News, Tips and Resources for Online Bargain Hunters
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Amazon has just released a new set of coupon codes for this month and as usual I post them in a list sorted by amount so it is more convenient to pick those with the best value. Most coupons below expire September 30, 2008.
If you like these Amazon coupons, I also recommend you to check out these Amazon discount codes. The best part is that these codes don't have an expiration date!
No, they will not die because of lack of liquidity, they have a much bigger problem at their hands. This may end up being the most controversial blog post I have ever written but I like it that way. I think Washington Mutual deserves it after all the trouble I went through today with them resolving banking issues and still wasn’t able to do so.
So the long story short, I went to the WaMu branch today to open the 5% CD they are marketing and while in the branch found out my free checking account is closed and I have service charges on my (also presumably free) savings account. On top of that there is an overdraft warning in the account.
The branch officer was incapable to do anything to clarify why this happened (reasoning that the account was opened online) and for some reason gave me a Forgery and Bill Pay number, which ended up being a wrong number to call, and I was eventually redirected to the customer support.
What turned out is that my checking account was closed due to inactivity and after that happened they started to charge a service fee for the savings account since it didn’t meet the minimum balance requirement (waved with checking). Since there was very little money in the savings account, it went negative and now I have an overdraft warning.
The problem is that they never notified me that my account was closed, nor can I see it when I go online. The account is in the list and looks just as usual. In fact I can still see online statements for it (including one for the last month) and nowhere on the statement it says it is closed. The only way to find it out is if you attempt to transfer funds to/from it or if you go to a special link called ‘About this account’ where you will find that the Account Status field is set to ‘CLOSED’.
The situation didn’t improve after more than an hour on the phone today. They cannot reopen my checking nor will they reverse the service fees. My only option to avoid future fees is to fund the savings account over the minimum balance requirement, or open new checking account and somehow bind it with the existing savings.
I have been so much frustrated over this mess that I feel like abandoning WaMu altogether. During my customer service calls I have encountered on several occasions that the automated system is not able to access my account information, at which point I am thrown back to the main menu to type my a/n and pin over again. Also the inability of the branch manager to clarify (or solve) this mess is very puzzling to me. I would so much rather talk to a branch representative when dealing with complicated issues like this.
If anything, I have given up on the 5% CD deal because I strongly believe a company with the customer service record like this will not last long, and even if it does - I don’t want to have business with it.
Do you have an account at Washington Mutual? What is your experience with them? Are you a happy / frustrated customer? Pour it out in the comments!
Washington Mutual has just rolled out a promotional CD rate. It is available online and in branch (if you have WaMu in your state). The minimum investment is $1,000 and early withdrawal penalty is 90 days of interest. There are 12 and 13 month terms available
This is an incredibly good rate from a decently sized bank. You can fund the CD with an ACH transfer within 7 calendar days of opening an account. If you already have an account with them like me then this should be just a matter of an internal funds transfer.
WaMu has not been exactly doing great financially over the past year and this promotion could be a sign that they are running into liquidity problems. That said, the account is FDIC insured and you will be fine as long as you are under the total FDIC coverage limit.
Google is running a Back-to-School promotion by offering $10 off $60 and $5 off $30 discounts at multiple stores. Go to this page for more details on this offer.
Source: Google checkout back to school offer at Buxr.com
How far will you go for your safety when choosing your new car? Just several years ago I would not have given it much thought.
My first car was Toyota Corolla which I drove for 5 years before trading in for a bigger Accord. There were two reasons really. One - I am tall and there is simply not enough leg room in small Corolla. Second, and it took me a while to admit this to myself, I felt pretty scary each time standing on a highway in the left turn pocket and feeling how passing by cars shake my Corolla as if it was a small boat in the middle of a storm.
We bought our second family car in 2003 and it was a Mazda minivan. This was also mostly a financial decision - Mazda is smaller than the competitors and has slightly better fuel economy. That minivan was declared a total loss by my auto-insurance earlier this month after my wife got into a multiple car accident involving a drunk driver. You can see the van (or what is left of it) on the photo above which I took right after the accident.
Overall in the past two years we have been in a few accidents, every single time reevaluating our life priorities. All the accidents were due to the other driver fault and we consider our driving habits pretty safe. The only variable we can really control is the kind of the car we drive. So one of our priorities became an intention to drive safer cars than what we currently have.
Being a bargain hunter and an overall proponent of everything ‘green’ I did a seemingly irrational thing last Saturday. I bought an SUV as a replacement to our family van. Of course this is not just an SUV. I have done everything I could to make it a bargain among SUV’s. It is a base model cross-over SUV (no bells and whistles to pay for) but it does have All Wheel Drive (safer winter driving) and has good safety ratings. It is one year old and I did haggle like a crazy. For the curious types, it is 2008 Mazda CX-9 and we paid 22.5K.
Now, tell me please. Am I overreacting? Is the peace of mind (even if imaginary for the most part) worth the money I have paid and will be paying for the extra gas to feed this monster? What would you do if you were in my shoes?
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