The secret costs of banking

Posted on by Stephen A. Beaver

If you want to save money, you will of course want to save money. You will want to evaluate every financial service and every expense – from your personal loans to your shoe buying habit. One thing you will want to investigate are the fees your bank charges you for your business. These costs can add up quickly.
ATM and ABM charges. If you use your bank’s ABM machines, you may be charged only a low fee but when you use public ATMs, you are likely paying a fee and being charged an additional fee by your bank. In some cases, a single cash withdrawal can cost $4 or $5. Try using your bank’s ABMs and take out more cash if you have to, in order to avoid paying high convenience charges.

Frequent use charges. Read the fine print of your agreement with your bank. It is possible that your bank charges you extra if you use debit, ATMs or other services more than a specific number of times. If you’re regularly getting these charges each month, change accounts or your habits.
Service charges. If you walk into a bank and need a service – such as a check printed or a money transfer – you are likely paying a flat fee for each service you need. Some services – such as money orders – can be easily purchased elsewhere (such as the post office) for less than your bank charges.

Overdraft charges. If a check bounces or you drop below $0 on your bank account, you can expect hefty fees from your bank.
Bank fees. In addition to all the fees above, most banks charge you a set amount of money per month for every account you have. It pays to shop around to find a bank account with extra features and reasonable fees.

Buying your kid’s happiness can break the bank

Posted on by Stephen A. Beaver

Those with children are probably well aware of the added costs of having a family. However, there are currently a number of economic and social factors that drive some of these parents deep into debt to try and please their kids.

Buying your kid’s happiness can break the bankA number of experts say they can’t blame these parents, since all they want is what’s best for their kids (as determined by advertisers). To keep from breaking the bank and regularly utilizing a payday advance loan to cover your monthly expenses as a result, Bankrate.com has some advice on a few financial missteps you can make with your kids.

Buy Name Brands Rather Than Generic Items

According to the website, “the nag factor” can have a major influence on the spending habits of parents. The nag factor is known to advertisers as the degree to which parents’ decisions are influenced by the opinions of their children. While you may think you are pleasing your child by giving into their demands at the grocery store, it’s important to remember that name brands cost an average 30 percent more than their generic counterparts. This may not seems like a big difference for a single product, but fill a whole shopping cart and you could be spending way more money than you need to.

Keeping Up With Trends

Peer pressure is a regular part of childhood, and if your child can resist this influence, than you’ve succeeded as a parent already. Meanwhile, for the rest of America, changing trends seen at school and on the playground could have you shelling out big bucks on the latest electronics, clothing and even automobiles. While satisfying your child’s social needs may seem noble, you need to step back and consider the impact these purchases have on your household’s overall financial standing.

Avoid Impulse Purchases

Marketing executives have an interesting way of influencing the impulse purchases of children. For example, products that often appeal to kids, such as candy, are placed at eye level near checkout lines and are relatively low priced. Once a child hones in on this item and implements the nag factor, most parents give in by telling themselves it’s just an extra dollar or two. However, if this is a regular occurrence that happens every time you go to the store, these minor purchases can add up over time.

Consumers better about managing credit

Posted on by Stephen A. Beaver

Consumers better about managing creditThe financial standing of many consumers has slowly improved during recent years, and as a testament to this trend, FICO Labs reports a growing number of these individuals now have near-perfect FICO scores.

Scores Improving

According to a report from the company, an estimated 18.3 percent of consumers have a FICO score ranging between 800 and 850. This is the highest this share has been since October 2022. In addition, roughly 19.4 percent have scores between 750 and 799, while 15.5 percent have a FICO score between 700 and 749.

Financial Stress Affecting Households

However, despite the improvements at the high-end of the spectrum, the report noted that financial stress among households in the wake of the recession has caused a number of consumers to fall to the lower tiers of the FICO scoring system. But since more than half of the individuals examined in the report had a score ranging between 750 and 799, analysts say this is a clear indicator that consumers are getting better about managing their credit.

The number of consumers in the lowest tier, meaning they have FICO scores between 300 and 549, declined to 14.9 percent. While this share still accounts for a considerable amount of consumers, it is the lowest it has been since 2021. As some of these individuals work to improve their credit scores, but are suddenly confronted with an unexpected bill that threatens any progress they have made, they may be able to utilize a personal loan to keep their financial footing.

How to cut my credit cards : make boomerangs

Posted on by Stephen A. Beaver

Boomerangs are L-shaped objects that return back to the person who throw them in any direction. Credit Cards are made of rigid and virtually indestructible plastics and hence they are a good candidate for the job of making boomerangs. A quick look at this Wikipedia Article will give you a fair idea of boomerang basics.

This is much easier for all of us if we can explain the process with images. so i have put up some before and after images of a cute little boomerang made out of a stores card. It is more enjoyable when you do it with a valid card. expired credit cards are not that much fun to play with. leave them for your children to play with.

boomerang 01

You can also do it with ATM Cards like I have done below but still they are not as much fun as credit cards are.

boomerang 02

These boomerangs won’t fly right away. You will have to follow these instructions to make the boomerangs fly.

boomerang 03

As you till try to do this, you will be amazed to realize that it takes a bit of a practice before you can flick properly. here are few tips:

– Try twisting them a little bit (helps for a longer flight)
– Try rounding off the corners.
– Experiment other shapes…

A well made credit card boomerang normally flies up to 5 meters and comes right back to you.(well almost… : )

Here are a couple of more tips:

– Un-equal arm lengths make the credit card boomerang fly better. So it’s alright if you don’t cut them properly.
– Credit Card Plastic is quite hard and if you are lucky enough to make a good boomerang, It WILL come back to you. Just be care full not to hit yourself or someone around you in eye with that. Supervise your kids if and when they are cutting up your credit cards for fun.
– If you are interested to know more about science behind this, you would find this article very useful.

Do let me know how your credit card boomerang worked. I am interested to know if a MasterCard flies better than VISA card. I have heard AMEX are the best..