The Geezeo team would like to thank Hannah Waters for all of her hard work this past month. She’s posted a number of interesting blogs and is very dedicated to the Brand Executive team. Hannah will be receiving a $30.00 gift certificate to Starbucks as a token of our appreciation.
Keep up your hard work Hannah!
Our Brand Executives have been giving us some AMAZING feedback and are coming up with new marketing strategies every day!
Every week we are proud to announce new members of the
GEEZEO TEAM!
- Brand Executives 5/21 -
Joscelyn Chang
Babson College (Natick, MA), Graduating May ‘09
Major: Business Management
With large numbers of resumes from Babson College, Joscelyn stood out in the crowd with her professionalism and outgoing personality. Previously Joscelyn was Vice President of CellTagz, part of Babson’s Marketing and Information Technology Departments as well as working in the Marketing Department for Babson Magazine. Welcome to Geezeo Joscelyn!
Roschaad Milner
[ picture coming soon ]
University of South Carolina, Graduating May ‘08
Major: English
Minor: Advertising and Public Relations
Roschaad has previous experience in sales, media campaigns, planning and researching in both the Advertising and Public Relations fields. His past work endeavors have provided with him quality assurance that will assist him in his Brand Executive position. Previously Roschaad has also participated in a number of volunteer efforts. We’re excited he has joined the Geezeo team!
Jeanine Wurtz
Boston University, Graduating May ‘09
Major: Communications
Concentration: Advertising
Jeanine has previously worked as an intern in the Marketing Department of Life Balance media as well as NBC Weekend Sports Update. In addition to Geezeo, this summer Jeanine is working at Rubin Postaer and Associations Advertising and Marketing Agency. Jeanine’s enthusiastic and friendly personality combined with her experience makes her a great addition to the Geezeo team!
We’re so excited to have Molly Zuccarini join the Geezeo team as our Intern!
Molly is an English Communications major at Emmanuel College in Boston. She’s involved with the Admissions Ambassadors program where she is responsible for recruiting, interviewing, and hiring students to represent Emmanuel to potential freshman and transfers. As the Director of Communications and the head of Public Relations in the Student Government Association she acts as a liaison between the SGA and the student body. She also handles the advertising and other various marketing related duties.  This past semester Molly worked on a semester long project developing and marketing an independent website with other Emmanuel students that discussed offbeat topics related to college students and their lives.
Molly lives right next to Fenway Park, so it goes without saying… she’s a HUGE Red Sox fan! Â In her free time, Molly enjoys spending time with her boyfriend, friends, and family. Â She loves Boston, spending time outside, and going out with friends.
Welcome to the team Molly!
I read a great article by A.B.A.E.F. & Mike Hardcastle that gives tips on how to save money in college! They are all really useful so definitely try and read them – below is the link, but I will also include my own summary…
1. Create a budget -
It’s hard to know how much you are spending if you don’t set limits for yourself. That’s why Geezeo Mobile is good too… checking your balance is very important when budgeting! 2. Get organized. Keep receipts from the ATM and any purchases. This will make it easy to pay the bills and recheck that you’re still within your budget. Also, if you begin to notice that you might need to cut down on spending, looking back at all of your receipts is good when deciding what you do and do not REALLY need to be buying (ie Starbucks everyday…?)
3. Buy used books. – This is an easy one. We are all victims of getting barely anything back in return for an $80 textbook.
4. Keep the car home. For all those who live in
Boston… its impossible to never get a parking ticket around here. Plus meters, gas, insurance… think about all those factors before you decide if it is worth it to have a car.
5. Shop around. Don’t be too quick to buy something when you think you can find it for a better price at another store.
6. Get smart about credit. Don’t spend too much. Simple as that 
7. Live within your means. Know what you can afford. Is it really worth it? Do you really need it?
8. Smart spending equals savings. Sometimes a day on the beach is better than a day of shopping. Find ways to entertain yourself that doesn’t mean emptying out your wallet. While a trip to the movies can be fun, maybe it could be fun to make it a Blockbuster night…
9. Protect yourself. Be careful of fraud and identity theft. Guard your credit card, PIN and account numbers.
10. Pay attention. Read your bills and statements each month. Are they all correct? Here’s the link, Enjoy ! http://teenadvice.about.com/cs/collegelife/a/bl10moneytips.htm
I read a great article on youngmoney.com about how to manage debt and limit your spending through college, I will place the link to the article at the end of this blog, but I will summarize it as sometimes the links seem to expire!
Tip #1 – Smart Debt vs. Stupid Debt
Smart debt are your student loans, you take out this debt in order to get further in life through an education. Education however turns into bad debt when you ignore your school life and just decide to party non-stop. Nobody said you couldn’t have fun in school…just dont get yourself into bad educational debt if it won’t get you anywhere after school but into more trouble. Also, spending much more than you have is stupid debt. Don’t put everything on your credit card. You don’t want to go backwards and live more glamorously during college than you will after college.
Tip #2 – Know How Much You Can Borrow
Tip #3 – Consolidate Student Loans
Use the Geezeo student section for great information on this!!
Tip #4 – Paying Off Debt
Pay off consumer debt before you pay off more than the minimum monthly payment on your student loans. Compare the interest rates on your various balances.
Tip #5 – Pay Your Bills On Time
Paying your bills on time is extremely important! Even one late payment can lower your FICO score…you want this number as high as possible (hopefully over 700!) because the lower the score, the more you will pay to borrow.
Tip #6 – Think Hard About Grad School
Obviously Grad School is a very personal decision, but sometimes its great to experience the working world before rushing into Grad School. This is because you are losing out on working experience at school, and it is extremely expensive!
Hope this was useful to some people!! Here’s the link in case you want to read the full article:
http://www.youngmoney.com/credit_debt/get_out_of_debt/060830
It seems that everyone has at least one place in Boston -either restaurants or a store- that they believe to be Boston’s best kept secret. So I found a way for all of us to share those places where there is great food for cheap and great shopping for good prices. This way we can all experience the best without going broke!!www.flagr.com it is sharewhere! I created a map on the site called “good priced shopping/eating in Boston” and my username is Jeanie. —- look it up! So let us all list and keep adding places we find that we think everyone of us should know about. That way ALL of us can experience Boston’s best! For example, my brother tagged Anna’s taqueria in Coolidge Corner. Cheap eats but good tasting. So next time you walk out thinking Hmmm I Just got a good buy… share it with all of us! Hope I see this map fill up quick. I’m looking forward to it!
Signed,
JEANIE (the new Boston Brand Executive!
I worked with a bunch of girls at Victorias Secret for two years, and I was always amazed by how much money they would rack up on their Victorias Secret “Angels” credit card. It was crazy, they would have bills of around $500 and only ever pay the minimum payment. Each month their credit card bills would just get larger and larger…always just saying that they would pay it off eventually.
I wanted to know how bad and how fast this money could add up, so I was searching and found this article that puts into reality how quickly money adds up, and how long it takes you to pay the bill off if you only pay the minimum payment.
http://financialplan.about.com/cs/creditdebt/a/CostCreditCards.htm
Last night online I was ordering Pirates of the Carribean tickets online so that I can go with my friends Thursday night. I used my new Bank of America Rewards credit card. Afterwards, a page popped up that said I was rewarded a $10.00 discount on my purchase today…so I thought that was awesome since my ticket cost $11.00. Little did I know this was a huge scam.
Because my credit card information had already been entered with Fandango, it automatically sent my information to this company called Reservation Rewards. What this company does is give you a 30 day trial on their products (coupons, discounts for food, etc.) and then after this 30 days…they automatically start billing you $10.00 a month for these promotions. All of this was in tiny writing at the bottom of the webpage!
I automatically picked up the phone and canceled my account (which must happen a decent amount because I didn’t even have to talk to anyone). But it got me to thinking, how many people does this happen to and they have no idea until some strange name shows up on their credit card bill.
So just a word for the wise, watch out for this stuff, because it is definitely all over the place! Especially when you have already entered in all your credit card information to a different website!
Check out this mini interview Geezeo had with Greg Turner from the Metrowest Daily – a local paper here in Massachusetts. Here is a video clip where Pete talks about the product, the vision, our security measures, and even how we came up with the name.
53 Billion dollars. That is how much US financial service firms are expecting to rake in in overdraft fees this year. Repeat that number – 53 Billion dollars!
Why? 80% of consumers purchase items with a debit card that is linked to a checking or savings account. Unfortunately very few of us actually balance a check book or account for debit transactions.
What can be done? We are proud to launch Geezeo mobile which aims to put an end to overdraft fees.
The biggest problem is we typically do not have access to our accounts when we need them most – when we are out on a shopping spree or out for a big night on the town. Being that we are all eternal optimists we will gingerly hand our debit or credit cards over to a cashier… wait anxiously… and if the cashier accepts it… Yahoo! – we feel we are free and clear. There MUST have been enough money in the account. Unfortunately, the next day comes in – and bam… overdraft fees… for 3 different charges… $100 in fees down the drain.
With our free service you can send a text message to your Geezeo account and check ALL your financial account balances -in real-time- before you buy. BAM! no more overdraft fees. Only buy what you can afford and only use the cards and accounts that have enough money to cover it.
Sounds simple, huh?
