Rescue and Recycle! Check this out!

So glad this article jumped into my reading today!

It speaks of Camera Recycling. A company by the name of Teleplan Camera Repair, which repairs over 2,200 types of cameras is now also offering Camera Recycling, for Free!

Now there is a reason for which those two broken cameras have been sitting in my family room collecting dust! One is most likely beyond hope and the idea of having it recycled makes me feel good! Sending it in without spending a dime with a free label for shipping and all, and who knows it just might qualify for possible donation to a school if they manage to repair it. Makes me feel even better! I just couldn’t bring myself to throw these cameras out, and taking them to a donation center just seemed wrong.

This is where the information was found and glad to say a true find it was!

The other camera is a perfect candidate for camera repair and some research has shown that Teleplan Camera Repair can repair all sorts of problems on cameras and is 20% more cost effective!

Here is the press release:

http://www.teleplancamerarepair.com/camera-repair-blog/post/Teleplan-Camera-Repair-Aims-to-Become-a-Leading-Camera-Recycler.aspx

Send it in and enjoy! Those two that were full of dust are on their way!

The upside of the slow housing market. This is one you need to get on QUICKLY! Calling for help!? Help is here!

Read carefully and run for the paperwork!

The deadlines DO VARY from state to state and county to county.  Read the fine print. Do you hate the paperwork of something like this? It IS worth it! And NO, there is NO cost to you. This is all done directly with your Tax Appraiser’s Office.

Run! Run! Run!

With the housing market not as “happy” as it has been in the past years,  that makes the housing cost drop. What does that mean to you if you don’t plan on moving and your are making your payments? Even if you are in an area that is supposedly doing well,  someone, somewhere was affected, and if you decide to sell your house right about now, the value of your house will be affected too. All it takes is one foreclosure in your area.

Down to the nitty gritty. This is how you can lower your taxes.          

7 Steps on Appealing your Tax Property Appraisal

1.    Get the COMPS – Ask you friendly Real Estate friend to send you the COMPS for your property. They are more than familiar with this and most likely have already provided it to many many people in the past weeks.  COMPS will consist of:

a.    CMA Customer Report (Competitive Market Analysis)

This will show the houses that were sold in the past months in your area. Observe closely and compare; the square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, the $/SqFt – cost per square footage, and the final sale price.

b.    Customer Brief with Remarks Report

These are the houses around yours that are currently for sale. Observe the same data above, in addition, observe the two numbers for LP (list price) in comparison to Orig LP (Original List Price). That will bring to light how much they have already gone down in price. The longer a house is on the market, higher the tendency to lower that price.

c.    Customer Full Report

Same as the Customer Brief with Remarks Report yet with a full blown version of details on the house.

2.    Know your stuff – Get your PROPERTY TAX APPRAISAL that was sent to you by your county.

Read the fine print, not just the main titles, regarding the deadlines and how to do the appeal. It is absolutely better to do this in person!

3.    Analyzing your Comps –  Become very familiar with these documents. The main COMP sheet will show several houses, some bigger, some smaller. See how much the other houses that are comparable to yours in the adjacent neighborhood are going for. This is the hard part, realizing they are going for less than you would wish.

Focus on the square price. Some quick math to use in your Appeal:          

a.    Average out the square footages of all the houses and obtain an average $ Sq Ft cost.

b.    Average out only the square footages that are most like your house and obtain that $ SqFt cost.

c.    Compare, which is the best to show and use as an argument? Have these notes ready!

4.    Show it – Print out everything your realtor sent you and take it with you!

5.    Down sell your property – This is a time to “downsell” your house to the TAX APPRAISER! Does your property back up to a commercial building, or a busy street, anything that could bring down the value of the house? This is what will get your Property Taxes to be lowered.  Use Google Maps satellite view of your address. That will show the commercial property adjacent to your property. Print it out.

6.    Be Organized – Have your ducks in a row. Have a good attitude. Firm attitude. Remember you are not the only one there arguing this. Start nice, be firm, escalate as needed.

7.    Personal Touch – Gather ALL your papers and head down to the TAX APPRAISERS office. YES, in person. You will get much more bang for your buck!

Good Luck, Relax, eat some chocolate and enjoy the savings on your Tax Property!

The name of the book, or singer in this case; Susan Boyle.

An astounding voice profused out of a lady that all had pre-judged quite severely, openly displaying on camera smurcks and eyes rolling. After taking care of her family her whole life, she is on her pursuit, with a golden voice in hand and a quirky and interestingly sassy uplifting attitude.

Her performance was so beautiful it had people wide eyed starting by Simon himself, if you have ever watched the program you know how abrasive he is with all the contestants. For Susan all he had were praises.

This video was uploaded to YouTube and since then Susan has received several offers, including interviews with Larry King and possibly Oprah. 

In the mesmerizing experience of hearing her voice, echoes a blatant manner in which we are so quick to judge. We all do it, and if you are thinking “I don’t” you are lieing to yourself!

We judge ourselves, our family, co-workers and yes, this lady that we had never seen before!

Why? Perhaps it’s the plank! What plank? The one that remains in our eyes as we dodge it and are quick to criticize and judge everyone and thing we see.

“You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.   Matthew 5:7”

Enjoy the music and take some time to focus on your own plank as you pick up your jaw with humbleness!

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

“Keep the insurance” said the agent over the phone. Puzzled he questioned the agent, was transferred to several different people, several times over, only to hear the following answer. In the state of Texas if your car insurance lapses, when you go back to get insurance, from any company, it will increase substantially. The revolving door of agents on the phone suggested changing the policy to a “garaged car”, meaning you can have the minimum coverages on it. Yes, he had made it clear he was not going to drive the car! Enters another agent, this time from the sales side of the insurance company , suggesting a  “non owner named” policy. Huh? Well, it’s a policy that means you don’t have a car, so you are basically getting it so your insurance won’t lapse. Note that this one was more expensive than the policy on the actual car owned previously.

Still puzzled, I called my own insurance agent thinking “aha!” there will be a reasonable explanation for this.

Sad ending, there wasn’t. Same thing. Car insurance will increase if it lapses.

Without a car to drive, hopeful to get one soon, and utterly puzzled, he is still paying on the same insurance he had before. Only having eliminated a couple of lines, reduced the rate by 40%.

Only a piece of chocolate can combat this one!

Has this happened to you? Did you find something different? Share!!!

My credit card bill displayed an interest rate this month that was more than double the last 6 months. After catching my breath and digging up the past 6 bills I was able to notice that my rate was 7.24% for the past 6 months, and now it was 14.99%. Yikes! Help!

I called the bank (Citibank in this case) and ended up speaking to a customer service person overseas with a heavy accent. On top of being frustrated I had to double my attention in hearing what she was saying just to be able to make it out.

After I questioned this, she fumbled with the keyboard a bit, I imagine going back and forth seeking a script titled “what to say to the customer at this point”, at which point she blurted out nervously; “Oh, you’ve been a customer for seven years (actually it has been longer) and we do value you as a customer. You are precious to us.” That is a new word used by customer service… precious? She continued: “So, I can bring your rate down to 9.9%”.

What? No, no good? I have made payments on time; I am not even near my credit line limit. What the heck happened?

So I told her. No, I want the rate I had before. She asked for a moment, repeated the customer service pre-formatted sentence and then said: “I will transfer you to an Account Specialist.” I heard some music and voila, on came an English speaking, no accent man that proceeded to pretty much repeat what she had said, minus the pre-formatted “you are precious” line.

I started by telling him how frustrated I was and trying to figure out what the heck happened! He stated that on my January statement there was a note printed on the bill about the right to “opt-out” from the interest rate hike. What? The right to opt out? How did I miss this?

I fumbled through my bills which I now had all laid out in front of me, and questioned him. “Ok” I said, “I have it here in my hands and at the bottom of the bill is the following. They are offering me chocolate.” He interceded and lightly added “would you like some chocolate?” I probably needed it at this point, yet continued to read. “My mileage summary. An offer for paperless statements, which if I had accepted I would have had to print all these statements right about now, might have thought it was too much work and just passed on the whole thing all together. Oh, and they are also offering me fruits. However, nothing about this finance hike.”

Then, and only then, he started to explain what this really meant and came up with some alternatives. Well, I can offer you a rate of 9.99%. I responded: “No, I want my 7.24% rate back!”

His explanation was; “If you opt-out that means that you will keep your current rate, or the prime rate (a rate made up by your bank, plus the finance rate, this supposedly being close to the government interest rate.) You can continue to use your card until the expiration date on your card”. I quickly looked at my card and it expires on 03/2010. So, I have nearly a year to use it at this rate. Heck yeah! I want to keep the rate!

“What happens when that date comes around, do you guys simply close the card?” He replied “Yes, we do”. “Can I call and say I want to keep the card and what is the current rate?”  Silence. More silence. “Yes, you can”, he replied.

“Aha!” I exclaimed. “Why didn’t you tell me that in the beginning then?”

He replied “Well, we are not supposed to suggest that, but you asked so I can answer.” It’s good to ask questions he added.

Wow! That is how things roll.

Put your reading glasses on and go “r e a d” all of your bills and all of the “fine print” on each one. Also, wouldn’t hurt to compare finance rates from the past months with the current ones. Then there are the phone bills, that is a whole other article.

Suggestion: review bills from July 2007 to present date to establish a pattern.

HeadsUpISpy received report of a rental with a specific set of rules on return date. As every good customer, didn’t read the terms, and assumed the terms had stayed the same. No surprise here, it didn’t. The real fun part however was that at the time of return, not only were the old rules the customer thought no longer valid, the actual terms that were on the receipt for this transaction had already changed also! Can anyone say revolving door!? They change their terms faster than you can rent, watch and return a movie!

Making up the rules as they go, a child’s game. No wonder they are getting so creative, must be loosing customers faster than you can spell the name!

I Spy another Blockbuster Class Action Suit in the making!

Heads Up for other options in renting movies and avoiding the child games Blockbuster is playing. Write these down:  Redbox ( $1/24hrs available in supermarkets and your local wally store) and Netflix (way cheaper than Blockbuster!)

Say what? Exactly. Finance Charges are only supposed to be charged if you carried balance over from the previous month, otherwise no finance charges should be charged.

I SPY credit card companies trying to make some money on your back! Hard times for them too?

So HEADS UP! Check your credit card bills, line by line, e v e r y month!