Question for Savers/Emergency Account

[tvguy]

i think 80% of my credit cards dont have the imprints now... i wonder what they would do now haha.

Anyone that takes Visa, or Mastercard will still have an imprint machine.
80% of your credit cards? How many do you have? I have one.

 

[Madivan]

some suggestions-

love the safe concept (want to get one but still trying to figure out best type-the digital ones concern me, if you can make any suggestions I would appreciate it) but make sure to have some funds offsite that you can access as well-in a disaster with your home you may be evacuated and unable to enter it under any circumstances. we were evacuated from our home due to a roof collapse-fortunately it was only a day or two before we were permitted to reenter to gather emergency items, but I've worked with the public who have been barred by law enforcement from reentry for MONTHS (initially 'red tagged' properties that took months to get formal evaluations done on and the homeowners/renters were left in limbo with all their property sitting just out of reach).

cash and prepaid cards-big fan of the cash concept b/c when our area was hit with a record breaking windstorm last year there were businesses whose generators were able to keep them operating BUT we had HUGE areas without the capability of conducting any business with 'cards' for upwards of weeks. it was a cash only way of life for allot of people-and if you didn't have cash on hand you had to wait until your bank reopened (hopefully you had your funds in one that had a brick and mortar location locally) to get cash.


I never saw the need for the full 6 months either b/c both dh and I worked in a very stable industry-what changed my mind on how we did our emergency fund (esp. when our kids were young and more reliant on us/certain services) was 2 tragedies with co-workers, both who were in the same boat as dh and I (dual income/secure jobs)-

1st was coworker who along with her dh and 2 kids got into a NASTY car accident. broken bones for all such that both parents were off work for several months recuperating and helping their kids recuperate. one income stops and costs can be cut-both stop, all sick time and vacation time is used up, family/friends help to the extent they can........but they reach the limits of how much they can help-and it was financial disaster for them.
this taught us the value of looking into long term disability coverage for both dh and I. as it happened I did become disabled a dozen or so years later and this income helped tremendously w/ the ADDED expenses that people don't realize can come with an unexpected disabling event.

2nd was another coworker-same situation but no kids, however she was 8 months pregnant. 8 months pregnant when she walked into her bedroom to find her mid 30's dh in full cardiac arrest. he was gone before she got through to 911. totally out of the blue-no history of heart problems. she was quite understandably A MESS, and she not only was looking at a reduction in income-she was looking at an increase in expenses (childcare and the costs of a child in general).
this taught us the value of life insurance (they had none, she lost EVERYTHING). we've always had enough to ensure that monetary concerns wouldn't be an issue for either dh or I to deal with if something happened.



I think you set up your emergency fund the way it works best for you-

for us it includes life insurance (and money in the fund to ensure those payments continue to be made monthly in the event of loss of income), 'the e/r fund' (part in easily accessible cash, part in money market at local brick/mortar credit union)-enough for several months of our regular budgeted expenses, additional amounts equal to (1) our homeowner's insurance deductible, (2) our auto deductibles, (3) an amount for 'alternate lodging/living'-when our roof collapsed we were in a hotel for a week, had to eat all our meals out, buy toiletries and clothes (couldn't get our stuff from home until allowed back in for a few minutes to gather 'essentials'-read mostly meds). our insurance covered this b/c we pay extra for this type of coverage BUT they only pay AFTER we hit our deductible (about 2K) AND they took several weeks to issue payment.

We actually do have STD and LTD as well as adequate term life insurance outside of our employer. We feel very comfortable with 3 months for emergency fund. I just don't think 6 months is a necessity for everyone but your suggestions are definitely very sound and I understand your reasoning for sure.

 

[Albort]

Anyone that takes Visa, or Mastercard will still have an imprint machine.
80% of your credit cards? How many do you have? I have one.

im talking about the credit cards. a few of my card dont have the imprints, so those imprint machines wont be able to get the credit card number off of the card. probably have to write in the numbers i guess.

 

[tvguy]

im talking about the credit cards. a few of my card dont have the imprints, so those imprint machines wont be able to get the credit card number off of the card. probably have to write in the numbers i guess.

Never seen that with Visa and MC. They certainly could write the numbers down, that's basically what happens when you make an online or phone order.

 

[linzjane88]

Anyone that takes Visa, or Mastercard will still have an imprint machine.
80% of your credit cards? How many do you have? I have one.

LOL, , we do credit card churning in our house. Between DH and I we have about 9 separate accounts, 6 of which we use regularly.

 

[barkley]

Our digital safe also has a key. The keypad twists off, and there is a place for a key behind it. If I recall, it is just under 3 cu ft, about the size of a minifridge. We have had the same safe for about 15 years. We had to replace the keypad about a year ago. It is a Sentry safe.

thanks for the info.

 

[QueenIsabella]

Never seen that with Visa and MC. They certainly could write the numbers down, that's basically what happens when you make an online or phone order.

I'm kind of surprised you haven't gotten an updated card with no imprint. I just pulled two credit cards out of a drawer--one is the Target red card (Mastercard)--it has a chip, but no imprinted letters. The other is a Disney card (Visa)--it also has a chip, and IS imprinted with the numbers and my name. I'm thinking that companies that have gone to chip readers threw out their old-school imprint machines with their manual typewriters.

I also understand why some people might use just one credit card, but there are legitimate reasons for having several. The two I pulled out aren't in my wallet--I use the Visa for online shopping, and the Target one only at Target. I also have a Sam's Club card that I only use there, and my "regular" credit card that's in my wallet. And I think I have a Gap Visa in my desk. For all of these, I pay no fees or interest. I use them only at the stores they're branded to, and pay off the bill each time. A lot of stores give you a discount to upgrade to a Visa/Mastercard, and it costs nothing (and earns rewards). You can carefully manage credit, it's not the enemy.

P.S. When we bought our house last year, one of the banks told me they'd never seen a credit score as high as mine. (Poor DH, he was a couple points behind!)

 

[tvguy]

I'm kind of surprised you haven't gotten an updated card with no imprint. I just pulled two credit cards out of a drawer--one is the Target red card (Mastercard)--it has a chip, but no imprinted letters. The other is a Disney card (Visa)--it also has a chip, and IS imprinted with the numbers and my name. I'm thinking that companies that have gone to chip readers threw out their old-school imprint machines with their manual typewriters.

I also understand why some people might use just one credit card, but there are legitimate reasons for having several. The two I pulled out aren't in my wallet--I use the Visa for online shopping, and the Target one only at Target. I also have a Sam's Club card that I only use there, and my "regular" credit card that's in my wallet. And I think I have a Gap Visa in my desk. For all of these, I pay no fees or interest. I use them only at the stores they're branded to, and pay off the bill each time. A lot of stores give you a discount to upgrade to a Visa/Mastercard, and it costs nothing (and earns rewards). You can carefully manage credit, it's not the enemy.

P.S. When we bought our house last year, one of the banks told me they'd never seen a credit score as high as mine. (Poor DH, he was a couple points behind!)

I am surprised how many merchants still don't have chip card readers. I have actually seen some merchants without an imprint machine, but still had the forms for them, take a pencil and do the imprint that way. My house has been paid off since 2000, so I haven't dealt with mortgage lenders since 1991, but the last car I financed was in 2007 and our credit score was high enough that we qualified for the lowest rate automatically. Like I think I said before, I don't plan to need credit ever again, I am leaning towards one of those under $10,000 cars at CARMAX with a warranty. Not sure I will need a new car ever again once I retire.

 

[tvguy]

LOL, , we do credit card churning in our house. Between DH and I we have about 9 separate accounts, 6 of which we use regularly.

Baby steps. 2 months ago I just started making all my purchases on my credit card for the rewards. Still feels very odd buying groceries with a credit card, but I pay it off when I get home. Breaks the old rule of credit cards, never buy anything on a credit card that is gone/consumed before you pay for it.

 

[QueenIsabella]

Baby steps. 2 months ago I just started making all my purchases on my credit card for the rewards. Still feels very odd buying groceries with a credit card, but I pay it off when I get home. Breaks the old rule of credit cards, never buy anything on a credit card that is gone/consumed before you pay for it.

FWIW, I, too, had a tough time adjusting to using a credit card at the grocery store. For some reason, that just screamed "irresponsible" to me--much more so than, say, using a card at Walmart. I got over myself! I think in my case, I grew up poor, and have vivid memories of stuff like, driving to my dad's work to get his paycheck, then to the bank to deposit it so the mortgage payment wouldn't bounce. Stuff like that really stays with you. So, I still have a "poor" mindset, for better or worse, even though DH and I do fine. And I do have to be aware of my own issues and be careful with my children--we want them to have the frugal aspects of cautious spending, without the anxiety.

 

[Albort]

I am surprised how many merchants still don't have chip card readers. I have actually seen some merchants without an imprint machine, but still had the forms for them, take a pencil and do the imprint that way. My house has been paid off since 2000, so I haven't dealt with mortgage lenders since 1991, but the last car I financed was in 2007 and our credit score was high enough that we qualified for the lowest rate automatically. Like I think I said before, I don't plan to need credit ever again, I am leaning towards one of those under $10,000 cars at CARMAX with a warranty. Not sure I will need a new car ever again once I retire.

everywhere i go has chip readers, but when it comes to active chip reading, thats a different story. I read a report that most merchants have purchased them but arent active yet because the middle men requires to inspect them before they go active. So if your wondering why ur still swiping at certain locations instead of using the chip, it actually falls on the middle ppl.(aka visa, mc, amex, discover etc).

 

[Anthony1971]

everywhere i go has chip readers, but when it comes to active chip reading, thats a different story. I read a report that most merchants have purchased them but arent active yet because the middle men requires to inspect them before they go active. So if your wondering why ur still swiping at certain locations instead of using the chip, it actually falls on the middle ppl.(aka visa, mc, amex, discover etc).

This is semi correct....With credit cards there is not just one middle man.. to keep the info short I will leave at that.. the biggest problem is there are few processors that can fully accept chip cards and even fewer that can accept all (or mostly all). you have a choice with this switch to a processor that accepts chip cards or wait for yours but that is the tip of the ice burg if you have POS software as your software may not support a back end (another middle man) that supports the processors that take chip cards... this can cost merchants 10's of thousands if not hundreds of thousands to convert... However a single store owner can just buy a new machine and change to processor that accepts chip cards all others can not...there are also other issues as well including software issues, slow speeds and machines just plain freezing or crashing....
Be ware that any store that does not have power and you walk in with a chip card may not take the card as simply put if you have a chip card and it is not processed through a chip reader you can call your credit card company say you did not make the purchase and they will charge the store back no questions asked.. which means the store will not get paid for the transaction... there is more to this as well if it truly involves a stolen credit card... Mail order business has different rules and is set up different with an address verification system.

 

[Anthony1971]

To answer the original question look into online bank accounts such as CIT bank, Discover bank and numerous others... yes you will need to transfer your money into a local account to have access and this may take a few days but with planning it can work well. You will be around 1% which is nothing great but still a lot more than local banks.

 

[smiths02]

as an emergency account, but it pains me greatly to have the money sitting there and making me no money due to the historically low interests rates we are seeing. I'd prefer to put this money to work for me, but in something safe and something liquid. I have looked at various Vanguard mutual funds, money market accounts, etc and wondering what others do?

Once I hit 6 months, I would invest the money over that. The rest just needs to sit liquid as possible for an emergency.

 

[KarenAylwood]

Not to hijack, but for the emergency fund pros... what do you do once you've hit your emergency? We had an unexpected period of unemployment and blew through the bulk of our emergency fund and now are trying to build it back but our income is much lower than previously so we're struggling getting ahead with it. We don't have any debt other than our mortgage and car, and are paying our bills and putting money towards retirement but the emergency fund is slow to rebound. Do you treat it like a debt to tackle and cut things out until you can beef it back up?

 

[tvguy]

everywhere i go has chip readers, but when it comes to active chip reading, thats a different story. I read a report that most merchants have purchased them but arent active yet because the middle men requires to inspect them before they go active. So if your wondering why ur still swiping at certain locations instead of using the chip, it actually falls on the middle ppl.(aka visa, mc, amex, discover etc).

Interesting. Target......of course....after being hacked had theirs up and running a long time ago. Walmart too. The local grocery chain.

everywhere i go has chip readers, but when it comes to active chip reading, thats a different story. I read a report that most merchants have purchased them but arent active yet because the middle men requires to inspect them before they go active. So if your wondering why ur still swiping at certain locations instead of using the chip, it actually falls on the middle ppl.(aka visa, mc, amex, discover etc).

Yes, the chip readers everywhere, using them is a whole other story. Of course Target, after their hacking incident put them into service right away, as did Walmart. My local grocery chain, with 120 stores has not. But my mechanic, who is a one man operation has.

 

[Southernmiss]

Not to hijack, but for the emergency fund pros... what do you do once you've hit your emergency? We had an unexpected period of unemployment and blew through the bulk of our emergency fund and now are trying to build it back but our income is much lower than previously so we're struggling getting ahead with it. We don't have any debt other than our mortgage and car, and are paying our bills and putting money towards retirement but the emergency fund is slow to rebound. Do you treat it like a debt to tackle and cut things out until you can beef it back up?

It depends.

We are slowly rebuilding our emergency fund. With 2 college kids and 2 high schoolers, we are not cutting to rice and beans and have had back to school and usual activity expenses. But dh and I have not had income losses. It was just been the unexpected expenses that hit our emergency funds.

We do have about 3 months in emergency funds. Had we been hit harder and had a reduced income, yes, we would cut more and aggressively replenish the emergency fund.

But our income is intact and we're increasing the emergency fund while still meeting all other responsibilities. Just at a slower rate. We expect to be caught up with back to school and floating some debt (paying balances to avoid interest, but not paying everything owed) on the credit card next month and then will throw everything extra to payoff medical bills that we're only making payments on and then rebuild the emergency fund.

Our income is finally at a nice level and is pretty secure (dh has a monthly retirement check and our 2 jobs are pretty stable) so the unexpected doesn't cause as much anxiety as it once did.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

some suggestions-

love the safe concept (want to get one but still trying to figure out best type-the digital ones concern me, if you can make any suggestions I would appreciate it) but make sure to have some funds offsite that you can access as well-in a disaster with your home you may be evacuated and unable to enter it under any circumstances. we were evacuated from our home due to a roof collapse-fortunately it was only a day or two before we were permitted to reenter to gather emergency items, but I've worked with the public who have been barred by law enforcement from reentry for MONTHS (initially 'red tagged' properties that took months to get formal evaluations done on and the homeowners/renters were left in limbo with all their property sitting just out of reach).

cash and prepaid cards-big fan of the cash concept b/c when our area was hit with a record breaking windstorm last year there were businesses whose generators were able to keep them operating BUT we had HUGE areas without the capability of conducting any business with 'cards' for upwards of weeks. it was a cash only way of life for allot of people-and if you didn't have cash on hand you had to wait until your bank reopened (hopefully you had your funds in one that had a brick and mortar location locally) to get cash.


I never saw the need for the full 6 months either b/c both dh and I worked in a very stable industry-what changed my mind on how we did our emergency fund (esp. when our kids were young and more reliant on us/certain services) was 2 tragedies with co-workers, both who were in the same boat as dh and I (dual income/secure jobs)-

1st was coworker who along with her dh and 2 kids got into a NASTY car accident. broken bones for all such that both parents were off work for several months recuperating and helping their kids recuperate. one income stops and costs can be cut-both stop, all sick time and vacation time is used up, family/friends help to the extent they can........but they reach the limits of how much they can help-and it was financial disaster for them.
this taught us the value of looking into long term disability coverage for both dh and I. as it happened I did become disabled a dozen or so years later and this income helped tremendously w/ the ADDED expenses that people don't realize can come with an unexpected disabling event.

2nd was another coworker-same situation but no kids, however she was 8 months pregnant. 8 months pregnant when she walked into her bedroom to find her mid 30's dh in full cardiac arrest. he was gone before she got through to 911. totally out of the blue-no history of heart problems. she was quite understandably A MESS, and she not only was looking at a reduction in income-she was looking at an increase in expenses (childcare and the costs of a child in general).
this taught us the value of life insurance (they had none, she lost EVERYTHING). we've always had enough to ensure that monetary concerns wouldn't be an issue for either dh or I to deal with if something happened.



I think you set up your emergency fund the way it works best for you-

for us it includes life insurance (and money in the fund to ensure those payments continue to be made monthly in the event of loss of income), 'the e/r fund' (part in easily accessible cash, part in money market at local brick/mortar credit union)-enough for several months of our regular budgeted expenses, additional amounts equal to (1) our homeowner's insurance deductible, (2) our auto deductibles, (3) an amount for 'alternate lodging/living'-when our roof collapsed we were in a hotel for a week, had to eat all our meals out, buy toiletries and clothes (couldn't get our stuff from home until allowed back in for a few minutes to gather 'essentials'-read mostly meds). our insurance covered this b/c we pay extra for this type of coverage BUT they only pay AFTER we hit our deductible (about 2K) AND they took several weeks to issue payment.

Going slightly on a tangent here but not all homeowner's insurance companies operate this way.
We had a 100 yr old tree fall on our home last March, pretty much splitting our house in half. Crushed our 2 yr old roof to pieces, rafters, furnace & AC unit that was in the attic, created 4 gas leaks, electrical wires shredded, whacked the chimney right off the roof and had ceilings collapsing in 2 rooms with branches poking through another 2, slight cracks in yet 2 more rooms. Smashed half the gutters. One branch pierced right through the refrigerator door, and took the door off its hinges.
All happening within around 12 hours after arriving in WDW. All we did was arrive, sleep and go to a 9:30 breakfast at Ohana. We got the call from a neighbor while waiting for our table.
Anyway, we have Travelers and a $1000 deductible. We had to get home as soon as possible so luckily we had plenty of SWA points in my bank to change to a 2pm flight. Being March it was dark when we got home so we quick booked a Marriott Residence Inn and let the cat stay with my parents. (My dad, police & firemen arrived earlier to help ds19 gather some stuff, the cat and get out.
While waiting at the gate at MCO dh called our tree guy while I called Travelers. By the time we were boarding the plane, their housing company called ALE Solutions (or maybe ALS) was calling me back.
A Travelers rep met us at the house the next morning to take pictures and cut us an "emergency expenses" check for $5000 for incidentals. She did say this amount would be deducted from the final total. ALE called me back that morning while I watched a crew of 10 men and a crane get the tree off our house. The Marriott was an approved facility and told us that since we're a family of 4 we qualify for the larger suite, a 2 BR (1 is a loft really) and 2 Bath unit with a small kitchen. So the next morning we moved to the bigger unit, & got more stuff from the house. They even covered the extra $100 pet fee so that our cat could stay with us. (Requiring yet a 3rd move to a pet friendly unit.)

So in the end it was close to $70k worth of damage and that doesn't include staying 6+ weeks at the RI. ALE took care of that completely and I never saw a bill except charging a few drinks to our room once.
We were told that they don't cover the cost of food because we would be buying food if we were in our house anyway. We were actually lucky that once the tree was off the house, we could go back inside for more of our belongings, which we did many, many times. I think our "emergency expenses" check would have been half spent if we had to buy clothing, shoes, coats, etc. since our luggage was full of warm weather clothes. At least we had luggage and toiletries. Eventually dh set up at the hotel my desktop computer with monitor, paper shredder, xbox, ps4, games, laundry baskets & lots of pots and pans from home.

I'm still so relieved that ds19 didn't get hurt. He thought it was an earthquake.
He still jokes about how the last thing I said to him before we left was that I didn't want to come home to a mess. As he locked up the house with the firemen, he looked at all the sheetrock, insulation, & branches all over the floor and thought of what I last told him. lol.
Sorry this was so long, once I get talking about it, it's hard to stop.


One more thing, I love this safe:
https://www.amazon.com/BARSKA-AX112...qid=1476753575&sr=8-4&keywords=biometric+safe
It's so easy, just press the button and and it lights up then you put your finger on the glass part. There is also a key if the battery should die. Dh bolts them to the closet floors.

We keep our EF in 3 places: some as cash in a safe, some in our local bank savings account & some in Capital One 360 savings. The CO account earns around .75% interest but is harder to access. Local bank rates are next to nothing.

I agree 100% about having good insurance. The reason to buy it is not because it's required it's meant to protect you. We have extra PIP on our auto insurance for income continuation at max available in case we're hurt in an auto accident, besides our STD and LTD insurance. I even buy family coverage of accidental death & dismemberment because it amounts to pennies per pay and if I ever need it, it's there. Working in a hospital/trauma center makes me realize this is not such a crazy idea.

 

[kellia]

Wow, guess I never thought about having cash on hand. We've never had a situation where debit/cc's wouldn't work or the bank wasn't open. Guess I need to fix that! Thanks!

 

[Gigi22]

Wow, guess I never thought about having cash on hand. We've never had a situation where debit/cc's wouldn't work or the bank wasn't open. Guess I need to fix that! Thanks!

Yes! It can get pretty scary to have to rely on your old battery-driven radio (everyone should have one, plus batteries and flashlights) to hear what areas of town don't have power, and the street lights, stores, banks and government offices are all shut in those areas.