“Chance favors the prepared mind. Never forget it.” - Howard Dean
I’ve been investigating a switch from gnucash to Moneydance. There’s no way to export data directly from gnucash. Fortunately, someone wrote a Java app that will parse the XML and produce a basic QIF export with your accounts and transactions.
Read the rest of “Moneydance, cross-platform money tracking” »
Excellent news today from the FCC. From the AP:
While signing up for an account at Citibank’s Web site, I came across the most amusing scare to prod you into selecting electronic statements. Security. Specifically, is your physical postal mailbox really secure?
Read the rest of “Amusement from Citibank and mailbox security” »
I just spoke with Citi. I called them up to active my new Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards which I obtained to take advantage of their 2% 1% for rewards for a year. (It’s actually 5% for the usual stuff and 1% elsewhere. Not sure where I read 2%. I’m drawering this card next to my MBNA Mastercard.) Earning points on 2% of the value of purchases is nice as I’m only eligible for 1% on my Chase Rewards Plus card. Anyway, after proceeding to activate the card and being told by the representative that it active, he proceeded to harass me about the latest payment protection scam.
It’s common for existing companies to call and harass me — which is why my landline has been unplugged for six months — but I haven’t been harassed during activation before today. I explained politely I wasn’t interested, at which point the rudeness of Citi’s CSR began. After a minute of him droning on, I asked if I could ask a question, but Citi’s CSR refused to let me interrupt politely. So, I left him to speak with himself and took out the trash.
It’s worthwhile to note that when a Citi Card “activation specialist” tells you that you card is now active, you can hang up. You’re done.
If not for the $100 signup bonus and 2% rewards 1% rewards on all purchases, I would have simply canceled. In the past I canceled a Chase card when I called to activate and they requested I fax over a litany of personal identification information when I couldn’t recall the address of the apartment I’d lived in two years prior. There are far too many 0% cards available these days for that kind of hassle; at least if you have solid credit.
Update, October 27th. Apparently it gets better. I signed up online on Sunday so I could pay my account by EFT. Surprise, Friday rolls around and my balance is due and guess what? The Citi Web site still tells me it could be six days before my EFT bank information is verified. At this point, I have to pay by phone. Guess how pay by phone works? They use your ABA and account number, the same as the online service! The best part? Pay-by-phone allowed me to pay immediately, at a cost of $14.95, while Citi’s worthless Web site still won’t accept payments from me.
My cost for Citi’s worthless service? $14.95.
I am so done with CitiBank. You can’t even redeem the gift card for cash.
Card destroyed.
With HSBC having recently reducing their APR yield to an noncompetitive 4.50%, I made the jump to GMAC Bank. Initially I was somewhat skeptical, given my experience with signing up with HSBC earlier this year. Fortunately, I went ahead with the signup for the 4.75% APR offered as of this writing for a balance of $500 and I can say I could not be more pleased!
If you thought you’d take advantage of HSBC’s Internet Banking promotional APR of 4.80%, you’re in for a wild ride. Actually, your ride probably won’t even start. I initiated the application process more than three weeks ago and everything is not yet complete. To thwart the maximum amount of fraud possible, HSBC has left no stone unturned.
Read the rest of “HSBC Internet Banking’s Three Week Time to Live” »