Dr Copa

I am not really a big fan on using coupons. I will use one now and then, but I don’t get the Sunday paper and spend 15 minutes to a half an hour sorting and  cutting coupons for groceries. But I will use one or two of them on occasion if I have it stuffed in my wallet  and it it is for a decent amount. An amount worthy of me toting the darn thing around, if you know what I mean!

Come the end of September I will be free of my cell phone provider once and for all. Two years ago I signed a contract with them and I’ve been counting down the days until my contract is up. I have nothing good to say about that company as a cell phone provider. They are over-priced and have too many dead zones. As far as I’m concerned, their ads on television about their coverage is very misleading.

Of all the places for my nephew and his new wife to be relocating to they had to pick Texas. So now they are busy looking for Dallas Homes for Sale and utilizing the Internet for all that it is worth. Moving has never been an easy task and moving somewhere long distance is just a nightmare, thank goodness for the World Wide Web. There are tons of Dallas Real Estate options out there, weeding through all of them is time consuming but at least they can do that task online instead of having to make numerous trips in order to find the perfect match.

At least a good portion of the move is being paid for by his employer and he has a good paying job waiting for him to start at. They won’t know a soul in Texas, but they are good people and youth is on their side, so I’m sure it will work out just fine. In the mean time they are being kept busy Googling “Dallas Homes For Sale” and seeing all that Dallas has to offer folks in their shoes. In a few years I’ll make the time to take a trip out there and see how they are making out.

Customer: Yes, I want to cancel my account. I don’t want to do business with you any longer. 

The Bank: Why?

Customer: You’re giving credit to illegal immigrants and I don’t think it’s right. I’m taking my business elsewhere.

The Bank: Well, Mr. Customer, we don’t want to see you do that, but we can’t stop you. I’ll help you close the account. What is your account number?

Customer: (gives account number)

The Bank: For security purposes and for your protection, can you please give me the last four digits of your social security number?

Customer: No?

The Bank: Mr. Customer, I need to verify your information, but in order to help you, I’ll need verification of who you are..

Customer: Why should I give you my social security number? The reason I’m closing my account is that your bank is issuing credit cards to illegal immigrants who don’t have social security numbers. You are targeting that audience and want their business. Let’s say I’m an illegal immigrant and you’ve given me a credit card. I have a question about it and call for assistance. You wouldn’t be asking me for a Social Security number, would you?

The Bank: No sir, I wouldn’t.

Customer: Why not?

The Bank: Because you would have pressed ‘2′ to speak in Spanish. We don’t ask for that information when calling in on the Spanish line.

This depression hasn’t stopped a good amount of people from purchasing new vehicles. I’m seeing so many new cars with the bright white temporary tags on them. A lot of the new toyota camry, mercury milan and porsche cayman are now hitting the streets. I’m guessing maybe people’s tax refund checks are coming in, hitting the bank and a new car is high on their wish list and people are seeing to it that their wishes are coming true. It’s been a rough couple of years for us all.

I have never been a big fan of buying a new car. Hell as soon as it pulls out of the parking lot of the dealership the darn thing depreciates at least one or two thousand dollars. It isn’t all that unusual to hear stories of people totalling their brand spanking new vehicle just trying to merge into traffic from their local dealership. I had a good friend that worked for a major insurance company as a Claims Adjuster, the stories that he would tell was always good for a laugh or two. People and their cars share a special bond that no one can get in between.

My sister has always been totally in love with the volkswagen beetle. Her first car was a “punch buggie” and has her eyes set on the volkswagen new beetle convertible and has been talking about purchasing one these past couple of months. Her tax check just came in and she is planning on spending it all on a new beetle, bright yellow. I can see her behind the wheel of one with her blond hair flying all over and a bright yellow flower in the vase, conveniently located right on the dashboard that the “new” beetles are so well known for having for this newest generation’s beetle fans.

Seems to me that at least once a day we get a telephone call at our house from some company that is trying to get us to sign on to their debt settlement plan.  They talk about how debt negotiation can lower our monthly payments and make our life easier.  I always think it sounds like a grand idea and turn the telephone call over to my wife.  She makes a face at me and reluctantly takes the call.

She listens politely for a few minutes and then declines their offer of their plan for our debt relief.  It always upsets me, because I want to lower our monthly payments!  So the last time one of the solicitors called, I listened on the extension to what my wife was saying to them, to see how she can justify turning down their offer.  From what I hear, the interest rates they are offering us are higher than the interest rates we are currently paying!  I was surprised to say the least!  So my advice to all of you out there is this; be careful and listen carefully.  Make sure that the offer they make you really is going to save you money!  Don’t be fooled by slick talk and pretty words!

Guest post by Linda Bradshaw

Well, I had had hopes that Ms. C.P. was going to help me put an end to my misery with the Bank of America mortgage problem.  She assured me that she had closed the case and that Bank of America would notify the credit agencies that the debt was settled.  Then the business of Credit Repair could begin.

That was several weeks ago, and yet so far all of the records indicat that I still owe Bank of America the mortgage money!  I’m still getting notices from Bank of America, for crying out loud!  Even their website shows I still owe them the money!  The Best Credit Repair Service in the world would not be able to help me until Bank of America finishes the job and does right by me!

I’m beginning to think that Credit Repair for me is just a pipe dream; never to happen.  Is this any way to run a business?

I guess now thatall of our kids have graduated college, our younger siblings have been asking for advice from us about how to get money for their kids to go to college.

Unfortunately for them, there seems to be more money available for the minority races through minority scholarships than through “regular” college scholarships!  I know that for a fact myself because I was looking around for some college grants for my wife to go back to college and get a pharmacist’s degree!

As smart as my wife is, we will never be able to afford for her to go back to college – we depend too much on her income to survive.  We’d never be able to survive while she was in school.

One word of advice I’d like to give people – go to college BEFORE you get get married and have children!  It is so much easier when you are not bound to a specific location and have to support a family!

One good way to start a new business is to find a good franchise for sale and buy one for your area.  Often times buying a franchise is a great way to become your own boss and own your own company, without having to invest quite so much elbow grease and money.  I always have envied those people who have their own Burger King or Ruby Tuesday or Applebee’s franchise!  I’d love to own a Longhorn Steakhouse or a Bob Evans!

When someone buys into a franchise, they tap into the power of an established business that is set up to help train them for success.  They also have the advertising power of a large national corporation, so their advertising budget tends to be lower than starting a business from scratch.  And as we all know, advertising a business is very important, and very expensive!

I fear I have gotten to the point in life that my jeans just aren’t as comfortable as they used to be. I remember practically living in my blue jeans, a few nights I had even slept in them without a problem. I don’t think that I could handle doing something like that these days, they just don’t feel right anymore. Even with all the different brands and styles that they have to offer in the stores, I just can’t seem to find a pair that I can call comfortable, especially in the summer heat, that can make for a long hot day and that just isn’t acceptable to me.

So, I have turned to wearing cargo pants when I want to dress casual. They are readily available and are usually affordable, depending on where you purchase them. I have been doing most of my shopping online and have been finding some good deals. It works for me since I am not the type that enjoys going out and shopping for clothes, so shopping online is perfect for me.

I have found a good company at Blair.com and they have a good selection of cargo elastic waist pants, which are my favorite type of cargo pants. The elastic waist band makes them nice and comfortable all through the day and well into the night which is just what I’m looking for in my clothes. And I like all the pockets that cargo pants are known to have. Too bad I have such skinny legs and refuse to wear shorts because they are having a good sale on them right now, but I’ve never been a fan of wearing shorts, even on the hottest days of the summer.

I’m going to shoot off an order this weekend with them, gonna order a few pairs and see how I like them.

Guest post by Linda Bradshaw

When my hubby was injured in my car accident in 2007, I tried to get my mortage company for our house in New England that we were trying to sell to grant me a hardship forebearance. Since he wasn’t able to work due to my injuries, I was hopeful to get some empathy from the company. Boy, was I wrong!

Long story short, the mortgage company has dropped the ball and tossed me around from department to department, where I have been met with gross incompetence at every turn.

After over two years, even though we FINALLY did a deed-in-lieu with the company last November, and the deed to the house was transferred into their name in December the company is continuing to send me notices that I owe them the money and the company is still sending notices to the credit agencies that the mortgage is overdue. This is resulting in credit card companies closing my credit cards or lowering my credit limits.

Every time I call Bank of America I am shuttled around from department to department, and told the matter will be escalated and someone will call me back within the next week. That never happens. I have called them about once every two weeks, and nothing is resolved. I have sent them letters, and I get replies that someone will contact me within 20 days, and that never happens either! I got collection calls several times a day for years on end until I finally blocked their telephone number!

As of today, I have been on the phone with Bank of America for the past four hours, being shuttled around from department to department, trying to find some help. I’m on hold at the moment, waiting for a supervisor to talk to me. The lady I just spoke with said that my account was in the process of being assigned to someone in the home retention department!

I have contacted my state senator Mark Warner’s office, asking for help a couple of weeks ago. Haven’t heard back from them yet.

Anyone know a good lawyer that would like to sue this company on my behalf to get this resolved and maybe some punitive damages for emotional distress it is causing? I had hired a lawyer that I was told is an agressive lawyer that loves to sue people, but for some reason he just doesn’t seem to be in the mood to take this on! If you know of a class-action suit going on for people in situations like this, or know a good lawyer that could/would help me, please post comment to this blog and I’ll get the information!

Can you feel my pain?

I’m not sure if it’s just the area that I live in, or if people are really starting to feel like the economy is picking up. Maybe it’s just the nice weather and people are starting to bring out their nice cars like the audi s5 out of their winter storage and show off their wealth while the weather is good.

My wife has been telling me that she would like to consider getting another car before this coming winter. She’s concerned that our current cars are running on borrowed time. I’ve told her to start thinking about what kind of car she thinks she might like to get if we did buy one. I suggested that she check out the reviews on the volkswagen jetta sportwagen and mitsubishi galanton thecarconnection.com website to see if she might be interested in one of them. Personally I’d love to be able to afford something as nice as a jaguar xf, but I think she would tan my hide if I spent that much money on a car! Well, a man can dream, can’t he?

Between the two of us, we have admittedly had some nice cars.  I’ve owned three corvettes in the past, and she’s owned a toyota celica, a mazda RX-7 and three Mercedes Benz cars.  So it’s not like we don’t know how nice it is to have really nice cars!  But she keeps telling me that she feels very uneasy about the financial security of the family right now, and she really would like to focus on value instead of glamour.

Shortly before I had my car accident my sister and I were talking about how many credit cards of mine had outstanding balances on them.  At the time I also had loans on some of my equipment – my tractor and mower for example.  She convinced me that I should get a mortgage on my house and use it for debt consolidation. She reasoned that at least that way the interest would be tax deductible!

Well, doing that debt consolidationthrough a mortgage made a lot of sense to me because it also lowered my monthly payments. But now since I’ve had that accident I’ve had to rely on my credit cards for survival and now I’m having trouble paying my mortgage and my credit cards! My wife has suggested that we go get some professional credit counseling to figure out what we should do. With the current housing market, the house is barely worth what we paid for it! I’ve heard that a lot of people are just walking away from their homes in situations like ours. But I sure would hate to do that – we have no place to go, and we don’t want to have to turn our pets over to the shelter; that would just break our hearts!

The Internet has made it easy to find all the information that you need in order to take advantage of the buying first home tax credit that our Federal government has decided to extend once again. It’s the first time that I’ve agreed with something the Feds have done, how scary is that!

Homes sales are picking up more and more, and there are still plenty of great deals on the market. The amount of “For Sale” signs lining the neighborhoods all around town are totally outrageous. We will really know that things have turned around when we don’t see every 3rd of 4th house with a “For Sale” sign in the front yard.

Anyway, this extension is also helping people that have lived in their current home for 5 of the last 8 years. If so you can receive up to $6,500 in a tax credit as well. Something definitely worth looking into folks. I found a good overview of the tax credit extension at Coldwell Banker’s web site. They have a short video embedded there as well to assist as well. I’ve posted it below with the thought in mind that someone might learn something from it as well. Share the wealth…………..

When my wife was involved in that traffic accident last October, she found out that the lady who caused the accident had one of the more popular online auto insurance policies.  We see the ads for that company on television a lot!  The online auto insurance company called us almost immediately to follow up on the accident, making all kinds of promises about how they were going to cover medical expenses and lost pay.

They sent my wife a lot of forms to fill out so they could get the medical records.  That was months ago, and we have not heard back from them yet.  I’m beginning to think that this particular insurance company is all fluff and no stuff.  So it may be a good deal for the person who buys the insurance, but I’m not convinced that it will treat the consumer right if an accident actually happens and a claim has to be filed on it!

My wife has put me in charge of doing some comparison shopping for cheaper rates on insurance.  Currently we have our home and auto insurance bundled together; we understand that we can get better prices by doing it that way.  But we are constantly inundated with junk mail about saving money on insurance, and so we’ve agreed that it might be worth looking into. 

I found a website that is called netquote.com that makes it easy to compare prices on insurance anywhere in the US.  For example if I wanted to find Indiana insurance all I have to do is fill in a few fields and click on submit and the quotes are on the way!  So I’m going to check it out and see if we can save any money ourselves.  Wish me luck!

With Mother’s Day coming up in another month, I have been looking around online in order to find a nice watch to purchase for my mother. Bluedial.com has a wonderful selection of Brand name watches like Seiko, Citizen, Bulova Casio at some pretty decent prices. They offer free 2nd day shipping and free sizing. I also like that they accept PayPal, that is something that more companies need to start offering.

I found this sweet looking ladies watch by Bulova. It is reduced from $250 down to $133, which is a great deal. I think that she will love it and I think that it would look real nice on my mother’s wrist.

I’ve been hearing for a long time that the Postal Service is considering dropping Saturday deliveries as a way to trim their budget. I think that it is a very good idea. I don’t need to be receiving bills in the mail six days a week! Often we don’t go out anywhere on Saturday and it is a nuisance to have to make a special trip down to the mailbox to get the mail. On regular weekdays usually someone is driving past the mailbox in the afternoon and can just stop on their way in the driveway to pick up the mail.

I would encourage the Post Offices to stay open on Saturdays, however, to make it easier for people who work during the business week to be able to go to the Post Office on their day off to buy stamps, pick-up packages, etc. But home delivery, I won’t miss it on Saturdays for one minute!

One of the biggest reasons why my life is in such a mess is because the lady who caused the traffic accident I was in over two years ago didn’t have enough on her car insurance limits to pay for my medical expenses.  That doesn’t even begin to touch the lost income, either!  Naturally we had under-insurance coverage on our own auto insurance policies, but even that isn’t enough to pay for my medical expenses.

I’m all for people trying to get cheap car insurance as a way to save money, but I think that the best way to do that is by increasing the deductible, not decreasing the liability!  If you are checking around for cheap auto insurance, please think of the other people who you may accidentally injure and get a policy with decent liability.  Only having $25,000 is not enough.  I know that is legal to have that low, but it shouldn’t be!

In this troubled economy, my wife and I spend quite a bit of time looking for bargains that will help us to stretch our budget dollars.  Especially since I’ve been on the “injured list.”  So I was really excited to find the Offers.com website.  The website is chock full of freebies and discounts on a wide variety of items.  There are several different categories set up to help you find the best deal on credit cards, software, travel, clothing, and much more.

Many of the links lead to a section full of links to click to get coupon codes, but there is also a category that I’m really enjoying that is full of free things.  Like a free towel, free dog food, free fabric softener, free engine belt wear gauge, free ruler, free ice cream, free paint sample, free polishing cloths – the list goes on and on!  I think I could easily spend over an hour checking out all of the free stuff!  And this free stuff doesn’t appear to be “free trial” where you end up having to pay for something if you keep it; this is really free stuff!

I’m going to have to let my wife take a turn at looking at this site!  I’ve bookmarked it to come back to in the future.  This one is a keeper!  I’m definitely going to order the free sample of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee!  And I see a couple of free cookbooks for my wife!  I’d claim this bargain hunt time today a glorious success!

One thing I’ve always been adamant about throughout my adult life is making sure that we have insurance.  Whether it is life insurance, auto insurance, or health insurance, one thing is for sure.  If you don’t have it, you WILL be sorry!  So when my nephew decided to move to Providence, I told him that I’d help him by trying to find some competitive rates for insurance for him.

With the assistance of some great search engines, (and the expertise of my wife!) I’ve been searching the keywords of Insurance Providence, RI, Business Liability Providence, RI, and Renters Insurance Providence, RI.  I think my nephew will be pleased with the results that I have to give him.  I hope he listens to my advice and gets as much insurance as he can afford to get!  I wouldn’t be in the mess I’m in now myself if the lady who caused the car accident I was in had the right insurance!

I was using my John Deere tractor to plow and scoop snow out of the driveway, and the oil line broke.  Well, it is never a good time for a breakdown, but this is one of the worst times!  So I took my tractor to the local John Deere dealer for repairs.  There was a time that I would have been able to do the repairs myself (I have done it before) but ever since my accident I have not been able to do that kind of repair anymore.

Well, they really overcharged me drastically.  They charged me for five hours work when I know it would have only taken me three, and they charged me for four quarts of oil, when I know it only takes three.  Even the owner’s manual tells you that it only takes three!  I told my wife about it and she told me that I should bring the error to their attention and ask them politely to correct their mistake.  I’m afraid that if I complain that they will remember me as a bad customer and not take good care of me in the future.  So I’m inclined to let it ride.  My wife says that I should just approach them nicely and assume it was a typographical error and for them to please correct it.  She says if I handle it right then they won’t be upset.  I really don’t know what to do!

I just got back from having my taxes done and I am glad to say that I’ll be getting a few bucks back from good old Uncle Sam, I have to say that  it really hurts to have to shell out so much money to the tax preparer. I really don’t have all that much involved when it comes to my taxes. It’s not like I was able to take advantage of the recently extended First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit, although I did have a lot of medical and charitable deductions that certainly helped the situation. Well worth the time and effort it took to keep track of all of those pesky pieces of paperwork for the past year.

There are a lot of options (credits, deductions, etc.) out there for people to utilize for the yearly tax issues. I can’t imagine doing taxes for a living, way too many variables involved there and when you are dealing with other people’s money you really need to be careful! My luck some one would get upset with what I had done and come after me with a shotgun or something crazy like that.

I did find an interesting video on You Tube that I wanted to post here for anyone interested in learning about the Home Buyer Tax Credit Extension. Anything to keep more money in our pockets and not the I.R.S. right?!

I think that a lot of us are down sizing on a lot of things that we used to take for granted a few years ago. I know that I have made several changes with my TV, cell phone, home phone and the Internet, trying to get my budget under control. It is a tedious process, having access to the Internet certainly makes the process a bit easier, but it’s all worth the time and the effort these days.

My wife and I are trying to do a little bit of repairs around the house.  Money is tight, so we have been doing some comparison shopping between the two biggest home improvement stores in the area.  You know the ones I’m talking about – the big blue and the big orange.  We frequently get coupons in the mail from the big blue, and we are frequently seeing commercials on television that claim that the big blue has the cheapest prices.  Yet when we went to compare the prices of 2×4s we found that the big orange price was almost $1 lower per 2×4.  When you have to buy 100 of them, that makes a big difference!  So my advice to all of you out there – don’t believe the hype.  Use your head, and your phone and call around for prices!  You’ll be amazed at how much money you can save with some shopping savvy!

My wife and I have been trying to get our home mortgage modified through our mortgage company.  So far we have met with much resistance.  Because of my car accident and disability causing us to lose so much of our source of income it has become more difficult to pay our bills every month.  Bill suggested that we contact the American Residential Law Group to see if they can help nudge the mortgage company along.

They specialize in all areas of consumer law, including debt settlement, short sales, foreclosures, and bankruptcy too.  I’d really hate to have to declare bankruptcy, but if we can’t get our loan modified that may be our only recourse.  I’m hoping that our insurance suit or my disability claim with the Social Security Commission will come through soon enough that we won’t have to go that far.

My wife made an appointment to have me take one of our dogs to the vet for her rabies shot. It seems that we needed a new one in order to get her county dog tag. So I went ahead and took the dog to the vet. The shot itself was only about $20, but they charged me over $50 for a “wellness check” that we never asked for!

Now that might be legal, but I think it is totally unethical to charge $50 for a “wellness check” that we didn’t ask for! I think that before they started checking her over they should have asked me if I wanted that done and advised that there would be a $50 charge for it! I feel totally ripped off!

Now I find out that I could have taken her to Petco to one of their shot clinics and had the shot done for only $18 and no “wellness check” fee. I don’t think it takes a genius to figure out where the next rabies shot will be coming from, do you?

It is a sad fact of life that we depend on Credit Cards more than ever right now to see us through until the lawsuit over my car accident is finished.  With my inability to work causing us financial distress, it is really important that we be really careful to Compare Credit Cards and find the Best Credit Cards so we won’t have to pay any extra fees or interest that we can avoid paying.

This has been a real struggle; one I’m sure many of you out there can empathize with.  Many of the cards try to lure the consumer into getting their card and have nasty surprises lying in wait.  I’ve found that the pre-approved offers that come in the US Mail are just a cruel joke.  I’m glad that some of the loopholes in the credit card laws are closed now – the consumer really does need protection against the exorbitant fees and fines that some of these companies have charged in the past!  I just wish that the law had gone into effect sooner so that the card companies couldn’t raise all of their rates during the interim period!  That was a raw deal for the consumer!

I’ve noticed that I am still getting a lot of “pre-approved” offers in the mail for a lot of different Credit Cards.  I find it very aggravating to get all of these offers.  The fact that so many of them lead you on with great sounding offers, claiming to be the Best Credit Cards on the market really angers me when I read the fine print and see that they charge an annual rate, or that their interest rate is 20% or more!

I thought it was illegal to charge that high of an interest rate!  Well, one thing I’ve learned is to simply ignore the offers that come in the mail and use some of the Online sites to help me
Compare Credit Cards to find out which ones really are the best ones to apply for.  I don’t want any card that is going to charge me a high interest rate or an annual fee!  And I want to get some kind of cash back rewards that help me to save money.  I don’t want one that gives me travel points, or points to be applied to buying stuff from a catalog.  I want cold hard cash!

My wife has been encouraging me to consider investing in gold when we get our insurance settlement money.  She seems to think that putting some of our money in gold would be a good hedge against the stock market dropping again.  I have to admit that I have always considered gold as a suspect when it came to investing money.  I know that the price of gold can fluctuate too.

But my wife keeps telling me that investing in gold as a way to diversify our portfolio is a sound decision.  She keeps telling me that it is never wise to put all of your eggs in the same basket, and that we need to spread our money out so that if one investment does poorly then the other might take up the slack and do well.  I have to admit that there is a lot of logic in that reasoning.  Diversification is a good way to protect ourselves financially.