Want to buy Bluebird

[Ryan Wright]

Dorn,

> My favorite form of financing is the periodic credit card deals of 0% for a
> year or so on balance transfers. If the fee has a cap, which they always
> did until lately and some do still, I just take the money and put it in my
> savings account at 4.75% $90 to borrow $19,000 for 12 months and earn
> almost $1000 in interest... Who would turn that down?

That all works great until the credit card company "forgets" to apply
your payment. I used to play similar games - until Citibank
conveniently botched a payment I made. They raised my interest rate
from 0% to 36%, tacked on a couple hundred bucks in fees and over
$1,500 in interest charges by the time we got it resolved - and the
whole situation was their fault, not mine.

It took dozens of phone calls, complaints to the BBB and state
attorney generals - countless hours of my time - to resolve. I did get
all of the bogus charges and fees credited back and my interest rate
reset properly, but the hassle was not worth the money.

As it turns out, this is a relatively common practice amongst credit
card issuers. Now I avoid these people like the plague. I also get a
nice little discount when I pay cash for my coach fuel instead of
whipping out the plastic.

-Ryan