If you’re a Circuit City customer, holder of Circuit City gift cards, credit cards, or have store credit — here’s a quick FAQ that will hopefully address some of your questions:

If you have a gift card or store credit:

Use the gift cards, gift certificates, coupons, and store credits as soon as possible. Circuit City should honor them during the going out-of-business sale, which is expected to last through March.

If you have a Circuit City credit card:

The Circuit City credit card is issued and administered by Chase, so don’t expect it to magically disappear. Most likely your Circuit City credit card will be rebranded to a generic Chase card in a future date.  Continue to make payments if you have a balance!

If you want to return an item:

You have only about 14 days left, until January 30th, to return items purchased prior to the going-out-of-business sale.  All sales are final on anything bought after January 16.

If you have a pending mail-in-rebate:

This depends on if the rebate was from the product manufacture or Circuit City.  If the rebate is from a manufacture, you’ll be okay.  Although Circuit City uses a third party to handle its rebate offerings, the rebate processor won’t be able to pay you if Circuit City haven’t paid them.  If you’ve kept your rebate submission form, there should be a phone number or a page online for you to check the status of your rebate.

If you have an extended warranty:

The warranty is serviced by a third party and should still be in full effect to the terms and condition of the warranty purchase.

If you need to contact Circuit City:

Please do it immediately as Circuit City’s website and call centers will cease to operate after January 18, 2009 (Circuit City’s website is current down and it is unknown if it will reopen before January 18).

If you’re interested in going to the liquidation sale:

The going-out-of-business sale will start tomorrow on January 17, and is expected to last until the end of March.  Please be aware that liquidation sales are not exactly a great place to go look for bargain.  Liquidators often mark up prices significantly before marking it “down” to give appearances of steep discount.

This post "Circuit City to Liquidate & Close – Use Gift Cards & Credit ASAP" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

Merry Christmas!  If you don’t celebrate Christmas, happy holidays!  Its been a crazy financial year for everyone, so I hope you’ll get a little R&R before we start the entire wacky ordeal all over again.

photo credit: Dr. Hemmert

This post "Happy Holidays!" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

I know this might sound kind of lame, but when I’m home alone I’m always hesitant to turn on the heater since it feels like a waste to warm up an entire house just for myself.

The heating reluctance can probably be alleviated somewhat if I just get the house insulated better, but better insulation sort of became one of those housing project that always floats off of my mind — until I’m freezing my ass off.

• Top 12 Coupon & Discount Websites – Because Paying Full Price is so 1999
• Should You Tip Less in a Recession? – Alpha Consumer
• Tips to Avoid Becoming a Scam Victim – The Digerati Life
• Mint.com Launches iPhone App – Mint’s blog

This post "Holy Crap! It’s a Roundup – 12/22/08" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

• New Tools for Investing Nerds – Hey what’s this? PortfolioMonkey? Stockalicious? Financial tools that I haven’t heard about? Holy cats.
• Jolly Giveaway from College Money Network – Free stuff. ’nuff said.
• 10 Steps to Escape Paycheck to Paycheck Cycle – Practical tips from No Credit Needed.
• Winners of the 2008 Recession & Credit Crisis – Not all doom & gloom for these guys.
• Use Your Inactive Credit Card Once a Year - Jonathan’s WaMu credit card got killed from inactivity. Would of been a no biggie but it’s the WaMu (previously Providian) credit card that gives you free monthly FICO tracking. Doh!

This week’s financial picture, Fortune Fail from Fail Blog:

This post "Holy Crap! It’s a Roundup – 12/12/08" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

Now you would think that waking up after a 3 day slumber will result in a feeling of well-rested-ness-ish (uh whats the word I’m looking for?), but to be honest I feel pretty crappy — as if I’ve been laying in the same position for hours and days on end. Too weird.

Here are some reads from the blogsphere and beyond that I bookmarked while in my dreamlike robotic state:

• Be wary of high-yielding “CDs” offered by non-bank firms – Marketwatch
• Responding from relatives who wants money – Alpha Consumer
• Finding bargain gift cards – The Smarter Wallet
• Your financial network map – Blueprint for Financial Prosperity

Found on Tip’d financial news portal:

• Citibank rate increases and opt-out notice – CreditAddict post up the notice Citi’s been giving out to many of their customers, letting them know that Citi’s jacking up the interest rates — just in time as a holiday gift. Urgh.
• 8 bad things you’re teaching kids about money – A guest post on MoneyNing covers some of the bad things you might be inadvertently teaching your kid, although a few seems like a stretch.  Then again I’m no parent so what would I know?

Financial quotes from 30 Rock:

• What would this country be if we don’t allow the wealthy people to take advantage of rubes? – Kenneth to Jack

You know what? I bet if I sleep normal hours on my own bed, I’ll wake up well rested, giving me an extra 10% XP bonus as I pwn up raiders, super mutants, and Enclave soldiers.

Uh… ignore that last part.

This post "Holy Crap! It’s a Roundup – 12/01/08" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

• 100 Money Saving Tips for the Holiday Gifting Bonanza
• Do-it-Yourself Christmas – 34 Great Gifts You Can Make Yourself
  

Blogging carnivals:

• 179th Carnival of Personal Finance, Smile Edition – MoneyNing
• 85th Carnival of Money Stories, Myth Edition – Ask Mr. Credit Card Blog

Found on Tip’d:

• Big Three CEOs Flew Private Jets to Plead for Public Funds
• 6 Ways Eating Out Less Has Made Our Family Better

Financial quotes from 30 Rock:

• Next stop, home ownership!  I’m just kidding the middle class is dying, you’ll be renting forever. – Jack Donaghy to Kenneth
• Sometimes to feel like I have company during dinner, I dispute credit card charges on speaker phone. – Liz Lemon

This post "Holy Crap! It’s a Roundup – 11/21/08" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

• A Visual Guide to the Financial Crisis – From Mint’s blog and Wallstats.com
• How to Calculate Blended Interest Rates – Blueprint for Financial Prosperity
• Insider’s Guide to Black Friday - Flexo at Consumerism Commentary for PC World
• Baby Boomers: The Shallowest Generation – Seeking Alpha

Blogging Carnivals:

• 178th Carnival of Personal Finance – The Digerati Life
• 38th Money Hacks Carnival – Taking Charge
• 165th Carnival of Debt Reduction – Greener Pastures
• 30th Review Blogger Carnival - This Full House
• 151th Festival of Frugality – Quest to Be Debt Free

This post "Holy Crap! It’s a Roundup – 11/14/08" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

Regardless of how you feel about the effectiveness of these “stimulus” packages and the current political divisiveness of this country, what will you do with your second stimulus check if you were to receive one?

A quick reminder: please do not budget your finances expecting the second stimulus check.

This post "Second Economic Stimulus Check: What will you do with yours?" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

• How to Get Rid of Junk Mail – From The Wallet @ WSJ
• Reasons to Buy Generic Groceries – Today’s Budget
• A Memorable, Yet Frugal Thanksgiving – Being Frugal
• Can Love Overcome Financial Incompatibility? – MyMoneyBlog.com
• 177th Carnival of Personal Finance – The Sun’s Financial Diary

Finally went and added text justification to the blog’s stylesheet. Whew. Definitely makes the site easier to read…

This post "Holy Crap! It’s a Roundup – 11/07/08" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

Dear blog readers:

I’m going to try and blog a bit more now. Perhaps I’ll set my goals on beating out August’s posting number of three posts in a month. I heard that’s quite manageable.

Yours truly,

Cap

P.S. If you have any tips on crap we should all stop buying, please send them my way.  If your tip blows I may hunt you down and beat you. If your tip is awesome I’ll steal your idea and never credit you.

P.P.S. I’m just kidding, I’ll give due credit.

This post "More Frequent Posting? Yes, Please" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

I won’t attempt to ramble on about a subject that I know little about,  so if you’re interested in contributing and helping, I want to highlight what two people are doing and how you can join them:

Give to Feeding America

Join Nickel at FiveCentNickel as he matches your donations to Feeding America, the nation’s leading charitable hunger-relief organization. For the remainder of the week, Nickel and his family will match your contribution, up to $1,000.

Fund a Loan at Kiva.org

Join HeJustLaughs at Kiva.org and help fund microfinance loans that gives entrepreneurs in developing countries an opportunity to start and run small businesses. HeJustLaughs is a team leader for the “Bloggers” lending team on Kiva.org and has funded over 900 loans just by himself (I believe he was also a reader on this blog).

If you want to learn more about Kiva, you can read more about it from my brief review on Kiva.org. Funding these loans of course isn’t risk free. In fact, two of my loans went into default earlier this year (more on this in future post), but don’t let that dissuade you as the actual default rate on Kiva is a VERY low 1.33%.

Some Thoughts on Giving

In the eyes of a person in real poverty, an event like “Blog Action Day” may just seem like a massive circle jerk for people with more comfortable standings in life. I’m not trying to belittle the event as initiatives like these can make real tangible impacts, and it is always a good thing to bring important topics such as poverty into discussion, as it can keep those of us with the means in perspective.

My point is that giving is a very personal thing. Many of us give in the form of time, some in the form of money, and in many instances, some of us give back to society via their very jobs. We all have our own causes, organizations that we believe in and we all have our own families to take care of. It is perfectly acceptable to simply read and be aware of these issues. That’s the point of these events after all, to raise awareness and keep all of our perspectives in check.

This post "Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty – Two Things You Can Do" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

First thing’s first: all depositors will have access to their cash come this Friday morning. The bank isn’t going to suddenly disappear overnight, so if you’re concerned about your savings, checkings, and what have you — you’re fine (only ones getting screwed are holders of 30+ bil in debt and preferred stocks).

The rebranding of the numerous WaMu branches and credit card accounts should occur over a span of two years, so it looks like I just got myself another Chase credit card.

(Providian > WaMu > Chase > hey what’s next?)

The news of course broke last night, but instead of linking you to numerous news report written by various media which tends to make things more confusing… here’s the full 411 from Chase themselves:

 
Frequently Asked Questions:

Q. What will happen to my account at WaMu? And to my branch?
A. It’s business as usual. As of September 25, 2008, JPMorgan Chase has assumed the deposit and loan accounts, and all branches, of Washington Mutual. You can continue to access your accounts just the way you’ve accessed them in the past: use your same branch, same debit, credit and ATM cards, same checks.

Q. Is my money safe?
A. Yes; in addition to FDIC insurance, now you’re assured your bank is backed by the strength and security of JPMorgan Chase. If you have money in both banks, your deposits have separate FDIC insurance for up to six months. Come see us and we can help you review your coverage.

Q. What if I have more than $100,000 at WaMu?
A. Your money is secure and now protected by the strength of Chase. Chase assumed all deposits of Washington Mutual.

Q. When can I bank at Chase branches in my area?
A. We’ll be working hard to combine systems as quickly as possible so you can begin to enjoy expanded branch convenience in your area, and we expect system changes to begin late next year. We’ll let you know in advance of any changes; in the meantime, simply continue to bank at WaMu branches as you do today.

Q. Do my direct deposit, automated payments and transfers remain the same?
A. Yes. These services all continue for you without interruption or action on your part.

Q. Where do I send my credit card and loan payments?
A. There is no change in how or where you make payments; payment instructions and addresses remain unchanged.

Q. I have a Chase credit card, car loan, and mortgage. Can I make payments at a WaMu branch now?
A. Not yet! We’ll let you know when you can make Chase credit card, car loan, mortgage or other loan payments at WaMu branches, or vice versa.

Q. I have deposit accounts at both WaMu and Chase. Are both of my accounts insured?
A. Yes! Your deposits are insured separately today just as they were yesterday, and generally will be for another six months. At that time, your deposits will be insured by the FDIC for up to $100,000 per depositor (with an additional $250,000 for self-directed retirement accounts), and will continue to be backed by the strength and security of JPMorgan Chase.

Q. I’m a small business owner. What will change for my business?
A. Immediately, no change at all – bank just as you do today. As our systems merge, we look forward to bringing you innovative services ranging from online invoicing to convenient ways to help you manage your cash flow. Chase is a national leader in business banking services, and is the nation’s #1 SBA lender.

Q. I have a relationship with the WaMu Commercial Group. What will change for my business?
A. Immediately, no change at all – work with the Commercial Group just as you do today. As our systems merge, we look forward to bringing you innovative services. Chase is a national leader in commercial lending and cash management solutions.

From [WaMu Customers, Welcome to JPMorgan Chase!]

This post "JPMorgan Chase Chase Acquires WaMu, Now What?" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

Here are some blogs worthy of your RSS reader, pick and subscribe at your choosing:

• Erin Doland from Uncluttered.com, a blog about getting and staying organized. Emailing link to sister ASAP.
• Kim O’Donnel at A Mighty Appetite, a cooking blog filled with yummy recipes. Also emailing link to sister.
• Edgar Dworsky of Consumer Worlds, who also blogs at Mouse Print, a blog exposing the nasty catches buried in the fine prints.
• Zac Bissonnette, writer and editor at BloggingStocks and WalletPop. One of the other personal finance blogger at the conference. He was alright. (Just kidding he’s cool).
• Leslie Price, editor at Racked.com, a witty NYC retail and shopping blog. From the blog’s words: “If they’ll take your money, we’ll tell you about it.”
• The gang from Consumerist.com, where shoppers bites back and gives the middle finger to crappy businesses. Most likely already on your blog reader, and if it isn’t, it should be.
• Although I didn’t get to meet the blog editors, Consumer Reports also have a daily posting Money and Shopping blog that you may be interested in checking out.

And finally, here’s a picture of a T. rex from the American Museum of Natural History:

This post "Blogs Worthy of Your RSS Reader" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

Here’s some recent reads that may interest you:

• Old Habits Sure Do Die Hard from Gather Little by Little
• How to Calculate Taxes from All Financial Matters
• Seven Wonders of Personal Finance from Blueprint for Financial Prosperity
• and just this morning, Thoughts on Marketing to Children at Get Rich Slowly.

This post "Combating Rumor of Demise w/ Links" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

• Here’s a basic guide from the Mint blog, so you can protect your privacy on social networking websites.

Been meaning to link to two cool blog post from the blogsphere, worthwhile for your bookmarking:

• 116 Essential Finance Resources from Savings Explained
• 110 Personal Finance Calculators from Millionaire Mommy Next Door

This post "Curbing Online Stalkers + List-O-Rama" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

I have never stolen money before.

Mainly because I never had the opportunity to do so… I mean, if the cash was right in front of me —

Alright, just kidding.

For whatever reason (probably parental teachings), I’ve never thought about stealing money, let alone committing the act. It’s weird too, because I personally know some people who have stolen items that have monetary value, but they’ll never take cold hard cash from someone. For whatever reason, the act of stealing money is a lot different than say… five-finger discount on some stupid CD at Target.

Hmm.

This post "Around the blogsphere + have you stolen money before?" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

Wrote a post on the total cost of an iPhone, Pet, Car, and “Other Things” (other things being your kid and your house) on the Mint Blog.

I thought about going pretty analytical with the numbers, pouring over the usual stuff like opportunity cost, if you had saved the money and invest it at blah blah instead, you’ll get four gazillion dollar from forgoing your latte. Or something like that.

But then I went ahead and just sort of preached my opinion on personal finance — depsite the site name, it’s okay to spend money (responsibly)! Read the post to find out more.

I’ve also hosted the 109th Carnival of Personal Finance. And boy… that took a longer time to put together than I thought. All I really did was organize links, write/edit brief descrption for some of the submissions… and it took almost 7 hours? I now have a new-found appreciation for past carnival host, and will never do it again.

Now that I think about it… it probably took awhile because I had to pour through all the entry to find their first post. It was a pretty good idea, till I was three hours into it looking up stuff.

I probably shouldn’t mention this, but next week will be the return of the Stop Buying Crap series. Care to take a guess on what Stop Buying Crap #20 will be?

This post "The Total Cost of an iPhone, Pet, Car, and Other Things" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

If you have a personal finance blog, or have written a topic on personal finance in the recent two weeks and are interested in participating, check out the submission guideline and then submit your article before 6:00 PM Eastern Time on Sunday.

Quick note: Since the two years I’ve started this personal finance blog, I have never hosted a carnival before. So this one is either going to be very cool — or a drool. We’ll find out on Monday!

This post "Submissions for the 109th Carnival of Personal Finance" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

I guess they’re not really free, as they’re all funded by our tax dollar. Categories include basic personal finance, consumer awareness, credit & credit cards, saving & investing, mortgages, retirement planning, estate planning & insurance, and finally privacy & security.

Click the image above to check out the books. You might as well — seeing as how we’re paying for them already. Yay!

This post "30 Free e-Books to Learn Everything About Your Money" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

There’s a pretty spiffy article from Power Wealth, which presents a 3-Step program to get-poor-quick. Do exactly the opposite and you’ll be set!

This post "Carnival of Personal Finance Epic Edition!" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.