HSBC Online Saving New Fees - Email Fiasco

Today in my inbox I received the following

Thank you for saving your money with HSBC Bank USA, N.A. We want to let you know that as of September 23, 2012, your Online Savings Account will be renamed to HSBC Advance Online Savings.


Your account number will remain the same and you will be able to use the account without any disruption in service.

The following account fees will change as of September 23, 2012:

•Funds Transfer-In, per incoming transfer - $12 each (the transfer of funds from another person's account, or another financial institution to your HSBC account)
Foreign Currency Draft (DD Commission) - $25 each* (official bank check purchased in another currency)


* US Dollar Draft- DFT (Commission USD) - $10 each* (official bank check)

I read the part in bold and my heart dropped. Fees AGAIN! I had just closed my wells fargo because they started charging monthly fees if you didn't have direct deposit. I already have direct deposit with 2 other banks so No, thank you.

HSBC has been my "e-fund touch under penalty of death" savings. I lost the atm card, I don't get statements and I don't take money out. I even recently automated my savings so that I wouldn't log in so much! Even though the interest rate is no longer the amazing 6% it was when i joined (i still have hope it'll come back), I had no plans on leaving. I was even thinking one day I would have enough money to be a premier member.

Anyway, common sense kicked in and I was like, how is an ONLINE bank going to charge you for transferring money in? How else would you get money deposited? They can't FORCE everyone to have an HSBC checking account (don't even think that would be legal).

So I googled. Found a thread that what the folks at HSBC had meant to say was wire transfers (why didn't they just say that?). Being a skeptic, I had to call myself and the rep basically said it was poor word choice. Sigh of relief.

I'm still wondering how a global bank could make such an error on such a large scale. I mean, can you imagine the number of accounts that were closed? I almost closed mine as well. I just didn't want to find a completely new bank which was why I thought to double check.

So breath easy if you were having a panic attack. You won't get charged $12 for transferring in $25 from your BOA or anything else. Man, I really hope capital one does not play any such games with ING.

Expect a clarification email in 3...2...1..


PS: Still need to update my sidebars.

Why you need an emergency fund.

Back to personal finance.
I seem to talk a lot about an efund but it makes sense since it's really important. A while back, I decided to cut back on my contribution to my student loans and divert some of that money to my savings account. I decided this for a couple of reasons. The number one being my realization that if I got laid off, I wouldn't even have enough to pay the next months rent. I was truly living paycheck to paycheck. Number 2 was that when big emergencies came up (or big events), I didn't have the money on hand to pay for them and then I'd have to rely on my credit card and take 2 steps back in debt reduction (i.e. $500 gas bill, $350 down to renew my car insurance). I'm proud to say that my savings account now has $40.

That won't completely cover my rent but here's why I'm proud. I had actually saved about $800. Then I had to pay for my car insurance and I was reminded I had about $300 to pay on 2 parking tickets (nyc for you) and on top of that I had to start making payments on my gas bill. All these could have sent me running for my VISA but this time around, I had the cash sitting in an account. These are precisely the reasons, I tripled my efforts towards growing my efund.

I'm not perfect, I used some of that money to by some divine shoes but at least it was a cash splurge. I'm going to keep contributing although I'll won't be able to contribute as much since I have to pay my loans again. All my outside income - ehow, surveys - are going to go to my savings account till i reach my $2000 goal.

If you don't think you could survive a month after being laid off or losing your job, you should think about building up your emergency fund even if you have a mountain load of debt.

Changing my focus

I just thought I would let you know that I will be switching gears for the next couple of months. So many things have cropped up that it has shown me that a sizable Efund needs to be set in place. In the last week I have learned that I might have to buy 2 more plane tickets. Granted, not as much as the 650 pound one but it's money not in my budget nonetheless. My grandma is sick and alone in a hospital so I feel it would be good to go see her sometime in this month or next month. Other things have come up and basically I have decided I am just going to pay a little over the minimum on my cards until my savings account has $1500. I am going to skip my loan payments for a month or 2 because they are pre-paid till next year. As soon as I tweak my budget i'll let you guys know what i'll be putting towards savings. It should only take about 2 months or so to get it there and then i'll shift focus back on paying my debt. I just don't want to charge anything else on my card.

Things seem funky at my job and I'm not sure how much longer i'll have this job so I need to make sure I have something to fall back on. Hmm, maybe my goal should be 1675 b/c that would be 1 months rent. We'll see. How much do you debt payers have sitting in your efund?

I made one sale on half.com but that's it. From talking to my friends it seems that the website is best for selling textbooks and new releases. Do you have any suggestions as to where I could sell regular novels? Also, has anyone ever used the auction feature of ebay? I have a brand new prada bag I want to sell.

Can't wait for summer

600 pounds of debt

I feel like I am always writing "update" posts. That was not my original vision for this blog. It's part craziness at work and part lack of discipline on my part. I think I need to set specific writing goals for myself. Idk. I'll figure it out.



Well to let you know what happened with my ridiculous gas bill, I called the company and apparently, the just picked a number out of the air because they have not been able to read the meter. Actually, as I write this, I think I might have told you guys this already. Oh well.



I am facing a lot more setbacks than I thought I would. After the minor crisis I had a few weeks back, I thought I was in good shape to continue my journey. I had loosened my budget and stepped up my contribution to my e-fund so I would be more prepared for emergencies. I guess fate really wanted to cement the fact that I should have been saving more all this time.

I went to the UK for a family engagement. I bought the ticket with a combination of cash and miles a couple months back and I was really proud that I had been able to pay cash for a plane ticket (2nd time ever!). I had some pounds I had been sitting on that I received from my dad last year and was planning on changing them to dollars and putting that amount to my debt when I returned. My dad also sent me 200 pounds extra because he wanted to make sure I had money when i travelled (he didn't know I still had the money he gave me last year). All in all, I was looking at close to 700-800 dollars if I didn't spend too much in one of the most expensive cities in the world.

Everything went well till the last day. I didn't spend much money and I had fun. On the day I was too leave, I packed very early in the morning and somehow managed to miss my late evening flight. I don't even want to go into how dumb that was of me. I think I just didn't budget enough time to get to the airport on time and all the Jack Bauer moves in the world couldn't change that. I had to be back in NY that day as I had another plane to catch to go to a job obligation. If I missed the work conference, I would get charged $5000.

The short version is that my airline that would have re booked me for free didn't have another flight till late the next morning and I ended up having to pay for a ticket on another airline. 580 POUNDS!
I was so upset I couldn't even make myself think about it. I mean, it was good that I had enough credit to cover that because if not I would have been even more screwed. However, I had just got that card to under 10K. I was looking forward to bringing that balance closer and closer to zero and there I was adding another $1k to the balance. I had no idea what exchange rate the CC was going to use and I knew I would be charged a forex fee. I had the pounds I wanted to convert to dollars and now instead of significantly reducing my balance, it would just go towards paying this off bringing me closer to where I started. 3 steps forward, 5 steps back. So frustrating.

Anyway, I made it back stateside. It's not as bad as it could be. Don't get me wrong, it's still a crappy situation but some things happened at the right time. The total cost to me was $897.89. Crazy. I used to pay $1k in rent in my last state. Anyway, I had just received a $50 check from my online surveys and redeemed $50 from my capital one rewards so I put the $100 to that bringing the balance to 797.89. Luckily today was payday and I paid $413.25 on that card so the balance sits at 384.64. I think converting my pounds to dollars gave me like $600 so when I get back to NY and deposit that cash the ticket will be paid off. I just won't have reduced my debt by as much as I could have without that ticket. Oh well, thankful for small mercies.

I'm gonna stop now because I find my posts get long since I don't post as often as I should. Tricia over at www.bloggingawaydebt.com has paid of ALL her credit cards after 3 years and I can't wait to be in her shoes. I think the lesson I take away from her is that I need to be patient. It took her 3 years, I've been at this 6 months and I have way more debt than she started with. That being said, debt free day came for her and it will for me as well!

When it rains...

you know the rest.
It's been a really interesting week financially. Last week seemed like I was repaying some mortal sin I had committed. It was that bad. After the news about capital one almost tripling mu APR. I got hit with a $600 bill. Due this week. Are you shocked? Because I was. It was from my gas company who has never billed me since I moved in (October 2008). I had called in November, December and January to let them know I hadn't received any bill. The first time they told me that their guy was not able to get access to my building and the second time they said a bill would be going out the next week. I called them of course because I was not about to be charge a late fee for not paying $600 with a weeks notice. The long and short of it is that they still have not read my meter. The last time it was read was in August (before I moved in). Nobodies meter in my building has been read actually. I guess another department saw the gas was being used and issued an estimated bill and closed the account. They put a hold on the bill and I have to call my landlord to find out what's going on. I'm not sure how they are supposed to gain access to the meter so that's on hold.
Then i got two parking tickets. Both for $115 dollars. Total $230. Looking at the second ticket I notice my plates expire at the end of this month. Which reminds me that my insurance is up in June/July. All these financial curve balls made me panicked and helpless. I hated the fact that I have all this debt. I hated the fact that I make a supposedly good salary (62k) and I can only afford to give myself $10 a week to spend. That despite that sacrifice, I still don't have enough. I was definitely in depression mode. I quickly went to my budget and revised what I could. I increased my credit card payments from $700 a month to $800. I reduced the amount in unplanned spending. Cut eating out to $15 a month (from $20). I found all these little spots I could shave $5 here $3 here and resigned myself to living a life of poverty even though I make double what I made in my very first job.

Time is wonderful. It shows why we shouldn't rush into decisions. After thinking more this weekend, I realized I was panicking for nothing. Yes my APR went to a ridiculous percentage and I would be charged ridiculous monthly interest effectively slowing my debt reduction. But that would only happen if I accepted the changes. Which I didn't. I opted out and the account will be closed in May. I get to keep my 7% interest rate. So nothing changed in terms of payments. These unexpected bills I have coming up will not get paid because I increased the amount I pay on my credit card. Matter of fact, putting all that extra money towards my credit cards will mean i can not pay for those expenses.

Looking back, I think I just really want to be rid of this debt TODAY. It's not possible. There's not magic about it. It takes time. I didn't get all that debt in one month and it's not going to take 3 months to get rid of it. I have to start thinking in terms of years and just be happy that the number keeps going down. I mean, I owe about what I make in a year. I pay about half my salary in rent. Which means that even If i only used my salary on rent and debt, it would take a year to get rid of all of it. Obviously, that's not a feasible situation. I have to eat. I have to pay for transportation and all. Basically, I think I am going to go back and play with my budget. I need to contribute more to my savings. That way when things like parking tickets come up, I can pay it off without thinking too much about it. This means my debt reduction rate will slow down but hopefully I'll be able to avoid these anxiety-ridden moments. I'll also be able to enjoy life a little more.
Trust me, I'm not about to input $80 a month for clothes. I'll definitely still be frugal and look for ways to cost cuts. I'm still going to ask myself if something is necessary. There is just no need for me to be a martyr. I think that if being a martyr meant I would pay by debt off in 3 months, I would do it. I don't think I want to live like that for 2-3 yrs. The key is not to add to my debt.

I'd really like to know what you guys think about this strategy and If you've had to make this decision yourself as well.

What to do?

Alright, taxes are filed. One of my state returns got rejected but it's for $38 so I don't really care when I get it. Grand total is about $4k. I'm happy that I can make a huge dent in my debt but at the same time I am frustrated that I have so much debt. If I didn't have all this debt, I could go to my friends birthday extravaganza in Dubai guilt free and still have money to save. Oh well, I guess I have to think about all the things I charged and enjoy that right now :(. This is definitely incentive to wait till I have money before I have fun. It's so much better when the money and the thing you spend the money on happen around the same time.

Oh well. Enough whining.

This is my situation. My BOA LOC is currently in the high $4000. I can put $3K of my refund towards it (the rest is going into my budget). I have not made my February payment on that account ($450) so I will do that when I get paid on Friday. That will leave me with about $1600 or so on that card. I have $2000+ in my savings account and I am contemplating using that to payoff the card. I know a lot of people advise against using your emergency fund but I really want to pay off the account. 22% interest is not fun. If I did that, I would have about $700 left in the e-fund and I could pay of BOA this month. It would free up $450 a month and I can increase my contributions to my savings and payments on other accounts.

You know what, writing this down has convinced me that this is what I am going to do. Yay! Blogging is amazing. I used to think about my finances but I don't think that I would be close to paying of one account if I hadn't started blogging. Reading all your stories and thinking about what I am going to write about makes me plan so much better.

In other news, I'm reading the millionaire next door. I am about a quarter of the way into it and right now I think it's so-so. I don't like the tone of the authors because it feels very preachy. They could have gotten their message across without sounding so sanctimonious. On the other hand, the message is definitely making me think. I am going to start looking into how I can get away from a 9-5 and doing something that I run. I'll let you know my final verdict when I finish the book.

If there is anything else you guys would love to know, let me know.

2009 Goals

Leaving the UAE tomorrow. It will be 2009 in about half an hour over here and I just wanted to dash in and post my financial goals for the upcoming week.

1. I want my CC debt to be under 35K by the end of next year.
2. I want to have at least 3K in saving.
3. I don't want to charge a single thing that I can not turn around and pay off for the entire year.

That's about it. Pretty straightforward and hopefully achievable.
I will be posting more frequently when I am settled in the states. Hopefully, by then I'd have figured out how to get the debt meter onto my site.