Archive for the 'Banking' Category
Monday, January 30th, 2012
Interest rates looks to remain tiny for a long time, so if you want to boost your interest earned while keeping your money safe in banks, taking advantage of sign-up bonuses is one way to do it. Earning 1% APY on $10,000 is just $100 a year, and it’s even hard to get 1% APY now! Why not double or triple that with some new accounts.
Citibank $50 bonus if you open a Citibank account with $1,000 and complete 1 direct deposit and 1 electronic bill payment for 2 consecutive months. New checking account customers only. There’s no monthly service fee if you maintain a $15,000 combined average monthly balance requirement in eligible products; otherwise $20.00 monthly service fee is applied. Eligible products are linked deposits, loans, mortgages, and investment accounts. $100 bonus available with Citigold account.
Chase Bank $150 bonus when you open a Chase Total Checking account and set up direct deposit (new Chase checking customers only). This account is free if you make a $500+ direct deposit each month, or have $1,500 minimum daily balance.
M&T Bank $100 bonus when you open a MyChoice checking account and set up direct deposit within 90 days. This account is free if you maintain a direct deposit each month or have $500 minimum daily balance. $125 and $150 bonuses also available with upgraded accounts (and higher requirements).
Capital One $100 bonus when you open a Interest Online Checking account by 1/31/2012 using offer code CHEC168DF and make a direct deposit of $250 or more within 90 days. No monthly service fee, and pays 0.75% APY on balances less than $100k.
Posted in Banking, Deals & Offers | 13 Comments »
Sunday, January 8th, 2012
Reminder for 2012! The most well known part of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act) is that you can get a free copy of your credit report from all three major credit bureaus once every 12 months. However, there are also several other consumer databases that you should check as well which are also available absolutely free once every 12 months, and they can also have a significant financial impact. If you got one last year, you can now get another one and reset the 12 month clock.
ChexSystems Banking History
ChexSystems is a consumer information database used by an estimated 80-90% of all banks to help determine the risk of opening new accounts. Think of it as the bank’s version of a credit bureau. If a person commits check fraud or overdraws their account, it will be listed here. In addition, the simple act of opening or closing a bank account may be recorded in their database. Getting a negative ChexSystems record can leave you blacklisted from opening bank accounts at most major banks.
Get your free ChexSystems consumer report here.
Medical History Used For Insurance Underwriting
MIB (previously known as Medical Information Bureau) is run by 470 insurance companies and has a “primary mission of detecting and deterring fraud that may occur in the course of obtaining life, health, disability income, critical illness, and long-term care insurance.” They record information of “underwriting significance” for those who have applied for life and health insurance with MIB member companies. If you have not applied for individually underwritten life, health, or disability income insurance during the preceding seven year period, then you probably don’t have a record.
Get your free MIB consumer file here.
Insurance Claims History
CLUE stands for Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, and they collect information that is used to calculate your potential risk of loss and thus your insurance premiums. You can also find out about previous claims on the house you are currently renting or recently bought, even if they weren’t made by you.
The C.L.U.E. ®Personal Property report provides a seven year history of losses associated with an individual and his/her personal property. The following data will be identified for each loss: date of loss, loss type, and amount paid along with general information such as policy number, claim number and insurance company name.
The C.L.U.E. ®Auto report provides a seven year history of automobile insurance losses associated with an individual. The following data will be identified for each loss: date of loss, loss type, and amount paid along with general information such as policy number, claim number and insurance company name.
Get your free CLUE Auto and Personal Property Reports here.
In addition, you should also request your free A-PLUS report (Automated Property Loss Underwriting System), which is a smaller database that also contains information about property loss claims.
Employment History
When a potential employer runs a background check through LexisNexis (formerly known as ChoicePoint), this is the information they see. It doesn’t seem to claim be comprehensive, and they may have only limited or even no data about you, but I would still check for potentially negative data.
LexisNexis Screening Solutions Inc. provides Employment History Reports to employers only with a job applicant’s or employee’s consent. Employers utilize a variety of companies to obtain employment history information. Our files would only contain information on you if LexisNexis provided your Employment History Report to an employer.
Get your free LexisNexis employment history report here.
Tenant History
This report can be important if you are a renter and someone runs a background check on you at LexisNexis (ChoicePoint).
LexisNexis Screening Solutions provides Resident History Reports to housing providers that have the subject’s consent. Housing Providers utilize a variety of companies to obtain tenant history information. Our files would only contain information on you if LexisNexis provided your Resident History Report to a housing provider.
Get your free LexisNexis tenant history report here.
Now you know some of what Big Brother does. 
Posted in Banking, Insurance, Real Estate | 10 Comments »
Wednesday, December 28th, 2011
Despite the Treasury’s obvious dislike for the small investor, Series I Savings Bonds still offer a relatively good interest rate. As of January 1st, 2012, you will no longer be able to buy paper savings bonds other than a small window using your tax refund. The only option left is buying electronic savings bonds via TreasuryDirect.gov. This brings me to the following reader question:
Was just reading Mel Lindauer’s comments in the Bogleheads forum about I-Bonds and the trouble with Treasury Direct. Seems a great many folks hate the system to the point that they would rather not use it. 2012 is/was to be the year that I first began purchased I-Bonds, having finally got to the point of maxing out all other tax deferred and tax free methods. Now I am not so sure…what is your experience with TD?
First, let’s get to what I see as the main reason why most people choose not to use the online service at TreasuryDirect (TD). TD is not a bank and does not fall under Regulation E and the Electronic Fund Transfer Act that establishes consumer protections for loss or theft of money from your account.
If your paper savings bonds are stolen or lost, the Treasury has a process in place to reclaim your bonds. However, if somehow your electronic savings bonds were stolen, you would stuck with the loss with no liability from TD. It doesn’t seem to make sense, but it’s true.
So what do you do? The easiest thing to do is not use TreasuryDirect. But it remains a good investment, so in my case I looked into what security measures were in place to prevent such theft. In November 2011, TD instituted some security changes to their login process. What would a thief have to do in order to cash in your savings bonds?
- They need your account number, which is more like Z-12345678 as opposed to johnsmith.
- When you login with a new computer, a one-time passcode will be sent to your e-mail address. So, they would need to have access to your e-mail address as well. You can choose to register your computer for future visits if you like, but it would seem safer not to do so. I don’t log into TD very often so my cookie expires anyway by the time I log in again. This means a unique code is sent every single time I log in.
- They would also need your account password. I would hope your e-mail password and your TreasuryDirect password are different. In any case, it’s harder for viruses or keylogger programs to record your password because you must enter it using a virtual keyboard (unless you circumvent it by disabling Javascript).
- Now, at this point they have online access to your account and can see your balances. But to cash out a bond, first you must answer a security question (mom’s maiden name, etc.). More importantly, you can only cash out a bond to a linked bank account. So the thief would need access to your bank account (…which is protected by Regulation E mentioned above!)
- Alternately, they would need to send in a paper form adding an alternate bank account under their control. However, the name on the bank account must match the name on the TD account, and the form requires a Medallion Signature Guarantee where a third party checks official ID for identity verification. The TD website itself has improved over the years so that any small change (bank addition, profile change) results in a e-mail notice.
Personally, I deemed it exceedingly unlikely for an actual theft to occur and made the decision to go ahead and use the website. My holdings there are significant, but under 5% of total net worth. I know that others have also had technical issues with accessing their account, but I have not experienced anything like that. In the end, TreasuryDirect definitely has its flaws, and I would not fault someone for not using it as a result. You have to weight the risks and benefits for yourself.
Posted in Banking, Savings Bonds, Treasury Bills and Bonds | 15 Comments »
Monday, December 19th, 2011
Regular readers will know that I like using credit cards for the cashback or travel rewards, even though I never carry a balance from month to month or pay any interest. However, I also accept that many people prefer debit cards as they suck money straight out of your checking account. If that sounds like like you, you’re not alone – when it comes to a charge card purchase, nationally it’s just as likely to be a debit card as a credit card. I get it – debit cards more psychologically similar to spending cash and there is no change of racking up a balance (although there are overdraft fees).
The best way to describe Perkstreet Financial is that it’s the best checking account if you don’t like using credit cards. They offer the best cashback rewards on debit cards by far:
- 2% cash back on all non-PIN debit card purchases when your checking account balance is $5,000 or more. For new accounts, you will earn 2% cash back no matter what your balance is for the first 3 months, starting on the day that your account is opened. If your balance that day is below $5k, you earn 1% cash back.
- 5% cash back at a rotating set of retailers. Up to $250 a year. For February 2012, they are H&R Block, Liberty Tax Service, Tax Slayer, Tax Hawk, TurboTax, Tax Club, Kohl’s.com and Dick’s Sporting Goods.
As long as you have some sort of activity each month (billpay, deposit, withdrawal, cleared check, debit card purchase) then there is no monthly fee. Some other improvements they’ve made are that you can deposit checks sent overnight for free at UPS Stores or Mailbox Etc. (or via free prepaid envelopes). They don’t offer ATM rebates like some other places like my account at Ally Checking, but they do offer 42,000 free ATMs across the country; use their ATM locator to see if there are convenient ones to you.
Right now, you can get an extra $25 bonus cash back when you apply for an account online by December 25th, fund with $25 or more, and use your card at least 3 times in the first month. (Ironically, last time I started an application they let me fund with with a credit card up to $500 and promised it would go through as a purchase and not a cash advance.)
Posted in Banking, Deals & Offers | 9 Comments »
Thursday, December 15th, 2011
American Express started a banking division recently called Personal Savings through their FDIC-Insured bank American Express Bank, FSB. There are currently just two products – a high yield savings account and certificates of deposit. This is a review from my own experiences with the American Express High-Yield Savings Account, which hopefully will help you decide if you should open an account yourself.
First of all, you don’t need to have an American Express credit or charge card to open a bank account with them. The credit card and banking websites are actually separate, and you use an independent login and password to access your credit card and banking information. I wonder if they’ll integrate everything together sometime in the future.
The Basics
The savings account has no minimum balance requirement, no inactivity fees, and no monthly fees. The interest rate is currently 0.90% APY. Their rate history suggests that they do consistently pay a competitive interest rate, always either matching or being above the rest of their competition like ING Direct (0.85% APY) and Ally Savings (0.89% APY).
Like those other online savings banks, this one is designed to piggyback onto your existing checking account through online transfers. There are no checks, no ATM cards, and no online bill-pay with this account. If you really want, you can withdraw your money by having them send a check payable to you. Interest is compounded daily, and credited monthly. Interest begins to accrue on the business day the deposit is received, as long as it is by 5pm Eastern.
Application Process
The application process can be done completely online. You provide the usual personal information, as well as the routing number and account number of the checking account you wish to link and fund your account with. There is no minimum opening amount. AMEX Bank will then send two small verification deposits of under $1 to your checking account (and then withdraw them as). They’ll also send a verification code to your e-mail address. With this information, you can activate your account and initiate the funding transfer. They’ll send you a welcome packet in the mail, but there is no paper to sign or send in.
Website User Interface
After you log into your account, you’ll find yourself on the domain IBanking-Services.com. It may look familiar to you; This is the same back-end interface used by two of my local credit unions as well as many other online banks. I’m actually fine with this service, it does the job and I’m used to it, but it’s not especially sleek or customized. Here’s a screenshot (click to enlarge):
Online transfers to/from your external accounts take the usual couple of business days to complete. However, I wasn’t thrilled about this note on the transfer page: “Funds from electronic deposits to your account that you have initiated through us will generally be available for withdrawal on the sixth business day after the deposit is initiated.” This is likely for protection against fraud, but could be inconvenient and discourages me from using this account as a central transfer hub.
Other Handy Stuff
American Express Bank, FSB Routing Number: 124085066
Customer Service: 1-800-446-6307, available 24 hours a day. I haven’t had to call in yet, but American Express does have good customer service on their credit cards in my opinion.
Posted in Banking, Reviews | 16 Comments »
Thursday, December 8th, 2011
I spent a few days in Las Vegas last month as an extended layover, and wasted some time gambling. This also gave me a chance to try out those unlimited ATM fee rebates on my Ally Bank checking account. I went to three different ATMs at three different places, and the ATM fees were $2.50, $4.99, and $4.99. Can you imagine taking out $40 and getting charged $2-5 from your own bank, and then $5 from the ATM owner? Ouch. (Ally doesn’t charge you to use other ATMs, but most big banks do.)
By the third try, even I felt bad for Ally paying for all that and took out a larger sum for the rest of the trip. At the end of the month, the total fees of $12.48 was credited automatically to my account as promised. (My total eventual losses for the trip were around $100, I’m sad to say.)
Oh, and if you’re confused by the negative balances, I have it set up for free overdraft transfers from my Ally online saving account to my checking account whenever my balance hits zero. This way I am earning the most interest possible in the savings account at APY. I can’t do more than 6 withdrawals per month, though.
Posted in Banking | 12 Comments »
Friday, November 25th, 2011
ING Direct has a few Black Friday weekend deals for their Electric Orange checking account, their Kids Savings Account, and their MONEY payment system. This lasts 3 days only, until Sunday at midnight Eastern.
$107 Electric Orange account opening bonus
Open Electric Orange November 25th – 27th and make a total of 5 purchases (either signature or PIN-based) using your Electric Orange Card or Person2Person Payments (or any combination of the two) within 45 days. Your $107 bonus will be automatically deposited into your account on day 50. Bonus only available for new Electric Orange checking. Only one bonus will be provided per household.
$27 Kids Savings Account opening bonus
Open a Kids Savings Account November 25th – 27th and we’ll put a $27 bonus into your new account. Only available when you open a new account with at least one new Customer (either you or the kiddo must be a new Customer to ING DIRECT). $27 bonus starts earning interest upon account opening, and is available for withdrawal after 30 days. There’s no minimum deposit amount required. 0.90% Variable Annual Percentage Yield effective as of 10/21/2011.
$32 MONEY account opening bonus
Open MONEY November 25th – 27th and make 1 Card transaction (either signature, PIN-based or with PayPassTM) using your MONEY Card within 30 days we’ll put a $32 bonus into your new account. (Keep in mind, the teen gets the Card.) Your $32 bonus will be automatically deposited into your account on day 35. There’s no minimum deposit amount required. 0.25% Variable Annual Percentage Yield effective as of 7/13/2011.
Posted in Banking, Deals & Offers | 11 Comments »
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
There has been a lot of commotion about banks and debit card fees recently. Fees were tested, added, announced, removed, and probably soon, added back indirectly. However, megabanks still have the power of inertia and convenience. I am betting that most people did not move their accounts just yet. But maybe I’m wrong?
For this poll question, I want you to think about your current primary checking account. This is the account where the bulk of your paycheck or other income is deposited, and out of which you pay your bills on a regular basis.
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(RSS readers: You may need to visit the website to see the poll.)
I have a lot of accounts, but my primary account account is online-only Ally Bank, as previously reviewed. I do keep a megabank account for the occasional need for in-branch services like a signature guarantee, cashier’s checks, bank wires, large checks that I can’t use eDeposit, and so on.
Posted in Banking | 47 Comments »
Monday, October 31st, 2011
Citizens Bank and Charter One bank have an interesting CollegeSaver bank account for those with children. However, it is only open to residents of certain states in the Eastern and Northeastern US (CT, DE, IL, IN, KY, MA, MI, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VT; enter zip code to verify). Thanks to reader Justin for the tip.
You must open a bank account before the child’s 12th birthday with a minimum amount, and then save a minimum amount every month until the child is 18. (You’re allowed to miss one payment per year.) If you satisfy the requirements, you’ll get a $1000 bonus on the 18th birthday. Here are the details:
The best case scenario would be if your kid is just under 12 years old right now. That’s still a 6-year commitment, but if you contribute the minimums then with the bonus that’s a 6.40% annual rate of return on your money (per savings calculator). Since the bonus is constant, the rate of return drops the younger your kid is (longer contribution period). At just over 6 years old, you’d be locked in for 12 years and your annualized return would be 1.9%.
I would say if your child is 10-12 years old and you have patience, this is not a bad deal. But as this is not a 529, you will owe taxes on the interest. However, the upside is that you don’t have to use the funds to pay for college. The account is opened as a custodial account (UTMA), and thus the account can be opened for the child by anyone. However, depending on the state, the child will get control of the account at 18 or 21.
Posted in Banking, Deals & Offers | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011
(Update October 2011: Ally has just announced that eCheck online deposit is available to all interest checking, online savings and money market accounts. So even if you just have the online savings account, you can deposit checks into it via scanner from home. I’ve updated my review below accordingly.)
It’s been a few months since I opened up an Ally interest checking account to complement my existing 5-year CDs and online savings account. Click here for a rundown of features that show why I made the switch. I’ve managed to try out many of their “perks”, including their official Perks program. Here are my experiences:
Unlimited ATM Rebates Anywhere in US
I’ve made a few ATM withdrawals at random ATMs, and the surcharges have been credited at the end of the month as promised. (I wish they were credited immediately.) Actually being charged those fees made me realize how fast $2-$5 a pop can add up. My fee rebates were almost higher than the interest I earned one month! I actually feel bad making Ally pay for something I could avoid, so whenever possible I still use my local bank’s ATM card for now. International ATMs are not eligible.
Free Overdraft Transfers from Savings
The checking account pays less interest than savings, so it is best to open both and keep as much money as you can in the savings. The Ally online saving account currently paysAPY, and is one of the places I keep my emergency fund cash. With their free Overdraft Transfer Service, Ally will automatically transfer the required funds from savings if your checking goes negative. I actually initiated this last month when I wrote a check, here’s the screenshot from my account:
Ally transferred an amount equal to a round number near the overdraft amount plus $100. Alternatively, you can set it to auto-transfer a preset amount over if your checking balance dips to a certain threshold.
eCheck Online Deposit
Ally eCheck Deposit is a feature where you can scan in your checks over the internet with a desktop scanner. A smartphone camera-based app is supposedly in the works. This is now available on all interest checking, online savings and money market accounts. I have made multiple deposits successfully on a Mac after following their instructions carefully. (On Mac OS X, users have to use 32 bit mode for Firefox or Safari and Javascript. Chrome is always 32-bit.)
The process is straightforward. You must endorse your check with your signature, the phrase “For Ally eCheck Deposit Only”, and your account number. You can also deposit directly into your Online Savings account. The funds availability policy is such that checks submitted before 4pm Eastern will post the next business day, otherwise the 2nd business day. Your deposit starts earning interest as soon as the check posts, although for large deposits you may have a hold preventing immediate withdrawal.
Ally Perks Debit Card Rewards
This is a free rewards program that is linked to your Ally Checking debit card. It’s not a % cashback program on everything like that offered at PerkStreet Financial, but instead is more of a coupon-style service that works at specific online or brick-and-mortar merchants. I did see a few opportunities for some easy savings, for example $1 off a $1 minimum purchase at iTunes, $5 off $50 at Lowe’s in-store, and $2 off $7 at Subway.
You don’t need any coupons or codes, just pay with the Ally debit card and the discount amount is deposited directly into your checking account. I plan on checking in from time to time for any useful discounts, but this program certainly won’t convince me to buy things on their debit card. I’ll stick with credit card rewards.
Posted in Banking | 33 Comments »
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011
Citibank is offering new checking account customers a bonus of either a 20,000 or 40,000 ThankYou points, worth $200 or $400 in gift cards. You must:
- Open a new Citibank checking account in the Citigold or Citibank Account Package by 10/31/2011.
- Enroll the new checking account in Citi ThankYou Rewards.
- Within 45 days after account opening, initiate one direct deposit AND complete one electronic bill payment for two consecutive months.
ThankYou Point Value Recap
There are a decent number of options for these poitns. 10,000 ThankYou points = $100 Wal-mart Gift card, which you can sell for a $95.55 Amazon.com gift certificate or $91 cash at PlasticJungle.com. Alternatively, can be worth $100 towards Expedia travel, a student loan, or paying down your mortgage. More details in the Citi $500 ThankYou card post.
Citibank Account: 20,000 ThankYou Point Bonus (Easier)
- $100 minimum opening deposit
- $6,000 minimum balance in linked accounts (checking, savings, personal, credit card balances) to avoid $20 monthly fee.
Citigold Account: 40,000 ThankYou Point Bonus (Harder)
- $500 minimum opening deposit
- There’s no monthly service fee for the first 2 statement cycles. After that, in order to waive the $30 monthly service fee you need the combined average balance of your eligible linked accounts to be:
- $50,000 or more for all linked deposit and retirement accounts OR
- $100,000 or more across all your eligible linked Citi accounts, excluding a first mortgage with Citibank OR
- $250,000 or more if your Citibank first mortgage is included in the total relationship.
For most people, I think the 20,000 ThankYou point offer will be the easier one to qualify for if you have $6,000 to move over there instead of an online savings account earning only 1% APY. $6,000 would only earn $60 over an entire year, at that rate. Even it takes 6 months to get your $200 bonus, that’s a 6.67% annualized return.
I thought that the Citigold might be doable since the monthly fees are waived for the first two months, but I saw in the fine print that the points might take another 90 days to post and your account must be open until then. This option would only work well if you have a mortgage with Citi.
The bonus ThankYou Points will be credited to your ThankYou Member Account within 90 days from the end of the statement period in which you satisfy all offer requirements. New checking account must be open and in good standing at the time the bonus ThankYou Points are posted to your ThankYou Member Account.
Afterwards, if you wish, you can downgrade to the Basic Account which offers a way to avoid monthly fees with no minimum balance, if you make 5 “qualified transaction” activities per month (direct deposits, debit card purchase, bill payment, ACH payments, checks paid, ATM withdrawals).
Update: Citibank has updated their checking account to have different restrictions starting with statements ending on 12/9/2011.
Posted in Banking, Deals & Offers | 21 Comments »
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011
Chase Bank is offering a $125 bonus for new customers if you open a new Total Checking account with $100 and set up direct deposit within 60 days of account opening. They state that the direct deposit must be “an electronic deposit from your employer or the government of your paycheck, pension or government benefits (such as Social Security)”, but I’m not sure if they manually check. You must keep the account open for 6 months. To avoid a monthly fee, you must do one of the following each statement period:
- have at least one direct deposit of $500 or more post to your account (two or more direct deposits that add up to $500 or more do not qualify), or
- keep a minimum daily balance of $1,500 or more in your checking account, or
- keep an average balance of $5,000 or more in qualifying accounts with Chase.
Otherwise, a $12 monthly Service Fee will apply ($10 monthly Service Fee in CA, OR and WA). Per the fine print, if are not a current customer and you’ve closed an account more than 90 days ago, you count as a “new” customer again. However, you can only receive one checking account-related bonus per calendar year. Thanks to reader Andy for the tip. Offer expires 10/7/11.
Posted in Banking, Deals & Offers | 5 Comments »
