Category Archives: personal finance

Favorite things, day 6: First Republic

Posted on December 16, 2019 by Rakesh Agrawal

I had somehow left my card in Hong Kong and was on my way to Zimbabwe. ATMs are common, but few businesses take credit cards. So I needed cash. I emailed by banker and she offered a couple of options. … Continue reading →

Posted in banks, favorite things, personal finance, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Favorite things, day 6: First Republic

What would you do with $600?

Posted on January 28, 2008 by Rakesh Agrawal

That question seems to be on a lot of people’s minds these days, thanks to the newly announced $150 billion stimulus package. “I would like my check and I think everybody else feels the same way,” said David Wyss Chief … Continue reading →

Posted in marketing, personal finance | 1 Comment

Never take the first offer

Posted on June 22, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I needed to cancel one of my credit cards. I rarely use the card and didn’t want to pay the $75 annual fee. I called Citi to cancel. Of course this is never an easy process. They transfered me to … Continue reading →

Posted in customer service, personal finance | Comments Off on Never take the first offer

Xeroxing your identity

Posted on March 14, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Computerworld has a story on the threat that the new generation of copiers poses to your identity. We’ve got a fancy copier at the office that I use when submitting expenses. Instead of making copies, it will scan the receipts … Continue reading →

Posted in personal finance, privacy | Comments Off on Xeroxing your identity

Touch-and-go credit card payments

Posted on March 3, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

The AOL cafeterias recently added the PayPass credit card readers. Instead of handing your card to the cashier or sliding the magnetic stripe through a reader, the terminals allow you to just touch your credit card against the reader. The … Continue reading →

Posted in personal finance | 8 Comments

Custom pictures come to credit cards

Posted on January 24, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

You can do a lot of things with your pictures these days – turn them into notecards, magnets, calendars, mugs, puzzles, stamps, T-shirts. With all the gimmicks credit card companies use to try to get you to pick their plastic … Continue reading →

Posted in personal finance | 1 Comment

Fare Guard – a (bad) option on low airfares

Posted on January 22, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Farecast is one of my favorite sites for checking out airfares. It’s a data junkie’s dream – Farecast does for airfares what Zillow does for real estate data. You can slice and dice airfare data in a number of different … Continue reading →

Posted in airlines, personal finance, travel | 3 Comments

Gimme my money: remaking the ATM to get you cash faster

Posted on November 14, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

Google’s blog today talks about World Usability Day. One of the examples they cite is ATM design. Bank of America has run a series of commercials talking about how their advanced ATMs will be able to count cash deposits and … Continue reading →

Posted in personal finance | 1 Comment

When free costs $687.50

Posted on October 14, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

Bank of America made headlines this week when it announced that it was offering free equity trades for customers who put $25,000 in deposit accounts. Customers in the Northeast who put $25,000 in to such accounts get up to 30 … Continue reading →

Posted in media, newspapers, personal finance | Comments Off on When free costs $687.50