Pay Another Person Electronically for Free
A couple of friends owe me some money. How can they pay me?
Mail a check. This is the old fashioned way. We all know how it works. The stamps are not free, but pretty close. As the recipient, I have to make a trip to the bank or I put the check in a postage-paid [...]
The Credit Crunch Finally Hit Me
In last week's post Emergency-Proof Your Emergency Fund, I said I decided to apply for an unsecured personal line of credit from Wells Fargo, where I also have a checking account.
I submitted the application online. The questions were as expected: name, address, Social Security Number, employment information, income, size of the credit line requested, [...]
Emergency-Proof Your Emergency Fund
Everybody knows they should have an emergency fund. There are many articles and discussions about how much one should have in the emergency fund and where to keep the emergency fund in order to earn the most interest. This post is not about either of those topics. Having an emergency fund is one thing. Having [...]
Credit Card Cash Advance Saved the Day
I took a cash advance from a credit card last week. I had never done that before. I'm very happy I was able to do it. I'm also very happy with the cost and the efficiency of how it was done, even though I borrowed at 39,608% APR.
I had been in the process of doing [...]
BBG Communications: $27 for a 1-Minute Phone Call
I survived driving on the left in Ireleand, its narrow, winding, and bumpy roads, and what must be more than 300 roundabouts.
The GPS maps for Europe I bought for $110 turned out to be a good investment. My vacation would have been much more stressful without the GPS.
As far as money is concerned, [...]
Top 10 Banks in United States
Reader simplesimon asked in a comment to a previous post Too Many Banks:
"I’m interested in seeing some sort of chart laying out what percentage of individuals in the USA bank where."
While I couldn't find any data on the number of accounts, I was able to find the total deposit dollars at the top banks. FDIC [...]
PayPal Security Key Gone Mobile
I have a PayPal account and I have been using the PayPal security key for a while. The PayPal security key is a little key fob which generates a random 6-digit sequence every 30 seconds or so. You use it together with your password when you log in to your PayPal account. This provides the [...]
Too Many Banks
Do you think we have too many banks in the United States? There were 8,451 FDIC-insured banks as of June 30, 2008. Canada, on the other hand, with 1/10th of the population as the U.S., only has 81 banks, which can be listed on one page. On a per capita basis, we have 10 times [...]
Sending Money to an International Country
For reasons I won't go into details, I need to send $100 to someone in Mexico. I'm not in a big hurry. The money doesn't have to be there in minutes or hours, but I don't want it to take weeks or months either. Obviously I'm interested in reliability and cost, both in fees and [...]
Who Really Robbed FDIC $6 billion
I asked on Monday who robbed FDIC $6 billion from the IndyMac Bank failure. Too bad more of you didn't chime in. Come on, don't be shy. It's not fun if it's just me yapping all the time. Anyway, here are my thoughts.
1. Defaulted Borrowers. IndyMac took in deposits and lent out the money as [...]
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