It is a sad day now that my new favorite airline has become the latest victim to soaring fuel costs. SkyBus Airlines has ceased all operations effective today April 4, 2008 and 450 employees are not out of work. SkyBus airlines launched in 2007 based in Columbus Ohio and their hook was offering 10 $10 seats for every flight they flew. They made many route changes throughout their brief time in business. I guess the $160 million they raised from private investors was not enough to offset the rising fuel costs. My personal reason for why I liked their airline so much was their daily flights to Punta Gorda Airport in Florida. Punta Gorda is located halfway between Sarasota and Fort Myers. ... Read More >>

In another example of making sure you use up your gift cards before they expire. The regional restaurant chain, Bob Evans Farms Inc. was able to recognize $6.6 million dollars of revenue from gift cards that were purchased but never used. That is 100% profit for them minus a couple of pennies for the cost of the plastic to produce them. Now you know why Kroger and Giant Eagle and other chains are constantly promoting their Gift Card Malls. The Columbus-based restaurant chain on Tuesday reported its results for the third quarter ended Jan. 25 and, for the first time, included "breakage," or the benefit of gift card balances that customers have failed to redeem. The benefit of ... Read More >>

President Bush is expected to sign legislation Thursday that would cut in half the interest rate on government-backed student loans. Those interest rate cuts would be paid for by reducing by $19 billion the subsidies the government gives to lenders like Sallie Mae. The legislation would also cap the amount of money a borrower must repay each year based on his or her earnings. This information came out today as the consortium of banks who were going to buy Salle Mae, has been reported that they are going to back out of the deal. Sallie Mae estimates that this change in legislation would reduce their Net Income by 1.8 - 2.1% per year for the next five years.   Read More >>

ATM Fees at Bank of America getting more painful! Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) has announced today that they are raising their ATM Fees to $3 for using their ATM Network of 17,000 ATMs. So if you add that fee to the one your bank charges you, you are looking at a 10% charge to withdraw $50! Here is a quote from Bank of America I particularly enjoyed: "In order to maintain and grow (our) network, it's appropriate to charge people who are not our customers," Bank of America spokeswoman Betty Riess said. "We want to provide the most convenient ATM access for our customers." This is a little hard to swallow given that Bank of America made over $21 Billion in profits. ... Read More >>

Can you win at blackjack? So, I was having lunch today with a mathematician friend of mine and we began to contemplate, what gives you the best odds of winning at blackjack?  A full table or an empty table.  Is there a meaningful statistical advantage to playing with more players?  Do you reduce the house's chance of drawing low cards with more people at the table?  But, in contrast, do you reduce your own chance?  Is there some optimum number of players where joining t hat game over another game provides you with some advantage? With six decks in the shoe and a role every three decks, is there any meaningful statistic difference in the number of ... Read More >>

We recently decided to install Coleman Tuff Duty Garage Shelves and Cabinets in order to better organize our garage and be able to lock up our chemicals from our children. Our local Lowes store put their Coleman Tuff Duty cabinets and shelves on sale because they are no longer going to stock them. For the configuration I chose the store savings totalled $75.00 off their normal retail price. Get your FREE credit score and more!  Stop at Krogers for Lowes Gift Cards on the way I decided to go to my local Kroger to buy Lowes Gift Cards on my way to Lowes. I stopped and bought 13 $50 gift cards and used my Kroger Plus Card. By doing so, I have already qualified for the highest level ... Read More >>

Check Your Gift Card Expiration Dates! I was reading the latest quarterly earnings from Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) and they detailed in the article how much money Abercrombie & Fitch recognized in profits from people who bought gift cards but never redeemed them. Here is the quote from the article. "Fourth-quarter profits included $3.5 million from gift cards sold but never redeemed, the company said." Here is what you could buy from Abercrombie & Fitch's web site with all those gift cards: 50,359 pairs of Resmen Low Rise Jeans or 70,707 Fish Creek A&F Shirts or 58,823 Forked Lake Khaki Cargo Shorts or ... Read More >>

Brittany Spears is Bald - Anna Nicole Smith’s will is a mess - Whitney Houston files for Bankruptcy and Michael Jackson is living in Dubai.  What in the world is going on? Howard Stern has been appointed executor of Anna Nicole Smith’s will although a new will that leaves everything to Daniel has surfaced. Michael Jackson has given up on the US and is selling all his US assets and moving to Dubai. Whitney Houston cracks the charts in 2006, but can’t keep out of bankruptcy court. Brittany is bald AND leaking money like a sieve.   It’s all a part of the life long lesson that fame is fleeting and your money can be as well unless you ... Read More >>

I went to my local Kroger grocery store the other day and was surprised to see ads for all kinds of financial services. Kroger was promoting Home Mortgages, Home Equity Loans and Lines of Credit, Pet Insurance, Credit Cards, Gift Cards, and Identity Theft Protection. They were pushing the brochures out front where you get the shopping carts and at every checkout aisle. I guess it makes sense for them to do this since they have so much traffic coming through the stores everyday. Here are some details from the programs: Home Mortgages - The company providing the loans, KPF Mortgage, is actually 49% owned by The Kroger Company. This one surprised me the most since having a mortgage ... Read More >>

My wife has a small sewing business making baby blankets and accessories. She recently went to the bank to deposit a bunch of checks from her friends and customers. A week later we receive a message in the mail that one of the checked we cashed bounced and we were being charged a $6.00 fee. We spoke to the customer who was very embarrassed and promptly paid us for the merchandise and the fee. She also was hit a $30 overdraft fee from her bank. My wife and I went to our local branch (our bank is one of the top 5 banks in the US) to inquire about the fee and take care of some other business. To our surprise, the personal banker who had been on the job for 7 months had no ... Read More >>