?

@FinancialSamura talks about how the government is sexist and no one seems to care. While he certainly makes his point I find it interesting how his examples are not for the average couple. My wife and I don’t make anywhere near $200k combined so I find it hard to relate to the examples. It is a good point though and one I have seen made elsewhere.

@FiscalGeek tells us how to budget like an Olympian. I love how he talks about visualization of a goal. Anytime you want to achieve a specific objective you should visualize what that will look like. When you have that picture you can attack it and hopefully succeed.

Related posts:

1. Friday Finance Followers – Yakezie Style
2. Friday Finance Followers – Site Updates Edition
3. Friday Finance Followers – Secret Project Edition