flea, Citibank VISA has always been my highest customer satisfaction credit card, though it's not particularly advantageous money-wise. They seem to have the philosophy that it's their job to solve customers' problems rather than cause them. (This is the bank that alerted me to the carnie that was using my card # for long distance phone calls, and they took care of everything.)
DO NOT get a card through President's Club VISA, though. Unhelpful to the point of crookedness.
Flea, does your university have a credit union? When I worked for MGH, we could join Harvard's credit union, and they offered their own Mastercard.
The government has a calculator to compare the lifetime costs of hybrid vehicles vs. conventional.
[link]
Don't know how useful it is, but it is sort of interesting.
Just a weird coincedence they all happened within a short time.
You say this now. But when our overlords arrive, you'll see the pattern.
Matt, that's been my experience with Citibank as well. They caught a fraud charge and took care of everything right away. Though, I saw my interest rate mysteriously raise 6% for no apparent reason and had to raise hell. They did drop the rate, though.
You say this now. But when our overlords arrive, you'll see the pattern.
Yes, but our overlords will only be a problem until the Cylons get here.
Citibank erased a couple late payments back when I was in college. Once when my mail got all screwed up with forwarding and I didn't get the bill until past due and another when the mailroom neglected to send the outgoing mail out for 2 months. Neither of which could be really verified, but they took my word for it. The fraud warning stuff is nice, though of course it always freaks out on me too.
Also, I remember something about not cancelling old cards (just...stop using them) because that drops them from your credit history, but research that because I may be getting the factoid mangled with something else.
On the highway this morning, there was an SUV in front of me with a vanity plate reading "GEFILTE". It made me laugh.
Chase Visa is evil and, more to the point, a big pain in my ass.
Chase recently absorbed both of my credit cards and I'm convinced that they are being a pain in the ass on purpose to drive me away as an undesirable customer (I have received over $1000 in rebates from these cards and have never-until a recent "lost" payment like the one flea describes-paid the credit card company a dime).
I found a Citibank card that pays 1% rebate on all purchases and 5% on gas and groceries, so I'll use that one until Citibank realizes that they need to get rid of me.
I think the funniest license plate I've ever seen was a white Volkswagen Rabbit with the plate "ML8 ML8."