Category: banking

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New Bank Overdraft Fee Laws For Your Debit Cards & Checking Accounts

As of August 15th, 2010, there are new laws in place regarding overdraft fees from your bank. Up until that date, many banks and credit unions automatically enrolled customers in an overdraft service that could run as much as $35 each time you over-drafted your account. This service was there (in addition to padding the bank’s bottom line) to “protect you” from having your card declined due to having insufficient funds in your account. Granted, if they had just left the $35 IN the account, maybe you wouldn’t have gone over the limit, but still – this was an automatic enrollment and not something you could opt out of. Well, that all changed on August 15th, when the overdraft section of the financial legislation overhaul went into effect.

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banking
9
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Open A Chase Checking Account, Get $125.

I am definitely not in the market to open yet another bank account, but it it tempting to get the free $125. I have taken up banks on offers like this in the past, but since I finally got everything switched over and working to Schwab (including ALL my direct deposits), I won’t be doing this one – but you might want to. Chase is offering up $125 to open a new checking account and set up a direct deposit to said account. Not a lot of work for $125! Here are some details of the offer:

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banking
6
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Citigroup May Refuse To Allow Customers To Withdraw Money.

Um, if you have a checking account with Citigroup, you may want to look into this. Supposedly it is only for accounts based in Texas, but what would stop them from doing it across the country? Seems that Citigroup sent out a letter to account holders stating that “We reserve the right to require (7) days advance notice before permitting a withdrawal from all checking accounts. While we do not currently exercise this right and have not exercised it in the past, we are required by law to notify you of this change.” How messed up is that? Personally, I would move my entire bank account somewhere else if my bank even mentioned that idea, but that’s just me. Texas or all 50 states, there is something that really stinks about this new policy. Who knows what it really means, but it still freaks the hell out of me.

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banking
10
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Completed My Move From BofA Over To Charles Schwab Bank.

Phew – that was more work than I thought it would be! Sure, I could have moved a boatload of money from one of my ING accounts to Schwab to cover any expenses, changed all my automatic bill pays, and hoped for the best – but I didn’t. Instead I did it slowly over a month or so, changing my direct deposits right after they went through for January, changing my e-bills as soon as they were paid for January, and slowly funding the Schwab checking account with money from my BofA savings account. As of this morning, all my e-bills have been moved, all my direct deposits have been redirected, all my automatic payments (like for my Subaru) are switched over, and my BofA check card has been removed from my wallet. There is still a few hundred bucks left in the account just in case I missed something that may yet come through, but otherwise I am completely switched over. And so far, I think it’s the best decision for my banking needs that I could have made. I considered moving to a credit union, which are fantastic, but I also wanted to consolidate 5 different brokerage accounts to the same place/company – so I also opened a new Schwab brokerage. This will make tracking all this stuff way easier now!

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banking
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Moving All My Money To A Schwab Brokerage And Checking Account.

OK, not ALL my money…but I am moving my checking, “immediate need” saving, and brokerage accounts over to Charles Schwab. I have written in the past about my displeasure with some aspects of Bank of America and while I have been with them for what seems like forever, it’s time to move on to a bank I can be happy with. I looked into credit unions, which I would have preferred to go with, but I didn’t find anything in my area that I could join that met my needs. So Schwab it is, and so far so good…with the opening of the accounts.

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banking
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