Sometimes the difference between keeping $150 and losing it is one simple phone call.

It's a simple lesson: Persistence pays. It's also one that every personal finance expert worth their salt will tell you is among the most important to learn. No one cares about your money as much as you do, and to keep it, sometimes you have to fight for it.

I learned that the hard way today during one incredibly irritating morning of back-and-forth with a major airline.

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.

As large parts of drought-ridden, wind-blown Central Texas burned, my wife and I realized we needed to talk.

"If we had to evacuate because wildfires were approaching our house," I asked, "what would we take?"

It's just a hypothetical question for us, thank heavens. However, that's exactly the time when you should have the conversation -- not when you've just gotten a reverse 911 call telling you to evacuate as a roaring wildfire nears.

Bank of America cardholders, if you're looking for a free way to get out of the summer heat Labor Day weekend, try your local museum.

The bank's Museums on Us program provides Bank of America credit or debit card holders with one free general admission to 150 different museums, zoos, science centers and more around the country on the first full weekend of every month through the end of the year. Some people will find the program lacking -- for example, 22 states have no museums participating -- but it's just another example of a perk given by a card issuer to lure new cardholders and keep current ones happy.

Next time you travel, remember this: Hotels are always a hotspot for credit card fraud scams.

Since I've spent my share of time traveling over the last few months -- for everything from a college buddy's wedding to a family trip to Disney World - stories about credit card scams at hotels have caught my eye recently. Though the scams feature different clever tactics, each has the same intent: getting a hold of a tourist's credit card info.

And they all drive the point home that, no matter how tired you are from travel, no matter how crabby your toddler's being that day, no matter how sunburned you get waiting in line at the water park, you need to keep your guard up when you're traveling.

Millions of people have made purchases at Starbucks using just their smartphones, the coffee mega-retailer said.

That announcement on March 23 -- perhaps our strong indication yet of people's appetites for using mobile payments to buy everyday items -- made headlines, but it's just the latest example of the continued mainstreaming of mobile payments.

The weather was a mess. Cabbies went on strike, making it tough to get around. And worst of all, her most hated team won the championship.

But none of that mattered to Susie Supalo. Her trip to the Super Bowl -- earned by redeeming more than 300,000 rewards points from her NFL credit card -- was still a thrill.

Susie Supalo's six-year quest for Super Bowl tickets came to a joyous end Friday.

Supalo was one of thousands of Bank of America credit cardholders who were stunned by the banking giant's announcement in July that after August 31, 2010, the reward points they'd earned on their officially licensed NFL credit cards would expire. After the announcement, I wrote a blog on the topic, which prompted this comment from Supalo a few weeks later:

"I have been saving NFL points for 6 years for Super Bowl tickets. I had enough points last Super Bowl for upper level seats but decided not to redeem them because I had been saving for so long I thought I would wait for lower level seats. I have enough points for lower level seats and now I can't redeem them. Obtaining Super Bowl tickets with my points has been my goal for 6 years. I think BofA and NFL should have given us more notice. I would have redeemed my points last Super Bowl. Is there anything I can do? I feel cheated by the NFL, B of A and the Chicago Bears! How can they get away with this???"

Got rewards points from using your favorite NFL team's official credit card? Redeem them soon to get that Peyton Manning jersey or Dallas Cowboys helmet or they'll disappear forever.

Consider it a two-minute warning from the National Football League and Bank of America: "After August 31, 2010," the bank says on its NFL Extra Points program website, "Bank of America will no longer offer the NFL credit card program. All points must be redeemed on or before this date." Otherwise, the points will expire.

To drive home the point, NFLExtraPoints.com features a giant countdown clock just below a headline that screams "Redeem your points before the clock hits zero! Last chance to spend your points." The site also says that current NFL credit cardholders will soon receive more information on the situation.

So what's driving this? The NFL is moving its credit card business from Bank of America -- with whom its partnered for 15 years -- to British-owned Barclays Bank. According to the Associated Press, Barclays' new NFL program is set to debut in September. The NFL regular season begins September 9.