AskDong

Recently, I was very excited to see credited to my Chase Credit Card account $200 in Freedom Award Dollars worth a $250 check. I’m not sure why they have a hokey system where X real dollars translates into Y Freedom Dollars which translate into a Z Cash reward.  In any case, I was quite concerned that Chase was going to deem me ineligible for the award (given for a new sign up and first purchase) since I had another Chase card already.  I’m glad my worries proved unfounded, and much props to Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity for alerting the world to the promotion.  Chase apparently has run this promotion periodically but it’s currently dead.

I have to admit this was one the easiest sign up bonuses that I’ve ever earned.  Credit card applications are a snap, the card was delivered quickly and the reward posted in a little over month after the first purchase.  Yes I imagine I took a bit of hit on my credit score, but given that I’m not looking actively to take out any loans my score should recuperate by the time I do.  So this got me to thinking about other sign up bonuses in general. Have they been worth it?

The following are all accounts I signed up for the bonus, and on the most part it’s been worth the trouble.

• Chase Freedom - $250
• Orbitz MasterCard – $100 (effectively)
• ING Savings - $25
• E*trade Bank - $150

I’m sure there are others that I can’t remember, and others that I’ve ignored.  However these are the ones I’ve been happiest with.

I judge a signup bonus on the following criteria:

1. Was I looking for this Service?
2. Is it easy to qualify for?
3. Is it worth a good dollar amount?
4. Will it be quickly delivered?
5. Does it cost anything (financial or otherwise)?
6. Is it easy to cancel?

For that reason the Chase Sign Up bonus has one of the best rewards I’ve ever received.  I was looking for a new rewards card.  I was using an Orbitz Mastercard as my primary rewards card, but since they decreased the payout ratio, I’ve been passively looking for a replacement.

Banks, and credit cards are the institutions most likely to run sign-up promotions.  I tend to favor the credit card promotions over bank account promotions.  Why? Bank accounts just seem much harder to close, and more likely to incur fees (minimum account balance) than credit cards, at least for me.  I’ve often felt like I had to jump though hoops to get a bank account closed.  Also Banks will also  sometimes stipulate to  get the reward that the account have direct deposit.  I find switching direct deposit painful as it’s not a function of just me but my company as well.

I’ll keep my eyes out for other bonuses, but I don’t think I’ll find the same pot of easy money as I did with Chase anytime soon.

Staying on St. John can be very expensive. There are only two hotels/resorts on the island, Caneel Bay and the Westin. The lack of resorts is also what gives St. John its charm. The island is not developed, and has preserved on the most part its natural beauty. One of the better ways to get back to nature is a stay at the Maho Bay camps above the beaches of Maho Bay. I stayed 4 nights at Maho during my vacation, and was generally pleased with both my “Eco-Tent”, and the overall facility.

The Maho Bay camp was established in the 1970’s by Stanley Senegult, a pioneer of Eco-tourism, on privately “owned in holding” land within the U.S. Virgin Island national Park. The land is currently leased through 2012, and there is much speculation that the lease will not be renewed. Stanley Senegult has also established a sister site on the other side island called Estate Concordia. Personally I’m not sure what to make of Stanely. Is he an environmentalist or businessman? He says’s businessman first. Of course he could easily be both. The only thing that sort of bothers me is that Maho Bay tries to hide behind the veneer of being some kind of non-profit do good organization, hence the maho.org web address. Hopefully my questions regarding the nature of the organization hasn’t affected my review of the camp.

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Mrs B. Asks

Hi Dong! WOW this website is off the hook. Quick question: I’m renting my apt and I need to get his credit report. How do I do this? When I go on websites, they assume I’m requesting a credit report for myself. Hope you’re enjoying the sun down there!

When renting out an apartment, I think it’s critical to run a credit screen on your potential tenants. A good tenant who pays in full and on time is worth his or her weight in gold. In some regards, I feel asking for the information needed for a credit screen more useful than the credit screen itself. How a potential tenant reacts is a more useful indicator than the actual credit information. In addition to the credit screen, I would also suggest giving the prospective tenant a relatively simple questionnaire to fill out.  Job information, previous residencies, party habits, pets, smoking, etc.  In addition, I would also ask for at least one reference from a previous landlord.

Now back to the original question. There are a number of companies that will run credit checks for tenancy purposes.

I’ve used CitiCredit, but there’s also:

• YouCheckCredit
• eRenter
• Intelius

These are but a few of the on-line companies that will perform a credit check on a tenant. I’ve only used CitiCredit, so I can’t really comment on the others. They should all charge in the same range, about $10 for each report. I’ve been pleased with CitiCredit. I found the report they issued to be thorough and complete. Before doing a credit screen, you’ll need to obtain his/her social security number from your prospective tenant - another reason to give a questionnaire.

I’m back from a well deserved (or at least I like to believe) vacation. Even though the vacation went almost as well as could be expected, I definitely came away with some insights that could’ve easily chopped as much as 1/5 of the total cost. I had never been to the U.S. Virgin Islands, and because of that lack of experience I made more than a few rookie mistakes.

As measured in overnight stays, I was gone for a total of 9 nights. I could’ve easily reduced this to 7 nights without losing anything in terms of experience.  I needlessly bookended my vacation on St. John with two nights on St. Thomas. I did this for two reasons.

1. I thought I would want to spend time on St. Thomas - I didn’t
2. I thought traveling to and from St. John and St. Thomas would be more difficult - It wasn’t.

However beyond just the two extra nights, I didn’t do a very good job of researching and making plans.  I made one huge blunder of booking a $125 windsurfing lesson at Cinnamon Bay when I could’ve had a lesson at Caneel for $25. This was my fault because I didn’t realize all the watersports equipment at Caneel would be free.  While true that some watersports are always free to play, I had assumed that there would be a fee for something like a Windsurfing board.  Never assume anything.

Experience is often the key to being financially savvy.  Vacations however are often engaged for the sake of new experiences.  You can’t bring experience to something that is a completely new experience.  For example I rented a car for the entire week I was in St. John.  In hindsight, I only really needed or wanted to have a car for 3 days.  However, I wouldn’t really have known that I only needed a car for 3 days if I hadn’t actually had the car for the entire week.  I had to use the car for 5 days to know that I wanted only 3 days. Experience is the catch-22 of life.  Clearly here is where the saying, “the truly wise man learns from other people’s mistake” applies. I should’ve done more research even though I went on Vacation thinking that I had.  This lack of research is partially my own fault, I’m not a planner. I don’t want any vacation completely planned out.  Yes, I want to know where I’ll be sleeping, but that’s about it.  Having too much of plan  takes the fun out of vacationing for me.  At the same time I should’ve been more prepared.  My lack of preparation was evident in not asking enough questions before I left, and therefore not knowing all my options.

In the next couple weeks I will have follow-up posts reviewing much of my vacation. St. John is a wonderful island that is eminently enjoyable on a limited budget even though it can be one of the most expensive island destinations out there in terms of lodging and food.

I was reading last week on Beyond Consumer about yet another airline fee, I started thinking about what it takes to get the cheapest fare.

There are the standard rules for booking a flight.

• Book earlier rather than later, at least 2 weeks in advance
• Saturday night stay (though I’m finding this to be less and less of a factor)

I don’t hunt for days for the best airfare. It takes too much time to get absolutely the best price, but I do have two general rules I try to abide by.

1. I generally have a rule of thumb that if I can get direct flight for under $300 for travel that’s 4 hours or more, it’s a good deal
2. Always check with a travel agent/consolidator to get better fares for international travel for travel that is planned well in advance.

I’ve also started using FareCast to get estimate if I’m getting a fair price at the time. To me it’s like the Zillow of airfares. Having used farecast a bit, I realize how important knowing a route is. For example I have a friend who flies to Cincinnati more often than the average joe, and if it weren’t for him I wouldn’t know snagging a $300 flight is a good deal. Delta apparently dominates the airport. That’s the hardest problem with pricing a flight – knowing what is a good deal and what’s not. Airfares most often don’t make intuitive sense. Distance by itself is not a good measure.

I think probably the most important thing when it comes to booking travel is to understand your nature and the nature of the trip. Why are you traveling? How much do you value your time? Are your dates more flexible than you think?