Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Capital One Credit Card Late Fees
I have kept a Capital One credit card for the past couple of years because I had a "fixed" rate of 4.99% APR. Recently the rate went up to 8.99% APR, which was still pretty good. I mainly use my American Express Delta Skymiles card because of the great customer service I receive from American Express and the other benefits that come with the card. Amex is not accepted everywhere though, so I also carry the Capital One card.
I missed a payment last month due to my getting confused about managing payments on bill pay (I've been paying $400 - $700 per month on the card) and cancelled the $50 automated payment I have setup to avoid missing the minimum monthly payment. I was hit with a $39 late fee. I called to have it canceled and was told that they system does not allow the phone reps to cancel the late fee anymore. Instead, a request was submitted and I would get a response in about 15 days.
Well, I'm not waiting for the response. I applied for a credit union credit card that has a late fee of only $20, which is far more reasonable. I don't know yet, but my past experience has been that they are also tolerant of removing late fees once or twice per year on a good account.
Capital One, you're losing a customer and $28 a month in interest fees. Why, because charging good customers $39 for a late payment is no way to run a business.
I encourage all of you to not allow yourselves to be treated this way by your credit card companies. Late fees themselves are not an unreasonable tool to encourage timely payments, but they have gotten way out of hand. Don't forget that we are the consumer and that we can always vote with our feet if the companies serving us refuse to listen.
Check out your local credit unions to tell banks and credit card companies that they are abusing us with their fees.
Use this link to find a credit union:
http://www.creditunion.coop/cu_locator/quickfind.html
BTW, don't worry about the membership rules. If you read carefully enough just about everyone and their grandmother is eligible. The rules are only in place because your current banks fear competition from institutions that don't rip-off their customers!
I missed a payment last month due to my getting confused about managing payments on bill pay (I've been paying $400 - $700 per month on the card) and cancelled the $50 automated payment I have setup to avoid missing the minimum monthly payment. I was hit with a $39 late fee. I called to have it canceled and was told that they system does not allow the phone reps to cancel the late fee anymore. Instead, a request was submitted and I would get a response in about 15 days.
Well, I'm not waiting for the response. I applied for a credit union credit card that has a late fee of only $20, which is far more reasonable. I don't know yet, but my past experience has been that they are also tolerant of removing late fees once or twice per year on a good account.
Capital One, you're losing a customer and $28 a month in interest fees. Why, because charging good customers $39 for a late payment is no way to run a business.
I encourage all of you to not allow yourselves to be treated this way by your credit card companies. Late fees themselves are not an unreasonable tool to encourage timely payments, but they have gotten way out of hand. Don't forget that we are the consumer and that we can always vote with our feet if the companies serving us refuse to listen.
Check out your local credit unions to tell banks and credit card companies that they are abusing us with their fees.
Use this link to find a credit union:
http://www.creditunion.coop/cu_locator/quickfind.html
BTW, don't worry about the membership rules. If you read carefully enough just about everyone and their grandmother is eligible. The rules are only in place because your current banks fear competition from institutions that don't rip-off their customers!
Friday, October 05, 2007
Free Gas Price Widget on your Website
Gas-cost.net has a cool widget that can be used on blogs to show daily average gas prices. Check it out:
The only problem is that they don't explain on their site where these "nationwide" gas prices are coming from. I know that today gas prices in my area of Norther Virginia are less than $3/gallon for regular today.
The only problem is that they don't explain on their site where these "nationwide" gas prices are coming from. I know that today gas prices in my area of Norther Virginia are less than $3/gallon for regular today.
Thursday, October 04, 2007
How to bypass websense and other censorship methods
From webusabilityhelp.blogspot.com:
Internet filters are active everywhere - Flickr is banned in Iran & UAE, BBC & Wikipedia are blocked in China, Blogspot blogs are banned in Pakistan, YouTube & Photobucket are prohibited for US army overseas while social sites like Bebo, MySpace or Facebook may be banned in your office.
Some companies even block access to mail websites like Yahoo or GMail under the pretext of security.
Click To PlayIn the past, we have discussed atleast a dozen methods to help you access blocked websites that are banned in your office, school or by the government of your country. Here's a new method for unblocking websites - you'll probably enjoy it more than the previous hacks because it takes the geekiness out of the whole process and make it extremely easy to access blocked URLs.
Opera provides a free online tool called Opera Mini Simulator that emulates the Opera mobile phone browser on your desktop computer. The tool is done in java and is quite popular among web designers for testing website layouts on mobile phone devices without actually using a mobile phone.
As you probably guessed it by now, this Opera Browser Simulator can also be used for accessing web pages that may be blocked on your computer. Since the requests are made via the Opera.com website, they would easily bypass the local filtering.
To open any site in Opera, just append that site address to the following URL and start browsing.
http://www.operamini.com/demo/?url=[URL] - example
The Opera Simulator can even be used for secure sites that require cookies - for instance, you can check your Hotmail emails via Opera. Though you are restricted to the tiny 200x200 screen of Opera simulator, it's still a very handy tool. [Opera link from Rupesh]
Opera recently launched version 4 of the Mini simulator that offers a better browsing experience than the previous version. You can access v4.0 of Mini simulator here. The above video demo was created in this version.
Internet filters are active everywhere - Flickr is banned in Iran & UAE, BBC & Wikipedia are blocked in China, Blogspot blogs are banned in Pakistan, YouTube & Photobucket are prohibited for US army overseas while social sites like Bebo, MySpace or Facebook may be banned in your office.
Some companies even block access to mail websites like Yahoo or GMail under the pretext of security.
Click To PlayIn the past, we have discussed atleast a dozen methods to help you access blocked websites that are banned in your office, school or by the government of your country. Here's a new method for unblocking websites - you'll probably enjoy it more than the previous hacks because it takes the geekiness out of the whole process and make it extremely easy to access blocked URLs.
Opera provides a free online tool called Opera Mini Simulator that emulates the Opera mobile phone browser on your desktop computer. The tool is done in java and is quite popular among web designers for testing website layouts on mobile phone devices without actually using a mobile phone.
As you probably guessed it by now, this Opera Browser Simulator can also be used for accessing web pages that may be blocked on your computer. Since the requests are made via the Opera.com website, they would easily bypass the local filtering.
To open any site in Opera, just append that site address to the following URL and start browsing.
http://www.operamini.com/demo/?url=[URL] - example
The Opera Simulator can even be used for secure sites that require cookies - for instance, you can check your Hotmail emails via Opera. Though you are restricted to the tiny 200x200 screen of Opera simulator, it's still a very handy tool. [Opera link from Rupesh]
Opera recently launched version 4 of the Mini simulator that offers a better browsing experience than the previous version. You can access v4.0 of Mini simulator here. The above video demo was created in this version.
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