During the brouhaha over the $5-a-month debit card usage fee, this article came to my attention: Banking Has Become an Oligopoly Instead of a Competitive Business. It said banking is now an oligopoly, and therefore switching banks will not work because banks are not in a competitive market. “Banking is not really a competitive industry. […]
Irrational Sensitivity to Service Price Increases
I wrote about people’s irrational sensitivity to gas prices some time ago. This time I’m writing about people’s irrational sensitivity to service price increases. In each case, we are not talking about a lot of money. There are values behind each service. Still, people complain vehemently about the price increases. Debit Card Fees News came […]
Mysterious Check In the Mail
I owed a friend some money for some shared expenses. I used Fidelity’s online bill payment service to pay him because he doesn’t have a PayPal account and I was too lazy to find an envelope and a stamp. A few weeks passed and I still don’t see the check hitting my account. Fidelity uses […]
Beware: Banks Auto-Renew CDs with a Short Window to Back Out
Many banks automatically renew matured CDs. You’ll pay an early withdrawal penalty if you miss the short window to back out. Watch out for the trap.
US Treasury Banks With Bank of America
I know many people complain about Bank of America. I saw this stamp on the back of the check I wrote for my 2010 federal income tax. Apparently the IRS took my check and deposited it in US Treasury’s account with Bank of America. It makes Bank of America true to its name.
Free Sales Tax Or Free Financing
I heard on the radio an ad from a mattress store. It says for this weekend only, the store will either pay the sales tax on any mattress purchase or give free financing for 24 months. Suppose the price of the mattress is $1,000 and the sales tax is 8% (to make math easier), if […]
Fort Knox Federal Credit Union Changes Terms On Existing CDs
This is not an April Fool’s joke. Ken at DepositAccounts.com reported yesterday that a credit union in Kentucky is reneging the terms on its existing CDs. Fort Knox Federal Credit Union told customers the early withdrawal penalty on their CDs will go up from 3 months to 6 months. The change affects not only new […]
How to Do a Free Wire Transfer
The most commonly used method to transfer money is by ACH. It’s typically an overnight process, although some banks make it slower than others. There’s technically international ACH, but I haven’t seen it offered to consumers. If you need the money transferred sooner or if you are transferring money to a different country, you can […]
Credit Card Concierge Service: Free and Helpful
Credit card companies keep inflating the status of their cards. 20 years ago a Gold card was something worth bragging about. Now everybody gets at least a Platinum card. Look at the credit cards in your wallet. Chances are you have a Visa Signature or MasterCard World card. These cards come with a free concierge […]
Why a Credit Union Isn’t For Everyone
I joined Alliant Credit Union back in December. So far, I primarily used the savings account. Because all my bill payments are on autopilot, I didn’t want to go through all the trouble of making changes to the checking account. But I’ve come to like Alliant Credit Union more and more. I decided use its […]
A Checking Account Wants to Be Free
Wall Street Journal ran an article by reporter Robin Sidel End Is Seen to Free Checking a week ago. Over the weekend, it published another article by the same reporter The New Bank Fees: How to Fight Back. Both articles said because new rules from the government will reduce banks’ revenue from overdraft fees and […]
Cap ATM Fees at 50 Cents
Wall Street Journal reported that some Senators proposed to cap the ATM fees at 50 cents in an amendment to the financial reform legislation. The financial reform bill being considered in the Senate is S. 3217 Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010. The amendment that the newspaper referred to is S.Amdt. 3812, sponsored by […]