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What are the perks and pitfalls of the Amazon.com Reward Card?

Those little credit cards are only a few inches of plastic and yet they can get us in trouble up to neck. While we're all looking for the lowest rates possible the ideal plan is to only use credit cards for a balance we can pay in full and avoid paying interest at all. Sometimes credit cards have other perks too and the Amazon.com Rewards Card is just one of those cards. Our family has been using an Amazon.com Rewards Card for a while now and know you can know what are all of the perks and pitfalls of the Amazon.com Reward Card.

Amazon.com is of course a mega online retail store where shoppers can find just about anything from books, to toys, to lamps, to movies and just about everything a to z and in between.

The Ins and Outs of an Amazon.com Rewards Card:

The big financial gun, Chase Bank, issues the Amazon.com credit card. It's a Visa card and has all the rights you've come to expect from a Visa card. The interest rate we found was 15%, which is a competitive rate.

The Amazon.com credit card can be used at Amazon.com or for any purchase that would accept Visa. Customers accrue reward points for using the credit card. Purchases made at Amazon.com using the card earn users 3 points per dollar. Other purchases earn users 1 point per dollar. Customers are rewarded with Amazon.com gift certificates. In our case, a $25.00 gift certificate was rewarded for 2,500 points.

The Good, the Bad and the Really Ugly:

The good news is that there is no annual fee for an Amazon.com credit card. It's easy to earn gift certificates and they also offer great incentives for new customers like cash off of your first purchase or 0 interest for 6 months.

The bad news is that users report shoddy customer service if there's a problem and the really ugly news is that there are huge penalties for late payments. Customer find the website to be user-friendly but Amazon isn't getting any "rewards" from customers who've utilized their customer service by phone. The 15% interest rate can jump to up to 30% if you make a late payment. Also watch out for the over the limit fee which is $35.00. There is a 20-day grace period for the Amazon.com credit card.

Applying for an Amazon.com Rewards Card:

You can get current details as well as an application for a credit card at Amazon.com's main page. You can apply on line. It's easy and you can receive an answer in minutes. There is also a toll free number to call if you would rather speak to a live representative, 888-247-4080.

All in all, this Amazon.com rewards card is a good card with many attractive benefits. Users just have to be diligent to never make a late payment but ensure that you are rewarded and not penalized. If you're already a frequent Amazon.com customer, you can really benefit from this credit card if you're careful to make payments on time.

Posted by Lisa Carey at 10:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Anyone with a computer and an internet connection has the potential to be an investor. If you have what it takes to be an online investor, is TD Ameritrade a good online discount broker?

Today buying and selling stock is easier than ever. Investors no longer have to find and build a relationship with a stockbroker, establish an account, wait on broker responses or pay brokerage firm high prices. Anyone with a computer and an internet connection has the potential to be an investor. If you have what it takes to be an online investor, is TD Ameritrade a good online discount broker?

Types of Accounts Offered by TD Ameritrade:

TD Ameritrade has three basic types of accounts including standard, IRA accounts and specialty accounts.

The standard account is a basic account used by many individuals who are first time online investors. Standard accounts include:

*individual investment accounts
*joint accounts
*tenants in common
*UGMA accounts

At the time of sign up terms will be disclosed. In our experience there was a $2,000 minimum required balance to get started with a TD Ameritrade account.

TD Ameritrade also offers IRA accounts including:

*ordinary IRAs
*rollover IRAs
*Roth IRAs

We saw a minimum balance of $1,000 to start an IRA account.

TD Ameritrade Specialty Accounts include:

*Trusts
*Investment Clubs
*Partnerships and more

Again, the minimum balance we were quoted was $1,000.

Margin Accounts:

Ameritrade also offers the option of setting up margin accounts. There is a required minimum of $2,000. Margin account investors should be aware that with margin trading, if a margin call takes place and your stock value has fallen below the specified level in your contract (often 50 %), you will be required to quickly send additional money to get your account back up to the margin requirement.

What we like about TD Ameritrade:

Users feel that the TD Ameritrade is easy to use and that the web site offers some helpful research tools. Also, costumers feel that the trading commissions are fair.

What we don't like about TD Ameritrade:

Customers say investors have to keep their eyes open for hidden fees and watch out for quarterly charges if your balance falls below $2,000. In fact, fees like a $2.00 fee to have statement mailed or a $5.00 fee to send a check to an alternate address can add up and dip you below the $2,000 mark if you don't watch out.

In our opinion, with a financial analyst included, is that Ameritrade is a reasonably good online brokerage service that is recommended as long as customers pay attention to fees. While Ameritrade is not considered to be the best business, it is a fair option for online trading and investing.

User Tools Available at TD Ameritrade:

Research

Ameritrade is for the most part a self- directed type of investment service. There is much research available for free right on the website.

Ameritrade Streamer

The Ameritrade Streamer is one tool that is offered free to all Ameritrade users. It offers real-time stock and option quotes, information on recent trades, as well as most active stock lists, and much more.

The Ameritrade Streamer can be customized to send you, the investor, alerts when certain securities reach a specific level.

There are other tools such as Market Analyzer and Market Edge that have specialized research tools and carry a fee, often $19.95 per month.

Costs & Fees at TD Ameritrade:

Ameritrade's fees can change at any time therefore the following fee schedules should only be considered as general estimates. For an internet trade without assistance, the commission is $10.99. If you use the phone and call in your trade using the voice response system, the commission per trade is $14.99. If you need to talk to a broker, the commission charge will be $24.99 for a market order or $29.99 for a limit order, which means that you are asking Ameritrade not to make a sale or purchase unless the price reaches a certain specified amount. For mutual funds, the fee is $17.99 to buy, sell or exchange. The fee for selling or purchasing bonds is generally $5.00 for the first 50 bonds.

These TD Ameritrade rates are fairly competitive and they are right in line with other on- line brokerage services. However, in addition to these trading fees, Ameritrade also charges quarterly fees to its members when an account falls below $2,000. The fee is currently at $15.00 and customers should be confident of maintaining a balance to avoid these extra fees. If not, Ameritrade might not be the best place to put your money.

Customer Service at TD Ameritrade:

Ameritrade customer service reps are standing by 24 hours per day unless it is a holiday when the market is not open for trading. Customers can call or email questions. In our experience, earlier in the day an email works best but later in the day a phone call will get a quicker response.

All in all, if you are comfortable with online trading, can keep up with minimum balances and watch out for hidden fees, TD Ameritrade is recommended.

Posted by Lisa Carey at 04:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Do you homework before you turn in your donation for the Haiti earthquake relief and recovery efforts.

"Whenever there is a natural disaster, there are two things you can count on," says Art Taylor, president of the Better Business Bureau's (BBB) Wise Giving Alliance, a nonprofit consumer group. "The first is the generosity of Americans to donate time and money to help victims, and the second is the appearance of poorly run, and in some cases fraudulent, charities," he says in a statement on the group's Website.

Former Presidents Bush and Clinton were not the only ones to rush to a site like GoDaddy.com to purchase and establish a domain name to begin their online efforts to collect donations towards the recovery and relief efforts in Haiti after the devastating earthquake. Spammers and con artist were also happy to pay the few dollars necessary to start their own web sites to begin their fraudulent collection efforts. More than 400 Internet addresses related to Haiti have been registered since Monday's devastating quake, Internet security expert Joel Esler said. The names reference Haiti and words such as "earthquake," "help," "aid," "victims" and "survivors." There are many scams out there interfering with the Haiti relief and recovery efforts; find out the most common ones and what you can do about them.

E-Mail Phishing Scams
Here is a sample of an email message circulating, requesting donations toward the Haiti relief and recovery effort. It appears to be from the British Red Cross Society (or you may have received it from any other organization) requesting donations and providing instructions on how to make your donation.

If you receive this email message from the Haiti Disaster Response Agency in Port-au-Prince, Haiti you too have been spammed for a donation.

The "big" names in relief efforts, like UNICEF are not left untouched, with this email message circulating throughout the net.

These are all "phishing" scams, "fishing" to get your information and take up a collection that helps no one but the scam artist. How to identify these scams?

Most legitimate charitable organizations don't send out email messages for donations unless you are currently on their mailing list.

Look for subject lines like: "HELP THE CHILDREN IN HAITI .. DONATE TODAY

Read carefully, grammar and spelling mistakes are a good indication that you are being spammed.

Don't rely solely on your spam filter on your computer or email service.

The fake Haiti relief efforts are not limited to email messages, but several collection efforts have cropped up on popular social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. Be sure to investigate these organizations before making them a friend or fan. Remember once they are your "friend" they are also every one else's.

What can you do to protect yourself from Haiti relief and recovery effort spams and scams?

-Do your homework: Research organizations before you donate. It is far too easy to click a button to donate, but don't touch that "dial" until you know what you are getting into. Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy advises givers to "target groups with strong track records in the area. They should donate to aid organizations that know Haiti, understand the needs of Haitians, and have well-organized distribution systems for actually delivering that aid." The FBI warns to exercise "due diligence" before making a donation. They offer these 6 tips to stay safe when making a donation in a press release of Jan. 13, 2009. Be sure to visit sites like Charity Navigator.org and the BBB site regarding charities and organizations to find out more about the charity or relief agency of your choice.

The (AIP) American Institute of Philanthropy lists approximately 25 organizations as those that are top rated in the Haitian relief effort. Ratings are based on the ability to: spend at least 75% of its budget on program services and charities should spend no more than $25 to raise $100.

-Beware and Aware: Articles like this one and sample email messages can help you know which scams are out there and how they are being used. Beware of claims that 100% of donations go towards the Haiti relief effort. Even credit cards charge a fee that can take a bite out of your donation.

-Is this charity "on the ground?" Charities that already have a presence in Haiti will be able to respond quicker and more effectively than those needed to make arrangements or ask permission to be involved.

-Ask questions. Is this charity providing direct relief or are they raising money to pass on? One example of the charitable middle man is the AT&T text donation effort. While it is convenient you may want to simply send your money to the Red Cross and cut out the middle man.

This isn't the first time that great tragedy has brought about great greed; similar scams were present after the other natural disasters, such as the Asian tsunami in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. However, many of those thieves have been prosecuted, because they were reported. If you think you have been a victim of a charitable collection scam, file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center , a partnership of the FBI, the National White Collar Crime Center and the Bureau of Justice Assistance designed to track and match related online criminal complaints.

Posted by Lisa Carey at 02:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Kohl's Department stores are a popular shopping venue. For our family it is a major stop for back to school clothes, Christmas shopping, winter coats, Easter dresses, toys and more. Kohl's offers up to date styles and very competitive prices.

The Kohl's stores get high customer reviews but what about the Kohl's Department store credit card.

An Overview of the Kohl's Department Store Credit Card:

The Kohl's credit card is easy fairly easy to obtain even with less than perfect credit. Applications are available in stores or can be printed on line but have to be processed in a Kohl's store. It took a full two minutes for our Kohl's credit card application to be approved.

The good news is that the Kohl's credit card has no annual fee. The bad news is that like most all store credit cards, the Kohl's credit card has a higher interest rate than most non-store credit cards. Ours is currently around 22% annually. We haven't seen any lower teaser rates from Kohl's credit cards. The rate takes effect right away and remains fixed. On the other hand, it hasn't increased over the years either.

Users can access their Kohl's credit account online after registering their account online. You can review statements or pay your bill as well.

Kohl's customer service can be accessed through the Kohls.com website, whether for general store or purchase questions or credit card questions.

In our experience, Kohl's in store customer service has been above average with both helpful and friendly employees.

Is Kohl's Department Store Credit Card recommended?

The answer is yes but as with any store credit card or other card, users have to be savvy in order preserve financial health. There is a 28 to 31 day billing cycle depending on the number of days in the month. Credit card customers who pay their Kohl's bill on time consistently, will save money and build credit.

Also, Kohl's does offer credit card promotions that are often too good to turn down. The one that our family took advantage of was a 20% of today's purchase and a $25.00 gift card to use later.

Once we received our credit card, we've found that Kohl's often offers online shopping deals that range from 10 to 30 % off of your purchase for credit card holders. As long as shoppers shop responsibly, they can really enjoy savings using a Kohl's credit card. Other advantages include coupons for up to 30% off your entire purchase mailed to your home or email.

A big plus that we see is that there are also in store discounts for credit card holders that apply even if you don't use your credit card to pay for the purchase (but this is rare). This is in store only. On line deals generally require the use of the Kohl's credit card.

While the interest rate is high but there is a grace period so as long as you pay off your bill, or most of it, each month, you will be still saving money with a Kohl's credit card.

Posted by Lisa Carey at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While some banks in America are going bust, others are super-sizing by gobbling up smaller banks. Bank of America, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina is one of those banking giants that is second in holdings only to JP Morgan Chase. The purchases by Bank of America include FleetBoston Financial Corp. and Merrill Lynch. Bank of America boasts 53 million customers, including individuals and businesses. Many of those have been caught in the financial crisis of 2009 and found themselves unable to pay up. Most all Americans and banks have been impacted by the financial crisis but what do Bank of America customers have to say about Bank of America? Is bigger better?

Bank of America's Big Array of Products:

Bank of America is a full service bank offering just about any financial product a banking customer could desire including checking accounts, savings accounts, home loans, school loans, car loans, business loans, certificates of deposit, credit cards, brokerage services and more.

Bank of America's Customer Service Options:

Bank of America has branches in most medium to large cities in the U.S. They also have a website, bankofamerica.com, for account access and bill pay. The website also offers a myriad of customer service phone numbers.

The Good, The Bad and the Big and Ugly

The good news is that most users are happy with the selection of products. Those with good credit have found it easy to get competitive rates with Bank of America. Many have taken advantage of temporary low rates, made at least the minimum payments on time and paid off the balance before the rate skyrocketed.

While the products are vast and the rates are competitive, many customers share the same stories of customer service frustrations. Phone calls result in long holds, many transfers, unresolved questions and customer service reps that seem to want to pass them off. Customers report repeated hints to use the website instead of calling customer service.

In fact most customers do find the Bank of America website to be easy to access, easy to use and fast.

Bank of America also offers many cash incentives to bring new customers aboard. As with all fine print, Bank of America customers say read it carefully. For example, a $50.00 cash gift for opening a new account will only be made 50 days later and sometimes standard fees reduce the "gift" before you ever get it.

Bank of America has an impressive number of services and products but unfortunately, many customers just feel like a number to this banking giant.

A New CEO for Bank of America: Will Bank of America take a new course in customer service?

Bank of America has had its share of the news spotlight recently with lawsuits as well as the announcement of a new CEO, Brian Moynihan who said recently, "We have a lot of work to do, and I'm ready." The Bank of America customers (and my family) we've talked to are ready and waiting for better customer service.

Posted by Lisa Carey at 09:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

JP Morgan Chase is a relatively new bank as two financial giants, JP Morgan and Chase Manhattan, merged. Even more recently JP Morgan Chase absorbed Bank One, Washington Mutual and other smaller banks.Does this make them bigger AND better?

What Products & Services Does JP Morgan Chase Offer?

JP Morgan Chase offers about any banking service you may desire including:

Checking accounts
Saving accounts
Personal loans
Business loans
Educational loans
Mortgages
Credit cards
Investment accounts

JP Morgan Chase also offers financial counseling and brokering.

JP Morgan Chase Contacts:

Jpmorganchase.com is the web address, which offers e-mail contact as well as dozens of phone numbers for customer service depending on your interests and needs.

Nouriel Roubini, a professor at New York University, wrote at Forbes.com in February of this year: "Merging two zombie banks is like having two drunks trying to help each other stand up. The JPMorgan Chase takeover of insolvent Bear Stearns and WaMu; the Bank of America takeover of insolvent Countrywide and Merrill Lynch; and the Wells Fargo takeover of insolvent Wachovia, all show that the too-big-to-fail monster has become even bigger."

The message here: JP Morgan Chase is huge. But is this a good thing?

JP Morgan Chase has over 1.2 trillion in investments and over 100 million customers. Chase also offers convenience, with over 5,400 branches nationwide and over 14,000 ATMs. There are certainly advantages of dealing with such a large financial institution.

The Positive Features of JP Morgan Chase:

-Convenience
-Large array of service and products
-Online services

JP Morgan Chase customers happily report that they can go online and check on their 401K balances and performance balances, as well as transfer money from fund to fund make withdrawals, sell shares and buy stocks. The website also has the "talk to a live rep" feature.

On the flip side, there are also some cons to dealing with such a large bank.

The Negative Features of JP Morgan Chase:

-Less personal customer service
- Higher fees
-Web site can be frustrating

A JP Morgan Chase user we spoke with called customer service twice with a question regarding his 401K. He said both customer service reps gave pretty consistent answers but sounded rather robotic and scripted and seemed in a hurry to get this customer off of the phone. While enjoys the ability to do banking online, he also shares that the web site design can be frustrating as it takes time to get where you want to go and some clicks take you to affiliated sites.

JP Morgan Chase does have higher user fees but tries to taper the pain with some perks. For example, there are fees for using your debit card but you can also earn points that add for rewards and gifts. JP Morgan Chase debit card holders say they'd rather not have the fees but the points incentives makes them a little easier to swallow.

Overall JP Morgan Chase gets favorable reviews from users (including this one) for the services offered and how they have handled customer's investments. JP Morgan Chase has all of the advantages of a large bank but some customers will feel like a number with less personal customer service.

Posted by Lisa Carey at 04:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)