Best Restaurant Credit Cards

The best restaurant credit cards won’t do much for your bottom line if you carry a balance since the interest you pay on the restaurant credit card will outweigh the rewards you earn.  However, if you pay it off each month, a good rewards card with restaurant perks can help you earn points or cashback when you do something you enjoy doing anyway — eating out! Here are some of the best restaurant credit cards:

Citi Forward
The Citi Forward card offers generous rewards when you spend money on entertainment. This card will award you five points for each dollar that you spend on dining, as well as on books, music and movies. You get one point on everything else that you buy with the card. If you have good credit, you can get a 0% balance transfer as an introductory offer. There is no annual fee. Other perks include:

  • 100 reward points every billing cycle that you stay within your credit limit and pay on time.
  • After three billing cycles, your APR will be dropped if you show responsible habits.
  • Extra points for meeting certain spending thresholds.

American Express True Earnings
If you are looking for a solid cashback card, the American Express True Earnings card may not be a bad choice. You get 2% cashback at restaurant, 3% at gas stations for the first $3000 annually. If you travel regularly, you receive 2% cashback for those purchases as well. Every other purchase results in 1% cashback.

You have to be a Costco member to take advantage of this card. While you won’t pay an annual fee for the True Earnings card, you will need to keep up with the Costco membership fee. (Costco will refund your fee if you don’t make it back in savings and perks.)

As with other cards, the True Earnings card offers a 0% APR introductory rate with approved credit.

Citi Dividend Platinum Select Mastercard
Every quarter, the Citi Dividend Platinum Select Mastercard offers 2% cash back on certain rotating categories. For July to September, the category includes restaurants. If you have the Citi Dividend Platinum Select Mastercard, now is a good time to eat out. You get 1% cashback on other purchases, and even get 1% cashback on advances.

Other perks include:

  • $5 cash back on balance transfers of more than $1,500.
  • 5% additional cashback when you shop through Citi’s bonus center.
  • Extended warranty on purchases.
  • Car rental insurance

Discover
You can get up to 5% cashback on a variety of purchases, including restaurants, with the Discover card. There is no annual fee, and there is a 0% balance transfer rate for approved credit. You can get even better cash back deals when you shop through the Shop Discover network.

In addition to having this structure, it is possible to get gift certificates with participating retailers for your reward points. In some cases, you can get double the certificate amount. So, if you have a $20 statement credit, it could become a $40 gift certificate to your favorite restaurant. It’s an interesting program. However, you should make sure to read the fine print (this is true with any rewards program) to make sure you understand how the system works.

Bottom line: If you spend with a plan in mind, paying off your card every month, you can earn rewards for eating out, and possibly save money on your next night on the town.


Waterproofing Your Basement Against Costly Damage

Basic basement waterproofing can be done for a relatively low price; much cheaper than the eventual cost of long term water damage that can result in your foundation and finished basement walls and carpet.

Basement water damage can take several costly forms and often the wet basement isn’t caused by water from a roaring flood but rather the slow and steady rain storms and thawing snow of the spring.  The reason water can be such a nasty enemy to your home is that it’s relentlessly wearing away at the base of your house without you even realizing it.  The good news, as I mentioned at the start, is that you can make some relatively cheap changes to help protect your basement walls and floor.

Water Management
Start off by routing the water from your downspouts away from your house to help maintain a dry basement.  Splash blocks aren’t good enough, they still dump the water pretty much at the base of your foundation and it runs right back down to your basement.  You can use metal guttering (around $9 for 10 feet) or plastic extenders (about $7 for 4–5 feet) to run the water at least 4 feet away from your house.

Grading
Ideally the area around your house was graded at the time it was built so that water runs away from your home.  If you have areas where water pools near your house during a heavy rain you’ll want to get out there with a shovel or maybe a Bobcat and give the water a place to flow away from your house.  Water that collects around the base will eventually find it’s way down into your basement.  You can also add soil all around the base of your house to help prevent water from creeping down between the dirt and the foundation.

Sump Pump
Another weapon you can use to try and keep a dry basement is a sump pump.  This is basically a pit in the floor of your basement with an electric pump in it.  Since the pit is a low spot, the water collects there and the pump pushes it up a pipe through your basement wall and out into your yard.

Make sure the water from the pump isn’t being emptied right outside the wall of your house, run it at least 4–5 feet away so the water doesn’t run directly back down into the sump pit.  If your basement is finished and carpet water damage is a concern you’ll also want to install an alarm on the pump to let you know if it stops working, and possibly even a backup, battery operated pump.

Newer houses are often built with a drain around the edges of your basement floor to channel the water all around the foundation into the sump pit, where it’s pumped up and away from the house.  If you don’t have this drainage in place you might be able to add it but the sump pump and additional drains have left the “cheap solution” range and entered the expensive zone. 

Next lets look at the cost of not waterproofing your basement and how that compares to the cost of prevention.

Foundation Damage

Your foundation is your main barrier against all the water that wants to seep, or rush, into your basement.  If you don’t route your downspouts and water run-off away from your house the soil in those areas can become pretty saturated during extended weeks of rain.  Since your foundation is resting on that soil, if the ground shifts, that puts can put pressure on your foundation. 

For example, if you have downspouts dumping at either end of your house and those corners get soaked during spring rains, the corners of your house can shift down and cause stress and cracking at weak points in your foundation. Once cracks start to form, then it’s even easier for water to creep into your basement.  Cracks in the foundation are certainly not cheap to patch, the cost depends on how large they are, which direction they run (horizontal vs vertical) and whether they’re on the inside of the wall, the outside, or go all the way through.

While keeping the soil moisture levels consistent around your foundation can help combat stress and cracking it can’t prevent it.  As the ground freezes and thaws the soil will shift, which can also cause cracks.  So the best way to keep the water out is to keep it away from your house.

Water Damage

If water does get into the basement one of the biggest concerns is mold.  Mold just needs a little moisture and some organic material like wood, wallboard, or even dust particles to start growing.  Getting rid of mold is not cheap if you have to hire professionals.  When I called mold remediation companies for price quotes it was going to be $600 just to get an air quality sample done in the basement.  Then if the sample comes back with high mold levels then you’ll have to pay even more to take care of it.

Wet carpet, pad, and wallboard are all prime places for mold to grow so even a tiny leak in your basement can be enough to start feeding a mold colony.  Even if you divert the water on the outside, basements can be damp so running a dehumidifier is a good idea.  Ventilation and the exchange of air in a damp basement can help keep the mold at bay.

Prevention is Cheaper

Problems with water leaking into your basement and basement mold don’t just pop up overnight.  If you keep an eye on the sneaky moisture trying to soak its way into your basement and do what you can to prevent it you’ll certainly save yourself money in the long run.


Keeping Our Basement Dry

Water can do some nasty damage to your house and I’m not just talking about rivers and creeks overflowing their banks and invading your home.  During our process of buying a new house and selling our old house we saw the results of what water can do to a home if not properly managed.

I’ve spent the weekend working on a few things that will help keep our basement dry, I’ll write about them more in depth later this week.  Fall isn’t usually the time when people have a problem with wet basements, the spring rains are typically when the problems arise.  I’m trying to prepare this fall so that next spring we won’t run into problems.  While I’m working on that, here are some personal finance articles you can check out.

Frugality

Real Estate

Career

Taxes

Investing

Personal Finance


Health Savings Account vs Flexible Spending Account

We recently covered the health savings account and have written about flexible spending accounts and in the past and thought it was time to take a look at health savings accounts vs flexible spending accounts.

Both can be useful tools for medical expense income tax deductions but one thing many people are unhappy with are flexible spending account deadlines and their “use it or lose it” policies.  The health savings account does address that issue and also differs from a flexible spending account in other ways.

The table below compares eight different aspects of HSA and FSA accounts, hopefully that helps shed a little more light on the difference between the two.

Health Savings Account (HSA)Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
Account OwnershipEmployee own the HSA account.Your employer owns the FSA account.
Account FundingThe employee and others on the employee's behalf.The employee funds the account.
Unused AmountsThe individual owns the account and can carry any unused funds over into the next year.Unused funds remaining at the end of the year are forfeited to the employer. Some companies have a 3 month grace period.
Funding MethodEmployee determines how much to contribute by pre-tax payroll deduction or by tax deductible contribution.Employee determines how much to contribute pre-tax into the account.
Interest AccrualInterest can accrue on a tax-free basis in eligible HSAs.Interest does not accrue.
Catch-up ContributionsUntil enrolling in Medicare, employees age 55 and older may contribute an additional $1,000 to their HSA each year. Catch-up contributions are not allowed.
Tax BenefitsContributions to the account are tax-deductible. Withdrawals for eligible medical expenses, as defined by IRC Section 213(d), are tax-free. Interest or investment earnings are also tax-freeContributions are tax-free, reducing annual taxable income. Reimbursements are tax-free.
Eligible ExpensesAny otherwise unreimbursed medical expense (as defined under IRC Section 213 (d)) is eligible. Health insurance premiums cannot be paid from the account, with the following exceptions: any health insurance (other than a Medicare supplement policy) for a person age 65 or older, COBRA, long-term care, and health care while receiving unemployment compensation.Any otherwise unreimbursed medical expense (as defined under IRC Section 213 (d)) is eligible. However, health insurance premiums and long-term care services are not reimbursable even though they are tax-deductible.
Account IntegrationHSAs can be integrated with most limited-purpose flexible spending accounts (LP-FSAs); however, they cannot be combined with a
standard FSA.
Standard FSAs cannot be integrated with HSAs.

Health Savings Account Guide

A health savings account can be a good option for people searching for health plans who don’t want to spend a lot of money on premiums for medical insurance.

Of course, we know there’s no such thing as cheap health insurance. If your premiums are low for individual health insurance that usually means you have high deductibles so you have affordable health insurance just as long as you don’t get sick…

Health savings accounts were created to make high deductible health insurance more realistic since they allow you to save up money tax free in case you do have to pay those high deductibles.  In this article we’ll talk about their benefits in addition to health savings account eligibility, contribution limits, and eligible expenses.

Health Savings Account Benefits
Here are four reasons why health savings accounts can be a good idea:

1) You have a savings plan for your health. – You can put money aside in an HSA to help pay for health care, today, tomorrow and even into retirement.

2) You own your HSA, even if you change jobs, health plans, move or retire. There is no use-itor- lose-it rule.

3) You decide when and how to spend the money for eligible medical and pharmacy expenses.

4) You save on taxes three ways:

  • The money you put in is tax deductible.
  • Your savings grow tax free.
  • Any money you take out to pay for eligible medical expenses is income-tax free.

You save on federal income, Social Security and Medicare taxes when you deposit money into your HSA via payroll deduction. If you are in the 25 percent federal tax bracket, for example, you save $32.65 in taxes for every $100 you deposit.You may also save on state income taxes; check with your state’s department of revenue services for rules in your state.

Health Savings Account Eligibility
In order to open and save in an HSA you must be enrolled in a high-deductible health plan that meets the guidelines set by the Internal Revenue Service. Typically these have high deductibles for individual and family coverage but low premiums.

Also, you cannot open an HSA if you :
1) Are covered by another health plan that is not a high-deductible health plan. Examples include:

  • A general purpose health care flexible spending account (FSA), including the grace period from a prior year. If you are currently participating in a health care FSA, you will need to zero out your balance in order to make HSA contributions.
  • Coverage under a spouse’s non-highdeductible health plan through an employer
  • A spouse’s general purpose health care FSA or health reimbursement account (HRA) that could pay your eligible expenses

2) Enrolled in Medicare, TRICARE or TRICARE for Life, a military benefits program

3) Eligible to be claimed as a dependent on someone else’s tax return

4) Have received Veterans Affairs health benefits within the past three months

Health Savings Account Contributions
To start saving in an HSA, you will need to enroll in a high-deductible health plan and find a qualified health savings account provider to open an account.

Once it’s open you setup a savings plan that determines how much money you’ll contribute once or twice a month.  If your HSA is through your employer, they may offer a payroll deduction option for your contributions.  When setting up your health savings account contributions remember to put enough away to cover eligible medical expenses when you need them.

Health Savings Account Contribution Limits
The most you can contribute to your HSA tax free this year is:

  • $3,050 if you have individual coverage
  • $6,150 if you have family coverage

These amounts are indexed annually and are set to increase in future years based on changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). However, if you turn 55 or older this year, you are allowed to deposit an additional $1,000 annually into your HSA, known as a “catch-up contribution”.

Both you and your non-dependent spouse can open individual HSAs, but the total amount deposited in the two accounts cannot be more than the maximum of $6,150 (plus catch-up contributions, if you are eligible).

Health Savings Account Eligible Expenses
The best place to get a list of eligible expenses is from your health savings account administrator but the HSA eligible items are defined by federal regulations so most lists you find should be similar.  Here’s a short list of covered items:

  • Doctor office visits, hospital and laboratory services
  • Dental care, including extractions and braces
  • Vision care, including contact lenses, prescription sunglasses, LASIK surgery
  • Prescription medications
  • Chiropractic services
  • Acupuncture
  • Hearing aids and their batteries
  • Medicare premiums and employer-provided retiree health care premiums

Keep in mind, even if your spouse or dependents are not covered by your high-deductible health plan, you can still use your HSA dollars to pay for eligible medical expenses for them. 


Balance Transfer Credit Cards 101

Balance transfer credit cards are not a permanent solution to paying off your credit card balance but 0% interest credit cards can offer a period of 0% APR to help you pay off some of your principal instead of interest.

Balance Transfer Credit Card Basics

Balance transfer card offers provide the opportunity for you to transfer a balance from one credit card to another. Credit card issuers offer special terms for balance transfers in an effort to entice you to move your debt so that they have a chance to earn interest on it.

The balance transfer works one of two ways:

1) You can list the account numbers and amounts you want to transfer at the time you fill out the credit card application and sign up for the balance transfer offer. If you are not approved for an amount that covers the entire balance transfer, the issuer will likely transfer the balance (or a portion of it) in the first position on your application.

2) You make the transfer after you are approved for the new credit card. Many balance transfer offers include a provision that allows you to take advantage of the special terms within a certain time period.

0% Credit Cards

When you are transferring balances, your new card issuer pays off the balances on your other credit cards, and then puts that money on your new card. You still have to pay it off, but balance transfer cards normally have low introductory rates or even 0% APR that allow you to put more of your payment toward the principal, so you pay down your debt faster.

Credit Card Debt Consolidation

A credit card balance transfer can be helpful if you carry a balance on a credit card with a high rate. You can move your balance to a lower rate card, and save money in interest fees. Additionally, those who want to consolidate debt can use a balance transfer credit card to pay off smaller loan amounts, resulting in a situation where fewer debt payments are made each month.

Balance Transfer Card Benefits

The main benefit associated with a balance transfer is the lower interest rate. You might end up with a low credit card APR of for the life of the balance, providing you with the opportunity to pay down your debt faster.

The most coveted balance transfers, though, are 0% APR introductory rates. With this type of offer, you are charged no interest on balance transfers for a set period of time, usually six to 12 months. When you use a 0% balance transfer to consolidate debt, you can create a plan to pay off your debt faster, since the entire payment goes to the principal. It’s obviously the most effective if you can pay off your balance within the introductory period.

Credit Card Balance Transfer Drawbacks

There are some drawbacks and expenses associated with balance transfers; here are some things to consider before transferring balances:

  • If you miss a payment, or are late, you will lose your introductory rate and you could end up at the default rate — as high as 29.9%.
  • There can be balance transfer fees associated with your move. Make sure the interest savings offset the 3% to 5% premium you could pay for transferring a balance.
  • Some credit cards are resurrecting annual fees. Be sure that your savings offset the annual fee. Some cards will waive the first year’s fee, or waive the fee if you spend a certain amount of money each year. Look for balance transfer cards with low or no annual fees.

Most importantly, resist the temptation to whip out one of your newly-paid-off cards and start using it again. Remember that the debt is still owed, just on a new card. Take advantage of 0% credit card offer and pay down your debt instead of adding to it.


8 Ways to Save Money on Home Insurance

If you can save money on home insurance each month your annual savings from those lower insurance rates can add up over time.  Home owners insurance is a tricky expense, you don’t want to get really cheap insurance and put your home at risk but you also want to avoid high insurance rates.

Nonetheless you can’t buy a house without home insurance so why not take some time to make sure you aren’t spending too much?  Here are a few tips to help you save money on home insurance.

Get Coverage to Match Your Needs

If you’ve owned a home for a while you might have too much insurance. Most policies have a yearly adjustment for inflation, while this is generally a good idea you need to also factor in economic conditions. Building costs have dropped with the fallout of the financial crisis. A home that might have needed $200,000 in rebuilding coverage might only need $175,000 today. Ask your insurer to re-evalute the coverage and you could save money.

Never Neglect Flood Insurance

Never, ever neglect having flood insurance if you live anywhere remotely close to water. Of course this won’t save on your homeowner’s insurance premiums, but it will save you a lot of money and distress if your home is ever flooded. Also make sure you go through the policy with a fine-tooth comb to make sure you understand exactly what is covered.

Pay Your Insurance Company Yourself

When you first setup your mortgage the bank may require you to put your insurance and property tax into escrow and let them pay it. It may not be a huge sum of money, but those are your dollars sitting in their coffers not earning you any interest.

If you can, get the bank to let you pay your insurance company on your own and stop taking the escrow amount out of your payment every month. (Just don’t forget!)

Increase Your Deductible

Just like with car insurance — the higher your out of pocket deductible, the cheaper your premium. If you’re worried about being able to afford the higher deductible, take the money you save from lower premiums each month and put it into a separate online savings account to help you cover the cost.

Don’t Always Combine Insurance Policies

It’s commonly thought that getting your home and auto insurance from the same company will save you money but it may not always be the case. First see what the individual policies would cost at multiple insurance companies. Then go back and use the same insurers to get the combined quote and go with the best home insurance rates.

Buy an Alarm System

Increasing your home’s security with better locks and an alarm system can lower your homeowners insurance. Of course it probably won’t lower it enough to offset the cost of having the alarm monitoring service, but it should take a small bite out of that monthly cost.

Improve Your Credit Score

Did you know some insurance companies take your credit score into account while when your coverage eligibility and insurance rates?  There are a variety of factors that insurance companies use to analyze your situation so a bad credit score itself a deciding factor but it can play into their decision.  So improve your credit score and it can help you not only get lower mortgage rates but also save money on insurance.

Get Multiple Home Insurance Quotes

Competition is good for the consumer, don’t be afraid to use it to your advantage to get a better deal.  These days its fast and easy to get home insurance quotes online so be sure to compare home insurance rates and policies from multiple sources.

Make sure you’re comparing the same levels of coverage and premiums when you’re looking at costs.  Cheap insurance can save you money but you want to be sure you’re sufficiently covered if something does go wrong.


Home Buyers Guide

Whether you’re a first time home buyer or you’ve already gone through the hurdles of a home sale, home loans, and home buying there’s probably something you’ll come across in your next home buying exprience that you hadn’t expected.  We’ve been through the house buying process twice now so I decided to put together a list of some of the things we’ve learned along the way, I hope they’re helpful!

Home Loans

Home Repair

Mortgage Rates

Home Owner

Moving


Costs of Owning Two Houses

Owning two houses can be both a mental and a financial drain.  With the slump in the housing market I know several families that bought a new house and have been unable to sell their old house.

If you already own a house and want to buy a new one, it’s tough not to own two houses, at least for a few weeks.  Unless the timing works out perfectly or you move into temporary housing chances are you’ll be making two mortgage payments for a while.

Make sure you take all the costs of owning two houses into consideration, it’s not just the second mortgage that will end up costing you money.  Here are some of the dual expenses you may run into:

Home Insurance – You definitely want to have both houses insured to protect your real estate investments.  Of course this means higher home owners insurance bills but check with your insurance company to see if they offer vacant or unoccupied insurance.

Utility Bills – Owning two houses means paying two bills for electric, water, and maybe gas.  If you have one home on the market you probably don’t want to have it really hot in the summer or really cold in the winter and risk turning off potential buyers that come for a showing.  This means you can’t turn the thermostat really high or low to save money on utilities.

Landscaping – In the summer months you’ll have to either mow two lawns or hire someone to help you mow. If you want to keep your grass green for nice curb appeal that means paying to water two yards as well.

Property Taxes – Owning two houses means paying two sets of property taxes, no way around it.  Of course, when you finally do sell they’ll be pro-rated for the time that you actually owned the home but your house payment will still include a portion of the annual property taxes for escrow the whole time you own the house.

Home Repairs – These pop up most often during the change in seasons.  Your air conditioner could go out at the beginning of summer, your furnace/heat pump could quit during the first few really cold days of winter, or your sump pump might fail when the spring rains come.  One option is to buy a sellers home warranty that converts over to a buyers home warranty once your house sells.  That way if your AC goes out while your house is on the market you don’t have to shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars to fix it.

Home Owners Dues – Not everyone has to pay these but if your new and old houses are in neighborhoods with a home owners association you could be paying double.

Private Mortgage Insurance – If you haven’t sold your old house yet, chances are you might not have had 20% to put down and are paying private mortgage insurance (PMI).  The less you put down on the new house the more you’ll pay in PMI. Paying it on one house is bad enough but if you have PMI on both houses that could really sting.

Hopefully I didn’t scare you away from making an offer on your dream house in this market. Just be sure, when you’re planning and budgeting for your new home, that you include the potential carrying costs of owning two houses.


Angies List Audio Contractor Reviews

Angies List helped us find local contractor reviews during our recent process of selling and buying a house.  Our home inspector found things we needed to fix up before selling our old house and we wanted bids on some home improvement work for the new house so we checked Angies List for a number of handyman type jobs.

We’ve been busy moving into the new house so I hadn’t gotten around to giving feedback on the companies we worked with.  Since customer feedback is key to the value of the service Angies List reminds you to leave a review when you login but I hadn’t logged in during the moving process.  However, on the way to work yesterday I got an interesting phone call from a lady at Angies List inquiring about our experiences.

Apparently Angies List is launching a new feature where there will be audio reviews of contractors and she asked for my permission to record our discussion of the companies I had gotten bids from.  I think the new audio reviews will be an added benefit for customers for two reasons.

More Contractor Reviews

I imagine the new audio review format will increase the number of reviews in the system.  People are busy and not everyone remembers to leave feedback on the electricians, plumbers, handymen, etc that they’ve worked with.

The audio version allows Angies List to be proactive, they can call up people and ask them about their experiences with contractors and record their answers (with their permission).  For example, I had forgotten to leave feedback but was driving to work when they called and captured my experiences.

More In-Depth Reviews

Writing a review does take a few minutes and some people just don’t like to write or don’t have the time.  An audio version, on the other hand, is much faster and easier to create.  Most people are willing to talk about their experience with someone they worked with and are probably more likely to go into more detail.

For example, we got a bid from a company for foundation work but didn’t end up using them.  It wasn’t because we didn’t like what they offered, it turned out we didn’t have to do the work.  We scored them a NA for price and quality of work so people might have wondered why we didn’t hire them.  However, in our phone conversation I explained the reasons so other customers wouldn’t think it was because we didn’t like the company.

Overall, I think the audio reviews will be another tool to help people find qualified contractors so I’m glad they’re adding the feature.  The phone rep couldn’t say exactly when the audio reviews would be available other than pretty soon.  I’ll keep an eye out for them, in the meantime you can use an Angies List promo code for a discount if you want to try out the service.



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