The Sun's Financial Diary

I am a credit card person. Wherever possible, I use credit cards to pay for my purchases. To me, credit cards are my friend, not foe. The reasons for me to favor credit cards over debit cards or cash are twofold:

I know exactly where my money went,
I can get cash back for the money I [...]

As crude oil went over $110 a barrel, gasoline prices are also surging. According to GasBuddy.com, (BTW, a good site to find the cheapest gas in your area) the national average price of regular gas is $3.257 per gallon. Though New Jersey has the lowest gas prices in the nation, filling up our cars every [...]

Early last week, I contacted Citibank to request a balance transfer check from the 0% balance transfer offer from the Citi Driver’s Edge card. I want to use the free money (yes, free. 0% APR and $0 fee) to payoff our car loan which is at 4.90% APR and will expire in May 2010.
The check [...]

I usually don’t read too much the Costco Connection magazine I received every month as part of the benefit of being an Executive Member, because more than half of the magazine are ads while the rest are articles about stuff Costco offers . But a piece in the February issue did get my attention last [...]

The Federal Reserve just cut interest rate again and banks will soon, if not already, follow suit to lower their savings accounts’ rates. And according to some experts, such as PIMCO’s Bill Gross, the current rate reduction cycle is far from over, which means interest rates from banks are heading no where but south in [...]

Chase Freedom card is now offering a $100 after opening a new card and making the first purchase.
I applied for this card in March was the bonus was $200 and my account was credited $200 less than 2 months after I used the card to make a small purchase. I was a little skeptical initially [...]

I am a credit card person. If possible, I will use credit cards to pay everything so I earn rewards for the money that I have to spend anyway.
Half a year ago, American Express announced that it will let members make mortgage payments with AMEX cards. The news generated quite some buzz as it marked [...]

from November 1 to December 31, 2007 at participating locations.
Discover Card is now having a Holiday Mall promotion at 160 participating shopping centers across the country. The promotion will offer a $20 gift card for every $200 spent on Discover cards till the end of the year. The maximum number of gift cards one can [...]

The November issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine published their annual Best List which covered a range of products, from investments, to financial service, to travel and leisure. I don’t necessarily agree with their selections of best stocks, best mutual funds, or best credit cards, but it does give me some new information that I [...]

If it wasn’t an article on USA Today yesterday, I probably won’t even know there’s a new kind of credit card on the market on September 24, 2007.
RevolutionCard is the name. However, after going through what the new card offers, I found that it’s basically a PIN-based credit card that doesn’t emboss account number and [...]