The Wall Street Journal reporters at FiLife started a series of “Why Don’t They …” blog posts making suggestions about services and practices which seem to make sense to the customers but not offered by the financial institutions. I gave a one-word answer — economics. If you think they should do something but they are […]
Take the Bait On No Interest Financing?
No interest, no payments for 12 months! That’s a typical financing offer by furniture and electronics stores. I noticed recently some airlines started offering the same type of financing. For example American Airlines’ credit card offers 6 months no payments, no interest on purchases from aa.com. These cards are specific to the airline. They don’t have a Visa or MasterCard logo. You can’t […]
Opt Out of Credit Card Convenience Checks
It’s getting close to the holiday shopping season. I have received several convenience checks from my credit cards. These convenience checks are usually treated as cash advance which carries a fee. They also make the grace period on purchases disappear. I usually just shred them. I called my credit card company about something else yesterday. While I had […]
What Type of Bank Is Your Bank?
No, it’s not a trick question. While most people think a bank is a bank is a bank, the financial institutions we usually call a “bank” actually come in many different flavors. Some are organized under federal laws, some under state laws. Some are a special kind called thrift, savings and loan or savings association. […]
Fidelity mySmart Cash $100 Bonus Received
[Update: Fidelity is no longer offering $100 bonus for opening an account.] I forgot about the $100 bonus when I opened the Fidelity mySmart Cash Account, which I think is the best checking account . I registered for the bonus over the weekend, not sure if I will get it after the fact. I received […]
Best Checking Account That Is Not A Checking Account
[Rates and offers change. All rates and features were current as of the date of this post. Please check the current rate and offer with each company.] Traditionally a checking account pays no or low interest but lets you write checks, have a debit card, withdraw cash from ATMs, and do online bill payment. A […]
What Happens When Your Mortgage Lender Goes Out of Business
Since we had the subprime problem, many mortgage companies went bankrupt. The largest mortgage lender in the country Countrywide Financial (CFC) announced today that they drew down their entire $11.5 billion credit line. The analogy for this move in personal finance is like a person who normally uses credit cards only for convenience all of […]
Credit Card Dispute Against Priceline
This is an update to my credit card dispute against Priceline. When I went on vacation a few months ago, Priceline gave me a bad hotel. I’m usually not very picky. But this time it was bad enough for me to file a dispute with my credit card company against Priceline. It was the only […]
APR or APY, It Doesn’t Matter
It’s very strange. I see a lot of people reaching my blog when they search for information on converting APR to APY or vice-versa. They end up on my post last year Interest Rate: APY and APR which mentioned two Excel formula: EFFECT which converts APR to APY, and NOMINAL which converts APY to APR. […]
Canceled Oldest Credit Card
I did the unthinkable. I canceled my oldest credit card. The conventional wisdom says this is a no-no. But I did it anyway because I’m a firm believer in simplifying finances. I want to keep my financial life simple. Doesn’t it hurt my credit score? Maybe. The argument against closing the oldest credit card account […]
Online Savings Accounts and Their Backers
I mentioned in my previous post What Happens When a Bank Goes Out of Business that I favor larger international or national banks over smaller no-name banks based on the theory that larger banks have larger budget and more sophisticated systems for security. I decided to take a look at the popular high yield online […]
What Happens When a Bank Goes Out of Business
Last week I wondered in a comment to a post on The Simple Dollar about what the FDIC insurance claims process is really like when a bank fails. If a bank fails, do you get paid right away, or do you have to wait until everything is sorted out? For how long? How do you […]