Browsing Category

Personal Finance

Personal Finance, Travel

How To Get Cheap Flights

How to get cheap flights is something everyone wants to do, but few people know how to. I recently booked a non-stop round trip ticket to Athens & return from Istanbul for under $700!! I will share with you 5 simple steps on what to do to help you to get cheap flights.

How to book cheap flights

How to book cheap flights

Now if you know me you know that I am very savvy with my money. I am not a cheap ass because I love to splurge and buy and live in luxury, but I also do not like paying extra for no reason at all. So unless I am traveling more than 9 hours I will 100% of the time fly coach class anything more then  see the need to sprawl out and fly first class. I just do not see the justification to spend extra when I could buy and use it for something else or help a sick kid pay for his hospital bills! Needless to say I am a sucker for scoring great flights for cheap and I will share with you what I do here.


1. Plan To Depart & Return on Tuesdays or Wednesdays    

Whether you are planning a family vacation or just going home for the holidays. If you  are able to schedule your trips for Tuesday and Wednesday departures and arrivals you can save up to $100 or more per person. Be a little flexible and realize that not all vacations needs to start on Fridays or Saturdays. If it is a matter of work days off, again see what coming in 2 days later to the office can do for you in terms of the money you will save.

how to book cheap flights

how to book cheap flights

2. Buy Flights on Tuesday Evenings EST

I read and researched this few years ago and discovered that in deed if I were to go online and search for airline tickets to buy on a Tuesday evening I would be more likely to find lower fares than compared to the same search on the same sites on any other night. Don’t believe me? Check out this study by Farecompare.com found this was the best time to buy airline tickets and shop for domestic travel.

3. Use Internet Sites. Avoid Travel Agents

Who uses travel agencies anyway… right? Well I like to use sites like Kayak or Flightfox to give me an overall idea of the best prices on the market. I do however once I find certain flights that can work I end up being loyal to my Expedia or Priceline site and buy directly from them. If you haven’t done so already make sure you sign up for an account so you can start accumulating points.

4. Trade In Your Rewards Points On Your Credit Card or Earn More!

I have earned free flights or had to pay as little as $60 for a round trip ticket just because I used one of my reward credit cards to purchase it. I currently have the CitiCard Thank You Network , Discover card and American Express Travelers rewards card. Anytime I need to spend more than $50 on something I usually charge it on the card. You would be surprised how much a little does. Once I have enough points I trade them in or use it towards my purchase. ** Please note you must be responsible when using credit cards and PAY THEM OFF.  🙂

5.  The 24 Hour Rule

Once you have purchased your ticket check the fare of the same flight on your airline and all others. If you happen to find a cheaper flight whether it is on the same airline or a different one often times the airlines will allow you to cancel your flight with no penalties and you can book the cheaper flight.

If you follow my steps this will never be the case, but hey if you happen to slip once and buy on a different night, then try it out.

Hope you have enjoyed these tips. Happy Travels!

Entrepreneur's Corner, Personal Finance

Tip To Repair Your Credit Score

Here is a quick tip to repair your credit score I want to share with you since my last post about How To Fix Your Credit Score was well received and some of you showed interest. I wanted to give you one more tip on how to repair your credit score. I enjoy hearing form you guys on how things have helped you or maybe what other ways you have repaired your credit score. Please share. And If you feel the article is worthy then share it with a friend! 🙂 Thanks!

Tip To Repair Your Credit Score

 

 


 


1. Find our which one of your cards has the highest APR.
2. Once you identify the cards with highest APR, rank them by which card you have had open the longest.
3. Now you have the cards with the highest APR and oldest card ranked as card #1 and then #2 and so on.
4. From now on pay the MINIMUM on all the cards #2 thru whatever and on card #1 pay the most you can pay on that card without leaving yourself with no money for rent! Hahaha.

Try this tip and you will see that you will end up paying off that card and bringing the balance down faster with this technique. Once it is within management, you can now do the exact same technique for card #2 and continue until you have managed to pay off and or lower the balance on all your cards.

Credit cards are fantastic if you have self control and not need to buy every single “cute outfit” or new video game that comes out. Each time I have moved, I have had that old tenant’s mail continue to come to the house. I always shake my head when the old tenant keeps getting loads of mailings and billing collection notices from every single department store and Credit Card Company you can think of. I mean come on do you really need an Old Navy credit card??

 

 

Entrepreneur's Corner, Personal Finance

How To Fix Your Credit Score

If you are anything like me, I thought of my credit score as the BoogieMan. I was so afraid of even thinking about seeing the report or getting my score. You see like millions of Americans I too have been late with credit card bills, bought one or two or 100 useless expensive items that I do not own anymore, but am still paying off. Sound familiar?Oh and I cannot forget to mention to you that my credit card rampage started at age 18 as a freshman at UCLA when the halls and common areas would be full of credit card company representatives luring me to sign up for a card and due to these memories , I have prepared the following for you:

Top 6 Stupid Reasons People (A.K.A Adriana) Get/Got Credit Cards:

  1. The credit card offers the design of your favorite professional sports team
  2. The credit card with the tie-dye look or Hello Kitty Kat is too cute to say no!
  3. The credit card company is giving away a free beach towel, or frisbee, or hackey sack.
  4. You are at the JETs game and they will give you a “Limited Edition” rowdy towel if you sign-up now!
  5. You just need $500 worth of Victoria Secrete panties….like NOW!
  6. Because you can walk away today with your 60inch flat screen TV to play Battle Field3 or watch Entourage and not own anything for a year……

And all of our favorite saying: Charrrrrrge it!


Yes people I fell for those traps too! Hey the beach towel and T-shirt came in handy when you go to school in southern California and you do not like doing laundry.

My credit score used to be so bad I was unable to get my own cell phone service in my name, was rejected for a Macy’s credit card and the only cards I could get were the ones with a security deposit on them. So my years as a credit card owning woman have been many and well nothing to be too proud of, but today because of what I am going to share with you I have managed to rebound my credit in as little as 2 years to score higher than 60% of Americans, nothing to brag about, but sure better than it was before. Before I share a few tips on how to improve your credit score, let me debunk a few myths.

1. I Do Not Need To Know My Credit Score – FALSE

If you one day want to own a car, house or a couch to put in that house, you will most likely need to have good to excellent credit, therefore knowing what your score is now is important and should not be ignored

2. Credit Cards Are Bad – FALSE

Your parents may have told you this one before, but the truth is all wealthy people typically only buy using a credit card.

3. You Should Make Big Purchases in CashNot Exactly

There are several reasons why you would want to, if you have the available credit, to buy something using a credit card rather than cash. For one, if paid on time and complete, it can boost your credit score. Secondly a lot of credit card companies offer separate warranties on purchase made with their cards.

4. I Filled Bankruptcy, I Will Never Have Good Credit – FALSE.

Let’s just say this, Credit Card companies make money and are “successful”, when there are more people who default on their payments. They love having people in debt. After 7 years it is cleared from your report.So here is how to fix your credit score.

Ok so now here are something’s I did to improve my score:

1. Make a List of all Your Credit Cards

Provide this information, I use an excel sheet to track, highest credit limit, years it has been opened, balance due, and APR.

Now that you have this list, make the credit card that has the highest credit limit and has been opened for the longest amount of time be your most important card. Do that until you have somewhat of a ranking. Then;

2. Always, Always Make Your Payments On Time.

Short on cash? Having a tough month financially? Whatever it is, I am sure I have been there before, but always prioritize your monthly credit card bill to be paid and pay it on time. 355 of your credit report score is On Time Payments, this is a huge chunk of scoring high or low. So put the new LV purse or Air Nikes on hold, pay your credit cards first.

Only TWO things You Need To Do??

Ummm not that easy! But it is doable and I and a few friends of mine are proof!

I am not a credit expert, but these are just a few simple things I did to help improve my credit score within a short amount of time. Nothing can be done overnight, but by simply doing this I do promise your score can improve. Without good credit you can not and DO NOT have any buying power in America.

Do you want to eventually own your own home?

Buy a car?

Not have to get a cosigner for your cellphone?

Ummm maybe want to have furniture that is bought and owned and not by a rent-a-center???

Then your credit score needs a “facelift”?

Hey Everyone Needs An Extra Friend!  Connect with me on FACEBOOK.