Gift Card Hassles

Do you have gift cards left over from Christmas and want to get the full value off? I was with my dad yesterday and we went into a Sears Hardware store. He was buying a power washer and had with him a $100 visa gift card that that he used somewhere earlier to purchase something around $8, so the current value was around $92, but wasn’t sure of the exact amount. We we got to the register he asked if he could use the gift card to pay for the power washer then use a regular credit card to pay for the difference. The cashier told him that he needed to know exactly how much was left on the gift card if he wanted to use it. Unfortunately the 800 number to call to get the current card value was giving a fast busy signal. In the end he wasn’t able to use the gift card since he didn’t know the exact value.

I use to have this issue but found a way around this. Once I get a gift card, I pay my T-Mobile or Comcast bill online with the full value of the card. The nice thing is that if the amount on the gift card was greater than the bill balance, you just get a credit balance on your account which lowers your bill for the next month.

I can then spend that gift card amount using a normal credit card and not have to deal with the “how do I get this partial amount off of my card?” issue. Plus this helps you get the money off of the card immediately for those cards that may lose value or expire over time.

If you have retailer specific gift cards that you think you will never use, why not try selling them on eBay?

2008 Retirement Contribution Limits

As we kick off 2008 now is a good time to make sure you are maxing out your 401k and ROTH IRA (if eligible). Remember that a 401k and ROTH might be the only thing you will have when you retire considering the current state of Social Security. So start maxing out today since the earlier you do it the greater it will grow before you need to use it!

Here are the contribution limits for 2008 for each retirement plan (401k, ROTH, 403b, and Simple IRA). I also included the 2007 limits as a comparison:

Note that for a ROTH IRA there are certain income limits that start to phase out how much you can contribute. If you are within the phase out range you can only make a partial contribution. If you are above that range then you are not eligible to make a contribution to a ROTH for that year. When you file your taxes it will tell you how much you can contribute based on your adjusted gross income (AGI). Personally, I usually wait to contribute to my ROTH the day before I file my taxes to make sure I haven’t over contributed based on my AGI.

Also don’t forget that you can still contribute to your ROTH IRA for 2007. Just make sure you do so prior to filing your 2007 taxes.

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