Update: The 2020 USAA Subscriber Savings Account Distribution was paid on 12/10/20. Check your account that was registered to receive the distribution to see the amount. I did not receive an email from USAA announcing the distribution. My distribution was about 20% lower than last year’s (2019). One of the perks of being a USAA…
Category: Personal Finance
Free Notary Services at Suntrust Bank
I recently refinanced my mortgage and needed some documents notarized. To my surprise I found out that if you are a SunTrust customer (meaning you have a checking or private wealth management account), then you can get free notary services at any SunTrust Bank location (assuming that location has staff that can notarize documents). How…
Mango Prepaid Card Savings Does Not Send 1099-INT For Taxes
As many of you know the Mango Prepaid Debit Card offers a tremendous savings account interest rate of 6% on balances up to $5,000. Keep in mind that you must maintain $800 of net ACH transfers/loads onto you card each month to qualify. Otherwise the interest rate is 2%, which is still not a bad…
Chase Freedom Q2 2020 Bonus Categories
Just a friendly reminder to activate your Chase Freedom Q2 2020 bonus categories. You can earn 5% cash back for all purchases in the following bonus categories for April – June, 2020 are: Grocery Stores Fitness & Gym Memberships Given that fitness and gym membership fees are rarely a bonus category, this is a unique…
My Kiva Loan Defaulted With No Payments
I think Kiva is a great idea and platform for connecting investors/donors in developed countries with microfinance lenders in developing countries. And I strongly believe that there are a lot of people who want to help others help themselves in developing countries who can establish a business for themselves if they had a bit of seed money…
Lending Club Review
A few months ago I wrote a review about my first 60 days on Lending Club, which have gone very well. My goal was to earn at least 9%, which according to the company CEO Renaud Laplanche in this NBC interview, the average return for investors on the site is 6-9%. After my first 5 months…
Meet Minimum Spend Requirements Using Kiva Loans
One of the best ways to rack up tons of frequent flyer miles and hotel points is by signing up for credit cards and getting the huge sign up bonus. Banks will throw the kitchen sink at you to get you to sign up for their financial services products, and it would be stupid for…
My First 60 Days on Lending Club Earning 13.3% So Far, So Good
Now days it is nearly impossible to find a decent interest rate in a checking or savings account. My savings account with Citi is earning me a paltry 0.75%. Starving for yield and not wanting to take the risk of buying stocks or mutual funds in this market that has had quite a run recently, I…