Chase College Checking is a low-cost, lightweight checking account for college students. It's designed to streamline and simplify day-to-day spending so that student users can focus on what really matters: passing their classes, scoring coveted internships, and having amazing study abroad adventures.Chase College Checking is pretty straightforward, but it does have some twists and turns worth explaining in detail. It also has a nice account opening bonus that's a perennial contender for our monthly list of the best bank account bonuses available to U.S. consumers.Here's what you need … [Read more...]
Brian Martucci
16 Best Cash Back Credit Cards of 2017 – Reviews & Comparison
Cash back credit cards are popular because they provide tangible, easy-to-understand benefits. Who doesn't like getting a credit on their monthly credit card statement - or, better yet, actual cash deposited into the account of their choice? Cash back credit cards can be even more popular than our top-rated gas credit cards and travel rewards cards.But not all cash back credit cards are created equally.Some offer the same cash back rate on all purchases. Others offer higher cash back rates on certain spending categories, such as groceries or gas, and lower rates on everything else. … [Read more...]
How Travel Loyalty Programs Work – Earning, Valuing & Redeeming Reward Miles
Even if you don't travel frequently, you've probably been tempted to sign up for a travel loyalty program or a travel rewards credit card. It's a lot easier to save for your next vacation when every airline ticket you buy or credit card purchase you make earns miles or points that can be redeemed for free or discounted travel. Miles-based travel rewards programs help millions of budget-conscious airline travelers, who collectively redeem billions of miles every year.However, for the uninitiated, travel rewards programs can be fearfully complex. In 2013, CNN reported on a Collinson Latitude … [Read more...]
How to Sell Your Car in a Private Party Transaction
Are you in the market for a new or used car? You might want to get rid of your old one first.Sure, it's nice to have a backup ride in the driveway, but older cars are notorious money pits: registration renewal fees, wheelage taxes, loan payments, and routine maintenance all add up, not to mention increasingly burdensome outlays for unexpected repairs. At some point, you're throwing good money after bad. How to Sell Your Car Privately and Earn More Selling your car is a great way to raise extra cash. On this point, how you sell makes all the difference. Compared with dealer trade-ins, … [Read more...]
14 Surprisingly Affordable Luxury Cars – Best Rides Under $40,000
Is your ride due for an upgrade?Frugal car buyers assume that luxury cars have no place in their garages or driveways. In many cases, they're right. Buying more car than you can afford is one of the easiest and most preventable ways to get into debt. More than that, it's often futile: to get out of debt caused by an unwise car purchase, you very often have to sell the vehicle.But luxury cars aren't solely for the rich and famous. If you have ample personal savings, reliable income, and budgetary discipline, you may have the means to buy a new or used luxury car.A handful of new … [Read more...]
Best 55 Fun Things to Do & See in Tucson, Arizona – Activities & Attractions
Tucson is an interesting place. Its 520,000 city-proper inhabitants and 1 million metro area denizens more than secure its status as Arizona's second-largest city and metro. It sprawls across hundreds of square miles between two mountain ranges and some isolated peaks. It's home to the main campus of the University of Arizona, one of the largest public universities in the United States (known locally as the U of A).And yet Tucson somehow retains a small-town, two-degrees-of-separation vibe. Everyone seems to know each other, or at least feel like they have enough in common to nod as they … [Read more...]
17 Best Small Business Credit Cards – Reviews & Comparison
Small business credit cards are increasingly popular business financing options, particularly for entrepreneurs who don't qualify for traditional business loans and don't have access to networks filled with deep-pocketed family members, friends, and colleagues. No matter what your business does, a credit card can probably help - as long as you use credit wisely and avoid making purchases your company can't afford.Small business credit cards typically have higher spending limits and more generous rewards programs than consumer cards. Some have additional benefits, such as low APRs, … [Read more...]
21 Tips for a Low-Cost Bachelor or Bachelorette Party at Any Destination
What's more fun than a wedding reception?For close friends of the bride and groom to be, the bachelor and bachelorette parties clearly beat out the reception.They also tend to be costly, especially when they take place far from most attendees' homes. Multiday destination parties are miniature vacations, with line-item expenses to match: airfare, hotel rooms or house rentals, local transportation, meals and drinks out, and group outings and activities.In this guide, I'll outline some of my favorite tips to save money on destination bachelor and bachelorette parties - "pre-wedding … [Read more...]
Shared Community Solar Gardens – An Alternative to Rooftop Solar Panels
Almost as soon as my wife and I closed on our new house, and way before we'd gotten the first batch of boxes unpacked, the marketing powers that be caught wind of our move. Offers to refinance our mortgage? Check. Offers to protect children against the evils of lead and radon? Check.The majority of these mailers promptly found their way to the bottom of our recycling bin.But one mailing caught my eye. It touted the financial and ecological benefits of a subscription to something called a community solar garden. Eventually, a salesperson showed up at our doorstep and walked us through … [Read more...]
Best 46 Fun Things to Do & See in Phoenix, Arizona – Activities & Attractions
Most non-Arizonans are surprised to learn that Phoenix is the fifth-largest city in the United States, behind only New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston. It's fair to ask how such a massive - and growing - settlement sprang up in a parched, sun-baked valley near the northern fringes of the Sonoran Desert. Once you arrive in Phoenix, you start to understand why.The city of Phoenix sits near the geographical center of a vast metropolitan area known as the Valley of the Sun. Rimmed by multi-hued mountains on all sides and happy to live up to its name for eight or nine months out of the … [Read more...]
Word of Mouth Marketing Strategy & Examples – Promoting Your Business for Less
When was the last time you sought out a trusted associate for advice about an important buying decision?If you're like most Americans, it probably hasn't been that long. According to a Nielsen Harris Poll Online study, 82% of Americans seek recommendations from friends and family members before making a purchase. Two-thirds - 67% - are more likely to buy a product after it's been shared through social media or email by trusted contacts.The bottom line is that word of mouth makes a difference. Whether they know or it not, millions of independent professionals and small business owners … [Read more...]