Christian Finance Blog

Here’s how you can double your warranty on many items that you purchase. Use your credit card. That’s right. I do disagree with Dave Ramsey on some things (although I agree more than I disagree). Credit cards can be a tool if used correctly and this is one example (out of many examples).

Many of the major credit card companies (Visa, MasterCard, American Express) have some form of extended warranty protection. This is available on all Visa Signature cards and many other Visa credit cards (Warranty Manager Service). MasterCard offers Extended Warranty on their World MasterCard and others. American Express offers its Buyer’s Assurance Plan on all their cards. Discover does not currently offer any extended warranty protection.

Qualifying items must be purchased entirely on the credit card. They will usually add one year to the manufacturer’s warranty for free and if it breaks within that extended period, the credit card company will reimburse you or replace/repair the item! So next time you’re offered to purchase an extended warranty plan, just politely decline and charge it to your credit card! Remember to keep all invoices, receipts, manufacturer warranty papers, etc. as you may need it to file a claim. Also the original credit card has to be kept open in order for it to work.

As a credit card holder, it pays to know your benefits! Take advantage of those benefits and you could save money!

As always, check the terms of your actual credit cards to make sure you have this.

Here’s a quick and easy way to figure out your take-home pay. This calculator on Yahoo lets you figure out your take-home pay by inputting how much your gross pay is per pay period plus any allowances and deductions you have. So take out your pay stub and fill in the information! You can input “what-if” situations to see how a change in 401k withholding and other things can impact your take-home pay.

If you want to get a little more detailed, you can check out this calculator (hourly) which allows you to pick a state to get an even more accurate number for your take-home pay by calculating your state’s income tax rate and more.

Here’s one for if you’re on salary rather than an hourly wage. These are powered by PaycheckCity.

Like the post? Subscribe to this feed!

Here’s a real easy Quick Tip for you! This is not my idea. This is from David Bach. Do you want to know how to shave 7 years off of your 30-year mortgage? This is not a get rich scheme or anything illegal at all! All you have to do is say the words “biweekly mortgage plan”.

This plan let’s you pay your mortgage “biweekly”, or in other words, “twice weekly”. This will split your mortgage payment into two for each month. So, for example, if your mortgage payment is $1000, there will be two payments of $500 each. What this does is it adds an extra payment a year. It may not seem like much, but in the end, it will shave your mortgage by seven whole years! What a quick and easy way to save a ton of money in interest payments! Plus your home will be paid off quicker!

So go call your bank or mortgage company and ask for the biweekly mortgage plan! Many banks are now offering this. Some banks do charge for this but the saved money and time is worth it in my opinion!

Source: CBS

Like the post? Subscribe to this feed!

Have you ever wondered what your annual salary is if you’re an hourly worker? How about weekly, monthly, etc.? How about if you’re a salaried worker? Do you want to know your hourly wage? Here’s a quick and easy online calculator to find out exactly that.

Wage Calculator

Here’s some more:
Hourly Wage to Annual Salary
Annual Salary to Hourly Wage

Now, granted, it’s pretty simple and makes some assumptions (like 40 hour weeks, etc.) But it’s a quick way to get a rough estimate. Try it!

Like the post? Subscribe to this feed!

Here’s an interesting story I read on CBS news about a man who was charged with a felony for spending $80,000 that was accidentally deposited into his bank account.

Lesson of the day: don’t spend “found money”. You can and probably will be charged with “felony theft”. If you do find a huge sum of unexpected money in your bank account that you have no idea where it came from, it’s probably a good idea to call up your bank. Not only is it illegal to spend that money, it’s downright immoral. It’s just like finding a wallet on the ground and not turning it in. It’s just wrong.

My dad just learned this the hard way just recently. And usually he’s good about things like this. His 2002 car was due for a new water pump and timing belt. He took it to the dealer that he normally takes it to and they quoted him $1600 for the whole job. He just ok’d the job without getting quotes from other dealers because he “trusted them”.

Well, turns out that he shouldn’t have trusted them. After he told me the quote, I thought it was way too high so I did some calling of my own. At this point, the service was already done but he hadn’t picked up the car yet. I had them fax me the quotes so I could have a hard copy. The lowest quote was $925, tax included! That’s nearly $700 lower!

I told my dad that I was going to go the dealer myself and try to negotiate the price down because that seems like overkill to me. With the hard copy quote in hand I went to talk to the service manager. He basically wouldn’t budge on the price because my dad had already committed to the price and the service was already done. Despite the fact that labor was twice as much; $1000 vs $500, he made up a lie that they charge a flat rate for service on labor. In the end, he gave me a $100 discount, which still makes it almost $600 more!

Long story short, I told my dad to get quotes next time before taking it to service it. He will not taking it to that dealer anymore.

Lesson learned. Make some phone calls and get quotes from multiple dealers before bringing in your car for servicing. Get them to fax you a written quote if possible. It will make life a lot easier and will save you some bucks, too! In this case, it would have saved nearly $600! Definitely not chump change, indeed.