Chase is a good bank and they have decent checking account if you direct deposit your pay checks but I for sum reason have not manged to get the best deals with them and my experience over time has worsened.

Chase Bad experience 1:

There was a promotion $125 floating around  for new checking account customers when I joined but I did not have the coupon with me, I walked in to the bank with one of my friends referrals to make use of it, the banker told me that unless the coupon was mailed to me specifically I cannot use.  I took the banker for his word and only to find at a later day that the banker lied and if I had persisted I could have got that coupon to be used for me. The problem was I need a checking account as I did not have any and wanted to add one in my company for my direct deposit.

Money lost : $125

Chase Bad experience 2:

The banker fooled me in to registering for a new credit card in the name of over draft protection. A credit card application is worth at least a $100 bonus or equivalent for me.

Money lost : $100

Chase Bad experience 3:

I received 2  Bonus tickets to US Opens for moving X amount of money to my savings account with them…! Now before you think how can that be bad, The tickets were priced at $40 each and were reported as  interest on my I 1099. Now I should have been aware of this but the banker did not disclose it.

Money lost : $20

Chase Bad experience 4:

When I moved some money to my chase account the banker upgraded me to a Premium customer which had some benefits but did not disclose any minimum balance requirement. Later when I moved the money the balance fell below the limit and I was fined $25 each time

for two months when I caught this in the bank statement I was furious. I asked them to reverse the fee whihc the rep did not do on the phone, so I had to Visit my bank, the banker only reversed one fee.

Money lost : $25

Chase Bad experience 5:

I before I was given the additional Credit Card by the banker, I already had a CC from Chase, but the terms were not so favorable, so I hardly used it.  I got a male from chase promoting a 0% APR balance transfer for 6 months. I did read the fine print but probably not carefully enough. The fine print was worded as follows. “No balance transfer fee“  (in bold) many other terms and then “Transaction fee may apply as specified in your card member agreement”.  For some reason I did not understand the full extent of that clause and ended up using the balance transfer with the intention of making some interest on my credit line. In the next month report I saw a $75 fee as transaction fee…! On top of it, there was a 13% interest on the transaction fee (which would not be much, but still) and any money I pay would first apply to my lower APR balance. This was the first time I understood the traps Credit cards issuers put in a Card memeber agreement.

Money lost : ~$80

So my Chase experience has cost me $350 till date. No wonder banks make so much money in fees. How much has your bank cost you lately.

PS: I have moved all my balance from Chase and am in the process of closing my accounts with them.

There are many resources like book, websites, courses, newsletters, etc on personal finance that teach you the methods of success in personal finance. These methods may be good and also practical but they may not necessarily be the best for you. You will always have to tweak them to suit your personal situation. No wonder it is called ‘Personal’ Finance and not ‘Generic’ Finance.

Principles are few; Methods are many.

The art is to master the principles and then apply them to your own situation and make your own methods. An opportunity lasts only for a while before it is public knowledge. Once it is known by all, it will quickly vanish; this makes it even more essential that you are always trained in principles not methods.
Here are the simple principles of personal finance:

1.Spend less than what you earn or earn more than what you spend
2.Make your money work hard for you.
3.Prepare for the unexpected
4.Take control of your money, career and destiny.

In some following articles I will walk through how you can apply these simple principles of successful personal finance to your methods.

I have been thinking about this for quite some time and have not come to a conclusion but I would like to share the though process.

Why Disclose:

I can gain the trust of my readers by showing them what I preach is what I follow.

This is very important to me. I want my readers to know what I will talk about is practical and can be followed and in fact I am doing it.

I can get valuable comments from readers which are more tailored to my current financial standings.
Everyone of you have something to contribute about personal finance, the source of knowledge may stem from your personal experiences , ideas or education and we can engage in a constructive discussion which will be mutually beneficial

In the examples I use, I can use my personal finance profile.
I will be more focused ‘on doing it right’ to hold face in front of my readers.

Why not disclose:

Everyone will know how much money I have..!

There is certain amount of comfort that goes with people not knowing exactly how much one you have. It is purely psychological but it exists.

I may have to discuss it with my friends.
Previously I had always dreaded a discussion on how much money one has and I may get a lot of questions and surprises.

My family members may not be cool about it.

Simple, from where I come, you do not carry a badge with how much your net worth is printed on it. This will make my family members uncomfortable.

It is very complex.
Being an immigrant, my personal finance is very complicated, my assets and liabilities are spread across two countries, two currencies.
People may evaluate my decisions purely against the money I have.
I may lose some negotiation power.

With people who know my personal finance standing and may have their own assumptions of what I can afford and I cannot afford.
Well the thought process is still going on, and I will update when I do make up my mind. Let me know what you think in the comments.

Who does not like to score a deal on purchases, whether you want to buy a digital camera, laptops, watches or a diamond ring these websites will help you get the best deals.

Caution: Deal hunting can be addictive, time consuming and pay completely avoid you from paying retail any time.

1. Slick Deals

An active community of users are always on the look our for the best deals. There are some frugal masters here who will actually come with ways to make money by buying stuff. Who can beat that.

Pros: Very active community. Great front page listing of the best deals of the day.

Cons: No cash back incentives.

2. FatWallet

A close competitor is Fat Wallet, the deals you may find on SlickDeals  and FatWallet  are generally similar but the later offers some neat cash back incentives.

Pros: Cash Back, better look and feel to the site.

Cons: Comparatively less active community.

3. Woot

One Deal, One Day..! The caption says it all, Woot.com has attractive prices on electronic items. The deals run for 24 hours or until sold out, whichever is first. They have sub dmains where the sell T-shirst (generally for $10) and wine too..! The sucess of the site has inspired many immitators to follow this model, including big names like Ebay and Amazon.

Pros: Good deals.

Cons: Majority items are refurbished. Best deals will not last lon.

4. Chrono Shark and Diamond Shark

Chrono Shark has some of the best deals on Men’s watches on the internet while Diamond Shark has some of the best jewelery (including watches) deals for women. Their format is similar to Woot.com, they too have a deal active for nearly.

Pros: Great deals. Low shipping costs.

Cons: Many repeats, at times the selection is not good.

Did I miss out on your favorites? Let me know in the comments.

I have a Comcast high speed internet connection and I am pretty satisfied with the service. The cost for it was  $33.99 (with taxes and rental for the modem~ $37) for 1 yare which ended in Jan 2009 and my internet cost shot up to $ 42.99 (with other fees it was ~ 47/month). I had a 6Mbps download speed plan with Comcast which was good as I download and watch a lot of streaming content but the increase in fee was hurting,  so I decided I will call them and try to get it down.

Attempt 1: Fail

In Jan 09, in less than 2 minutes the representative got me convinced that they could not lower my rate and the only way to lower my rate was to accept a much lower download speed ~ 1Mbps , which was for about ~29/month.

Attempt 2: Fail

In April 09, frustrated by the higher rate I was paying, I thought of giving this another shot. I got Windy on the line, who was not at all helpful and not at all aware of the plans Comcast had. I asked her for a discount/promotion/etc., she did not offer me any and also said that I could not downgrade my plan…! I just thanked her and was off in less than 3 minutes. I did not want to talk to someone s o unaware.

Attempt 3: Yippee….

On the same day, 5 minutes later I decided to give this a final shot,  I  had reached Windy by selecting the option of Cancel Service, I did not want my call to get routed to her again, so I selected the option of billing inquiry, hoping to get someone else, and I did, now I straight away told them I wanted to downgrade my service as I could not pay the high rate I am currently paying. This is how it went.

Rep: Sir, let me see how I can help you. Can you provide me with the telephone number associated with you account or your account number.

Me: (why would I know my Comcast account number, Gave my telephone number).

Rep: I see your monthly rate is 42.99/month but that is the best rate we are offering unless you are a new customer.

Me: I know, can you downgrade my account to a lower speed.

Rep: We have a promotional offer on 1Mbps for 6 months with a rate of 24.99/month. After that the rate goes to 33.99/month

Me: Oh, the speed sounds too low. Do you have some other plans?

Rep: Let me see Sir (goes away for 1 minute).

Rep: Sorry for the long hold. I can offer you 34.99/month for 6 months on your existing plan, if you would like to continue with the same plan.

Me: (Hell ya..! I want 6Mbps download speed, partly excited not trying to show) That does not save me a lot per month.

Rep: (Works out all the calculations, says)  For only 10 dollars a month more  (as compared to 1Mbps plan) you get 6 times the speed and you get nearly 20% off of your current rate. (I got an intelligent one..!)

Me: (With no more will to negotiate). Ok I guess I will take the offer of 34.99/month.

Closing comment:

Well I did not save a lot but ~ $7/month for 6 months (so ~ $42) that was a well worth conversation.

Did you ever try to negotiate your plan with your service provider? If not, then now is the time.  Let me know in the comments about your experience.

Welcome to eMoneyLog, A personal finance blog.