More young Americans – even those earning between $50,000 and $75,000 – are using payday lenders, prepaid debit cards and other questionable financial services. But there are better alternatives to those “alternatives.”
One of the most contentious parts of the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation enacted in the wake of the credit crisis was the Durbin Amendment. You may not know it by name, but you know its primary effect: higher bank fees. It’s also the reason behind those infamous debit card fees banks were threatening to implement [...]
While you can’t control the price of gas or the direction of the stock market, many of life’s most irritating money challenges do have reliable solutions. Here are 9 all-too-common financial annoyances, and strategies for resolving them.
If you think your bank’s CEO lies awake at night thinking of ways to take away your customer perks, here’s a surprise: debit rewards are coming back. Sort of. Bank of America is testing a pilot of a new merchant-funded reward program called BankAmeriDeals, in which rewards come in the form of special Groupon-like discounts [...]
A lot of people got really bent out of shape when Bank of America announced last fall that it would start charging a $5 monthly debit card fee. Online petitions were launched as the blogosphere and social media sites like Twitter overflowed with messages denouncing banks in general and Bank of America in particular.
They called it the “$39 cup of coffee.” At many banks, customers were automatically — often unwittingly — enrolled in overdraft programs that would permit debit purchases to go through even if it would overdraw their account, to the tune of up to $35 a pop. But a year and a half after new Federal [...]
This year was a tumultuous one for banking: Occupy Wall Street protests around the country focused Americans’ anger against the financial industry, while widespread outrage over banks’ attempts to charge fees for debit card use culminated in a call for Americans to pull their money out of big banks last month on what was dubbed “Bank Transfer Day.” But whether your checking account is at a big national bank, small community bank, online bank or credit union, 2012 is a chance to begin afresh.
Most parents with heavy credit card debt want their kids to avoid the same mistake. But they are not sure how to coach them and, according to a new survey, would love for credit card management to be a required class in high school.
The financial industry was stunned last summer when the Federal Reserve handed down a rule that effectively halved the amount banks could charge stores every time one of their customers swiped a debit card at a checkout terminal. So why is a trade group representing retail merchants now suing the Fed for its decision?
Shoppers have dropped tens of billions of dollars in stores and online over the last five days. What does such an impressive outpouring tell us about today’s consumer mentality, and the state of the economy as a whole?
Claims of lost or stolen credit cards go up by nearly 20% during the holiday season, according to PNC Bank. The reasons are twofold: We tend to use our cards more during this time of year, and thieves are smart enough to know that people tend to be rushed and distracted during this time of [...]
