I made up my mind that this weekend I HAD to “find out where we are with our money.” I’ve been busy for the past three weekends and haven’t been able to get receipts entered into Quicken, reconcile accounts, look at our budget, etc. Thankfully the money Mr. A was waiting on finally was released and we had access to that money to cover everything without having to stress out too much about overdrawing our account, etc. Unfortunately, before that money was released we did overdraw two of our accounts twice due to the check initially being returned unpaid. We do have overdraft protection, but our bank charges a fee to move the money over. Mr. A was pretty annoyed about that, as he knows our credit union account doesn’t do that.

First on the list – get that 0% interest card paid since I didn’t get the automatic payment set up yet.

I went to the site and opened up the statement. Near the bottom I found this:

The Annual Percentage Rate on your promotional or transferred balances has been increased due to one of the following reasons stated in your Card Agreement with us: you failed to make a payment to us when due, you exceeded your credit line or you made a payment to us that was not honored by your bank.

I called around April 10th, a few days after I made the late payment, and the representative I spoke to assured me that the APR would remain at zero. He also reversed the late fee of $39.00.

I thought maybe the statement had old information, but I am not one to make assumptions in these situations so I put a call in to Citicards.

I explained to the representative what had happened: that I’d neglected to make the payment prior to 5pm Eastern Standard Time on the day payment was due. I explained that I’d talked with a representative that evening, and she said that Citicards works with their customers and please don’t worry. She said if the rate was raised, just call back and it can be lowered. Well, the gal I had on the phone today wasn’t budging one inch. She told me the rate increase had happened because I was late on my payment, and that’s what happens. I attempted to explain again that I had been told the rate wasn’t increased a week after the late payment. I didn’t get anywhere.

I could feel the horror rising within me, but instead of getting too freaked out, I thanked her and hung up.

I called back immediately. The next lady I got on the phone, I briefly explained my situation, and she said to me, “I’ll see what I can do about getting your rate back to zero. It was zero, right?” I confirmed that it was, and then she said, “Okay, it’s been adjusted back to zero.”

This is the second time this has happened to me recently. I read about this on a website where a person had worked for credit card company and was telling “secrets”. One of the secrets was to call back and call back again, if you weren’t getting anywhere with the first person! I also experienced this with the IRS not too long ago! I keep the books for a small company and prior to hiring me, they got into some trouble with not making payments (actually the parents retired and left the business to the hands of their sons, who were the ones that did not make the necessary payments so they had to come out of retirement to try and fix things). Anyway, we had to make a three-way call not too long ago and the first lady we got on the phone was horrendous. She was not willing to take into consideration that the husband is blind and doesn’t know his business license number, anyway to make a long story short she actually hung up on us because the husband had handed the phone to his wife, then the wife handed the phone back to the husband and the IRS lady was just totally bent out of shape because now we had to go back through the verification process again with the husband, who didn’t have the answers to the questions. We call back right away, and the next lady on the line was totally considerate and helped us get the problem figured out.

This is a good lesson to learn. When you are not getting anywhere with the representative, bid adieu and hang up (it doesn’t hurt to be polite), and call back again. I would probably try three times and then I would ask for a supervisor.

I am so close to just getting this credit card debt wrapped into our mortgage; we only owe $50,000. If we got refinanced, it would only be another $10K and the monthly payment would only go up by $100.

I think about this option a lot when I get real nervous. It would be so easy to just wrap that $10K into the mortgage. But I think we’ll just hang in and struggle through. It helps to think there’s a possible way out, if it gets too sticky.

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1. Balance Transfer Update
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This should be the final update for this saga.

Today I received a letter from Citicards that said, “Dear Mrs. Accountability: Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding your Citicard account. We’re pleased to confirm we have credited your account $39.00, in addition to any related fees or finance charges. You will see these adjustments within 2 billing periods.”

Whew.

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I promised that I would let you know as soon as I knew, whether my rates had been raised, and if I’d been charged a late fee.

1. I was charged a late fee. However, the very polite young man I spoke with said he was tagging my account for a review, and asking for the late charge to be reversed. He said I should see the reversal within 2-3 days.

2. My rates did not change.

Ooooooohhhh… I am so grateful. Thank you, Citicards. I will get that automatic payment set up right away.

Whew.

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I remember trying to get an automatic payment set up with the new ZERO PERCENT interest card, and I couldn’t remember when the payment was due. I thought maybe on the 7th, or the 9th, or TODAY.

I was gone working with my husband all day long, with no computer and no internet access.

I remembered on the way home, and I logged in to Citicards right away.

On the front page, it showed that a payment was due today, but no amount was shown. I went ahead and clicked on “Make a Payment” to see if anything came up. OH. There it was. $60 due, today.

However, my online payment today, won’t hit the bank until Monday morning.

I called Citicard in a panic and got a really nice lady on the phone. She told me if the payment isn’t made by 5pm Eastern time, it doesn’t go in until the next day, and since it’s Friday, it won’t go in until Monday!!

She said she was going to put a note on my account, and ask them not to give me a late charge. I told her I was really concerned because it was my first payment and a zero interest card! She said that I should call back next Friday, because my next bill will go out on the 10th. She said they will be able to tell me on Friday, if my interest rate was raised. She said, “Let me tell you a little secret. We work with our customers here. If the rate was raised, ask them if they will please lower it.” She also told me if they charged me a late fee, to ask them to please remove it.

I expressed to her that I was very stressed out by this, and she said she knew exactly how it feels, and she asked me to please not worry about it. She asked me to promise her that I wouldn’t worry, because they would work with me on it.

I cannot believe I didn’t get that payment made.

I hate that the payment has to be made before 5pm Eastern time!!!

I told Mr. A what I’d done, and he was very kind and reassuring. He told me first of all to listen to that lady, and don’t worry. And he said if they do raise our rate, then we’ll deal with it.

I am just cringing inside at having made this mistake.

So the Balance Transfer Saga continues. Stay tuned for next Friday, when I let you know if they raised my rate, and if they lowered it back down.

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Our cancellation refund check arrived from Geico Direct in the amount of $269.46.

Mr. A’s last “day job” paycheck hit our checking account this morning to the tune of $999.00. He’s been busy with his new business, so far, so good. We’ll be needing to gear up to drum up more business once this client is done.

I think I won some kind of prize over at The Penny Saved. Mr. Saved says he had over 5000 visitors in two weeks but only 17 contest submissions. Bummer, there went that pink iPod I was hoping to win.

Thanks to the four readers who participated in my “How Much Gasoline Do You Use” poll.

We’re probably going to see a tax consultant in the next week or two for guidance on how to handle our new business.

I’ve been sick since Monday. I’m not too bad off, just really tired, so this has been a bit of an update post. My schedule is weird since I’m napping a lot, hence the late night post.

Nighty-nite.

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I checked my Citicard account this morning to see if there was any information about the balance transfer, as I began the process last Saturday on the 1st. On the front page, I noticed there was a link that said, “View Your Balance Transfer Offer”. I thought maybe there might be an update there. That window popped open and it was the process to start a balance transfer. At the bottom of the first screen it said, “PLEASE NOTE: If you leave this process before receiving a confirmation page, you’ll need to start over. We cannot save or process incomplete requests.”

Hmmm… my memory is so fuzzy lately that I couldn’t remember whether I’d gotten a confirmation page or not, so I thought I had better put in a call to the 800 number on the back of my card.

I spoke with a representative who put me on hold for a minute while she looked over my account. Initially she’d said the transfer should happen the same day, but when she came back she said that Citicard had sent a check out to Chase on the 4th.

When I applied for the balance transfer, you come to a step where you enter your credit card number and the institution from which it comes. When I filled mine in, it said mine wasn’t found, so I had to enter the billing address for the card.

Perhaps that is causing the delay. Maybe they usually can electronically transfer the money, but this time they had to send a check.

In the meantime, I continue to pay interest on that remaining $4000 at Chase. I can’t stop worrying about the Chase card until the next statement as there will still be a balance remaining because of the interest. Once that is completely paid off, I can stop worrying about that account.

When we didn’t have any credit card debt back in November 2006, I played the earn points game with this credit card. It was through Amazon, and I’d earn points for every dollar spent. So what I’d do is buy gas, or groceries all through the month, then I’d pay the credit card in full. Every time I’d get up to $2500 in charges, I’d earn a gift certificate for $25.00 to shop at Amazon.

It was fun while it lasted, but when I could no longer pay the card in full, and we started paying interest every month, it quickly became stupid to even think about earning points for a free book or two from Amazon.

I’ll be glad when this credit card is paid off and I can begin focusing on paying down the other two.

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I’ve just transferred $4000 on the Citicard to the Chase card, and I’m about to pay the balance of $3909.19 from my checking account.

I printed out the statement and noticed the APR has gone down to 12.99%. It kind of freaked me out to see that it had dropped. The interest was lower for the month as a result. $87.84.

As I was going through the balance transfer process at Citicard, the instructions said I could transfer money to four different institutions. So if anyone else is using this card, you will probably have the same option. I initially thought I’d only be able to use the zero transfer balance fee for only the first transfer. It really doesn’t matter at this point, as they only gave me $4000 and the amounts I wanted to transfer were larger.

Okay, I just hit “Make Payment” at Chase, to have the money transferred from my checking account to the credit card.

Here are the posts documenting this process:

1. I didn’t quite make my goal to have the balance transferred – I set a goal for myself on January 16th to move the money over within 30 days.
2. I mulled over the process here: Transferring credit balances to that 0% Credit Card.
3. I finally applied for the card here: I Finally Did It! — 0% Interest

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Here’s my details – notice the 0% applies to the first balance transfer. My initial line of credit is only $4000, and I have two cards that come to $10.808.81.

I can’t access my new account until I receive my card in the mail and activate it.

So I guess what I have to do now is:

1. Wait until my card arrives
2. Request to have my limit increased to $10,000
3. Transfer the highest rate card for 0% transfer fee
4. Transfer the second card at 3% interest

I’m assuming they will readily raise my credit limit. Time will tell if that’s an option or not. I guess $4000 with 0% interest is better than what we’re doing now.

In the meantime, going on the assumption I’ll be able to transfer both cards, it seems like it would be in my best interest to pay everything extra that I can toward the lower card, so the transfer fee will be as low as possible. There is a 3% transfer fee if this isn’t the first transfer.

In that case, I’ll be paying the minimum payment due ($177) to the higher card for the next payment, which is due on February 16th, and I will pay the remainder to the other card. That means instead of paying $450 to the lower card, I’ll be paying $473.00.

Have you done this before? Am I following the right steps? Am I missing anything?

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1. No annual fee
2. 0% APR on balance transfers for 12 months
3. 9.99% fixed APR on balance transfers after 12 months
4. Transfer fee 3% of amount or $99 maximum

I’m assuming since I need to transfer two cards, it’s going to cost me $99 for Credit Card #1 and at the current balance of $3208, it will cost me $96 for Credit Card #2.

On a blog somewhere this past week, I learned about credit card arbitrage. No way am I going to try doing that, but within those blogs I read someone mentioned getting a card that will transfer funds free.

Also, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen balance transfers with a maximum fee of $75.00. That would save me $24 for each card. I will hold onto this application as it does give me the option of 12 months at 0% (of course based on my ability to make the payments on time).

This site lists current deals on balance transfer cards. It appears a little more research is in order.

In the meantime, we’ve spent a good chunk of money on interest in the past thirteen months:
I can’t wait to use that interest to pay off the principal, instead of seeing that balance increase each month!

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I do carry one credit card, but I never use it. I have a slew of credit cards in a drawer. Back in September, I ordered my credit scores. It was great to see all my open accounts in a list. I plan to get around to going through that list and closing a couple of accounts each month. Although I think I’ve heard that can hurt one’s credit, so I should research before I start doing that. I’ve also heard it can be detrimental to have too many open accounts with zero balances. Even though I have at least 25 open accounts, I only have balances on two cards. I am no longer using either card for credit purchases. One of the cards still has a monthly payment being withdrawn from it, which actually belongs to my sister, and she reimburses me for that. I am planning to move that deduction to my checking account and then that card won’t have any increases on it.

I played the “money back” game for a while, and it was working great. I mostly used my Amazon card and bought groceries, which we would normally purchase, and then I’d pay the balance in full each month. I would get a $25 gift certificate to use at Amazon every once in a while. But when we had to go into debt to make ends meet, it stopped being great. I have ceased using that card for anything, because it smarts to get a $25 gift certificate, when I just paid $145 in interest fees (which I plan to do something about very soon!!). It’s easier to just see the amount go down and keep going down.

My friend uses credit in an old fashioned way. She uses credit the way I think people used credit back in the 50s. She decided she wanted a couch and went to a shop that makes couches. She didn’t have any money but she went into the store and asked for a credit application. She applied and they gave her $1000 credit at the store. So she picked out a couch that cost just under $1000. She just made the last payment on the couch in December. Around Thanksgiving time, she decided her daughter needed a nice dining room table set, so she went to another store and applied for credit there. She paid around $1000 for that, too. I don’t know what the interest rates were, but I imagine they weren’t low.

I prefer to buy big dollar items like couches and tables second hand. My queen size box spring and mattress came from Goodwill and cost me only $12! I have heard of people spending as much as one thousand dollars on a bed. I just cannot imagine. I’d make my own mattress before I’d pay that kind of money.

Our dining room table set is a very nice quality, real wood table. It’s the kind that has a leaf in the middle which is attached and folds in half sideways when you tuck it under the table. I found it at a yard sale. The lady told me I HAD to take the chairs and she’d let me have it for $25. It needs to have the top sanded and revarnished, but with a table cloth on top, no one knows.

My youngest sister got into credit cards a couple of years ago. She is very foolish with credit cards. When she gets a new card she has actually gone on shopping sprees with the “free” money. After a while the payments became daunting and she signed up with a credit counseling company. My mom asked me which company my sister should use, but I kept forgetting to look into it for her, and finally my sister just chose a company. I had warned them both to make sure the company was not a scam. As it turns out, the first payment she sent to them was lost and she ended up with late fees on her credit cards, due to the credit counseling company.

When I signed up with consumer credit counseling, I also signed an agreement to not open any more credit accounts until I was finished paying for my debt.

My sister has already applied for more credit cards and is going into debt with these cards.

My mother, on the other hand, has no credit at all. I think it’s important to have a credit rating. My mother is in a position where she could not apply for a loan or credit card, due to the lack of credit rating. And she doesn’t have enough money to buy high dollar items out of pocket either.

I have another sister whose phone is in my name due to her bad credit. The bill is charged to one of my credit cards and I float her payments for several months at a time (she regularly insists she has the money, but keeps forgetting to get the money deposited into my account). In the beginning she was responsible for making the payments, but when she kept making late payments, I finally insisted on having the payment automatically withdrawn from my account. She was not happy about this; she felt it took the responsibility for making the payment on time away from her. Well, I was not happy that my credit rating was being affected by her late payments, so I set up the automatic payment. She had two phones in my name, and she recently got her land line phone into her own name. She promises to get the cell phone in her name soon. Initially she couldn’t get a phone in her name because she and her ex-husband had a cell phone about fifteen years ago when it was even more expensive than it is now, and ran up the bill to nearly $1000. About a year ago I co-signed for her again, for dental work for her son. That payment is taken automatically from her checking account. She is gaining some credit rating by making that payment on time.

She is trying to build her credit so she can eventually buy her own home. Although now I am now having serious doubts about buying a home since Millionaire Mommy Next Door’s series on renting vs. owning.

My husband has not used credit cards in twenty years, and we recently applied for an offer that came through the mail for him and he was denied because nothing is on record for him at the credit bureaus. I would like for him to use a credit card to purchase gasoline, since it is something we have to purchase and then we will make the payment in full.

Apparently we will have to build credit for him as I started building it for myself 23 years ago. I put $500 in a savings account, and my bank gave me a loan of $500 with that money in savings as secured funds. I made monthly payments until the loan was paid off.

I had hoped some of my good credit rating would rub off on my hubby, not the other way around… I don’t know yet if our getting married has affected my credit. I am hoping it hasn’t affected it at all, especially since I am trying work up my nerve to move our credit card debt over to a 0% interest card.

My commitment today: I will transfer our credit cards into one 0% interest card within the next 30 days.

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