Happy 4th of July

 Have a happy and safe 4th of July. And for heaven’s sakes don’t play with fireworks….

T-Mobile HotSpot@Home Talk Forever Home to Launch Next Week

T-Mobile’s new HotSpot@Home Talk Forever Home will launch next week. You can read my earlier post for the details of the service, but in a nutshell, it is home telephone service. You install a wireless router which allows you to plug telehpones into it. You then have home service that uses your broadband connection. The router will allow you up to 2 phone lines. Each line will run $10 added onto your wireless plan that will get you unlimited calling in the US.

This is not bad if you currently have a wireless plan of $39.99 or greater through T-mobile which is a requirement to get the service. Right now Vonage costs $19.99, so this could replace Vonage or your current telephone service for only $10 a month. I am definetly going to sign up for this. Right now I currently use T-Mobile HotSpot@Home Talk Forever Mobile service that gets me free calls through my cell phone when using my broadband connerction. So pretty soon ALL my calls from home will be free.

T-mobile has become a pioneer with offering free calls through your high speed internet connection. I sure hope these services take off since quality has been great and you can’t beat the price.

Keep checking this HotSpot @Home Talk Forever Home Site for details on the launch if you are interested in the service.

Texting While Driving Can Cost You!

We have see state and local governments crack down on talking on a cell phone while driving, but now the push has been to include texting as well. Sending text messages while driving, I think, is worse than being on a call. I’ve done a few text messages while driving at high speeds and have almost had a major problem at least 3 times. In some states a ticket for texting while driving can cost you over $150. This is enough to get me to just call the person, if at least I am allowed to do that legally.

The Governor’s Highway Saftey Association has a comprehensive site that shows which acts with a cell phone are legal and which aren’t. This is very hand to know espcecially if you are traveling. You could be on a cell phone call then cross a state line and get pulled over since it could be illegal in that state.

If anything always have a headset with you as most places allow you to have a hands free headset instead of holding up the phone to your ear while on a call. I’m sure that the list will change over time as local and state governments are just beginning to address the issue as more and more people carry cell phones. Stay safe and avoid that ticket by not text messaging while driving

Use Virtual Account Numbers to Fight Fraud

Not many people realize that their credit card may offer a good type of fraud protection called Virtual Account Numbers. Virtual Account numbers are a one time use number that points back to your main credit card number. The main use of this is when buying things over the Internet. When you check out, you use a virtual card number which can only be used once. So not only are you not giving out your real credit card number, you are also giving out a number that can be used once for charges. Once the charge hits your credit card company, that same number can never be used again, except to issue a credit if you needed to return the item.

Many credit companies claim that you are not held liable for unauthorized charges to your account so many people don’t bother using Virtual Account Numbers. But if your card number was lost or stolen and you are issued a new number then you have to update that new number with every merchant that may have it stored. Using Virtual Account Numbers you can only give out your real credit card number to trusted merchants and give other not so trusted merchants a virtual account number. This way you have the security of knowing that even if someone did get that virtual account number they couldn’t do anything with it.

Some banks like Bank Of America have sophisticated virtual account number programs where you can get numbers that can be used multiple times for recurring purchases. Other banks like Citibank have a more basic program where you can get a number for a one time use.

I use a virtual account number for all my online purchases. With the way credit departments are getting hacked into, I think this provides me a little more security to not having my main credit card number exposed to possible fraud.

Here are the banks that I know of that have some type of Virtual Account Number feature:
Bank of America / FIA Card Services - ShopSafe Numbers
Citibank - Virtual Account Numbers
Discover - Secure Online Account Numbers

Banks I know that do not have some type of Virtual Account Number feature:
America Express (They used to have one but stopped it 2 years ago)
Chase
HSBC

Please leave a comment if you know of other banks that provide this valuable service.

Mortgage Paydown Programs

I had a reader write in asking about a Mortgage Paydown Program that would help her pay off her mortgage of $275,000 in 10 years. The program also told her that her payment of $1423 / month wouldn’t change.

I just wanted to write a little about this since I keep hearing of people wondering if these are actually legit. Well before you go any further, do the math. Say for example her lender was really nice and stopped charging her interest. If she wanted to pay down the loan in 10 years, her monthly payment would be $2291.67. So how exactly is this Mortgage Paydown Program going to allow you to pay a $275,0000 loan that is accruing interest and keep the payment at $1423? Smells like a scam to me.

If you are really serious about paying your mortgage down earlier, just make a few extra payments a month up to what you can afford. I make 2 extra payments a year. What I do is take my mortgage payment of $1334 and multiply it by 2 to see the total amount of the extra payments. I then divide that ($2668) by 12 so that I can distribute it evenly over 12 months. So I just add an additional $222 to my mortgage payment each month. At the end of the year I would have made 2 extra payments which in turn lowers my interest and lessens the amount of time that I will need to pay my mortgage.

I would also reccomend doing something like this rather than refinancing to a 15 year. Sure the interest rate would be a little lower, but you are then on the hook for a larger payment every month. With what I am doing, I can make the extra payments if I have the money, but if I don’t I can still just pay the minimum payment. So it is more of a security blanket than anything. With the way the economy and gas prices are who knows what my financial situation will look like in a few months.

Chevy Volt Electric Car

With the cost of gas going up and no signs of stopping everyone is looking for a way to pay less for gas. Enter the Chevy Volt Electric Car. Chevy has been working on their electric car they have properly named Volt. What makes this car unique from hybrid electric cars is that it only runs off of the electic motor where hybrids run off of both the gas motor and electric motor while switching between the two.

The Chevy Volt electric car can run up to 40 miles on the electric motor alone. If you need to continue driving after that point, the gas motor kicks on while recharging the batteries in the electric motor so that it can give you nother 40 miles on the electric motor once the batteries are recharged. You can also get a full charge to the batteries by plugging the Volt into your regular home wall outlet.

This is a very great idea for a car and I am hoping this propels GM back to the top. Most recently GM announced that they were closing 4 manufacturing plants that made from light trucks to their largest SUVs. I think the American car makes have finally realized that gas prices are going to go down and electric cars are the way to go.

The current production date estimate is November 2010. There is no price listed as of yet. I can only imagine what the waiting list is going to look like for this. The question is, do you jump in early and be a pioneer, or do you wait for them to work the kinks out and get one later down the road. I guess it really depends on what gas prices look like in 2 years. The only good thing is that hopefully some gas relief is on the way.

According to reports the GM will have their electric car for sale near the end of 2010.

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