I froze my credit a long time ago—all 5 bureaus. I only unfreeze temporarily as needed and every time I’ve done so, my score is 800+, but good point.
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My guess is it goes down if you’ve made a big purchase, bc you’ve used more of your available credit, but that’s just a guess.
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Yep. I had to print out and fax about 50 pages to my insurance company and did it all self serve. I don’t know if there is a way they are counting the pages off my library card number (you have to put that in) but I don’t think so. If they are, I could have gone back the next day. I was thinking I’d have to go to a copy place and pay to print the copies from my computer and then pay to fax, but it was all free at my local library!
Our library is amazing. They have free tickets to some museums around town. They have free start park passes to borrow. A friend’s son just got engaged and they are looking at using a library as a venue.
They have games, puzzles, some equipment to loan. There is no charge for past due items but they may suspend your borrowing privileges until you clear it up. You can return a book to any library in the state and they’ll get it back to the place it belongs. Free meeting rooms (and some are NICE). A friend printed the tshirts for a bachelorette party at the library.
At my closest branch, the parking is not great. That’s my complaint, but there is street parking and there is a shopping center across the street if necessary.
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One reason it can vary is if you have a balance of more than 33-50% of the credit line on the day they ‘pull’ the balance. That’s not necessarily the billing date or the due date. For example, I only have a $500 credit limit on my Amazon Prime account. If I charge $200 or so, I try to pay that right away as I don’t want to be at close to 50%. On other cards where I have a $25k limit, I don’t care what the balance is as I’m NEVER getting close to that 50%. Overall, my cards aren’t close to 50% usage, but on the one card it could be.
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Regarding library services: so often you hear people say “your tax dollars at work” sarcastically or ironically. So glad to hear an example of a positive spin on that!
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I’ve been a big fan of libraries for years. denver has a big one downtown (which has a homeless problem) but mostly neighborhood libraries that are pretty small so often have to order the books in for you. And they do it. They run programs for teens that are popular.
I saw a piece on the news about a library in Maine that lends all kinds of things - sewing machines, garden tools, Kitchenaid mixers. Most of the equipment was donated, someone keeps it tuned up, and everyone seems to like it.
I like being at the library when the little kids come in. They are often wearing costumes for the reading hour. There are snacks for them. I know a lot of seniors go to my branch to read the daily papers.
This summer they were repairing the bridge between my house and the library and I didn’t go at all because I had to ‘go around’ and I just didn’t think about it. Have to get back in the habit.
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Our library (north of Denver) has a loan closet of non-book items…. “Library of Things”. Tools, household items etc. (I once offered to donate an item I was getting rid of, but they have to have at least two identical of each loan item)
We have friends who borrowed an air monitor for radon testing.
Example list from Hobbies category
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Binoculars
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Crochet Kit
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Knitting Kit
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Metal Detector
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Sewing Machine
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Telescope Kit
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Trekking Poles
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Ukulele Kit
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Less than 3 weeks since I was gushing over our library I’m taking it all back! It’s not the library’s fault but the city of Denver. They are closing not one, not two, but three neighborhood libraries in my area of town (and one other one a little farther away) for remodeling for 18 months to 2 years! WHY all three of the closest libraries to me at the same time, and shouldn’t it be faster than 2 years to remodel? It’s not like these haven’t been remodeled for 20 years. In fact, during covid the one closest to me had a lot of outside work done (drainage, parking, landscaping), and they’ve all been updated for computers. They are modern, without peeling paint or bad carpet.
There is one smaller library that I used to go to when my kids were in grade school because it was on the way home from school, but that will now be packed and it’s not that big.
This is because we voted for bonds to make updates. BUT TWO YEARS? They could tear them down and rebuild in 6 months. Oh, and guess how I’m voting on the request for more debt to improve, yes, LIBRARIES, in the Nov 4th election? And for more bike lanes? Not a chance.
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That makes no sense. Better to have shorter renovation periods, staggered across branches.
During Covid our big library (we don’t have any small ones - that bond issue was voted down) was fortunate enough that the timing allowed them to do a huge and necessary project. I think it was some kind of floor stabilization, required removing all the books, carpet etc. But there was a long period before we moved here (1993) where they had to close the old library while the new one was still being built.
They are doing it to annoy me.
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Has anyone happened to use the dental plan recommended by Suze Orman? I have to either select or opt out of my company’s dental plan by Friday.
Despite having otherwise great health insurance, the dental coverage has been a pittance. A friend recommended this - curious if anyone else has tried it? I have very cavity-prone teeth so must do all the (costly) things…
I wish I had known about this before. This year alone, I’ve had about $25,000 in dental expenses. You read that right. I’ve got my “Golden Gate Bridge” of ten teeth. The insurance I have kindly covered $2,000 of it. What a deal.
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Yes, unfortunately dental benefits are notoriously limited. Most of us hope that they’re going to be like other medical insurance but they are not. Typically a benefit package will max out at $2000-$3500. We had a fabulous Dental plan through my husband‘s employer that paid 100% of the allowable of my crowns(that was a minor miracle) but the maximum benefit for the year was $3500. I happened to have a bunch of crown work done this year and guess what that $3500 did not last very long. Now that we are on Medicare because he retired, I have a private dental plan which I don’t expect to cover very much since I just recently had to have a root canal. But my dentist is in network with this plan so at least for his portion of the work I will get the in network rates hopefully
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We have been pretty fortunate with decent teeth but our medical plan provides SOME dental coverage with no cap, so the kids got their wisdom extractions and we had crowns in same year. I think they pay like 30% of negotiated rate or so, but hey it’s something.
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Dental insurance is not like other insurance. It is a pot of money (premiums) that pay out until the money is gone. Most don’t run out of money but they could.
The medicare advantage plans are paying less and less. Mine this year paid $2250 and next year is $3000, so that sounds like more but not really as next year it will only pay 1/2 of the amount charged, so really only $1500. I need a new crown so expect that $1500 to be reached the first week of Jan.
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You are lucky to get the full $2k out of them. My dental plan is $4k but doesn’t cover any replacement crowns or anything for which part of the work was done before the current plan.
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Yea, most dental plans have bad coverage, low max annual. The “good” news is that it takes a while to get to my $2k max because for Met does not pay may dentist rate. Upcoming crown charge will be $1896, insurance covers $706. Dentist will charge me $706 (and covers the rest).
For first few years I was self-insured, payed about the same for exams and xrays as I would for basic plan (but used HSA to pay it). This year I got the plus plan and had a Feb crown. Decided to deal with another cracked tooth too. Not too bad yet, but in a few years I’ll be on Medicare and probably self-insured again. And since we frequently travel didn’t want to risk issues when far from home.
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How many times do you let someone cancel on you for lunch or dinner plans and reschedule before you consider saying that it’s perhaps just not meant to be?
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Depends on how important the relationship/person is to you and how regularly you are canceled on. I will reschedule once or maybe twice, after that it’s on the other person if THEY want to do some rescheduling. It gets wearying.
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Agreed it gets tiresome. This particular case it is someone who had reached out but has canceled on me twice now and wants me to keep sending her more dates to reschedule. The reality is I don’t have many dates because my calendar gets pretty full. I gave her one option that didn’t work and now she wants me to give her options in December. I’m ambivalent about it at this point. Other people who are long-standing friends have canceled at times for good reasons and at times for not so good reasons. I just find it incredibly disrespectful. When I make a commitment I stick to it.
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