Here's a great concept in matching customers with their banking needs - SavingsAccounts.com. It's a site that, while in its early days, may have the potential to really gel with online clients looking for a one-stop website.

Their claim;

SavingsAccounts.com is the perfect place to find the perfect online savings account for you. We can help you find the bank offering the highest returns with the specific account features that best suit your individual needs.

is certainly going to meet a need in the future but I think they still have quite a job ahead of them.

Here are some of the features that I'd like to see on this site;

• Either a tabular quick view of each financial institution displaying what they offer by showing a tick mark or similar. Or, a form where you could select the type of account requirements you were after and then a list that could be sorted by location, best rate, institution credit rating, monthly service fees etc was presented.


• Illustrated dates for when each of the interest rates were last updated so that the user could tell if they were current.


• A more complete list of financial institutions - currently it is only displaying 12 which includes some of the majors but certainly does not offer the full gamut on offer.


• A savings calculator - how great would it be to have a calculator available to estimate your savings based on each banks offerings. It may even be more beneficial to have a savings calculator whereby you could compare the same savings pattern and time period over a number of financial institutions.

So, while it's a good start, the true test will come as this website grows and offers users better tools to assess their options. After all, it is intended for this purpose.

This is a sponsored post. Click to read my views on sponsored posts.

Posted by Stuart at 6:32 AM | Permalink

What do you do when market share becomes too competitive? You source other untapped markets that may be as feasible or more so that the bottom line continues to increase.

This seems the logical explanation for Bank of America's latest insurgence into a possible market, illegal immigrants, obviously identified by other banks - but never courted. This untapped audience could be as large as 8.7 million persons according to one source and may even be as large as 20 million people.

That's a fairly sizable portion of the population who have absolutely no banking opportunities. It presents itself much like finding a nation of people who don't wear shoes but have been trying everything to keep their feet covered.

The Bank of America is offering clients a $500 credit card if they have a checking account with the bank. The only stipulation is that they have a relevant Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) issued by the IRS. Critics, however, complain that these ITIN's are too easy to secure for undocumented immigrants.

Possibly, this could lead to many problems by allowing identity theft to occur via a legitimate avenue.

A Department for Homeland Security spokesman, Russ Knocke stated,

"At face value the program seems to be problematic. It seems to be lending itself to possibilities of perpetrating identity theft or creating more risk for money laundering."

Very scary when you consider how easy it might be for a person bent on terrorist activities to legitimately use banking facilities in the US.

The plan is still in its pilot stage but by all reports it appears that it will be rolled out throughout all Bank of America branches in the very near future.

Source: The South Florida Business Journal

Posted by Stuart at 6:14 AM | Permalink

You've thought long and hard about buying that house or starting that business and now it's time to get some finance organised to pay for it. But what loan options do you have? And, is one option better than another?

Unless you have a rich uncle that's just passed away leaving you the enviable task of paying cash for your venture, chances are that you will require a loan of some description. And banks and credit lenders offer a plethora of debt instruments that can seem like a minefield of options.

The opportunity cost of selecting one loan option is leaving the others. Which one costs the most? Which one has hidden charges? Which loan can I refinance later?

Well, here are seven loan options you may want to investigate further...

Continue reading "Seven loan options to get you started" »

Posted by Stuart at 5:43 AM | Permalink

There is considerable discussion amongst news-mongers that interest rates in the US, UK and Australia are likely to hold or at best decrease when each respective countries monetary boards next meet.

This is good news if you have a mortgage.

Why? Because it means that your repayments are likely to decrease as well allowing you to reduce your current payments and hopefully keep the shortfall. But, is this the best option?

Most people live "up" to their income levels (meaning that if you earned a $100K salary your lifestyle expenses would most likely be in this vicinity while a $50K wage earner would have expenses closer to this level). So, as you have already learnt to live with higher mortgage payments you may as well continue at this level.

It may seem strange to pay more than is necessary but consider it from another angle - forced saving. Firstly, for most average size mortgages the savings will be approximately $10 - $20 per week. This amount is hardly going to change your lifestyle considerably but it will alter your mortgage length and total interest payments considerably.

For this exercise I have used the following variables; a mortgage of $300K taken out over 30years at a current rate of 7%pa.

The Blue line indicates how your mortgage will continue should you reduce your payments to the new rate. The Pink line illustrates your mortgage should you continue to pay at the same amount and the Yellow line shows your mortgage if you were to increase repayments by $10 per week (paying fortnightly).

As you can see there are considerable savings to be made if you keep up the repayments or increase them. In fact, you could save 6-8 years off your loan period and more than $140K in interest.

Makes sense to sacrifice now than enjoy a little bonus.

Posted by Stuart at 12:21 AM | Permalink

As interest rates head north many families will be sharpening their pencils bracing themselves for their increased mortgage rates. But what if you could do some calculations beforehand and even make some decisions to swap financial institutions or change the terms of your loans.

Thanks to Google Spreadsheets you can do this online if you don't already own a proprietary software copy. Googe's spreadsheets offer many of the financial functions that MS Excel does and the ones pertinent to our calculations are all there. So how do we go about it?

Firstly, login to the spreadsheets or register if this is your first Google account. When you first enter Google Labs for their spreadsheet software it will look like this;

Continue reading "Using Google Spreadsheets to Calculate Your Mortgage" »

Posted by Stuart at 7:48 AM | Permalink

The day of reckoning for the Howard Government has arrived as analysts tip that the Federal Reserve will adopt a rate rise of between 0.25% and 0.5%. It's a right hook to a government that has prided itself on its economic management and will be interesting to watch how they recover from this position.

To keep it in perspective, the cash rate will increase to 6 or 6.25% (blamed on the price of bananas) whereas in the early 90's the cash rate was over 16% (when our then Prime Minister was talking about a banana republic). The Australian economy is very strong bouyed by the resources boom in China and other trade agreements which are profiting handsomely and shouldn't be deterred too much by another rate rise.

The effect of this rate increase will hopefully achieve slowing spending but moreso the slow down of personal debt. The boom in property prices and the increasing stock market have resourced investors with increased equity. This increase, and the optimism generated from the boom, has made us all a little bit too greedy and spending has far outweighed savings.

What will be the fallout from another rate rise? The Reserve Bank is hoping that consumers will halt their borrowings and pull back from their over-exuberant investment strategies. If this works, the property bubble will eventually burst and we shall start to see house prices return to a more normal growth trend. This is great news for those who are wanting to get into the market and can't but bad news for those who have only just taken on a new mortgage.

Posted by Stuart at 7:58 AM | Permalink

I hope you read the fine print.

In many of today's credit card application contracts there is reference to a set of terms should you default on a payment. You may start out on a low interest rate but find, by missing a payment, you will end up converting to the default interest rate - usually 20-30% higher than you were initially paying. There's nothing new about this practice yet there are still many credit card users who are unaware of this policy because they don't read the fine print carefully.

However, this little nuance is minor compared to what is being defined as the Universal Default clause. This clause states that if you miss making a payment to ANYONE that reports on your credit history your interest rate will immediately convert to the default rate.

Take this in for a moment.

You could have faithfully used your credit card, making payments as and when they fall due yet you miss a payment on your telephone bill that is reported to the credit reporting agencies and immediately your credit card institution hikes the interest rate. And they're well within their rights to do so.

For anyone who is looking to accept a really low interest rate for a new credit card make sure you read through the contract and understand all the fine print.

Source: Bill Burt "'Universal default': Lenders gang up on late payment"

Posted by Stuart at 7:25 AM | Permalink

We tread the internet in tip-toe fashion, trying not to clumsily step on anything hazardous to our online health or alerting the attention of unwanted hacker publicity. Why? Because we know that lurking in the not too distant background is the possibility that our identity could be stolen and used innappropriately or credit card details could be used to transact a criminal's spending spree.

We're just trying to download the latest offering from iTunes or pay for a successful auction win on Ebay unaware that the threat is real or that it may be greater than we first assumed. Most internet users, myself included, assume that e-crime is something that happens to other people and optimistically prescribe to the notion that companies are getting better at dealing with these security risks. They're not!

In fact, most online companies while employing a 128bit SSL for their transactions fail to secure the backend of their data, inadvertently creating a back-door for would-be hackers. Now imagine for a second that your data, address, full name, date of birth and credit card details are sitting insitu on some (unfortunately not-so) secure server with the backdoor left wide open. It's like a red-rag to a bull teasing hackers to try their luck.

And who's to blame for the increase in e-crime? Well, while we're pointing the finger it must be directed toward the door of the reigning governments initially. Are they fair dinkum (an Australian colloquialism translated as "genuine") about resolving this type of crime that will inevitably cost the community? There seems to be little that is being legislated in this arena and the resourcing for crime prevention compared to the resourcing of criminals borders on obscure.

My life, like many others, is becoming increasingly dependent on the web. Unfortunately though, it can be that life can be rubbed out quicker on the internet that it can in real life.

Read this article.

Posted by Stuart at 8:43 AM | Permalink

Apparently, yes! That is if you have a steady job and income. If you're a bum who has seasonal employment and changes residences more than you change your pasty Target underwear, you're probably okay. It may become harder to get another credit card once they've revoked your allowance on the one you've just sky-highed, but at least you won't be sued.

It seems then that credit cards are only for the poor and destitute, or at least those who are willing to run when the bailiff knocks on the door.

Read this article from CreditorWeb.

Posted by Stuart at 7:20 AM | Permalink

Have plastic - will shop! Tired of seeing those credit card statements roll in each month and find that you're kicking yourself for some of the purchases you made on that list. Then there's the usual discussion with your spouse concerning the relevance of such transactions like "I don't remember ordering anything from Danoz this month?", "A Mars bar, you put a Mars bar on the card?"

They say hindsight is the greatest teacher you just don't want to have to use it at the end of every month. So, rub some ointment into those bruises, lift your head up from the ground and let's apply some strategy to next month's purchases.

Continue reading "9 tips to curb you credit card spending" »

Posted by Stuart at 6:50 AM | Permalink

Do most married people share bank accounts or keep their own separate ones? It seems that more often than not nuptials presume the shared marriage bed but discount keeping their money in the one place. Is there a benefit to this?

I guess if you're planning to fail in your marriage (and why wouldn't you - 3 out of 4 marriages fail these days) it may seem the most logical step. However, it may be costing you more for the privilege. It doesn't take an Einstein to calculate that two bank accounts will incur double the fees and taxes but what about the interest? Keeping one account with a reasonable balance will usually pay higher interest than two with smaller amounts.

Plus, it makes sense to keep things simple - you're on the same team anyway.

Posted by Stuart at 6:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)