Step3 Prophet

The magic of Skype phone calls

I've recently become a huge fan of Skype (in case the headline wasn't enough of a tell). Skype is a computer program which allows users to make voice and video phone calls over the web. I'm a little behind the times, since I've known in the back of my mind that this was possible for quite a while now, but I've never really had a reason to use it. Wikipedia tells me it's been around since 2003.

Now that I'm stuck 1000's of miles away from the woman I love, and am going to be going further still, it made sense to explore this option. It also helps the my EEE PC comes equipped with a built in web cam and a version of skpye pre-installed. The pre-loaded version was somewhat outdated, but installing the latest version was quite simple.

I've been using it now for a few days and I am quite impressed. The best part of skype is that PC to PC calls are free. Thats video and voice. Calls can be made to a land line or a mobile phone as well for a fee. The call quality is decent, and the video quality is not too bad either. I don't know if the video is limited by the poor quality of my camera, or by bandwidth limitations, but over all the quality is fine for my purposes.

I expect this will save me and my sweetheart quite a bit of money while I'm traveling in foreign lands, but it can also be useful to see friends who you haven't seen in a while. Even though I could call them on my cell, a video would be nice as well.

To learn more check out Skype's website.

 

How to never get SPAM

Spam is an annoyance for most people, but like TV commercials and radio ads, most people live with it and filter it out as best they can. (Except for that small percentage of people that actually orders things from SPAM mails, and who's hard drives should die in a fire).

I'm here to tell you ,though, that I never get spam. I've had the same email address for over 3 years, I buy things online fairly frequently, and I rarely give my email address out for "FREE" offers. So how have I been blessed with this SPAM free existence? Yahoo!'s AddressGuard.

To use this feature you must purchase Yahoo! Mail Plus. It is $20 a year, and worth the money and time to not have to deal with spam. This is not just your average filter. Filters are only as good a the programmers who made them and the spammer's creativity in getting around the filter. In fact, I use no filters at all. AddressGuard allows you to "Create and manage disposable email addresses to defend your primary address against spam." You can setup as many email addresses as you want around a base name that has nothing to do with your actual email address. All of these email addresses you create will still go into the same inbox (or another folder of your choice) so you only have one login and inbox to deal with.

So how does this all work? Back in '05 my old Yahoo! account was starting to get bogged down with spam. There is no way to take your name off the spammer's lists once it is there. So I created a new Yahoo! account, signed up for Yahoo! Mail Plus, and never, ever sent an email from my new primary email address.(Actually, I did send a few due to forgetfulness as first, but it hasn't come back to bite me yet)

Instead of sending emails from your primary address, you create 1 or more "fake" email addresses that you can use to send and receive messages from. I currently have 16 different email addresses that I use. When one of my addresses starts to receive spam, I just delete it. No more emails will be received at that address. The spammer's email bounces right back to them.

My recommended setup would be one address for friends and family, one for online orders, one for business relationships like banking or subscriptions, and one throw away for signing up for "free" online offers and such. That way, if you do get spam at , say, your online orders email address, you can delete it without having to tell your friends and family to update their address books with a "new" email address.

I'm currently on my third orders email address and second business address. I've never had to delete my friends and family addresses( I made one for each. Does that mean I'm paranoid?). I also have addresses for craigslist, myspace, facebook, and other social sites that I don't want mixing with my other affairs.

One other major benefit of this method is that it makes your online identity harder to hack. Many websites use email addresses as unique identifiers, which means if a hacker knows your email he's got 50% of your online access credentials right there.

Some Tips:
-If you delete a fake address and then realize that you needed it for a particular website (such as to reset your password) you can always restore it. After you restore it, change your contact email at that site and then delete the other one again.
-The more specific your fake email addresses are, the less likely you will have to delete it, and the less impact deleting it will cause.

-When you create the fake addresses, select the option to send email from that address. The first email you send to a person you will have to select that email address from the drop down box, but if you reply to a message sent to that address, it automatically uses the receiving email address as the replying address. 

-Addresses can only be created and edited in Yahoo! classic interface. But once they are created you can use them in classic or the "new" Yahoo! interface. (Yahoo!, you really need to fix that. It's been quite a while since the new look was introduced).

Getting the most from Itunes

I have an ipod nano (1st gen) and a couple times a month I download new songs from itunes. I'm sure everyone is familiar with itunes by now. Rarely am I not able to find the songs I'm looking for. But when it comes to choosing a particular version, or maybe getting another song by the same artist, a dilemma arises: Itunes only gives you a 30 second preview. About half the time it's good enough to positively identify what I want, but the other half just leaves me confused. Now, thanks to the power of the internet, I can search for the music video. Youtube has yet to disappoint me. There I can listen to the whole song and decide if it really is the one I'm looking for, or if I should just save my money. Especially when it comes of other songs by the same artist. I find that 9 times out 10 that I don't really care about most of the songs on a particular CD. Back in the bad old days (pre-broadband internet) I used a rule of 3. If I liked 3 songs that they played on the radio from an album, get the album. Now, thanks to youtube, I can listen to most of the album and pick and choose the songs I really do enjoy. Its an extremely rare album that I like 10 songs on, so I always save money picking the songs a la carte. If I change my mind later about a particular song, it's still cheaper. I understand that some other music services have a "rental" like agreement where you could listen to the whole album repeatedly. While I like the concept, my monthly itunes bill is usually less than a subscription service wouild charge, so all in all I come out ahead.

Searching for a great deal( or maybe just searching a great deal)

Lately I've had my eye on a new digital camera. My current one is about 6 years old, and while it still works well, it's starting to irritate me(for instance, it's not Vista compatible). So how do you go about searching for the best deal when there are hundreds of cameras out there? The key is narrowing down your search parameters to what is important to you. I knew going into this that I want at least 8 megapixels to ensure that I have a quality print should I choose to make a physical copy. I don't want to pay too much, preferably under $300. I want it to be small so that I can slip it in my pocket and take it anywhere without wondering if it will be a bother to carry around. Identifying what you don't care about is also important. A 12 MP camera doesn't give me enough extra value to justify the price. Any kind of digital zoom is worthless. Optical zoom is not much better until you get to about 10x which would mean a large, bulky camera. Don't be fooled by flashy gimmicks you aren't going to use. However, things like red-eye redux, or auto stabilization would be useful to the point and shoot photographer.

That will narrow the playing field to about 10-15 candidates. Using online search tools like pricegrabber.com  you can rapidly cut away the junk. Best Buy's website also allows for limiting your search by various options, and allows you to compare items side by side with their "compare now" feature. Once you've narrowed it down to 4 or 5 candidates,  read the reviews on professional sites, or sites with customer feedback like amazon. Steve's digicams is an excellent site for in depth reviews on digital cameras and I used to to pick my current one six years ago. He even gives metrics like time to first shot from power on. Many times I've wanted to take a picture, but lost the moment due to my camera powering up. Lastly, go to a brick and mortar store and hold the items in your hand.

If after all that you still can't choose, go for the one with the flashy gimmick.

Plan to Maximize Credit Card Rewards

In an earlier post I looked at how much return I was getting with American express blue cash rewards, and I wasn't satisfied with the numbers. This year, however, I have a new set of players on the field and I think they can do a better job overall. Since I just got my American express reward for last year, I'm not losing out on much by switching to a new strategy now.

But first I need to close out the old with my chase rewards visa, I have about 1300 points on that card and earn a flat rate of 1% cash back. I need to get that up to 2500 points so I can redeem those points for cash. Otherwise, I'm losing about $13. Since it is a flat rate on all purchases, any purchases that don't garner additional rewards on my other cards can be put on this card until the 2500 point limit is reached. This will be good for things like internet purchases or things that fall outside other spending categories. After that limit is reached, I'll switch to my Chase Freedom card because it also offers 1% on all items and a better overall deal as explained below.

The first new player is a USAA mastercard. They recently sent me a letter offering 5% back on all gas purchases for 12 months. The resultant strategy is obvious. I'll use this card only for gas purchases.

The new star in my credit card line up is the Chase Freedom card mentioned earlier. It offers 1% cash back on everything, but on the 3 categories in which you spend the most, it offers 3% cash back. These categories can change from month to month, so the rewards best fit your spending. Categories are things like gas and convenience stores, transportation, grocery stores etc. There are always caveats, so reading the fine print is necessary to prevent surprises. I'm going to ensure that I use it for my cell phone bill, dining expenses, and grocery stores. I'd use it for utilities, but my utility companies charge an additional fee for credit card usage, which would negate any reward I receive.

The best part about Chase freedom is that if you reach 20,000 points, they will give you a $250 check. So even on a 1 dollar = 1 point basis, you are getting better than 1% if you hold out for 20,000 points. If all purchases are at the 3% rewards rate, this give you an actual reward of 3.75%. If all purchases are at the 1% rate then your actual reward is 1.25%. So even at the lowest possible reward level, that is better than some of my Amex years.

Selling my book collection

I've decided to a lean living kinda of person, so I'm getting rid of a number of things to cut down on the clutter around my house, and eventually simplifiy my next move( which is less than a year away). To that end, I've decided to sell my book collection. That will free up some space, and hopefully earn me some extra cash, and to that end I've delved into two new web services.

The first one is  Shelfari.com . It's an online book cataloging site for your personal book collection. Since I'm getting rid of mine, I hope this will help me keep track of book I've read already, so I don't end up buying new ones and so I can look for the next one in the series when it comes out. It's still in it's infancy, but so far I like the layout and hope they will add more features as time goes on. They are trying to be inovative, hence the cool sidebar.

The other one is Revolution money exchange. They are a service offering free money transfers between individuals. The good news is it's free. The bad news is, only bank accounts are allowed as a source of cash. They are trying to set themselves up as an alternative to pay pal, but with out credit card acceptance I think it can only go so far. However, since I'm trying to maximize profit on book sales, not giving a cut to paypal or some other money transfer service strikes me as a good deal. It was easy to setup an account. The only thing I didn't like was there privacy policy, which basically says "we can do whatever we want with your personal info". I decided to fill out the privacy request form and mail it in when I signed up to give me at least some control. The good news is they are offering $25 to new people who sign up. No waiting or anything. I signed up Sunday, and Tuesday they gave me 25 dollars. If you want to sign up, they have a referral bonus program like ING, so just leave me a comment or send me an email and I'll send you a link.

Going Green pays big dividends

Today I was shopping at Fred Meyer(it like a super Wal-mart, but classier) and I used my green grocery bags that I purchases previously( see Saving the earth). I noticed as I was checking out that I got 5 cents back on my receipt as a "bag refund". I'm willing to bet the plastic bag cost them less than 5 cents, but it's a nice gesture. If more stores follow the trend, those nickels could add up fairly quickly.

A review of Amex's Blue Cash credit card rewards

  The American express Blue Cash credit card is a pretty cool looking and generally all around good card. Some of it's advantages are: cash back on all purchases, no annual fee, low interest(not that I pay interest), convenient online bill pay and transaction downloads. Since I use my credit cards mainly for the cash back feature, I'll explore how much cash I'm actually getting back from all my purchases.

The cash back program works like this: Every purchase gives you some percentage back, and at the end of 12 months, you get a lump sum reward credited to your account. Last cycle my cash back was $161.01. Not too bad. One of the few downsides of this program is the complicated reward structure. It looks something like:

Year to date Purchases	Every Day	Other Purchases
$0-$6500	1.00%	0.50%
$6500+	5.00%	1.50%

So now the question is what percentage cash am I actually getting back? The rewards look pretty good if you can get past that $6500 mark. Of course, what is defined as an "everyday" purchase is not always clear, so you have to read the fine print. I have several years of data from using the card, so now I can figure out with some certainty what my actual average return percentage is. My habit has been to put every credit card purchase I could on the Blue Cash card, and for places that don't accept Amex I have a cash back visa card with 1% on all purchases. Here are the results of real world testing:

	Cash Back	Total Spent	Percentage back
2007	$161	$11,742	1.37%
2006	$314	$16,494	1.90%
2005	$261	$16,269	1.60%
2004	$126	$12,139	1.04%

As the data shows, my actual reward lies somewhere between 1-2%. It can vary even for similar spending amounts depending on the store you purchase goods from. As for 5% , I'm no where near getting that amount back. Still, each year has been better than 1% which is what I would have received from my Visa. Looking at the data, I think I might be able to do better with the Chase Freedom Visa card I just got. It offers 1-3% cash back, depending on where goods are purchased. In a future post I'll look at how I plan to maximize my cash back rewards. For more on this card check out www.mymoneyblog.com

Chase and the tale of the Late Fee

Long long ago( late February) I called Chase to activate my new credit card because the old card's expiration date was almost up. The service rep asked me if I wanted to change the billing due date, and I said yes because I wanted the billing period to end on the first day of the month like my other credit card. Jump forward to April 2, when I'm checking my credit balances and paying my bills. The HORROR! There is a late fee and finance charges on my credit card bill because of non-payment! Flashback fade to Mar. 2 ~~~~Payment made on March 2, 2008~~~~~. "That's odd" I say to myself, I made the payment on time. Then I look at the statement dates and it sets in: the statement ended on March 3rd, and one more purchase posted after I thought I had paid the card off. So I made my payment, late charges and all, and grumbled to the myself, and finally called chase customer service. The man was nice, but said my refund was in another castle, I mean a refund might only be possible after the payment was processed.

So Sunday I called again, and explained the situation, and the customer service rep said he would refund the late fee and finance charges without me even having to ask. Wow. Now I'll just bide my time and see if the refund actually posts. Net profit from making the phone call: 40+ dollars.

Some other things to consider: Always examine your bill closely. Also, I had "Alerts" setup on that account in case a payment was almost past due, but I didn't get the alert because my email address wasn't up to date. So went through and updated my alerts and my contact info(They have separate places to enter your alert emails for some reason), and made sure alerts were active and current on my other credit card accounts.

Designed Dinners

Designed Dinners is a store/service that allows you to prepare meals in advance and freeze them for later use. It's a 2 hour session at one of their stores, and all the ingredients and cooking utensils are there ready to go. You sign up in advance for a time, and show ready to make meals(Except the Belltown store, which is pickup only). Very little cooking takes place there, since you freeze the entree's and bring them home to put in your freezer. The day before you put the in the fridge to thaw, and then they are ready to cook. Most meals cook in under 30 minutes. Today for instance, I had ginger tiger shrimp with a carrot/dill puree. It was delicious, and only took 10 minutes to cook. You choose 8 or 12 meals that you want from their menu selection (it changes every month) and pick up or prepare the meals for later. Some of my other choices from March were BBQ pork calzones, Chicken and red bean enchiladas, and Honey ham steak with sweet and sour pepper sauce. Every meal I've tried so far has been good, some very good.

So what does it cost? For 8 meals that feed 4 persons each, the total was $170. Thats a total of 32 meals, and a price per meal of $5.32. That just the entree mind you, but a side of rice and vegetables that you prepare wouldn't cost much more. Say $6 per person. Thats about the same as eating out at a fast food restaurant, and defiantly cheaper than a sit down place. So for the price, you get better quality food and time savings in the kitchen. If you order more meals the price goes down, but since I'm only cooking for myself and sometimes Mel, 32 meals is about all I can handle in a month. It would be most economical for 2-4 people. Unfortunately, they only have locaions in WA, CA, and AZ. But I expect them to be growing and also competitors to grow as well. Check them out at www.designeddinners.com

One of their competitors is Dinners Ready. They have locations in a few more states. www.dinnersready.com