As we all know, the economy is in the dump with no relief in sight.  In fact, it is only getting worse as we sink more and more closely to the dreaded “d” word, depression.

My wife and I have several credit cards like most Americans.  We pay our bills on time, always paying above minimums.  We shop to get the good rates and favorable terms, that is until recently.

In the last ~60 days, we have received several notifications that our interest rates are increasing and/or our credit lines are decreasing.  We have good credit, never missed a payment, always pay above minimum, and yet, even on cards we do not have a balance we are seeing our rates moved from fixed single digit rates to double digit variable rates.

A couple of the cards claim that they ran our credit and that is the reason for the increase of rates and decrease of credit line.  However, our credit score is higher now than it was when we were issued the card, so that reason is completely bogus.

Closing the account is not a viable option since that hurts our credit score.

This irresponsible behavior, tightening of credit without cause is only going to further the economic crisis.  We are, without cause, being charged more for the same credit.  It is like a double inflation.  Credit costs more, the dollar is worth less, and yet, without credit and a strong dollar, the American economy will never recover.

Credit companies must be held responsible for their actions.  Consumers need more options for recourse when adverse actions are taken without notice or explanation against their accounts.  Closing the account isn’t feasible since it hurts the credit score of the consumer.

Either this behavior is stopped, or the economy will continue to falter.  When faced with higher interest rates for no reason, and lower credit terms, do you honestly think the consumers will be willing to spend any rebates or refunds?  Of course not, we will be too busy trying to pay down our increasing debt load despite no spending or reckless actions on our part.

Write your representation now!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Practical Tips On Credit Card Consolidation Plan (helpwithdebtnow.com)
• Exploding The Myth Of The Bad Credit Card Customer [Credit Cards] (consumerist.com)
• Angry Consumer Slices and Dices Credit Cards To Protest Rate Increase [Backlash] (consumerist.com)
• Chase Wants You To Pay Your Taxes By Credit Card. Don’t. [Taxes] (consumerist.com)
• Ways to Avoid and Tackle Credit Card Debt (personal-debt-management.suite101.com)
• Capital One Does Not Appreciate You Being Responsible, More Than Doubles Your APR [Rate Hikes] (consumerist.com)
• Credit Cards Do’s and Dont’s (robwhite.us)
• Recession-Proof Your Debt Snowball (frugaldad.com)

          

To everyone out there that thinks it is “cool” or “neat” to put music on your website, do the rest of us a favor, and don’t.  While I understand the aesthetic nature of some sound,  for the most part it is just annoying.  When online, I usually listen to iTunes, and the last thing I want is some hideously encoded streaming .wav file repeating the same 6 seconds of music over and over again.  Unless I really need to be on your website, I hit back on my mouse and try to immediately start repressing the memory that is your website.

At the end of the day, music requires a lot of bandwidth for those of you hosting the music files, a lot more than even a complex page (assuming your images are optimized, but don’t get me started on that today).  And for every Pro:fx out there, there are a 100 Hampsterdance websites.

If you aren’t an amazing DJ, or awesome Flash/Shockwave/Silverlight developer, do us all a favor, and leave the music off your website.  I like my thousands of MP3’s, and I don’t force you to listen to them.

          

I hope everyone survived 2008 ok.  God knows the stock market, banks, airlines, and a lot of other people didn’t.  I am looking forward to a new year, a new job, more great times with my family, and of course, surprises that are just part of life.

So, with that in mind, enjoy the New Year, and check back soon!

          

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) really isnt a new concept although the buzzword is fairly new.  It is basically the process of ensuring your site has on it that which search engines (e.g. Google) index, hence making your search engine rankings higher and presumably driving more traffic to your website.  I still remember doing this in the mid-90’s when we had a huge number of search engines ranging from Hotbot to Alta Vista to AOL that mattered and each one needed to be submitted to and then your site massaged in order to get anything resembling a decent ranking.

Times have changed, the index bots are much more sophisticated than 10+ years ago, and are far less likely to be fooled by the tricks (like using keywords hidden in your background by using the same color for both).

I often get asked, “How can I improve my search results?”.  I usually try to resist rolling my eyes for two reasons: 1) the sheer amount of resources out there covering this topic are just overwhelming and 2) it isnt that hard!  So, to those hosting with me and everyone else reading this, here are a few short tips on how to get your site SEOized!

Content, Content, Content
The more content you have, and I dont mean junk, I mean actual meaningful content, the higher your rank.  So sharpen your pencils and start writing.

New Content, New Images, New Stuff
Daily blog posts or news releases will really help you get noticed by the bots.  But again, dont post junk, otherwise your ranking will drop due to noone visiting.

Network
You must network your site.  Join a few groups, post on them, use WordPress or similar software, embrace RSS, use MySpace or Facebook and link to your site.  These will only drive traffic to your site, increase the relevancy of your keywords and get you the rankings you want.

Use decent HTML/CSS
I say decent, since I still think the entire validation thing is a scam (I will post more on that later).  Your page should work in all major browsers, use alt tags in your images, name your pages something relevant, and avoid a lot of Flash or Images (for now) since they still aren’t fully indexed.    Do not use an image for text blocks, it will not index!

See, not hard.  Enjoy adding quality content, dont overuse images or the other spiffy technologies (Silverlight, Flash, etc…) and have fun watching your traffic come to you for a change.

          

My dad has a domain, (http://www.cmmeinzer.com) but uses it almost totally for emails.  I have tried to show him the evils of Wordpress and blogging, but to no avail.

That said, and in the spirit of my constant giving him a hard time, I have highjacked his webpage!  Since it is on my server, I thought, “What the heck, not like he will ever do anything with it.”  So, it is now mine! (Insert evil laugh here).  Maybe he will see what you can do with a spiffy domain, but maybe not.  Either way, it is better than a dumn “Coming Soon” site that will never change.

          

Here is what Jeff Foxworthy has to say about folks from Texas…

• If someone in a Lowe’s store offers you assistance and they don’t work there, you may live in Texas
• If you’ve worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you may live in Texas
• If you’ve had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you may live in Texas
• If ‘Vacation’ means going anywhere south of Dallas for the weekend, you may live in Texas
• If you measure distance in hours, you may live in Texas
• If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once, you may live in Texas
• If you install security lights on your house and garage, but leave both unlocked, you may live in Texas
• If you carry jumper cables in your car and your wife knows how to use them, you may live in Texas
• If the speed limit on the highway is 55 mph — you’re going 80 and everybody’s passing you, you may live in Texas
• If you find 60 degrees ‘a little chilly,’ you may live in Texas

          

We live in a fairly new neighborhood with all the amenities we could want. We have a water park, lots of trails to walk, play grounds, a spray park, good schools, and freaking paper hanging doorbell ringing sales folk. More than once in the last couple of weeks, Illi was down for less than 15 minutes when the doorbell rings, Mydrinn goes crazy, and it is just some moron selling something stupid with the same pitch everyone else uses. “I was just over at __________ (some generic name)’s house, and she loved this and bought a ton. But first, let me bore you about my company and other crap you don’t care about.” I mean really, we don’t give a rat’s who bought what, assuming the rather dubious assertion is even true. They never take no for an answer, and just keep talking (I assume) after the door is closed.

So, we researched the laws of Fort Worth, and found out that putting up a “No Soliciting” sign means that anyone that puts anything on our door, or petitions us for any reason can incur a $500 dollar, per incident fine. The only people exempt are government officials. We looked around online for something tasteful (and affordable), couldn’t find one (this one came up on our search many times - yuck), so we just put up a paper sign in the window with the following:

No Soliciting
Violation of this notice may result in a $500 per incident fine.
City of Fort Worth (Ord. No. 15245, § 1, 9-17-02) & (Ord. No. 17829, § 1, 10-9-07)
This includes Handbills and Religious Petitioning

Hopefully that will get the point across. If not, I will just start turning everyone into to the City for code violations. We like our sleep around here, and our “guard dog” Mydrinn will not be deterred from his solemn duty, so do us all a favor, just go away, we aren’t buying anything from you anyways.

There were several good stories around on the net about this topic, but one of my favorites was this girl’s. Her blog name and motto are just so good, I had to link back.

          

The other night Ryan and I had been play harassing each other as usual, but he took it to the next level.

Let me give you some background…Some people might find the spray of the toilet refreshing on their derriere. I am not one of those people. I think that automatically flushing toilets are a great idea as long as they are calibrated properly. I cannot stand having the toilet randomly flushing on me, and of course they typically decide to act that way when I *really* have to go to the bathroom. So when the toilets start flushing I rush to stand up, which makes it difficult to relax. ‘There was one time I was at the airport and *all* of the toilets were randomly flushing. I kept getting up at the sound of every flush because I was never sure if it was mine or one next to me.’

So, the other night Ryan came over and flushed the toilet while I was using it.

[Ryan: I am still laughing]

          

A long time favorite of mine, Kaskade, has a song I’m totally in love with right now, ‘Wink of an Eye’. Illianna and I danced to it last night before bath time. Everyone should have something by Kaskade on their ipod.

          

I don’t forward chainmail, so I’ll post it.

3-year-old Reese: “Our Father, Who does art in heaven, Harold is His name. Amen.”

A little boy was overheard praying: “Lord, if you can’t make me a better boy, don’t worry about it. I’m having a real good time like I am.”

After the christening of his baby brother in church, Jason sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car. His father asked him three times what was wrong. Finally, the boy replied, “That preacher said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home, and I wanted to stay with you guys.”

I had been teaching my three-year old daughter, Caitlin, the Lord’s Prayer for several evenings at bedtime. She would repeat after me the lines from the prayer. Finally, she decided to go solo. I listened with pride as she carefully enunciated each word, right up to the end of the prayer: “Lead us not into temptation,” she prayed, “but deliver us from E-mail.

One particular four-year-old prayed, “And forgive us our trash baskets as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets.”

A Sunday school teacher asked her children as they were on the way to church service, “And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?”

One bright little girl replied, “Because people are sleeping.”

Six-year-old Angie and her four-year-old brother, Joel, were sitting together in church. Joel giggled, sang, and talked out loud. Finally, his big sister had had enough.

“You’re not supposed to talk out loud in church.”

“Why? Who’s going to stop me?” Joel asked.

Angie pointed to the back of the church and said, “See those two men standing by the door?

They’re hushers.”

A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons,Kevin 5, and Ryan 3. The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake. Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson.

“If Jesus were sitting here, He would say,

‘Let my brother have the first pancake, I can wait.’

Kevin turned to his younger brother and said,

“Ryan, you be Jesus!”

A father was at the beach with his children when the four-year-old son ran up to him, grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore where a seagull lay dead in the sand.

“Daddy, what happened to him?” the son asked.

“He died and went to Heaven,” the Dad replied.

The boy thought a moment and then said,

“Did God throw him back down?”

A wife invited some people to dinner. At the table, she turned to their six-year-old daughter and said,

“Would you like to say the blessing?”

“I wouldn’t know what to say,” the girl replied.

“Just say what you hear Mommy say,” the wife answered.

The daughter bowed her head and said, “Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?”