I woke up a few weeks ago to the headline that Comcast was about to raise it’s rates.   My “economy tier” internet was going to go from $35 to $40 dollars, a whopping 14% increase.   While my other local telecommunications provider Qwest is an equally distasteful company, they were willing to offer me a sweatheart deal for six months with no contract.   After which, I was free to see what Comcast could offer me.

Once the Qwest DSL was up and running, I was free to unplug Comcast and cancel.   I did that on December 9th.    Last week, I received a bill, indicating that they had charged my credit card on the 14th for service through the 18th.  You read that right, five days after I canceled my service, they charged my credit card for an additional 9 days of service that I never received.

When I called them, they were happy to send me a refund in the mail that would take 4-6 weeks.   If I was pissed before, I was even more fuming.   I asked to speak to a supervisor, but the representative promised me that it was impossible for a Comcast supervisor to refund the money earlier.   I told them that if they could instantly take money from me, they could instantly return the money they fraudulently store.  I chose to hang up rather than wait on hold for a supervisor.

What A Scam

First, they charge me for an extra 9 days of service, hoping that I won’t notice.  Then, they tell me the check is in the mail.  I am sure they will, again, hope I don’t notice when the check doesn’t arrive, just like the rebate scam.

Rather than get mad, I got even.   I took to Twitter to see if I could make Comcast spring into action to immediately refund the money it fraudulently charged to my credit card.

By the end of the day, I had a message on my home answering machine indicating that I should expect a prompt refund to my credit card.

Lessons Learned

Every time there is a new media invented, it seems that companies race to conquer it.  Seemingly intractable problems are solved quickly and painlessly when you invoke the new media.   First it was email, later discussion groups, then blogs, then Facebook.  Today, you just need to tweet your problems when customer service tell you to take a hike.

Comcast fraudulently charged my credit card and admitted it.  It is sad that a simple phone call was not sufficient to make them take action.    In the end, I had to ask them, via Twitter,  if I needed to get my state’s Attorney General involved before they say fit to promptly refund the overage.

Welcome to 21st century America.

The following is a guest post from Crystal at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff, which covers spending, saving, and the fun stuff along the way.

For any of you that haven’t “met” me before, I am not extremely frugal but I’m not a big spender either. My husband and I basically live off of his salary as an elementary school librarian and use my cubicle work salary for savings. This pretty much means that I’m a HUGE fan of holiday indulgences.

I don’t think we should go nuts, blow off all our savings goals, and become uber-consumers, but I do think that spending some extra money on some fun traditions is totally worth it. Here’s what hubby and I splurge on every December:

Trans-Siberian Orchestra

We have gone to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra Winter Tour every year for the past 6 years even though the tickets always end up costing about $120 after all the stupid fees are thrown on. Their show is amazing. It is a true mix of a rock show, a choir performance, an orchestra experience, a laser light extravaganza, and a pyrotechnics dream. Even if you weren’t in a holiday mood before taking your seat, you’ll leave humming Christmas tunes and ready to smile at every passerby you see.
The show starts with a Christmas story that’s told through some very awesome voices. The story is touching and the songs are amazing. When they wrap up the last bit of the story, you seriously feel like you got your money’s worth…then they surprise you with a whole other performance! The other half showcases their current favorite songs and new pieces. They also usually have a guest performer on stage at some point that joins in. Overall, $120 is more than worth it and we happily sign ourselves up every year.
Board Gaming Convention

Another holiday tradition for us is to attend a New Year’s board gaming convention for 4 days at the end of December and beginning of January. We have gladly forked over $70 for the past 5 years to attend the Lone-Star Gaming Convention. My husband and I enjoy playing board games like Power Grid, Vikings, and Settlers of Catan throughout the year, but a gaming con is 3-4 solid days of gaming and hanging out with friends. We even stay at the hotel despite the fact that it’s only an hour from our home. We think it’s worth the extra $300 a year to have a mini-vacation to start off the year with some major fun.

Gifts

Our last main splurge every year is definitely the amount of money we may spend on gifts. Normally we try to keep all gifts within the $25-$50 range, but we allow ourselves an extra $1000 every Christmas. We don’t always use it, but we know it’s there if we find something that is just absolutely perfect for someone. Some years we find or make great gifts for a relatively low amount and just put the extra towards our normal goals, but other years we do take full advantage and splurge on family or ourselves. One year we surprised my husband’s father with a $300 painting that just screamed his name. Another year we purchased our 47″ LCD TV, which we’ve enjoyed for more than 3 years at this point.
Do you and your family budget for holiday splurging? Do you have any slightly costly traditions?

According to this post from contact music, Susan Boyle, the winner of the UK 2009 Britain’s Got Talent, does not believe in using credit cards.

Despite having a reported 15 million (10 million pounds) in her bank account from the sale of her debut album, I Dreamed A Dream (sold more than 8.5 million copies), she is given only $450 (350 pounds a week) to live on. And she is happily contented and thinks this will keep her grounded. From being unemployed in 2009 to a “superstar”, this really says a lot about not letting “money get into your head”! Who says you cannot be a frugal millionaire.

But if I had $15 million, I’d earn about $150,000 gross with 1% interest in the bank. After paying taxes, that leaves about $100,000 I guess (depending on your true tax bracket). If I save 20%, that leaves me with $80,000 to spend. And I guess I would be a little more generous with myself. But hey, to each his own. Question is, how much allowance would you give yourself if you had that amount of money?

To round up this post, here’s a cut and paste (from youtube) of her Susan’s performance with Elaine Page (her idol)!

Here are a couple of interesting credit card post that have appeared in other blogs. Firstly, my good friend Mrs Accountability has updated us with her progress in her credit card debt reduction efforts. She is making progress and hopefully, she’ll be credit card debt free by next year.

Meanwhile, Money Beagle just used his Citi Dividend card and earned 5% on one of their 3rd quarter rotating categories (travel). While I’d rather cash back cards pay straight rebates on fixed categories, there are merits to rotating categories if you take advantage of them. After all, there are no cash back credit cards that pay 5% on travel? I don’t expect folks to plan their lives and vacations around what their 5% cash back rotating category was (though you never know). But Money Beagle’s timing was sure perfect.

If you have credit card debt, hopefully Mrs A’s story will motivate you to get rid of that debt of yours. If it doesn’t work, perhaps this will. Jeff has just written a post about how indebtedness could increase obesity!

Does your FICO score matter? Not if you have a mortgage, have no debt and don’t intend to get into debt (which you shouldn’t). But even though it may not be such a big deal, always make sure your credit reports are free of errors or you may face silly things like have your credit lines cut etc!

Finally, Jolyn is starting to use her credit card again. In fact, she intends to earn enough reward points for a gadget! But check out how she is trying to make sure she does not spend more just because she carries a credit card.

Have a great weekend.

This guest post is written by Lorie L. who writes for The Digerati Life, a personal finance blog.

In today’s multi-tasking world, people are just so used to juggling so many things at a time, that they expect to be able to tackle many things all at once. It seems as if this is also the same attitude with which people approach the endeavor of changing one’s financial habits. Most of us seem to believe that changing financial habits is something that we can do overnight, and something which we can completely overhaul the moment we start it.

To support this fact, this Kiplinger article, The Trouble With Budgets, cites in Point #3, that people tend to expect a miracle overnight, and thus make budgeting an exercise that’s harder than it’s supposed to be. Thus, the goal of turning yourself into a saver from being a former spender falls further and further out of reach as the endeavor to financially rehabilitate oneself turns into a futile exercise. It’s too hard to sustain!

But it’s something that one has to do, else suffer bankruptcy down the line. So, how do you deal? How about forgetting “biting off more than you can chew,” and instead, focus on starting to “take things one step at a time.”

How about that? How about tackling one financial issue at a time, work through it, and when that’s conquered, move on to the next?

Easier said than done, especially when bills are piling up and bill collectors are close at your heels. But take these bits of advice and see if you can work on one area of your financial issues at a time, till you’ve slain all your financial problem dragons

1. If you have credit cards, consider switching to prepaid debit cards for a while so that you can get a handle on your spending. If you have other credit card balances, maybe it’s time you transfer them over to a zero percent balance transfer card so that it’s easier to pay off.

2. You should prioritize. The running bills that keep your household alive, the things that you need to live every day life, don’t neglect these. Savings and emergency funds, don’t neglect these either. Survive first; the debts can wait.

3. Keep your debt-paying to a 35% of your salary maximum.

4. Given these two boundaries in place, when the bill collectors come and want you to pay more, DON’T. Stick to your guns.

5. If they take your house away, let them. Move in with your parents, rent a cheaper place, the point is, you have a roof over your heads. Trying your darnedest to keep the house could be your worst move. You need to keep afloat so that you would be able to work your way out of your financial ditch, so you need to sacrifice what you can in order to be able to keep living.

6. Keep all other payments to a minimum. If not, avoid them altogether. Most financial advisers would tell you that if you’re in a deep debt ditch, the most important thing is to not get into more debt while working towards eliminating the debt that you have.

7. When you have these in place, tackle your issues one at a time. While you’re paying off your debts, identify your worst financial attitudes and habits and work on them, one issue at a time. Our problems stem from habits, and habits stem from attitudes. Work at the roots, and you’re bound to be able to change, for life.

It’s not going to be an easy walk; in fact, it’ll feel more like an uphill climb. But it’s a walk or a climb that will be worth it. You’ll be able to get rid of your personal debt, and regain your credit; then even be able to work towards getting wealthy.

So take that first step! And take each step at a time after! Don’t get overwhelmed by the issues; if you do it one step, one thing at a time, you’ll get to where you wanted to go, sooner than you thought you would. You can do it!