So I just got off the phone with American Express and got my Blue converted to the Blue Cash.  Although I was routed to an oversea call center, the total call time including wait time was a relatively short 6 minutes and 23 seconds.  Not too shabby.

After the painless customer service call center experience, I realized that the experience I just received was rather rare and uncommon.  Most calls to custom service call centers are plagued with incredibly long wait time with a mix of service reps who can’t help, won’t escalate your problem, or can’t resolve the issue you’re calling about within one phone call.

Here are three financial companies that I don’t dread calling:

1. American Express

I’m not sure if I’m just lucky or if American Express customer service personnel are just a cut above the rest, but I’ve consistently received top notch service from each of the time I called American Express.  In fact, just two years ago when my friends and I went to Hawaii and had questions regarding the car rental collision service coverage benefits, a friendly rep spent the lengthy time on the phone with us, going through the card benefit and breaking down the pros and cons for us.

This isn’t to say that American Express is a perfect company, as with any such large corporation, I’m quite sure there was instances where customers have received bad customer service, but overall I’ve received great service and thus American Express easily made this short list.

2. TradeKing

TradeKing, the discount broker that consistently received high marks for customer service and satisfaction, is one of the company I’d have no trouble calling.  Whether its the online chat service or a call to their customer service line (1-877-495-5464), TradeKing was always available to provide me with friendly and timely customer service.  This probably reads like a gigantic corny customer service testimonial, but it honestly is nice to be able to not dread calling a customer service phone line.

3. ING Direct

From the first time I forgot my customer login number to the few times I’ve had trouble with my account, ING Direct phone reps were always able to help me.  This is a reason why I continue to have my account and a relationship with the online bank, despite the fact that their savings APY rate is not as competitive to their competitors.  When it comes to high-yield savings account, I’d always refer first-timers to ING Direct, as their speedy service and transfer makes ING Direct an ideal recommendation for online banking novices.

Got other companies (even non-financial ones) that you don’t dread calling?  Got ones that you hate to the very bone of your being?  I personally hate calling T-Mobile and Time Warner.  Feel free to praise or rant with me.

Ah, the holiday traveling seasons.  The time where we all begrudgingly pack up our suitcases and visit family and friends who for whatever reason doesn’t want to live anywhere near us.

I wouldn’t classify myself as a frequent flyer, but after flying over 20,000 miles this year alone, I do take certain steps to ensure that my flights are as painless and trouble-free as possible.

Here are a couple tips on how you too, can be a travel superstar:

1. Use price comparison engines to find the best prices.

Search sites like Kayak.com makes looking for flight fairly easy.  The great thing about kayak is its ability to let you further refine and filter your results – from early morning flights to the midnight dash to the airport, you can pick and choose base on your traveling preferences.  Tweak the near-by airports and find the cheapest option for your location region.

2. Pack and travel as light as possible.

If it’s not a long trip (shorter than a week), I would do my best to fit everything I need in a carry-on luggage (duffel bag, small suitcase, whatever).   Although I do understand why we sometime over pack — after all, it’s safer to have everything you need than to be sorry — traveling with excessive luggage is never fun.  The time you’d save in avoiding checking in luggage can sometimes be priceless.

3. Map out and inform yourself on the layout of the terminals and airport ahead of time.

It’s the age of the Internet and almost every major airport (and smaller regional airports) will have a website fully detailing the terminals and parking locations.  Efficient airports generally have great layouts and directories.  The main thing you should always look for when you check an airport’s website is which terminal your airline is located at, and where the gate is within the perspective terminal.

Knowing where you need to go ahead of time may sound like common sense, but if you’ve ever seen the group of people wandering around the airport – only to realize that their gate and terminal is on the other side of the airport — then you know how time consuming it can be when you’re ill prepared.

4. Check TSA website for security check point wait time.

This is actually a pretty handy site from our stellar transportation security government agency.  The TSA wait times page lets you check out the security line wait time ahead of time before you head to the airport.  Just pick your airport, traveling day, terminal, and flight hours and the TSA website will spit out historical data on the length of wait time for each terminal’s perspective security check point.

Of course the data can’t always be perfect or accurate, but from my experience, wait times listed are fairly accurate within +/- ten minutes.   Once you know how long the potential wait time could be, you can better plan when you should arrive at the airport (I personally hate waiting an excessively long time just to board my plane).

5. Use online check-in and SeatGuru to choose better seating.

Most websites will have the ability for you to print out a boarding pass from home.  If you travel light and won’t be checking in any luggage, you can simply print a boarding pass and head straight to the security check-in lines.

Using Seatguru.com ahead of time to pick a seat of your preference.  Although for many flights the choices are all the same for specific class of seating — with Seatguru, you can at least know the seats you should try to avoid (ones near bathroom, ones that don’t recline, one’s that are near gallery etc.).  An added benefit of checking in online is the option to choose better seating when a flight isn’t full.  Why sit upfront where it’s packed to the brink when you can leisurely sit in the back of the plane with 2-3 seats to yourself?

6. Familiarize yourself with TSA rules and procedures.

No matter what you think of their efficiency or viability, TSA security lines are here to stay.  As each airport better adjust their security lines, the wait and hassles are becoming less frequent.  Still, not everyone flies regularly and you can always spot an infrequent travelers easily as you’re slouching through the security line. The TSA website has a great breakdown of what you should be aware of, but here are a few simple tips:

• Make life easier and use the 3-1-1 method. 3 ounce or smaller liquids in 1 quart-size plastic container bag, with 1 bag per traveler.
• Have your laptops out and ready to put into the container bins for the X-ray machine. One laptop per container and be sure that you don’t put anything else in the container.
• Have your jackets, belts, and shoes in another container.  Depending on the size of your carry-on bag, you may or may not need a container bin for it.
• Use the smaller white round container bin for your smaller gadgets and accessories: watches, cell phones, keys, and wallets.

Once you’re through the metal detector, grab your belongings from the X-Ray machine and move along to the designated area to put on your shoes, belt, and repack any necessary belongings.  Most security lines at the terminals will have a wider, open area for passengers to gather their belongings.  Don’t clutter at the X-Ray machine just to slowly put away your belongings and accessories!

7. Don’t be in a rush to board the plane.

If you’re at the gate already, the plane’s not going to leave without you. I’m usually one of the last few people to board a flight.  Why rush when you’ll just be standing in the aisle waiting for people to sit themselves or store their carry-ons in the overhead compartments?  Because I pack light and travel light, I’m generally not too concern about not having an overhead storage space available to me.

If you used the previous tip and checked in online, you’ll be able to see if a flight is full or not and decided if you want to duke it out for a storage space (since having your carry-on thrown to the cargo bay can be quite a hassle).

So there you have it.  Seven tips from yours truly, typed up through the short hour flight from SFO to LGB.  Got your own smashing tip?  Share your tips or I’ll brand you as a selfish reader.  Or not.  Or will. Whatever.  Cap out.

photo credit: geekmojo, Jaako, and alist

If you’re a WaMu credit card customer but don’t have a WaMu checking account, you may be seeing the above mailer in your mail box.

A pretty decent deal that I’ll personally hop on too.  Deposit $100 into a free checking account and get $100 bonus?  Regardless of tax on the bonus, it’s a no-brainer deal  (the offer is unfortunately only available to people that have received the mailer).

WaMu’s free checking looks to be pretty solid.  The account has no minimum balance or direct deposit requirements.  Three noteworthy features:

• Free checks for life if you choose the basic check image option.
• Free overdraft or non-sufficient fund fee refund — one use per year.
• Free outgoing wire-transfer worldwide (a $20 to $60 savings per transfer, depending on where you bank).

The promotional details are straight forward enough: Open a WaMu free checking between 11/24/08 and 01/24/09 with a $100 minimum opening deposit of new money (money not currently held by Chase or its affiliates).  Bonus will be deposited into account within 12 weeks after account opening.  No hard credit pull for opening the checking account.

Update:

If you want to try for the promotion without the mailer offer, try calling 1-800-685-1644 and tell them the promotional code you have doesn’t work.  This is true enough as those receiving the mailer or flyer in newspaper in select regions are reporting that the promotional code included doesn’t work online. Current reported regions receiving the promotion are Northern and Southern California and select parts in Washington.

I think I’ve reached a new status in being a denizen of the web — I’ll be heading up north to the Bay Area for a few days, and a fellow blogger, SVB of The Digerati Life, has been gracious enough to let me crash at her place.

I’m sure her kids will love this abrupt visit from an online stranger.  I’ve been told by my mom that I’m super awesome and good with kids, so everything should be super spiffy.

This reminds me of the trip I took last year when I went to Houston via Amtrak (for kicks and giggles). While waiting at the barren Houston Amtrak station for my friend to pick me up, I started up a conversation with a family waiting for a cab.

“So is this your first time in Houston?” asked the nice lady with two boys and one girl.

“Oh no, I’ve been here before when I visited family.”

“Oh so you’re visiting your family again?”

“Actually no, I’m visiting my friend.” I told her nonchalantly, “I hope I can recognize her.”

“That’s very sweet of you. Has it been awhile since you guys have hung out?”

“Um… actually I’ve never met her before.  She’s a friend that I met from the Internet.” I told the nice lady as she noticeably shifted one of her kid away from me.

Momentarily of silence later…

“Oh don’t worry. I’ve talked to her for years — on the phone too.  I’m fairly sure she’s real and I won’t be robbed or murdered.”

Still some moments of silence…

“And it’s not what you think.  This isn’t one of those visit.”  I continued, “I’m staying at her boyfriend’s house, who was kind enough to offer me a night in his spare bedroom.”

“What was that?” I asked, “Oh, um… no, I’ve never met him before too…”

Sign of the times, I guess.  A few years ago, I wouldn’t have imagined myself making friends or working with people online.  Now I’m seeking lodging from fellow bloggers.

Zomg! Welcome to the 21st century?  Still not brave enough for CouchSurfing.com though.

You know all those generic personal finance advice about how you should just invest in index funds and not bother with individual stocks?

Yeah well, I guess they were onto something.  Here’s a snapshot from the current stock holdings in my TradeKing account:

Hey sweet. The holdings are only down 69.29%.  I believe a month ago it was down 78%, in which case the title for this post would have been “19,711 Reasons Not to Buy Individual Stocks.”

These are of course unrealized losses.  I don’t expect to sell any of these three holdings anytime soon, nor do I expect them to recover within any short time frame.

I’m fairly confident about two of the company above.  One’s a telecommunication company paying out a steady dividend (knock on wood)… and the other is in the semiconductor industry and has enough cash to weather the storm (hell, with current prices, it has 41% of its market capitalization in cash).

There’s only one holding that I’m iffy about and that company is in the buildings material industry.  That description alone should be self explanatory. Heh.  The company did however receive additional funding from one of its major institutional investor, but whether or not those fundings can get the company through hard times is another story.

Despite the fact that I’m still fairly young and will most likely be able to ride all of this out, there were a few moments a month ago when I realized I was reaching my risk tolerance levels. Let me tell you something, that was a very fun experience (if you consider feeling scared and anxious fun, then yeah it was super fun).

So yeah. Don’t buy individual stocks unless you can do the proper homework and tolerate the risk involved.  I would plainly suggest against investing in individual stocks on the whole, but you know… hard to give that suggestion when I don’t follow it myself.  Hah!

P.S. These individual stock holdings are of course not the majority of my investment, or else I’ll be freaking out and crying (a lot more anyway).  Most of my other long term investments are in my retirement accounts, and they’re happily down only about 30-40%. Haha. Good times.

According to a poll result from readers over two years ago, AAA membership is not crap — and that’s true enough for many people, as the occasional use of the roadside service provided by AAA makes the annual membership fees well worth it.

But alas, I decided recently to not renew my AAA membership.

Below are some reasons why I decided to cancel my AAA membership, and five reasons why you might want to do just the same:

1. You Might Not Need Their Roadside Services

The main reason why most people join AAA is for the roadside service — and it’s a service that I haven’t utilize in years. My car is fairly reliable, it has never broken down seriously to the point where it needed a tow, and for me, the towing is the only cost saving feature of a AAA membership.

Some of the other roadside services are of course handy, but none of which are things you might actually need.  The last time I got a flat tire was about three years ago, and as I was putting the tools and the flat tire back into my trunk, I remembered at the last minute that I had AAA membership.

Dead battery?  Unlikely to be an issue if you inspect and check your battery regularly.  With proper maintenance, an average car battery last 4-5 years.  In fact, a car battery is actually one of the more reliable parts in an automobile.

Locking yourself out of the car?  If your car doesn’t automatically lock its doors (like my econobox) and you have certain types of key-less entry, this is also a an unlikely scenario.

2. AAA Discounts Can Be Easily Beat Online

AAA travel and related discounts are nice, but it has been years since I’ve seen a discount that couldn’t be beat by other online travel comparison sites, cash rebate sites, or whatever coupon code and promotion that I can find on the web at the time.  Here are a few sites that I use regularly to look for quick travel related discounts:

• Kayak.com – Travel price comparison search engine.
• Fatwallet.com – For those last minute deals, cash backs, and coupons.
• Retailmenot.com – For quick search on current coupons and promotions.

3. Alternatives to Other AAA Goodies & Travel Services

What about goodies such as free maps and tailored travel services?  Again, these are things that you have alternative sources for.  I still like AAA’s free maps and would love to keep grabbing them if I ever go on a road trip, but more often than not, I would already have a trip mapped out via various online maps before I head out.

If I still need a map, there’s always Google Map via my phone and the loads of paper maps I’ve accumulated through the years that can be found in the closet.

Travel guide books? There’s the library. Travel services? With the web at your fingertips, everyone’s an expert travel agent if they have enough time to do the proper web research.

4. Overlapping Roadside Services

Don’t forget that many car insurance plans offer an option for you to add-on roadside service at a minimal cost, and many times this will be cheaper than a yearly AAA membership.  Most of these add-on gets you a free tow once per year, provides you with the usual roadside services, and usually covers everyone on the insurance plan.  I checked with my insurance company but unfortunately it didn’t offer this add-on option. Bleh.

Some select credit cards will also offer free roadside service or discounted roadside service options.  Most Visa Signature or World MasterCard credit cards should have this benefit available.  Your best bet is to dig out your benefits terms and condition to read the details, and write down the roadside service numbers for those potential future mishaps.

5. Renew Only When You Need It

At the end, it’s a given that for many people, an AAA membership is for that peace of mind and those unexpected moments. AAA can be well worth it for many people, it just isn’t worth it for me anymore.

Will I need a tow sometime in the future?  Most likely.  Will it be once every year?  I highly doubt it.

Here’s what I figured:  Why pay a yearly membership fee in anticipation for a needed towing service?  If you ever need a tow, just call AAA on the phone and renew or activate a new membership on the spot — you’ll get immediate towing service!

Sure, there’s a $20 membership processing fee on top of whatever it cost for AAA in your region, but that’s usually close enough in prices to local tow services anyway.  Seems practical enough of a solution especially if you don’t need the other AAA services and you’re just renewing the membership for those (potentially rare) moments when you need a tow.