Reader Discovers It’s Difficult to Pay the Balance to the Penny

BY MARY HUNT

Dear Cheapskate: This is petty perhaps, but how does one ever completely pay off a credit card account?

We paid off a credit card recently (Hallelujah!) by sending a check for the exact amount of the balance due taken from the monthly statement. The following month we received a bill for $1.91 -- all of it a finance charge! Sure, it’s not much, but that was discouraging. Any suggestions?

-- Alan

Dear Alan: You have just discovered another of the credit card companies’ tricks. Because companies use the average-daily-balance method to compute interest, it is nearly impossible to pay a credit card balance off to the penny if you’ve been carrying a balance of any amount.

You could spend a lot of time and trouble calling and haranguing customer service to time your payment with their billing cycles. Or bite back: When you’re ready to make that final payment in full, add $5 to the amount you owe. When your next statement arrives with a credit balance, call customer service and request that they send you a check for the credit balance.

They probably won’t do it unless you close the account, but how nice for them to owe you for a change!

Dear Cheapskate: I ruined my credit years ago in the usual foolish way people do with nonpayment and slow

BY MARY HUNT

payments.

Even though I am much more careful and responsible now, I cannot shake the bad credit history. My bank does not offer secured credit card accounts. Do you have any suggestions to help me get a credit card? -- Discouraged in Fla.

Dear Discouraged: Negative credit items will automatically drop off your report after seven years; a bankruptcy will stop being reported to the credit bureaus after 10 years. Your report should be cleaning itself if your missteps took place that long ago.

As for getting a secured card, you can apply for this type of credit card account outside of your bank, without ruining that relationship. But first fully understand how a secured credit card account works: Secured cards are for people with bad credit and require a deposit into a savings account tied to the account, typically $300 to $500. If you were to mess up on this type of account, the funds being held as security will be applied to the outstanding balance, and the account will be closed.

I suggest you go to Bankrate.com, where you will find excellent information and a list of secured credit cards available, including each one’s terms and conditions. Read them very carefully. Make sure that you are not shooting yourself in the wallet by opting for a card that has excessive fees.

Dear Cheapskate: About six years ago, I decided to work toward becom- ing debt-free. Not wanting to help the credit card companies get rich by paying lots of high interest, I worked up a plan.

Every six months or so, I would find a credit card company that was offering a credit card with a special six months of zero percent APR on balance transfers with low or no transfer fee, and I would transfer my balance.

In this way I was able to pay off all my credit card debt while paying little to no interest.

The problem? My husband and I now have 15 credit card accounts, with a total credit limit of approximately three times our annual income.

Currently, I am trying to close one account about every six months or so to protect my credit score.

Do you suggest that I keep this up for the next seven years, or should I just bite the bullet, close them all and let my credit rating take a hit? My score is 750. -- Juliet T.

Dear Juliet: Given the delicate nature of credit scores and credit limits these days, identify the two accounts that you’ve had the longest and target them as the accounts you want to keep active. Then just sit back and do nothing with the others.

More than likely the companies will cancel these for lack of activity -- provided the balances remain $0.00. Because you have so much open credit, losing some of that might well improve your already very

good credit score.

While I want to commend you for being so tenacious and clever in getting out of debt, I also want to caution my readers. Your method for paying down debt is a very risky proposition. Zero percent teaser rates are becoming scarce. And even if you can find and qualify for one, it’s not easy to hang onto it. If you are ever late with a payment, you’ll get socked with a big default rate.

This tactic is like playing with fire. It’s easy to get burned.

Mary invites you to visit her at EverydayCheapskate.com, where this column is archived complete with links and resources for all recommended products and services. Mary invites questions and comments at https://www.everydaycheapskate.com/ contact/, “Ask Mary.” This column will answer questions of general interest, but letters cannot be answered individually. Mary Hunt is the founder of EverydayCheapskate.com, a frugal living blog, and the author of the book “Debt-Proof Living.”

COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS.COM

5 Extreme Lawn, Patio and Garden Cost-cutters

For some of us, there are few spring joys that are as soul-satisfying as a healthy, lush green lawn. Or a pristine patio with clean furniture and accessories.

You may have noticed in the past that a beautifully maintained healthy lawn does not come without considerable cost, effort and care. And outdoor living areas don’t magically remain clean and inviting.

You can cut the cost of all kinds of products you need to keep your home and garden looking great, including lawn and plant fertilizers and foods and cleaning products, too, by making your own homemade concoctions.

HEAVY-DUTY LAWN FEAST

Mix together 1 can full-strength beer, 1 can regular (not diet) soda, 1/2 cup mouthwash, 1/2 cup liquid household ammonia, 1/2 cup plain liquid soap (not detergent and not antibacterial) and 1 cup liquid plant food like Miracle-Gro.

This recipe is good for about 400 to 600 square feet of lawn and should be delivered through the use of a hose-end sprayer set at a 4-ounces-per-gallon application rate. Spray on lawn after mowing, just enough to wet the grass. Reapply every three weeks in the cool of the evening, during the hot season.

Just so you know, beer helps to promote microbial action in the lawn; the ammonia breaks down into nitrates that feed the lawn; and the soap helps to spread the solution more widely while encouraging absorption.

The alcohol in mouthwash acts as a deterrent to insects, and soap also encourages the plant material to absorb all the good stuff.

Plant Food

Pour 1 gallon of tap water into a container that will hold a bit more than a gallon. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons Epsom salt, 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon household ammonia. Measure carefully; overdoing it could be harmful to plants.

This is a complete plant food and should e used only once every four to six weeks. Too much will harm and weaken plants. Can be stored and used on both outdoor and indoor plants.

Aphid Eradicator

Mix together 1 cup vegetable oil, 1 1/2 cups water and 2 teaspoons liquid dish soap (Murphy’s Oil Soap works especially well) and pour into a spray bottle.

Spray this homemade aphid control mixture on the aphids every few days until the pests recede. This concoction will suffocate the aphids. Treat plants in the cool of the morning or in the evening, not when they will receive direct sunlight, as the freshly applied oil may magnify the sunlight and burn the foliage.

Artillery Weed Killer

Sometimes you want to make sure nothing will ever grow along a walkway, on a driveway, in the cracks of a sidewalk and between steppingstones and pathways. Just mix up a batch of this soil sterilizer and treat those areas where weeds are so prevalent. It’s cheap and easy. Just keep in mind that you’ll surely kill the weeds, but also every other living thing as well. Apply several times and the soil will be “sterilized,” meaning nothing will grow there for a period of time.

Mix together 1 gallon white distilled vinegar, 2 cups ordinary table salt and 8 drops liquid dish soap. Mix well to dissolve the salt. Dispense this weed killer using a spray bottle. Label the container carefully, and keep out of reach of children.

It will take several days after the first application for the vegetation to die. And you may have to apply several times for this mixture to work its way deep into the soil. But if you persist, that will happen.

Vinyl Siding Cleaner

In a bucket, mix together 2/3 cup Spic and Span powder, 1/2 cup Tide powder laundry detergent, 1 quart liquid bleach and 3 quarts hot water. Allow to stand for four to five hours. Pour into a garden hose-end sprayer and apply to vinyl siding, vinyl chairs, patio furniture and even umbrella covers. After about five minutes, remove the hose end sprayer and rinse the items with clear water by attaching a nozzle to the hose.

Nothing works as well as this cleaner. When you spray it on you can see the dirt, film and mildew just slide off. It is important that you use the brand names stipulated.

If you are concerned about landscaping, use this recipe instead: 1 gallon of water and 1 cup oxygen bleach mixed together in a bucket. The oxygen bleach will clean the vinyl without damaging your landscaping.

Mary invites you to visit her at EverydayCheapskate.com, where this column is archived complete with links and resources for all recommended products and services. Mary invites questions and comments at https://www.everydaycheapskate.com/ contact/, “Ask Mary.” This column will answer questions of general interest, but letters cannot be answered individually. Mary Hunt is the founder of EverydayCheapskate.com, a frugal living blog, and the author of the book “Debt-Proof Living.”

COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS.COM