Money Blue Book

Update: Check Out The New Visa Black Card For The Uber-Rich

What’s the deal with status symbols these days? While I’d like to think that I’m perfectly immune from the need to walk around and carry lofty symbols of wealth, power, and status on my shoulders, sheepishly, I must admit that I’m not. I don’t occasionally wear designer clothes or don expensive apparel brands solely for the quality threads, or dream of buying a BMW or Mercedes sports sedan for crash test safety reasons alone. After all, there’s something about rarity, uniqueness, and exclusiveness that beckons each of us at some point in our lives. Whether it’s the elite acknowledgment that one gets from being an alumni of a top tier Ivy League university, or whether it’s membership into an ultra exclusive golf club usually reserved only for top celebrities and the rich and famous, I’m sure many of us secretly envy at times, those who are in this special inner circle.

Actually, the notion itself is quite silly really – the idea that simply because you possess something unique that very few other people have, or have VIP membership into some special organization, that you are somehow better off than others or worthy of admiration. But it’s simply human nature I suppose. We all innately appreciate the attention and envy of others, whether we truly want to admit it or not. Don’t believe it? All you have to do is observe the rise and popularity of television shows like MTV’s Super Sweet 16 to see how the desire to be envied and praised is very much part of our society’s psyche and celebrity culture. If it were not for our humanistic lust for all things that glitter and our natural attraction to the glitz and glamor of all that surrounds the rich and powerful, we wouldn’t have such things as paparazzis and celebrity magazines. It’s because we as a society desperately seek to emulate the rich and beautiful that there are such things as status symbol cars and multi-million dollar mega mansions.

Thus there should be little surprise that there are even such things as one-of-a-kind credit cards that only a select few have the luxury of possessing. Whether it makes any real sense for anyone to go gaga over something as mundane as a limited edition credit card is up for debate, but it’s something that’s been glorified in the rising hip-hop culture and permeating our English vernacular, calling attention to itself.

What Is the Black Centurion Card From American Express?

The American Express Black Centurion Card (simply referred to as the Black Card by some) sprung out of an urban rumor in the early 1990’s about a super secret black credit card available only to a select group of rich and powerful celebrities. While the reality was that no such card existed, American Express ultimately played off the whispers and capitalized on the rumors, quietly creating the Amex Black Card. Its exclusivity compounded the rumors over time, leading to more and more outlandish claims about the benefits and perks offered to the holder. Perhaps you’ve seen the almost mythical Black Card touted in hip hop music videos or heard it referenced in other facets of pop culture, but you rarely see it out in the open. The card is definitely not widely available and unless you hang around or work with celebrities, famous people, or wealthy individuals, it’s unlikely you will ever see one in your lifetime.

The Black Centurion credit card from American Express is definitely a rarity in the marketplace and in some circles, is considered an impact statement. First of all, the card is almost entirely black, which instantly gives it a look that’s different from all the credit cards out there, and secondly, it’s not even made of ordinary plastic like most credit cards, but rather of a special aluminum, titanium mix, giving it a different feel altogether. There have been suggestions that the titanium composition of the Black Centurion Card even triggers metal detectors at airports, but obviously this hassle is easily circumvented by transporting the card or wallet via its own plastic container through the X-ray conveyor belt scanner.

While the card imposes a hefty annual fee, for those who can easily afford it, the Black Card offers a juicy wealth of exclusive card benefits, like special concierge services, exclusive travel benefits and perks, enhanced credit card rewards, frequent flier airline miles, cashback credit card bonuses, and the ability to harness almost unlimited spending power. Perhaps I’m blowing the card a bit out of proportion and making the card bigger than what it really is, but the card is definitely not for your ordinary credit card spender – it’s meant for whales and high rollers who spend a lot – in the tune of more than $250,000 a year. But one thing to keep in mind is that due to the status implications the card seems to convey, mere possession and use of the Black Card may cause the cardholder to unnecessarily stand out awkwardly in ordinary situations. Using the Black Card from American Express in an inappropriate situation may be like showing up at a family reunion in your flashy, gas-guzzling red Lamborghini sports car while your relatives and family members quietly chug into the parking lot with their fuel efficient Honda Civics. Of course, not everyone will recognize the Black Card and many may see it as no big deal – just one of many random credit card choices out there.

How Can I Apply For The American Express Black Centurion Credit Card?

If you are wondering to yourself, how does one actually go about requesting official information or submitting an application for the ultra exclusive Black Centurion card, you’re likely going to be out of luck. Membership into the Black Card club is by exclusive invitation only, based on either your celebrity reputation or your proven ability to be a big credit card spender. However, there are affirmative steps you can take to satisfy the qualification requirements to trigger a personal credit card invite. To qualify for such an invitation based on proven financial ability, you’ll not only have to prove yourself to be a high credit card spender, but you’ll also need to have an exceptional FICO credit score and credit report history, along with a hefty personal balance sheet of verifiable monetary assets. Here are the basic requirements to get an American Express Black Centurion Card application invite based on your potential purchasing power:

1) You Must Be An Existing American Express Credit Card Holder – The American Express Black Centurion Card is currently only available to select holders of American Express credit cards. Although it does not matter which Amex card type you have (whether Blue, Blue Cash, Blue Sky, Green, Gold, or Platinum), because of the high spending requirements to qualify, you will want a card with a very high credit limit. As such, those who qualify for the Black Centurion Card tend to be former holders of Amex Platinum cards, which offer the highest credit limits of all Amex card types. If you are not already an existing American Express credit card holder, you will need to apply for one of the following high credit limit cards and start racking up significant purchases in a short period of time:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Card – You get 10,000 instant points after your first purchase. Earn rewards with no preset limit.
• American Express Preferred Rewards Green Card – Get 5,000 instant bonus points and earn shopping and travel rewards with every purchase, with no preset limit.
• American Express Platinum Credit Card – Earn 25,000 bonus points after spending at least $1,000 within 3 months. Get access to American Express’ personal concierge service and earn reward points with no pre-set spending limit.
• Business Gold Card From American Express Open – This is probably an ideal way to get a Centurion Black card special invite as you can put all of your business related expenditures and purchases on this one card.
• Business Green Rewards Card From Amex Open – Earn 5,000 instant bonus points with your first purchase. Earn rewards with every purchase with no preset spending limit.

2) You Will Need To Spend At Least $250,000 A Year On Your American Express Credit Card – If this amount is too much for you, you probably shouldn’t even think about trying to obtain a Black Card to begin with. With the hefty start up and annual maintenance fees, this card will only truly benefit those individuals who spend a significant amount of money on entertainment, on airline travel expenses, and on expensive hotel stays. This may seem like an impossible amount, but for those of you who run your own small business or frequently have large amounts of reimbursable business expenses to pay for, the high expenditure requirement is quite do-able. For those who have employees, paying a payroll management company via credit card and having them in turn pay the employees via check is another great way to charge everything onto your American Express card. Especially for those people like myself who use credit card rewards for Google ads and spend significant sums of money on online advertising through Google Adsense and other internet marketing programs, the $250,000 a year spending requirement is not out of the realm of possibility.

A major problem that many wannabe Black Centurion Card seekers have in reaching the $250,000 annual spending limit requirement on their existing Amex cards is that their current monthly credit card limit simply isn’t high enough to allow them to spend that much. To reach $250,000 a year, a cardholder would need to have a credit spending limit of approximately $21,000 a month give or take a few hundred dollars ($250,000 divided by 12 months). The solution to the insufficient credit limit hurdle is quite simple. Simply submit a check or online prepayment amount at the start of each month to American Express to cover your credit card expenditures for the month. For example, even if your actual credit card limit is only $10,000 or less, simply by submitting card payment of something like $11,000 in excess of the limit up to the magical $21,000 requirement will allow you to reach your desired $250,000 for the year. Of course, the assumption is that you will actually spend at least $21,000 minimum per month.

Once you have successfully spent over $250,000 a year on your American Express credit card, you may wish to contact American Express directly if they haven’t already contacted you with a Black Centurion card invitation. While there is a common misconception that you can’t actually solicit Amex for such an invite, truth be told, if you satisfy their financial spending requirements, the company will probably be more than happy to welcome you into their exclusive credit card club.

3) You Must Be Able To Afford The Black Card’s High Annual Credit Card Fees – Once you are approved for the American Express Black Centurion card, you will need to pay the setup charges and subsequent annual maintenance fees. While earlier charter members enjoy substantially lower fees, currently for new members, there is a one time $5,000 initiation fee for the primary card holder and an upfront annual fee of $2,500, for a total of $7,500 due at the end of the first billing cycle. Clearly, the Black Centurion card isn’t for ordinary middle class working folks who don’t have thousands of disposable income dollars to throw around like Monopoly play money.

What Are the Best Features and Benefits of The Amex Black Centurion Card, and Are They Worth The Significant Annual Maintenance Fees?

The American Express Black Card is available in both personal and business form, but the vast majority of holders will likely find its benefits and credit card perks to be highly business-oriented, particularly in the area of business client entertainment as well as airline and hotel travel. For those who wish to apply for the business credit card version as an individual, keep in mind that it is perfectly legitimate and acceptable for individuals operating as a sole proprietorship business unto themselves to apply for a business card using their own names as the name of their business. As a small business owner, it’s what I personally do when I apply for business credit cards.

While the detailed specifics and the terms and conditions of your program will vary somewhat depending on whether you carry the personal or business version of the Black Centurion Card, the features and benefits of the Black Card are essentially the same. The Black Centurion offers the card holder exclusive and automatic upgrades with a wide selection of airline carriers, hotel resorts, and cruise ship travel programs. But the greatest and most touted benefit is the Black Centurion Card’s concierge service and personal shopper program, which helps cardholders find anything they desire in the area of fine dining, personal and business shopping, and travel related bookings for things like airline tickets, hotel reservations, and rental car arrangements.

1) Personal Concierge Services – Those who can afford the financial rigors and high expenditure requirements of the Amex Black Card are likely accustomed to personalized service and attention, and the Black Card program is happy to oblige with its personal concierge service for cardholders. Via the services of an outsourced concierge provider called Circles, American Express provides personalized VIP attention for both its Platinum and Centurion Black credit card customers. However, compared to regular Platinum card carriers, Black Centurion members receive more dedicated and prompt attention, and are understandably given access to a more highly trained and qualified staff of concierge representatives.

Having a dedicated and attentive personal concierge allows cardholders to outsource the time and effort of purchasing airline tickets, making hotel arrangements, booking rental cars, planning vacation trips, making dinner reservations, haggling for concert tickets, and researching prices. The actual success rate that the personal concierge agent has in securing exactly what you are looking for is somewhat debatable, but presumably due to the prestige and financial clout of the Black Centurion credit card program, it stands to reason that the company likely has greater access to exclusive deals and arrangements with the top restaurants, concert shows, and sporting venues than ordinary individuals.

The personal concierge service is probably the most commonly used and most invaluable Black Centurion Card benefit for many. While some people point out that the concierge agents are not always the best at locating what the cardholder is seeking, there’s no denying that this is still a very convenient luxury to have at one’s disposal. Not only does the cardholder have access to the personal concierge service, but the cardholder’s family members, personal assistants, and secretaries have access to this card perk as well.

2) Airline Travel Upgrades – If you are a frequent personal or business traveler, you will definitely appreciate the automatic airline upgrades offered by the Black Centurion card. What this means is that if you purchase a regular economy class ticket on one of participating airlines, you are automatically upgraded to elite status – usually this means getting bumped up to business or first class based on seat availability. With business and first class seats usually being triple or quadruple the cost of ordinary coach class seats, it’s not hard to see why this is such a potentially invaluable card benefit. With automatic upgrades into the following elite airline and hotel travel programs, cardholders enjoy such perks as dedicated check-ins, priority boardings, extra airline mileage earning opportunities, and bonus hotel stay earnings:

• Continental OnePass Gold Elite
• Delta Air Lines SkyMiles Gold Medallion
• US Airways Dividend Miles Platinum Preferred
• Virgin Atlantic Airways Flying Club Gold
• Priority Pass Membership
• Hilton HHonors Gold

Black Centurion cardholders also get access to Continental Airline’s President’s Lounge, Delta’s Crown Room Club, and Northwest Airline’s World Club as well as exclusive and complimentary access to Priority Pass’ over 500 VIP airport lounges. Automatic elite car rental upgrades with popular car rental companies like Hertz and Avis are also complimentary and available to cardholders.

The American Express Black Card also provides members with a companion airfare program that offers cardholders free guest airline tickets when the Black Card is used to purchase tickets. Currently, you can request up to 4 complimentary companion airline tickets a year. Of course, there may be a few airfare restrictions and blackout dates.

3) Hotel and Resort Lodging Upgrades – Along with automatic airline travel upgrades to elite status, the Black Card also offers automatic hotel lodging upgrades at all participating hotels and luxury resorts. Through partnerships with over 500 worldwide luxury hotels and resorts, chances are you will likely enjoy elite upgraded status at most premium hotels and resorts like the Starwood Group (Le Meridien, Four Points, Westin, Aloft, Sheraton, Element, St. Regis, and W Hotels), Ritz-Carlton, Mandarin Oriental, Hilton, Leading Hotels of the World, Amanresorts, and Centurion Villas.

Unfortunately, a few of the greatest and most coveted Black Centurion Card perks of past years have since been eliminated from the program. Until a few years ago, Hyatt’s Diamond Elite Status and Starwood’s Preferred Guest Platinum status were automatically offered to cardholders. However, Hyatt Hotel has since left the program and the Starwood Platinum status privilege is no longer offered to card members – a great disappointment and upset to many cardholders as the Starwood frequent guest suite upgrade program was indeed one of the best around. Now, cardholders will no longer qualify for automatic free Starwood Preferred Platinum status, but will receive Starwood Preferred Gold status instead, which offers substantially less upgrade opportunities for members.

4) Retail Shopping and Entertainment Benefits – More likely than not, American Express Black Centurion Card members are likely prolific shoppers, whether for personal reasons, or for business purposes. Coupled with the dedicated and personalized concierge service, card members can solicit the services of personal shoppers and price researchers to help them locate any product or custom merchandise they desire. For those who enjoy frequenting luxury boutiques and high end retailers like Bulgari, Escada, Gucci, Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Neiman Marcus, and Saks Fifth Avenue, personal shoppers are available at such retailers for VIP attention. In some circumstances, entire stores may be reserved for your personal shopping pleasure so you can bypass lines and avoid crowds. For those who desire reservations at exclusive restaurants, tickets for hard to find entertainment shows and sporting events like the Super Bowl, your Black Card concierge is there to help you secure such coveted tickets. American Express has deals and exclusive arrangements with hundreds and thousands of restaurants to reserve tables for card members. With the Black Card, you will have greater access to so-called Gold Card events and premium luxury seating at concerts and events not ordinarily available to the general public.

Members also get automatic subscriptions to “Black Ink” magazine, an ultra exclusive publication that caters to the materialistic fancies of like minded wealthy clientele discussing such indulgences like luxury performance vehicles and exclusive dream vacation destinations. On occasion, as yet another complimentary benefit for coveted Black Card holders, American Express sends out free gift cards worth in excess of $500-$1000 to a variety of exclusive high end retailers. Amex has also been known to send out to Black Card customers, such gifts like expensive digital cameras and high end women’s jewelry.

Is The American Express Black Centurion Credit Card Worth The Hefty $7,500 Initiation Fee (One Time $5,000 Plus The $2,500 Annual Fee)?

First of all, if you are even asking yourself if the Black Card is worth the cost, this card’s likely not for you. Remember, to even qualify for an exclusive invite or to even satisfy the financial requirements to request membership, existing American Express card members need to spend at least $250,000 a year worth of credit card purchases. If your business or personal situation allows this type of high spending, chances are, a comparatively small $7,500 fee is unlikely to even register as a blip on your financial radar. Keep in mind, the American Express Black Centurion card is all about exclusivity and rarity. It’s a coveted financial item and the ultimate status symbol because it is only held by a limited number of wealthy individuals. The card should be regarded as a personal branding tool for those who can indeed afford the cost of carrying it. The automatic travel upgrades and complimentary perks and credit card rewards are certainly appreciated by card carriers, but it’s probably the exclusivity and status symbol of the Black Card that cardholders who can afford it covet the most. For ordinary consumers who do not have thousands and millions of dollars to throw around, the Black Centurion Card is a symbol of great excess waste and unnecessary decadence, but for the higher income types, it’s akin to driving around an expensive luxury sports car – it’s an attention getter for many.

But speaking from a cost benefit analysis perspective, are the benefits of the Black Centurion Card worth the one time $5,000 initial setup fee and the subsequent $2,500 fee year after year? After speaking to a few actual Black Card carriers and picking their brains a bit about what they find so useful and indispensable about the card, I have to conclude that the card is indeed worth the hefty annual fee, but only if you are a heavy business traveler or one who frequently engages in airline travel and hotel stays. The Amex Black Card is primarily business oriented and most of the airline and travel perks are geared towards upgrading existing travel accommodations into more comfortable elite offerings. For busy business types, the airline and hotel upgrades over the course of a year may very well cover the cost of the annual fee alone.

For those who primarily use the personal concierge services of the card for shopping research and entertainment reservation purposes, the cost benefit of the annual fee is more debatable as the cost is a bit harder to quantify. While American Express tends to provide better customer service for its cardholders than that of other credit card issuers, I think the concierge services is likely only useful in certain circumstances. For example, purchasing airline tickets is a breeze online and I find I can probably do a better job myself with a few keystrokes online than any concierge representative who isn’t as skilled at bargain hunting and deal finding. But for busy business types who have little time for mundane things like shopping research and price comparison, having a personal concierge at one’s beck and call certainly may be worth the cost of card membership.

As I grumbled a bit in an earlier personal finance blog post, I’m suffering from a bit of a bout of blogger’s block recently. What started out as a torrent of gun-ho, blog posting eager beavery has dwindled to a couch potato-ry display of procrastination and summer slumpery (yes I know, I’m making up words here). However, despite my motivational troubles of late, I made the decision recently to rekindle my blogging business drive. To jump start my previously respectable and focused work at home habits, I decided to force an immediate change of scenery solution to get myself out of my temporary rut – by going on an overseas vacation. Of course, I wouldn’t want to head out without the ability to bring my blogging business platform and online writing tools with me – I will require the services of a portable notebook computer.

Since I gave my only existing laptop computer away to my younger brother so he could use it for his new graduate school studies, I decided I needed to go out and buy a new one for myself. As I’m actually in the midst of working my way through one of those supposedly free online laptop gift reward offers at the moment, I debated whether to wait around until I received it before heading off on my trip. At the end, I decided I could always sell the free laptop reward on eBay or Craigslist for extra money some other time in the future. So I decided to go ahead and buy a new laptop computer for work travel portability. The following are some of the considerations I went through when choosing a new laptop computer.

What Features Should I Look For In The Perfect Laptop Notebook Computer?

I’m not a tech blogger, nor am I even close to being an expert on how to buy a notebook computer. While I love computers, I really don’t update myself on all the latest news and advancements in technology related products. What I am is just an ordinary consumer who has purchased laptops and computers before as a student and as a working professional, for myself, family, and friends. I know what I like and I know what’s practical for most personal and business applications. I also enjoy visiting retail stores like Best Buy and Circuit City that offer in store display products for consumers to tinker on, tap away furiously, and basically abuse to their heart’s content. It’s one of the many reasons why I like retail brick and mortar electronic stores as opposed to online shopping sometimes. At retail stores, when it comes to products like laptop computers, you have the ability to pick the product up to physically gauge the weight and feel, the ability to feel the sensation of the laptop keyboard spring response as you type, and the first hand ability to visually assess the quality of the merchandise.

As a financial blogger with a legal background, I’m definitely not a savvy expert on computer CPU processor terminology or a know-it-all when it comes to deciding whether one memory component is better than another memory component. But I do know what works for me and what is practical for most laptop consumers in the real world. For my purposes, so long as a laptop computer is form appropriate in terms of weight, size, and aesthetics, and performs with proficient speed, and able to handle appropriate writing and browsing tasks at an affordable cost, I’ll definitely give the laptop model a serious consideration.

Here are some of the most important features to look for in a laptop notebook computer. The items in this little list don’t cover everything, but they are the primary features and components that most ordinary laptop users will want to consider when choosing a new notebook computer. I’m sure some of the so-called laptop hardware experts will be surprised at the features I find important and amused by the ones I deem less worthy of my concern.

1) Glossy Screen or Matte/Anti-Reflective Screen – Other than the keyboard, the screen is probably one, if not the most important feature of a great laptop computer. Personally, I highly prefer the glossy screens over the duller matted ones, despite the fact the great majority of computer users (probably 80% or more) seem to prefer matted displays. While the glossy screens tend to be more reflective of light and has been reported to cause eye strain in some users, I’ve never had any viewing problems or reflective difficulties associated with the glossier displays. I love the glossy screens because the colors are displayed much more brightly and with more richness. Color palettes are not only displayed with greater vibrancy, but the resultant effect is a laptop screen back light that seems stronger than that of the matte.

Matted displays on the other hand, while not reflective of light and supposedly less imposing of a strain on the eyes, display colors and shades that are much more subdued. My old IBM Thinkpad laptop was a matte screen and I always had problems with the display being too dark. Ever since I bought a glossy Sony Xbrite LCD monitor for my desktop computer, I fell in love with the glossies and never plan on going back. Due to my great experience with Sony glossy screens, I almost always recommend their displays over other brands. I’ve owned Dell’s and other brands as well and have found their screen colors to be comparatively duller.

2) Keyboard Size and Responsiveness – As I will primarily be using this new laptop for word processing and blogging related functions, having a stellar keyboard with accurate spring back response will be extremely important. The keyboard is definitely a major make or break issue for me. After visiting all the local Best Buy and Circuit City stores, and having matched the opinions expressed on online review sites like CNET to my actual experience at the retail stores, I’ve narrowed down what I believe to be the top 3 laptop brands that offer the best keyboards – Lenovo (formerly IBM Thinkpad), Dell, and Sony’s Vaio SZ business series. All of the other laptop brands out there like HP, Sony non-SZ series, and even Apple offer sub par keyboard typing experiences in comparison. Of course this is just my personal take and opinion, but I highly prefer laptop keyboards that click crisply as you type with very responsive and clearly defined bounce backs as keys are pressed.

The legendary IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads are above and beyond the very best when it comes to keyboard design and technology. Very few other brands even come close. The only ones that can even compare are the Dell and Sony VAIO SZ series keyboards (the non-SZ series laptops offer keyboard buttons that seem a tad too soft). While some might not like the noticeably louder clicking sounds that emanate from the Sony SZ keys, I actually find the sharper key taps to be very reassuring and responsive as I type.

3) Laptop Machine Weight and Screen Size - Unless you are buying a laptop computer as a desktop replacement computer that will spend the bulk of its time sitting stationary at your home office desk, the laptop’s weight and size will be fairly important factors to consider. In my ideal business oriented laptop, I prefer a light weight machine that doesn’t exceed 5 lbs (4 lbs is highly preferred). Anything higher than 5 lbs is treading into the heavy brick category in my opinion. I’ve lugged around laptops before and have found that after including the additional weight of the electrical power strip, the mouse pad, the mouse, and other external hard drive extras, any laptop that exceeds 5 pounds can quickly weigh down the laptop bag fairly significantly.

Interestingly, the laptop screen size itself is not something I pay too much attention to when it comes to choosing a notebook computer. If you ask me, unless you are buying a desktop replacement, you needn’t pay too much attention to the screen size. Even smaller screen computers generally perform just as well as the larger ones. Usually, it comes down to a trade off between screen size and weight. Having a larger screen size affords more computer desktop space and is certainly nice, but it also means the computer is likely to be substantially heavier. I’ve found that the compact 13 inch screen is perfectly ideal for most ordinary users, including bloggers and writers who don’t really need the extra desktop space for their work. For my purposes, anything larger than a 13 inch screen would probably result in a portable computer that’s significantly heavier than I’d like.

4) Processor and Memory Hardware - I rarely pay attention to the processing speed or memory hardware when choosing a laptop. I’m sure some computer techies would probably be shocked, but I personally view such laptop parts as inherently interchangeable. I’ve rarely had any problems with slow processing speed or issues involving not having enough memory. These days, with the rapid rate at which new developments in computer hardware get released into the marketplace, there isn’t much point in trying to stay on top of the latest technology. Most of the desktop computers and laptops sold out there usually offer the top of the line hardware anyway, or at least close to the top. There’s no real point fussing over one chip over another and it’s unlikely any of us regular consumers would be able to tell a difference based on performance alone anyway. You’re better off hinging your laptop buying decision on components like the keyboard or type of screen offered.

5) Built In Camera and Microphone – While neither are essential components, having a built in camera and internal microphone are handy features to have. Having them already installed into your laptop screen cuts down on the added weight from having to carry around extra accessories. With the growing use of video instant messaging and the use of Voice Over IP services like Skype for audio conferencing purposes, it’s good to have a built in webcam in your notebook computer. It shouldn’t be a make or break issue though, so don’t let it hinder your ultimate buying decision.

6) Extra Features and Gizmos Like Special Video and Sound Cards, and Extra USB Ports – Having extra USB ports is nice because it allows you to hook up multiple components like your mouse, printer, scanner, digital camera, and external hard drives at the same time. While the ideal laptop should have at least 4 USB ports, 2 is often enough for most entry level users.

As for having fancy 3D video cards or premium sound cards, unless you plan to be a heavy gamer or work as a 3D graphics designer, these are luxuries that are nice to have but not really essential in a new laptop computer. My suggestion is to not pay these components too much attention. Focus on the screen type and keyboard instead.

7) Customer Support and Product Reliability – One thing that I’ve learned over the years is that internally, computers are all basically from the same stock. Other than a few proprietary and unique components like computer screens and keyboard design, the internal processor and hardware components are all the same among the different computer brands. Almost all of the manufacturing and assembling processes are outsourced to other companies. For example, would it surprise you to know that Dell and many of the major computer brands out there don’t actually build their own computers? It’s true. What the brands actually offer is customer and technical support for computer repairs and troubleshooting. Manufacturing responsibilities are outsourced to other companies and all their laptop and desktop computer parts are built and assembled by third party manufacturers like Seagate, Panasonic, and Intel. Thus, oftentimes, one of the few distinguishing factors among different computer brands are the differences in customer support warranty packages. Most of my laptop buying and technical support experiences have centered around IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads, Dell laptops, and Sony notebook computers – the vast majority having been generally positive and favorable.

Most computers in the market offer the industry standard warranty of 12 months. When it comes to buying extra laptop warranty coverage, I advise against it – use credit card warranty programs instead. You’re much better off buying the laptop computer with a credit card and extending your original manufacturer’s warranty by a year or more with the special warranty extension perks that many credit card issuers provide for consumers. By extending your laptop warranty to a combined total of 2 years with credit card warranty programs, you’ll get pretty good mileage out of your portable computer. As laptop lifespans are generally 2-3 years and computer prices drop fairly fast, you may be better off buying a new laptop after the end of the 2 year warranty period should it break down after that time. Don’t waste your money on purchasing additional extended warranty add-ons. Many retail store agents push this type of extra service, not because it’s such an invaluable service, but because it’s one of the few things the reps can earn lofty commissions on.

My Decision To Ultimately Buy A Sony VAIO SZ Series Business Laptop

After weeks of tests and comparisons at local area electronic retail stores, I finally settled on buying a brand new black Sony VAIO SZ750 business laptop. The price, while more expensive than that of standard consumer laptops, offered a laptop that was a perfect fit for an aspiring full time blogger on the go like myself. The keyboard typing experience is quite exceptional on the Sony VAIO SZ series and the laptop is very light at 4-5 pounds. The glossy screen display also offers crisp colors and an excellent viewing experience, a trademark of most Sony VAIO computers. I love the black exterior color design, reminiscent of my old IBM Thinkpad during law school. The only thing that would have made the Sony VAIO SZ even better would have been a red pointer device. While most people seem to dislike those handy red pointing devices in favor of the classic laptop touch pad, I actually like the pointing sticks a lot more, probably due to my days as a Thinkpad user. I had considered buying a Lenovo Thinkpad, but the lack of glossy screens in the Lenovo notebook line eventually led me to go with a Sony VAIO. As usual, I paid very little attention to the processor, memory, or even hard drive specifics – making my decision primarily based on keyboard and laptop screen quality comparisons.

Getting Rid Of The Infamous Sony VAIO Computer Bloatware Programs

My only gripe with the Sony VAIO laptop I purchased is the extremely high and ridiculous amount of bloatware that came pre-installed. Bloatware is basically the lingo used to refer to free, but useless software that comes pre-installed on many new computers. Oftentimes third party software developers like AOL, Microsoft, and Norton Anti-Virus pay computer manufacturers like Sony and Dell large sums of money to install their promotional software programs into all new computers sold. Most of the time, the software installed are not even fully functional versions, but rather demo test trial programs designed to compel the user to pay more money to buy the full software at the end of the trial period. The pre-installations essentially bloat your new computer, causing it to unnecessarily devote processing power to handle the excess software load. For those like me who desire a clean desktop and streamlined hard drive installation, getting rid of all the preinstalled software can be a major pain in the you know what. Oftentimes it’s also hard to differentiate the unnecessary bloatware from the essential programs.

Sony is probably the king of bloatware. While they build pretty decent computers, for whatever reason, the company don’t hesitate to sell out their computer consumers to the bloatware developers as they readily stuff their new computers with all sorts of pointless software programs that consumers are unlikely to ever use. The following list are all the pre-installed programs and applications that came with my new Sony VAIO SZ laptop. While the specifics will likely differ among Sony computers, the majority are likely going to be the same. I’ve bolded the ones I’ve kept. The non-bolded ones are the pre-installed software programs I’ve deemed to be bloatware and useless. Please let me know if you disagree with any of my bloatware assessments. I removed the bloatware programs by accessing the uninstall program feature through my desktop’s control panel and individually removing each one. The whole removal process wasted about 1-2 hours of my time. Thanks Sony.

List Of Pre-Installed Software On My Sony VAIO Laptop (The Programs That Are Somewhat Useful and Perhaps Necessary Are Bolded)

• Activation Assistance For the 2007 Microsoft Office Suite
• Adobe Acrobat Professional 8.0
• Adobe Flash Player
• Adobe Reader
• Alps Point-device for Vaio
• AOL Toolbar 4.0
• ArcSoft Magic-i Visual Effects
• Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2007
• Click to Disc
• Click to Disc Editor
• Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office System
• Corel PaintShop Pro Photo X2
• Crackle Screen Saver 1.0
• DSD Direct
• DSD Direct Player
• DSD Playback Plug In
• HDAudio SoftV92 Data Fax Modem with SmartCP
• Java SE Runtime Environement 6
• LiveUpdate 2.3 (Symantec Coproration)
• Location Free Player
• Microsoft Office Component Files (all)
• Microsoft SQL Server Component Files (all)
• Microsoft Visual C++
• Microsoft Works
• MSXML 4.0 SP2 Files
• MobiTV Icon
• Napster
• Norton 360 (Symantec Corporation)
• NVIDIA Drivers
• OpenMG Limited Patch 4.7
• Protector Suite QL 5.6
• QuickBooks Simple Start 2008
• Roxio Easy Media Creator Home
• Setting Utility Series
• SigmaTel Audio
• SmartWi Connection Utility
  
• SonicStage
• SonicStage Mastering Studio and Filters
• Sony Snymsico for Vista
• Sony Video Shared Library
• Spy Sweeper
• SupportSoft Assisted Service
• VAIO Camera Capture Utility
  
• VAIO Center Access Bar
• VAIO Content Folder Bar
• VAIO Content Folder Setting
• VAIO Content Metadata (all)
• VAIO Control Center
• VAIO DVD Menu Data Basic
  
• VAIO Entertainment Center
  
• VAIO Entertainment Platform
• VAIO Event Service
• VAIO Help and Support
• VAIO Media (all files)
• VAIO Movie Story
• VAIO Movie Story Template Data
• VAIO Music Box
• VAIO Music Box Sample Music
• VAIO OOBE and Welcome Center
• VAIO Original Function Setting
• VAIO PC Wireless LAN Wizard
• VAIO Power Management
• VAIO Productivity Center
• VAIO Security Center
• VAIO Service Utility
• VAIO Startup Assistant
• VAIO Status Monitor
  
• VAIO Survey
• VAIO Update 3
• VAIO Wallpaper Contents (not needed but nice to have some different wallpaper options)
• WIDCOMM Bluetooth Software
• Windows Driver Package Intent Corporation
• WinDVD for VAIO

We live in an extremely politically correct country these days, which means anyone who even mentions anything negative about someone different (like negatively pointing out a foreign accent), or criticizes someone for their inability to speak the language properly, he or she is immediately labeled as prejudiced, racist, or somehow inciting hateful views. I’m truly none of those things, but I feel a personal finance blog platform is as good as any to express my own personal views about my own experiences on the matter. While I was born overseas, I came to the U.S. when I was only 2-3 years old, so I’ve pretty much grown up as an American and learned to identify strongly with the crux of American culture and its values. While a key component of American culture is the ability to embrace diversity and appreciate differences between different types of people, both foreign and domestic, there are some circumstances when I greatly prefer the services of a fellow American.

This preferential situation comes up whenever I call a live customer service help line. When I pick up the phone and make that affirmative decision to seek help via a toll free telephone number, my reasonable expectation is that I will reach someone who can communicate with me in an intelligible way, and help me resolve my consumer business problem quickly and efficiently, so that I can go along my merry way. It’s bad enough that I often have to spend 30 minutes or more waiting on hold before I can talk to a live technical support representative, but these days, it seems when I finally reach that live person, he or she turns out to be completely unable to communicate with me using comprehensible and discernible English.

I Can Deal With Difficult To Understand Accents In Real Life (By Using Hand Gestures), But When The Situations Happen Over The Phone, The Conversations Can Get Comically Tedious

I am terrible when it comes to understanding different accents. Even British English accents trip me up on occasion – but at least it is somewhat closer to American English in terms of speech and pronunciation, albeit a bit more deliberately pronounced I suppose. While I can understand the different types of American English accents such as a southern, Boston, and even accents that distinguish different races and ethnic groups prominent in this country, I still have frequent difficulty understanding the cultural nuances and accents that aren’t considered mainstream American English. This difficulty in understanding foreign accents is most pronounced and debilitating when it comes to conversations over the phone with someone from another land, especially when I find my phone call re-routed to some outsourced call center located overseas and wind up with a customer service rep who speaks with a thick accent that I simply cannot understand despite my best efforts.

While in a real life conversation and business work setting, heavy accents aren’t as significant a detriment as there are other methods of communication such as using writing and through natural hand gestures to punctuate one’s point, in the world of customer service telephone calls, this type of linguistic verbal diversity is a significant detriment and handicap. When it comes to customer and technical support help lines, communication and speed are two important elements to a quick and satisfactory resolution of the problem at hand. There are plenty of jobs where having a perfect American English accent is not crucial and one can get away with not having otherwise perfect American English, but a position as a customer service call representative that caters to Americans is not one of them. The job absolutely demands that the agent be able to communicate with the language of the target country. Is that really too much to ask? Oftentimes in such scenarios, time and patience are limited luxuries. In such situations, having a thick accent is a very undesired handicap to have, particularly when the issue needs to get resolved quickly over the phone in a short period of time without the benefit of time to get to know each other. This is the biggest problem many customers such as myself are having with companies that continue to outsource their customer service call center jobs overseas to English speaking, but heavily accented countries like India.

Facing An Indian Customer Service Representative With An Incredibly Thick Accent Is Like Talking To A Brick Wall – Nothing Gets Through, and Time Is Wasted

When American call center customer service jobs are outsourced to other countries, I think it’s reasonable to expect the call agents that will be handling the calls to be trained to speak in proper America English. However that is not always the case. Especially when it comes to Indian call centers, the accent is often an interesting mish mash of British English, local Indian dialect, and butchered American English. What often comes out is an unintelligible murmur, resulting in humorous and frequently embarrassing exchanges between the rep and the customer.

A few years ago, I bought a Linksys wireless Internet router, but had major trouble setting up my wireless connection. I kept losing my wireless internet signal and so I embarked on a customer service phone call quest to solve the problem. I dialed the company’s 1-800 number and was promptly connected to an agent. Little did I know, but my call from Maryland, USA was instantly routed thousands of miles across the planet to a different time zone to a call center in India. Immediately when I heard the agent’s accent, I knew it was going to be a long day. It started as soon as my phone rep introduced herself with a thick Indian accented “Hello”…followed by a …”my name is Mary”, a presumably English name moniker chosen by the Indian customer service rep for the convenience sake of their mostly American clientele instead of compelling them to remember a more difficult Indian name. For the next 60 minutes, I struggled valiantly to understand her words and sentences. I tried to remain polite and understanding, but I kept asking her to please repeat herself, much to my continued embarrassment. Every sentence on her part would be followed by a “What?” on my end, or would be followed by a momentary pause as I scratched my head and tried to figure out what she was trying to tell me.

After a while, I could tell she was getting fed up with having to repeat herself after every instruction, but then what was I supposed to do? I desperately tried to understand, and I really did try – but it was a constant guessing game on my end. I simply could not comprehend the Indian customer service representative’s thick Indian English accent. At the end, I got little accomplished because she and I were simply unable to communicate. I found myself spending more than an hour repeating her own words back in my vain attempt to make some linguistic sense. Eventually I had to give up and seek help from another customer service rep. The next rep’s Indian accent was just as thick and I ultimately had to call back several times before I finally found an agent who’s accent was more bearable. But the experience left me with a very negative view of the company and their irresponsible cost cutting efforts to send customer service jobs overseas when the work could be better handled here.

American Companies Who Cater To American Consumers Should Seriously Re-Consider Their Indian Outsourcing Strategy Or Face Consumer Backlash In The Long Run

This is a serious problem that many major American companies who choose to outsource their call center jobs to low cost foreign countries will ultimately have to face. Customers such as myself may eventually take our customer service frustration out on the company and defect to one of their competitors. Based on some news reports I’ve read, many companies that have attempted to outsource their customer service functions abroad have not realized the cost savings they expected, discovering that there are hidden costs that far outweighed the potential savings in labor expenses. Oftentimes, due to significant customer complaints about difficult to understand customer service representative accents and great differences in culture, companies have had to expend significant amounts of additional money to train the agents on proper American English and terminology. Ultimately some of these outsourcers have brought those type of jobs back in-house and back into the country.

Faced with backlash from customers like myself who have great difficulty understanding heavily accented Indian English, some companies are actually taking the next logical alternative step by shipping the work over to other moderately English speaking countries, like the Philippines. As a former U.S. controlled territory, the Philippines at least offers a more Americanized work force with a better understanding of American culture that can potentially offer employees with lighter accents. There will still be an annoying accent to deal with, but at least the twang, so to speak, will be significantly less painful to understand than that spoken in India.

There are currently also signs that the trend toward outsourcing call center jobs to low-wage countries like India or even the Philippines may be slowing down. Research shows that some call centers are most effective when staffed by Americans and there is at least some growing attempt to keep jobs here. I’ve noticed that many companies are now trying to keep the bulk of their daytime customer service call center jobs in the United States where the calls can be handled by American English speaking agents. For customer service lines that provide 24 hour coverage and take on evening calls however, some still get routed overseas to places like India, but many daytime calls are now being mercifully handled by call centers in the U.S. At least that’s what I noticed recently when I called my cable internet provider’s help line several times recently. When I called during normal daytime office hours, I got a service rep that spoke perfect English, but at night, I basically played the ole accent guessing game, doubling and even tripling the length of time spent trying to resolve my problem.

For those of you out there who are embarrassed to admit but also have difficulty understanding accents, I recommend making your 1-800 customer service and technical support phone calls during the day. Sure that means using up your precious anytime wireless phone minutes, but you stand a much better chance of reaching someone in this country than if you called after hours.

This weekend a good buddy of mine and I decided to meet up and go for a round trip cross country bike ride from suburban Maryland, through the tree lined bike trails of Washington D.C., and into the outskirts of Northern Virginia. Neither of us owned decent bikes (none with suitable seats that wouldn’t give us wedgies anyway), so we decided to rent a pair from a local bike rental shop near my old university stomping grounds. Since I hadn’t been back to visit my old college in some time, we decided that after bike riding we would spend some time looking around and grabbing a bite to eat somewhere in the college town neighborhood.

The bike ride through the shaded forest trails and paved roads was fun and the subsequent pit stop at the National Zoo in D.C. was very relaxing (although, where were all the animals we wondered?), but the biking experience left me utterly exhausted, with aching legs, and a pair of sore butt cheeks. I completely underestimated the painful long distance hill climbs and the sheer distance that we needed to travel. Despite my cross country running background, I’ve been slacking off in the exercise department of late and wasn’t in the best of shape to embark on a long bike ride.

Next time, I would definitely do a better job planning the route. For one thing, I would arrange it so that we faced the long uphill climbs in the beginning first half of our bike ride during early afternoon than during the subsequent half late in the afternoon when our muscles and energy levels were already worn out. It was sort of embarrassing, but my friend and I ended up pushing our bikes uphill near the end because our legs were too drained. Yes, not the most impressive demonstrations of manliness (considering there were little kids biking uphill in their tri-cycles of all things), however, the day was a very enjoyable calorie burning day and we had appetites to match.

Visiting a Local College Town Bar and Grill Restaurant For Dinner, and Gushing Over the Cost Savings

After dropping off our rental bikes at the college town bike store, we looked around the neighboring university town to decide where to eat dinner. I suggested either one of the popular bars or local college town hangouts next to our bike rental place, or perhaps one of the casual dining cafes or restaurants popular among the college students. After reminiscing a little bit about the fond memories I had about sporting event inspired student riots that erupted in the past from these very same local hangouts, we settled on this one sports bar type place. The restaurant was a bar and grill eatery, and was a popular college student hangout when I was a student a few years ago and apparently still was. The interior walls were lined with numerous flat screen TV’s showing various sporting events, and the place proudly displayed its local college team ties with mascot logos and signed football jerseys. Even the menus featured dishes named after the local university football and basketball coaches’ names with ingredients that supposedly reflected their personalities. The place looked like a three way cross between an Applebee’s, an ESPN zone, and a Hooter’s restaurant (the waitresses at least).

After given the dinner menus by the perky waitress, my friend and I looked through the menu and picked out four dinner items – two entrees and two appetizers. I don’t remember the exact name but I ordered some type of special pesto pasta dish and a side order of sweet potato fries, and my friend ordered some type of grilled chicken sandwich with an extra side of onion rings. I remember glancing at the prices briefly, but usually I don’t usually pay much attention to individual prices until I get the bill. After we got our food, finished it, and asked for the bill – I was completely blown away by the final amount. Including sales tax, the bill came out to only $14.23! At first I thought there must have been some mistake – surely the waitress must have only calculated one of our orders and forgotten to include the other person’s dinner entree and appetizer. But after punching some numbers on my cell phone calculator, I realized the final tab was computed correctly – it really was that cheap.

While some of you out there who live in rural or lower cost suburban areas may not think this is all that low for the cost of a dinner for two, in my neck of the woods of Washington D.C. and Maryland, this is exceedingly cheap. I was mentally expecting a total bill to come out at around $35.00-40.00 or more, especially since we also ordered appetizer sides and the fact it was dinner pricing, which is usually substantially higher than discounted prices during lunch time. So when I saw the low cost, I was ecstatic and elated at the tremendous cost savings.

Local Non-Chain Restaurants That Appeal To Cash Strapped Students Feature Much Lower Menu Prices

After pondering about it for a bit, I realized why prices were so comparatively low at this particular restaurant. In fact, it wasn’t just that particular restaurant that offered much lower prices. Most of the other local neighborhood college town area restaurants, bars, and dining cafes offered similar competitive pricing as well. The reason for the cheaper pricing was because these restaurants catered heavily to the local state university campus a few blocks away, and as is understood, college students generally have a very limited financial budget to work with. While working adults and graduates presumably have full time jobs and income, college students tend to be more cash strapped and limited as to how much they can afford to spend. To cater to this category of lower income clientele and offer competitive food pricing, these college town restaurants must offer heavily discounted prices. While to the students, the prices were set just right and accurately priced to fit their market, to working adults like my friend and I, the dining prices were remarkably low. The different perspectives in pricing would be like some city slicker businessman from New York City, accustomed to paying $12-$15 for a single lunch deli sandwich everyday, being instantly transported to the boonies of Nebraska and finding sandwiches prices as low as $3 each. It’s a frugal person’s heaven and jackpot to be able to find such a hidden treasure trove of underpriced goods.

However, based on my view, the tremendous price savings are only available and offered at locally run off-campus hangouts. Brand name chain restaurants like Applebee’s, TGI Fridays, or even coffee shops like Starbucks continue to offer the same high rip off prices they offer elsewhere. If you are looking for college town dining savings, you won’t find them at chain restaurants or national retail shops. You’ll have to go to some popular local bar or grill restaurant to get the great student level pricing.

Also, it seems the arbitrage price savings can usually only be found at community or local state universities and colleges. If you visit a private university or one that imposes notoriously high tuition rates, you are unlikely to find too many deals when it comes to dining or eating out. This is probably due to the richer and wealthier student patrons that enroll in those types of schools. As a result of the deeper pockets that these students come to school with thanks to their wealthier parents, they have a lot more disposable spending money to blow on entertainment and food. As such, even the local mom and pop restaurants located near private college and university campuses can afford to offer expensive items on the menu and still adequately compete for customers. Public state school students tend to be more frugal and more cognizant about prices. I would know – I graduated from a public state university. My friends who attended neighboring private colleges and universities tended to be more wasteful and lavish in their spending – and as a correlation, restaurants and cafes located their private school campuses tended to price themselves high to capture this higher income demographic. Finding exceptional dining deals around their schools was usually quite a challenge if not impossible.

Of course, the one greatest downside (or upside depending on what you’re looking for) is the sheer number of rowdy students that are bound to flood these local college town restaurants when school season starts. We ate there during the summer and despite the presence of a few summer students and local residents, most of the locally owned restaurants and cafes were rather empty and vacant. I’m sure when September rolls around and school starts, the place will be filled with hordes of drunken college students and fraternity pledges from the neighboring fraternity row just a block away from the area restaurants – all looking to party it up.