Free Equifax Credit Score Card
Don’t get too excited. Equifax is offering a free “Credit Score Card“, which in reality just gives you a range of what your credit score is. And the score is from their “Equifax Risk Score” system, not a FICO score. (You can still get 30% off a real FICO score with MYPOINTS30.) The Equifax Risk Score does range from 280-850, which basically the same as FICO from 300 to 850.
Well, it’s free and it’s from Equifax which has all my personal information anyway, so what the heck. Here are my results:
Key Factor(s) Affecting Your Score:
Because your credit score is in the highest range, you may qualify for some of the lowest interest rates and offers from lenders. Below are the top factors that may be preventing you from achieving an even higher credit score.
- There is insufficient information, or no account history, for one or more types of accounts: for example, auto loans, mortgage loans, personal loans or credit cards.
- The proportion of retail accounts, such as department store cards, compared to all of the credit accounts in your credit file.
It still seems stupid that to get a “perfect” credit score of 850, I’ll need to add an auto loan, a personal loan, and a department store card. I’ll hopefully never have any one of those, and I’m betting I can still get just about any loan out there. Nobody needs perfect credit.
New PineCone Research Application Link (Paid Surveys)
Here is an updated application link at Pinecone Research, which is again accepting new members. (May expire at any time, so apply now if you’re interested!) Looks open to all, but only one person per household can sign up. Link via Realm of Prosperity.
PineCone Research remains one of the better paying and reliable survey companies, with a payout of $3 (check or PayPal) for each 15-minute online survey. The hardest part is getting accepted, as they only take applications intermittently. Some users have reported an increase in unpaid “weed-out” surveys, while others seem to remain happy. I got kicked out a while ago for missing some surveys when I moved, so I’m afraid I can’t provide any comment.
The four survey sites that I have been most active with nowadays are NFO MySurvey, Opinion Outpost, BzzAgent, and SurveySavvy. I like it them because they consistently offer me paid survey opportunities, they pay out reliably (important!), and they don’t mind if I don’t do every single survey offered (unlike Pinecone which does).
I shared my thoughts on Pinecone and paid surveys in general here. I call them Bored Money - not terribly efficient but you can do it at your leisure and occasionally get to try some neat things like shampoo, dog food, new soda flavors, and once even got a new $100 Sonicare toothbrush to keep.
PSA: Monoprice.com Possibly Hacked; Credit Card Data Stolen?
Although relatively new, Monoprice.com has quickly become a very popular place to buy cheap but high quality audio/video cables and adapters online. I recommended shopping there if you’re trying to connect your laptop to your TV (and maybe drop your cable subscription?). I’ve probably bought from them five times in the last year, and I don’t even shop online that much.
However, if you bought anything from them recently, I would check your credit cards for any fraudulent charges. Monoprice shut down their site today and placed this message up:
A few of our customers recently reported to us that information from credit cards they used on the Monoprice website had been misused. We promptly began an investigation with the help of expert computer forensic investigators to determine if any card data had been stolen from our computers.
To date, the investigators have found no evidence that card information has been stolen from Monoprice’s computer network. As a precaution to ensure that our customers’ information is not at risk, we have taken our website offline temporarily while we and our investigators complete the audit of our computer network.
Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University Review: Week 4
This is a series of posts about what you will find in Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University course. This is week four (week one — week two and week three) This week’s lesson focused on getting out of debt. We’re getting to the meat of the plan now, and I was eager to hear Dave’s ideas [...]World’s Richest Man: Carlos Slim Helu
Many people may wonder: who is Carlos Slim Helu?
He was just crowned as the World Richest Man by Forbes. Slim, whose amassed his $53.5B fortune in Mexican telecom market, beat Bill Gates by half a billion dollars, or merely 1%, to come up at the top of the list.
Bill Gates comes at second with $53B and his old friend Warren Buffet was third with $47B in his pocket.
Here is the 10 richest of the richest on earth:
Hot Deal: 5% cashback on everything from Citi CashReturns Mastercard
Read more news like this from PFBlog.com, The Unique Personal Finance Blog Since 2003.
Visa Black Card benefits, fees
BofA Put an End to Overdraft Fee
More than one news outlets ( ">USA Today, WSJ, AP) reported that Bank of America will formally end its practice to charge overdraft fees that go as much as $35.
Starting from June 19 for new customers and starting from August for existing customers, BofA will:
1) Disallow overdraft at point of sale
2) When customer's ATM withdrawal will result in negative balance, BofA will ask customer permission on the $35 charge before they will get the money.
3) Customer can still opt in for overdraft protection.
BofA made the move following Federal Reserve regulation that forbid banks from charging such fees unless with customer permission. It is widely believed that many other banks will follow the lead of BofA, which issues 15% of the nation's debit card, and adopt similar policies. (Citi already ended overdraft fee.)
Like many others, I always keep at least a few hundred bucks in my checking account, so I never had to pay a dime on overdraft protection charge in my life. Actually, although this new change makes no difference to me on the surface, it might bring unintended consequences. As reported by Eileen Aj Connelly at Associated Press:
READ FULL POST ...
Hot Deal: 5% cashback on everything from Citi CashReturns Mastercard
Read more news like this from PFBlog.com, The Unique Personal Finance Blog Since 2003.
E-File Your Federal Tax Return Extension For Free
April 15th is only a month away, and you haven’t started your taxes yet. Time to file an extension! The IRS automatically grants a 6-month extension to anyone who asks. Asking a search engine will often direct you towards websites like FileLater.com that charge upwards of $20 to file the form, but here are two ways that anybody can e-File for free. Apparently, the only thing keeping these sites in business is lack of education!
Method #1: TaxAct
This is how I did my extension last year. Just sign up with TaxAct and e-file your extension for free through them. It’s quick. It’s easy.
You don’t even need to actually use them to file your taxes later, although TaxAct is also free for federal taxes with e-File included regardless of income, and is only $14.95 for state returns including free e-File. That’s cheaper than TurboTax or TaxCut, although if you’re already familiar with those programs it may be worth the extra bucks to stick with them.
Method #2: Free File Fillable Forms
This one’s a little harder to find, but here are some step-by-step instructions. Go to the Free File Fillable Forms site (say that 5 times fast) and click on “Start Free File Fillable Forms”. Click “Sign-in” on the top left, and create a new account.
After you’re signed in, click on “Continue” and pick your form. Go with 1040. On the top right, you should see an icon with the label “File an Extension”.
This will bring up Form 4868, Application for Automatic Extension of Time to File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, a long title for a really short form. You’ll need to estimate your total tax liability for 2009. This form only extends the time to file, not the time allowed to pay. Overestimate your tax liability to avoid penalties. Here is how I estimated my tax liability.
You can even request your estimated tax payment to be withdrawn electronically by supplying your bank’s routing and account numbers. For identification purposes, you’ll need your adjusted gross income (AGI) from your 2008 tax return.
Got state income taxes as well? Here is a helpful page on manually requesting state-specific tax extensions.
Keeping Control of Your Money
Have you ever thought about how much control over your financial life you give to companies when you sign up for things like cable, cell phone contracts, Internet access, loans, or credit cards? When you engage in most financial transactions, you are letting someone else have a little bit of control over your financial life. [...]Links: Free Online University Courses
A collection of links to free educational material online. The amount of information available online is expanding so fast, you can at least explore a new direction without leaving your house.
University-Specific
- MIT OpenCourseware - Free lecture notes, exams, and videos from almost all the undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT.
- Webcast.Berkeley - Free podcasts and webcasts of University of California Berkeley current and archived courses.
- Harvard@Home - Selected lectures and videos.
- OpenYale - Access to a selection of introductory courses.
- Indian Institutes of Technology - YouTube videos from courses in Engineering.
Collections
- AcademicEarth - More lectures from various universities.
- YouTube EDU - Includes a variety of content from universities including UCLA, Case Western, and Oklahoma State.
- iTunes U - Includes audio/video from universities from around the world, National Public Radio stations, and famous museums. Many of the more popular ones are language courses.
Open Culture.com is a blog about free educational and cultural materials on the web. Here are some highlights (some posts are older):
-
-
About
We aim to bring great info on saving money, budgeting, and managing your personal finances.
-
Blogroll
- Bad Credit Advisor
- Consumerist
- Debt Advice
- Debt Diet
- My Money Blog - Personal Finance and Investing Blog
- PFBlog.com: The Unique Personal Finance Blog Since 2003 - Daily personal finance observation, musing and decisions in a journey toward financial independence by 36 with at least a million dollars.
- Saving Without A Budget - Saving Lots of Money Is Easy. I’ll Show You How.
- SavingAdvice.com Blog - Bridging the gap between saving money and investing
- Your Money
Get an Equifax 3-in-1 Credit Report Now!
Get up to $1500 NOW!