Rewards Cards: Playing the Plastic, and Winning!

Karen Chien is a doctoral candidate in Materials Science & Engineering at Northwestern University. She is also excellent at preparing DoFu Delight.

 I've always wondered what made one rewards credit card better than the other. I have one rewards credit card from Chase and another from Bank of America, and the extent of my knowledge was that I could treat myself to some "free money" every time I remembered to swipe that particular card.  This usually happens when I'm trying to buy a plane ticket to Malibu, since I frequently get tired of graduate school life and live fat and happily off of my generous stipend.

Rewards cards now offer cash back, air mileage, and points

First of all, the type of spender you are should influence which card you open:

• Big spenders: These people can benefit from opening cards during promotional periods which provide high amounts of points upon initial purchases (>$1000).
•  Balance-carriers: People who pay minimum monthly payments tend to carry balances. These people benefit from low APR’s as well as 0% intro APR, but would do better with just ONE regular low interest credit card. [Editor's Note: Many of the rewards cards have variable interest rates, which mean they can change at any time. Always read your terms of agreement carefully when opening a new card.]
•  Pay-back people: Savers who tend to pay back cards in full each time  can go for higher bonus levels without as much regard for interest rates, but it is still good to have them in mind in case a sudden financial crisis were to happen and you couldn’t pay your bill on time.
• Categorical spenders (people who like to spend money in a certain category such as travel, retail stores, etc.) could benefit from cards that have annual fees but offer higher rewards for spending within a particular category.  Extra calculations for point to dollar worth can be helpful here.

5 Tips to Save money on Car Maintenanace

My car is over 11 years old, and it still runs well. This is true despite the daily abuse I put it through since I am always  late getting to the train station and have to employ time-saving driving tactics. But my car has been good to me; it sometimes acts like an extra wardrobe closet, storage facility, dining room, and even a meditation space. I do my best to keep up with it's maintenance and don't plan on buying a new one for a couple more years. But, I'm not about to pay more than I have to.

Is it Time to Ditch Your Insurance Policy?

I am re-posting a useful article, "6 Insurance Policies That Aren't Worth the Money" which was published in the June/July 2011 issues of Readers Digest.

One of our readers wrote to me about their past employment experience working for a well-known rental car agency. He said that they made all their profits by convincing people to buy their rental insurance, although they did not disclose that most credit card companies insure rental vehicles. However, the RD article does suggest opting for extra rental insurance coverage if you're planning on driving outside of the US or if the deductible is high in case of theft from your car.

Another good point addressed when to re-evaluate your existing car insurance, especially on a car with little market value. The first step is to find out the Kelley Blue Book value. Then figure out how much you are paying in collision insurance + comprehensive car insurance. This figure should not be higher than 10% of the car value. For example, a 2000 Toyota Corrola in good condition is valued at $3,325. Thus, if collision + comprehensive insurance cost $333 or higher, it wouldn't be worth it in the long run.

13 Ways to Save on Gas this Summer

I wanted to re-post the New York Times Article "13 Ways to Save on Gas this Summer" here on our blog as part of our continued effort to off-set rising gas prices. To summarize the easiest things you can do to save on gas is to remove extra weight from the trunk of your car, keep the tires filled with air, change your oil on a regular basis with good-quality oil, and drive slower! It's ok if other cars pass you by, they will feel the pain next time they go to pump.

For more tips, check out our last article on the gasbuddy.com app at "Finding the Cheapest Gas."

5 Tips for Flying the Frugal Skies

I remember when you could buy a coach airplane ticket, have plenty of legroom and overhead storage space. The airline hostesses brought me lots of juice, snacks, and let me visit the cockpit. Lunch was included on long trips, movies were shown and no additional fees were necessary for headphones, blankies, pillows, crayons, or my complimentary plastic airplane toy.

That was a different time.

Some airlines are now charging extra costs to the customer for storing luggage for overhead bins, personal escorts from the gate, to baggage claim, and to the taxi stands. US Airways even charges fees for reserving window/aisle seats towards the front of coach. Other ideas airlines are toying with is offering premium meals, providing in-flight spa services, renting entertainment devices, paying extra to keep the middle seat empty, and even charging fees for restroom use!

5 Money Saving Tips from a “Coupon Queen”

GUEST POST: Ashley "Sloan" Leva is a full time college student, military wife, and young mother. While her husband serves as a Combat Engineer in the U.S. Army, she has embraced a frugal lifestyle as a “coupon queen.”

Budgets can be hard to stick to as they require a lot of self-control, but in the long run it is well worth it. Hopefully some of the money savings tips I utilize will be of help to you as well.

1. Use the Sunday Paper
On Sundays, plan out your weekly expenditures for groceries, etc. The Sunday paper contains hundreds of beneficial coupons that can help you trim your household expenses. If you don’t have access to the Sunday paper you can print coupons online from websites like smartsource.com or couponmom.com.* However, remember to never use coupons to buy items you simply don’t need. Coupons aren’t an excuse to go on a spending spree.

Finding the Right GPS Unit

Anyone who knows me can tell you I have no sense of direction. If I were lost in the woods, I wouldn't be able to find the North Star, figure out which side of the tree had more moss growing on it, or any other wilderness survival skills for that matter. Nevertheless, it wasn't until I squandered an entire tank of gas trying to get "un-lost" from various job interviews, that I finally felt the need to purchase my first GPS unit.

GPS stands for Global Positioning System and it works by "talking" to satellites orbiting the Earth, and then overlaying your geographical coordinates on pre-loaded maps. Thus, it can provide real-time information on directionality, speed, and estimated times of arrival.

Finding the Cheapest Gas

Gas prices are outrageous (the national average at the time of this posting is $3.075) and everyone is on the hunt for the gas stations offering the cheapest prices. We all know the feeling of filling gas at $3.19 and then finding out another station a mile away was beating that price by 16 cents!