Jonathan over at Master Your Card was kind enough to write an article for me about using your credit card overseas. I hope you enjoy it….

One of the greatest things about a credit card is that it’s accepted in so many places. A Visa card, for example, is accepted in over 24 million locations and can be used in roughly 170 different countries. This has prompted many travelers to make frequent use of their card whilst overseas. Keep the following in mind if you are planning on taking your plastic friend along on your next trip abroad:

* Fees and charges - With its almost global acceptance, a credit card offers terrific freedom when you’re traveling. Unfortunately what most people don’t realize is that this freedom doesn’t come cheaply. Typically when you use your card overseas you should expect to pay both currency conversion and foreign transaction fees. Depending on the card, these can cost up to 5% of the purchase price. For example, if you take your card on a trip to England and later use it to purchase a 1000 euro ticket back, you could be charged upwards of 50 euros in fees just for the privilege of using your card overseas.

* Don’t use your card to withdraw cash - Due to prohibitive charges you shouldn’t be using your credit card for cash advances anywhere, but this goes double when you’re in a foreign country. On top of foreign transaction and currency conversion costs you also waive any interest free period - in other words you start paying interest as soon as the cash leaves the ATM!

* Keep a careful watch over your card - Obviously you should be doing this wherever you are, but you have to be especially vigilant when you’re traveling - having your card stolen can put a real crimp in your trip. It’s worth investing in a money belt if you haven’t already, as this should dissuade even the most skilled pickpockets.

* Notify your card issuer that you are going on holiday - A friend of mine spent a scary few days in South America without any money because his credit card got cancelled - he wound up having to sell some of the clothes out of his suitcase just to get by. Turns out he neglected to notify the bank of his travel plans, so when a few purchases showed up from Nicaragua they naturally assumed the card was being used fraudulently.

* Keep all receipts - Once you get into that travel mindset it’s difficult to do that boring stuff like keeping receipts but it’ll save you a lot of potential heartache in the future. It’s good practice - you’ll get a better idea of how much you’ve been spending and have hard-copies to compare with your statement.

* Carry emergency numbers - In the unfortunate event that your card is stolen, your issuer will have an international number that you can call.

* Check expiry dates - Make sure your card isn’t due to expire half way through your trip!

* Always have a backup - Never really entirely on your credit card as a means of getting by overseas. Have a supply of local currency and travelers checks and always leave an emergency supply back at the hotel.

Fortunately, should things go wrong on your trip you are still covered by fraud protection measures, though you may still be liable up to a certain amount if your card is stolen. Check your statement as soon as you get home and notify your issuer IMMEDIATELY of any irregularities.

Summary: Whilst you certainly can use your plastic friend on your next trip abroad, you are likely to pay heavily for the privilege. If you do take your card with you, try to refrain from using it for cash advances and always have a contingency plan in case something goes wrong.

I have the amazing opportunity to volunteer for Junior Achievement. If you have never heard of them please check out their website. They do some really amazing things with kids and I am so pleased to finally be part of their organization. I will be going into a second grade class and teaching them about business and careers and how that relates to their community. It’s only about an hour a week of your time for 6 weeks. The important part is that it gets the kids thinking about their career and how they can impact their community in a positive way. They give you all the materials and lesson plan along with the activities, you just go into the class room and present the material.

I first heard of them about three years ago when I was working at a bank. I tried half-heartedly to join up at that point but no one ever emailed me back and I didn’t follow up. But I was working full time and pregnant with my son, I really didn’t have any extra energy. So now that I’m a stay at home mom and my son is older I feel like it’s the right time for me to start.

Yesterday I attended their two-hour training program. I am so impressed with their program. They have a whole “main-street” set up inside the building. They have a 12 week program for high-school seniors where at the end of the program the kids come to main street for one day and interview for a job. They then get hired for a job based on how well they learned the material during the past 12 weeks and how well they interviewed. How cool! They get a salary and have to buy things for themselves and their business. Things like lunch from the café on main street and insurance and a small business license from other businesses “around town”. It’s so cool. I wish my school had participated in something like this when I was a kid.

Anyways, if you are looking for an opportunity to volunteer please check them out.

 

There are several things in my financial life that go against what the “experts” say. When I come across those things it always makes me question my planning. By no means do I think that I do everything right. But there are things that I have made a conscious decision to do and when an expert says that I’m wrong I get frustrated with money. I feel why should I bother to do anything when it seems like no matter what I do it’s wrong.

But you know what? In the end what is important is that I do something. Making no financial decisions is way worse than making a less than perfect one. I would rather invest in a mutual fund that earned less than average than to blindly spend every last dollar.

The point is that any budget is better than no budget, any savings is better than no savings, any plan is better than no plan at all. There are thousands of places to read about what you should be doing, but it’s not an all or nothing type of thing. Fit what you can into your life and leave the rest for now. It’s ok to take baby steps. You don’t have to be perfect, just try to make progress when you can.

 

Respecting your money also means respecting your stuff.

Ever gone looking for something and not been able to find it because of all the clutter? You know it’s “around here somewhere”. Maybe it’s in one of those totes in the garage. Maybe it’s in the basement or the attic. Maybe it’s in the black hole that used to be your closet. You can’t possibly go through all that stuff. So you have no choice but to go buy a new one.

What is the point of having it if you can’t find it?

When have less clutter you can make better use of what you do have, and that saves money. If you are working on a project you can easily see exactly what you have and what you need. You don’t have to go searching, give up, and then go buy something you know you already own. You don’t buy something thinking you need it, only to get home and find out you already have two of them.

About two years ago the clutter was getting out of hand around here so I started a de-cluttering project. I found so many things that were on my shopping list. Things I didn’t even know I had. For example, I thought we needed shampoo, but while de-cluttering under the bathroom sink I found a brand new bottle I didn’t know was there.

If you need help with the clutter in your life I highly recommend FlyLady. She has a great program that is 100% free.

While you are de-cluttering you will probably find all kinds of things you can sell. Take the time to have a yard sale or list that stuff online. I bet you earn a nice chunk of change from this. There are even companies that will sell stuff on Ebay for you if you are too lazy to do it yourself. At the very least, donate it and get yourself a tax deduction.

Plus, the savings don’t end there. Once everything has a place you will think twice about that impulse buy. After all, where will you put it?

I saved almost $33 at the grocery store yesterday! Pretty cool. I stocked up on some stuff that was on sale. I saved $19.33 on 10 pounds of chicken, $10 on 10 pounds of hamburger, and $3 on three gallons of milk.

I used to never shop the sales. It would frustrate me to no end to go out of my way just to go to the store having the great sale and they would be out of everything. I don’t know if it’s that way everywhere but around here if you don’t get there right when the store opens on the first day of the sale you aren’t going to get anything.

But then I learned a secret. Wal-mart price matches. Maybe that is common knowledge to some, but I didn’t know it til about a year ago. Even so, I didn’t use this nifty feature for a long time. I didn’t want to keep those weekly ads, bring them to the store, and then stand there with the cashier while we haggle over whether or not the store brand of Albertson’s cheese is the same as Wal-mart’s store brand. All to save ten cents.

Then one day I was behind this woman who was price matching. She didn’t have all the ads with her. All she had was a list she had written that said the sale prices. She just told the cashier and he priced matched it with no problem. Hmmm. So I started to watch the ads a little closer. I made my notes of things I normally buy and the prices. But I noticed that most of the time Wal-mart’s prices were still lower, or at least very close. Close enough to make it seem silly to even bring it up. So again, I got frustrated and gave up.

So now I compromise. There are certain things that the grocery stores put on sale to try to get you in the door. Like the meat they had on sale this week. So I stock up when they have sales like that. Then there is milk. Usually someone somewhere has milk on sale. And when you have two kids you use a lot of milk. I would say we go through about 10 gallons a month. Costco has it for $3 a gallon, which is the cheapest regular price I can find. If anyone ever has it cheaper than that I get as much as I think we can use before it goes bad.

Well, hopefully I inspired a non-coupon user, non- sale shopper to take the easy way out and price match.

A few days ago My Two Dollars wrote a piece called “You are not your stuff, your stuff is not you”. It inspired me to write about the day I gave up my stuff.

Back in 2000 I got a wild hair and decided to move cross-country. I had a Volkswagen to which I attached a small trailer. Everything I was bringing with me had to fit in there. So I did some major purging. I couldn’t take my bed, or my couch but I did take a dresser and a chair. That was it for the big stuff. I also took my clothes, a few lamps, the computer, my 19 inch TV, and , ahem… my VCR. That’s about it.

I gave away, sold, or threw out just about everything else. Do you know my life changed without all my stuff? It didn’t. I was the same person I was before. In fact, I was happier. I actually used everything I owned. I knew what I had, and where it was. No more clutter!

Eight years later I’m still living with what I learned during that time. I know that buying clutter isn’t going to make me happier. In fact, I will be happier if I don’t buy it because then I will still have my money. I can use that money for things that will make me happy. Things like having enough savings, paying off debt, and going on family vacations.

So we paid an extra $1,000 to our mortgage this month. They received the payment today. The extra money took 5 months off the term of our mortgage. 5 months! I’m so excited. That is a savings of $3,600 in interest. I love it.

There is some disagreement as to whether or not it’s a good idea to pay off your mortgage early. Here is a site that gives the pros and cons of paying it off. For me the security of owning my home outright is what makes it worth it. I know it’s not for everyone.

Another bonus is that it puts our outstanding balance under 78% of what we paid for our home. Which, from what I understand, means they have to take off the PMI. I put in a request today have it removed. They better take it off! I’m going to lose my mind if they don’t. I have researched this a great deal and everything I read says they have no choice but to remove it at this point. So hopefully this is the case and it comes off with no trouble. Here is the website for the FTC. They have an explanation of the law and a place where you can file a complaint if your mortgage company isn’t following the rules. No need to pay PMI for one extra month if you don’t have to.

I think my area was one of the harder hit areas in this terrible real estate market. Of course during the good times we were loving life. We bought our house as new construction in March 2004 for $184,000. It took them six months to build it and by the time we moved in it was worth $232,000. We were very happy. As we watched our home price, and those around us, continue to soar we couldn’t help but play with the idea of using our new found equity to buy another house.

The plan was to take a home equity loan and use it as a down payment on a second house. We planned to rent it to my husband’s parents who were paying too much for a trailer at the time. It was win/win. They get a nicer place to live and we cash in on the growing equity.

So we started to look around at new construction. Existing homes were out of the question. People were actually going around and knocking on doors and making offers. Homes that weren’t even for sale! We spent several weekends looking through model homes. We even opened a home equity line of credit so we would be ready to go when we found the perfect house.

Then one night we were sitting around talking about our genius idea and I said “You know, I don’t want to be trying to sell this house right when everyone else is too.” And that was that, the end of our brilliant plan. Suddenly it was so clear that this wasn’t going to last forever. I realized that they were selling houses faster than they could build them, that there were more houses than there were people to live in them. In that instant I saw the market for what it really was. I sat back and waited for the let down.

I have to say that it’s way worse then I ever thought it would be. I had no idea at the time that the banks were lending money to people who couldn’t afford to pay it back. I wouldn’t have believed it if you had told me.

You often hear the advice that if you receive a fee on your credit card account then you should call and ask to have it removed. I agree. But that leads to the question “What should I say?” Well, I’m here to tell you. I worked in credit card customer service for about two years. When you called the number on the back of the card, you got me. I learned a lot about credit cards, including what to say and what not to say. This goes mainly for late fees. Overlimit fees and finance charges are a harder sell.

Let me start out by explaining how the customer service representative decides whether to remove a fee or not. The bank will issue fee waivers to your account. If you have one (or two, or three) then you can have any fee waived just by asking. There is a calculation done to determine how many fees can be waived. Things like how much money the bank has made from you, how long you have had the account, how many other accounts you have with the bank are all considered in the equation. It makes the customer service person’s job pretty black and white, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have any wiggle room. They do have some, and if you say the right things you can get them to wiggle your way.

What to say:

1. “Can I have that fee credited back?”

I know this seems obvious but some banks won’t give you a credit unless you ask. So many times I would talk to a customer forever about a fee and never once did the customer ask me to issue a credit. Clearly that is why they were calling in the first place. If you have a fee waiver on your account then a simple request is all that is needed, no explanation necessary.

2. “I didn’t get my statement.”

It’s a classic and a pretty sure fire way to get the fee removed. But don’t abuse it. Use it less than once a year. Your account will be noted that you didn’t get your statement. If the customer service person sees that you have used this excuse recently they will be more reluctant to waive the fee again. If you really didn’t get your statement find out if it was returned to the bank. If it was then ask to have the mark against your credit removed as well.

3. “I’ve had this account for X amount of years and have never paid late.”

Only use this one if it’s true. I promise, if you say this, the first thing the person on the other end of the line will do is check your payment history. So don’t lie.

4. “I have other accounts with your bank.”

Bring this up if it’s true, especially if you have lots of money with the bank. If you know the bank is making a fortune off of you and they won’t take the fee off then speak to a supervisor. This is true for any fee, not just a late fee.

5. “I’m sorry.”

Be remorseful. It would irritate me when someone would call and demand that I remove the fee. Remember, they are doing you a favor.

6. “I like you.”

Flattery will get you everywhere. Keep in mind that it is a real life person you are talking to, not a robot.

7. “Let me tell you what happened.”

If all else fails, then threaten to close. If you are then transferred to another department then you’re golden. The account closure department will be happy to waive the fee if it keeps you from closing the account. If you’re not transferred and you don’t really want to close, then say. “You know, I’m just mad right now. Let me talk to my husband/ wife and I’ll call back.”

What not to say:

1. “I was on vacation.”

That isn’t an excuse. Basically, you are telling the customer service person that this bill wasn’t important enough for you to plan ahead.

1. “They always take the fee off for me.”

This is just telling customer service that you do this all the time. It’s the opposite of #5 above

1. “Why did I get this fee?”

If you really don’t know then go ahead and ask. But usually, when someone asks this question what they really mean is “Will you take it off.”

1. “I never pay fees.”

Don’t tell customer service that they don’t make money off you. That isn’t going to help your case at all.

1. Anything that isn’t true.

If they catch you lie then you’re sunk. You are looking for sympathy and no one has sympathy for a liar.

There are some customers who just aren’t going to get the fee removed no matter what. If the bank hasn’t made any money from you then they aren’t going to pass up their chance to make a few bucks. But if you are really determined you can always call back and try again. If you “rep shop” long enough someone will eventually take it off.

No Credit Needed asked the question “What one area of your personal finance management would you like to improve?”

The one area of my financial life that I would like to improve is the amount we spend on food. Our family of four spends $900 a month on food. Gasp! Isn’t that insane? That is made up of $500 a month at the grocery store, $200 a month eating out as a family, and $100 a month each for me and my husband for lunches during the week. I would like to note that the grocery money also buys all our paper goods and cleaning supplies.

This past month I tried to cut back on the eating out and it totally backfired. Normally I eat lunch out twice during the week, then as a family we eat out twice on the weekends. That is our routine and it has worked for us for a long time. But I decided we needed to cut back. We did good for about a week and then I went crazy and we ate out three extra times. So I ruined the good I had done, plus a little extra. It’s the 17th and there is only $13 left in the eating out budget. Not good.

I just don’t have control of myself in this area. I don’t know why. Obviously, if it came to paying the bills or eating out I would be able to make the sacrifice, but it’s the first place I spend any extra money. When I am restricting myself from eating out I feel poor. It makes me hate my budget, so I just throw it out the window.

“Maybe the most any of us can expect of ourselves isn’t perfection, but progress.”~ unknown