Today's Mail 3/27/06

First off, I got my American Express Blue bill & see that the due date is April 11, which means I have less than two weeks to turn this thing around in order to pay on time. That shows you how credit cards have cut down the billing cycles & the timeframe in which you have to pay. You really don't get to float your money for as long anymore -- the earliest charge on the bill is from 2/22, but the latest is from 3/22, which means I get to float those more recent charges for less than three weeks before I have to pay them back.

I like to do my bills once a week, and, these days, if I forget or let it slip for a couple of days, I'm already in danger of late fees.

Also got two bills from Chase cards that I have. One of them I rarely use & I think I'm going to cancel it even though the experts say that you don't want to cancel too many credit lines because it can lower your credit score. Forget that, my credit's fine, I'm bagging this card. I think I'm going to get Chase's Cash Plus card so really I'm not cutting down on my cards. Also found out today that it appears Chase didn't close my other account that I've already called about once. That's freaking annoying that I have to call again -- especially because that one has an annual fee & I'm going to be livid if I'm close to the fee date & they try to charge me. I already cut up the card but I still see it in my online account. Chase also sent me today the same balance transfer checks that I got on Friday -- they are relentless with these.

In terms of new accounts, my only credit card offer today comes from the L.L. Bean Platinum Plus Visa credit card. It's a no annual fee card, APR of either 7.9 or 13.99% -- of course I won't find out which until I actually apply. I don't see what this card does for me other than free shipping on L.L. Bean stuff. That can't be the whole reward, can it? Oh, here we go -- "use your card everywhere you shop and you'll be rewarded with Coupon Dollars good toward L. L. Bean products." Says I can get free monogramming on anything that they monogram, too. I'm not a fan of monogramming, so that's meaningless. If you go to the L.L. Bean Web site, you get basically the same offer, except the APR is 11.4%, higher than the 7.9% I might qualify for by mail, but less than the 13.99% APR they also say I could end up with. I'm going to pass on this one.

Here's my other mail, in case you're curious:

• Some sort of mortgage loan device from Indymac Bank that apparently would allow me to pay any mortgage premium I feel like every month. That can't be right and you know that's going to cost, and anyway I don't want temporary cash flow from my mortgage, I want to pay on that sucker. I want equity, baby.
• Local Nationwide Insurance agent wants to cover my nonexistent business. Good luck, Jack.
• Special Olympics wants me to donate. They even included one of those stickers that says "Supporter 2006" as if I've already donated. If I weren't an upstanding citizen, I could stick that sticker on my car without donating. But I won't. However, the Special Olympians won't be getting any money from me today -- I don't give to mail requests. Once a year I see how much money I've got to give and make decisions -- giving randomly when asked doesn't do it for me.

A big movie weekend for me. Saw "Inside Man" Friday, plus 3 movies at the Cleveland Film Festival. Inside Man was good, glad to see Spike Lee doing something interesting again. At the festival, I especially enjoyed "I for India" so check that out if you ever get a chance, which you probably won't unless you go to film festivals. Although Netflix seems to have everything these days, so maybe they'd have it eventually.

Til tomorrow...