The one thing I would love to do is dispute unfair bank charges, and actually win. I’m very anal when it comes to only using authorized ATMs and avoiding fees for paying bills over the phone, that’s why the $16.50 HSBC charged my husband for paying his car payment over the phone and the $3 Chase charged me for transfering money to a checking account with another bank really burn me.

My current accounts are all through Chase and I make sure never to dip below the minimum balance as to avoid the $7 monthly fee for having a checking or savings account. I think it’s insane that if I have less than $300 in my savings account, money they are earning interest on by lending to others, I get charged $7. I’m doing a slow burn here.

I’m sure my bank will give me some long explaination as to why bank charges are necessary, but I see them as a penalty for being a loyal customer. It’s not always possible for me to keep $300 in my checking account, and sometimes my husband has to have some extra money, and those bank charges rob us of our hard earned money.

Lets catch up…

• $67 Target
• $15 lunches
• $34 gas
• $1,000 Visa
• $21 Nine West
• $20 NetFlix
• $20 Snapfish

That Visa bill is going down down down, and I love it!

I’m obviously not a financial professional since I put all my spending shortcomings out on my blog for all to read, but if you are a financial professional and are in the market for financial services jobs, then Willis Consulting, Inc is available to connect you with companies looking to fill executive level finance positions. Willis works with brokers, wirehouses, major corporations, and other financial institutions to provide fulfilling careers for qualified professionals. If you’d like feedback on your resume or would like to learn more about available financial job opportunities, contact Willis Consulting, Inc.

I signed up for Upromise with so much excitement that I told my dad and sister to sign up. Three weeks later, and my excitement has dwindled.

The deal is, you sign up, register your credit cards, shop their affiliate network, and you earn cash back that is applied to your Sallie Mae student loan balance quarterly. I use my credit card a great deal for work, so I figured I could at least earn enough for one payment every year.

I’ve used my registered credit card numerous times, and shopped through their affiliate links, and I don’t have a single cent in my account.

I don’t know if the purchases haven’t been verified yet or if there is a problem with my account, but I feel like I’ve invested alot of time and energy into setting up my account and I’ve yet to see any benefit.

Anyone have any experiences with Upromise, good or bad?

I utilize a service that earns me cash back everytime I shop though their affiliate network, which includes hundreds of retailers that I normally purchase from. My cash back savings is compounded and applied to my student loan quarterly, paying down my debt. The UK Shopping Directory. Cash Back To You, takes it one step further by allowing members to earn cash back by participating in free offers, surverys, and referring friends. There are over 1,300 stores in their network to shop from and registration is free, with an extra £5 bonus just for signing up.

Just as my job search has become a little stagnent and I’ve gotten some rejections from companies I thought I had a really good shot with, MSN Careers has an article on how to revitalize your job search.

1. Revisit old possibilities – just because they didn’t want you then, doesn’t mean they won’t want you now.
2. Broaden your network – stop haggling the same people for a job, and go out and meat some new contacts.
3. Determine your weak points and strenghten them – are you not getting any interviews? Then take a look at your resume. Get interviews but no offers? Maybe you need some help with the question and answer portion.
4. Take classes or workshops – it never hurts to refresh and expand your skill set.
5. Take a temp job – not only do they buy you time, you take care of number 2 and 4 on the above list. You meet a whole list of new people and you learn new skills at each job.

My current job started out as a temp job. So not only do you gain the benefits listed above, you just might find a perfect match in your temporary job and gain a permanent one.

In my eternal search for online promo codes I’ve come across some really great sites to help me save money on my everyday purchases. We all know that I never make an online purchase without searching for a deal first, which free shipping always being my favorite, and ecouponcodes.com is a no nonsense site that lists the latest coupons on their homepage, and lets you search the category listing and store for discount codes to specific online stores. There’s even an RSS feed to keep you uber connected to all the newest discounts and promotions.

I was super excited to find Shutterfly discount codes listed since I’m going to be ordering a ton of photos that we took at our wedding party this weekend. Thank-you cards need to be sent out, and I thought including a picture of everyone together would be a nice momento. 15% off $10 is a big deal when you’re ordering 200 photos! There’s even another coupon for 15 free prints.

10% here, 15% there, and free shipping really add up and that money can go towards paying off debt, saving for vacations, and buying more stuff online, with coupon codes from ecouponcodes.com, of course.