Copyright Enough Wealth 2007
Showing posts with label PayPerPost. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PayPerPost. Show all posts
Sunday, 9 September 2007
Review: FinancialRebel.com
There are a lot of personal finance and investing blogs out there, and the quality of both content, presentation and style varies a lot - from top notch right on down to "must try harder" or even "makes no effort" (mostly those that just regurgitate other sites content as a prop for a page full of advertising). FinancialRebel. com is an investing blog that falls somewhere in the middle of the pack from what I've seen - the layout is OK, but a bit basic, and the colour scheme somewhat garish for my tastes. The content is a mix of stock new tid-bits, stock selections and/or musings (but without much detailed analysis) and some general interest personal finance articles such as this one about how to create a budget. I can't say that this blog strikes me as one of the best around, but it's worth a quick look to see if the content and style suits your interests. However, I suspect that this blog may end up being a "flash in the pan" - after apparently starting up in June (the first post seems to be from 13th June as there aren't any earlier posts currently listed, but it's hard to tell as this first(?) post isn't a "welcome to my blog" messsge) and an initial flurry of posts in July and August there has been no new content since mid-August, so the author (Jason Martin) may have moved on to other interests.
Copyright Enough Wealth 2007
Copyright Enough Wealth 2007
Saturday, 21 July 2007
When a Credit Card can be a Good Thing
Many PF blogs are concerned with paying off debt, including credit card debt. This is a valid approach to increasing your wealth if you are starting out from a position of indebtedness, but can become counterproductive once you've cleared the decks of you debt and are accumulating a positive net worth. While you always have to remain on guard against using credit cards to buy "things" that you don't really need (especially if you also can't really afford them), credit cards can be a useful tool in your financial kit if used carefully. There are several ways in which a CC can be a useful tool:
* I have one credit card which I use for all my day-to-day expenses (grocery shopping, petrol, paying utilites etc). It has a low annual fee and a free rewards program (cash back credit cards) that earns me enough points to redeem for a couple of hundred dollars paid off my credit card each year. As long as I always pay off the balance each month I'm actually making money by using a CC instead of cash to pay my bills. The trick is to only buy the things you'd be paying for anyhow, otherwise you can easily build up a CC balance which you can't afford to pay off in full each month. I've also got an Amex card which I use overseas for paying hotel bills, meals and so on. I may cancel this card one day as it has an annual fee of around $100 a year (being a "gold card"), and my everyday credit card is now a VISA card which can be used overseas - when I first got my Amex card more than twenty years ago my day-to-day CC was a "Bankcard" which was only able to be used within Australia and New Zealand (and not all merchants accepted it in NZ either!). Bankcard was shut down and was replaced by a VISA card last year, so there's no longer any need for my Amex card - aside from nostalgia and some warped sense of "value" provided by a "gold" card. These days a "gold card" isn't even a status symbol - for that you'd need a platinum, black, or gold-pressed latinum card for some vast annual fee! It's important to compare credit cards to determine which one offers the best features for the lowest cost.
* Another benefit I've gotten from credit cards in recent years has been making money off 0% balance transfers deposited into online savings accounts earning 5% or 6% interest on OPM. In Australia there's no such thing as a "credit score", so getting and using these cards has no impact on the interest rate you pay on other borrowings, and little effect on how much you can borrow for a home or investment loan. If you do make use of CC arbitrage to earn some extra income on the side, it's important to avoid cards that have an annual fee or where a fee is charged for the balance transfer. You also have to ensure that the minimum amount due is paid each month during the 0% period, and that you pay off the remaining balance before the 0% offer period ends.
* Using a credit card to pay everyday expenses can make it easy to track expenses for budgeting. Rather than having to use a notebook you just check through you monthly CC statements.
* Instead of an emergency fund. Once you have a positive net worth you probably have enough money invested to get you through an emergency. The problem will be that some investments may be hard to liquidate in a hurry. However, from my point of view it makes more sense to just use my CC for an emergency expense rather than keep cash in an at call account. Even though you can get an online savings account that pays a good interest rate these days, it is still less than you'd hope to make from investing in other assets such as stocks, real estate etc. In any event, once an emergency expense has been charged to my CC I have time before the monthly bill is due, so I can carefully consider which investment to liquidate to cover the expense.
Even if you've had problems handling credit cards responsibly in the past, I think many people would be better off learning to use a CC the "correct" way once they've paid off all their consumer debt, rather than avoiding CCs completely for the rest of their life.
Copyright Enough Wealth 2007
* I have one credit card which I use for all my day-to-day expenses (grocery shopping, petrol, paying utilites etc). It has a low annual fee and a free rewards program (cash back credit cards) that earns me enough points to redeem for a couple of hundred dollars paid off my credit card each year. As long as I always pay off the balance each month I'm actually making money by using a CC instead of cash to pay my bills. The trick is to only buy the things you'd be paying for anyhow, otherwise you can easily build up a CC balance which you can't afford to pay off in full each month. I've also got an Amex card which I use overseas for paying hotel bills, meals and so on. I may cancel this card one day as it has an annual fee of around $100 a year (being a "gold card"), and my everyday credit card is now a VISA card which can be used overseas - when I first got my Amex card more than twenty years ago my day-to-day CC was a "Bankcard" which was only able to be used within Australia and New Zealand (and not all merchants accepted it in NZ either!). Bankcard was shut down and was replaced by a VISA card last year, so there's no longer any need for my Amex card - aside from nostalgia and some warped sense of "value" provided by a "gold" card. These days a "gold card" isn't even a status symbol - for that you'd need a platinum, black, or gold-pressed latinum card for some vast annual fee! It's important to compare credit cards to determine which one offers the best features for the lowest cost.
* Another benefit I've gotten from credit cards in recent years has been making money off 0% balance transfers deposited into online savings accounts earning 5% or 6% interest on OPM. In Australia there's no such thing as a "credit score", so getting and using these cards has no impact on the interest rate you pay on other borrowings, and little effect on how much you can borrow for a home or investment loan. If you do make use of CC arbitrage to earn some extra income on the side, it's important to avoid cards that have an annual fee or where a fee is charged for the balance transfer. You also have to ensure that the minimum amount due is paid each month during the 0% period, and that you pay off the remaining balance before the 0% offer period ends.
* Using a credit card to pay everyday expenses can make it easy to track expenses for budgeting. Rather than having to use a notebook you just check through you monthly CC statements.
* Instead of an emergency fund. Once you have a positive net worth you probably have enough money invested to get you through an emergency. The problem will be that some investments may be hard to liquidate in a hurry. However, from my point of view it makes more sense to just use my CC for an emergency expense rather than keep cash in an at call account. Even though you can get an online savings account that pays a good interest rate these days, it is still less than you'd hope to make from investing in other assets such as stocks, real estate etc. In any event, once an emergency expense has been charged to my CC I have time before the monthly bill is due, so I can carefully consider which investment to liquidate to cover the expense.
Even if you've had problems handling credit cards responsibly in the past, I think many people would be better off learning to use a CC the "correct" way once they've paid off all their consumer debt, rather than avoiding CCs completely for the rest of their life.
Copyright Enough Wealth 2007
Monday, 11 June 2007
Nifty New Astronomy Gadget
As Astronomy is one of my hobbies I like to keep an eye out for what new gizmos are coming out. The meade my sky is coming soon, and, based on the specs, it looks like a really cool educational toy for budding astronomers and casual observers. I remember the days of having to hunt through printed start charts in the dead of night, using a torch with a red filter to try to identify an interesting object that had appeared in my telescope's field of view while just cruising around the night sky. Computerised telescopes made life much simpler, but you still had to align the 'scope and calibrate the system using a couple of known, visible objects. The new my sky device is hand-held and has a built-in 12 channel GPS receiver so that it can orientate itself automatically. Once its working you should be able to just point it at an interesting object using the open sights and it will tell you what you are looking at. The device has a 480x234 pixel colour LCD display, and is supposed to run for 7 hours on set of 4AA batteries. The only draw-back is the price - $399 - and the fact that although it has a built-in magnetic north sensors it may not work very well for Southern Hemisphere observers. Plus the fact that my 10" Meade telescope is so old that the computerised control system is an "add-on", so the ability of the my sky unit to control a modern computerised meade telescope will be wasted on me. One good thing is that being a purely electronic device the capabilities can only improve and the cost decrease in the next few years.
Enough Wealth
Enough Wealth
Friday, 8 June 2007
Protect Yourself from Spyware
The internet has revolutionised our day-to-day financial transactions - we can buy and sell investments online, obtain and read prospectuses and annual reports, get stock price data, pay bills electronically, and much, much more. Unfortunately it has also exposed us to a host of new ways to lose money through scams, frauds and outright theft - chiefly through spyware infiltrating our computer systems and strealing our electronic identities in our to access our bank accounts and steal our money. There are common sense methods to increase the security of our online transactions, such as regularly changing passwords, selecting secure passwords, and never using public computers. But at home it's important to have appropriate safety measures in place. Some users will reduce the risk by using uncommon operating systems and browser applications, but for the majority of us it comes down to installing the latest OS patches and having suitable firewall and virus/spyware software installed. I've had a couple of bad experiences where despite having well-known internet security packages installed I've still managed to end up with spyware on my PC. Although sometimes this malware can be eradicated, sometimes the only solution was to eventually reformat my HDD and reinstall my OS and all my apps. This is not the ideal solution. Several spyware detection and removal packages are available, one of them is Spy Sweeper. Minimum System Requirements are:
Windows 2000, XP, XP Home, XP media Center or Vista
350 Mhz processor
15 MB hard drive space
256 MB RAM
Supports Internet Explorer
Unlike some other similar suppliers, Webroot Software provides online and phone support absolutely free. At only $29.95 it's a good investment to protect your investments from eThieves.
Enough Wealth
Windows 2000, XP, XP Home, XP media Center or Vista
350 Mhz processor
15 MB hard drive space
256 MB RAM
Supports Internet Explorer
Unlike some other similar suppliers, Webroot Software provides online and phone support absolutely free. At only $29.95 it's a good investment to protect your investments from eThieves.
Enough Wealth
Thursday, 7 June 2007
Credit Cards: Good, Bad or Ugly?
Whether or not a credit card is a good thing to have or the work of the devil is one of the perennial topics of discussion in the PF blogosphere. I started out with just a bank account while at university and only got my first credit card (a BankCard) when I started working full-time. Then again, in those days BankCard was just about the only credit card available in Australia for the masses. I've never been tempted to shop until my credit card was maxed out. In fact I've never intentionally carried a balance - the only time I've had to pay interest on my CC was when I missed a payment due date and ended up paying interest on the balance. And this has only happened a couple of times in twenty years.
One reason I've always liked using a CC is that it reduces the need to carry much cash around, so I only need to visit a bank branch or ATM a few times a month to get out some cash. Having nearly all purchases recorded on the CC statement makes it easy to keep track of my expenses using Quicken. I just reconcile what I've entered each day from my shopping dockets against the CC statement when it arrives each month. It's amazing how many odd purchases would otherwise be missed and end up in Quicken as the dreaded "cash adjustment"!
Another reason I like using my CC is the FlyBuys rewards program. I get reward points for my normal expenditure on grocery shopping, petrol and paying my utilities by CC. Every couple of months I'll have enough points accumulated to redeem them for a $50 credit against my CC account. This is similar to the cash back programs available in many other countries (Australia CC issuers tend to go with rewards programs rather than straight cash back programs).
A more recent enticement of the Credit Card has been the introduction of the 0% balance transfer offers to the Australian market in the past couple of years. Initially these didn't have any fee, so it was easy to make money by using a transfer with a new CC account to add funds to my existing CC account, and then invest those funds in a high interest rate online account for the duration of the 0% offer. Recently Australian CC issuers have copied the trend in the US and UK markets to add a fee to such offers, so that the funds end up costing 2% or 3%, rather than 0%. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
The bad side of Credit Cards is, of course, the fact that the most profitable customers for the CC issuers are those people who should never get a CC in the first place. Using a CC to buy a "toy" that you can't really afford is a wealth hazard. And it's all too easy to acquire additional cards and start paying off the minimum balance of one card with another, with exorbitant interest rates piling up the debt all the time.
Finally, the ugly. For years all Credit Cards came in a standard size of plastic with the ubiquitous magnetic stripe down the back. Recently card issuers have started getting funky with the designs in an attempt to gain market share. First there were the clear cards, which looked kind of cool. Then came the 'smart' cards with an embedded microchip - but most places still just process the mag stripe. Finally we've seen silly looking cards in lurid colours with the corner cut off, or, even worse, "mini" cards that you can hang around your neck, but will get eaten if you try using them in an ATM!
Sponsored Post.
Enough Wealth
One reason I've always liked using a CC is that it reduces the need to carry much cash around, so I only need to visit a bank branch or ATM a few times a month to get out some cash. Having nearly all purchases recorded on the CC statement makes it easy to keep track of my expenses using Quicken. I just reconcile what I've entered each day from my shopping dockets against the CC statement when it arrives each month. It's amazing how many odd purchases would otherwise be missed and end up in Quicken as the dreaded "cash adjustment"!
Another reason I like using my CC is the FlyBuys rewards program. I get reward points for my normal expenditure on grocery shopping, petrol and paying my utilities by CC. Every couple of months I'll have enough points accumulated to redeem them for a $50 credit against my CC account. This is similar to the cash back programs available in many other countries (Australia CC issuers tend to go with rewards programs rather than straight cash back programs).
A more recent enticement of the Credit Card has been the introduction of the 0% balance transfer offers to the Australian market in the past couple of years. Initially these didn't have any fee, so it was easy to make money by using a transfer with a new CC account to add funds to my existing CC account, and then invest those funds in a high interest rate online account for the duration of the 0% offer. Recently Australian CC issuers have copied the trend in the US and UK markets to add a fee to such offers, so that the funds end up costing 2% or 3%, rather than 0%. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
The bad side of Credit Cards is, of course, the fact that the most profitable customers for the CC issuers are those people who should never get a CC in the first place. Using a CC to buy a "toy" that you can't really afford is a wealth hazard. And it's all too easy to acquire additional cards and start paying off the minimum balance of one card with another, with exorbitant interest rates piling up the debt all the time.
Finally, the ugly. For years all Credit Cards came in a standard size of plastic with the ubiquitous magnetic stripe down the back. Recently card issuers have started getting funky with the designs in an attempt to gain market share. First there were the clear cards, which looked kind of cool. Then came the 'smart' cards with an embedded microchip - but most places still just process the mag stripe. Finally we've seen silly looking cards in lurid colours with the corner cut off, or, even worse, "mini" cards that you can hang around your neck, but will get eaten if you try using them in an ATM!
Sponsored Post.
Enough Wealth
Tuesday, 5 June 2007
Frugal Living: Saving the Cost of a Thumb Drive
I bought a 128MB USB "thumb" drive early last year and it has been very useful for transferring data files between work and home. It also serves as an additional backup of some of my more important files. However, although 128MB seemed huge at the time, it isn't hard to fill it up if I copy entire folders of uni programming assignments, my large PF spreadsheets and some graphic files I'm working on for the blog. Recently larger 1GB and 2GB have been available for around the $20 mark, so I'd been thinking of buying one. But having read about the free 2GB encrypted Online Backup available from IDrive-E (http://www.idrive.com), I've decided to save to $20 and use that instead. The only potential drawback of using this is that we aren't able to download files from the internet at work, so I may still have to use the old thumb drive moving files to and from work. But the online backup will be very useful for accessing my important files when I'm away from home on vacation.
Sponsored Post
Enough Wealth
Sponsored Post
Enough Wealth
Monday, 28 May 2007
Blog Monetization: PPP Direct
I already monetize this blog with the occasional reviewme or payperpost sponsored blog advertising, although it's hard to find many opportunities that are relevant to personal finance/investing and that I'm happy to post about (either good or bad). A new method of getting paid to do reviews of products or websites/blogs is being released by PayPerPost - their new "direct" widget. This will enable potential advertisers who come across my blog apply to get a review/post done by me at the price I have specified. PPP will only be skimming off 10%, of which 5% goes to transaction fees for PayPal and credit card processing. In contrast other similar services can cost 40-50% of the fee paid by the advertiser. However, in the PPP Direct model the advertiser has to be visiting your blog when they decide to make a request for a specific blog post, so you've already done most of the "leg work" in sourcing the advertiser. I still think it's worth the 10% fee though to have my "rate" and the admin of handling post requests and getting paid all done by the PPP system. I've had the odd advertiser directly email me for a quote, and getting things organised this way can be a hassle. ReviewMe on the other hand charges a much higher "fee", but advertisers will have found you via the categorised blog directory maintained by them, so they have really "sourced" the advertiser for you. I'll have to wait and see whether any advertisers approach me via the PPP Direct widget.
Enough Wealth
Enough Wealth
Saturday, 31 March 2007
Blog Monetization update: Mar 2007
I'm quite happy blogging away with a readership of around 20-50 people a day - as long as someone is reading I feel that I'm not wasting my time. But low readership does make "blog monetization" difficult. Some PF blogs apparently have hundreds or thousands of regular readers, although for some of these blogs I can't work out what the attraction is. If your blog gets lots of readers than the "click through" ads such as Google's adsense are probably the "gold standard", but with my traffic levels I was only making a few cents each month. For that reason my google adsense is now "wrapped" within an AdBrite script that somehow displays their ads (in the same formatting as my google ad block) if they can beat a target rate which I've set. Again, with a low readership and hardly any click throughs or sales, my AdBrite income appears to be around to 25c/month level. One draw-back with AdBrite is that they pay by cheque (in USD) which will take a chunk out of my payment (assuming I ever hit the $100 threshold I set).
I have also made a small amount of commission from Amazon.com affiliate links to advertise some books I've bought for my own library and found useful. The commision rate is OK, but with hardly any sales via these links I'm not sure I'll ever get paid. I think the payment is also via a credit to buy something from Amazon.com, so it's not real money as far as I can tell.
The most lucrative monetization efforts have been the "sponsored posts" I've done - for PayPerPost and ReviewMe. ReviewMe only offers topics infrequently, and as I only post on topics/products that I feel are interesting and I can honestly review, I haven't made much money from them. They pay straight to my PayPal account, which is good. The most "serious" money I've made from this blog has come from PayPerPost. I've so far done 33 posts, of which 31 have paid out already - a total of USD$209.39. The other two posts should pay out USD$15.00 in the next couple of weeks.
So far my total "monetization" has put around AUD$400 into my paypal account. The current balance is AUD$34.43 and I've transferred AUD$319 from my Paypal account into one of my online savings accounts in the past 6 months.
All in all the amount raised is trivial compared to the time spent blogging, but it's achieving it's target of raising enough income to offset the cost of my broadband connection, and miscellaneous costs such as my "friend" membership of pfblogs.
Enough Wealth
I have also made a small amount of commission from Amazon.com affiliate links to advertise some books I've bought for my own library and found useful. The commision rate is OK, but with hardly any sales via these links I'm not sure I'll ever get paid. I think the payment is also via a credit to buy something from Amazon.com, so it's not real money as far as I can tell.
The most lucrative monetization efforts have been the "sponsored posts" I've done - for PayPerPost and ReviewMe. ReviewMe only offers topics infrequently, and as I only post on topics/products that I feel are interesting and I can honestly review, I haven't made much money from them. They pay straight to my PayPal account, which is good. The most "serious" money I've made from this blog has come from PayPerPost. I've so far done 33 posts, of which 31 have paid out already - a total of USD$209.39. The other two posts should pay out USD$15.00 in the next couple of weeks.
So far my total "monetization" has put around AUD$400 into my paypal account. The current balance is AUD$34.43 and I've transferred AUD$319 from my Paypal account into one of my online savings accounts in the past 6 months.
All in all the amount raised is trivial compared to the time spent blogging, but it's achieving it's target of raising enough income to offset the cost of my broadband connection, and miscellaneous costs such as my "friend" membership of pfblogs.
Enough Wealth
Saturday, 10 March 2007
Speculative Gold Stock GNLM
Gold is traditionally a hedge against inflation, so with the possibility of the inflation ticking up and the stock market taking a breather it could be time to look a adding gold to a portfolio as an inflation hedge and part of an overall asset allocation to reduce volatility. Direct investment in gold bullion has drawbacks in terms of storage costs and the fact that it doesn't offer any income, only (potential) capital gains. Gold stocks are therefore more usually selected where some gold exposure if desired within a portfolio. I have some gold stocks in my Australian stock portfolio (NCM), and I've just read about a US-based gold mining stock General Metals Corporation(GNLM). As a small mining company reliant on the redevlopment of one old gold mine the prospects of this company would be greatly affected by fluctuations in the price of gold. Their recent press release outlines the details of their gold mining interests:
Press Release:
Gold Expected to Dominate the Investment Horizon, Experts Advise Early Stock Purchases (Reno, NV – March 5, 2007) Traditionally, gold has had an inverse relationship with the stock market. When stocks go up, the price of gold usually falls; when stocks flounder, the price of gold usually skyrockets. Some experts believe it could mean a lot for investors in 2007, because gold is once again catching the eye of the investor. For General Metals Corporation, the news couldn’t come at a better time. “With our plans to begin drilling at Independence Mine, we’re more than thrilled to hear gold is making a comeback,” states company CEO Stephen Parent. “We’re even more excited with our location; it’s a proven producer.” General Metals acquired the Independence Mine in northern Nevada and became a public company last year, trading under the symbol GNLM. Predominantly a silver mine from 1938 to 1987, the Independence Mine is estimated to contain over two million ounces of gold, as well as over two million ounces of additional un-mined silver. As the Independence Mine is essentially an island within Newmont Mining’s Phoenix Mine, the area is already a proven producer. According to Parent, they plan to remove the precious metals in two phases. “Phase one includes our ‘shallow’ targets,” says Parent. “The shallow targets contain less gold, but they’re easily and quickly accessible, which will encourage early cash flow. Phase two is where the majority of our gold will come from. It’s deep mining, but we expect it to produce 1.4 to 2 million ounces of gold.” They expect to produce 20,000 ounces of gold in the first year, 60,000 ounces in the second year and 70,000 ounces in the third year -- approximately $101 million from early estimates. The company also anticipates an additional $1.36 billion to be gained from phase two production. In an effort to increase their mining production, General Metals has recently acquired the Nyinahin Mining Concession in Ghana. Located in one of the most active exploratory areas in the world, this concession shares borders with several major mining companies, including Newmont Mining, Napoli Gold and Dunkwa Continental Goldfields. “Financial experts are predicting gold to play a key role in investor’s profiles during 2007,” adds Parent. “But due to the timely nature, potential investors will need to act quickly in order to maximize their gains.”
One thing to check out in researching small mining companies is the cost of production - you wouldn't want to invest in a company that is only profitable at the current gold price.
Enough Wealth
Press Release:
Gold Expected to Dominate the Investment Horizon, Experts Advise Early Stock Purchases (Reno, NV – March 5, 2007) Traditionally, gold has had an inverse relationship with the stock market. When stocks go up, the price of gold usually falls; when stocks flounder, the price of gold usually skyrockets. Some experts believe it could mean a lot for investors in 2007, because gold is once again catching the eye of the investor. For General Metals Corporation, the news couldn’t come at a better time. “With our plans to begin drilling at Independence Mine, we’re more than thrilled to hear gold is making a comeback,” states company CEO Stephen Parent. “We’re even more excited with our location; it’s a proven producer.” General Metals acquired the Independence Mine in northern Nevada and became a public company last year, trading under the symbol GNLM. Predominantly a silver mine from 1938 to 1987, the Independence Mine is estimated to contain over two million ounces of gold, as well as over two million ounces of additional un-mined silver. As the Independence Mine is essentially an island within Newmont Mining’s Phoenix Mine, the area is already a proven producer. According to Parent, they plan to remove the precious metals in two phases. “Phase one includes our ‘shallow’ targets,” says Parent. “The shallow targets contain less gold, but they’re easily and quickly accessible, which will encourage early cash flow. Phase two is where the majority of our gold will come from. It’s deep mining, but we expect it to produce 1.4 to 2 million ounces of gold.” They expect to produce 20,000 ounces of gold in the first year, 60,000 ounces in the second year and 70,000 ounces in the third year -- approximately $101 million from early estimates. The company also anticipates an additional $1.36 billion to be gained from phase two production. In an effort to increase their mining production, General Metals has recently acquired the Nyinahin Mining Concession in Ghana. Located in one of the most active exploratory areas in the world, this concession shares borders with several major mining companies, including Newmont Mining, Napoli Gold and Dunkwa Continental Goldfields. “Financial experts are predicting gold to play a key role in investor’s profiles during 2007,” adds Parent. “But due to the timely nature, potential investors will need to act quickly in order to maximize their gains.”
One thing to check out in researching small mining companies is the cost of production - you wouldn't want to invest in a company that is only profitable at the current gold price.
Enough Wealth
Monday, 5 February 2007
How to save on telephone costs
I remember back in the early days of the "mobile" telephone when the handset was the size of a brick and the battery pack was a separate, even larger brick that took all night to charge up and then only lasted a couple of hours on standby. In those days I was a volunteer for the State Emergency Service and the "duty officer" had the dubious honour of lugging this "mobile" phone around with him or her all weekend.
Times have sure changed since then, with current mobile phone models that fit in your pocket lasting a week between charges, and let you browse the web etc. The other thing that has changed a lot is the cost of using a mobile phone. It's common to get a current model phone for "free" when you sign up for a mobile phone contract - DW and I got two phones (of the same model so that we can exchange batteries, chargers etc) for free under a 12 month contract at $14 a month per phone, with $14 worth of included calls. The included call balance is shared between the two phones, so we can run up a combined phone bill of $28 in calls each month without paying anything above the basic plan rate. As we don't make that many calls, we haven't ever exceeded our included call limit in a month.
In comparison, our landline costs us $32 a month just for the line rental - any calls are extra. In the near future we will dump the landline and just use our mobile phones for all our calls.
If you're looking around for the best possible cell phone plans and phones, have a look at Wirefly. They even have some free cell phones available, and family plans from all major service providers including cingular, T-mobile, verizon, sprint and nextel. You can get two free phones with a family plan. Family cell phone plans (also known as shared plans) can be great value for a single household or family compared to using an individual cell phone plan. A family plans mean all your talk time minutes are pooled for common use, so you'll need to have an idea of the total talk time required for all members of your family.
PayPerPost
Times have sure changed since then, with current mobile phone models that fit in your pocket lasting a week between charges, and let you browse the web etc. The other thing that has changed a lot is the cost of using a mobile phone. It's common to get a current model phone for "free" when you sign up for a mobile phone contract - DW and I got two phones (of the same model so that we can exchange batteries, chargers etc) for free under a 12 month contract at $14 a month per phone, with $14 worth of included calls. The included call balance is shared between the two phones, so we can run up a combined phone bill of $28 in calls each month without paying anything above the basic plan rate. As we don't make that many calls, we haven't ever exceeded our included call limit in a month.
In comparison, our landline costs us $32 a month just for the line rental - any calls are extra. In the near future we will dump the landline and just use our mobile phones for all our calls.
If you're looking around for the best possible cell phone plans and phones, have a look at Wirefly. They even have some free cell phones available, and family plans from all major service providers including cingular, T-mobile, verizon, sprint and nextel. You can get two free phones with a family plan. Family cell phone plans (also known as shared plans) can be great value for a single household or family compared to using an individual cell phone plan. A family plans mean all your talk time minutes are pooled for common use, so you'll need to have an idea of the total talk time required for all members of your family.
PayPerPost
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