eMarkLee

Just providing a reminder to everybody that you can get your credit reports once a year from each of the three credit agencies (Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian) FOR FREE. You get it for free and it’s a pretty easy process online (too easy, if you ask my web security expert self).

AnnualCreditReport.com

I’m liking what B of A is doing recently. Not only do I find out that I can use my ATM card for free internationally, now you will be able to visit museums for free during the month of May. All you gotta do is flash your Photo ID and Bank of America credit card, ATM card, Check Card or MBNA credit card and you’ll be able to check out some good old Salvador Dali and Frida.

California museums:
Asian Art Museum San Francisco
California Academy of Sciences
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
de Young Museum
Legion of Honor
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
Japanese American National Museum
Ocean Institute
Discovery Science Center
Orange County Museum of Art
Laguna Art Museum
Newport Sports Museum
Surfing Heritage Foundation
Newport Nautical Museum
San Diego Natural History Museum
California Center for the Arts, Escondido
San Diego Museum of Man
San Diego Museum of Art

New York museums:
Albany Institute of History and Art
The Hyde Collection
New York State Museum
Bronx Zoo
New York Aquarium
Historic Hudson Valley
Museum of the Moving Image
Whitney Museum of American Art
Museum of Modern Art
Studio Museum in Harlem
New York Hall of Science
Brooklyn Museum of Art
Museum of Television & Radio
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
South Street Seaport Museum

The credit card application process for Capital One Cash card was cake online, taking maybe 3 minutes for the excellent credit flow. They tell you you’ve been approved right away and send you the credit card in 7-10 biz days. No wonder why so many people in the US are in terrible credit card debt.

As it is a whole new world in London, I will need to figure out ways to be smart with money in London, especially in light of the extremely weak dollar. Stop importing and outsourcing everything, Republicans…you’re killing me.

Here is how I will approach getting cash and spending cash to buy fish and chips in the UK:

ATM:
I will use my BofA account at partner banks, which will assess no fee to my account:

I can also use my Presidential Bank account, which also does not assess any fees. Unfortunately, I will probably need to open up a local bank account in order to deposit money and to interact with the local blokes and tarts.

Credit Card:
There’s only one credit card company you should consider when you travel abroad: Capital One Cash. They don’t assess the ridiculous 3% fee usually assessed by your credit cards like Chase and Bank of America. That’s $3 for every $100! In London that could buy you some tartar sauce to go with the fish. With Capital One, you will basically be getting market exchange rates without thinking about it. Boo ya. Not sure if I can get away with using my American credit card overseas for a long time, but I guess we’ll find out.

I am going to share my tips on how to save money. When I was younger it was referred to as being a cheap bastard. Now, it is called “personal finance”. At the end of the day, these blogs will put money in your pockets, which you can then PayPal back to me.

We’re going to start with travel as next week I will be taking an excursion to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. As part of my pre-trip research, I wanted to see how I will be getting my pesos there. If you do everything in dollars, you will get hit by an exchange rate tax for EVERY transaction you make…that’s non-optimal. You also don’t want to take the hit at a currency exchange booth since you get a crappy exchange rate. So what do you do? The same thing you do in the US. You use your ATM card. The problem is that your ATM card will charge you for making international transactions. For example, BofA charges you $5 for the withdrawal AND 1% of the amount you withdrew. So they will take 6% out of your $100, leaving you with $1. WTF.

What you really want to have are accounts with these banks:

Credit cards:
Capital One
Discover

ATM Cards:
Bank of Internet
Presidential Bank
State Farm Bank

Check out this wiki to see how your CC or ATM card stack up on fees. Basically, if you use Wells or BofA, you’re assed out and should get a different bank or credit card.