I do nearly $500 of rebates per year. I try to avoid buying things that are useless -- the rebates I submit are for useful products (school supplies, food, anti-virus software) and from reliable companies (Staples, Tyson, McAfee, Olay).
Right on with the rebate cards -- last thing I want is another piece of plastic in my wallet. On the other hand, my mom likes the cards because she doesn't have to make a trip to the local bank, but she usually has large grocery purchases to which the entire value of the card can be applied in one fell swoop!
I purchased two AppleCare policies from her for an iPhone 3GS and a 15" MacBook Pro.
I thought that everything was fine until I was talking with an Apple rep regarding a separate issue. He informed me that my iPhone AppleCare warranty was actually already registered to another iPhone 3G and not my 3GS.
To my surprise, Sherry actually responded to my e-mail and provided me another AppleCare serial number. But that one was already registered too... The third number provided by Sherry was confirmed as being good by Apple. (Apple tells me that the MBP number is a good one.)
My impression is that "Sherry" is selling the same number to multiple buyers. I was told by an Apple rep that when it comes to AppleCare registration, it's First Come, First Served. The initial registration will be the one that is honored even though the online registration system apparently accepts multiple AppleCare registrations of the same number. The buyer won't know that there is a problem with the warranty until he/she attempts to use it.
After my experience I am sticking with Apple Authorized Resellers and avoiding eBay. The L.A. Computer Company seems to consistently have the best AppleCare prices and I have had good experiences buying from the company.
We'd love to invite all the Wisebread fans to print our fantastic collection of day spa coupons and vouchers from 10% off to 50% off day spa services. We have fantastic day spa coupons for all of you!
That sounds like it was an issue with a restaurant, not restaurant.com, which sells coupons.
My girlfriend and I regularly buy $25 coupons when they are on sale for $2. We've never had any problems. In fact, when one of the restaurants I had a coupon for went out of business, restaurant.com sent me an email to inform me. They also gave me a $25 credit, which on the $2 special gave me several more certificates.
It is a great deal! These people who think it is a scam are clearly the naive people who don't know how to do their research, and frequently fall for scams. Don't worry. It's on the up-and-up.
Right. I wrote a whole post about variable terms, which is one way minor problems turn into catastrophes. But your point—that the past twenty years have seen debtors repeatedly bailed out by declining rates—is a very important one. We have a whole generation of people whose experience is that falling rates and falling taxes will bail them out if they get a little over their heads. Most of them are going to find the next 20 years very different—and very painful.
Good to know these signs. My sister was a Census worker in 2000 and she would come home with stories of how nasty people can be or be distrustful in a mean way. Census workers are people like us so don't forget to treat them kindly thanks.
The 2010 decennial census is being conducted as a paper operation. The decennial census enumerators will not have handheld computers. Handhelds were widely used by census field employees for address canvassing (updating the address database from the 2000 census and other sources) in the spring of 2009 and may be used in some other census operations, so whether or not a person is carrying a handheld does not indicate whether or not he or she is legitimate census worker.
As another commentator noted, the best way to avoid having a census employee come to your door is to fill our your census questionnaire. These will be mailed during the second week in March, and most households should expect to receive their questionnaires between March 15 and 17. It's a short form this year, just ten questions, and probably less than ten minutes to fill out completely.
If you rebate debit card is less than the amount of your purchase you just need to let the cashier know that you need to make a "split" payment between two credit cards. You will need to know the exact amount on your rebate debit card and have them charge you that amount on the debit card and pay the remainder using your other credit/debit card. This will only work at stores that allow split payments between two credit/debit cards (not all stores have this feature). You can also do a split payment transaction with cash, but you have to do some math first. Because of the way most registers are set up they require cash payments before credit/debit payments. So take your total, subtract the amount of your rebate debit card and pay that amount in cash first, then your remainder will be exactly what you have left on your debit card. No leftover money to worry about.
Another option is to use the debit rebate cards to purchase store gift cards in the same amount since they don't have the same issues. (I have not tried this personally though, I assume it would work but I don't know for sure).
I agree rebates can be a little complicated, but I think in general they are worth the effort.
I received a $50 rebate card from Verizon on my latest phone purchase. This post hit right where I'm stuck-- I'm unable to use the last $2.36 of the money I was "given back". It's a small amount to me, and not enough to gripe or take action on, but I imagine the collective amount of leftover rebate cash Verizon is netting from thousands of rebate leftovers is considerable, and that irks me.
Philip, another great article. I think to add to this, I would say that people often take their monthly payments right up to their income, a little below, or a little above. As you indicate, when something bad happens, which it always does, they don't have any cushion. That may set off a change in their terms or their terms may change on their own. For instance, many credit card companies increased minimum payments from 2.5% to 5.0%. That kind of shock when you have no savings creates the downward spiral. If you opt for one of those no interest consumer retail plans and something bad happens and fail to make 1 payment, you suddenly have a huge increase in the amount that is owed.
We have to realize that by and large, we have been in an environment where most of the factors have gone the other way over the last 20 years. Tax rates went down, mortgage rates dropped, and credit card rates dropped. All these factors ended up lowering monthly costs and allowing people to get out of jam after jam. But in the last two years, its heading in the opposite direction which will mean more people getting caught in the debt spiral.
The problem again is that if you don't have a savings cushion and are spending up to your full income you are almost certain to run into trouble.
There is only one store I do rebates for and that is Menards, a hardware store. They have several items that are free after rebate, their rebate forms 99% of the time all go to the same location, and the forms are the easiest ones I've seen to fill out (just write down your address and mail in with the special receipt printed out).
My teeenage nephew is the toliet paper hog in our house. He is always stopping up the toliet with MOUNDS of tp. It is disgusting because he then leaves it for us to find and unclog. How do you teach a teenage boy that half a roll of tp is too much for one poop session? I don't buy the cheapest tp but I don't buy the most expensive. We are on a septic tank and flushable wipes are NOT an option. They clog the lines up, not the toliet. Around here boys are way worse on too much tp than girls. Short of sending him outside to do his business I need a solution.
we specialize in this area please give me a call and I can explain further, 504-831-1156 ext 112 Ted Fox
Also a Madoff background check would have pulled some SEC information, it would have helped you ask him some questions that might have pushed him away from you at that time.
Having experienced this exact same 'debt spiral' intimately, I really appreciate the article.
I wish someone had sat me down and explained it to me in college - or even high school in just these words.
I'm debt free (except for the mortgage) now and will never go back to credit card use that isn't paid off in full every month.
While I mostly buy from farmers' markets, coupons are good for getting the non-food items I do buy--flour sometimes has coupons, and who doesn't use toilet paper, baking soda, and the like? Also, while I routinely buy the store version of most products (there are very rare times when I think the name brand is actually better quality), sometimes a coupon makes the name brand cheaper than the store brand. So it is good to know coupon sites.
However, the utility of coupon sites is severely limited if you are not using a Windows computer. Unless the site lets you load coupons directly onto a store card, beware--the generic coupon printer does not work under WINE, meaning that we Linux frugalistas and Mac users are SOL. I wish coupon manufacturers would address this issue!
For coupons on your store card, or for coupons from the Sunday paper (pick up old copies on Monday, or surf your neighbourhood recycler), Trent at The Simple Dollar has a good idea. Save coupons for about three weeks. Then they often line up with the on-sale items. Obviously, check prices, expiration dates, and other fine print to make sure your coupon will be valid in three or four weeks. Also, remember drug stores like CVS; savvy shoppers can sometimes get name brand items almost free by combining coupons and in-store credits.
I've never had a problem with rebates. I don't tend to mess with ones less than $10, and typically only deal with rebates on items that I was buying anyway. It takes me 10-15 minutes at the most to fill out the forms, double check that I've done everything correctly (the reason most rebates are rejected), and stick a stamp on the envelope. I don't even mind the debit cards - I just use them at the grocery store as part of my total payment. Never had an issue.
I agree that it's no fun to download software just to print coupons. Most of the major sites, however, use just one application to print. If you download it just once (takes minutes) you can print at most every site from then on.
I've become discouraged trying to access Internet-generated coupons, particularly those that force you to (attempt to) download software just to print a coupon!
Most recently, I tried to print a coupon for Welch's grape juice, from the Welch's web site, and it probably never downloaded, and certainly never printed the coupon. I use a pop-up blocker, and work around it without a problem with almost everything else, as it would make me nervous to disable it.
Considering the coupons I get from the newspaper, e-mails, and often from the stores themselves during checkout, I can't be bothered with the more troublesome generated coupons.
You need to calculate the amount of time left to pay off the debt using the amount of money you have to put towards the debt, not the minimum payment. You should also be using the interest rate to calculate the amount of time left.
If you have an extra $500 to put towards debt, it will take you 4 months to pay off MasterCard, 5 months to pay off the Visa, and 10 to pay off the Car loan. The credit cards also probably have the highest interest.
Debt snowballing, I believe, is using the smallest balance, not the least number of minimum payments left.
If I knew what I perfect job was, maybe, but probably not far away.
I would relocate for a Good or Perfect job, and possibly for an OK job. I can always move back, right?
A caveats : Couldn't be somewhere that would excessively endanger my family (eg. not Mexico City, the middle of gang battle areas, etc.)
I do nearly $500 of rebates per year. I try to avoid buying things that are useless -- the rebates I submit are for useful products (school supplies, food, anti-virus software) and from reliable companies (Staples, Tyson, McAfee, Olay).
Right on with the rebate cards -- last thing I want is another piece of plastic in my wallet. On the other hand, my mom likes the cards because she doesn't have to make a trip to the local bank, but she usually has large grocery purchases to which the entire value of the card can be applied in one fell swoop!
I purchased two AppleCare policies from her for an iPhone 3GS and a 15" MacBook Pro.
I thought that everything was fine until I was talking with an Apple rep regarding a separate issue. He informed me that my iPhone AppleCare warranty was actually already registered to another iPhone 3G and not my 3GS.
To my surprise, Sherry actually responded to my e-mail and provided me another AppleCare serial number. But that one was already registered too... The third number provided by Sherry was confirmed as being good by Apple. (Apple tells me that the MBP number is a good one.)
My impression is that "Sherry" is selling the same number to multiple buyers. I was told by an Apple rep that when it comes to AppleCare registration, it's First Come, First Served. The initial registration will be the one that is honored even though the online registration system apparently accepts multiple AppleCare registrations of the same number. The buyer won't know that there is a problem with the warranty until he/she attempts to use it.
After my experience I am sticking with Apple Authorized Resellers and avoiding eBay. The L.A. Computer Company seems to consistently have the best AppleCare prices and I have had good experiences buying from the company.
Sites that require date of birth seem rather suspicious to me. Anybody have comments?
I wouldn't download coupons from a site that requires a Coupon Printer. It probably isn't safe even though they swear it is.
We'd love to invite all the Wisebread fans to print our fantastic collection of day spa coupons and vouchers from 10% off to 50% off day spa services. We have fantastic day spa coupons for all of you!
That sounds like it was an issue with a restaurant, not restaurant.com, which sells coupons.
My girlfriend and I regularly buy $25 coupons when they are on sale for $2. We've never had any problems. In fact, when one of the restaurants I had a coupon for went out of business, restaurant.com sent me an email to inform me. They also gave me a $25 credit, which on the $2 special gave me several more certificates.
It is a great deal! These people who think it is a scam are clearly the naive people who don't know how to do their research, and frequently fall for scams. Don't worry. It's on the up-and-up.
@LiveCheap:
Right. I wrote a whole post about variable terms, which is one way minor problems turn into catastrophes. But your point—that the past twenty years have seen debtors repeatedly bailed out by declining rates—is a very important one. We have a whole generation of people whose experience is that falling rates and falling taxes will bail them out if they get a little over their heads. Most of them are going to find the next 20 years very different—and very painful.
Good to know these signs. My sister was a Census worker in 2000 and she would come home with stories of how nasty people can be or be distrustful in a mean way. Census workers are people like us so don't forget to treat them kindly thanks.
MJ
The 2010 decennial census is being conducted as a paper operation. The decennial census enumerators will not have handheld computers. Handhelds were widely used by census field employees for address canvassing (updating the address database from the 2000 census and other sources) in the spring of 2009 and may be used in some other census operations, so whether or not a person is carrying a handheld does not indicate whether or not he or she is legitimate census worker.
As another commentator noted, the best way to avoid having a census employee come to your door is to fill our your census questionnaire. These will be mailed during the second week in March, and most households should expect to receive their questionnaires between March 15 and 17. It's a short form this year, just ten questions, and probably less than ten minutes to fill out completely.
If you rebate debit card is less than the amount of your purchase you just need to let the cashier know that you need to make a "split" payment between two credit cards. You will need to know the exact amount on your rebate debit card and have them charge you that amount on the debit card and pay the remainder using your other credit/debit card. This will only work at stores that allow split payments between two credit/debit cards (not all stores have this feature). You can also do a split payment transaction with cash, but you have to do some math first. Because of the way most registers are set up they require cash payments before credit/debit payments. So take your total, subtract the amount of your rebate debit card and pay that amount in cash first, then your remainder will be exactly what you have left on your debit card. No leftover money to worry about.
Another option is to use the debit rebate cards to purchase store gift cards in the same amount since they don't have the same issues. (I have not tried this personally though, I assume it would work but I don't know for sure).
I agree rebates can be a little complicated, but I think in general they are worth the effort.
I usually fill out rebate forms, but not because I think they're worth it. I just feel bad and guilty if I don't.
If they're $50 or $20 or so, yes they're worth it. But a $5 rebate that takes 25 minutes probably isn't worth my time.
I received a $50 rebate card from Verizon on my latest phone purchase. This post hit right where I'm stuck-- I'm unable to use the last $2.36 of the money I was "given back". It's a small amount to me, and not enough to gripe or take action on, but I imagine the collective amount of leftover rebate cash Verizon is netting from thousands of rebate leftovers is considerable, and that irks me.
Philip, another great article. I think to add to this, I would say that people often take their monthly payments right up to their income, a little below, or a little above. As you indicate, when something bad happens, which it always does, they don't have any cushion. That may set off a change in their terms or their terms may change on their own. For instance, many credit card companies increased minimum payments from 2.5% to 5.0%. That kind of shock when you have no savings creates the downward spiral. If you opt for one of those no interest consumer retail plans and something bad happens and fail to make 1 payment, you suddenly have a huge increase in the amount that is owed.
We have to realize that by and large, we have been in an environment where most of the factors have gone the other way over the last 20 years. Tax rates went down, mortgage rates dropped, and credit card rates dropped. All these factors ended up lowering monthly costs and allowing people to get out of jam after jam. But in the last two years, its heading in the opposite direction which will mean more people getting caught in the debt spiral.
The problem again is that if you don't have a savings cushion and are spending up to your full income you are almost certain to run into trouble.
There is only one store I do rebates for and that is Menards, a hardware store. They have several items that are free after rebate, their rebate forms 99% of the time all go to the same location, and the forms are the easiest ones I've seen to fill out (just write down your address and mail in with the special receipt printed out).
My teeenage nephew is the toliet paper hog in our house. He is always stopping up the toliet with MOUNDS of tp. It is disgusting because he then leaves it for us to find and unclog. How do you teach a teenage boy that half a roll of tp is too much for one poop session? I don't buy the cheapest tp but I don't buy the most expensive. We are on a septic tank and flushable wipes are NOT an option. They clog the lines up, not the toliet. Around here boys are way worse on too much tp than girls. Short of sending him outside to do his business I need a solution.
we specialize in this area please give me a call and I can explain further, 504-831-1156 ext 112 Ted Fox
Also a Madoff background check would have pulled some SEC information, it would have helped you ask him some questions that might have pushed him away from you at that time.
Having experienced this exact same 'debt spiral' intimately, I really appreciate the article.
I wish someone had sat me down and explained it to me in college - or even high school in just these words.
I'm debt free (except for the mortgage) now and will never go back to credit card use that isn't paid off in full every month.
While I mostly buy from farmers' markets, coupons are good for getting the non-food items I do buy--flour sometimes has coupons, and who doesn't use toilet paper, baking soda, and the like? Also, while I routinely buy the store version of most products (there are very rare times when I think the name brand is actually better quality), sometimes a coupon makes the name brand cheaper than the store brand. So it is good to know coupon sites.
However, the utility of coupon sites is severely limited if you are not using a Windows computer. Unless the site lets you load coupons directly onto a store card, beware--the generic coupon printer does not work under WINE, meaning that we Linux frugalistas and Mac users are SOL. I wish coupon manufacturers would address this issue!
For coupons on your store card, or for coupons from the Sunday paper (pick up old copies on Monday, or surf your neighbourhood recycler), Trent at The Simple Dollar has a good idea. Save coupons for about three weeks. Then they often line up with the on-sale items. Obviously, check prices, expiration dates, and other fine print to make sure your coupon will be valid in three or four weeks. Also, remember drug stores like CVS; savvy shoppers can sometimes get name brand items almost free by combining coupons and in-store credits.
I've never had a problem with rebates. I don't tend to mess with ones less than $10, and typically only deal with rebates on items that I was buying anyway. It takes me 10-15 minutes at the most to fill out the forms, double check that I've done everything correctly (the reason most rebates are rejected), and stick a stamp on the envelope. I don't even mind the debit cards - I just use them at the grocery store as part of my total payment. Never had an issue.
I agree that it's no fun to download software just to print coupons. Most of the major sites, however, use just one application to print. If you download it just once (takes minutes) you can print at most every site from then on.
Thanks!
Linsey Knerl
I've become discouraged trying to access Internet-generated coupons, particularly those that force you to (attempt to) download software just to print a coupon!
Most recently, I tried to print a coupon for Welch's grape juice, from the Welch's web site, and it probably never downloaded, and certainly never printed the coupon. I use a pop-up blocker, and work around it without a problem with almost everything else, as it would make me nervous to disable it.
Considering the coupons I get from the newspaper, e-mails, and often from the stores themselves during checkout, I can't be bothered with the more troublesome generated coupons.
You need to calculate the amount of time left to pay off the debt using the amount of money you have to put towards the debt, not the minimum payment. You should also be using the interest rate to calculate the amount of time left.
If you have an extra $500 to put towards debt, it will take you 4 months to pay off MasterCard, 5 months to pay off the Visa, and 10 to pay off the Car loan. The credit cards also probably have the highest interest.
Debt snowballing, I believe, is using the smallest balance, not the least number of minimum payments left.