Among the stock market chaos, the bond market had a rally, which brought down the mortgage rates. I’m refinancing my mortgage. I already locked my rate but I don’t have time to write it up as a detailed blog post yet. If you think you might also benefit from a mortgage refi, you can read […]
Book Review: The Bankers
I start the new year with a book review. I’ve been reading this book for a while. I only finished it over the holidays. It’s The Bankers by Martin Meyer. I became a fan of Mr. Meyer’s after I read his book The Greatest Ever Bank Robbery (review in previous post). The Bankers offers an […]
Looking Inside a Credit Card Portfolio
I was searching for some information about my credit card the other day and I accidentally stumbled upon a collection of interesting documents. They are the offering documents for Bank of America’s borrowing backed by its credit card receivables. Bank of America lends money to credit card holders. It borrows the money from the capital […]
Why Banks Push Debit Cards
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 […]
Moral Hazard: Deposit Insurance and Subprime Bailout
Moral hazard refers to the fact that if people don’t have to face the consequences, they tend to take on more risk than they should. I learned a great deal of this from the book The Greatest-Ever Bank Robbery. In the 1980s savings and loan crisis, some banks were widely known for losing a lot of money, yet people still […]
Book Review: Your Credit Score
Today I’m reviewing the book Your Credit Score by Liz Pulliam Weston. The author Liz Pulliam Weston is a columnist at MSN Money. I picked up this book from the library when I browsed for new personal finance titles. I hear a lot of buzz about the credit score and I don’t understand what the […]
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 […]
Book Review: The Greatest-Ever Bank Robbery
What was the greatest ever bank robbery? Try $124 billion. This was the cost to the taxpayers in the savings and loan crisis in the 1980s. If interests are included, the total cost approached $500 billion or $2,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States. In light of the recent subprime mortgage […]