Medical Summary Review

By: Mr Credit Card

08/02/2010

Today, we follow up on our series of PHR reviews by reviewing Medical Summary, another PHR provider.

Medical Summary is probably perhaps the most no frills provider and cost effective one in this space.

How It Works? – This is how the service works. Firstly, you purchase a year-long subscription or you can activate your account with a prepaid code. You then set up your user name and password, list your e-mail and MedicalSummary will assign you a unique Emergency Access Code Number with the activation date. After that, you have to enter your medical information (on your own)

These Information include medications, allergies, and medical history (include such things as asthma, heart disease, seizures or any problem a medical team should know.) You can add more details any time you want.

You also have to list your emergency contacts so your family or friends can be reached when you need help.

Before everything is done, you will be asked to double-check your information, which is kept safe with a 256-bit encryption, and you can then print your MedSum Card™ (which can fit your wallet and will enable doctors to retrieve your information from it)..

You can update your information as often as you want and any questions will be answered via email or phone.

How Much Does It Cost – Medical Summary has one of the most cost effective plan in the industry. An individual annual membership cost $30 and a family plan for two costs $55. Additional members will increase the fee by $10. Medical Summary also offers a one-time payment that is good for a lifetime membership. Individual lifetime membership costs only $75 and a family lifetime membership costs $135.

Verdict – Among all the PHR services, Medical Summary is perhaps the most cost effective. The problem that I have with this service is that you have to fill in the information yourself. The problem with filling in the information yourself is that Doctors consider them “patient medical diaries” than actual “medical records”. But if you are looking for a cheap option, then this service is the one to consider.

Hawaiian Airlines Credit Card Review

By: Mr Credit Card

08/01/2010

The Hawaiian Airlines credit card is for folks who fly a lot with Hawaiian Airlines. He or she is most likely to fly to and from Hawaii a lot.

Rewards – This card allows you to earn double miles on any Hawaiian Airlines ticket purchases and any purchases on board the plane. For other regular purchases, you earn the standard one mile for every dollar you spend on the card. New cardholders get 20,000 bonus miles after their first purchase on the card. Cardholders can also earn up to 5 additional HawaiianMiles for every qualifying dollar you spend at participating HawaiianMiles XtraMiles partners. Furthermore, you will receive a one-time 25% travel discount toward two published full coach round-trip fares between Hawaii and the Mainland on Hawaiian Airlines flights for you and a companion.

Fees – The annual fee for this card is $79.

Verdict – The Hawaiian Airlines Credit Card will appeal to folks who fly a lot on the airline as it allows you to earn more points with your regular credit card spending. For those of you who are members of their frequent flier program but also members of other airline programs many want to consider other alternatives cards that have Hawaiian Airlines and other airlines as their partners.

Alternatives – You should also be aware that Hawaiian Airlines has partnerships with a couple of other reward programs.

Membership Rewards – Firstly, it is a partner with the Membership Rewards from American Express. You can transfer points to Hawaiian Airlines miles (one for one).

The card that I recommend if you decide to go with Membership Rewards program is the American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card because you can earn triple points on airline ticket purchases and double points on gasoline purchases. It does come with a $175 annual fee (which is waived for the first year). But if you fly a lot and charge a lot to your credit card, this card will help you rack up points faster than you can imagine. Furthermore, if you spend $30,000 every year, you can earn an additional 15,000 points!

Starwood Preferred Guest – Starwood Preferred Guest allows members to transfer points into miles for over 30 airline partners (mostly on a one for one ratio). You can transfer Starpoints into Hawaiian Miles. Also, when you transfer 20,000 points, you will get 5,000 bonus miles! The Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express ironically is one of the best airline credit cards for this reason. The advantage this card has over the Hawaiian Airlines Business Card is that the annual fee is only $45 (first year is waived) though you do not earn double miles.

Changes For Starwood Amex

By: Jason Steele

07/30/2010

Hardly a post I write about reward cards fails to mention the Starwood Amex Card. For my purposes, it is simply the best reward card out there. The Starpoints you receive are the most valuable and flexible points in the business, transferable to dozens of airlines or redeemable at any Starwood property with no blackouts or capacity controls.

Changes

Had Starwood asked me what changes I would have liked to have seen, I would have said “none”. Unfortunately, that is not how the world works. Starwood will be increasing it’s annual fee from $45 a year to $65, starting with all renewals after October. They will also be eliminating the the 50% off coupons. Those coupons were really of questionable value since the 50% off only applied to the rack rates, which nobody pays anyways. Nevertheless, I once saw value in using it when 50% off the rack rate was somewhat lower than their available discount at a a pricey resort. Other changes include an automatic 5 stay credit towards premium status with Starwood, as well as your third night free at Sheratons with two paid nights.

What Do I Think

This card works for me on so many levels, so I will still pay the annual fee, albeit reluctantly. As I normally do, I am sure I will call and ask for the fee to be waived or for them to throw me some Starpoints for being such a good customer. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. I am not really excited about the 5 stay credit towards status. I simply don’t purchase hotel rooms that much, yet I still receive status by hitting the $30,000 annual spending mark (partial thanks to the US Mint, if you know what I mean).

As for the Sheraton freebie, I might could see using that, it all depends on if there are any restrictions. If there do not allow it with discounts and promotions, it will be even less useful than the 50% off coupons were.

Who Should Cancel Starwood

As the annual fee rises, the card will appeal to a smaller and smaller group. The first people who should be particularly concerned are those who are not big spenders. If you value Starpoints at 4 cents each, then you will need to spend $1625 just to break even on your annual fee. If you value them at 3 cents each, you are looking at $2,167 to break even. What you really have to do is compare it to is the other available reward cards without an annual fee. So really you are looking at a baseline of a 1% reward card, although some can give you cash back rewards closer to 2%. Either way, the Starwood Amex still comes out ahead if you are spending more than $5,000 a year, regardless of how you value your rewards. Nevertheless, people who don’t meet those numbers, and people who don’t normally visit a lot of Starwood properties, should probably be considering other cards.

Fraud Alert For Domestic Travel?

By: Jason Steele

07/29/2010

Arthur Frommer is a recognized travel expert. I have relied on many of the travel books he has published, and I have conducted travel research on his website. A friend of mine recently alerted me to an article he wrote about the potential for a fraud alert to be triggered by domestic travel.

What?

Everyone should know by now that when you are planning to travel outside of the United States, the smart thing to do is to notify all of your credit cards, as well as your bank when you are traveling and which countries you are scheduled to visit. My wife and I discovered this five years ago on our honeymoon when, in all of the preparation for our wedding, we forgot to inform our bank. We had a memorable dinner in Brazil in which we thought we might have to wash dishes to pay for our meal!

I even advise people to include countries where you might just be visiting briefly, including where you are changing planes. You never know when a flight cancellation or another type of travel disruption will make it necessary to use your card, and that is the worst moment for your account to be placed on hold for a fraud alert.

According to this article, which was syndicated and ran in major newspapers like the Miami Herald, credit card companies may now be suspending accounts due to potential fraud based on domestic travel. This is the way his victim describes the experience:

Halfway through my recent Florida trip, all three adults suddenly found their credit cards suddenly denied — two Visas and an AMEX card, all from different card issuers. It confused us, until I got a call from the fraud department of my Capital One Visa. Our crime? We were all from Pennsylvania and sought to spend money in Florida.

Is This For Real?

I am extremely skeptical of their conclusion that they had their cards frozen due to a fraud alert strictly because they were from out of state. I travel all the time and have never had this problem. The fact that multiple cards were on hold leads me to believe that there was some other reason for the fraud alert. It seems more likely that all of their cards were used at the same merchant that was associated with some fraud. Think about this for a second. If credit card accounts were being frozen for out of state use, there would be complete chaos at major tourist sites. Nobody would be able to an admission to Disney World or a lift ticket at Vail! Residents who live on the border of several states, such as in the metropolitan areas of New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Chicago, and other major cities would find their accounts frozen just for “travel” a few miles from their house. This story simply does not pass the most basic smell test.

Paranoia

The Miami Herald version of the Frommer article ends this article with the plea:

Whether or not you agree with my friend’s speculation about the reason for the new policy, it’s clear that we all should now take added precautions before embarking on an out-of-state trip even within the United States. We must call our credit-card issuers and demand that they enter into their computers the fact that we will be in another state during a specified period of time.

It is surprising that such a noted travel expert as Arthur Frommer ran with this story. It is even more bizarre that this story ran in so many major newspapers. Consider me the first Credit Card expert to cry foul on this strange column.

VitalKey Review

By: Mr Credit Card

We continue our series of PHR reviews with Vitalkey today. VitalKey is another provider of PHR solutions. It is a service that provides up-to-date medical records for you and gives you a USB that can be attached to your keychain which doctors can use to access your medical records in the event of an emergency. Here’s a closer look at this service.

Here is how it works – When you enroll for a VitalKey service, a medical specialist will talk to you about your medical records. He or she will essentially help you to organize them. They will first get information about things like your insurance contact number, your emergency contact number, your physicians’ contact number and details. He or she will then contact your doctors to get the information. Your records will be reviewed and organized in a simple to understand format.

Information that is recorded include:

Allergies

Medical conditions

Medications

Immunizations

Medical imaging reports

Lab reports

Past medical procedures

Emergency contacts

Family medical history

Insurance information

Medical directives

Making sure your records are up-to-date – There are a couple of ways VitalKey makes sure your records are up to date. Firstly, your Doctor will be provided with a tool on your computer so that your medical records can be updated on VitalKey with just the push of a button. Secondly, you will be called periodically by your VitalKey medical specialist to make sure your records are up to date.

USB Drive – All members of VitalKey are given a small USB drive to carry with them (most likely in a keychain) where doctors can retrieve your records in the event of an emergency.

Fees and Subscription Plans – VitalKey comes in a variety of plans. There are plans for singles, couples, kids and a family plan. They also have plan to breast cancer survivors called “Pink Key”. Below is a screen shot of their fees.

Verdict – Like other PHR, VitalKey provides a pretty good service for those who feel the need to have their medical records with them (especially adventure travelers). Their subscription plan has fees that are typical of other similar services. The thing I like about this service is that you do not need to pay extra for the USB key that carries your information. They are not the cheapest but neither are they the most expensive. This is a service you would want to put on your comparison list.

Pay For Rewards?

By: Jason Steele

07/28/2010

A reader asks:

“Is it ever an advantage to pay an annual fee for a card that pays increased rewards?”

My Answer

A qualified yes. Many reward cards do have an annual fee, while some do not. I currently hold a Capitol One Visa that has no annual fee. I use it whenever a merchant does not accept my Starwood American Express, which does have an annual fee. When I use it, I receive 1% cash back. I also use my Capitol One card whenever I travel outside of the United States, as it is one of the few cards without an egregious foreign transaction fee. (In comparison, all Amex cards have a 2.7% FTF that you can think of as a negative reward card whenever you use it for non-dollar transactions.)

It is worth paying the annual fee on my Starwood Amex because it’s rewards are so valuable. I can get an average of 4 cents in value from each Starpoint I receive. That means if I charge $30,000 a year on my Starwood Amex, I am receiving $1,200 a year in value when I redeem the award. If I were to put all my spending on my Capitol One, I would only receive $300 in cash back. The $900 difference easily makes up for the $45 annual fee on my Starwood Amex.

There are other factors to consider when you pay an annual fee. First, most cards will waive the annual fee the first year, so it is easy to try the card out and just cancel it when the fee is due after one year. Another strategy is to simply call the company when the fee is due and ask them to waive it. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t, but occasionally they might just offer you some extra points or miles. It never hurts to ask.

The less you spend, the fewer rewards you will get, so paying an annual fee is probably not a good idea for people who spend very little on a particular card. The key is to weigh the benefits of the expected rewards against the annual fee, and then compare it with cards that are available that do not have an annual fee. It is not a simple equation, but it is worth doing in the long run.

Deep Vein Thrombosis – Steps To Prevent Them When You Are Flying

By: Mr Credit Card

When you fly in an airplane, the altitude you are at puts you at around 40,000 feet. At these altitudes, the air pressure is equivalent to around 6,000 to 8,000 feet above sea level. At these pressure, the amount of oxygen in your blood is reduced and the gases within your body will expand. That is one of the reasons why your ears will pop! If you are flying long distance and sit too long, this can lead to the pooling of blood in the legs. Which can lead to the development of clot in your legs (called Deep-Vein Thrombosis). Lack of circulation decreases blood circulation back to the heart. Because the mechanism to circulating your blood back to your heart is decreased, your legs may swell.

DVT has been called the economy class syndrome (when you are squashed in the cattle class!). But this can also happen when you travel business class. So when you are flying, be sure to take a few steps to preven this from happening to you. And you will feel more comfortable as well.

Get up and walk once in a while – Go to the rest room, hang out at the back of the plane and have a chat with the staff. It’s fun and it’s good for your blood circulation

Do specific stretches – Even when you are sitting down, you could do specific stretches on your legs and body. Most airplanes have a cheat sheet at the back of your seat with suggested exercises to facilitate blood circulation in your legs (below are are some examples from Qantas website)

Some doctors recommend compression stockings, which help prevent the swelling of you legs

Some doctors also recommend just taking a baby size aspirin before the flight

There is also an anticoagulant called fondaparinux (Arixtra), which can be taken (rather injected) and last for 24 hours but you risk bleeding severely if you hurt yourself

Those more at risk – Some folks are also more at risk of developing DVT than others. Below is a list that you might want to be aware of:

* Personal or family history of DVT.
* Recent surgery or injury, especially to lower limbs or abdomen.
* Blood disorders leading to increased clotting tendency.
* Oestrogen hormone therapy, including oral contraceptives.
* Pregnancy.
* Tobacco smoking.
* Obesity.
* Dehydration.
* Heart failure.
* Varicose veins.

To sum up, walk often and do those little exercises in the plane to help prevent DVT. If you are more at risk, it is best to consult a doctor to see if you need any extra medication.

ER Card Review

By: Mr Credit Card

I am going to start a series of reviews for companies that store your Personal Health Records (PHR). These might be useful services especially when you travel abroad and meet an accident. These companies will take records of your medical records and store them in a USB drive and obviously on their website as well. Any doctor will be able to access your full medical record if you have the IBS drive with you or if they can access your records online. Today, we start with ER-Card, one of the many providers of PHR.

E-Card (www.e-card.com) is an online ePHR membership site that stores your medical records. The type of information that they store includes:

Current medications (prescribed, over-the-counter, herbal supplements)

Blood Type

Allergies (to food or medication)

Medical conditions

Emergency contacts

Physical or verbal limitations

Major surgeries (anything removed or implanted)

Primary care doctor

Treatment specialists

Emergency evacuation information

Advance directives

ER Card members will be able to do the following:

Access their Secure On-line Record anytime and anywhere by the internet, phone or fax from home, hospital, or your doctor’s office. It is password protected ad HIPPA compliant

You will also experience their Care Management Services – in which ER Card staff will contact you, your family caregivers or legal guardians to ensure that information is current and accurate. There will also be reminders for preventative care visits.

Drug/Medication Review – ERCard staff pharmacists will review your medications for possible drug duplication, harmful interaction or other complications and notify you of any problems.

EMT Care Link– This is a cool service from ER Card whereby first responders have access to your information in times of emergency. ER Card is able to provide this because it has developed relationships with Emergency Rescue vehicles.

ER Card/Flash– This is the important thing to have when you travel. You can get a portable USB flash drives so you could carry it around when you travel.

Accessories – Members will also get the following accessories that will come in handy.

1. Exclusive ER Card wallet Membership Card
2. Hard copies of their personal health record- With Customized Folder
3. ER Card Key Tags
4. Window decals, Refrigerator magnets
5. ER Card USB Flash Drive (credit card, key ring, or jelly bracelet style) (optional)
6. ICE (In Case of Emergency) ID necklace (optional)

Cost – Firstly, the USB flash drive will cost you $39.95. You have a choice of choosing a slim credit card, key ring or jelly bracelet style) design. An individual membership cost $8/per month. Additional members (two or more) will cost $6/per member per month. If you choose to pay your annual fee in one lump sum, you get a 5% discount. And you get a 10% discount if you pay for 2 years worth of membership fee at once.

Verdict – There are many PHR membership providers. Er-Card is by no means the cheapest.But it does offer a pretty comprehensive service in terms of what they provide. If you are a frequent traveler, you may just want to consider getting a PHR service in case there is a need to access your medical records. ER-Card is definitely a service that you should check out and do some comparison with other services.

Oh No, Reverse Robin Hood Again!

By: Jason Steele

07/27/2010

It’s that time again. Time to hear how evil reward credit cards are. They are so evil that they act like a “Reverse Robin Hood”. We all know Robin Hood, the guy who steals from the rich and gives to the poor. What could be worse than a Reverse Robin Hood, something that steals from the poor and gives to the rich. You Bastards!

The Federal Reserve Sells It

The geniuses at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston came up with a study that claims that reward cards actually take money from the poor and give to the rich. I do not use the term geniuses lightly, as they include plenty of math like this:

Hence indeed. The last time we looked at the Reverse Robin Hood argument was in response to the merchants fight against interchange fees. You can read My Rebuttal To The Case Against Swipe Fees here. Fortunately, the authors of the Fed report do not rely on interchange fees to support their conclusion as they write; “Our analysis of the transfers among consumers requires only the merchant fee and reward rate and not the inclusion of the interchange fee” (pg. 15).

With merchant sponsored interchange fee propaganda off of the table, the authors can go on to show with great mathematical detail how those who receive reward card benefits tend to be well off, while those who pay with cash are not. Therefore, they conclude, the poor are subsidizing the rich. This is too much for even a liberal like myself to swallow. As I wrote about the Reverse Robin Hood theory when it applied only to interchange fees, this is an argument against credit cards and virtually all financial instruments:

The poor generally pay more interest and fees than rich. This is true for almost all financial products from car loans to mortgages. The reasons are obvious; wealthier people are both more financially literate and are less likely to default.

To put it more simply, I call BS on the entire Reverse Robin Hood theory as it applies to both interchange fees and credit card rewards. Society can guarantee equality of opportunity but not the equality of results. There are plenty of poor people who still own credit cards (like me when I was in college), and plenty of rich people who pay with means other than plastic. We each have the opportunity to take advantage of reward cards, even if the result is that some do and some don’t. If the authors of the study are correct in their analysis of the data, they make a pretty strong argument for being one of the people on the receiving end of the reward subsidy. Your only takeaway should be to ensure that you are maximizing your rewards from your credit card portfolio, while never paying credit card interest or fees.

Unfortunately, they also reach policy conclusions that would be pretty nasty for us reward card aficionados, and believers in the free market in general. For example, they propose the regulation of both interchange fees and rewards. In wording that will cause the brains of Joe The Plumber and his supporters to explode they actually suggest a policy of “redistribution” of rewards through “tax deductions for reward contributions” (pg. 35). They may be math geniuses, but they are completely tone deaf politically.

The New York Times Buys It

The financial blog at the New York Times links to the report. They are so taken with the plight of the poor who, by paying cash, tend to miss out on rewards that they suggest: “some ideas for what consumers can do now to alleviate any guilt they may have about using their cards everywhere” such as “using cash for certain purchases or at certain retailers” and “donating some of rewards each year to nonprofit groups that help the poor or giving up the cards completely.”

I am all for charitable giving, but when I walk into a store to exchange my hard earned cash for goods and services, I am participating in a business transaction. I will not be using cash instead of my reward card in order to support the merchant any more than I will be giving them an extra 10% above the price because I really like them. Any suggestion that people act so far outside their best interest to “alleviate their guilt” when purchasing goods and services is just nonsense.

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Fraud By A Foreign Merchant?

By: Jason Steele

07/26/2010

A reader asks:

“I purchased something from a merchant online. I did not know at the time that the merchant was overseas. The transaction was in dollars. The item purchased was of inferior quality. I was charged a foreign exchange fee, and I was not able to dispute the quality of the item. When I asked, the merchant said they were not subject to the law of the US. So I am left with an inferior item, no protection, no recourse and I had to pay more for the item than I expected because I had no idea it was a foreign merchant. My bank says there’s nothing I can do. Is that true? It feels to me like I was defrauded into the transaction by a false price and terms and false expectations that it was a domestic company. HELP!” -Matt”

Chargeback Protection

One of the special powers of a credit card is your bank’s ability to act as a mediator of the transaction. Basically, if you purchase something with your credit card, and the item is not delivered, or the service is not performed, you can get a refund. The bank will also refund your money if the goods are not delivered as agreed. Whether or not the merchant feels that they are subject to US laws, rest assured that they are if your bank is based in the United States. Here is the web site for the Fair Credit Billing act enforcement for the Federal Trade Commission.

If the merchandise was never delivered, you have a pretty clear cut case. If you order item A and they ship item B, again you have a pretty iron clad case for a chargeback. The question then becomes trickier if you are delivered the merchandise your ordered, but are not satisfied with the quality of the product. I am very picky and am never truly satisfied with most products that I purchase. That said, I have never attempted to charge back an item due to poor quality. I doubt that a credit card company will side with you unless the item is materially different than you described. For example, if you purchased a DVD movie, yet received a bootleg copy you have a good case. If you can document key differences between the description of the product and the one you received, you should be able to charge back the purchase. If you simply don’t think your product is of good quality, you might be out of luck. The key is to pinpoint key differences between the description of the product and what you received, and that documentation will be critical.

As with all chargebacks, you should always attempt to reconcile the situation directly with the merchant before contacting your credit card company. It doesn’t hurt to tell the merchant that you are considering a chargeback, as such actions are extremely damaging to them. The threat of a chargeback is often all that is necessary for a merchant to do the right thing.

Foreign Transaction Fees

These are extremely annoying fees that provide no real value to the consumer. They only exist because credit card companies can get away with them. In fact, credit card companies have settled a class action suit that cost them hundreds of millions of dollars because they failed to disclose these fees in the past. That is why I make all foreign purchases with my Capitol One card, one of the select few cards that do not have such fees. Occasionally, a company doing business in the United States will use a foreign credit card processor, and these fees will be added to your bill. Other times, a company will give you no indication that they are operating outside of the United States, and you will get hit with an FTF. You should not stand for this. Contact your credit card company and demand that the fees be removed. The fees really don’t pay for anything, and banks will typically refund the money at your request especially in light of their recent legal troubles.

Good luck with your credit card dispute!