The Sun's Financial Diary

I am usually not a big fan of credit cards with annual fee, but I do own three cards that carry membership fees. One of them is Citi ThankYou Premier Card which I got through the replacement of my old PremierPass card a few years ago.  Since I didn’t pay membership fee for the PremierPass card [...]

I didn’t write anything about Ally Bank for some time because I haven’t actively used the bank for about two year. But in March this year, I returned to Ally and have stayed since as a happy customer. I left Ally for Sallie Mae in 2010 shortly after Sallie Mae Savings Account was launched because [...]

As a credit cards user, I got my first ever credit card with an annual fee, the Citi AAdvantage Card that I mentioned early that I wanted to get, only recently. The reason that I got the fee based card is the 75K bonus miles it offers and the rewards miles I can earn with [...]

When I came to the U.S. for my graduate study in the late 1990′s, I brought with me two pieces of luggage plus about $150 cash in my pocket. Those were all I had at that time. Because I had an assistantship from the school, I thought I could get paid right after registration, so I [...]

If you’ve ever gone searching around the internet for quotes on life insurance or recommendations for which type of life insurance you should buy, the answer that almost always comes back is that term life insurance is a better choice than whole life insurance. As a refresher, term life insurance carries a stated death benefit [...]

Do you own a Citi Platinum Select/AAdvantage Visa Signature Card? I got this card in March 2011 when there was bigger promotion of 50,000 bonus miles (now as a new cardholder, you can still receive 30,000 miles). But immediately after I got the bonus miles which required me to spend $1,000 in the first three [...]

Think you have to brave the busy streets, crowded aisles and push around a heavy cart to snag the “latest and greatest” at the best price? Think again! With a computer, online access and an adventurous spirit, you can have your comfort and your savings, too. Not to mention, you’ll gain time and lengthen the [...]

When I wrote about the promotional offer from USAA brokerage last week, I also mentioned in the post a few other products from USAA, one of them being the no-fee checking account, which is the favorite of many USAA customers. So what exactly makes it special? We have discussed quite a few times in the past [...]