What’s In My Wallet, Huh? Cash, You Damned Vulture...

Gold cards are out and platinum cards are in. Credit card companies are already working on their next wave of smoke and mirrors to rope people into the “prestige” of high-end credit card patronage. Titanium cards allow you to carry a balance of $100,000, have no annual fee, and perks like free internet access and magazine subscriptions. The vultures are trying to market titanium cards to law and medical students who they are hoping will rack up large bills now, but have the earning power later to eventually pay them off. If that’s not enough, ultra-elite cards like diamond, quantum, infinite and black are also making their debuts with credit lines that start at six figures. American Express Black has benefits like roadside assistance and guaranteed airport parking, but carries an annual fee of $2500. My advice on credit cards? Whether your card is gold, platinum, titanium, or Ukrainian, don’t carry a credit card balance, and always try to get cards without an annual fee. If you’re looking for a status symbol, how about being able to say you have no credit card debt in a nation where the average household carries $35,000 in credit card debt? If you need to carry a balance, look for a low-rate card, which is not necessarily going to be a “metal” or “element” or “smoke & mirrors” card. Watch out for “rebate” cards. Sure, you might get a free tank of gas every month, but are you paying $300 in finance charges instead of just spending your own $30 on gas? Always pay your minimum due and pay it on time...if you don’t there are clauses in the credit card application you signed that are there just to stick it you. Always be firm, almost a problem customer to your credit card companies. Be courteous, of course, but also demanding, and always threaten to take your business elsewhere Call your credit card companies and tell them you are going to transfer balances away from them if they don’t lower your rate. You’d be surprised at how quickly they may lower your rates if you scare ‘em.

You Would Not Have Believed It, Even If You Had Seen It...

A couple weeks ago, the Check Engine light lit up on my parents’ Jeep Cherokee that they purchased through my uncle’s dealership in Oceanside, Balboa Jeep. With the dealership being such a drive away, we felt driving that far without knowing why the light was on was a bad idea, so my uncle called in a tow truck company to bring us a rental car and pick up the Jeep. So, the saga begins with calling the towing company to give them directions to the house and to see what time they will arrive. This is about 2:00 p.m. We receive a call about 3:00 p.m. saying the guy will be up at about 7:00 p.m. that night. So, about 8:00 p.m. we get a call from the driver who says he got lost, ended up 30 miles farther north than he should have been and figured he could make it down at about 10:00 p.m. So, of course, the guy finally shows up at about 11:30 p.m. That’s a seven-and-a-half hour drive from Oceanside to at Huntington Beach. When the driver showed up, he took the minivan rental off the rig (I even parked it for him) and I gave him the key to the Jeep so he could hook it up. The driver got into the Jeep, started it, pulled it out of the driveway and into the street, then began hooking the Jeep up to the truck. I offered him something to drink, to which he said he was fine and for us to have a good night. So, we go in the house, thinking that though its been a long night, it’s done. Not by a long shot! About five minutes later, we hear screeching tires like someone slammed on their brakes on our street. We look out the window to see the tow truck stopped about four houses down in the middle of the street. I go outside to see what’s happening and just as I begin to walk towards the tow truck, the driver jumps in and starts driving off. The problem is that the Jeep’s back wheels aren’t moving, thus the screeching sound, and this idiot is driving off with the Jeep like this! No joke, this guy drives to the end of our street, makes a left hand turn and a quick right hand turn to get out of our neighborhood on to a main street, all the while, dragging the Jeep, tires screeching. I’m standing in the middle of the street, wondering how long this genius is going to drag the Jeep before he stops and tries to fix it. Ever had to literally chase someone down in your car? I ran in the house, got my keys, hurried into the garage and took off to chase this moron down. I find him about a quarter of a mile from the house, pulled over to the side of the road, just about to get into the Jeep. It is then that I see the Jeep is still running! Of course, genius boy is trying to explain to me that he thinks he forgot to take the 4-wheel drive off, but it’s in Park, it’s running, and this guy who tows cars for a living is towing it like that! At this point, I tell dumbass to just take the Jeep off the rig, leave it where it’s at and go. Of course he’s apologizing and saying that after how long it’s taken, he’d really rather try to fix the problem and finish the job. Perhaps he should have been concerned with finishing the job much earlier in the night before he went to whatever bar or drug dealer’s house that turned a 2 hour drive into a 7 1/2 hour drive and put him in such a condition that this is what he did! What makes me so mad is that he stopped halfway, got scared that we’d figure out what he did, and ran like a five-year old child so we wouldn’t know what he did! At this point, I don’t know if this guy was high, was drunk, tired, or was just really that bad at his job. How bad was dumbass? Get this...the minivan he picked up from the dealership was brand-new. We couldn’t even use it because by the time it got to us, it had a damaged oil pan and was leaking oil all over our driveway.