IN THE MARKET FOR A HOME EQUITY LINE?: Just in case you’re looking for a good HELOC, we’d like to point you to Hanscom Credit Union, as their product has received some good buzz on this Fatwallet Finance thread. There is no application fee, no closing costs, and the rate for LTV <= 75% is current prime minus half a percent, which currently works out to be 2.75%.
That is a very good deal, and if there’s a better one, I’d sure like to know.
A COUPLE MORE P2P PAYMENT OPTIONS: There’s a new service called TransferWise that apparently lets you send money overseas cheaply. One of the founders was employee #1 at Skype, so the company’s got some good pedigree. I’m not in the habit of transferring money overseas, but I’m sure some of you are, so here’s the “How It Works” section in case you’re interested.
And an FYI: Square is testing out a P2P payment system of its own. It’s currently invitation-only, and I am not invited, alas.
FREQUENT FLYERS GET THEIR DAY IN COURT: A man who was dropped from a frequent flyer program will argue his case before the supreme court:
The court announced Monday it would hear the case called Northwest Airlines vs. Ginsburg, which is basically about what justifies an airline dropping a traveler from its frequent-flier program.
The airline revoked Rabbi Binyomin Ginsberg’s membership in the WorldPerks Platinum Elite program in June 2008. He had complained 24 times in eight months about Northwest’s service and sought “compensation over and above (Northwest’s) guidelines,” according to the airline’s written argument.
…Northwest, which is now part of Delta Air Lines, argued that the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 prevents lawsuits governing “price, route or service of an air carrier.”
…Northwest is asking the Supreme Court to explain how much freedom airlines have to set their own policies under the Airline Deregulation Act. The trade group Airlines for America supported Northwest in the case.
We can’t wait to see Marathon Man v. Citibank.
A GOOD TRAVEL STORY: Courtesy of The Tarmac blog at Flyertalk:
Earlier this month I took a cab from Kuta to Ubud on the island of Bali. The driver had his son in the backseat. When I checked into my hotel my reading glasses, kept in a hard case, were missing from the bag I had placed at the boy’s feet. I really needed those glasses and they were useless to anyone else. I figured the boy blindly reached in my bag and took the first thing that seemed valuable.
The next afternoon I went back to the cabstand in Kuta, described the cabbie I rode with (“mustache, travels with his son”) and explained that my glasses must have fallen out of my bag. I accused no one.
“I’ll be sitting in the lobby of the Hard Rock Hotel tonight at 7 p.m. (not my hotel),” I told the cabbies. “I’m offering a US $100 reward to anyone who brings me my glasses.”
At 7 p.m., the cabdriver and his son walked in with my glasses in their case. I gave them 20,000 rupiah, about $2. The driver looked at it and shyly said, “I thought it was a $100 reward?”
“Well, you’re a thief and I’m a liar.”
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