Thank you for participating in the Grow Your Green Savings Challenge

Hi!

It’s Cash Cat here, and I want to thank you for participating in the Grow Your Green Savings Challenge of 2009. Your hard work in the savings challenge and your activity in the online community throughout the year have really made a difference and has served as an inspiration for other savers. I’m honored that Tech CU was able to be a part in helping you work toward your savings goal.

As you may already know, the Grow Your Green Savings Challenge ended at the end of December with the selection of our Super Saver of 2009. Ron Vogel was the lucky winner of our $1,000 grand prize. Not only did Ron save consistently all year to reach his financial goals, but he also shared his many wonderful money-saving tips with other Grow Your Green members. (You can read them here.)

But Ron wasn’t the only one who was rewarded for saving. From March to November, eight monthly winners received $100 to be added toward their Grow Your Green savings goal. We’re also proud that the campaign was effective in helping our members save more in 2009. Here’s what we were able to accomplish: 34 Grow Your Green Savings Challenge accounts for a total of $17,966 saved!

While this campaign was designed to last for one year, at Tech CU we know that saving money and smart money management should be lifetime efforts. That’s why we’re committed to helping you stay financially fit all year long. If you enjoyed all the useful tips and entertaining articles we had here at the Grow Your Green site, I’m confident you’ll love Tech CU’s main blog, Money Savvy.  With articles such as Haitian Relief: Be Generous but Be Careful and Banks Lure Customers with Cash: Deal or No Deal?, you’ll continue to find relevant, insightful and helpful articles at our blog to help you succeed in your financial goals.

Thanks again for participating in Grow Your Green. And remember, we still want to stay connected to you so join the Facebook Tech CU Fan Page or follow us at Twitter/TechCU. That way you’ll continue being the first to learn about Tech CU’s rate changes, promotions and specials.

Until we meet again!
-CashCat

Save $500 for holiday spending

OK, who doesn’t want extra cash–especially for the holidays?!

We found a great article on CBSNews.com with tips on how to save $500 for extra holiday spending. The tips are fairly simple, and may actually even help you save more throughout the entire year.

Take a look here. You can also click on the image to the right to watch the interview.

Now that’s growing your green!

Black Friday best day to buy a car

Everyone’s talking about all the great sales deals you can get on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. While the masses will be at the mall buying flat-screen TVs and the latest gaming consoles, you could really score at the auto dealership. That’s because, according to Truecar.com, Black Friday is the best day to buy a car.

The car-pricing website looked at historic day-by-day car pricing data and found the average discount on a new car bought on Black Friday is 7.5 percent, up from the daily average of 4.7 percent.

Adding to the sales pressure, Black Friday this year happens to fall very close to the end of the month. Car deals typically sweeten as the month goes on because many dealerships are approaching quotas they must meet in order to get additional manufacturer incentives.

Besides monthly deadlines, dealers are also under pressure to clear out 2009 model year cars and trucks before the end of the calendar year. Those cars will be much harder to sell after Dec. 31, when they become “last year’s” models.

These are some awesome factors working in your favor.

And, you could save even more with the right car loan! Check out Tech CU—the credit union has lowered its auto rates. Combine that with a Fuel$mart loan and other Tech CU discounts, and you could get a rate as low as 4.40% APR* on a new vehicle with a 66-month term. (Learn more here.)

So if you’re in the market for a new car, try to buy it this Friday. With the combination of low car prices and sweet auto loan rates, you could shave thousands of dollars off the price of your next ride.

*Restrictions apply. Please speak with a Tech CU representative for complete details. ‘As low as’ rate of 4.40% APR assumes a new vehicle loan with a term of 66 months at 5.200% APR. Rates as of November 16, 2009 and subject to credit approval and change without notice. Discounts on this rate include a .30% Fuel$mart discount, .25% discount for purchasing from The Car Store and a .25% discount for Relationship Rewards, with a Relationship Rewards level of Premier, requiring an aggregate loan/deposit balance of at least $100,000.

Protect yourself (and save money)

We’ve probably all seen the TV commercials with a guy singing about how he should have gotten his free credit report.  Of course, that particular site may eventually cost you some money if you end up signing up for their service, but there are a number of other free sites that will provide you with the copies of the information various financial institutions have stored in their databases on you.  All of the sites mentioned in this post are governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and thus allow you to get a copy of your report once a year.  You can also dispute incorrect data within your report by following the process specified on each site.

And correcting these reports can save you money, since adverse information may cause insurance companies to charge you higher rates (or not offer you coverage at all), could stop a landlord from renting you an apartment, or could even cause you to not be offered a job.

Here are some of the various organizations that are covered by FCRA and the websites or phone numbers that you can access to get a copy of your information (including financial, banking, public records, medical related, and insurance).

• www.annualcreditreport.com or 877-322-8228 – The authorized site and phone number for obtaining one copy per year of your credit report from each of the big three credit bureaus.  One suggestion, get one copy of your report from a single one of the three bureaus every 4 months.  That way you can always keep relatively current tabs on your credit report.
• www.choicetrust.com – Information on how to obtain a CLUE (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange) report from ChoicePoint.  Contains claims information reported by insurers.  Too many claims, and your homeowners insurance may be more expensive or even difficult to get.  If you are considering buying a home, ask the seller to obtain the property’s loss-history report for you.
• 800-627-3487 – A-PLUS report, sold by the Insurance Services Office, contains information reported by most insurerers to the Automobile Property Loss Underwriting Service.
• 866-692-6901 – Order your MIB report, which contains information from about 470 US and Canadian life, health, disability income, critical illness, and long term care insurers, including medical conditions reported on individual (not group) insurance applications, as well as test results from medical underwriting exams.  You actual medical records are not reported.
• 877-211-4816 – Order your IntelliScript report which contains information about the perscription drugs you’ve used over the last five years, including dosage, refills, and prescribing doctors.
• 888-206-0335 – Order your MedPoint report which contains information about the perscription drugs you’ve used over the last five years, including dosage, refills, and prescribing doctors.
• www.consumerdebit.com – Click on “Order Consumer Report” to obtain your Chex Systems report, which contains information on mishandled checking accounts, including information about overdrafts and accounts closed by a bank, including information including your driver’s license number, unpaid amounts, and who wasn’t paid, plus information concerning if the party was finally paid back.
• www.firstdata.com/support/telecheck_home.htm – Click on “TeleCheck Consumer Assistance” to get your TeleCheck report, which contains information on mishandled checking accounts, including information about overdrafts and accounts closed by a bank, including information including your driver’s license number, unpaid amounts, and who wasn’t paid, plus information concerning if the party was finally paid back.
• www.choicepoint.com – Click on “Access to Your Personal Information” to see the information this database has on you, including auto and homeowner CLUE reports, pre-employment background checks, an “Esteem” report if you ever admitted to or were convicting of shoplifting, eviction and public-records search results, as well as national criminal search results.
• www.lexisnexis.com/privacy/for-consumers/request-personal-information.aspx – LexisNexis Person reports, which includes non-public and publicly availalable information on all sorts of things.
• www.fadvsaferent.com/consumer_relations/index.php or 800-815-8664 – To obtain your First Advantage SafeRent report, containing information about your rent payment history, references, credit ratings, criminal records, etc.
• www.rentbureau.com – Click on “For consumers” to obtain information about your rent payment history, references, credit ratings, criminal records, etc.

Learn a language for free

If you want to broaden your horizons, but don’t have a lot of money, there are ways to do this.  For example, you can learn a foreign language for free at some websites:

• The BBC posts free lessons in seven languages (Chinese, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish) at http://www,bbc.co.uk/languages.  This site also includes essential phrases and/or other mini-lessons in at least 36 languages.
• More exotic languages (including Farsi, Swahili, and Tagalog) are available at www.freelanguage.org.

Fee-free investing in U.S. bonds

You can invest in United States federal government savings bonds, notes, and bills without paying a maintenance fee or commission.  Information is at www.treasurydirect.gov This website also has all sorts of information about the various investment vehicles issued by the government, including notes (longer maturities), bills (shorter maturities), TIPS (inflation protected securities), and savings bonds (including series H, E/EE, and I).  If you have lots of savings bonds, there are ways to input the information on these investments, and get a value of all of your holdings.

For normal small accounts, the government does not charge a maintenance fee for an account nor a transaction fee for each investment.  Money is pulled right out of your checking account to invest, and deposited back into your checking account when they pay interest or the bill or note matures.  You can invest along with the big investors by placing bids or can just submit orders that will be placed at the going rate.

There is also information about upcoming actions of securities.

Saving money in plain English

How to save for college and retirement

Is it possible to save for retirement and for a child’s education at the same time? Sure, but it requires a pretty decent income and lots of disciplined saving. And even then it’s no picnic.

Indeed, as a practical matter, I think most people have enough trouble just saving adequately for their retirement. Throw in college education and it just becomes too overwhelming. Too often the result is that people don’t address either goal adequately, or they get so discouraged that they sometimes give up altogether, figuring it’s hopeless. Full story

Saving money in plain English

Here’s a fun and easy way to get you thinking about saving money, and how to make the most out of your interest-bearing accounts. And, you’ll notice, it’s what we’ve been saying at ‘Grow Your Green’: save a little every day and before you know it, you’ll have reached your savings goal!

Original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqDsevMW7Ds