[Finances] Credit Card Mathematics

 I was recently studying various credit cards and their related features and benefits when I came to an annoying realization - just how little the credit card companies actually give us in terms of rebates and rewards. Allow me to explain.

When you sign up for a credit card, there are a few things that you're bound to use as your evaluation criteria:

• The diversity of the credit card network
• The finance charge
• The annual fee
• The rewards / perks of the card

And with more and more stores like Bench and Forever 21 launching their own credit cards through local banks, all the more it seems like a good idea to sign up for one of these cards in order to reap the benefits. But before you take that leap, you might want to consider doing the math.

[Finances] Adventures In Peso Cost Averaging

Being the geek that I am, I've wanted to make sure that I make the right financial decisions for the long term. We always go back to the cliche that we're never growing any younger and thus it becomes all the more important to plan ahead for the future.

Of course being in a third world country where corruption is rampant, the business sector is often unpredictable and government oversight is a statistical wild card, it's hard to figure out where to put your money. Quite frankly, there are people who argue in favor of just holding on to your money and keeping out of the system entirely. Plus with typical savings accounts only offering about 0.5% interest per year, simply banking your money is gong to get you anywhere. While there are special deposit products like BPI's Maxi-Saver accounts that offer better rates, it's still not enough to secure you in the long term.

Enter the scary world of the local stock market. This legalized gambling den remains to be your best bet to long term financial stability, provided you keep your wealth-building options sufficiently diverse. So apart from my bank funds, my life insurance polices and associated variable income components, I've recently started to explore the local stock market via Citisec Online.





No, this doesn't mean I've become an active stock trader like you see in the movies. I really don't have the kind of constitution for short-term investing given how volatile the local stock market can be. Instead, I'd like to think that I'm more of a value-driven investor, mainly relying on the principle of Peso Cost Averaging (and thus the point of this entry). Let's face it, geeks like me a very skittish when it comes to high risk and high pressure situations like trying to figure out the stock market. One will always have that general advice in mind about the need to buy low and sell high, but your average guy doesn't have the time to fully analyze and theoretically understand the local market. Worse as a geek, I'd probably obsess about trying to figure out the market and would probably end up doing nothing due to analysis paralysis.

But Peso Cost Averaging makes sense to me, and maybe it'll work for you as well. Let's face it, if you're not a regular reader of this blog, then some investment-related web search brought you here. Given that, I hope this proves helpful to all of you on one level or another.

[Finances] The Little Things to Save Money

Image via Wikipedia

The current financial climate (or you can be more blunt and call it a recession) has all of us thinking about money, whether how to get more of it or how to make the most of the little that we have. It's a natural reaction to leaner times, financially speaking, and it certainly promotes the exploration of new ideas and possibilities.

Since it's a lot harder to get more money, the natural alternative focus is how to save more money or perhaps spend less of it. It's all a matter of perspective, I suppose. Saving money has always been a great topic to write about and something that certain books, websites and blogs tackle on a regular basis. As of late, there have been some rather unusual yet interesting ideas put out there for consideration.


I think my interest certainly got piqued last week when this article came out stating that carrying bigger bills makes you spend less, which certainly was a novel concept. At first it seemed a bit wrong, but then when I really thought about it, I guess it does make sense.

The study behind the article seems to focus on frequency of spending versus total value spent, really. When you have smaller bills, you have a greater tendency of making that purchase decision more often, but admittedly in smaller amounts. With bigger bills, you are able to resist those impulse purchases more, however when you do spend, you end up spending a higher amount compared to the previous scenario. It's certainly something to think about and it helps you really be careful about what you stick into your wallet.

Another article that I just read today provides a more unusual tip - don't touch things to avoid buying them. This theory is a little stranger, but there's still basis. Apparently touching an item generates stronger feelings of ownership and thus it makes it easier for us to buy it.

Somehow it all taps into our imagining ourselves using the product, and that makes a lot of sense to me. As a sales training professional, we always teach potential sales agents about how one of the key buying signs is when the customer is able to visualize or imagine themselves using the product. Once they express sentiments of that nature, the agent should realize he already has the sale and just needs to close things quickly. It's the same principle here - holding an option makes you start thinking about how your life would be if you had this item and started using it.

How about you? What interesting or useful money-saving tips have you come up with (or come across)?

[Finances] Investing Money in Plain English

I swear, the folks at the Common Craft show are just brilliant. Given enough time, I bet they could re-explain some of the most difficult concepts in the world in "plain English" for the betterment of society in general.

They're continuing their series of financially-related videos this week with the next logical step after discussing savings and loans - investing. Don't expect to be able to beat the stock market after watching this video, it's just a basic overview of how things work in terms of risk versus potential benefits. Then again, if you've never tried your hand at investing, then this is a great overview to better understand what you're potentially getting into.


Investing Money in Plain English

[Videos] Borrowing Money in Plain English

The folks at the Common Craft Show are back with another great "In Plain English" video. They seem to be responding to the current financial crisis in their own small way by releasing timely videos that discuss various financial concepts. While they don't position this as solid financial advice, it does help explain how banking concepts go especially for the unfamiliar.

This time, they're tackling borrowing money, which essentially builds up to how loans work. A definite must-see for those seeking to borrow money for business needs or other purposes.


Borrowing Money in Plain English

[Finances] Saving Money in Plain English

If you've been reading the Geeky Guide to any period of time, you know I'm a big fan of the "...in Plain English" series of instructional YouTube videos from CommonCraft. I think ever since I discovered them, I've always made it a point to share their videos here as well.

This week has them doing a guide that's rather timely considering the economic climate - Saving Money in Plain English. It's not about simply making money or generating a ridiculous large amount of income but it's actually just about the benefits of saving money, period. This is something that a lot of people have forgotten the value of, even though it yields limited results over a rather long period of time.

It's worth the viewing if you've ever wondered how banks work and what interest is and that sort of thing. Check it out!


Saving Money in Plain English

[Customer Service] Why I Like BPI

The web is littered with more than its fair share of customer service stories so I figure it's about time to throw in a more positive experience to balance things out.

For those who have never bothered to read any of my profiles, I happen to work in a call center and thus am pretty close to the customer service industry. Heck, I train it for a living. Given the nature of my job, it seems only natural that I've come to expect a certain quality of service from the various representatives and contact center representatives that I speak to and deal with given I know how most policies go and what I'm entitled to. I'm generally a nice customer to have on the line too since I always try to remain calm and sometimes try to coach agents with significant, well, opportunities on the phone.

Image via Wikipedia With the good service I had been getting from the likes of the customer service agents of Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), my bank, I've yet to have significant issues that couldn't be resolved, apart from those times I had to deal with PLDT when trying to get my phone fixed so it's not often that I have to play the bad guy.

That is, until last night.

I was routinely reviewing my credit card transactions via BPI Express Online when I noticed that the charge for our Shakey's Pizza delivery from the other day finally posted to my account. It had been my first time to try paying for food delivery via credit card so naturally I wanted to make sure things went went. Of course nothing could have prepared me for seeing that the related charge was for about P35,000 instead of the measly P770 we had actually authorized that day.

As much as I could feel my anger and outrage boiling up and out of me, I did my best to remain calm and address the situation logically. Given my knowledge of the customer service industry, especially within the financial side of the world, I knew that I first had to verify the charge with the merchant to ensure things were processed correctly. I quickly dialed their delivery hotline (77777)and relayed my story to a quickly flustered representative. This resulted in a short investigation, a promised callback and initial findings reporting that no such amount had been charged on that day and they would continue to double check. Okay, the merchant was no longer on my list.

So I called up the BPI hotline (89-100) and waited for a fair amount of time before I got an agent on the line - queue time is always a bit longer at night. When I finally got a hold of a representative, all my patience and calm resolve were beginning to thin away and I felt like I was on the brink of getting irrational on the phone for the first time in my life because of what had been going on. You have to factor in the fact that I had just reorganized my finances so that more of my utilities would be automatically debited from my credit card and to have it well beyond the limits of being "maxed out" was just ridiculous.

Thankfully the agent I spoke to was calm, polite and very pleasant on the phone. She did all the right things in terms of pleasantries and empathy statements while still making sure to remain quick and efficient in figuring out what had happened. I only had to give my information once and the details of the charge in question and quickly enough she immediately explained what had happened. According to Chase, the agent, it seems that for two days or so pretty much all credit card transactions processed on card readers managed by Banco de Oro (BDO) invoiced all charges in that period in US Dollars. Hence my P770 Shakey's order became a P35,000 nightmare.

She quickly added that the problem had been identified and that a fix was in place. The next batch update of the system was scheduled for 04:00am and would take about 2-3 hours and I'd be free to check if my balance had been corrected by then. Before I could even ask about using my card, she continued on to tell me that if I needed to use my card before the problem was resolved, I only had to have the merchant call 88-100 to secure authorization from BPI directly and they'd help facilitate things.

All my anger was pretty much gone by this point and the cool, logical way the agent explained everything in a highly confident manner was exactly what I needed in order to feel assured that things were being taken care of and that there was no need to get overly excited or anything like that. I started out pretty upset, at least in terms of how I usually am on the phone, and I ended up quite satisfied and once again happy that I had chosen to bank with BPI.

When I got home after shift this morning, I went back online to check on my account and there it was - the correct balance reflected in my account once more. Things were as they should be and I even manged to order The Bean (Deluxe) from the ShopTV folks as I had initially planned.

I don't know if you've had the same quality of service in your dealing with them, but this one instance all the more proved to me that BPI is a great bank to do business with. I can see why my mom always put a lot of faith in them and clearly it wasn't a mistake for me to do the same. If you are still in the process of considering which bank to partner with if you're not quite satisfied with the service that you're getting now, consider this the Geeky Guide's strong recommendation to work with BPI if ever you have business or even personal finances to manage here in the Philippines.

[Web] The Dearth of Personal Online Finance Services

Image via Wikipedia Recently CNET's Webware did a pretty in-depth review of the personal online finance service Mint.com, and given the many features described, a geek like me was pretty excited about the prospects of trying it out. Of course when I checked out their FAQs, there stood the blazing warning that they did not support financial institutions outside the US at this time. Bugger.

I applied myself into more Google-searching and checked the info pages for other online services like Quicken Online, Wesabe and Geezeo and all of them clearly stated that they did not support non-US banks at this time, although at the very least Geezeo promised to do so one day and even lets you file a support ticket requesting your bank. Ah yes, the illusion of support and the promise of things to come.

The lack of such services frustrated me. I'm used to things being different here than in the US and not getting access to a number of things like the webcasts of various TV shows the day after their originally shown or access to the Olympics on YouTube and so on and so forth - the list goes on and on. However given today's global economic climate, why don't we have a local solution for this yet?

I expanded my web searches to look for local solutions using a variety of keyword combination to no avail. Bugger that. Thus that left me with sending an inquiry email to my bank's online support team asking if (a) they supported any such services, (b) if they were in the process of coordinating with any service like this or (c) if they had any alternatives to recommend. I doubt I'll get a meaningful response, but then just sending the email made me feel a little bit better. Again, the illusion of being able to do something about the problem, hehe.

The main draw of such services is not just the ability to plug in the details of your finances and have them help you plan things out - frankly you can do that with any spreadsheet program like MS Excel, OpenOffice Calc of even Google Docs. No, the real benefit is their ability to link up with various financial institutions like your bank or your credit card company, pull up information on your spending and present informative charts and analysis based on that. At the same time, they also give you options for paying your various bills and services online from one central location. Who wouldn't want that?

Then again, online services in the country still have quite a long way to go before they become anywhere near useful. Most banks have horrible websites and they only get better in most cases when they are linked to larger international banks like HSBC and Citibank. Most companies have horrible online representation with very shoddy homepages and very minimal online services.

My one consolation at this time is that my bank at this time, BPI, has a pretty robust web portfolio in their BPI Express Online site and a good range of online services. I have all my BPI services accessible from one online account and from there I can pay my bills, move funds around and check on my credit card balances. It's pretty nifty that way. I wish they'd be more aggressive about expanding their online features and options but then I really shouldn't complain about what I have now.

Is this about the lack of online penetration in the country or is this just the result of big companies assuming that majority of the country is not web-savvy enough to utilize online portals effectively and thus the time and resources needed to develop robust web platforms is not yet beneficial to them? Frankly if that is the case, such thinking is outright negative and pessimistic and we really won't get anywhere until we start believing in our ability to develop and to ultimately be more entitled in terms of services like this.

In the meantime, I'll content myself with what I have and continue to monitor my expenses using my Google Docs hosted spreadsheets and perhaps send a few more emails here and there to add to the hopefully growing number of voices requesting for a regional presence by some of these online services.

[Finances] Getting Into Investing

Image via WikipediaMost financial advisers, ranging from your contacts at your local bank to Oprah's latest guest, always talk about the need to diversify your assets. You need to have a good mix of equity / cash, property and investments. Try as I like, my equity / cash side of things has never been all that great, but at least I pay my bills and stay out of credit card debt. I don't have property since I don't have enough cash to start payments on land, unless you consider my very large collection of books to have significant property value. Now that leaves investments to consider.

I've started slowly with two different insurance policies - one is a life insurance policy with an alternative revenue stream in the form of dividends that I'll start to receive after, well, 14 years of paying my premiums. Ugh. The other one is also a life insurance policy, but it's bundled with an investment component that is really what drives income. I need to continue to pour in cash for ten years and will eventually get my dividends and a lifetime insurance policy as well. I get to choose the investment method between their Bond, Balanced and Equity funds, which are pretty much standard choices.

That still doesn't answer the investment side, and so I've started looking into how to really get into the infamous stock market. Insert sound of thunder right around here. What's worse, this is not America, so we're dealing primarily with the Philippine Stock Exchange. Insert whinny of horse here.

A lot of people talk about how playing the stock market is a promising way to get a lot of money in a short amount of time, or to lose a lot of money in a short amount of time. Yes, essentially it's gambling but just somehow more legal, LOL. The stakes are pretty high, but so are the rewards.

In my mind, there are two general avenues to consider when getting into stocks.

First, you can try it on your own. Whether you hire your own stock broker and have him make the deals based on your sole decisions or play around with online facilities for stock trading or whatever. This allows you greater control but at the same time demands more research time on your part and greater vigilance. Depending on what industries you decide to invest in and how many stocks / companies you plan on dealing with, this could take a lot of time that you may not have given your day job.

I suppose that if you take this route, then you'll need to practice. Whether this consists of just reading the paper every day and playing with imaginary stocks or using stock trading games / simulators like this one provided by the PSE. If you choose to remain online (like most geeks), then your options for the local stock market are somewhat limited. Thus far, the most decent site I've found that trades on the PSE is CitisecOnline, but I'm not ready to try this myself so I can't speak around how well this works. Have any of you tried this site out?

In going on your own, you need to make sure you have a healthy understanding of how comfortable you are with risk and looking at things in the long term. It's not all about big wins in just one day and cashing in your chips after. Really playing the market means a lot of time and money, losing for months on end only to win big much later on. Most folks seem blinded by how the likes of Hollywood have painted the picture of trading and how everyone wins it big sooner or later, when that isn't necessarily the case.

The other side of things is to have someone else manage your funds, whether in the form of a mutual fund portfolio that you choose to buy into or an assets management company / broker that you decide to pay in order to make the buying and selling decisions for you.

As a consumer, it's hard to find accessible brokerage firms - at least this is how I feel, and thus the more conventional route is to go through other institutions that have chosen to offer such services like my insurance company or of course banks.

In choosing someone to manage your assets, you'll want to consider the track record of the company, the amount of capital they have to play around with and how transparent they are and how accessible their reports are. Taking things up another geek notch, you also may want to consider how usable their online venues are and how you can coordinate / communicate with them.

At this point in my explorations, I'm a bit more amenable to this route since I'm not at all confident in my ability to make informed decisions when it comes to trading and given my graveyard working schedule, I won't be awake most of the time when the stocks are actually trading. For now I'm considering the investment services offered by BPI and by HSBC, both seeming to have pretty good track records, naturally a lot of capital and lastly their web portals are really friendly and all the reports from their funds managers are pretty good. With banks like these, you buy "units" of their investment funds and each of these funds have a market-determined unit price that becomes the basis for determining the performance of the fund. I'm still looking further into my options and will eventually set up over-the-phone conversations with them to get a better idea of how they work and what to expect and will keep you financially-keen geeks posted in terms of my progress.

How about you guys and gals - what are your Philippine stock experiences and adventures thus far? Or have you not yet considered thinking about your finances on this level? Why or why not?

[Philippines] Monkey See, Monkey Do

Peso by donny27.

Hot on the heels of President Bush announcing his solution to the growing US economic crisis - a fairly hefty stimulus package, our own government seems to be attempting to position the merits of a similar measure.

An economic adviser to the President is now proposing P75 billion stimulus package of our own in order to combat the effects of continued downward spiral of the US economy at this time. Admittedly given our history for financial decisions motivated by less-then-ideal aims, I can't help but receive this proposal with and eyebrow raised and my doubts flying freely. Sure, it seems to make sense for the government to address the global effects of a possible US recession, but at the same time the added spending plans for the government always makes one think of extra income for our legislators and other spenders outside of what is officially declared.

Many see the US stimulus package as too little, too late, so why exactly should we be immediately following suit? There might be a need for a more calculated response to this issue and not simply following what the US is doing. Take for example the hedging facility for OFWs that has been recently launched by the President. Now that makes a bit more sense to me.

[Digg] The Mom in Credit Card Debt Who Spends $400 on Starbucks Every Month

The oldest Starbucks in the world by CCNZ.

Here's another item of interest I gleaned off of Digg, this time a Consumerist article about a woman named Felice, who appeared on Oprah who despite being more than $135,000 in credit card debt continues to spend like there's no tomorrow.

Based on the article, she's been reported to spend at least $400 per month on branded coffee, $60 a week on tanning and manicures along with continued clothing purchases. All this without bringing in more than $5,000-6,000 a month! Why do people like this even exist?

Call me a stick in the mud if you wish, but given I tend to manage the budget here at home - okay, perhaps it's more like a spending plan - I just feel appalled by such wanton waste. The situation is further compounded by the fact that she has children and even sells their toys if she doesn't like them. WTF?!?!

Wake up and smell the credit card bills! Managing your finances isn't that hard as long as you're willing to make some hard decisions. Clearly some of us are far less mature than others.

[Finances] UnionBank and PayPal Philippines

Ever since news broke out that PayPal Philippines now accepts payments, many of my friends have been asking me about ways of taking advantage of this new service. One item that always comes up is the UnionBank Eon CyberAccount so after explaining the concept to several people already, I figured I might as well put all this research to good use by documenting all this in a blog entry.

So here's what you need to know:

1. So are UnionBank and PayPal now working together? - No, this is not a business partnership of any kind. PayPal Philippines allows you to enroll credit cards and debit cards associated with the major brands like Visa and Mastercard. The UnionBank Eon card counts as a Visa debit card, thus it's compatible.

2. So I don't need to get a UnionBank account to use PayPal? - Again no, you just need a compatible Visa or Mastercard credit or debit card. Other banks have started to offer ATM cards that double as debit cards like ChinaTrust (through Visa) and BDO (through MasterCard). If you already have a Visa or Mastercard credit or international debit card, then you can just use that with PayPal instead. Be sure to check the status of your card with your bank.

3. Do I need a separate savings account? Is the UnionBank Eon card something like BPI Express Cash? - No to both. BPI Express Cash cards are practically like load wallets more than debit cards since they don't rely on an international union like Visa or MasterCard in order to function as an international debit card. They are dependent on other accounts to load new content into it. The UnionBank Eon is interesting since it is in fact a savings account. UnionBank is marketing it as a "CyberAccount" given that it's not tied to any particular branch and you do your transactions mostly online or over the phone.

4. How is the UnionBank Eon CyberAccount different from regular savings accounts? - One, it doesn't have a maintaining balance. While it promises higher interest, you cannot earn interest unless you maintain an Average Daily Balance (ADB) of Php10,000. After that it only earns 0.5% interest per annum. Also, it requires a Php350.00 annual fee to cover related expenses for it being a Visa Electron card. You can also issue "CyberChecks" which do not require you to own a checkbook and these checks can be delivered to the intended recipient. You must have at least one transaction per year to avoid penalties and at least one transaction in two years to avoid account closure due to dormancy.

5. Can I use the UnionBank Eon CyberAccount with my existing savings account in another bank? - Yes, the UnionBank CyberAccount allows for interbank transactions with a P10.00 per transaction fee. Your current bank receiving the funds transfer from UnionBank may charge other fees.

6. What other fees are associated with this account? - The UnionBank CybertAccount only allows 3 free ATM transactions per month. Beyond the third withdrawal at a UBP ATM, there is a P10.00 charge per transaction. For any withdrawals made at non-UBP machines within the Philippines, it costs P12.00 per transaction. You have a maximum daily withdrawable limit of P20,000 including payments made to merchants. If you use the CyberCheck option, it costs P10.00 for any checks that the payee must pick up at a UBP branch or for checks that will be delivered to the recipient it costs P50.00 within Metro Manila and P60 outside of Metro Manila.

7. What do I need to open a UnionBank Eon CyberAccount - You will need to appear in person at any UnionBank branch with at least two (2) valid IDs and the accomplished application form that can be found on the website. You will need to appear in person at the branch and you will be called when your card is ready for pick-up. Be ready to pay the Php350.00 annual fee.

7. But I can receive PayPal payments for free, right? - No it isn't entirely free. It's only free to use PayPal to make payments, but to receive payments there are various fees. If you have a Personal (free) account, it is free only if the payment is made using PayPal Balance / Transfer / InstantCheck. To withdraw funds from your PayPal account, you must withdraw a minimum of $10.00 USD and you will be charged a $5.00 USD transaction fee for withdrawals made in the Philippines. For payments made using credit / debit cards, you cannot receive this with a Personal Account and will need to upgrade to a Premier or Business Account and will still be subject to a 2.4-3.4% transaction fee plus $0.30 USD. There are additional fees associated with currency conversion plus a 2.5% spread above the wholesale exchange rate charge that PayPal is made to pay that they will retain.

I hope this answers everyone's questions and how we can't all be 100% excited about PayPal offering its services here. We're subject to higher rates than in the US or Canada and still cannot directly enroll savings accounts with PayPal and are forced to use credit or debit cards. Still, it's a better alternative compared to other services as long as you expect higher volume transactions.

If you have other questions, feel free to leave them in the comments and I'll do my best to find the answers for you.

[Web] Now on PayPerPost!

EDIT 10.23.12: I'm not sure why this 5+ year old post spiked in views recently, but I thought it appropriate to clarify that (a) I did not enjoy the types of topics available on PayPerPost, (b) I think I only tried posting 1 or 2 articles, (3) I was very worried about things I had read about how such posts can result in penalties in your SEO rankings, although I have not fully validated this and (4) ultimately I did not pursue an active relationship with PayPerPost or even the mentioned Sponsored reviews. I've updated the links to nofollow links to add to my non-endorsement of the service.

Well, I finally got approved for PayPerPost today, right on the heels of my approval for SponsporedReviews. All bias aside, it's been an interesting first day and given the similarity of the programs, I doubt I can avoid comparing the two services. While it's very early in the game, I think one site has taken an early lead over the other so far...


First, sign-up and approval. I have to admit both sites had opportunities in this area. While it's true that both sites only promised that you'd get reviewed within 24-48 hours, it doesn't mean you're going to get feedback that soon. Both sites took almost a week before sending back approval feedback - Sponsored Reviews took less time, if that counts for anything.

That leads me to consider how they determine approvals - as best as I can determine, PayPerPost relies mainly on Google PageRank and Alexa ratings to come to a decision, which is pretty standard given the industry. SponsoredReviews tried to be more diverse by also looking at Technorati, and Link Pop, which are okay but not exactly common. SponsoredReviews wins brownie points for trying to be diverse but I'd still have to go with PayPerPost for business sense.
Then comes the marketplace - both have unique methods and circumstances around it. SponsoredReviews certainly presents a pretty robust marketplace but despite numerous applications, nothing has happened yet. Out of 6 bids, only one has responded so far - by declining. Other than that, there's not much else to do there. So far PayPerPost has been a lot more interesting so far given they don't just depend on marketplace opportunities. Instead they also offer a wide variety of affiliate programs for referrals, encouraging users to review your entries for shared income and a way for advertisers to get in touch with bloggers directly, which seems pretty exciting. I'm waiting for my first opportunity.

Lastly comes the income scheme - PayPerPost is pretty direct with its prices. What you see is what you get, as they say. The list price is exactly what you can earn while for SponsoredReviews, they take a pretty hefty percentage of your bidding price - 35%! Ouch! Plus the eventual PayPal fees you'll also have to pay to address things are bound to be annoying and that'll really eat into your profits.

I guess the ultimate difference this early in the process is the fact that I'm writing my first PayPerPost entry now while I'm still waiting on SponsoredReviews to come to a decision. Sure, SponsoredReviews may seem to start in a shorter period of time, but clearly PayPerPost gets you actually working a lot sooner after approval.

This should be a very interesting business relationship.

[Geeky Advice] Why You Should Ask for a Receipt

Receipts are essential to any business transaction although most of the time, you can't help but consider them to be useless trash. Unless you need to liquidate your expenses for the office or your folks, very few people keep their receipts in this country - some don't even bother claiming them from the cashier. Since tax computations aren't as complicated here, we just don't bother.

But they are very important and it pays to keep a close eye on these little pieces of paper. Here's a few good reasons why you should always ask for your receipt:

Track Your Expenses - While I know this sounds cliche, but there's no going around it. A primary reason to keep your receipts is to help you understand just how much you're spending. Some people think designing a budget is as easy as setting a fixed amount per spending category and try to stick to it. I find it's also important to first understand how much you're spending now. Track things on a spreadsheet on your computer or in a traditional ledger if that works better for you. The results may surprise you like just how much you spend at specialty coffee joints or if you're really saving by having your laundry done elsewhere.

Keep the Cashier Honest - People make mistakes, that's a given. You could say it's part of human nature. Knowing this, why do we allow ourselves to be fooled time and time again. Always check your receipt to ensure you're paying for the right items or getting the discounts promised at the rack. While it may say 20% above the item, sometimes cashiers don't remember the correct discount mark-downs or the right item codes and strange things start creeping onto your receipts.

Help the Tax Bureau - A lot of smaller stores and restaurants try to get away with paying less in terms of income taxes by not tracking all sales on receipts. Copies of receipts but be available to the tax bureau and the totals of those receipts are used to compute the total income taxes those business will pay. Thus not having a receipt for your transaction is just as good as pretending it never happened, thus it doesn't have to be taxed. Fair is fair right? If you have to pay taxes on your hard-earned money, so should they. Besides, less taxes collected now may mean an increase in tax rates for all of us in the future.

And my most important reason for getting a receipt:

Protect Your Personal Data - It's great that credit card companies make sure their machines obstruct most of your card number so you can only see the last four digits. However if you check the tape receipts for your purchases, you might be surprised to see your entire credit card number at the bottom. For some reason, most cash registers in the Philippines record and print your complete card number including card type and expiration date - certainly not information you want just anyone to have. Be sure to shred or tear up your receipts when you do eventually throw them away, especially when any personal data - even just your name - are present on the receipt.

Seriously - a little effort goes a long way to better financial planning and for securing yourself from another avenue for identity theft. I'm sure you have your own reasons - I'd love to hear yours as well. Either way, the point remains very clear - Always ask for a receipt!

Photo linked from sallylondon's photostream.