I thought I was going to cry the first time that I logged onto my Bank of America checking account while traveling in Slovakia and saw that the last three ATM transactions had been hit with $5.00 surcharges (on top of the $2.00 the Slovakian ATM had charged me). Basically, more than a day's travel budget had been blown on fees.
What, did the bank WANT me to carry around huge amounts of cash while I was traveling in order to minimize my withdrawals? Or did they want me to bring a bunch of money from the states and get hammered at the exchange bureaus (if you didn't know, ATM withdrawals give you the best rate of exchange)?
So that's why, after looking around, I settled on Evantage Bank.
Why?
Evantage reimburses your ATM fees, even international ones!
This was proven on a recent trip to Honduras and another one to St. Maarten. Rather than fearing the ATMs, I was able to visit them as often as I wished. True to their word, Evantage paid for my ATM fees.
That's the big one for me, because I live in the South Bronx, which has a cash based economy, so I find myself withdrawing money once a week even at home.
On top of that, Evantage has:
1. High yield checking (currently at 4%) up to $10,000.
2. Low requirement to get that rate (10 check card uses a month)
3. No phone tree when you call customer service! A real Oklahoman immediately picks up and answers your questions!
Obviously I can't use my check card 10 times a month abroad, but what that means is that when I'm in America, my liquid cash earns 4% and when I'm abroad I'm saving almost that percentage in ATM fees.
All in all, it's pretty sweet.
Showing posts with label Saving Money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saving Money. Show all posts
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
Switching from Verizon to Virgin Mobile
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Saving money for travel often means saving money in general, so I'm always on the lookout for how to cut my bills. One recent way I've done that is to stop using Verizon and go to a prepay plan.
Why? The StraightTalk deal is just too good.
Firstly, I am out of the country several months a year. When I turned off my Verizon account during these times, they charged me $15 to do so each time. With a prepay plan, I only pay for the time I want and not get charged to not use my phone for the large chunks of time I'm out of the country.
Secondly, it's just so damn cheap!
I had one lowest available plans from Verizon, one that wasn't even posted on its site but which I had to ask for over the phone: 100 Anytime minutes for $25. But with a text message plan, taxes and fees, I was still paying almost $50 a month and was constantly at risk of going over my minutes.
The StraightTalk plan? $30 for 1000 minutes, 1000 text message and 30MB of data usage every 30 days. In other words, I am now getting a lot more for less money and since it uses Verizon's network, I get the same level of coverage.
The trick was that I had to buy a StraightTalk phone. I bought one of the cheapest from Walmart.com (and even got a discount by going through Bing.com's cashback store), which came to $40. The phone is a severe step down from my LG Dare, but I found I wasn't using most of the Dare's features, making it an expensive toy not worth having and one that I was constantly worried about having stolen (I live in the South Bronx). I should be able to sell the LG Dare on eBay for about $160 and pocket the difference.
Saving money for travel often means saving money in general, so I'm always on the lookout for how to cut my bills. One recent way I've done that is to stop using Verizon and go to a prepay plan.
Why? The StraightTalk deal is just too good.
Firstly, I am out of the country several months a year. When I turned off my Verizon account during these times, they charged me $15 to do so each time. With a prepay plan, I only pay for the time I want and not get charged to not use my phone for the large chunks of time I'm out of the country.
Secondly, it's just so damn cheap!
I had one lowest available plans from Verizon, one that wasn't even posted on its site but which I had to ask for over the phone: 100 Anytime minutes for $25. But with a text message plan, taxes and fees, I was still paying almost $50 a month and was constantly at risk of going over my minutes.
The StraightTalk plan? $30 for 1000 minutes, 1000 text message and 30MB of data usage every 30 days. In other words, I am now getting a lot more for less money and since it uses Verizon's network, I get the same level of coverage.
The trick was that I had to buy a StraightTalk phone. I bought one of the cheapest from Walmart.com (and even got a discount by going through Bing.com's cashback store), which came to $40. The phone is a severe step down from my LG Dare, but I found I wasn't using most of the Dare's features, making it an expensive toy not worth having and one that I was constantly worried about having stolen (I live in the South Bronx). I should be able to sell the LG Dare on eBay for about $160 and pocket the difference.
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