October 2011 Archives

You may have heard about "Credit Educator," a new service from credit bureau Experian that offers one-on-one credit education by phone. For a cost of $29.95, consumers can speak with a specially trained Experian representative who can answer questions about the consumer's credit score and report.

I've written about the topic before for CreditCards.com (check out "Experian gets personal to teach about credit, but it'll cost you"), but more recently discussed the topic for U.S. News & World Report's "My Money" blog.

I am back from my trip to Costa Rica, and I had a great time despite the fact that I returned to a week of intense jury duty. As I always do when I travel, I enjoyed observing how money is handled differently. From a lack of credit card acceptance to massive coins, things definitely operate differently abroad.

Learn about some of the many differences I observed between the way day-to-day finances are handled in the U.S. versus Costa Rica. Plus, read my roundup below of my 10 favorite personal finance blog posts from the past week!

Understanding the fine print on a gift card is hard. Trust me, I've spent the better part of a month looking through more than 60 examples.

But after weeks of deciphering Web pages, calling toll-free customer service numbers or even calling or visiting individual stores while researching CreditCards.com's 2011 gift card survey, I think I have a solution for the problem.

Even my toaster has to go. It's one of those fancy, stainless steel, four-slicer monstrosities. It won't fit on the limited counter space in my new kitchen.

I'm in the midst of downsizing, and it isn't pretty. I woke up one morning a couple of weeks ago and decided it was time to take the plunge and sell my house. What I was not prepared for was not only would I have to sell my house, but almost everything else I had accumulated over the past 20 years. Plus, I would have to buy a new home, which while less expensive, isn't a cheap process.

Four years ago today, the Taking Charge blog posted its first entry.

I blogged about my daughter, a middle-schooler at the time, who was discovering the convenience of plastic payment cards.

She was a newbie at the school and had not yet gotten her school ID card, which also doubles as the lunch payment card. So, she pulled out cash at the lunch counter and slowed the whole line down. Lesson learned: Plastic is faster and doesn't anger the folks in line behind you.

That was four years ago. The payment card world has changed dramatically since then.

This weekend, I'm traveling to Costa Rica for the first time. I'll be hanging out in Tamarindo for a few days, then doing a much-needed retreat at Peace Retreat in Playa Negra. It's a tiny little town on the Pacific Coast. It sounds like a very peaceful and relaxing place. I was reading the retreat's website for details of what to bring, and I read that there are no ATMs in the town. You have to go to Tamarindo (which is nearby) if you need to get cash.

I've done a lot of traveling, but I don't know if I've ever gone anywhere (perhaps other than a volunteer trip to the slums of Mexico) that doesn't have ATMs. I'm not sure if any of the local merchants accept credit cards. I'm going to have to hope that I bring the right amount of cash.

My first thought was that this was a major inconvenience. Internet may be spotty, too. But you know what? I'm realizing that it might actually be nice to unplug. Being in a small beach town is exactly what I need right now to unwind, and if that comes with no ATMs, minimal cell phone service, and spotty WiFi, I'll take it. I wouldn't want every day to be that way, but a simpler life will be nice for a week.

Keep reading for my roundup of my 10 favorite personal finance blog posts from the past week. Enjoy!

Think being wealthy, successful and having a clever nickname will keep you safe from identity theft? Think again.

Diddy -- formerly known as P. Diddy, formerly formerly known as Puff Daddy and legally known as Sean Combs -- recently fell victim to an identity thief who stole Diddy's American Express Black Card information, TMZ.com reports. If that wasn't bad enough, the thief posted Diddy's AmEx card information online this week for the entire web browsing world to see.

Earlier this week, a friend posted on Facebook that he went to a drive-through restaurant. As he pulled up to the window, the cashier smiled and said that the person before him left behind a dollar for his order -- a random act of kindness. My friend was taken aback by this small but kind gesture. He decided to pass it along to the next person, feeling the need to pay it forward.

It felt fitting when I read that today is World Smile Day. You know that famous yellow smiley face icon you see everywhere? It was created in 1963 by artist Harvey Ball. Times are tough, and we could all use a genuine smile here and there or a random act of kindness. On this day, let's all take a deep breath, remember that we are all in this together and share our beautiful smiles with the world.

If you're looking for great advice on budgeting, holiday shopping or warding off identity theft, these 10 of my favorite personal finance posts from the past week will put a smile on your face.

When you think of California, perhaps images of beaches, Hollywood, the Golden Gate Bridge and "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" come to mind. For the latest Carnival of Personal Finance, host Hope to Prosper had the Golden State in his thoughts when he selected the carnival's "California Dreaming" theme.

That carnival -- which includes a collection of finance-related blog posts from around the web -- includes my post, "U.S. economic recession shifted FICO credit scores," in the "economy" category.