So I learned last night in my First Time Home Buyer’s class (my last one!) that you can negotiate your interest rate on the credit cards you have. It’s strange that me, of all people, didn’t think of that. I’m always bugging every company we do business with to lower whatever it is I’m paying. So today, I gave it a whack.

I called Capital One, Discover, and WAMU (I have two cards with Capital One).

Capital One lowered the rate on both of my cards. As did Discover. They only lower it about 1% every time you call, but you can call every 30 days.

WAMU (Washington Mutual) is terrible, and insane.

I wasn’t paying attention to what rate this VARIABLE RATE card was at, and I can’t believe I didn’t notice this until now. They’ve been charging me 19%!!! I told them that it was completely unacceptable, especially because I could transfer that over to any other card for 4.99% for the life of the balance! I asked them why I should keep the card. They said they didn’t have an answer for me, and it’s set by the corporate office, and they don’t have any power to change it. I talked to a rep, and a supervisor. I don’t think they were lying, in fact, they sheepishly agreed with me. Also, the balance transfers I had on that card were being financed charged at the CASH RATE (like 21%!!!). I almost threw up.

So say goodbye to that card!!

Everyone should do this. Not only should you lower your interest rate, is ask them to get rid of your annual fee (if you have one), or increase your limit (having more available credit is good for your score). Just tell them you want more, and they’ll give you more. Remember, if they have you, they have the potential to make money off of you. If you’re not a customer, they don’t have anything.

CALL!

Firstly, any of you who are into comics, the Watchmen trailer has been released since this weekend, and I almost pooped my pants watching it. I am so excited.

It's so great that Hollywood has taken such an interest ($$$) in making comic book movies. This is truly the era of the nerd. I'm loving it. The Watchmen is not one of my FAVORITE comics by any means, however, this movie looks incredible. I'm shocked.

Secondly, we had a softball game tonight. Second game of the playoffs. We lost the first one, and it's double elimination, so we had to win this to continue. Any of you who live around here know: it was brutally raining outside, with some thunder and lightning too. Technically they're supposed to cancel once it starts lightning out, but this ump kept not calling the game. So it was pouring and pouring and pouring. By the second inning we were extraordinarily wet. By the fourth inning, we were soaked to the undies.

Something I noticed about our team about six (6) games ago... we screw up for half of the game. If we do well the first half, then we lose it the second half and it's over. If we screw up the first half, we almost always rally and get it back and win. It's so weird and I've never seen anything like it. I also don't understand it. Maybe we just burn out quickly? Anyway, we were down the first half, and ended up pulling it out of our asses. No thanks to me whatsoever, I barely did anything.

However... our pitcher (and team manager/coach) snapped the tendon in his pointer finger of his throwing hand, and one of our outfielders (and a newly outstanding hitter) was pretty certain he had broken his ankle. The coach checked it out (who actually is a doctor) and he didn't break it, but his joint is full of blood and I forget what coach said that meant. Anyway, we had two players who had to come out completely during the 5th inning, which will make it difficult on Thursday.

Speaking of which, I wasn't planning on playing on Thursday (didn't know whether we'd BE playing or not, if we were eliminated or what) because my best friend from my teenage years is going to be in town with her baby (who I have yet to meet in person - they live in Ohio now) and Thursday was the one day we both had free. I asked the coach if I could skip (honestly I'm not that necessary) and he seemed cool with it, since they can only play as many women as they have men (and at this point, they only have five men left).

Oh and correction on the name of that Foster's episode: "Mac Daddy". And don't listen to GearJammer007: he's an asshole.