First, a story: My mom took me out on a date last night. I picked her up from her workshop (my favorite moment of the day was at 7:30 a.m. when I had both kids and their bags in the backseat and my mom and her bag in the front seat and I dropped her off in front of the science building at TCU, "Bye mom, have a good day!" and then dropped the kids off at their daycare, "Bye kids, love you!" and then proceeded to work. It made me smile to think that my little brood had grown by one child and several decades in age difference) and then we went shopping at Marshall's (where I resisted purchasing a gorgeous pair of deep red Kate Spade patent wedges, on clearance, IN MY SIZE, for $50 ($50!! original price $289); after passing that test, I feel I can now conquer the world, though the whole experience just confirmed my belief that if you never go in stores you never have to find things you want and then painfully talk yourself out of buying them) and then she treated me to quesadillas at Gloria’s (the best) and a 7:30 showing of Magic Mike. MM is a Soderbergh film and rather artfully shot for a movie full of so many peni. It might not win an Oscar, but I enjoyed the dancing and the nice views (of the ocean). Also, there was a plot, and not a bad one at that, but mostly I just kept wishing they'd show Channing Tatum dancing again.
And now, the two requests for advice:
(1) Home security alarms: yes or no? I've never had a home security system- not growing up or as an adult in Chicago or Austin- but I'm contemplating signing up for a monitoring service here in Fort Worth (the house is already fully wired). We live in a very nice neighborhood, but it's very close to downtown and highways and other neighborhoods "in transition" and we get regular reports of breaking and entering and other minor criminal activity over our neighborhood "crime watch" listserve. Those don't concern me too much- they mostly take place during the day in empty houses and we have a dog and a gate and a work-from-home family member, but I'm wondering if knowing there's an alarm and a button we can press for emergency services in a few rooms of the house would be a comfort now that JP is traveling for a week of every month. I have a slightly overactive imagination that is exacerbated by my insomnia and my mind frequently gets stuck on this loop of "what if someone tried to get in the house? what would I do? I have absolutely no skills, weapons, or access to help except through my cell phone which is usually at the bottom of my purse in the kitchen..." I have nothing but stubby fingernails and a mother's bone deep "you will get near my children over my dead body" instinct, but honestly, it wouldn't be very hard to kill me and I know that and it freaks me the hell out. I do now sleep with my phone on the nightstand when JP is gone, but still, do you think an alarm service would help at all? In my head and in reality? Does anyone have one and find they are really glad of it? Or is it more the experience my family had when signed up for one and then we kids kept setting it off until my dad called and canceled after about 4 weeks. The monthly monitoring would be an expense, but an acceptable one- the quotes I have aren't too bad and would just cut into our (shallow, but existing) budget for eating out and other entertainment, and I'm quite willing to make the sacrifice if someone besides the ADT commercial gives me a good reason to.
(2) Travel rewards/points credit cards: which one? Now I'm just blatantly trying to piggy back on research other personal finance minded people have done. We put everything on our credit card - everything - and, with one stressful outlier this past May that is now resolved, pay it off in full every month. It's our cheater way of living on a budget. We have an amount we've decided the credit card cannot go over, we both check the balance frequently online or on our phones, and if we get close, we stop buying anything except for gas and groceries. It works better for us than excel sheets and itemized budgets. We currently have the 1% cash back card JP got when he signed up for his very first credit card in 2003. I added myself to the account when we got married and we've been using it ever since. It's fine, and the little cash back checks are nice, but I can't help but feel -- especially in light of my dreams of travel and family vacations and new need to purchase four airline tickets if we ever want to fly anywhere -- that we might get more bang for our buck if we were earning airline miles or hotel points or other magic points I hear about on TV commercials and then get confused when I go online to read their fine print. Any recommendations? DFW is our closest airport which is a hub for American Airlines, so I contemplated just getting an AA credit card, but then I read a bunch of articles online that told me not to do that and now I'm back to doing nothing.
Thoughts on any of the above? Next up, I can promise a new RRA post and a post on the Lanman's 5th birthday (to be discussed separately, because a joint post would be weird, kind of like seeing a penis-filled stripper movie with your mother), but for now we can (pretend to) be responsible adults and discuss the pros and cons security systems and credit cards. Then romance novels and then my firstborn's birthday. Priorities.
Thanks!
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I live in the DC metro area (Rockville) and have lots of friends of the police/FBI type. They have all told me that a loud dog does more than an alarm system. They believe most criminals can over ride alarm systems pretty easily. Our dog is loud and seems to know every movement in the neighborhood. Don't know if that helps.
ReplyDeleteI think the thing to look at on credit cards is fees and interest rates. Even if you don't carry a balance, the fees on rewards cards can be pretty steep.
Looking forward to a RRA post. You introduced me to the Outlander books, for which I am grateful.
I've been wondering about the home alarm systems myself so I'm looking forward to replied. When I was a renter in a bad neighborhood our landlord installed and paid for an alarm. Mostly, it was so frantic having to get to the number pad and remember how to enter the passcode before police were summoned. I kept forgetting the password that my roomate selected and then I forgot the secret code to utter over the phone to tell the alarm ppl that the alarm going off was an accident. Seems like more trouble than it's worth but I would definitely feel safer with one.
ReplyDeleteAmex blue cash card hands down. It has a fee but you make it up fast, and get 6% on groceries. The AA card is pretty good but I found I could never really get the tickets I wanted w.o the big miles trade in, which isn't worth it to me (remember your nightmare trip to Chicago via rkansas?
ReplyDeleteAlarm system - I have one and the false alarms have definitely caused more than their fair share of stress. I like having it though mainly for two purposes. One - when I'm away and nobody is at home. Two - at night, set to go off it anybody tries to get in. I think it'd definitely worth having two keypads (one by the entry door to turn off immediately to avoid any fumbling) and one in the bedroom if you ever need to set it off manually for some reason.
ReplyDeleteCredit card - If you have a costco membership anyway, I definitely love their AmEx credit card.
I am very thankful for our alarm system. We live in a nice neighborhood, but those are the neighborhoods that burglars target. Someone actually tried to break into our house a few months ago while we were at work. They broke the window on the back door and would have been able to reach in and open it from the inside, but the alarm went off and they ran away. We spent $100 to repair the window instead of thousands replacing our laptops and TVs. Yes, it's true that sophisticated burglars can circumvent them, but it will deter the more common casual criminals. And it gives me huge peace of mind when I go to sleep at night.
ReplyDeleteCheck to see if you get a discount on your homeowner's insurance for having an alarm system. The discount on our's made up the difference in the monthly expense. However, DO NOT use Protection One. They tricked us into signing a 3 year contract that we had cancel at the 2 year mark because we moved into an apartment out of state. We got to pay for a whole year of service that we never got to use. In addition, we had a malfunction with our system and they refused to come out and physically look at they system and opted to try to fix it over the phone which of course did not work.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I don't have an alarm because we live in a crime-free neighborhood in North Richland Hills, about 20 minutes from downtown FW.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, my parents, before they moved into their current, gated community, did have one. They lived in a nice neighborhood in east Fort Worth but were also near the highway/many apartment complexes, and my dad liked to fish on the weekends at Lake Texoma.
My mom and I appreciated the security of the alarm; in fact, the two times my parents were robbed it was my car (as the teenager with the cheapest car, I got to park outside) and their lawnmower (Daddy caught the robber in the act, and chased him down!) So who knows if the alarm signage prevented an actual "house" robbery or not, but it made us *feel* safer and sleep better.
Oh -- we only set the alarm off once when I had to come through a different door because I forgot my keys. False alarms weren't a hassle at all.
I grew up in a nice neighborhood in Houston, but the areas all around it can only be described as the ghetto. Breakin's were something I was very familiar with as a child. We finally got an alarm system after someone tried to break-in while my dad was home taking a nap on a Saturday afternoon. Thankfully, he forced me to go with my mom to the laundromat, to clean the comforters.
ReplyDeleteIt's something you get used to very easily. Never had many false alarms. As a child I loved being able to set and disarm the system. I think it is great for when no one is at home, and again for at night when it's set on instant.
I can't say as to if it made me feel more safe, but it also didn't make me think we were unsafe. It's more like an added bonus or safety net.
No advice on the alarm but two thoughts about credit cards: hubs did tons of research when we were combining finances and the amex blue cash card won. You do get more of a reward on some items and the % increases after you hit a certain threshold. It has worked great for us. A miles/airline card does not make sense for is right nowbut if i was going to get one i would strongly consider the capital one venture card. It is the annoying alec baldwin commercial one, but my parents have it and we used some of their miles recently for a trip. We had a good range of options for flights and could combine airlines to get the best deal. What sealed it was how helpful their phone customer service was when we needed to change the reservation--it was so refreshing!
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I got the Capital One Venture card earlier this year and we love it. There is a small annual fee after the first year ($79, I think) but it is essentially 2% back on everything. It is very easy to redeem the miles for travel expenses that you have made on the card in the last ninety days, and they seem pretty liberal about what is considered travel. Also, if you plan to do any international travel in the future, it is one of the few cards without foreign transaction fees, which are often around 3% -- we got the card beause we were about to leave the country for the first time in eight (!) years and didn't want to have to deal with those nasty fees.
ReplyDeleteI am a therapist, and have worked with a lot of criminals, both in the jail and in the office. A lot of these guys are actually decent human beings who committed their crimes while under the influence of drugs. So, when they see a young-ish female therapist, they decide to become all brother-like, and give advice for how to protect myself from people like them. I have always been told, repeatedly, that a home alarm is not a deterrent. Most of these guys can deactivate that in mere seconds. However, a "Beware of Dog" sign with a large dog and a loud bark is a huge deterrent, and the common theme is that they avoided homes with dogs.
ReplyDeleteAs for credit cards; my husband uses the United Airlines one, and I use the Disney Rewards one. Both have great rewards. My husband has earned enough miles to pay almost entirely for our family of 3's roundtrip to Orlando in January, and I'm counting on my Disney one to pay for incidentals in the park, and probably a Cinderella lunch. Prior to our Disney trip planning, I had a Citibank Mastercard; I always let my reward points accumulate until I had enough to get me a nice sized Red Door Spa giftcard and used it to pamper myself. Last year, I had enough for an entire spa day, complete with spa lunch, massage, facial, mani/pedi and hair cut. For close to $500, that was a treat I would NEVER allow myself to do regularly.
I had the AA card for years and used it for free flights all the time. It was very convenient (as I was flying out of Austin, through Dallas, mostly all the time - I found that the cheaper flights were also on AA out of Austin to anywhere on the East Coast, and so between buying tickets here and there (and getting miles from that), using the card regularly (and getting miles from those dollars), I racked up pretty regular free flights, and the bonus was that I often (like almost everytime at the end) got bumped to first class. I miss that card and AA now that I'm in Houston. :(
ReplyDeleteAs for home security, I've heard the same about large barking dogs. Luckily, I have two (I like in a ghettoish area now - lots of houses around here seem to have dogs - mostly pitbulls, but whatever). There are homeless people who practically live on the other side of a concrete wall from my yard, and no one has tried to break in yet. That's merely anecdotal, but I have a lot of important things in my house (because I work from home) and I think I'm pretty safe at this point.
We have an alarm (unmonitored) and don't use it.
ReplyDeleteI hate them, they stress me out - seeing it makes me feel less safe. I hate the horrible noise they make to make you go and turn them off.
But I grew up in New Zealand, and in my parents youth no one even locked their doors. I have relatives who even now, on a farm, don't do that.
Alarms are a reminder of the inequality that has developed since my youth, and they are a trigger to make me question my safety.
I have had a flatmate who obsessed about locks, and another who always forgot to lock the door - and the latter was less stressful for me.
In a third we were actually burgled, and it surprises me still how little it bothered me.
That said, my daily precaution is not to tempt fate - I make sure my laptop is out of sight of a window.
RE cards - you can always trust cash, but you can't necessarily trust airmiles.
ReplyDeleteI was robbed in May....they hit the house in the middle of the day. I did not have an alarm then. They hit another house in the same neighborhood that day and that victim DID have an alarm. Clearly, not always a deterrent. I have a system now, to appease my parents (even though there is nothing left to take!). ADT is a wired system, and the wires can easily be cut from the outside to disable the alarm. I chose a cellular based security system, so there are no wires that can be cut. There is also a barking dog thing you can get for your front door, I think. Someone at my work has one.
ReplyDeleteAs for the card, I have had a capital one rewards card (not the same as the venture one) for many years now and like the fact I get points. Points can be used for merchandise (I got an elliptical), airline tix, gift cards, cash back or be applied to pay off part of your statement. I, too, put everything on my card. Have gotten a lot of nice stuff for my points over the years. No expiration on points and no annual fee.
Get the alarm system, or something else to make you feel safe. Particularly if you spending a lot of time home alone with the kiddos.
ReplyDeleteCredit Cards: I had the AA credit card when I traveled for work out of DFW - worked great - but at that time I was flying American about 2-3 times a week - my company was paying for the flights and I got to keep the points. Once I stopped traveling for work it was impossible to spend enough to actually make an airline card worth it. I would recommend a hotel card. It's much easier to earn free nights. We decided to do a Marriott Visa, because Marriott is everywhere and they have a wide variety of levels so there's a lot of flexibility in how you can use the points (e.g. use points throughout the year at lower ranked hotels or save up for the luxury resort), but Hilton would be good as well. I don't think I would recommend a Starwood card (even though their hotels are fabulous): it's like the airline cards and hard to earn enough points to pay for those fabulous hotels. We charge everything we can to the Marriott, and we've earned plenty of free nights every year (including 3 nights we are using at the Marriott Hilton Head resort this summer).
We live in a good neighborhood, but we have a split bedroom design and are expecting our first baby. I did a lot of research and decided on FrontPoint security. It's wireless and affordable. I know you already have the wiring, but I really like the idea of wireless. Not only that, the rep I worked with gave me his extension and worked with me a few times, even emailing. He also sent me an email verifying that I could change the contract terms within six months of signing up (and I didn't even have to ASK for it). Look for deals signing up -- I don't remember where I found one, but it was just that several components were included (motion sensor, door/window sensors, fire, etc.). It has given me some peace!
ReplyDeleteoh, and you can bring the system with you if you move. :-)
ReplyDeleteI can't speak to alarm systems as I don't have one. Our house is wired but we didn't want to spend the money to turn it on. Plus, there was going to be an extra fee to tie it to our cell phones since we don't have a landline phone...
ReplyDeleteAs for credit cards. My husband and I have a gold AMEX and love it. We put everything on it and pay off the bill every month. In the past few years, we have used the points to buy some fun "luxury" electronics items that we wouldn't have bought otherwise (my favorite is the Bose soundsystem). The only drawback for us is that not everyone takes AMEX and then we have to whip out the debit card and remember to write that down in the check book...
I suffered night-time paranoias for YEARS. It was miserable waking up in the middle of the night to the random odd sound, convinced someone was trying to break in. Sigh. Fortunately, my paranoias eased up with we moved into this house and oddly, when I became pregnant. Once in a while when my husband travels, my fears will flare up, but overall, I am mostly sleeping through the night.
ReplyDeleteThe worst part of my paranioas is that when I would try to talk to my friends about them, their immediate reaction was "Get an alarm!". The problem is that alarms can be circumvented and I knew that in middle of the night, my mind would still go to dark places and that an alarm would be a waste of money.
That is just my 2 cents on alarms.
I live in probably the safest little corner of suburbia ever, but my husband insisted we have an alarm because he travels frequently. We have the ADT wireless system, and I love it. I have a little remote that I can use to turn on once I get upstairs and we have the glass break alarm setup downstairs because the whole back of the house is glass doors/windows. We've had it for about a year, and after 2 years, we can drop the monthly monitoring fee and still have all of the equipment and functioning alarms for free. That's what we were really interested in because we don't have dog, but I think the super loud alarm would get our neighbor's attention if someone did try to break in.
ReplyDeleteAs for credit cards, we currently use the Capital One 1% cash back, but after a lot of research, we're switching to the amex blue.
We have a point for every dollar you spend credit card (mastercard, via citibank). We use the points to buy gift cards for Christmas each year, either giving the resulting cards AS the gift, or using the cards ourselves to buy the gifts, depending on the # of points and their relative value. I do occasionally look around for other cards/deals, but usually decide it's too much trouble to go through changing to another card.
ReplyDeleteOne thing you might want to try to look at when making your decision is how many points go into a dollar's worth of reward. For example, if a $100 purchase on my card, gives me 100 points, how many points do I need to cash in to get a $5 gift card? $50? And so on. For us, it's about 100 points/dollar of reward.
We purchased an alarm system about 6 months ago from SafeMart. It's a DIY wireless system (SO easy to install). We have a ton of doors & windows and my husband travels regularly. I was most concerned about the basement because if anyone got in that door I would not hear it at all. The entire system plus monitoring for a year was around $900. MUCH cheaper than ADT. We haven't had any false alarms and it works on a cell signal so it doesn't matter if you have a landline. I sleep much better knowing we have the alarm. It also has a cool iphone app/website where you can arm it remotely, check on the status, see when doors and windows were opened etc. Love it!
ReplyDeleteWe never set our alarm but I always know when a door is opened (beeping noise) which is good for tracking the kids, and I know that if the smoke detectors trigger, the fire department is called, which makes me feel good for when we are not at home, etc. Also just being able to jump up and hit emergency (never had to do it though). So we don't even use it for security really (maybe just deterrence) but to me the other features justify the $35/month we pay.
ReplyDeleteFrontPoint is who I chose as well. It's all cellular, so you don't need a landline, and it has that handy cell phone app. ADT doesn't get top ratings as a provider anymore, even with their wireless system (I am a researcher...gotta research everything before I buy). FrontPoint was easy to install, you can get door/window, motion and glass break sensors, and then turn the chime of the doors on/off if it is annoying to you, and turn off motion at night, so kids waking up don't set off the alarm. Plus, they give you a ton of signs and stickers. The police who responded to my robbery (before alarm system) said they ALL happen during the day. They knock on doors and if no one answers, they pick the house in the middle of the "no answer" zone to hit.
ReplyDeleteWe just got an ADT alarm system a few months ago when my husband took a job that will cause him to travel more. I just don't sleep when he's gone, and some nights when he's home, too (except I can get him to get up and investigate). The ADT rep came to my house and walked through and gave me all sorts of tips of non-security-system things to do (large visible dowels in sliding windows; longer screws in hinges/strikeplates on doors; etc). I really appreciated that.
ReplyDeleteWhat I also really like about ADT is that the alarm system is activated via key fob which is on my key chain. Therefore, I don't have to worry about getting to a keypad somewhere. The key fob has a panic button on it as well, which is exactly what I was looking for. (ps- the key fob only works within a 100 or so feet of your house, so you don't have to worry about setting off false alarms from work or anything). Back in the day I remember having motion sensors in every room and I think there were a lot of false alarms back then. I think the systems are simpler now and the panic button is the key for me anyway (and the fire alarm for when we're gone).
As for credit cards, I definitely use the airline cards (alaska air for me) and because vacations are such a big deal for me, I love that we just generally don't pay for a lot of airline tickets. We have two, and with each one we get a companion ticket ($99) which is really nice, too. Makes Hawaii trips a lot more do-able! So look for companion tickets -- they more than pay for the annual fee!
My husband has also had Amex, and the rewards were nice (we booked two nights in a fabulous hotel in Sonoma), but we are phasing it out since I really want all our purchases on one card and there are way too many places that don't take amex. And the fees are pretty hefty, too.
We have an alarm b.c my husband works out of town two days a week. It's cellular based which is awesome, as another person mentioned, wires cannot be cut to bypass. I also have a key fob I can use to activate the alarm if I hear someone breaking in or something - it would go off but it calls the police after 60 seconds, which would be a LONG 60 seconds if someone was breaking in. So I got the key fob remote. You can use it like a car remote to turn the alarm on and off and to alert the police - I actually hung it on a 3M hook by my bed to make sure that it was always there! It's super handy for nights alone and getting the anxiety to go away!
ReplyDeleteI saw Magic Mike last night too! And while the plot was fine and the Soderbergh touch was evident, I frankly could have watched 2 hours of Channing Tatum dancing too. Damn.
ReplyDeleteFor the first time in my life (I'm from Austin, now live in East Dallas), I have an alarm system. Honestly, we rarely ever turn the sensors on, but I like to know an alarm would sound if the windows broke and that we can push a panic button if need be.
ReplyDeleteDo you ever fly out of Love on Southwest? We have a Southwest Visa and the points are soooooo much better than our AA AmEx. The only thing we can ever use the AA points for is first class upgrades. Which, fun, but not quite the practical perk we were hoping for when we originally signed up. But we get tons of free SW tickets.
I know everyone thinks a big dog is a great deterrent but my sister's house was broken into even though her roommate had a huge dog with a really loud bark. They broke in through a window that did not have a sensor for the alarm and left through the front door which set off the alarm and did not come back. When the police showed up they would not even go into the house because of the dog. Also as my sister pointed out if the burglar has a gun they can just shoot the dog and a dog does not call 911.
ReplyDeleteAlso just to comment about accidentally setting off the alarm. I grew up with an alarm system and it was never really a problem. If you are consistent with setting the alarm it will just become a habit. It only took my niece 1 time of setting the alarm and now she makes sure the alarm is off before going outside.
If possible, which maybe it's not, I'd recommend you not read the neighborhood crime watch. It has a way of making the absolute safest neighborhoods seem like crime happens every second. If you must, you should notice whether there are actually nighttime break-ins, break-ins where people are present, or break-ins involving armed burglars before making a financial decision based on your self-described overactive imagination! Just realize that "what if there were burglars...while we were all home...WITH GUNS" - is almost certainly not happening, and that it's worth digesting that before signing a security contract.
ReplyDeleteWhich leads to the other point - multiple people have told me that home alarms are police's absolute lowest priority, because false alarms are so common. There is basically no chance that the automatic 911 call that happens on an alarm tripping (without you also calling) is going to result in a police car showing up while burglars are still in the house. Also, virtually all home burglars want your electronics, not to assault you. The answer is to get out of the house, and more generally, understand that this situation is incredibly unlikely, than to imagine a scary violent encounter which can be stopped by the alarm. Does that make sense?
Anyway, it seems I'm in the minority here, but for my money, I'd go for a big Beware of Dog sign, one of those fake "we have an alarm system" stickers, and leaving a light on at night if that helps you sleep better. And also some of those tips for making it harder to open windows from the outside. Good luck. :)
Not to freak you out, but my sister lives in FTW and had houses broken into twice, once when she was in the shower. It was completely harmless in the end--the person just ran out when he realized someone was home--but she installed a security alarm after that and felt much, much better. I say for peace of mind go for it--you can always cancel; better that than wonder if it would make you feel better to have one.
ReplyDeleteAs for cards, we have an alaska miles card (probably not practical for DFW) but do love getting the miles from an airline card.
My husband and I put all of our expenses on our AA card every month and pay it off at the end of the month. We have had it since 2006 and have taken multiple trips internationally using our miles. It is completely worth it. The cash back you get compared to the ticket prices of international flights is not really much of a comparison. We were able to travel first class to England in an off peak time (direct I might add) for $225 each (taxes). Our honeymoon airfare was nearly free with our miles as well. One thing to consider is keeping an eye on their promotional offers when they give 2 miles for every dollar spent or 1.5 miles etc.
ReplyDeleteI have nothing to contribute except that I have that crazy 'what if someone gets into the house' loop of thinking (especially when the hubby is away) and it freaks me out- especially now that I am pregnant. I am trying to convince him to get a alarm system like my parents have, but he doesn't see a reason.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am jealous of everyone who as seen MM already. I was supposed to go ages ago with a sorority sister, but it just hasn't worked out! Must make it a priority. Channing Tatum is beautiful. That's all.