|
Cultural Imperial posted:Holy poo poo i didn't know you could get a spot rate cc anywhere. Pretty much all the annual fee Chase cards in the US (Sapphire Preferred, United Cards, etc) have this. As do a lot of other comparable cards like the Barclaycard Arrival+.
|
# ? May 14, 2015 07:54 |
|
|
# ? May 16, 2024 16:27 |
|
My wife wants to consolidate our bank accounts due to the fact we have been married for three years now and bank two different places, this would be fine but she always wants to consolidate all our debt at the same time and pay it all off a little faster. We owe about 40k between my student loans (which at current pace will be paid off in Dec) and hers (two years) as well as about 25k that went into failed IVF treatments, and before you say anything we make more then enough money to carry that debt. If there any bank that won't punish us for consolidating all that into one payment?
|
# ? May 14, 2015 15:27 |
|
Is there a HELOC you can tap?
|
# ? May 14, 2015 16:56 |
|
spoof posted:Is there a HELOC you can tap? I'd prefer not too.
|
# ? May 14, 2015 17:06 |
|
I ended up getting the Amazon card earlier this year as well for my second personal card ( I have two work ones for some reason). I wanted it for online purchases which tend to be in US funds, and to have a lower limit. I'm really thinking I should start using it as my main card instead of my CT financial one. I can always use the CT Money, but I think it works out to .75% due to them rounding reward amounts down. I do prefer their website over chase though, and it has 8x the limit of the Amazon card.
|
# ? May 14, 2015 19:00 |
|
So after I began paying all my debt back and got into looking at where and when to invest, I also began to think about my mother's retirement plan. She's been making some bad financial decisions, guided by people at the bank who are there to "advise" people - advised her to lock in her entire TFSA at 2 percent for 5 years, for example. And to set up automatic deposits. And to invest in GICs. Basically horrible investments all around, apparently. So, she also just got bought out of her pension plan - and has 90k coming to her which must be placed within a Locked-In Retirement Account. She also has 10k of contribution room for this year in TFSA, so we're going to set up a self-managed TFSA and put it in there. I'm researching this and the current plan is to just build a portfolio with ETFs that covers the market, reasonably conservative. So to recap: maxed out (prior to this year) TFSA, locked in at 2 percent for 3 more years, bleh 90k LIRA pension money we need to allocate 10k self-managed TFSA we need to allocate She's probably going to add 50k a year after this since she needs to be ready to retire within the next 10 years, she admits she was never in a financial situation to save before now, but she's doing better financially now. So, conventional wisdom seems to be ETFs at a reasonable mix, probably a mix of Vanguard funds? Any advice or links beyond what is in the OP, I'm willing to read and learn - she has the discipline to not move money around and can make large lump sum investments with yearly rebalancing simply enough, just a matter of useful advice since bank agents have proven useless, which if I'd known more about this before, I would have suspected.
|
# ? May 14, 2015 23:36 |
|
JibberJabberwocky posted:So after I began paying all my debt back and got into looking at where and when to invest, I also began to think about my mother's retirement plan. https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=0968&FundIntExt=INT https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=0970&FundIntExt=INT https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=0963&FundIntExt=INT There you go. I won't even charge you a fee.
|
# ? May 14, 2015 23:41 |
|
So I could use some advice. Going into my online statement this AM and I noticed an EFT deposit into my bank account last week and I believe it's a mistake. It's around $700. I googled the name description on the transaction and I think I identified the company. Should I call my bank and ask WTF or should I call the company? Or should I do anything? I've never run into this before but I'm pretty honest person. However I don't want to be tied up on the phone trying to correct someone elses mistake all day either. e: I don't see any scams or anything associated with this company so I'm pretty sure it's not that. It appears to be a legit industrial wholesaler or something along those lines, based out of Toronto. slidebite fucked around with this message at 14:36 on May 15, 2015 |
# ? May 15, 2015 14:31 |
|
Call the bank.
|
# ? May 15, 2015 18:24 |
|
Here's my anecdote on the importance of not being financially illiterate. My wife checked our bank account this morning and noticed that our balance was just about empty since she last checked a week ago. She called the bank and it turns out some dude overseas cloned my debit card and has been joyriding to the tune of about 10K. Their fraud department opened an investigation and we'll be getting it all back since it's a pretty open-and-shut case, but probably not for another couple weeks. But ultimately, aside from maybe having to defer a couple purchases, it isn't shaping up to be anything more than an ill-timed inconvenience. At a time when most people can't afford missing a paycheck, it feels pretty boss that i can shrug off having my bank account drained like it weren't no thang. Guest2553 fucked around with this message at 21:59 on Oct 29, 2018 |
# ? May 15, 2015 22:04 |
|
sbaldrick posted:My wife wants to consolidate our bank accounts due to the fact we have been married for three years now and bank two different places, this would be fine but she always wants to consolidate all our debt at the same time and pay it all off a little faster. We owe about 40k between my student loans (which at current pace will be paid off in Dec) and hers (two years) as well as about 25k that went into failed IVF treatments, and before you say anything we make more then enough money to carry that debt. Rates are very low currently and assuming you have good credit there's no reason you won't get a better overall rate. Separately, maintaining separate financial lives is important in the unfortunate event that you and your wife ever end up not together for whatever reason (separation or death). As an example, when my parents got divorced, my mother had zero credit history and no way to develop one easily so had some serious trouble making ends meet while re-educating after my parents separated. There's nothing wrong with consolidating expensive debt, but there's almost no reason to go to a joint account only situation unless one or the other person has major spending control issues.
|
# ? May 15, 2015 22:17 |
|
Really weird, american express called me back since I never gave them a form with all my personal banking info, account numbers, transit numbers, and a long consent form back to to them. First I was just too lazy and my work doesn't even have a fax, and second why the gently caress do these need all this? When they called back I just told them I found a very similar card from another company that didn't require all this invasive information. They said these forms and process aren't their doing, they are government mandated for financial security reasons. What the gently caress, no they aren't. Just told them to cancel the card request. Comparing this american express sign up vs the ridiculously easy amazon card sign up is crazy. Federal regulations!
|
# ? May 15, 2015 22:24 |
|
Guest2553 posted:Here's my anecdote on the importance of not being financially retarded. You shouldn't use your debit card aside from pulling out some cash every two weeks. Do all your spending on a credit card which has much better fraud protection and then clear the card every pay cheque and dump the rest to your savings and investment accoubts. cowofwar fucked around with this message at 22:51 on May 15, 2015 |
# ? May 15, 2015 22:41 |
|
cowofwar posted:Why do you keep so much cash in your chequing account? I keep my cash in my linked savings account which has instant transfer to my chequing if needed and no debit card access. If someone gained access to my chequing account they would only get $100. Yup, same. This is the only way to roll so long as ATM authentication remains as pitiful as it is.
|
# ? May 15, 2015 22:48 |
|
yeah, couple hundred in chequing accounts, couple thousand in savings which then get transferred to chequing at the end of the month to pay for all automatic bills (rent + car). Also my credit union is good and doesn't care about overdrafts so long as you fix it within a day or two, which is nice in case I ever forget to move the money around quick enough.
|
# ? May 15, 2015 22:52 |
|
I'm living out of country right now and it's my only account. It's a small local branch so there aren't any gucci options (chip cards might be rolling out this year!) and I don't have enough of a credit history to get anything other than a secured card with a useless limit. All my pay goes to my Canadian accounts where it goes straight to investments. The 10k is my de facto emergency fund which has enough for a few months expenses, which I top up periodically. I was trying to share my experience of how not being terrible with money is a good hedge against bad things happening but i guess i guess my bank account arrangements were exactly that. I guess now's a good a time as any to re-evaluate my banking setup so thanks for the sort-of advice I guess.
|
# ? May 16, 2015 00:11 |
|
In addition to what was said, lower your daily threshold and check your accounts often. Having a $250 daily limit or less will reduce your exposure. If you need to make a large purchase on debit it's a quick phone call for a temporary daily increase. Your daily ATM limit should be $100 at most. Some credit cards (TD for sure) will allow you to send an email or text message for every transaction so you can instantly react to fraud.
|
# ? May 16, 2015 00:13 |
|
You guys should try mint.ca/com.
|
# ? May 16, 2015 00:15 |
|
Accounts were last checked a week ago, all the fraudulent activity started this week. I'm deployed (bank knows) so I didn't get any alerts and they didn't call my wife like they were supposed so. My daily limit is supposed to be low but it was raised a few months ago to pay a medical bill - was supposed to be for one day only but was never actually brought back down.
|
# ? May 16, 2015 00:24 |
|
Guest2553 posted:Accounts were last checked a week ago, all the fraudulent activity started this week. I'm deployed (bank knows) so I didn't get any alerts and they didn't call my wife like they were supposed so. My daily limit is supposed to be low but it was raised a few months ago to pay a medical bill - was supposed to be for one day only but was never actually brought back down. Wasn't specific to you, just some general tips. Anyways things happen, good luck with the claim. Someone I know waited 8 weeks so be patient.
|
# ? May 16, 2015 00:29 |
|
Another reason to use first tech federal credit Union, two factor authentication as an option (Symantec phone key if you want) and the ability to configure email alerts when money over a certain threshold (you decide) per transaction is withdrawn.
|
# ? May 16, 2015 00:48 |
Baronjutter posted:Really weird, american express called me back since I never gave them a form with all my personal banking info, account numbers, transit numbers, and a long consent form back to to them. First I was just too lazy and my work doesn't even have a fax, and second why the gently caress do these need all this? That's so weird, I've had like 5 different Amex cards over the past few years and none of them ever wanted me to fax them anything.
|
|
# ? May 16, 2015 01:14 |
|
HookShot posted:That's so weird, I've had like 5 different Amex cards over the past few years and none of them ever wanted me to fax them anything. Yeah it makes me wonder if he has lovely credit or something because I don't see why any of that would be necessary.
|
# ? May 16, 2015 06:37 |
|
Perfect credit, no debt of any sort, pay all bills on time. They said it was entirely to do with proving I'm who I say I am and identity fraud stuff and "federal" financial security regulations.
|
# ? May 16, 2015 06:51 |
|
Vatek posted:Call the bank. So I called the bank and they dug into it, and said Yep Slidebite the transfer was in your name to your account #. Looks normal to us. Then I called the company on the EFT, got bounced around and finally got a lady with a thick southern accent. Chatting with her for a minute she said she had no clue, but maybe their parent company made a mistake. I asked who their parent company was and it's the same parent company of my company. I sighed and said thanks very much. They hosed up and have a history of it with others including an EFT of over $15,000 to a guy at my office. slidebite fucked around with this message at 18:01 on May 16, 2015 |
# ? May 16, 2015 16:24 |
We have like 30k in our joint chequing. No admin, no worries. Come at me.
|
|
# ? May 18, 2015 19:39 |
|
Got my Amazon rewards card today. While it definitely says 1%/2% cash back on the site, what it actually is is a points system - get 2000 points, you get a $20 statement credit. That's still technically 1%/2% but you still gotta spend the 2k (or 1k in amazon purchases) before you get anything back.
|
# ? May 24, 2015 02:02 |
|
JawKnee posted:Got my Amazon rewards card today. While it definitely says 1%/2% cash back on the site, what it actually is is a points system - get 2000 points, you get a $20 statement credit. That's still technically 1%/2% but you still gotta spend the 2k (or 1k in amazon purchases) before you get anything back. All cards work like this, as far as I'm aware. They're not going to issue you a cent every time you spend a dollar.
|
# ? May 24, 2015 07:28 |
|
2K is a fairly low limit to hit. If you can't hit that every now and then, why on earth do you need a rewards card?
|
# ? May 24, 2015 17:44 |
|
because it's better than nothing, which is what my other credit card gets me?
|
# ? May 24, 2015 17:56 |
|
Lexicon posted:All cards work like this, as far as I'm aware. They're not going to issue you a cent every time you spend a dollar. Yeah. There are some that don't and instead mail you a cheque every year on a specific date. But I'd say this is much better.
|
# ? May 25, 2015 05:04 |
|
It's better then those loving PC points that get you nothing.
|
# ? May 25, 2015 16:13 |
|
CIBC Dividend Visa will credit your bill directly, TD Divided cards will mail you a cheque in the hopes you lose or do not cash it.
|
# ? May 25, 2015 16:25 |
|
jm20 posted:CIBC Dividend Visa will credit your bill directly, TD Divided cards will mail you a cheque in the hopes you lose or do not cash it. CIBC credits once a year, or at least they did when I had a card of theirs.
|
# ? May 25, 2015 16:49 |
|
sbaldrick posted:It's better then those loving PC points that get you nothing. The worst part is the people they hire to sell you PC credit cards while you loving shop. "Do you want to sign up for a PC Mastercard today?" "No I'd rather just take my cart full of junk food and leave thank you"
|
# ? May 25, 2015 17:06 |
Lexicon posted:CIBC credits once a year, or at least they did when I had a card of theirs. Same with TD! Though they didn't mail me a cheque, they applied the rebate to my balance every January.
|
|
# ? May 25, 2015 17:26 |
|
sbaldrick posted:It's better then those loving PC points that get you nothing. I've actually earned $64 worth of PC Points since I got the card. After consulting Mint, I've spent $1432 at Superstore since receiving the card, which means I am at 4.5% cash back. For free; no annual fee. And I didn't always use the card. And I purchased poo poo like flowers, a french press and surely some other nonsense that never offer points. Counting groceries alone I'm doing better than 4.5%. At least 5%, maybe 5.5%. I also never pay attention to the offers. I load the offers every time the email comes but I never look at what they're offering so as to not dictate my purchasing. I got all these points just by happening to purchase the stuff that offered points. Rick Rickshaw fucked around with this message at 19:10 on May 25, 2015 |
# ? May 25, 2015 18:59 |
|
PC Points weekly offer load actually does a good job of following your regular grocery purchases. Like every weeks my offers include apples and the brand of yogurt I buy the most. Things that I'm more than likely going to buy anyway. I accumulate enough PC points your throw a party every summer without paying out of pocket for the food and non-alcoholic drinks.
|
# ? May 25, 2015 19:21 |
|
I"m not saying PC points aren't useful, I have like 80 bucks of them (because I always get the offers) but too much of the stuff doesn't earn you points and it annoys me to give up some of my shopping habits for points.
|
# ? May 25, 2015 20:07 |
|
|
# ? May 16, 2024 16:27 |
|
Fun short story time! Last Friday, I went to this dinner conference meeting about a company that actively manages your money by selecting portfolios from companies like Fidelity, but also tries to negotiate mortgage stuff with banks and all that. I was invited by a co-worker who's pretty happy with their services, but I was honestly kind of shocked at the... I want to say selective ignorance, of these MBA grads. One of the presenters, a Fidelity Investments spokesman, claimed he'd never own an ETF if he could help it, and one of the company assistants stated that he'd never buy an index fund because "that includes the bottom performing 20% which are dragging the market down". They also said ETFs just buy the entire market, which again struck me as disingenuous because an ETF can be selective into what it buys in, but I wasn't about to start an argument during the conference. I spoke with the guys later (the Fidelity dude just struck me as a salesman and a prime example of a man's salary depending on not understanding his work), and the financial adviser seemed intelligent enough. He seemed to have his heart in the right place about getting above-average returns for his clients, and when pressed, explained that "in 2008 no one spoke about ETFs and only now they're picking up again" and that he wouldn't have anything to do with the bottom performers if he could help it. All in all the experience just left a bad taste in my mouth, but at least the food was good. The only interesting thing I learned was that you could attach your taxable account to a corporation's and defer your taxes because corporations pay lower taxes, but I barely ever sell my stocks and bonds so I don't see the advantage of doing that with my margin account on Questrade. At least my buddy who was with me, who had heard about my desire to learn more about personal finance and retirement, turned to me for a second opinion whenever something fishy came up.
|
# ? May 25, 2015 21:02 |