Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Archive for the ‘Credit Cards’ Category

Last Day of Giveaway

Tonight at Midnight (or somewhere there about) a lucky name will be picked in the First Big Cajun Quicktax Software Giveaway , and we have been deluged with 10’s of entries, so your chances of wining are quite good! Remember you never miss the shot you never take!

Fatwa Against Credit Cards

In Ottawa last week Imam Khaled Abdul-Hamid Syed (local Muslim Community Leader) has declared a fatwa against Credit Cards, and I say to that, Good on you!.

“I conclude that it contains usury … which is forbidden in Islam, so it should not be used…”

I wonder if he reads this blog? The Imam is dead on (in my opinion) in his view that Credit Cards are the modern equivalent of usury and I applaud him speaking out about this topic.

The Imam has said that this Fatwa is not binding, and some folks are concerned about whether this means you should never use a credit card, even if you pay them off monthly (or only use them in emergencies)? I think any statement by any Community Leader that causes folks to talk seriously about this subject is a very good thing. Discussion causes folks to think about how they are doing things, and may cause some to change bad habits.

Will I soon be changing to Islam as my religious following? No, as most of my readers know, I am a devout Anglican, but I wouldn’t mind hearing what the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Anglican Church of Canada has to say about this interesting subject, as well.

Usury = Credit Cards?

As for the Credit Card companies and the banks, I wonder if they are worried about this or not? I doubt they care, but if a ground swell of folks stop using their cards, what might happen? Maybe the “Tea Party” should be looking into this (in the United States)?

Yes the most special day for amorous lovers of Personal Finance is coming on Sunday. Now all good Financial Bloggers know that Saint Valentines is actually the patron saint of all finances, or something like that, and keeping that in mind in this post I will make some suggestions for that special someone that you want to show Financial Servitude too.

Financial Valentines Gifts

This list while not exhaustive is in fact the first such list compiled (this year, on this blog) and should be held with great reverence:

• For the kids, don’t waste your money on chocolates or candies, simply put money into their festive Valentines RESP! Nothing says financial planning than a Registered Education Savings Plan, and your kids will thank you for it (in about 15 years, this year, they may not be as happy with you (re: not giving candy)).
• For yourself, maybe it’s time to set up a Valentine’s TFSA, where you could treat yourself and buy some Chocolate (or invest in Nielsen, who makes chocolate). The TFSA is really at the heart of Saint Valentine’s day traditions in the 21st century.
• Nothing shows your wife or significant other Saint Valentine’s spirit than a Bouquet, of Shredded Credit Cards. This is a great gift because it shows you care enough to make a gift for your loved one, and you have shredded (and cancelled) all of their credit, and that shows how committed you are to your financial future.
• Another gift that your loved one would be able to cherish is a visit to the Spa (well, not technically a Spa, more like a Financial Planners office, which is really a Financial Spa, so it is close). There you can spend hours planning your future life together and set the goals that will allow you to live happily ever after.
• Take your Vacation Fund and make a Saint Valentine’s Day Mortgage Overpayment, and thus shorten your mortgage by 2 months, your family will thank you (in 20 years), but think how much interest you will save!
• Remember what season you are in, so get yourself a romantic, Saint Valentine’s RRSP payment! You lower your taxes, and that means you have some extra money for the next item.
• It’s not Valentine’s Day if the Dad’s don’t get Mums something naughty, so how about some Financial Debt Load Lingerie. Think of your debt like your wife’s underwear (and nowhere else on the Internet, would you ever find that stretch of your imagination except here), thus the skimpier, the better! You don’t want your loved one wearing baggy (but comfortable) Granny Panty Debt Load (i.e. large and uncomfortable debt) so see ee if you can convince your wife to receive a Financial Debt Load G-String! (i.e. very small and very comfortable).

Yes, I am having you on (this is what happens when I go on training and the course gets a little dull, and I also listen to Stephen Colbert while stuck in traffic).

What I am saying is that bankrupting yourself buying a dozen roses and fighting your way into a reservation at a swanky restaurant, while somewhat romantic, can have it’s down side as well.

After yesterday’s epiphany of the Financial GPS, I think I have streamlined the concept and gone to exactly what might be needed with today’s chronic over spender, the Financial Shock Collar.

This device, will look like a fashionable necklace for the ladies or simply a gold chain around the neck for men, and when it is activated 10,000 volts are instantly activated from a small power source (at milli-amperage levels) causing sudden and excruciating pain for its’ wearers, until they stop the spending which activated the collar (yes I borrowed this idea from a Star Trek episode, but aren’t all the best ideas from Star Trek?).

Is this a severe and dangerous tool to use? You are darn right that this is a ludicrously severe tool, but given some folks ability to completely lose their minds when it comes to:

• Financial Decision
• Overspending
• Use of money they don’t have
• Live now pay later thinking

This may be a useful “last hope” type of device.

Self-Destructing Debit/Credit Card

Don’t like my shock collar idea? A much less severe idea (depending on how you look at it) would be the self-destructing debit/credit card. Given most new cards come with a great deal of “smart card” technologies this one may be simpler to implement (and much more fun to watch).

The concept is quite simple, if the consumer attempts to use the card by either swiping it or “tapping” it, the card receives a simple message destruct and the card emits a high pitched alarm sound and 5 seconds later the card explodes, with a small charge embedded in it, when it was manufactured.

This makes the whole scenario of the credit card company rejecting a purchase and asking the vendor to seize the card a much simpler scenario, and it makes stolen cards that much more lethal for the thieves as well. If a card is stolen, it will automatically self-destruct when it gets near ANY credit card terminal.

Sure, there will be occasional glitches where cards may self-destruct without warning, but those small glitches and maiming of their owners are assumable risks for those who wish to have the privilege of carrying a credit card.

An added side-effect might be less people wanting to carry around credit cards with them, for fear of the occasional random self-destruction as well. Think of someone carrying around 6-8 credit cards, what might happen if one goes off accidentally? The chain-effect might well be complete destruction of the owner.

More interesting new “outside of the box” (unless the box is a coffin) ideas for financial safety may come, as I think of them.

I guess I got on a bit of a rant on the concept of Chutzpah this week, so I will leave you with one more post on some of the things in my life that I view as chutzpah that I run into in the financial world of today:

• Bank Fees: An institution that used to simply make money by loaning your money to other folks and doing business in the greay area between loan rates and savings rates, now charges over $10 a month for the priviledge to put your money in their bank. You have heard my rants about Free Banking before, but the banking racquet has a corner on chutzpah, that is for sure.
• Credit Cards: after watching the PBS Front line special The Card Game, the entire Credit Card business is a shrine to Chutzpah. The Canadian Capitalist has a link to the special, well worth watching, but unmitigated temerity and complete contempt for your customers is so prevelant in the Credit Card world, it should be renamed the Screw You We Get Your Money Card business. The fact it still exists and is not very regulated, shows that Chutzpah works.
• Gas Prices in Canada: How gas prices are set in Canada is claimed to be by free market pressures, I disagree. To tell a consumer that gas that has been refined and delivered and sitting in holding tanks at your local gas station has gone up in price, due to International Shortages, is Chutzpah.
• Financial Bail Outs in the U.S.: that was gall, and chutzpah combined. TO have created the entire credit crisis via your own foolish (if not illegal) practices, and then going hat in hand to the government asking for Trillions of dollars to bail you out is chutzpah. You lose consumers money, through flawed methodologies, and then ask for more money from that consumer (through their taxes) to not lose more money? Staggering.

Anybody else wishing to chime in with their own private financial chutzpah examples, please feel free to comment!

Chutzpah?

For those of you who still don’t get the concept of chutzpah the best explanation I can find is from Leo Rostein (author of the Joys of Yiddish ), who stated:

“…that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.”

Now that is chutzpah!

I will neither confirm nor deny that my birthday may or may not have or will occur in the past or next few days, however, I will confirm that my age is in between 30 and 75. Having been crystal clear on this point (no, you should not be publishing on the web your birthday and year, since that is the start of someone stealing your identity or something of the like), let’s talk about the things you might do if your birthday anniversary is some time this year (which I hope it is).

Things to Do Financially on Your Birthday

Just some ideas for some of the financial things you can do on the anniversary of your birth:

• Are you old enough to retire? Seems like a straight forward question, but when can you retire is another question to ask if the answer to the previous question is No? If you can’t even guess when you can retire, then today would be a good day to figure it out, or at least make a guess and work towards it. Aim to retire at 61, that’s an interesting prime age.
• Can you take today off today? Some companies actually give you your birthday off as a vacation day, I think it would be good to know that one (nope, not in my case).
• You can get free meals at some restaurants, I think Denny’s is one of those places, but call around and see where you can eat for free. Free meals is a very good way to celebrate a birthday.
• Does my car registration need to be renewed? Ottawa has an interesting problem because if you don’t renew your registration by your birthday, and take your car to Quebec, you can get fined a LOT of money, because in Quebec they’ll fine you for that one (I think they do in Ontario too, but they don’t worry about it too much until the next month).
• Did your car driving license expire? I was surprised that one year I realized a month after my birthday that I had been driving with an expired license, I received no reminder in the mail. Luckily I was not pulled over or that might have been expensive.
• Has your life insurance premium just jumped? If you have crossed an age group, your term life insurance rate may be increasing, so go check that out.
• Can you get a senior citizen’s discount now? You’d be surprised, a lot of these discounts do not start at age 65, it actually starts at 55.

Any other ideas I may have missed that you should do on your birthday?

In Carnivals my posting Personal Finance Resolutions For the New Year? was mentioned in the Carnival of Personal Finance #239 and the Carnival of Money Stories.