Andy Hough

Balance Transfer Finally Fixed

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Last month I decided to transfer the balance of my private student loan from Wells Fargo to Capital One to take advantage of a low-interest balance transfer offer.  It was only going to save me a few dollars in interest but since it would only take a couple minutes online I decided to go ahead and do it.  That ended up being a mistake.  The payment from Capital One never showed up at Wells Fargo.  I had to spend several hours on the phone to get it straightened out.  Capital One has told me that they are stopping payment on the check they sent and will credit my account.  I’m hoping that they actually do this.

Dealing with Capital One has been a PITA.  I’ve had to spend 20-30 minutes on hold or more every time I called them.  Then when I do finally get through to a representative they can’t help me and have to connect me with an account manager.  This means another 20-30 minutes.  Every time I have called them they are experiencing unusually high call volume.  If you have unusually high call volume every day wouldn’t that make it normal call volume?  Capital One is my oldest credit card so I don’t want to cancel it but I may not use it anymore.
Wells Fargo has been much better to deal with.  I can get through to a person in just a few minutes and they actually seem to know what they are doing.

Before I do another balance transfer I’ll have to consider if the risk of it being screwed up is worth the potential reward in savings.

November Savings/Debt Repayment Percentage

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My savings/debt payment percentage for November was only 24%.  This is because my balance transfer of my student loan from Wells Fargo to Capital One was screwed up.  I have about $500 slated for debt payment from November that I carried over to this month.  I don’t want to make any more payments until the balance transfer is straightened out.  I should be able to completely pay my student loan off this month and make my goal of 50% of my income going to savings and debt payment.

November Income

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Here is a breakdown of my income for November.

Job Income

$1779.88

Online Income/Ebay

$344.23

Bank Bonuses

$150.00

Interest

$1.24

Total

$2275.35

My job income should go up this month because I will have three paychecks.  Online income was way up for November due to selling some links and a large affiliate commission.  That won’t be repeated this month and online income will go way down for the month.  I’m unlikely to have any bank bonuses this month and interest will stay about the same.  Overall I am pretty happy with the amount of income and hope I can match it in December.

October Savings/Debt Payment Percentage

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I managed to put 43% of my October income towards savings and paying down my private student loan.  The student loan is not in repayment yet but I’m paying it off ahead of time since it has an 11.25%  interest rate.  It is also my smallest student loan.

My goal is for 50% of my income to go to savings and debt payment.  I won’t make that goal for November because the balance transfer of my student loan from Wells Fargo to Capital One is all screwed up and I’m not paying anything until it is straightened out.  Capital One says they sent payment to Wells Fargo on Nov. 14 but as of today Wells Fargo  hasn’t received it.

When I resume school in January I won’t be working so any income I have will go to basic expenses.  This makes December my last chance to make my 50% goal.  With the money I’m carrying over from this month into December I should easily meet the goal.

Cheap Movie Tickets

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Fandango is running a promotion with McDonald’s that allows you to buy a movie ticket for $1.  You have to go to their website at 12pm (pst) on Wednesdays and find out the word of the day which you then text to Fandango.  Then you will receive a text back with a promo code allowing you to buy a ticket for $1.   I did this yesterday and it wasn’t too difficult.  You need to visit the promo page to get all the details.

Also if you have a Discover card there will be a buy one get one free promo through Fandango starting December 4th.  This page will have the details.

I am a big movie fan and am always looking for ways to save money at the movies.  I usually go to the matinees but with my $1 movie ticket I’m planning to go to a late night movie.  If I would ever get smart and quit buying the large popcorn I could save a lot more money.  Every time I eat a large popcorn I get a stomachache but the next time I’m at the theater I seem to forget that and eat a large popcorn again.  Maybe now that I’ve written this down I’ll actually remember.