Last time I did this was in April and my total credit line back then was $110,820.

Here are the specifics as of today:

Bank of America Business MasterCard
Originally an MBNA account before they were bought out by Bank of America, I opened this account in March of 2005 when I started to divide my personal and business expenses and keep track of them separately. Turned out to be a great move as it was shortly there after I realized how much money I was bleeding on business expenses. I do not carry this card, but automatic payments are set-up for my monthly business expenses.
Current Balance: $0
Credit Limit: $26620 (No change)
Rate: 9.9% (No change)

CitiBank AT&T Universal MasterCard
I opened this account in April of 2007 utilizing a 0% for 12 months offer. I wrote a $6000 check to myself, which I originally dropped into my ING Direct savings account to jump on the “arbitrage” bandwagon. Shortly afterwards, I pulled the money out to finance the siding project. Now paid off, this is the only card I carry in my wallet for things like gas.
Current Balance: $0
Credit Limit: $9500 (Up from $8500)
Rate: 9.960% (Down from 11.26% — though this is the card where my rate was supposed to go up yesterday but still hasn’t.)

Chase Bank Visa Card
This was one of my first credit cards. I opened the account in 1998 and it was one of the cards that I ran up a considerable balance on before I got my act together. The highest it ever went was $12905 and that was in October of 2005. By August of 2006, I’d eliminated the balance, but continued to use the card for gas and the occasional purchase. Balance was always paid in full each month. In June of 2007, I took advantage of a 4.99% for the life of the balance offer to fund the siding project. I don’t carry this card.
Current Balance: $0
Credit Limit: $19200 (No Change)
Rate: 13.99% (Down from 15.24%)

Bank of America NHL MasterCard
Another of my original credit cards originally opened through MBNA in 1997 for a free t-shirt. This is also another card that I ran up a 5-figure balance on. In May of 2004, it topped out at $10915. By November of 2005, I had wiped the balance out. Now I have my internet service provider automatically bill to this card each month, and like clockwork, I pay back the $42.95 automatically on the same day using an autopay set up from the MBNA days. I do not carry this card and have not carried a balance since November of 2005.
Current Balance: $0
Credit Limit: $27400 (No Change)
Rate: 17.74% (Down from 18.74%)

Bank of America Platinum Plus Visa Card
Originally opened in March of 2005 as a failed plan to use balance transfers to consolidate balances at a lower rate. At first I transferred $5000 to this card. Evidently, not having learned my lesson the first time, I transferred another $5000 to this card in March of 2006. Luckily the rate was only 6.25% for both transfers. I wiped out the balance, which topped out at $6925 in March of 2006, in January of 2007. I do not carry this card.
Current Balance: $0
Credit Limit: $15400 (No Change)
Rate: 14.99% (Down from 18.24%)

Bank of America LendingTree GoldOption Loan
This was a loan for $10000 I took out in December of 2002 to, again, consolidate a few balances and put some much needed cash in my hands. At the time, it was LendingTree.com that found me the loan at 9.9%, and when the big check made out to me came in the mail, it was from MBNA. After a couple years of paying it down in regular $226 intervals, MBNA sent me a credit card attached to the account and started treating it like a credit card. With each month, the rate would rise another half percent or so. Not cool. I made my final payment in March of 2005 when the rate had climbed to 13.24%. I do not carry this card.
Balance: $0
Credit Limit: $13700 (No Change)
Rate: 12.99% (Down from 24.99%)

Okay, so amongst all of the discouraging reporting of credit lines dropping and rates rising, somehow I find myself with a total credit line $1k higher than 8 months ago and that none of my rates have gone up.

Most went down, actually, and that last one was cut in half!

Really, all of the changes have been beneficial to me.

So is credit really that hard to come by?

Maybe I’m in for a rude awakening…

When I set my goals for 2008 back in December of 2007, I thought they were a little lofty but somehow I managed to tackle every one of them.

The only one still remaining is the $10k in savings, which isn’t likely to happen after my Black Friday episode, but it’s still a possibility, albeit dim.

Even if I don’t manage to achieve that one, I’m still far ahead of where I was at this time last year. Far ahead.

My goals for 2009 aren’t going to be as specific as my goals for 2008 were.

I don’t have any debts worth paying down at an accelerated rate anymore and, while I’m still struggling to get a grip on how to save money more efficiently, I think I’ve made HUGE strides in the past year.

Just having a few months worth of expenses up your sleeve, or in an ING account, really does take a load off of your shoulders. I didn’t think it would, but it did.

So here are my ultra-vague goals for 2009 that will be all but impossible to track throughout the year with colourful side-bar graphs:

1. Find a contractor to gut and remodel the entire first floor of my house. New kitchen, new bathroom, new floors, new walls, and new ceilings throughout.

Preferably, I’d like to have the project nearing completion by May 2009.

2. Pay for all of the work done by the end of the year. Realistically, we’re going to have to find financing for a great deal of the work and, again, I’ll probably use my credit cards for most of it.

That said, I’ll have to cross my fingers that I don’t receive more “Change of Terms” letters like the one I received from Citibank earlier this week. That would be bad.

So far, we haven’t really done much in regards to these goals.

We’ve briefly researched a few general contractors, two of which I’m all but certain we’ll seek out for quotes when we’re ready to get things started financially, but I can’t, for even a second, claim that we’ve looked very hard or even thought about exactly what we’d like done.

On the financial front, we’re saving like we’ve never saved before while also reading the fine print on every credit card convenience check offer that comes in the mail — just waiting for the right offer and when it comes, we’ll be sure to take full advantage just to have the cash in our hands and readily available.

The 100% credit card financed method has worked in the past so I’ve little doubt that it will work for us again.

So that’s it.

Pretty short list this year but pretty lofty at the same time…

But now, after the letter I received yesterday from Citibank, well, sucks to be me too.

Here’s the body of the letter:

I know, it’s tough to read but the main line reads:

We are increasing your variable APR for purchases. Your purchase APR will equal the LIBOR Rate plus 13.99%, with a minimum APR of 16.99%. As of September 17, 2008, this purchase APR is 16.99%. This APR equals a daily periodic rate of 0.0465%.

Okay, so the purchase APR is 16.99% and has been since September 17, 2008.

That’s news to me.

In fact, logging in to my Citi account, it clearly states that my purchase APR is 9.960%.

Nice of them to mail it so late that I received it in December, huh?

Wait, they mentioned something about December 3rd too…

Let me read it again…

Okay, so this means that tomorrow my purchase APR is going to jump from 9.960% to a minimum of 16.99%? Wow…

It really sucks to be me.

Honestly though, I’m not too worried about this because I don’t use the card for anything other than gas these days (so it’s easy to pay in full each month), but at the same time, I’m a little offended that they’d jack my rate so high for no apparent reason.

I know it’s their right, but still…

And sure, it may be because they’ve never made much money off of me. I mean, this is one of the accounts I opened to finance the siding project. I put a quick six or seven grand on it, at zero percent, and then put it away until the balance was paid.

Or maybe it’s across the board, you know, in an attempt to keep the company afloat. That’s probably more likely…

But for those that do carry a balance from month to month, this is like a death sentence.

I used to carry 5-figure balances at rates comparable to 16.99% (or, gasp!, 24.99%) and I’ll be the first to tell you, it’s hard getting hit for $200+ in finance charges each month. It’s a tough hole to dig out of…

If your in that situation and you get hit with this letter, I strongly suggest that you respond to the letter opting out and declining the change in terms. Sure, they’ll close your account, but I’m sorry, better credit card offers are still out there and you should look for them.

Citi’s days are numbered, I’m afraid.

No, “afraid” isn’t the right word… Have I mentioned before that I’m not a fan of their online interface? If not, I just did.

(Actually, I mentioned it here back on July 24)

They’re the only credit card company I have an account with that actually makes it difficult to make payments…

Looks like I’ll be swinging back to my Bank of America cards to pay for gas again.

You know, just in case I don’t pay in full one month…

Anyone else get this letter?

On the really bright side, I can now claim to be 100% debt free — with the mortgage as an exception.

We’ll see how long that lasts though…

But on the other hand, my net worth is continuing to fall — just like everyone else.

It’s not bothering me (yes, still!) because all of the sizeable losses are coming from my 401k and my home value.

Neither affects my day-to-day finances one bit.

Ignoring those two rows, I’m cruising along at a pretty nice clip…

Here’s the breakdown:

Cash:
Nothing really worth mentioning here. It’s a bit lower than I’d like, but the new savings plan I have going is keeping it that way.

Savings:
Wasn’t able to “save” as much as the previous month, but $1200 is nothing to sneeze at. I’m pretty content with this number and I expect it to increase next month.

Gov’t Bonds:
Up another three bucks!

401k:
It’s funny how it dropped another $3k, but I still feel like it made a recovery… Perhaps it’s because it was down $10k on November 20…

Home:
The value fell almost the exact same percentage as last month. At least it’s consistent!

Auto 1 & Auto 2:
Nothing to report. They’re both paid for so any “value” is nice.

Credit Cards:
Done. Gone. Again. My Black Friday expenses haven’t hit the cards yet, but I expect to have them paid in full before this coming month is even over. It’ll be like the transactions never existed.

Auto Loans:
Have I mentioned that I paid these off?

Other Loans:
Nothing to report.

Mortgage:
This was the least movement I’ve had all year — by far. Partly due to the increase in my mortgage bill but now that it’s gone back down again, I hope to have this hover between -$500 and -$1000 each month.

I managed that.

I rolled over to look at the clock and 4:15 am and told myself, “Nope, not getting up…”

I did the same thing at 5:34 am.

And again at 6:40 am.

See, at our house, we never even received a Walmart Black Friday flyer… I’m not sure why, maybe our mailman ate it or something, but my guess is that it was a blessing that it never arrived.

I’m not saying that I would have bought anything, I never have, but I have made it a bit of a tradition to hang out in the parking lot of BestBuy, Circuit City, and/or Walmart at unmentionable hours on the day after Thanksgiving.

This year, I slept in.

By “slept in”, I mean that I didn’t get out of bed until 7:09 am.

From there, I went through my usual weekday routine and headed to work.

The office was closed on Friday, but not really. Black Friday has always been one of those grey areas.

I sat down at my desk, checked my email, tied up a few loose ends left over from Wednesday afternoon, and soon realized that I really had nothing left to do.

It was 8:10 am.

To justify the time it took to drive in to work, I wasn’t about to leave so soon, so I fired up the internet and headed to one of my favorite game worn hockey jersey message boards.

There, right at the top, just listed moments earlier, were three jerseys for sale from the team we have season tickets for…

You’re kidding me?

I’ve been looking for something from this team for nearly a year without any luck, but today, of all days, there are THREE of them for sale?! Ugh…

A few emails were exchanged, some pictures sent, and by 9:53 am, a PayPal transaction had been completed. I am now the proud owner of two of those jerseys.

So much for a frugal Black Friday, huh?

But wait, it gets even more ridiculous…

One of the companies that markets these jerseys for the various leagues decided to have a Black Friday sale of their own — which they announced in a broadcast email…

In a creative way of doing things, their gimmick was for any player’s jersey in stock who played in a game on Black Friday, the price would be discounted by 50%…

Tell me this isn’t happening.

Needless to say, at noon, as the Boston Bruins were hosting the New York Islanders, I was looking up and down the line-ups to see if anyone peaked my interest.

To my dismay, Thomas Pöck (one of the few truly nice professional athletes out there) was a healthy scratch. Probably a good thing… I mean, that alone saved me a few hundred dollars…

Of course, there were a number a games to be played later in the day, but that would give me more time to rethink the decision that I’d already made to spend, spend, spend…

In the end though, I couldn’t pass it up. A fifty percent savings was too much to shrug off.

When the puck dropped at 7:07 pm and I could confirm that “my” players were playing, I added two more jerseys to the collection — one from the Columbus Blue Jackets and one from the Tampa Bay Lightning.

That’s in addition to the two college jerseys I picked up this morning…

Wow, I’m gonna be holding my head in my hands when the bill comes in just like all those people who bough 50-inch televisions at four in the morning…

Crazy how quickly a sound financial plan can be derailed…

What’d that last, 4 days?

In the end, though, while I unexpectedly spent a lot of money on Black Friday, I feel that I got some great value…

I know, I know, where’s the value in shredded polyester…

But, hey, at least this year I could afford it!

As we did last year, we attended the local high school football game on Thanksgiving.

Unfortunately I don’t have any exciting stories about picking up a dropped nickel.

Trust me, I was looking too…

Tickets were $6 each; a twenty percent increase over last year.

Being cheap, I found that to be a little excessive considering all of the moaning about the economy.

But the crowd didn’t seem to mind — it was a packed house as it always is. It’s crazy when you hear the roar of the crowd rival an NFL game when all they’re there to see is a high school game. Three weeks ago, the crowd would have been maybe 50 people — if it was warm out.

Thanksgiving? A couple thousand. The place is a mob scene. Parking. Nightmare.

I’d bet the kids on the field love it, though.

I mean, each year, it has that pro feel — I don’t ever remember feeling that in high school.

Like a pro game, the game is on television (public access, but still…) with real announcers from the local affiliates. They even had a sideline reporter?! The end zone was dotted with photographers with HUGE lenses, like me. The stadium even has souvenir stands — and they were open!?

Basically, it’s an event even if you’re not on the field and that’s why we go each year.

I guess you could call it the SuperBowl of our town. Seems that everybody goes — though I strangely didn’t recognize anyone there.

On the downside, going to the game also means that we miss the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade each year. My wife is not happy about that.

And for the record, the team in white won the game. Woo-hoo! They represent our side of town!

Each October, on the anniversary of my mortgage, Countrywide runs an escrow analysis to ensure that they’ve put enough of my monthly payments aside to pay for things like city property taxes and the premium on my homeowners insurance.

This past October was no different, in that they did an escrow analysis. Totally expected.

Unfortunately, the results weren’t in my favor like they have been in the past — not sure why I didn’t mention it back in October…

Anyway, the short of it is that my monthly mortgage payment increased $78 — due entirely to the assessment done on my house in 2007 which resulted in an increase in my tax bill. Lucky break for the city, you know, doing a city-wide assessments when the market was at it’s all time high…

Anyway, not that big of a deal, I mean, I know it doesn’t sound like much, but it’s just a little bit of an annoyance knowing that another $78/month (or $936/year) isn’t hitting the principle. Whatever — it’s not the end of the world.

It’s like I’m paying the cable bill twice or something.

The last time my payment went *way* up, the following October I received a check from Countrywide. It was an escrow overage check. Somewhere along the line, numbers were incorrect and they were collecting too much from me for an entire year.

While the check was a pleasant surprise, I was a little bothered by the fact that they had continued to over-collect for, well, 11 months when my property taxes hadn’t increased enough to justify the bill hike and my insurance premium had remained steady.

Though they paid me back, with interest, I still felt a like I’d been ripped off.

I just chalked it up as something where, once they do their escrow analysis, that’s your payment, set in stone, for the next calendar year. I dealt with it.

So this year, when I caught wind that my payment was going up, but knowing that I was going to be switching my homeowners insurance (and lowering the premium paid from escrow), I was a little ticked off.

Terrible planning on my part. I couldn’t believe I’d overlooked this…

My mortgage payment was supposed to go down this year, not up!

I paid the November mortgage bill. And the December bill.

But then when Countrywide paid my homeowners insurance premium when I’d asked them not so, I saw an opportunity to do something about making sure that my payments wouldn’t go up again next year — or ever, barring any tax hikes.

I wanted to pay my insurance premium myself — take over the responsibility from Countrywide and, in turn, lower my monthly mortgage bill.

I went back to their online customer service page, where I’ve had so much success in the past. Not.

Here’s the message I sent:

I sent a message yesterday asking Countrywide NOT to send out the premium payment for my new homeowners insurance, but today I noticed that my transaction history has been updated and the payment has already been sent (dated Tuesday).

That’s fine — I’ll call them and have them accept Countrywide’s payment instead of mine.

In the future, next year, I’d prefer to pay the premium myself instead of having it built into my escrow account through Countrywide. How would I go about changing that so that this double payment scenario doesn’t happen again?

Thanks!

And here was their (prompt!) response:

Thank you for your recent Internet inquiry addressed to the Customer Service Department.

Our records reflect that we did not receive an e-mail from you in November 2008, the last e-mail received from you was on September 22, 2008. This is to confirm that your insurance information has been updated with an annual premium of $633.00, effective from November 11, 2008 to November 11, 2009. A payment has been disbursed from your escrow account to your insurance company for $633.00 on November 18, 2008.

As per your e-mail we have reviewed your account, your loan meets all the criteria for the deletion of insurance from the escrow account. We have hence deleted insurance from your escrow account as you asked. We have analyzed your escrow account on November 20, 2008,your monthly payment effective January 01, 2009 will be $1,226.7. An Escrow Review Statement has been generated and will be mailed to you, please allow approximately 7-14 days for receipt via U.S. mail.

We have provided a breakdown of your monthly installment, which will be effective with your January 2009 payment:

Description
Principal and Interest Payment : $817.27
City Taxes ($1,912.09 semi-annually divided by 12) : $318.68
P.M.I contribution monthly : $85.15
Reserve 16.60% : $5.27
Total Monthly Payment : $1,226.37

The Reserve item is an amount equal to 16.60% of the total amount of your escrow payment for the year that is collected each month. The Reserve amount is collected to ensure that the account has sufficient funds in the event that your tax and/or insurance bills increase. When we analyze your escrow account we will adjust the reserve amount based on the actual bills paid.

Thank you for communicating with us electronically, we appreciate the opportunity to be of assistance.

Hmmmmmm… I love that they mentioned September 22. Too funny.

The PMI line still irks me, but what can you do?

And really, I’d love to know what “criteria” my loan met for the deletion of insurance from the escrow account. I never could get an answer on what criteria I had to meet to drop PMI…

Whatever.

In the end, though, I got what I wanted (a lower payment — lowest since 2004!) and earlier than I’d expected, so that puts a smile on my face.

Happy Thanksgiving!

To semi-regular readers, that’s old news…

Now, the bad news…

I received a letter in the mail over the weekend from an insurance inspection company. (insert threateningly scary fanfare here)

My wife tells me not to worry about it but I’m having a lot of trouble putting it to the back of my mind.

I’m really susceptible to anxiety attacks — basically I stop breathing.

Not entirely, but I essentially bring on an asthma attack (like a stereotypical four-eyed nerd) and, on occasion, I’ll even break out an inhaler.

Yeah, it’s extra dorky and not something I’m proud of.

Most of my anxiety stems from things that I have no control over.

Scratch that.

It comes from things that I have little control over — thankfully not things like a huge decline in the stock market, rather stuff like the possibility of, well, losing my job or having my homeowners policy cancelled (again) which is why this letter is such bad news.

On the bright side, in comparison to my previous carrier, the FAIR Plan, the letter clearly indicates that it will not be an intrusive inspection.

In fact, it even states that I don’t even have to be present…

How about that?

That’s a HUGE improvement over past inspections where they’ve come in and essentially banged on every one of my walls to see if they could damage them or something…

One year, the inspector they sent out had to be pushing 400 lbs and he stomped up and down my basement steps not once, but twice. I was a little worried and, frankly, upset because it seemed to be a little excessive.

No, my house wasn’t built for 400-pound men — and being that I’m not even half that, I never expected to be.

If anything, he should be the one who can’t find insurance…

Okay, I’m getting off-topic…

Really, he was physically trying to break my house.

Further, while inspecting the exterior of the house, he pointed out some crumbling mortar in the brick foundation and then struck the brickwork with his geologist hammer, knocking the face of the brick off.

In shock, unsure of what to do, I said nothing, but seriously, he just struck my house with a pointy hammer.

What the hell is up with that?

Anyway, this one shouldn’t be anything like that but the way this one works, well, I’ve no idea when it will happen or how it turns out. If it happens to be raining the day they come out, they probably won’t even get out of the car…

I just have to sit and wait, then pray, that I don’t get a follow-up letter from the inspection company or the insurance company delivering any bad news.

Based on past experience, if I make it to January without anything, it will be smooth sailing from here on out and I’ll be able to take a deep breath…

And really, I’m trying to tell myself that I’ve got nothing to worry about.

New roof, new siding, new foundation… but who knows, maybe they’ll freak out about a crack in my driveway or a sinkhole in the yard…

Really, what if?

It’s those unlikely “ifs” that are driving me crazy…

Where’s that inhaler?

Yep, it’s time to start getting serious about saving. I’m not entirely sure why we weren’t able to go all gung-ho in November (or even October, for that matter…), but now that December is around the corner, we really need to get started.

And though we’re heading into December and there will undoubtedly be some Christmas expenditures, we have to stop putting this off.

Here’s the plan:

    1. Save 50% of the take home.

That’s it.

Pretty simple, huh?

The idea is simple. Being able to actually do it might not be so…

In a nutshell, to get the ball rolling, I’m pretending that I get paid twice a month (instead of bi-weekly) and that there are 4 weeks in a month.

Using the bottom line from one paycheck, I’m dividing by 4 (for the number of weeks in my version of a month) and transferring that amount into my ING account each Friday.

That works out to 50% of my monthly income transferred to savings over four weeks (to lessen the blow).

Can I do it? In addition to the $400/month I’m already transferring there in place of my former car payments? Yikes!

Maybe this is a little too amibitious…

We’ll see…

So far, I’m 2 weeks in to a test run and things are going relatively smoothly.

Woo-hoo!

Of course, I haven’t had to pay a mortgage bill yet either…

That could be the red light at the next intersection.

So, their site has the link up for your FREE Dr. Pepper now, kudos to them, but there’s some fine print that I think needs a little more highlighting:

Allow 4-6 weeks for coupon to arrive. Coupons will expire on Feb. 28, 2009.

So, not only is it weak that they’re only offering the coupon for 24 hours (on a Sunday too), but now you need to wait until mid-January to get your coupon in the mail and then you don’t have much time to use it…

And don’t forget that they just collected all of your mailing address info too. Yep — you just signed yourself up for countless mailing lists. Congrats. Enjoy the junk mail.

The next time they feel the need to run a silly promo to garner some publicity, I think they should steal a page from the Taco Bell folks who provided nearly instant gratification; no questions asked — if you like mystery meat-paste tacos…

Or maybe not, the publicity part has already worked for Dr. Pepper and my guess is that they don’t want to get into the business of handing the product away for free anyway…

And really, does anyone really like Dr. Pepper? I mean, I’ll drink it over any Pepsi product, but I can’t say it’s ever been my first choice either…