President’s Choice Master Card – What a Pain in The @$$
I have been a huge fan of President’s Choice no fee banking for a very long time. I imagine that I have saved hundreds of dollars in banking fees over say the last 15 years. No don’t quote me on that I’m not really sure how long I have been banking with them. I know it’s been most of my son’s life and he just turned 18 today. After PC banking took hold, they had offered a President’s choice MasterCard. I figured what the heck getting the free groceries and all. And even there I know I have saved close to $1500 on groceries. I was close to almost a million PC points before I relocated to a new city and used the point to buy groceries and other household furnishing.
So, basically I am and almost always have been happy with the service. The MasterCard center, I am not longer a big fan. The holding time was excessive, which seems to be more the norm than providing decent customer service and wanting to keep my business.
And then it started. I have a pay-pass chip in my card that would allow me to swipe the cards and be on my way very quickly sometimes even without a signature at gas stations and grocery stores. Simple enough, and time saving and most importantly convenient. Well last Saturday the whole concept of pay-pass fell entirely apart. Store after store I tried it and couldn’t get it to work. 5 attempts in all, all over the city. Not one store could get it to work. Not being a genius, I figured that I would contact PC MasterCard and see if it was something that they could take care of fairly quickly, or send me a new card, whatever it was, I hope that it would be resolved very quickly.
I dialed the call center number, and went through all the standard voice mail options to get to talk to a live person. She was polite enough, her English was good. So I explained the situation that my pay pass portion of my MasterCard was not working. She politely said, I had to contact them and they could get it fixed since it had nothing to do with them. I asked her if she was sure, and of course she was very sure that it nothing to do with MasterCard and everything to do with “them” . Not being sure who “them” was I asked if PC MasterCard issued the card and if they did, it would be up to them to fix the issue. I was placed in queue while she spoke to someone else and when she got back, she was convinced that it wasn’t MasterCard I had to talk to and it was “them” This went back and forth like instructions on a shampoo bottle…lather…rinse repeat. And of course it took some convincing that I was talking to the right people who could fix this for me no matter if they were in disagreement about the whole thing. I asked to speak to a supervisor, and knowing that in a call center it could even be the person beside the initial call taker, and I explained the whole situation. Lather …rinse ….repeat.
Sure enough telling my story and problem again and again, it finally came to the conclusion who “them” was that MasterCard kept saying I should call. PayPal. Never once did that leave my mouth, but they were insisting I call PayPal to fix my Pay Pass problem. After several apologies they made the arrangements to send me a new card. What a pain in the @$$.
Topics: Saving Money | No Comments »
ING Direct Orange Key $25.00 Bonus Use this Orange Key 38986282S1
ING Direct Canada Orange Key code 38986282S1
Like everyone money is tight. Trying to get ahead and tuck money away for emergencies is even tougher. I have been managing to tuck a few dollars away every week in case something happens I have some spare money put aside. With Christmas coming, I have managed to save enough cash to buy gifts for my family and those near and dear to me. I’m ready to start saving again for next year. With my bank (one of the major banks in Canada) , and their savings account, I get a meagre .5 % in interest. Big deal! So I took some time and did some research on the Internet, and discovered ING Direct Canada, and their high interest savings account.
ING Direct Canada, basic Investment savings account pays 1.20%, more than double what my traditional brick and mortar bank pays out. I know 1.50% is not a lot, but faced with what other banks are paying, every penny counts! I have set up a bi-monthly automatic withdrawl from my traditional account to my ING account, so that every time I am paid the money is automatically deposited. So simple! I have also started a GIC with them for some longer term savings. At time of writing this their 5 year GIC is paying 3.25% not bad at all. I feel this is a safe way to building savings without risking my money in more riskier investments like stocks or mutual funds. Don’t get me wrong, I do own some of each, but they have been very unpredictable over the last year.
Now about that bonus you see in the title. Let me explain. ING Direct Canada will give a orange key bonus to any new customers when they sign up for a new account. There is only one catch. You must deposit a minimum of $100 to your account. So in reality you are making a quick 25% on your initial investment. It is that quick and that easy. I sent my $100 off and within 4 business days, my GIC was set up for $100, and they had set up a Investment savings account with my $25 dollar bonus. Easy as that, but wait, I have left out one more important piece of the puzzle. You need an ING Direct Orange Key that you must use when you first sign up to qualify for the orange key bonus. Using the ING Orange key is similar to a coupon that entitles any first time customer to that $25.00 bonus. I found one online with out any trouble. You can find a working Orange Key for ING Direct on the Orange Key link. Or you can cut and paste the following guarenteed to work ING Orange key Code: 38986282S1
I have done a little more research about the orange key $25.00 bonus, and it seems as long as your setting up a new account, it could be for the streetwise mutual funds that they offer or for a new TSFA you still can qualify for the orange key bonus as long as your setting up your first account with ING direct Canada. This is an offer that you should not just pass up! Now remember this year you can contribute a total of $15,000 in your Tax free savings account. Take a look and see how much higher ING Direct interest rates are.
I’ve survived Christmas and set up an automatic withdrawal from my regular low interest savings account, that goes directly into my ING Direct account. It’s not much only $20 bucks twice a month, that should give me enough money to buy the gifts that I need to for all my friends and family. Earning the little bit of extra interest with ING will help as well. ING makes saving worth it. Make sure you use the working ING orange key below if you want your $25.00 ING bonus.
ING Orange key Code: 38986282S1
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Toronto and back
It’s been a busy couple of days after a long weekend. We went to Toronto, a couple of my kids went to the Rogers Centre and caught the Coldplay concert. From what I could tell, they loved it. At one point my step-daughter was in tears because the concert was so powerful. i was surprised that she actually went, since she has anxiety in large crowds. This has to be the largest crowd that she has ever been in, somewhere around 50,000 people attended the concert. I was standing on the outside of the stadium and thousands upon thousands of people walked passed me, all with their free cd’s. I don’t think I ever saw that many people in one place at the same time. It was awesome. I know that I am talking about being on the outside of the stadium as opposed to actually seeing the concert, but let me explain. My step son is an individual, he makes sure that he stays that way. He wouldn’t be caught dead watching a Coldplay concert, saying it’s almost as painfull as going to the dentist and getting a tooth pulled. Even though there were tickets available, we were vetoed.
So, with nothing to do in Toronto while the concert was going on, all 3 acts, we spent our time walking. Walking, Walking and more walking. Having a pedometer on we walked over 15,000 steps. 5000 is healthy, and as a diabetic a good goal everyday. At the end of the day we were all spent, and sore from walking, but then there was a long ride home. We got in some time after 3:30, not bad. $350.00 and 13 hours later, I had a couple of happy kids, with a great memory that they can talk to all their friends about. They took tons of good pics, all posted on facebook within hours of coming home. They were wired, and got to bed sometime around 6 in the morning. I was sure sore the next day, but it was all worth it.
Next weekend i’m traveling again up to the great white north. Going to take the kids to see my parents, and hang out for a day or 2 before the 7 hour car ride back. Nothing like going back home.
Topics: Diabetes, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Off to Toronto for a couple days
Finally. Summer has been drifting away, and I haven’t had the chance to go anywhere. This is the first weekend of August, and now I will be traveling and hanging out with friends and family all over. There is a Coldplay concert in Toronto tomorrow night, should be amazing. I’m not sure how the Rogers Centre is for acoustics, but I expect it to be worth the cash. Not the best seats in the house, but still nothing better than spending a couple nights in Toronto in the middle of the summer. There is so much to do, and people to watch. Unfortunately this year the garbage strike still isn’t over so I am expecting the streets to be littered and the smell terrible. I have seen the news casts where the mountains of garbage all over the streets, and the parks are full of bags and bags of people’s trash. Now Toronto is a tourist town, I can only imagine how much this strike has cost the city in tourism dollars. The last strike they had lasted 15 days and the workers were legislated back to work. How this strike got to go as long as it did, is just inexplicable. How does one strike end so soon, while the same strike and issues a few years late not suffer the same fate?
If you ask me, these people with all their demands in these hard economic times should have been made to eat humble pie. There are so many other people that would be more than happy to do this work for far less, but they felt that they deserved more. How do they deserve more than the unemployed, or the families that are losing almost everything that will never have a shot at a job like this? It just pisses me off that unions can feel that they deserve these raises, but if there is so much unemployment, how do cities raise the taxes to pay the increases, if the tax payers aren’t working. There is the issue of job security, but this is just greed. IMO.
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What a waste of a perfectly good xbox
So, a couple of my kids have xboxes, and like I said before I really don’t care, since it was their money in the first place. They have been working hard for their money, so they should be able to do what ever the heck they want to do with their money. Well at least that is my humble opinion when I was a teen, no parent of mine was going to be telling me what to do with my money, I worked hard for it, so I should be able to spend it in whatever way I wanted. I guess I passed that on to the kids, and of course they have been using that to their advantage. Today being Saturday, I took advantage of the fact and planned on sleeping in. The kids are old enough to take care of themselves. So I thought…..
I woke up to the distinct smell of spray paint. They decided in their teenage wisdom to go out on the back step and do some spray painting. The 2 of them tore apart their xboxes and began to “mod” them. Screw drivers, masking tape, controllers and consoles all in pieces. Cardboard all spread out over the back step. Now not that the kids ard dumb, but it immediately to my mind that, they may have no freaking clue on how to put it all back together. Secondly, they never checked the weather channel for the forecast. Can you see where I am going with this?
The two of them putting their minds together thought that it would be a good idea. They were online and looked at all the cool cases and consoles that were all over the internet, but never thought to themselves it may be well be on their technical, and artsy craftsy skills. I have done some case mods on PC’s where nothing could be harmed because the case was empty, there was no electronics parts to be found, no fans, no cpu and certainly no motherboard. My mom was a folk paint artist so I had her paint the Simpsons on a case for my son. I did all the research got the images from the net, painted and primed the case, and a month or so later is was a Christmas gift for him. He loved it, he is a huge fan of the show, so it went over well. I guess that stuck with him, and he felt he was old enough to do this, and not sure if he talked his step brother into or the other way around.
Anyways, I get out there and ask them what they were thinking, and of course like 2 typical teens, the said, “it seemed like a good idea at the time” I asked if they knew that is was going to rain, and asked if they knew how to put their “modded xboxes” and “modded controllers” back together. And yes I did the air quotes when I asked them. Of course the answers where no and no.
No sooner did I ask, the wind started to pick up and it started to rain. I don’t think that I ever saw 2 teens move so fast to get stuff picked up. If I could only make it rain in their bedrooms, maybe they would be a lot cleaner. They mananged to scramble and start picking stuff up, but one of them was too busy grabbing other stuff, that they didn’t grab their console, the sky opened up and it came down in buckets. He was more worried about the paint job on the side panels than the actual xbox itself, and it got soaked!
We grabbed it, and started to shake it out, we got a hair dryer out and started blowing it dry. He who shall remain nameless spent about an hour trying to get it completely dry. He put it all back together, plugged it in, and poof…one dead xbox. He was bummed for about 30 seconds when he realized that this friday is payday. He already knows where his next check is going…
Topics: Video Gaming | No Comments »
Plasma or LCD Big Screen TV
I think it’s time now to buy a big screen TV. Now I can’t decide whether it should be LCD or Plasma. Now depending on which store I go to, each sales person seems to have their own opinion. With so many manufacturers, models, screen sizes and options, the ordinary guy like me can get confused. If I’m spending that kind of money, I want value and a TV that is going to last, and be suitable for all types of lighting conditions, and suitable for playing games on an Xbox 360 or watching a High Definition movie. Now I have been going around from store to store looking for the best deal, trying to figure out if LCD or Plasma is best for me.
Well for starters I already know that Plasma television technology is way better than the old CRT televisions. One of the best televisions I owned is a Sony Vega. It’s not very old, but the biggest drawback is the fact that it weighs nearly 170 pounds. Try moving that around when you’re moving. Now a Plasma TV allows you to experience high resolution HDTV and DTV signals with exceptional color accuracy, and my Sony as clear as the picture is, there is no comparison. Plasma / LCD win hands down. The wide screen ratio of plasma televisions will let me watch my favorite movies in cinema format right in the comfort of my own bedroom. I have the spot already picked out right at the foot of my bed so I can totally get immersed in whatever I’m watching. I have seen some boxing on a large Plasma screen, with the colors so vivid, it was like I was ring side.
I have been saving my pennies now for almost a year. As prices come down, the size of television I can afford has been going up. I think that I’ll be looking to get something in the 40” to 50” range. Anything bigger that that would be overkill. The size of my bedroom and viewing area will be key for me when choosing the optimal screen size. It is tempting for me to go out and buy the biggest plasma television possible, but it’s important that I have room to move around too.
Now since I have a coffee table at the end of the bed, I won’t have to worry about any mounting hardware, or ways of mounting it to a wall, even though that looks cool, I can’t to that kind of configuration. I know one of the greatest benefits of plasma television ownership is its diverse mounting options but it’s not an option right now. That’s something that I will think about when it’s time to get the surround sound to match the big screen TV.
Once I get this TV hopefully the missus won’t hijack it, and force me to watch some lame show like the bachelorette. I can only hope.
Topics: big screen tv | No Comments »
Kids Today have too much Stuff: xbox 360, Wii, Ps3
Kids today have way too much stuff. My kids have way more stuff than I ever did, and even then I had way more stuff than what my parents had. Seems today even with all the world economies in the dumper, kids today are buying more stuff. I have 3 teens. 2 Boys, and 1 girl. 19, 16 and 16. It’s a blended family, my bio-son is in the middle sandwiched between the 2 loaner kids. They all get along great, sometimes just too well, but that is another story.
The 2 boys are video game junkies. In one bedroom alone we have a PS2 , a Wii, and an xbox 360. Add to that a computer, and hundreds of different ps2, xbox, nintendo,( yes we owned several of the NES and N64 consoles when we blended the family), and xbox games old and new. Now the older son who lives in the basement has a xbox 360, and a Nintendo DS, but owned a PS3. He had to be one of the first, but got tired of it very quickly and sold it off to a pawn shop and lost a whole ton of cash in the deal. Which of course was an easy pill for me to swallow since it was all his cash. All these consoles that are in our house came from these kids working their own jobs, making their own money, but it’s still way too much stuff.
The reason I started this story is each of the kids has their room set up to be their sancutary. All decorated the way they want with their countless pillows and comforters and so many conviences that they never want to leave the room. Can’t say I blame them, I’m the same way. Anyway, I was walking by my son’s room the other day, and I could hear him talking on his xbox headset, so I figure that he is on xbox live playing with a group of people scattered all over the planet. So I casually knock on the door and ask him who he is playing against, and where are they from. My son says to me in a very straight face, “His name is Chris, and he lives in the basement” I couldn’t believe he managed to say that with a straight face. I said, “Why can’t you play in the same room?” Without missing a beat he said,”Well he didn’t want to come upstairs, and I was too comfy on my bed to go downstairs” Meanwhile I am thinking to myself, I am paying for bandwith with my internet service provider, hydro for both tv’s, both xboxes, and fans running in the room to keep them cool, all because they were either too lazy or had way to much stuff.
In my day, and we won’t say what era that goes back too, I would have been whooped on the back side for any kind of answer like that, let alone the waste and excess of trying to pull something like that off. I know that when it was time to go to bed, it was time to go to bed and sleep, not have all the creature comforts in my room to use enough hydro to power a third world country. There are some times that between the kids there are 3 tv’s running, 3 computers running all gaming and chatting away with each other, and texting away on their blackberry cellphones. It’s obscene. Kid’s today have too much stuff, and too much disposable income. Don’t get me wrong, my kids work very hard for their money, and are “forced” to put half of their pay checks into a savings fund for their post secondary education. It’s all the video games, mp3 players, Ipods, zunes and cellphones that they all have and choose to buy. No wonder there is so much ADD with our kids.It’s not enough that they all have computers in their rooms, they are getting even to lazy to sit at a computer desk, and are now saving up for laptops, so they can lay back and MSN and Facebook each other. I’m wondering where they got that idea from? Okay, guilty as charged. I spend many a waking hour reclining in my bed hacking away at my Acer laptop returning emails, working on presentations, or a next blog idea.
Topics: Video Gaming | No Comments »
