Pointless Goverment Agency Of The Month:

October 30, 2009

Uspslogo

           The United States Post Office has been around for more then two hundred years, and I am sure it has served us well the past. I am not writing this to complain about the price of stamps or to bad mouth the postal service. I just don’t think the government should be in the business of providing such a service.

            The reason that the USPS is still around is because it is illegal for any other business to compete with them. You read correctly the USPS is alive and somewhat well today because of the government sponsored monopoly that they hold on first class mail. Those business class envelopes that you get your bills in every month by law can only be delivered by the USPS.

180px-Envelope_-_Boonville_Address-000 

            Recently I went to the USPS to mail a book and waited 15 minutes in line. I expected this and was not thoroughly annoyed at the process. The lady at the front was nice, and courteous. The problem was that for some reason the post office closes at 5, and everyone was trying to get their mail in before it closed.

            A week later I had to mail something via Federal Express. I walked in, handed the lady my item, which she promptly dropped in an envelope and mailed. I was out the door in under a minute.  

            Now this could have been a coincidence, or I was just in a really good Fed Ex store on a really good day, but I doubt it.  Let us take a look at a little big of the financial history of the USPS, and ask yourself, would you buy stock in this company? This is the only company in the United States that is legally allowed to hold a Monopoly

usps

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           You might be saying that I am full it, and that the USPS is a wonderful organization employing hundreds of thousands of Americans. But let me ask you a question, do you enjoy going to the post office? How about the BMV? Perhaps taking a trip to the Social Security Office to brighten your day? Do you look forward to making visits to those places with all the smiling grouchy people? Or would you rather have your fingernails ripped off?

            My argument can be summed up in this: Government organizations are traditionally much worse at accomplishing their goals then their private counter parts. Most of the time the only reason we have such organizations is because privatizing the industry would just not make practical sense.

            We should remove the “Legal Monopoly” that the USPS enjoys and divest the federal government of delivering first class mail. Or simply allow the USPS to try to compete with Fed Ex and UPS. For some reason if we allowed that to happen I don’t think the USPS would be around very long at all……

1 Comment | Ramblings | Permalink
Posted by fubar1383

Smells like……..Victory

October 16, 2009

 

 

 

I win! IT’S ALL OVER, JonBon Wins!!

 

 

Vj_day_kiss

So if you’re an avid reader, you would know of my troubles with my Chase Credit card.  But you’re not an avid readers of JonBons Money, because I am pretty sure I have none.

 

My troubles can be found here:

 

Chase is Bush League

Chase is Bush League Part Duex

 

 

Now to summarize: I opened a Chase credit card for one year of 0% interest so I could buy an engagement ring for my soon to be wife. This craziness all started with me trying to make an online bill payment and getting my bank account number wrong as I was typing it in. Yes that was clearly my fault, but I felt it was unreasonable to charge $39 for making a simple type-o on Chase’s own website.

 

There has been extensive contact between Chase and myself, and frankly I am not even sure how many, how often, or even what was said. But it went something like this.

 

Email, Email, Email, Phone Call, Email, Phone Call, Dispute Letter, Better Business Bureau, Letter, Phone Call

 

As of today I saw this on my online account.

 

Trans Date  Post Date   Type          Description                                             Amount

06/22/2009 10/15/2009 Refund   RETURNED CHECK FEE REVERS(Other)  $-39.00

 

 

Needless to say I probably spent many hours of my time over 4 months trying to get this charge reversed, this is time that probably could have been spent more productively doing other things.

 

To me it was not about the money, or the time. I felt like I had been wronged by Chase, and I was not willing to sit around and let that be.

 

I have a feeling the complaint with the Better Business Bureau had the required weight to make this matter fall in my favor. So I am actually happy with Chase now, although we will see if I decide to keep the card open after I pay off the ring. I at least went from “Definitely closing” To “Maybe keeping”

 

Anyways, Thanks BBB!!!

 

Cheers…..

1 Comment | Credit | Permalink
Posted by fubar1383

It’s All Over!

September 29, 2009

           You can stop freaking out now; your home is no longer losing value. Or at least that is what the latest data form Case-Shiller says. It shows three consecutive months of price increases, now the crazy markets like Florida, Vegas, and parts of Cali might have a little ways to go, but real estate AS A WHOLE is going back up.

 case shiller

           

            It can be seen in this graph that indeed all real estate is local. A house that was purchased in Cleveland during the peak would still be worth about what you paid. Verses a market like Las Vegas where you home might be worth 70% or even half as much as you paid in 2005.

 

            Now the question is will this trend continue, or do we still have a ways to go. The government is keeping mortgages rates artificially low as well as paying people like myself $8,000 to buy a house. They are hoping things will pick back up so that these costly temporary measures can be phased out.

 

            My thought is if you can swing the mortgage payments, and are planning on staying several years I don’t think you will ever find a better price with a better rate. “Timing” the market is always a crap shoot at best, but buying now clearly is a much better idea then buying 3 years ago!

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Posted by fubar1383

Does Anyone Else See This As A Problem?

September 18, 2009

 

 

debt

This is a chart representing the amount of debt that the Federal Government of the United States of America is responsible for. This number just under 13 Trillion dollars! To most people trillion is not a word that we say very often, it even sounds a little made up. “I am so hungry I could eat a trillion hotdogs!”  see this is funny stuff.

 

To break it down a little bit more this debt is held by the U.S. Government and therefore by the taxpayers of the Untied States. So if we do that math of 13 Trillion divided by 300 million or so Americans, your share comes out to be around $43,000!

 

What would you do with $40,000 in debt? That is a serious chunk of change. I probably would be on a diet of Ramen noodles and Water for the next 10 years or so. This enormous debt held by the federal government is starting to worry me.

 

Inflation

 

Does anyone realize what (serious) inflation can do? It can wipe out 30 years of hard earned savings in a year or less. To me it would feel like someone robbed my bank and took all my money. Say you have $40,000 in the bank but the government starts printing money to fulfill its debt obligations. All that is going to happen is cause dollars to be worth less and less. Maybe in one year your 40,000 could only buy what 20,000 could a year ago. Then the year after that 10,000, then maybe only 5,000;

 

So after a while all the cash you had is pretty much worthless and the government introduces a new type of dollar bill:

 

 inflation

 (This is a real note, and the direct result of what happens when governments print money)

Inflation on this scale is a scary and very real possibility. I worry that our government (democrat and republican) is unwilling to stop its spending binge, and some painful inflation is all but inevitable. I would encourage everyone to hedge against inflation. The best way to do this is to buy “hard” assets such as gold and oil, foreign currencies like pounds, yen, or Euros even stocks and real-estate offer some protection against inflation.

1 Comment | Liabilities, Ramblings | Permalink
Posted by fubar1383

Chase is Bush League Part Duex

September 11, 2009

So I have been having a disagreement with Chase that can be found Here

 chase

I have been emailing them and calling them and it is getting to the point where it might not be worth it to fight them a whole lot more over $39 bucks. But I figured with my current success with negotiating with my plumber I figured I would give it a try.

 

They only will accept disputes via snail mail or fax.  So here is my letter.

Subject: Disputed Returned Payment Fee

 

To Whom It May Concern:

 

As stated above I would like to dispute the $39 fee added to my account on June 22nd 2009 due to a returned payment.

 

The reason I am disputing this fee is because I do not believe that it is a fair charge. I simply made an error while entering my banking information on the Chase’s website. I feel that this is a very easy mistake to make, and I should not be penalized for trying to make payments online that are easier for me to send and you to receive.

 

Please remove this charge from my account, if you do not I see no reason for me to continue to do business with Chase Bank.

 

Thank you

 

-Jon Bon

 

We will have to wait and see what happens. I am pretty positive that after I pay off this 0% credit card that I will cease all business with Chase. If they choose to treat me poorly I am free not to give them my business.

2 Comments | Banking, Credit, Liabilities | Permalink
Posted by fubar1383

How To Make $720 An Hour

September 11, 2009

 I have been having some professionals come in and do some work on my house. More specifically I have been working to add a bathroom in my basement. My house only has one, and I have ample space to add one in the basement. So I figured it would be a decent investment and a whole lot more convenient to have 2 full bathrooms.

 

So I had the plumber come in to do the waste plumbing, I was very happy with their work, and I felt the price was fair. I then had them come back a second time to do the supply plumbing, again I was happy with the quality of work, but price did not seam as fair this time.

 pipes

My question was about the cost of the labor, which was approaching $500 for less then 3 hours of work. Backing up a little I had the plumbers come out on two consecutive days, the first day the came and simply told me that I needed to do a little more framing and then left to do service calls. The returned the second day spent 2.5 hours working and got the job done.

 

So I called.

 

Turns out they were charging me $120 for the 10 minutes that the guys were there, and did not do any work. I asked if she could remove the charge and she happily did. So I paid her on the spot for the services.

 

So I saved $120 on a 10 minute phone call. Which equal out to $120/10/60 = $720 an hour. Man am I glad I just did not cut them a check right then and there!

 

Moral of the story, don’t be afraid to call and ask! They worst they can say is no.

 

Maybe I should take my own advice when it comes to my Disagreement With Chase

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Posted by fubar1383

Tunneling Out Of Shawshank

August 14, 2009

          This is a great movie based on the novel by Steven King if you have ever seen the movie you know what I mean, if you haven’t; well this is how it goes.

 

          Andy, a wrongly convicted man goes to jail in the 1940’s and gets to experience all the wonderful things about prison. He eventually ends up running a scam for the warden, and then escaping thought the use of his rock hammer. His rock ‘hammer’ probably would fit in the palm of your hand, and it takes him 20 years to tunnel thru his wall to freedom. The way he did it was slowly and meticulously. There are very few things that I have be doing for 20 years other then eating and sleeping. I can not imagine being focused on something that intensely for that long.

 

          Tunneling out of Shawshank is of course my metaphor for paying off my newly acquired mortgage. I owe somewhere in-between 100-200k on my house. This in itself is not remarkable at all, actually it’s probably very low compared to a lot of people. Why this is a big deal to me is the way that I am paying it off.

 

          I got an excellent mortgage rate (less then 5.5%) and a relatively affordable house. So guess how much I pay down on that mortgage per month?

 shawshank

 

Around $150.

 

          No I did not forget a zero, or move a decimal. I pay the same for my house per month that I do for my cable TV! The reason for this has to do with the way mortgages work. If you don’t know I highly suggest you look it up. But the short version goes like this:

 

          Early in the life of the loan the payments are 80% interest 20% principal. As you pay down the principal the interested earned by the bank per month becomes lower so after a year maybe your 79/21, after two year your 77/23, after three years 74/26. You notice how the amount paid to interests is lower every year 80, 79, 77. 74? That is the “power of compounding” you can see this power demonstrated dramatically in putting extra towards your payment. If you had a 30 year 150k mortgage at 7% simply paying $100 extra per payment pay your house of seven YEARS earlier.

 

The math on that is

 

23 years of paying $100 extra: $27000

 

Saves you 7 years of mortgage payments: $75000

 

After my first year I am going to pay more on my mortgage, and try to tunnel out of Shawshank just a little faster…

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Posted by fubar1383

Pay Day Lending: Brought to you by Fifth Third

July 13, 2009

 

            I clicked on this link thinking that it might be something worthwhile its called “Early Access” I thought it might be cool, maybe it will update my banking info faster!

 

 I was wrong…..

 

Fifth Third Early Access allows you to request an advance on your next direct deposit.
     
Fifth Third Early Access Key Features:    
     
  • Real-time transaction where you can transfer cash into your associated checking account.
  • Automatic payoff of each outstanding Advance balance and associated finance charge. Payments will be automatically deducted from your associated checking account on your next qualifying direct deposit of $100 or more. If there is an outstanding balance on the 35th day after each Advance, we will automatically pay off the outstanding Advance balance from the associated checking account.
  • Associated finance charge with advance is 10% ($1 for every $10 borrowed) each time you make an advance, which equates to an 120% Annual Percentage Rate (APR).
  • Advances can be made in dollar increments up to your maximum credit limit. If your associated checking account is negative, an advance must bring your checking account to a positive status before you can access your full credit limit.
    
     
Wow those are lousy terms! 10% on every transition?!  This add claims that its only 120% APR. which might be true if you only got paid once a month. But most of us would need it in-between our weekly or twice monthly paychecks. So lets say you need this service 1 week before you get paid. So borrow some money from 5/3 and then 4 days later pay it back with your direct deposited paycheck. Lets do some math here. 10% interest *365/4 = 912.5% APR!! I wonder what the SEC will have to say about this. I think there is another financial tool you can use when your low on cash, oh yeah they are called credit cards!! Hey I can’t blame them for trying….. …

 

*Ohio recently passed a law limited Pay Day lenders to a MAX of 28%

    

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Posted by fubar1383

Chase is Bush League

July 9, 2009

So I am pissed off at Chase, we are having a bit of a disagreement.  

  Here is my message to Chase:  

 

I was setting up direct deposit to make my credit card payment and I omitted a digit. I corrected the situation right away and sent you the money again with the correct banking information. Please remove the fee due to a simple typo.

 Thank you

 -JonBon

 

Chase Response:

 Dear Jon,

 

My name is Diana, we understand your concerns regarding the return check fee on your account.

 A returned check fee is charged whenever your bank does not honor the check that you gave us to pay on your account. This can occur for a number of reasons. Please contact your bank for details regarding your check.

 This fee was assessed to your account because your payment was returned to us unpaid by your financial institution. It is a valid fee and will remain on your account.

 Thank you,

Diana

 

JonBon’s Rebuttal:

 Diana

Like I said before I made a typo and entered the wrong number for my account number or routing number. Of course the payment was not honored by the bank, it was not my account. I was attempting to make payments electronically which I am sure for Chase is less expensive then processing a paper check every month. I realize that it is a valid charge, but I think it is unreasonable to charge $39 for a typeo. Please remove the charge.

-JonBon

 

Chase Response:

 Dear Jon,

 Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to assist you today, regarding the returned payment fee.

 We previously reviewed your account and explained why we could not make the adjustment you requested. Even though you have informed us that this was a typo, the typo was not a bank error. We regret that we are unable to take further action regarding the returned payment fee reflected on your current activity.

 At this point I realize they are not going to be nice, and that I am going to have to be a little more forceful.

 

So I contacted the BBB, BRING IT ON CHASE!

 

Mrs. Newton

 I am sorry to hear that you are unwilling to fulfill my request to refund the unreasonable charges. You have left me no choice but to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. The complaint number is 83**** and has been filed to the BBB of Metropolitan New York.

 Thank you for your time.

 Respectfully

 

-JonBon

 

More to come kids!!

4 Comments | Credit, Liabilities | Permalink
Posted by fubar1383

Five Pointless Cars

June 26, 2009

          Here are the five cars that I find most useless and overpriced. Now I am sure they have their fans, and in some situations are pretty handy to have around, but in my everyday experiences I think for most people to own one is a waste of money.

 

5. Hummer

MPG:13/16 Price: $50,000 Passengers: A bakers dozen

 

            Too big! I like the idea, and the styling but it is just not utilized by 99% of people out there. Like most of the cars on this list it’s a “statement” vehicle. You want people to look at you and know you’re big, bad, and powerful. Plus it goes with your extensive collection of UFC graphic T’s.

 

4. Smart!

MPG: 33/41 Price: $15,000 Passengers: 1.5?

 smart

            Too Small! How is this car practical for anything? I would rather buy a scooter for 1/4 the price with probably better acceleration. Not to mention that I have heard horrible things about its actual fuel economy, transmission, and ability to merge into the interstate. The smart boast the slowest 0-60 MPH time of any car in production today.

 

 

3. Tesla Roadsters

MPG: Unlimited Price: $100,000 Passengers:2

 tesla

            This car is pretty slick; it is essentially a super car in the electric version. The problem is that it has no trunk and no range. Sure it’s fast, but other then taking it out on Saturday nights it has no functionality. I mean they get points for trying something new, but the only people that want to buy it seam to be the activist Hollywood types. This car gets bonus points on this list because the founders have made a habit of lobbing lawsuits at each other.

 

 

2. Cadillac Escalade Hybrid

 MPG 20/21 Price $70,000 Passengers: 8

 

            It’s like putting lipstick on a pig…. I don’t even know why they made the hybrid version of this. The original Escalade is pretty expensive, but very nice and a lot of people like that even if it is just a “smaller” nicer hummer. Spending another 10k for  a measly 5 MPG improvement is pretty pointless.

 

 

1. Jeep Wrangler

 MPG 15/19 Price $22.000 Passengers: 3

 jeep

            “It’s a jeep thing, you wouldn’t understand” Understand what? Your horrible gas mileage in your tiny car that is good for rolling over and does not have a real roof!? I guess then maybe I don’t. Yes jeeps are great for off-roading. As we have learned from the 100 million SUV’s on the road with four wheel drive no one goes off-roading! So basically your buying a car whose primary purpose is to drive on unpaved roads, and yet you will spend 99% of your time on paved roads where your car is out of its element. But oh yeah you drive a Jeep, so you get to wave at other jeeps as the drive by, lucky you….

1 Comment | Cars | Permalink
Posted by fubar1383

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