Interesting Money

WTDirect Savings – Up to $500 Bonus Available

Mr. B — Fri, 21 May 2010 15:25:51 +0000

WTDirect Savings is currently running a promotional offer in which you can earn up to a $500 bonus. The bonus is easy to earn, but the potential hurdle is that you need a chunk of existing cash in order to earn the full bonus.

Link to Promotional Offer

Earning the bonus is simple – for each $10,000 that you deposit, WTDirect will give you a $100 bonus, up to the total bonus of $500. You need to open and fund the account by June 15 and maintain the initial deposit(s) for three months in order to fulfill the requirements.

The fine print:

This offer is available to new WTDirect clients only. Primary account holder must NOT have held a WTDirect account in the past 12 months. WTDirect account must be opened and funded via electronic (ACH) transfer received by 6/15/10. Bonus is based upon the lowest daily balance during the promotional period of 6/15/10 – 9/15/10. Bonuses will be paid approximately 2 weeks after the end of the promotional period to clients whose accounts are open and in good standing. Wilmington Trust employees and their family members are not eligible. WTDirect reserves the right to cancel or modify this promotion at any time without notice.

That last line is troublesome, and in the past WTDirect cancelled a similar promotion after only a few days. So, if you’re interested in taking advantage of this offer, do it quickly. I opened an account this morning, though I will have to settle for a lower-tier bonus since I don’t have that much cash lying around.

Keep in mind that the bonus is on top of the existing savings rate, which is currently 1.16%. If you deposit $50k and earn the full bonus, this works out to just over a 5% savings rate over a three-month period. Not bad! Their application implies that they do not do a hard credit inquiry.

I’m not sure if I’ll keep my account open after the bonus is fulfilled, but I definitely enjoy offers like this!

Advice on Choosing a First Credit Card

Mr. B — Mon, 17 May 2010 03:54:30 +0000

I recently had an exchange with an old friend of mine named Spencer, who is finishing college and interested in acquiring his first credit card. He writes:

I was writing to ask your advice on Credit Cards. I know that you are a credit master, and I’m finally looking at getting my first card. I’ve been searching around, but so far I’m still totally overwhelmed. Do you have any suggestions for a first, easy to handle card? I’ll just get getting it to establish my credit line and using more like a Debit card (only buying things I can already pay off)… Any advice would be much appreciated. I don’t wanna end up with credit issues like Greece…

Mr. B replies:

Hi Spencer! No, you definitely don’t want to end up with debt issues like Greece, but if you’re fiscally responsible, you will avoid it.

First of all, I’m glad that you already plan to treat the credit card like a debit card – that’s the golden rule of CC usage. Too many believe believe the credit line granted to them by a credit card company is somehow their money. Nothing could be farther from the truth. A credit line is borrowed money, money that will accrue interest if not paid back in full within the grace period. Never buy anything on credit that you cannot afford to pay in full. Keep that motto in mind and you will never have credit problems.

So that’s the first rule of thumb. Here are some other thoughts:

1) Just say NO to annual fees. Ignore all cards that come with an annual fee just for using the %@# card!

2) Ignore the APR. It’s used to calculate how much interest you will pay each month if you don’t pay the card in full by the due date. Paying interest is for suckers. I don’t care if my APR is 400%, I’ll never have to pay it. Credit card companies hate you if you pay your bill in full by the due date – you’re considered a deadbeat to them because you’re not profitable.

3) DO care about rewards. As an incentive to get you to use your card (and hopefully rack up debt), many companies use loss-leaders in the form of CC rewards. Essentially, they end up paying YOU to use their card. Reward systems vary: sometimes they’re in the form of airline miles, straight-up cash, or some other arbitrary point system. I prefer simple reward systems above anything else, and therefore suggest finding a card that will give you at least 1% cashback on all purchases. CC rewards are nice, but don’t let them manipulate you into inadvertently spending more money on the card just to build rewards (as in: I only need to spend another $300 before I can cash in my rewards!). Again, keep the golden rule in mind, and always ask yourself, if I were spending cash for this purchase, would I still buy it?

4) Forget about balance transfers. This is a major way CC companies earn fees. In essence, it’s how people end up paying one credit card with another. They’re loaded with fees. Just follow the golden rule, and you’ll never need to worry about it.

5) Ditto on cash advances. Just forget they exist. NEVER use an ATM to pull money from a credit card. This is called a cash advance, and your CC company will charge you an arm and a leg for it. That’s what debit/ATM cards are for.

6) Read the paperwork. You’ll get a bundle of paperwork with your card. Read it all, or at least scan for the F-word (fee, of course!). You will also occasionally receive notifications of policy changes in the mail. Again, look for that F-word. It’s pretty rare for them to suddenly spring something like an annual fee on you, but it could happen. I have about 20 credit cards (ya really), and I’ve only had them introduce an annual fee once. I immediately canceled the card. The moral of the story is: don’t just throw away notices from the CC company in the mail.

7) If you’ve read this far, by now you’re surely looking for specific recommendations. Okay, okay, I’ll give you a few. First, though, allow me to say that I hate Chase. Those a$$holes change their terms all the time, always in their favor. I’ve seen them kill reward systems for my favorite cards. Just avoid them!

You are a student, but I recommend staying away from student cards unless you don’t get approved for others. Student cards usually are pretty stingy with their credit lines, thereby making it easier to go over your limit (and get charged fees, of course). If you have to get a student card, then one of the Dividend Platinum Select cards from Citi on this page would be alright. This one from Capital One would be okay, too.

For non-student cards, here is one that is worth a look. It’s from Associated Bank (look for the Rewards card), and it has a $25 bonus (statement credit) the first time you use it. However, it looks as it you also must have a banking relationship with them in order to apply for the card. Oh, and here is one from Dollar Bank that offers 1.25% rewards. Again, the only catch is that you also have to have a regular bank account with them to be eligible. It might be too much hassle for the little extra rewards amount.

One final thing: almost all CC applications ask for annual or monthly household income, not just your personal income. This is used to help determine your credit limit, and many people think of it as a commonly exploited loophole. What is a household anyway? Everyone in your dorm or apartment? If you live at home, it could be your parents’ and other siblings’ income! I don’t suggest outright lying, but unless they ask directly for your personal income, just know that certain liberties are available. Again, follow the golden rule, and you’ll avoid trouble.

Hope that gets you started! Feel free to ask more questions, and let me know the results!

(NB: no affiliate links are used in the above message.)

Closing an HSBC Direct (Advance) Account

Mr. B — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:20:46 +0000

Continuing my recent string of account closings as part of my grand plan to simplify my savings account setup, I just closed my HSBC ~~Direct~~ Advance account. Doing so was was easy, and did not require a phone call.

If you want to close your account online, all you have to do is log in and look for the BankMail option. Send them a secure message with the following information:

That you want to close the account (naturally).
Your reason for closing (I cited that the interest rate was too low and that I could get better rates elsewhere).
How you want them to disburse your remaining balance to you, if any (such as a cashier’s check or wire transfer).

In my case, I ended up closing both a savings and a checking account, and I transferred my entire balance out via ACH before I submitted the closing requests. I did not receive any confirmation message, but when I logged into HSBC the next day, I saw this:

The “Account Unavailable” notice was enough to tell me that HSBC was out of my life. To be clear, I had no qualms with my HSBC accounts, other than the ubiquitous interest rate sucking issue that currently plagues most other banks. Shedding unused accounts is increasing the simplicity of my financial life, and that’s music to my ears.

Savings Account Simplification

Mr. B — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 13:00:00 +0000

Since I finally decided to close my FNBO Direct account, I’ve been thinking a lot about the multitude of savings accounts that I’ve created over the last few years. Most of them are now idle, practically abandoned with only a penny, or maybe a dollar in them.

Many of them I opened for some promotional reason, such as a high teaser rate. When the rate languished, so did my interest in the account. This happened for me at FNBO, HSBC, E*Trade, Washington Mutual (now Chase), and a few others. When my interest in the account waned, I usually just siphoned my balance elsewhere, save perhaps a dollar to keep the account open. Such is the life of a rate chaser.

My thought at the time was that it was better to keep the newly abandoned savings account open, just in case the bank in question decided to offer higher rates at a later point. If this were to happen, I could easily transfer some money back without going through any account opening process. It seemed, I thought, a convenience to keep these husks of accounts. Perhaps they would be useful later?

Maybe so, and I’ve written about this topic before, but I’m giving up on them and starting a spree of account closings. My reasons are threefold: First, savings interest rates have suffered more drastically and for a longer period than I thought they would. Even now, in 2010, it’s difficult to imagine rates rising anytime soon. Most people are lucky if they earn more than 1% in a savings account at present. Some of the popular money market mutual funds, such as the Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund, are paying a miserly 0.01%. That’s one one-hundredth of a percent! Pitiful. I’m tired of waiting for Godot.

Secondly, I confess that I’ve become angered and embittered by the actions of the too-big-to-fail banks. Watching them get rescued from their own greed and stupidity, and getting wrenched back from the brink of outright destruction by the hands of the taxpayers was bad enough. Watching them then raise fees, jack up credit card interest rates, foreclose on an untold number of homes, and fight tooth-and-nail against any financial regulation that could help prevent history from repeating itself was beyond all rational comprehension. There should be taxpayer outrage in this country, and to be clear, there is some. However, I believe it has largely manifested itself in the wrong way and in the wrong direction. There has been a backlash against big government, when in fact it should be against big financial corporations. I believe strongly in the power of individuals voting with their wallets, and that brings me to point three.

Thirdly, I discovered Alliant Credit Union back in 2009. Their savings account has held steadily at 2% for eight months now, and their regular checking account pays 1.75%, which is an excellent rate for a non-rewards-based checking account. Anyone can join with a membership in their local PTA, which was a one-time $6 fee in my former state of residence. Since joining, I have moved my primary checking and savings accounts to Alliant, as well as my tiny health savings account (HSA). I’m happy with Alliant so far, and since I’m the primary money manager in my household, my wife is comforted knowing that the bulk of our savings is stashed in a single location instead of being spread across ten accounts. Morbid as it sounds, if I were to meet an untimely demise, having our funds in a single location is preferable to her going on a wild goose chase.

Based on point two above, the appeal of smaller local banks and credit unions has grown on me. I love the idea of simplification as well – the thought of purging myself from all those empty account husks feels like a type of spring cleaning to me. It’s refreshing.

From this point forward, I choose not to keep my savings at a too-big-to-fail bank, and I’m going to begin a spree of account closings to simplify my financial life. I’ll still keep liquid accounts at two or three places, but the bulk of my savings will be with a local bank or credit union. Any accounts that I keep with a megabank will be entirely unprofitable for them. For example, I’ll keep a checking account that I opened (for a $75 bonus) with Bank of America, but I’ll keep it just for the ability to occasionally deposit a check while on the road, and then immediately siphon all the money elsewhere.

Maybe my plan is drastic or unreasonable, but gosh, it feels right from both an organizational and a moral perspective.

Closing an FNBO Direct Account

Mr. B — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 15:21:54 +0000

Remember the days when banks were actually trying to compete for deposits by raising interest rates on savings accounts? Nope, I don’t either.

I opened an account with FNBO Direct back when they were paying a glorious 6% on their online savings account. Those days have long past, and once their rate started plummeting, I siphoned out all but a single penny. Yesterday, it dawned on me that I have not touched that account since mid-2008. I wondered about my lone penny and whether or not FNBO had claimed it and closed my account for inactivity.

Nope. My penny was still there, lonely as ever. I decided to go ahead and close the account.

Fortunately, FNBO Direct makes it simple to close an account online. Once you have logged in, look for the Contact Us link (currently near the bottom left of your account).

On the page that loads, you should then see a link for Account Closing Request. Follow that link, and then you will have to complete a short questionnaire that includes an address verification, your reason for closing the account, and how you would like FNBO to disburse any remaining funds to you.

They didn’t have a field in which I could manually tell them to keep my blasted penny. Ridiculous as it may be, I opted for a cashier’s check. Believe me, I’m going to chuckle pretty hard when I see a cashier’s check for $0.01.

Here’s a screenshot of the closing questionnaire:

For the record, I chose Interest Rate as my primary reason for closing. If enough people do that, maybe the plight of the savers will be clear.

That’s all there is to it, and I appreciate how easy FNBO makes it to close an account.

10 Financial Podcasts You Should Subscribe To Now!

Mr. B — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:30:27 +0000

The following article is a guest post by Kris of Credit Card Compare.

Sometimes it seems incredible to me that with the wealth of financial information out there, and all the forms in which it is available, that many people still can’t manage their money. With such a variety of television shows, radio shows, video blogs, websites, and podcasts, all devoted to personal finance and investing, you’d think that anyone with cable television, a computer, or a cell phone would be a veritable spring of information, burbling forth their knowledge to everyone and anyone who would listen. Sadly, this isn’t the case.

I can’t necessarily blame the average investor though when it comes to what they learn regarding their money and how they learn it. I think many people fall prey to what I call the overload syndrome. With all the information out there from which to choose, they just don’t know where to begin and where the reliable sources of financial knowledge are to be found.

If you are one of those people who just isn’t sure where to start when it comes to money-related podcasts and video blogs, here are a few options you will find useful in kick-starting or furthering your financial education.

1. The Dave Ramsey Show

It seems like Dave Ramsey is everywhere these days – internet, radio, television, he just does it all. Among his many communication vehicles, Dave Ramsey now also offers a podcast of his show. Maybe it’s Dave’s down-to-earth advice or his ability to focus on topics that span a broad spectrum of financial situations that appeals to so many. Whatever it is, Dave is listened to by millions as he spreads the word about a variety of financial and investment topics each weekday.

2. Feed The Pig

Remember those commercials with that guy in the pig costume that showed up a few years back? Yep, the same FeedThePig. You can listen to informative podcasts related to financial subject matter like preventing fraud, investing for beginners, teaching kids about money, budgeting, and others. If you’re just dipping your toe into the investing waters, these podcasts might be a good way to get yourself in tune with your finances before you take the plunge.

3. The Wall Street Journal

There is hardly a better-known source for business and investing information than the The Wall Street Journal. On their website, you can find podcasts such as Wall Street Journal’s Your Money Matters and Wall Street Journal on Small Business as well as podcasts from MarketWatch, and Barron’s. You can from pick from a number of related podcasts and even choose to follow them on Twitter or over your phone.

4. Wall Street Unspun (Peter Schiff)

Subscribe to Wall Street Unspun with Peter Schiff of Euro Pacific Capital for a mid-week dose of hard-hitting Wall Street/Political/Economics news and commentary. Schiff is the investor who warned people ahead of time on network television, print and the Internet about the impending 2008 subprime meltdown and credit crisis while his critics were drunk on cheap credit.

5. Crown Financial Ministries

If you’re of the religious persuasion, don’t overlook the podcast from Crown Financial Ministries (crown.org). The advice and teaching is in a similar vein to Dave Ramsey but they make more references to the Bible than Dave Ramsey would do. Crown is dedicated to teaching people God’s financial principles so that they can learn to live in God’s Economy.

6. Planet Money

As hard as it might be to believe, even National Public Radio has gotten into the podcast market these days. To me this is kind of like PBS getting into the pay-per-view market, but hey, whatever works. Offering up financially related podcasts on a number of topics, Planet Money takes a more global approach to economic issues. You can visit their blog site to read articles and watch videos or sign up for their podcast.

7. Marketplace Money

The Marketplace Money podcast offers a broad category of topics ranging from Books and Business to Economy and Health, and can also be found on NPR.org. You can mix your own customized podcast on the main page of their podcast directory or just focus on the business side of things with the Marketplace Money podcasts hosted weekly by Kai Ryssdal.

8. Financial Aid News

This podcast might not be for everyone, but if you are a parent with kids in or preparing for college, or are in school yourself, Financial Aid News could be your dream podcast. An education can be pricey, and educating yourself to the financial responsibilities of paying for school is important. Discussing topics related to yep, you guessed it, financial aid, the Financial Aid podcast digs into subjects like FAFSA, scholarships, student loans, and other financial aid related topics.

9. Wells Fargo

If you dislike big banks as much as I do, you may not be into this pick. With some of the larger financial institutions now getting into the podcast game though, I thought I’d give them a fair shake. You can choose from Wells Fargo’s Small Business Podcast Series or take a stab at the On the Trading Desk podcast to find out the latest happenings on Wall Street.

10. The Disciplined Investor

The Disciplined Investor’s weekly podcasts provide insight to a variety of investing topics. Host Andrew Horowitz invites various views and years of investing knowledge to the table. Guests like Jon Markman, Jon Najarian, Frank Curzio, and others, voice their opinions on a number of investing and market topics.

As a freelance writer, Kris spends much of his time writing about money saving techniques for Credit Card Compare, an entirely free-to-use comparison website offering the best credit cards for Aussies including frequent flyer credit cards that give you travel perks and benefits.

Citi Adds $60 Annual Fee to Many Cards – Watch Your Mailbox

Mr. B — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 23:51:57 +0000

If you have a credit card from Citibank, keep an eye on your mailbox because Citi has recently implemented a $60 annual fee for many of their cards. Citibank – the same too-big-to-fail monstrosity – the same company that accepted taxpayer bailout money and subsequently jacked up interest rates across the board – yeah, that company. Not content with the cash they’ve already wrung from the taxpayers, they have now tacked on this $60 fee to many cards that previously had no annual fee. However, Citi will generously refund the $60 if you spend $2,400 per year on the card. Wow, thanks for nothing, Citi.

Thanks to a reader named Bill for pointing this out to me. Several different cards are apparently affected, including:

Citi AT&T Universal Card
Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards Mastercard
Citi Dividend World Mastercard
Citi Dividend AMEX Card
Citi Drivers Edge Card
Citi Home Rebate Mastercard
Citi mtvU Student Card
Citi Platinum Select Mastercard

There may be others as well, so be sure not to throw away any junk mail from Citi without reading it carefully. I have four credit cards from Citibank, though the only one mentioned in this list is the mtvU. So far, I have not yet received a letter, but we’ll see if it arrives in the mail anytime soon. I’ll be sure to update this post if it does.

Citi’s addition of this annual fee is a bid to do two things:

Get people to use the cards more often, thereby generating more revenue for Citi.
Squeeze even more cash from the taxpayers who saved their butts in 2008.

You can read about more people’s experiences on this Sickdeals thread and this Fatwallet thread. Here is a scan of a letter from Citi, compliments of the user unsmart3d on SD:

My favorite part:

The reason we are making this change is to maintain the quality of our service amid the rising cost of doing business.

Cough, cough… BS! Wow, they’re really laying it on thick and heavy. Anyway, I don’t mean to give Citi too hard a time. After all, it’s perfectly within their rights to impose an annual fee on all of their cards if they want. They can choose to do business that way. No one is forcing us to use Citi credit cards… and as consumers, it’s within our rights to call and cancel our accounts if we receive one of these letters! We can choose to take our business elsewhere.

That’s exactly what I intend to do if one of these letters graces my mailbox. If you have received one, I’d love to hear your thoughts and what you’ve chosen to do.

Sharebuilder – $50 Opening Bonus and 10 Free Automatic Trades

Mr. B — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:42:43 +0000

If you have been considering opening a Sharebuilder account, now looks like a pretty good time to do so. At present, you can earn a $50 account opening bonus by using the promotional code 50DOLLARS. Sharebuilder often runs offers like this, but the icing on the cake is that you can get 10 free trades once your account is open. Customers who already have an account can also take advantage of the below offer.

10 Free Automatic Trades

Sharebuilder is a little bit different from other brokerages in that they offer real-time trades, but they also offer a different pricing plan for their automatic trades. What’s the difference?

As the name implies, the Automatic Investment Plan (AIP) allows you to pick investments in advance. Sharebuilder will then transact your purchase(s) when you specify, or when funds are available. One key point here is that the AIP only processes transactions on Tuesdays. It’s ideal for people who don’t want to worry about real-time trades and just “average” their way into an investment.

Automatic Investments typically cost $4 per transaction, but Sharebuilder is currently running a promotion that offers 10 free automatic trades (a $40 value). Existing Sharebuilder customers are eligible, so click on this link once your account is open. You should see a page that looks like this:

On that page, click the Kick-start your account link and log into your Sharebuilder account. You should receive an immediate notification that your 10 free AIP trades have been enabled. I also received this confirmation via e-mail:

To take advantage of the 10 free trades, you should set up a plan before 31 January 2010. All 10 trades should be executed by the last Tuesday of the year 2010.

Stop Buying Antivirus Software

Mr. B — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:38:21 +0000

Back in 2008 I wrote an article titled Save Money on Security Software – 5 Free Antivirus Programs Worth Using. That article is a bit dated now, mainly because of the release of a monumental free security program – a program so great that it has become an absolute “game changer” in the free antivirus world. Of course, I’m talking about Microsoft Security Essentials.

Wait, Microsoft has released an antivirus program? For free? Yes, indeed, but those are not the important questions. The most important question is: does it suck?

Fortunately, it does not. Sure, Microsoft occasionally releases a software blunder of epic proportions (Windows ME, anyone?), but occasionally they hit one out of the park, too. Software releases like Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Live Writer have all been excellent, and I would like to add Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) to that list as well.

MSE protects against viruses, spyware, and all the other malware baddies. Better yet, it does it without dragging the system to a complete halt like some other programs have done in the past. I’ve been running MSE for a couple of months now on my Windows 7 system, and in my casual experience, there’s little-to-no performance impact. I can’t even tell it’s running most of the time.

The good news doesn’t stop there, though. MSE has also earned top marks from av-comparatives.org (a reputable anti-malware testing group), showing a 98% detection rate for their database of 545k samples. In their most-recent report (October 2009), MSE was the only free antivirus program to earn an Advanced+ rating (their highest possible rating).

What does this mean? It means that if I were Norton or McAfee, I would be shaking in my boots right now. That’s really the crux of the matter – there is no need to purchase antivirus software when free offerings can do just as effective a job. The big paid antivirus vendors earn their profit based on people’s fear, uncertainty, and doubt. After all, paying for an antivirus program means that it must work better than a free version, right?

Wrong. That fear and uncertainty keeps the big vendors in business, and I cringe when I see people shelling out for a yearly antivirus subscription. Stop paying for antivirus protection if you use Microsoft Windows. You are not better protected just because you paid for a program. The combination of a free antivirus program plus a little common sense is all you need.

Attacked By Vanguard

Mr. B — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:38:01 +0000

I’m writing this out of pure disbelief. Back in November I received a threatening e-mail from someone in Vanguard’s legal department. I would gladly post the e-mail in its entirely, but they will probably sue me if I do since it contains a confidentiality statement. Nevertheless, I will describe enough of the e-mail so that other people can understand what is happening.

The e-mail basically stated that my website is displaying the Vanguard logo, which must be removed immediately due to their endorsement policy. The wording of the e-mail made it sound as though I had stolen the Vanguard logo and was displaying it as my official site logo on every page. It also made it sound as though I were purporting my website as being officially endorsed by Vanguard.

Uh, what??!!

I had to scratch my head as to what in the world they were talking about. Why are they threatening me? I’ve never made any claim that my site is affiliated or associated with Vanguard, and I certainly don’t have their logo in my blog header or anything like that. And then I found it….

Back in March 2007, when I first started this website, I wrote a short post talking about transferring my Roth IRA from American Funds to Vanguard. You can see the post here. It was only the second post I had ever written, and it includes a little Vanguard logo as part of the post identifier. Even now, my site is hardly a blip on the radar compared to the big personal finance blogs, but it was completely obscure back then. So, this is why they decided to threaten me? This stupid little post?!

Even more confused and starting to get angry, I penned a reply to Vanguard’s legal department:

Dear L######,

Yes, it’s true. I wrote a post on my site explaining how much I like Vanguard and about how I had just opened a portfolio there. I wrote that post on March 23, 2007, well over two years ago.

Are you trying to tell me that I can’t give FREE advertising to Vanguard? My use of the image was part of an endorsement post FOR Vanguard. I’m under no impression that Vanguard is endorsing my site. The article I wrote years ago has gone into my archives and is not displayed anywhere near the front page. My readers would have to dig pretty far to find it.

And now you’re sending me a threatening message asking me to remove my free advertising for you? Sure, I’ll be happy to comply. I’ll also be happy to transfer my entire portfolio to one of your competitors, such as Schwab or Fidelity. I’ll also be delighted to actively dissuade my readers from ever considering opening accounts with Vanguard because they attack bloggers simply for recommending them.

The ball is in your court.

Signed,

A customer (for now)

Weeks went by and I never heard a response, nor did I delete the image, so I assumed that someone at Vanguard had simply made a mistake and that it wasn’t worth picking on lil’ ol’ bloggers like me. Weeks turned into months, and I completely forgot about the whole ordeal.

Until today. This morning I received a second threatening e-mail from the same person at Vanguard’s legal department. It was a follow-up from the previous correspondence since I had not resolved the issue to their satisfaction. This e-mail was even more forcefully worded, explaining that the Vanguard logo was a highly protected asset and that they will go to great lengths to protect it (obviously). If I try to resist, my puny website and I will be crushed by the towering might of their legal department.

Unbelievable. I’ve been a happy Vanguard customer for years, and because I wrote a post back in early 2007 promoting Vanguard and attached their logo to it, they’re willing to pursue legal action against me? With friends like that….

Naturally, I had to send a response:

L#######,

Congratulations! Vanguard has forever lost a longtime customer! I will be transferring my accounts to Schwab immediately. Not only that, I will do everything in my power to dissuade other people from ever depositing a single penny in a Vanguard fund.

You make it sound like I’ve been using the Vanguard logo as my personal logo. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I put a low-resolution copy of the logo as an identifier in my post PROMOTING Vanguard. That was only the second post I had ever written for my site, and it quickly disappeared into the archives, so I suspect only two or three other people have ever seen it. I will remove it, but Vanguard has now gained a lifelong enemy.

So this is what you do with your time at Vanguard? You search the Web for small-time personal finance bloggers and attack them for daring to promote your company? Pitiful. Since you seem to enjoy it so much, here’s some more fodder for you:

1) http://arsicles.com/2007/10/31/ultimate-financial-lifestyle-guide-part-1
2) http://www.jalbertfinancial.com/useful_links.htm
3) http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2009/09/06/technical-trade-5-vanguard-ftse-all-world-ex-us-etf-veu/
4) http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/06/vanguardadvantage-all-in-one-checking-account-at-vanguard.html

Bon appetit!

Brian

I doubt I will receive a response, unless they actually decide to sue me. This entire situation is asinine, and I offer my deepest apologies to the owners of the above sites if it actually causes the wrath of Vanguard to come down on you! I just did a quick Google search for their logo and those were the first four that I found.

As for me, I don’t have the resources to fight their legal department, so I’ll delete their image from my server. Eventually. In the meantime, I’ve already opened a Roth IRA at Schwab and will start the account transfer process from Vanguard later tonight. It’s really a shame because I’ve been happy with Vanguard, but I now retract anything nice I’ve ever said about them. Any company that goes to this length to attack individuals for writing a promotional post doesn’t deserve my business, nor anyone else’s.

So, if you have a personal finance blog and you’ve ever used the Vanguard logo as part of a post, watch out! The Vanguard legal department shark is cruising the Web, smelling blood, and will mercilessly attack you if they find you.