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My Money Blog:

Nobody has ever accused me of being the most organized person. I don’t carry a PDA, a dayplanner, or even a notebook/moleskin. It’s pretty much just Outlook at work, and a lot of Post-Its at home. But recently I’ve discovered two applications that help me remember all the thoughts that flit in and out of my mind. This is in turn saves me money indirectly with less late fees and missed opportunities. Both have been around a while, but were new to me:

Sandy
First up is IwantSandy, which is an assistant that you can interact with by sending e-mails. She communicates back to you via e-mail or SMS text messages.

Say you want someone to remind you for your doctor’s appointment at 4pm next Monday. No problem, just send an e-mail to Sandy:

Remind me about Dr. appointment at 4pm next Monday.

Sandy will send you an e-mail or text message to do just that, both in a daily digest and a specific reminder 15 minutes (by default) before the event. Most casual language is recognized. You can set repeating reminders easily:

Remind me to pay off Citi 0% credit card on 4/24 @monthly

You can also tag items for easy organization, add contacts, and or create To-Do lists.

Remind me to call contractor back in 3 hours @newhouse

Remember Melissa Valiant (415) 555-1212 mval@gmail.com

Remember my United mileage number is A4362215 @travel

Remind me to refill my prescription tomorrow @todo

You can even “snooze” by replying to a reminder with “snooze 4 hours”. Lots more examples…

My Money Blog:

If you have a Citibank credit card and are collecting ThankYou points, you are probably familiar with the various gift cards available at approximately a 1 point to 1 cent ratio, or 10,000 points = $100 gift card. You may even be familiar with the Fixed Point redemption option for travel. This not-so-publicized option allows you to redeem 20,000 ThankYou points for any domestic coach flight up to $400 in value (per Expedia.com). That’s nearly twice the value, with no blackout dates, no seat availability issues, no 14-day advance booking requirement. You do have to pay the taxes and fees, however, which can be up to $50 if there are multiple stops. (For details see the FAQ, click on Travel Rewards.)

It’s actually quite nice, and I have booked a ticket before this way before. The problem is, they have been gradually restricting which credit cards are eligible to redeem this options. The list went from virtually all Citi cards to the sad, lonely list below:

As of April 15, 2008, ThankYou Members with Smith Barney Accounts, Citibank Accounts, Expedia® Accounts and the following Card Accounts are eligible for Fixed Flight options: Citi PremierPass® Cards – Elite Level and Citi® ChairmanSM Cards. All ThankYou Members can book variably priced Travel Rewards online.

This only left me with either gift cards or the variable point flight option, which is not horrible but much worse in comparison. Essentially one point = 1 cent, so 20,000 ThankYou points would only cover a…

make it! Finance and Investment Blog:

Citibank has just introduced a new account under the name Citibank Ultimate Saver - another competitor in the mix of high yielding deposit accounts. The interest rate is a headline grabbing 7.7%, but reading the fine print indicates this product is somewhat inferior to what is already out there, for the average investor at least.

The first thing to note in the product information is the text “Stunning interest rate of 7.70% p.a. on the portion of your balance between $10,000 - $1,000,000″. At first glance it looks attractive, since the rate is substantially higher than most products out there. You may also make the assumption that the interest rate is simply lower for the portion of the balance below $10,000 but this is not the case.

The fine-print reads

“1. Stepped interest rates apply (meaning different rates of interest apply to different portions of your account balance). Balances under $10,000 do not earn interest. Rate of 7.70% p.a. applies to the portion of your balance from $10,000 to $1,000,000. Rate of 6.75% p.a. applies to the portion of your balance over $1,000,000. Interest rates are effective from 14 February 2008 and are subject to change at any time. Minimum ongoing balance of $10,000 applies.”

This indicates no interest at all is paid on the balance below $10,000. This is critical to consider if you do not have a very large savings balance. Refer the chart below.

You can see that it takes quite a large balance (approximately $80,000)…