Credit card miscellany

A lot of time, money and energy go into figuring out why people make the wrong choices when paying off debts.

For example, when faced with multiple debts with varying interest rates, people tackle the debt using one of two strategies: paying the smallest debt off first (known as the infamous "snowball strategy"), or paying off the debts with the higher interest rates first (the more logical approach, which, if followed, gets you out of debt faster).

I'm ashamed to say that, for quite a number of years, if not decades, I was a snowballer.

Full disclosure: I have never read a Jane Austen novel, my forebears were murderous mountain Scots, not British dandies in ascots, and my Old Vic was an uncle who drank.

Nevertheless, I'm hooked on the BBC period drama "Downton Abbey" and I think I know why: Downton mirrors the financial and cultural turmoil of our times. Just with better hats.

Remember that classic opening scene from "The Grifters" where John Cusack tries to con a busy bartender out of $10 by presenting a $20 bill for change and then substituting a $10 in its place?

There's a grifter here in the Tampa Bay area where I live who figured out a way to pull a similar stunt with a $25 American Express gift card. St. Petersburg Police say he scammed Bay Area bars and restaurants out of more than $20,000 over seven months before they nabbed him.

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.

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.

It sounded like a harmless request this past weekend: Sign up to be a bone marrow donor to potentially help people who need life-saving transplants.

I was among tens of thousands of people who packed in to a popular live music festival (Austin City Limits) held in Austin, Texas, each year. I had just arrived and was walking the perimeter of the festival, stopping in at different vendor booths. At one booth, a smiling man approached me asking if I'd like to sign up to be in a database of potential bone marrow donors. Ok, I said, walking under the canopy.

I was willing to give up my bone marrow -- a process that can be extremely painful -- but not my personal information.

Bankruptcy and mortgage studies, plus wildfires

I thought I'd try something new I hope you find useful: Today's reading list. It's headlines and other reports on credit, debt and payments systems that I found newsworthy, interesting or odd enough to be worth passing along.

I may be stuck to my seat here in Austin, Texas, during the record-breaking heat (we tied a record high at 112 degrees on Sunday -- and I was at a hot sauce festival in that heat), but at least my blog post can soar into the cool expanse of outer space.

Stumble Forward chose my blog post, "Data breach deja vu," for the latest Carnival of Personal Finance, which collects interesting money-related blog posts from around the Web. The carnival host has chosen the theme "The Universe Edition" for this weekly installment.

Does legendary pro athlete Bo Jackson know banking? A recent profile on LostLettermen.com reveals the 48-year-old former NFL and MLB player is a co-owner and director at a small community bank in suburban Chicago.

What he does bring to the table is his popularity and marketing appeal as a pitchman. The bank's website features a prominent picture of Jackson. Smart move.

It's risky business opening a bank in the kind of economic climate we have today. Banks larger than Burr Ridge fail every week. But then, they don't know Bo!

Could social welfare programs be to blame for Americans' tendency to save less and spend more?

Two new studies highlight the different attitudes between the Chinese and Americans toward borrowing and saving.

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.

For me, the highlight of the Teen Choice Awards wasn't Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber or the Harry Potter tribute.

It was Ashton Kutcher giving financial advice.

Seriously.

Gesturing forcefully, and almost Howard Beale-like in his zeal, Rep. Hansen Clarke used his five-minute speech to call on all Americans to cut up their credit cards -- and then whipped out a pair of blue-handled scissors to demonstrate. Roll the tape, C-SPAN!

"Hello." "All Night Long." "Say You, Say Me." Lionel Richie has always had a gift for penetrating insight into the human condition, set to music. But who knew his heartfelt words could also be applied to the recent political wrangling over the U.S. debt ceiling?

My blog, "Dancing on the (debt) ceiling: Will card rates really rise without a deal?," drew its title (but not exactly its content) from Richie's songwriting catalog -- in this case, the mid-'80s party-starter "Dancing on the Ceiling." While Richie sought to upend the convention of Newton's Law, my blog simply looked at how a downgrade for U.S. debt could mean an increase for credit card APRs.

It's Day 1 for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau -- the new federal agency charged with watching out for consumers when it comes to credit cards and other financial products.

Starting today, consumer complaints about credit cards will be collected by a single government agency -- rather than a hodgepodge of regulators that existed before.

Help us kick the tires on this new complaint system. If you have filed a complaint, let us know how it went. Was the form easy to understand? Did you experience any technical difficulties on the website?

Would you offer up your Facebook friends for money?

American Express wants you to. The credit card issuer launched a "Link, Like, Love" social media campaign asking cardholders to allow AmEx to tap their circle of friends, interests and other "likes" in order to offer customized shopping discounts.

What is the value of good credit? If you're like the majority of Americans who rely on having good credit scores to help smooth the way when you buy a car, get a mortgage or apply for other types of loans, a high credit score is vitally important.

A conversation with someone at a dinner party over the weekend and recent comments from a friend makes me wonder whether the number of people who don't value good credit is growing.

For a small and maybe growing number of people like him, maintaining good credit does not make good sense.

I told him I thought he was definitely in the minority in the country because the rest of us (me included) want to be able to borrow if we need it. Since I'm not independently wealthy with my own unlimited stash of cash, I have to rely on banks to finance big-ticket items. Those banks use credit ratings to weed out the good versus bad credit risks among us. I don't make the rules, but I'm forced to play by them because I'm not wealthy.

I never thought that learning what saute meant and how to do it would keep both me and my wallet from going hungry.

When paying my most recent credit card bills, I happily discovered I saved $30 in the past month alone by preparing a majority of meals at home rather than eating out. At this rate, I stand to save $360 per year if I keep clear of restaurants and continue to cook.

Maybe because of the $100,000 albatross (law school loans) I am about to hang from my neck, in the past month I've decided to try out thriftiness. And you know, I'm kind of liking it. Here's how it's going.

Facing 25 online personal finance journalists, President Obama got personal, giving a glimpse into his own financial history -- including the money advice his grandmother gave him and why the $125,000 in student loans he and his wife Michelle racked up was a good investment.

The president was an unscheduled drop-in guest at the Personal Finance Online Summit, an event held Wednesday at the White House. During it, high-level administration economic officials gave an afternoon of on- and off-the-record briefings to an assorted group of online personal finance editors, myself included. The idea for the summit came because, presidential message adviser Stephanie Cutter said, "Americans are looking to take charge of their personal finance issues ... and they're looking to online sources to get it done."

No major news was broken, which is why I'm writing a blog item rather than a news story, but the event had some fascinating moments, leading off with the president's salute to his grandmother's common-sense money advice -- and why in one case it was smart to ignore it.

Thanks to Miss Thrifty for hosting the 311th Carnival of Personal Finance, a weekly, traveling compendium of the best personal finance items from around the blogosphere. In the carnival, Miss T. links to my item from last week on the interesting no-interest deal obtained by Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich from Tiffany's.

I'm happy to see that My Personal Finance Journey -- host of the 310th edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance -- likes Smurfs. Or, perhaps more accurately, my blog post from last week titled "A new player in the Smurf game: a parental wallet."