Hey all you DirecTV subscribers!  Oh.  Hey both of you DirecTV subscribers!  (Really, how many of you read this that have DirecTV?)

Seriously, though, DirecTV is offering up some free previews in September, so check them out!

• Choice Xtra - 9/1/09 - 9/7/09
• Game Lounge - 9/4/09 - 9/6/09
• NFL Sunday Ticket - 9/13/09
• Starz - 9/17/09 - 9/20/09

DirecTV runs these free previews quite often.  I'll try to remind you if you are bad at checking, like me.  (We missed the HD Xtra preview last weekd.  )  It seems like Game Lounge is on preview every time there's a holiday weekend.

If you don't have DirecTV, what are you waiting for?   They currently have a promotion where you and I both receive a $100 credit on our bills if you subscribe and refer to my account number when subscribing.  If you're interested, shoot me a message and I will give you the hookup!

(Pardon the multiplicity of Facebook/Twitter/Blogging about this...but read on if u wanna.)

...not by switching to Geico, but by joining the BJ's Rewards Membership program instead of the regular membership program I joined.

If I had, they would have sent me a check* for $25.19. All I needed to do was pay them an extra $35 to get my $25.19 check*.  (Is this one of them Nigerian 419 scams???)

*By check, they mean a BJ's Reward, which I assume is probably not a check* at all, but rather a gift card or a credit to my account.

Why is there no Krispy Kreme in Durham?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Our neighbor* Meg** was taking a trip out to an Arts & Crafts Conference in Asheville and decided to do the environmentally friendly thing and go Greyhound.  After the internet page gave her errors with each attempt to purchase a ticket, she called the ticket hotline and they said that her billing information didn't match her account.  She finally went to the bus station to purchase her ticket.

Apparently, it wasn't really important that her billing information match her account in order for her to be charged for the ticket, it was just important that her billing information match her account in order for her to receive the ticket.  So meanwhile, she had $1000 worth of charges hit her account, activating a fraud watch on her account, and keeping the $1000 from leaving her account.

This makes me wonder, did she ever pay for the ticket?

Read the firsthand account at Simpson's Paradox, or the secondhand account at Consumerist.

* I use the term "neighbor" very loosely...she lives the next city over, and we've never met.

** Last name withheld to prevent her from Googling herself.  NTTAWWT...I Google myself sometimes.  Of course, I'm sure she'll be Googling Meg Greyhound to see what comes up, but...ah, whatev.  Welcome, Meg!

From the home offices located just south of the Bushy Fork-Gordonton-Hester's Store-Hurdle Mills Metro area, here's today's top ten things you can tell yourself to get (further) into debt:

10 things things you can tell yourself to get (further) into debt

10.   Oh noes!  Emergency!
9.  I deserve this.
8.  Oooh, look!  Sale!!!
7.  Oh, it's only just a few bucks.
6.  Oh, the payment is just a few bucks.
5.  I'll get it back in credit card rewards.
4.  0% APR?  I'm there!
3.  I'll just use this 0% APR transfer for this card...
2.  I'll write it off for my business.
1.  I'll pay it off when I graduate, get a job, win the lottery, etc.

[Stolen from Consumerist who stole it from MSN.]

Now's a good time to be looking at your finances.  Actually, it's always a good time to be looking at your finances, especially if you haven't taken a good hard look at them before.  This article from The Consumerist has lots of hints for these here tough economic times.