Want that bank fee waived? Then ask

The ATM receipt I held gave me a sickening feeling. A negative sign showed next to the balance amount.

M’s and my checking account was overdrawn, and I knew exactly why. I’d forgotten to deposit a check I had put in my wallet earlier in the week, which was why I had gone to the ATM in the first place.

The good news is that I didn’t have to pay an overdraft fee, and not because Commerce Bank didn’t charge one (a nice, hefty $35). In fact, it was because I asked them not to.

A benefit of competition
You might be surprised to know that fees at banks, credit card companies, and other financial institutions are often negotiable. Many times—but not every time—you can avoid paying a charge that’s been levied on you for whatever reason simply by contacting the company and asking them to waive it.

Over the years I’ve saved by having the annual fee on my credit card waived, as well as charges for making a payment by phone (when I’ve been a little late mailing the check). Buying my first house, my father encouraged me to push the mortgage companies competing for my business to remove the many extraneous charges ($35 for courier services, $25 for faxing paperwork, etc.) that they like to tack on to provide the loan. Not every company waived every fee, but some did.

The reason financial companies are willing to let you keep your money? Competition. Losing your business to another bank or credit card company costs them much more than losing the revenue from a one-time $20 or $30 fee. Besides, for every person who asks to have a charge removed, there are many more who simply pay it, no questions asked.

Good financial habits help
That said, financial companies are only willing to go so far. If you make a habit of bouncing checks or paying your credit card late, you have little chance of avoiding the resulting penalty charges, no matter how nicely you ask.

In the years M and I have been customers at Commerce, I can’t recall being overdrawn any other time. We also were never late with a payment on M’s car loan, which they financed, and paid it off several months in advance. So the tedious chores associated with being a good financial steward—balancing the checking account, tracking where our money goes—do have their rewards.

Still, being temporarily overdrawn has shown me that I keep the cash level of our checking account lower than I should. I don’t like the idea of keeping a hundred or so “extra” dollars in the account—money that isn’t accounted for in M’s and my monthly spending plan—where it can be easily tapped. But it’s probably better than relying on my memory to make sure I always make our deposits on time.

Charged up about the cost of a cell phone battery

I've been debating getting rid of M and my cell phones. Buying a cell phone battery has pushed me a little closer to hitting "End Call" permanently.

I've had my LG VX3300 cell phone for about 15 months--not that long, in my estimation. I use it only moderately; I rarely go over the minutes in my service plan and I turn it off when I'm at work. So the fact that the factory model battery recently stopped holding its charge for any length of time was annoying enough.

Then I went to my friendly local Verizon accessory dealer for a replacement. The pricetag: an appalling $49. More than twice as much as I expected. As M pointed out after I got back, "For that, you could have gotten a whole new phone."

I want what I want
Yes, I could have. But I didn't want a new phone. My phone serves my purposes well enough. I don't need a cameraphone, a webphone, or a phone with the ability to answer e-mail.

And I definitely don't want a new cell phone plan, which cheap new phones often come with. I can't wait for our current two-year contract to run out so we can unload it from our monthly budget. I'd rather put $82 toward CJ Jr's college fund--which we've temporarily stopped contributing to, since we went to one income--than give it to Verizon.

I've considered paying the cancellation fee. Dishing out the $150 for each of our two phones is less than half than amount we'll pay ($738) for the next nine months to finish out the contract. But I just can't stomach putting out that kind of money for absolutely nothing.

Two big errors
I do shoulder some of the blame for my battery "overcharge." I didn't shop around beforehand, as I normally do. Afterwards I found one online for half the price.

I also took CJ Jr. with me on my little errand. I may have been more inclined to go to a couple different places, or even ask the Verizon guy about other options, if I had been able to keep both eyes on the cash register instead of one eye on CJ.

Now M and I have to revisit our January spending plan and figure out where that extra $30 or so will come from. That may not sound like much, but it eats up a little chunk of our expected household expenses for the month, which we try to keep as fixed as possible.

Besides, I just wanted a battery, at a reasonable price. Is that too much to ask?

Time to shop for a van

The CJ family is growing. M and I have just found out she’s pregnant, God bless, due in late summer.

While we still have to get through that crucial first trimester—as M cautions, she is 39, which means a greater chance of complications—I’m throwing caution to the wind and proceeding full-speed ahead to prepare for the new arrival. So this weekend I’ll start shopping for a minivan to replace M’s 2002 Honda Civic.

A new experience
I bought my last car, the slightly used 1998 Sentra I drive to this day, eight years ago. Back then I traded in my 1988 Ford Festiva, took out a five-year loan, and made all 60 payments.

This time, I’ll be putting some of the personal finance wisdom I’ve learned to the test. I’ll be selling M’s car privately instead of trading it in. I’ll be looking for a vehicle around three to five years old and between 75,000 and 100,000 miles on it, instead of just slightly used. And I’ll be paying cash instead of carrying around a car loan for half a decade of my life.

Private sale means more cash
The advantages of this approach: First, by selling M’s car privately, I should be able to get more money for it than I would as a trade-in. According to Kelley Blue Book, a good condition Civic like M's sells privately in my area for about $9,400, nearly $1,400 more than its trade-in value. It’s also paid off, so every dollar we get for it goes to us.

Sure, showing the car to buyers will probably be a hassle and it may cost a few bucks to run some ads. But will the time and money be worth another $1,400 that we can apply to the van purchase? I think so. We’ll see.

Used doesn’t mean unreliable
Second, we can in no way afford a brand new Honda Odyssey—the van M prefers—which currently has a minimum pricetag of $26,000. Even if we could, I’d have a hard time shelling out that kind of money for something that will likely worth about half that amount in a couple years.

A high-mileage Odyssey is still relatively pricey—around $9,000 to $12,000—but much of that cost should be covered by the sale of M’s Civic. And while we do run the risk of buying something with unforeseen mechanical problems, Honda and Odysseys have a great reputation for reliability. I also plan to check certified pre-owned vehicles first to see if they are in our price range.

In the end, I expect we’ll pay an additional $2,000 to $4,000 for the luxury of not having to hear my teenage stepdaughter complain about being wedged between two carseats. That’s family peace at an affordable price.

No borrowing costs, less risk
Lastly, I’m looking forward to telling a car salesperson that I want to pay by check instead of taking out a loan. Financing mostly benefits the dealer, since loans are often where auto retailers make their biggest profits.

For buyers, however, a new car’s value drops like an anvil in its first couple years on the road. Used car values still lose ground each year, though not as quickly. Having a car loan is like borrowing money to buy a stock you know is going to lose money. It doesn’t really make sense.

Plus, say M and I hit dire financial straits down the road and had to sell the van. We may owe more on it than we can sell it for—what’s known as being “upside down” in a loan. That would likely make our tough money situation only slightly better.

Paying cash might mean a dealer and salesperson are less willing to negotiate on a van’s price, since that’s where their only profits will come from. But I’m willing to take that chance. Last I checked, there were lots of used Odysseys for sale in my area.