Comparing Continental and United Airlines Credit Card Offers
October 15, 2011 by Charlie Stedman · Leave a Comment
United and Continental are the latest airlines to succumb to merger fever. While the aviation divisions continue the work of merging their operations, similar efforts are well underway for those who manage the Continental OnePass and United Mileage Plus loyalty point programs. Their job was made considerably easier by the fact that both carriers had been offering co-branded cards through the same bank, Chase.
In recent months, United and Continental have pared down their credit card offerings to three products, and it is reasonable to expect that only two of them will survive the sunset of Continental’s OnePass program at the end of 2011.
In anticipation of the merger of their loyalty programs, United and Continental have all but unified their entry level credit cards. The Continental OnePass Plus credit card comes with a $95 annual fee that is waived the first year. It offers a 25,000 mile sign up bonus, 5,000 miles if a second cardholder is added and an additional 10,000 miles when the cardholder spends $25,000 in a calendar year. S
Finding a cheap remortgage
October 13, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
If only the question of finding a cheap remortgage was a matter of choosing the one that required the lowest monthly repayments. But, of course, nothing in life is quite as simple as that!
Cheap is a relative term, of course – what you may regard as cheap, your neighbour might not consider to be so inexpensive. More than that, a cheap remortgage is also defined by just what it is that you want or need from your replacement mortgage. You might certainly make the monthly repayments cheaper, for example, but does that mean that you choose to extend the duration of the remortgage in order to do so? You might choose to do so, or you may choose to pay more each month in order to pay off your mortgage at an earlier date.
When comparing products, in a quest for what you might consider to be a cheap remortgage, therefore, it is likely to be important to ensure that you are comparing like for like – in terms of the type of remortgage, the amount to be borrowed and the repayment term.
Thanks to the number of relevant websites, comparison along such lines is simple and straight forward and a number of sites also include a remortgage repayment calculator, so that you may quickly estimate the likely cost of your monthly repayments for any given type of remortgage, given your desired borrowing sum and repayment term.
Something that you might want to pay special attention to avoiding, however, is making lots of “trial” applications in which a lot of your personal detail is requested. Each su Complete Article…
Is Social Security Income?
September 27, 2011 by Charlie Stedman · Leave a Comment
Heres a question about Social Security that I came across not too long ago:
Im in my 60s and am receiving Social Security every month. How much, if any, can I still contribute to my Roth IRA?
In other words, the question is Is Social Security income? Or more specifically, is it earned income. So heres the answer:
Social Security Does Count as Income
Yes, Social Security is definitely income received. However, it doesnt mean its fully taxable. To the extent that the IRS looks at your Social Security as income that must be included for tax purposes depends upon how much income you earn from other sources and your marital status.
In 2010, the IRS has base amounts of:
In other words, if you make more than the base amounts you must include Social Security as income for tax purposes. To learn more check out Publication 915 from the IRS.
Social Security Does Not Count as Earned Income
Is Social Security income? Not in the sense of earned income. So
Credit cards are so 2000 and late
September 26, 2011 by Charlie Stedman · Leave a Comment
By Rich Mintzer
Nicki, a college student, decides it’s time for a new laptop. She finds exactly what she wants online, but can’t buy it because she does not have a credit card. Her close friend offers to put it on her card, but she’s already over her card limit. These are not uncommon situations; in fact, a quarter of U.S. citizens do not have credit cards while so many more are in credit card debt. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, cardholders topped $886 billion in credit card debt in 2010, and that number is expected to top the $1.1 trillion this year.
The alternate route
With those sobering statistics in mind, entrepreneur Danny Shader thought it was time to revitalize the basic concept of paying by cash for those without plastic, those who abuse it and those who don’t want to write checks on their savings accounts to make loan payments.
Capital One Venture Card Customer Service Impresses
August 27, 2011 by Charlie Stedman · Leave a Comment
Before a recent trip to the Caribbean, I opted to swap out my Capital One No Hassle Cash Rewards card for the Capital One Venture card. There was a good promotion – 25,000 free miles ($250) after $1,000 of spend – and I needed a good card with no international transaction fees. Less than a day into the trip, my wife misplaced one of our cards. We were quite certain it was not lost, but we wanted to take precautions just in case.
I wavered a bit before calling Capital One customer service. I’d had a poor experience with them in the past, but this was on a lower end card. The primary concern, however, was that we’d lose access to both of our cards if we called the lost/stolen card department. We decided to take a chance.
The U.S. based Capital One representative I spoke with offered up some bad news initially: both my wife and I shared the same card number, so if we closed one account, we’d lose both and be forced to pay a 3% foreign transaction fee on every purchase we made – a reality that likely would have cost us at least $100, not to mention $60 in rewards. Fortunately,