Son Sneed is slightly improved today, but still kind of disoriented. The poor guy is trying to get his medical records for the events surrounding his DUI arrest, but the boneheads at Carondelet St. Joseph's Hospital are refusing to let him have them because they don't want him using the information in a court case. I have a call in to the administration of the hospital so that I can read them their own Patient's Bill of Rights, which says he has a right to a copy. They don't know what a pain-in-the -ass I can be. My young friend at work got his new car today and he is very happy about it. He was telling me that he got a major deal, because the car that he agreed to buy turned out to have been previously spoken for, so the dealer gave him different car, with free floor mats and tinted windows. I take back what I said about this being a dopey deal. Speaking of dopey ideas, American Express has teamed up with a couple of mortgage lenders to allow borrowers to pay their mortgages, using their American Express cards. For a $395 one-time fee borrowers at American Home Mortgage Investment Corp and IndyMac Bankcorp can use their cards to pay the mortgage and earn airline miles or cash back. I have to believe that American Express is counting on people not paying off that balance every month. I guess the mortgage companies figure the fee they pay to American Express to process the payments will be made up in additional business. I wouldn't do it. This program is chock full of traps for the borrower. Not paying it off in full each month subjects the payment to a far higher interest rate than a mortgage carries. A sudden change in the interest rate could spell disaster. Most credit card lenders have a universal default provision that says if you pay any bill late, they have the right to charge their maximum allowable interest rate, regardless of whether you are late with them. Even slow mail, could trip you up. It is not worth the risk to me. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky Tag: Daily Life Personal Finance Humor