Money Blue Book

Countrywide Bank is currently offering the Countrywide Rewards Platinum Visa Card for a remarkable 2% cash back on all purchases. Very few other credit card offers come close - except maybe the similarly advertised 1.5% cash back Fidelity Visa Signature Card. Most other top value cash back credit cards restrict higher rebates to special purchase categories such as grocery stores, gas stations, and restaurants. This card’s one of the best non-restrictive purchase cards out there.

The only caveat is that to get the high 2% cash back rebate, you’ll need to redeem your rebate points as a deposit to your Countrywide savings account, money market account, or as a payment towards a Countrywide mortgage loan. With the offer, you’ll receive 1 purchase reward point for every $1 you spend using the credit card. Everytime your rebate balance reaches 2,500 points, you can redeem your points for an instant $50 Countrywide bank deposit or mortgage payment - essentially a 2% cash back offer.

This offer is basically your base 1% cash back offer for non Countrywide bank account holders with an additional special bonus rebate on top for those who are. With the standard purchase offer, you only get 1% back, redeemable for gift cards to a participating merchant of your choice, or a $25 check to use towards home improvement and related supplies. But if you are a Countrywide bank or mortgage customer as well, you’ll get double the rewards, effectively. There is no annual fee, and best of all for high credit card spenders, there is no cap or limit to the amount of rewards you can earn.

While the card has been around for some time in one form or another, it wasn’t until relatively recently that the Countrywide Platinum Visa started to allow customers to redeem points as a savings account deposit as well - becoming a true cash back credit card. Before the switch, the card was just one of those real estate mortgage payment credit card offers.

Take Advantage Of The Max 2% Cash Back Offer With A Countrywide Savings Or Money Market Account

As a credit card buff, I’m always on the prowl for new credit card bonus rewards and purchase rebate offers. I didn’t pay much attention to this credit card offer (since it was just another 1% rebate credit card to me) until I recently opened a Countrywide SavingsLink account so I could write a review about the company’s interest rate offerings. I was personally able to open a Countrywide savings account instantly with no hard credit check performed. If you’re an interest rate chaser, it’s hard to beat a consistent performer like Countrywide. Countrywide Bank has historically offered very high APY interest rates for its interesting bearing savings and money market services. In my regularly updated list of the best high yield savings accounts, I have consistently listed Countrywide Bank as a top performer for its high rate of return for account holders and reliability in offering fast ACH transfer services for those with multiple linked bank accounts. For the high yield SavingsLink, there is a $1,000 minimum balance to open and you’ll need at least $10,000 to get the highest APY rate. For those of you who maintain less than $10,000 in your savings account, there are better choices elsewhere.

Converting An Existing Chase (First USA) Credit Card Into The Countrywide Visa Platinum Card

Since I try my best to keep my FICO credit score rating high, I would rather not recklessly submit an application for a new credit card offer unless I had no other option available to me (new credit card applications ding your credit score ever so slightly everytime). Therefore, I turned to my existing portfolio of cards instead. Since the Countrywide credit card is currently being run by Chase (First USA) card services, I was able to call in and convert an old Chase branded Platinum Visa card into the new Countrywide Visa Platinum Card. Keep in mind, this type of conversion without a new card application is only possible if you have a current Chase or First USA credit card with either the Signature or Platinum designation.

What Will Happen To Countrywide Banking Services With Bank Of America’s Upcoming Acquisition?

It wasn’t too long ago that Countrywide dodged the bankruptcy bullet due to heavy involvement in the subprime mortgage loan mess. With its pending acquisition by Bank of America still being processed and Bank of America already having indicated that it intends to operate Countrywide separately under its existing Countrywide name for at least until 2009, there remains speculation as to what will become of the current line of Countrywide products. One possibility is that the 2% cash back Countrywide credit card will get serviced by Bank of America. But it’s also possible that the program might get shifted onto another card provider like American Express. I’m just speculating at this point, by the way. When Bank of America acquired MBNA, it took the pre-existing 2% rebate MBNA Fidelity 529 Mastercard and hammered it into a new American Express card with a lower 1.5% rebate offer. However and very importantly, existing cardholders were allowed to keep and maintain their old 2% rebate offer as is.

Changes are definitely going to come, but if you are willing to take a little bit of chance, you might be able to secure yourself a great 2% reward card good towards all purchases. How Bank of America plans on integrating or modifying the Countrywide bank account redemption portion of the current offer is a good question. If you’re not willing to take the leap and roll the dice, you might want to consider going with a more predictable and less drama-filled cash back credit card program.

Oh great - well I hope this article doesn’t foretell or signify a trend that’s going to be widely picked up by the gas industry in the coming future. While they’ve been one of the most credit card friendly industries in the past, some gas station chains are apparently starting to scale back their payment options in favor of cash due to diminishing profit margins caused by higher gas prices and rising credit card interchange fees. The credit card interchange fee, a percentage of the total sales price paid to credit card companies by the merchant on every transaction, is usually fixed at somewhere just under 2% - but the dollar amount of the fee rises with the price of the goods or services. As gas prices have risen dramatically, so have the credit card acceptance fees that gas pump merchants pay, drastically cutting into their profitability.

I Always Use My Credit Card To Pay For Gas And Don’t Intend To Change This Payment Practice Anytime Soon

While I understand why some gas station owners and advocates are pushing for the move back to cash payment only for gas purchases, I hope this is not an emerging or widely adopted trend. Paying cash at the pump may work for some, but it’s not going to fly for me.

I take frequent road trips and one of the most appreciated benefits of fueling at the gas pump is the ability to easily slide into a gas station off the freeway, punch in my prepayment, fuel up, and get out quickly. With a gas credit card, I can do that easily. With just a quick swipe and the press of a few buttons on the automated gas pump, my car is instantly refueled without hassle. With cash payment, not only is the practice comparatively more time consuming, but it’s a major inconvenience for those of us who have grown dependent on using our credit cards to pay for everything. I rarely carry more than $50 worth of emergency cash in my wallet and dislike the annoyance of walking around with dollar bills and loose coins jiggling around in my pockets. My efficient credit card usage habit also stems from my view that handling paper money is inherently dirty and unsanitary. I’m by no means a germa-phobe, but I feel that money is one of those heavily transacted items that you never truly know where it’s been before. For all I know, the bills were last taken out and manhandled by some hairy, sweaty dude while he was sitting in a bathroom stall doing his business somewhere. Hey, you never know. With my personal credit cards, at least I know where they’ve been and while I’ve never actually cleaned them before, they are at least washable.

I don’t know what I would do if gas stations suddenly and uniformly stopped accepting credit card payments due to their displeasure at having to pay spiraling credit card interchange fees. While I sort of vaguely sympathize with their declining profit margin plight (not really), as an oil consumer, I’m bound to take my gas business elsewhere to a place that does accept credit cards. The convenience of using my trusty gas rebate credit card to pay for gas and earn cash back rewards at the same time is not something I’m willing to give up anytime soon. I’ve been known to stop at a low priced gas station only to drive off immediately after finding out the place only accepted cash payment.

In the Washington D.C. region, there is a chain of el-cheapo gas stations called Free State that is known for offering greatly discounted gas at prices that’s frequently much lower than that offered by more recognized competitors. However, the biggest downside is that they only accept cash payment. Obviously this is to keep prices low and avoid having to pay merchant fees to credit card companies for each credit card transaction. But for heavy credit card users like myself, this is a complete deal breaker. While I see them everywhere along my driving route, I always avoid Free State gas stations because of their cash only payment policy. I would rather drive across the street to a slightly more expensive gas pump than deal with the inconvenience and hassle of paying by cash. It’s just one of those expected perks in life that I’ve come to insist on and demand. Other local gas station chains sometimes offer discounts for cash payments, but I would still rather pay the slightly higher fuel rate just to have the benefit of paying by plastic. Besides, any potential cash payment discount offered by the pump owner will be unlikely to offset the nice gas credit card rewards that I earn using my usual method of payment. I don’t expect or intend to give that perk up anytime soon as long as they are around.

I Have Also Come To Rely On The Budget Tracking Benefits That Credit Card Usage Affords Me

It’s not just the convenience and speed at which credit card payment at the gas pump affords me, it’s also the record keeping benefits as well. I pay by credit card at gas stations, restaurants, and everywhere else because it affords me convenient and reliable expense tracking. Payment by cash requires me to retain all of my paper receipts to keep track of total monthly spending. Credit card payments on the other hand allow me to permanently record and retain transaction dates and pricing information on my credit card statement to access at a later time of my choosing. I can easily log onto my online account from home to review the frequency of gasoline fill ups and the amount of money spent per visit with a just few key strokes.

Change Might Be A Good Catch Phrase For Politics, But It’s Bad When It Comes To How I Pay For Gas

Knowing the pervasive and established nature of credit card payment at the pump, I think most major gas stations like Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, and Sunoco are unlikely to go cash only no matter how high gas prices may go, and no matter how badly their financial bottom lines will be hurt by having to pay higher transaction fees. Such brand name gas stations are likely to find other ways to cut costs than deprive consumers of this important convenience. Besides, switching to cash only would probably hurt their revenue stream more detrimentally than any potential cost saving benefits from going all cash due to loss of business volume. They’d lose the patronage of gas guzzling, dinosaur liquid loving, weekend road warriors like myself.

These days, you can buy pretty much everything under the sun online. All it takes is some fancy keyboard typing and mouse clicking, and you can Google your way to an ideal product that offers both perfect features and perfect pricing. Theoretically if you wanted to, you could put yourself under house arrest, never venture out of your house again, and still live a relatively comfortable and convenient life by surviving on supplies and groceries ordered through the Internet. All you would need is a trusty computer or laptop, equipped with a reasonably fast high speed internet connection, and you would be good to go. With the emergence of online bargain shopping, consumers no longer have to pay the higher retail mark up prices due to overhead costs found at brick and mortar stores. Consumers are now free to go with online merchants who are passing along their own cost savings to online customers due to not having to pay extra expenses associated with maintaining physical retail locations. On the whole, prices found online for the exact same product otherwise available in a regular real life retail store are almost always lower. Frequently, the cost savings can be tremendous - as much as 10-25% savings simply by ordering the desired product online rather than purchasing it at a corresponding retail store location.

Unfortunately, there is one significant and readily present downside to shopping for products online - the inevitable wait time and frustrating inconvenience of having to wait around for days and weeks for the delivery to be made. Depending on the shipping option chosen and the actual distance separating the online merchant and customer, the wait time can be anywhere from as quick as 3 days to as long as 3 weeks for more expensive back ordered merchandise like custom built computers. Of course, one could always speed up the delivery process to overnight delivery status, except the much higher price of expedited delivery would just pretty much negate the intended cost benefit savings of online shopping to begin with. With gas prices overpriced and soaring as they are, future shipment and delivery prices are anticipated to see increases in the coming years.

Despite the Discounts and Savings Associated With Online Shopping, Forced Delayed Gratification Is A Pain In The Butt Cheeks

I’m currently a huge and almost obsessive online shopper, particularly with popular online auction sites like eBay (I like to call myself, an eBay Powerbuyer). My goal and objective since the advent of the Internet has always been to maximize my money by taking advantage of all online bargains and arbitrage cost saving opportunities whenever possible. Over the years I’ve turned to my tried and true eBay bargain hunting approach for such things like heavily discounted subway debit cards, expensive laptop electronics, and bulk pet food. By combining inherent online price discounts with cash back shopping sites and free promotional coupons found online, I’ve generated significant cost savings for myself over the years. Recently I’ve even tried to see if I could garner some extra tiny savings by utilizing online grocery delivery programs like Stop & Shop and Giant Food’s Pea Pod service and Safeway’s supermarket delivery service, but I’m starting to wonder if I’m going overboard with the whole online bargain hunting obsession.

While I’ve managed to save quite a bit of money for a long time due to my online shopping practices, I’ve had to learn and force myself to hold back my instant gratification urges. For example, when I suddenly needed to buy a GPS device immediately for my car, my frugal mentality dictated that I head to eBay and Google Products to perform a few hours of thorough price comparison shopping. Eventually I settled on using eBay to maximize my purchase price savings. However, the whole buying experience took up to 2 and a half weeks to secure my product online and to finally receive it in the mail. Not only did the auction bidding process take nearly a week of several failed bid attempts before I finally won my bid, but it also took more than a week for the item to get delivered and shipped to my address. While sometimes the compulsory delayed gratification is helpful because it prevents me from hastily snapping up newly released and grossly overpriced electronic gadgets during their maiden introductions, the mandatory wait time from delivery to receipt can be a major pain and inconvenience, especially when you need to use the desired product sooner than later. Now I’m starting to wonder if the online cost and supposed time savings are worth the great inconvenience and terrible hassle of having to wait so long. Instead of being able to see the physical object and walk out with something in my hand, shopping online offers me only a confirmation email and a claims ticket for something I won’t receive for weeks.

While Online Shopping Sites Will Always Offer The Best Prices, Sometimes You’re Better Off Paying A Little Extra At Brick And Mortar Retail Stores

While I used to think that shopping online was a time saver in that the buyer did not need to waste time getting dressed, hopping into their gas guzzling car and driving the miles needed to get to the local mall or retail store, I’m starting to realize that for certain smaller ticket items, or things more urgently needed, the time savings of shopping online is sometimes only illusory. While websites offer many more options for consumers, sometimes the graphic intensive sites offer way too many confusing choices. While browsing speed is no longer an issue due to faster broadband Internet download speeds, trying to navigate some of these product and feature heavy websites from only the four corners of the computer monitor screen can be a burden. Oftentimes it’s just easier and more simplistic to drive to the store, walk around the shopping aisles to inspect your choices with your physical naked eyes, or ask a live customer service person for help, than to buy online.

While shopping online is great because you don’t have to pay sales tax most of the time (this former benefit might be disappearing soon in the future) and prices are generally lower, I think there may be times when the ability to walk out with what you want immediately is worth the extra cost. I realized I was starting to take the whole online shopping deal a little too far when I found myself willing to wait one and a half weeks for a $12 handheld Sony FM radio that I found online, instead of buying it from a live Best Buy location for $15 - for a mere total cost savings of $3. All in all, I think buying very expensive electronic products online makes a lot of sense, but for smaller, cheaper day to day items, buying online just isn’t worth the hassle or inconvenience anymore.

The other day I shuffled past my pet parrot’s metal cage and casually glanced at him. He looked up at me and smiled. Well he didn’t actually smile - that would be weird, not to mention it would be an exceedingly remarkable feat for a bird to do - but he did seem to want to tell me something. I glanced down at the bottom of his cage and realized what he was so antsy about - it was time for me to clean his bird cage. The bird poo clumps and endless feather fluffs were starting to dirty up the bottom lining of his cage and it was time to replace his bird bedding. So before cleaning his bird cage, I went and did what I’ve been doing for the last 10 or so years - I went to the supermarket and bought a copy of the Sunday newspaper to use as bird cage lining. When I got home and proceeded to clean his cage, dumping out the old newspaper sheets that held his former poop droppings, an interesting thought occurred to me. Although I’ve been buying newspapers regularly and consistently for many years now, I haven’t once actually sat down to read one. It seems the only reason I even have them around in the first place is to use them to line my pet parrot’s bird cage. Over the years I’ve learned that newspaper print pages contain the perfect combination of non toxicity and biodegradable composition that is uniquely more absorbent than ordinary paper sheets when it comes to bird cage bedding purposes. But that’s pretty much the extent of my current newspaper usage.

Technology And The Internet Are Steadily Replacing The Out Dated Practice Of Getting News From A Traditional Newspaper

Does anybody actually read the newspaper anymore? I’m not talking about CNN.com, NewYorkTimes.com, or Washingtonpost.com - I’m talking about old fashioned plain paper print media. Most people I know who have had any exposure to computers and technology now get the bulk of their written news and entertainment updates from the Internet. Almost all major established newspaper publications nowadays operate their own websites filled with plenty of free content rich text to satisfy even the most information hungry and voracious of readers. With the heavy push towards Internet based news, it seems the traditional newspaper is slowly becoming a thing of the past due to its inability to keep up. Technology and the World Wide Web simply afford readers too many conveniently free reading options at their fingertips for present adopters and future generations to ever turn back to that age old print medium.

Even commercial advertisers are steadily following former newspaper readers out of the door and gradually putting their advertising dollars into online website banner and pay per click advertising solutions where online technology allows the ads to be strategically targeted to the exact demographic consumer the advertiser hopes to reach. Online free classified services like Craigslist have also struck huge blows against whatever remaining classified advertising potential that newspapers may have had left. It’s only a matter of time before the end of the newspaper as we know it.

I challenge you to find any one under the age of 35 these days who still enjoys reading from a traditional newspaper. The practice is simply boring and dry. In contrast, by going online, not only can I utilize news aggregation services like Google News and Yahoo News, and pull RSS news and blog feeds from hundred of respected news sources instantly, I can actively participate in online discussions by posting comments and offering my two cents about important issues I personally care about. Through the Internet, I can read all the primary points and counter points immediately to get the complete picture of what is going on in the world of current events. Who wants to get information from just a single slow moving and potentially biased newspaper publication source?

Unlike paper newspapers, the Internet also updates its archive and collection of news stories virtually instantaneously. Breaking news stories can be released to the reader as soon as they happen. When the Islamic terrorists hit the New York City World Trade Center on 9-11, internet news pages broke the announcement almost immediately. Traditional print newspapers simply can’t complete with that level of quickness and would not have been able to report on the story until at least the day after. Things have changed a lot since the baby boomer days. We are now living in a rapid fire instant news era. We want our news fast, and we want it free. Only the Internet can promise and deliver such instant informational gratification.

The Rise and Growth Of Bloggers and Blogging Will Only Further Change The Face of Journalism and Traditional Newspaper Reporting

The Internet age has also spurred on the growth and reach of the casual online blogger, and hastened the gradual decline of so-called legitimate press reporting media as we know it today. Legions of both amateur and professional bloggers, including personal finance bloggers such as myself, are doing our part to contribute to the whole information revolution comprised of all sorts of biased and unbiased viewpoints. As a whole, the ability of bloggers to reach a wide array of readers will only help spread the word of informational truth on a larger scale. Individually, we perhaps may be biased, uninformed, self-motivated, and personally skewed to our own predilections, but as a whole, citizen journalists help to positively expand the wealth of societal information available.

Of course there will always be anti-technology, Armageddon inspired naysayers that will want to cling on to print newspapers like a security blanket. The ridiculous argument of some that we still need to preserve the newspaper tradition because of what might happen if technology ever failed or satellites get blown out of the sky is just plain silly. That’s like saying we all should preserve the tradition of burning wooden logs at home because of what might happen if electricity ever permanently failed and we fell back into the stone age. It’s just not going to happen.

Despite The Growth Of The Internet, Newspapers Will Probably Not Disappear For A Few Decades, So Long As There Are Old Fashioned Folks Who Insist On Clinging Onto Their Old Ways Of Living

Since the rise of the Internet, even my own technologically clumsy parents have started to slowly embrace the Internet as a primary source for getting their daily dose of news, political commentary, and current event updates. However, like many of the baby boomer generation, they still prefer to resort to their old accustomed ways sometimes. While they’ve gradually started to use the Internet more and more in everyday life, my dad still goes out to the local convenience store every morning (as he’s done for decades) to buy his daily newspaper to take home to read. For him and those of the older generation, they probably get some semblance of habitual and familiar comfort by handling tangible things that they feel like they still understand - like paper newspapers. I think my dad still enjoys the timeless practice of reading the paper on his daily subway commute to the office instead of having to squint his eyes for hours at a time in front of a flickering computer screen.

But in the long run, the seemingly unstoppable reality is that as times passes, there will be less and less of individuals like my dad remaining to carry on the newspaper reading tradition. But at least for now, newspapers probably won’t disappear for years, so long as there are senior citizens, baby boomers, and stubborn technology Luddites who are not accustomed to the new technology of computers still around (is it really all that new anymore though?). While I see the newspaper form in inevitable decline in the future, perhaps the future isn’t now. It seems typical that futurists such as myself always seem to predict the future will arrive sooner than it actually does.

But even a futurist, and an early eager technology adopter such as myself must acknowledge that newspapers will be missed. After all, without newspapers around, where else am I supposed to get my Sunday paper grocery store coupons? The ones I see in magazines and loose leaf advertisement mailers and flyers aren’t as good as the ones I often see in my Sunday paper coupon bundle. And yet more importantly, without newspapers, what will we use to line bird cages and train puppies on? What will we use to wrap fish, or crumple up to use as cushion for the insides of boxes during a move or use as stuffing for packages? Computers, monitors, and keyboards simply aren’t as absorbent or cushiony, not to mention as cheap or plentiful.