I have previously covered my experience with Bank of America (or BofA for short).
BofA is the issuer of my first credit card: I opened a secured card with them in early January, 2012; this card graduated into a regular credit card a little over a month ago. This is one of the best secured credit cards in the market, a point I explained in the linked thread. Continue reading Why Bank of America is awesome for building credit
Many years ago, before I came to America, I was studying for the IELTS test. The IELTS is a test of English language skills that students coming from countries where English is not the official language have to go through if they want to study in an English-speaking country. For the listening portion of the test, exam-takers listen to an English conversation to answer questions related to the conversation. The conversation topics are sometimes specific to the country that administers the exam: either the UK or Australia.
One of the questions from the listening portion left me really confused at the time, so confused that I still remember it today. Actually the question was easy to answer; it was the content of the question that was not understandable to me. The conversation occurs in a store where the guest is asking whether the store accepts Discover or American Express, to which the waitress responds that they only accept Visa or Mastercard. I had never heard of these names before, and would not until years later when I actually set foot on a country where credit card use is the norm. My reaction at the time was something like: What? What’s American Express? A newspaper? OK, Mastercard is probably a card, but what about Visa? Is it the same sort of thing as a tourist visa? Continue reading Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express: What are they really?
As of today, I have been on an AT&T family plan for 4-and-a-half years. And just to be clear, none of my family members is on my plan. My plan consists of myself and 4 friends, who are not the same friends with whom I started my plan in the fall of 2008. To date, I have been extremely pleased with my family plan, and have saved my friends as well as myself thousands of dollars through maintaining it. When we started the plan back in 2008, we were college students, so the extra savings really helped. Continue reading AT&T “family” plan: an economical choice
If you have been following financial news, you may realize what the most prominent story on bonds has been since the financial crisis of 2008: historically low interest long-term Treasury bond yields. You may also know that this was caused by investors unwilling to take risk with stock investments and feeling more comfortable putting their money in bonds, which are a lot safer. Common knowledge states that bonds are basically a guaranteed returns investment vehicle. Continue reading Why bonds may not be safe
One and a half year after I graduated from Colgate University following a commencement where I sang the school’s traditional song with 3 friends in front of 7,000 people, I had yet another milestone graduation. For those of you that start your credit journey with a secured credit card, when your credit card gets converted to a non-secured card, your card is said to graduate. That’s what happened to my card. Continue reading Secured credit card graduation
In my first blog post: Personal Finance 101, I explained the benefits that typical credit cards offer. When it comes to choosing a particular credit card to apply for, it’s hard to make a decision sometimes because of the ocean of options available. I’ve put off writing about credit card offers in favor of helping you – my dear readers – build a knowledge base of credit profile and credit cards. However, today is special.
Dear readers, today is the best day to apply for the Discover More, the signature credit card by Discover, one of the largest card issuers in America. Among my credit card portfolio, the Discover More is my favorite, and I’ve had it for just 2 months! If you’re reading this and already have a decent credit history that is longer than 6 months even if you do not have a credit history at all, you should apply for the card. And here’s why: Continue reading Discover More
OK, the credit score. This is perhaps the most controversial topic and most confusing element in the credit history universe. Humans in all stages of their history, have been easily fascinated by numbers, and today still retain a subconscious desire to summarize almost everything in hard numbers. What’s the temperature today? What grade did you get from the econ class? How many days are left till summer? Don’t we all love numbers! Continue reading Personal Finance 201: Introduction to credit scores
On a gorgeous summer day in Seattle in 2012, I had just found a new place to live – a neat house by Green Lake, Seattle – a beautiful neighborhood in Seattle laden with trees, dogs, open space, and young people. In a nutshell, it was my perfect place to live at the time. Being born and raised in a tropical country, I always feel pumped up by the sun. The weekend I moved was also when Bumbershoot- the largest urban music festival in the country I believe – took place. I came back from the festival, totally exhausted, woke up the next day, fully invigorated again, and decided to move on with my next project in life. Applying for the first non-secured credit card. Continue reading The story from the credit report
This is the second post of the series on credit reports. I will cover the content of a credit report.
First of all, I need to clarify that when I mention “credit” and “credit report”, I imply consumer credit, or personal credit, as opposed to business credit, which has to do with how a business manages debts. Since this blog is about personal finance, I will only cover consumer credit. Continue reading What’s on a credit report?
Since this is the holidays shopping season, I thought I’d share some personal tips on shopping as well. Full disclosure: these are what I actually do or have done at some point. I’m not going to tell you what you should buy, or even where you should buy them – that’s completely your decision and out of the scope of this personal finance blog; however, I will share with you the way I shop to get the most returns on my spending. Continue reading Holiday Shopping
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