The fees that banks and other credit card issuers charge if you pay late or go over your credit limit have been rising fast. A study by Consumer Action found that fees for paying late average $27.45, up from $26.84 last year. The highest was $39 at Bank of America, MBNA and Providian. Go over your credit limit, and the penalty can be as high as $35, the study found. Beware: Problems with one card can have a domino effect. Issuers check consumer credit reports frequently and may raise your interest rate if they see you're late in paying another issuer's card.
Make sure your homeowners insurance has you covered. You'd think your insurer would pay to clean up the mess created by a sewage or water backup, but Kiplinger.com says most policies don't provide this protection. It says about $60 a year buys up to $5,000 in added coverage for water and sewage backup.
BusinessWeek takes a look at "the executive life" in its current double issue that's full of advice to CEOs about travel, exercise, what kind of car to buy, what to wear and what kind of wine to drink. On the downside, the magazine also cites a survey showing that "the Iraq war drove Wall Street to drink." Some 32 percent of brokers and analysts polled for the survey admitted having six or more drinks on a single occasion just after the war started last year. It didn't say whether they continued to drink at that pace.
For anybody with something to sell, landing an interview spot on the Oprah Winfrey Show or the Today Show could translate into a lot of money, Entrepreneur says. How to do it is the problem, of course, but it can be done. It comes down to making a pitch to one or another show, the magazine sys. You may not end up on Larry King Live, but "somewhere there's a TV show that might be interested in hearing you."
The executive in the corner office may be wishing he were somewhere else. BusinessWeek polled 500 business executives last month and nearly three-quarters conceded they are not in their dream jobs. What would they rather be doing? Nearly a third wanted to be some sort of entertainment/events producer, and 30 percent would like to be a winemaker or brewmaster. Others would prefer careers as chef or restaurateur, a pilot or a golf pro.
