More Financial Expertise

When requesting a balance transfer on your credit card, you may be presented with a 0% interest option — this despite the fact that no one can get a short-term loan. Some cards may allow a kind of multiple choice, where you can get the 0% option for around six months, or else a very low rate for closer to a year. It seems obvious which you should choose, right? Paying less interest is always better.

Do not be deceived, however. They charge you a set fee whenever you do a balance transfer, usually around 3%. You should regard this fee as paying interest up front. In the case of the 0% option, you are paying an effective annual rate of 6% (3% interest for six months*) — after which said balance will be subject to a rate closer to 20%. If the year-long option is somewhere around 3 or 4%, you are still going to end up paying less interest in the long run. Of course, the calculus changes if you believe you will be able to pay off the balance within the shorter balance transfer offer period — but why take the risk? If you fail to do so, you’re stuck with a 20% interest rate. If you take the longer and less tantalizing offer, you can still go ahead and pay it off in six months, but if you fail to do so, you’ll continue to pay approximately the same effective interest rate.

In short: Do not be led astray by 0%! 0% is a lie, always a lie!

[* The calculations here are rough estimates. I’m sure that if I found some website that could give me the annualized rate based on 3% interest for six months, it would not be exactly 6%. Another complication: this is 3% simple interest, not 3% interest compounded every month. In addition, the fee itself accrues interest at normal credit card rates, but except in extreme cases, the net effect will probably be negligible. I am also leaving out of account any existing balance on the transfer-receiving card, which will be “buried” under the transfer and paid off last if it is subject to a higher rate. Speaking of that: the “lowest balance paid first” policy is pretty insidious, along with virtually everything else about credit cards.]

Bay Area Books

Though the Bay Area is teeming with high quality bookstores — Green Apple, Moe’s, Pegasus, Booksmith, Modern Times, etc. — I was wondering last night, while following the Reeses-pieces path I laid so that I might find my way out of the labyrinth that is Green Apple, why I’ve yet to find a really quality theology/religion bookstore.  With Moe’s as the only notable exception, most of the good stores only seem to care about alternative & eastern religion, with very token gestures toward Christian theology.  This makes sense, of course, considering where I’m living, but we do have the GTU around here.  Don’t those students ever need to sell their books?  I only recently learned of the University Press Bookstore in Berkeley, even though I’d walked by it dozens of times, so it’s possible (given I’m only prone to browse theology, and not actually read it) I’ve simply overlooked such a place.  Any Bay Area natives or former residents know of such a place?

I could probably find my answer via Google or Yelp, but what’s the fun in that?

Also … anyone, is Meillassoux’s After Finitude worth my time?