Mon 24 Sep 2007
I’ve been away for the last 10 days or so on a well-deserved vacation. Here are a few updates that all have to do with money:
- The Fed lowered the Prime Rate, and ING Direct lowered their interests rates the next day
- Helio finally gave me the $272 they owed me (which after 9 months they should owe me $10 interest, but whatever)
- I now work for wesabe.com, a personal finance website
- I’m switching to EverBank from ING’s Orange Savings and Wells Fargo’s checking
I’m really excited about the new job, in part because I think it’s a cool company with a good product, but also because I’ll still get to do Rails work with some pretty cool people, like Coda Hale and Andre Arko. Attendio was a good learning experience for me, and I wish them luck in the future, but I think it was time for me to move on and I think I made the right decision.
Number 1 doesn’t bother me so much because of number 4, as EverBank has yet to lower their rates (which stand at 5.01% APY vs. ING’s 4.20% APY for Money Market and 3.65% APY vs. WellsFargo’s 0.00% APY on checking). EverBank also lets you send electronic (or paper) checks, though you can’t write them yourself — you do it online — and you get an ATM card which you can use at BofA, Wells Fargo, and more and they will reimburse you up to $6/mo in fees from other banks, which I estimate to be about two withdraws per month — more than I ever make.
The Helio thing came four days after my last conversation with them (9/17 to 9/21), indicating that perhaps the only way to get your refund back is to be a persistent and bitchy thorn in their side. I’m glad that chapter in my life is closed.
September 26th, 2007 at 07.23
Congrats on the new job and refund. On the finance side - unfortunately even with the great rates of ING you still only barely make a positive net return when you factor in inflation. I have found that investing in the stock market and real estate can provide meaningful gains… of course you can lose a lot too
September 26th, 2007 at 14.07
irc much?
September 26th, 2007 at 16.58
Yeah, forgot about inflation. Damn it! Do you invest in particular stocks or in mutual funds? Or something else? I keep thinking that’d be a better thing to do than a money market account, but the security of the money market is nice ‘n cozy.
November 15th, 2007 at 07.47
I’m still trying to get my refund after 9 months too, how did you do it?
November 30th, 2007 at 13.24
@kevin: I was just persistent. I made sure to write down the name and employee number of every person I talked to, recorded when I talked to them and what they told me. I made them give me estimates as to when the refund would be ready, and what was the longest possible time it could take to get it. I made sure that when we cleared up one of their “reasons” for delaying it (package arrived late, damaged, not at all, etc), that they acknowledged it and put that fact in the notes.
I called every few weeks, usually around the “expected” time as well as a week or so before the “absolute latest” time. The amount of time it took to do this was not insignificant, leading me to believe that Helio (and other companies that do this) just try to wait you out so that they can keep your money.
July 14th, 2008 at 15.35
I wish I never signed with helio! Everytime I call I get a different story. i am a victim of fraud and was told that my account can be canceled at anytime within 90 days from the people at the helio store in Palo Alto Aalifornia. The person was fired shortly after and after being told to contact helio after months I was told that once I paid the phone calls and service fees the matter would be closed. they then tried to charge me for early termination and sent me to collections.
I realize 12 dollars is not a high amount but is the principle. I need to know how I can take them down for this. They lie and give people the run around for everything. They are the worst company i have ever dealt with and would gladly join a class action lawsuit