Banking

Bank deposit error in your favor? Give it back

Janean Chun Dec 9th 2009 @ 1:00PM EST Filed Under: Banks, Extracurriculars, Fraud, Banking-checking-account, Banking-savings-account

Remember when Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life loses the bank deposit, and George's troubles ensue (and a holiday classic is born)? Or when Loretta Castorini in Moonstruck forgets a bank deposit as part of a series of comedic misunderstandings? Bank deposit bloopers happen in real-life as well, but the dollar amounts are considerably higher and the bank deposit bloopers are often caused by the bank, not the customer. And, the end-results of these bank deposit bloopers are, unfortunately, not always as heartwarming as in the movies.

Take Randy and Melissa Marie Pratt, whose perceived windfall turned into jail time, when they took an erroneous bank deposit and ran. Melissa made a bank deposit to FNB Bank in the summer of 2008 of $1,772.50, but the bank read the check as $177,250. When the central Pennsylvania couple saw the difference in their bank balance, they wrote checks to another account, quit their jobs, bought a new vehicle and moved to Orlando, Fla. They were in the process of buying a house before the bank deposit mistake was traced.

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Washington turns up heat on banks to bring down mortgage payments

Charles Feldman Dec 8th 2009 @ 10:00AM EST Filed Under: Banks, Real Estate, Mortgages

They've been summoned.

The big banks and mortgage lenders that hold the key to loan modifications have been summoned to Washington for what is supposed to be some heavy duty arm twisting to get them to put pedal to the metal and bring down mortgage payments at a much faster rate.

Among the institutions ordered to D.C., are Bank of America and Citigroup.

But there have been many attempts to get the banks to stop their foot dragging and nothing has really seemed to work.

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Ayn Rand -- back from the dead and still dead wrong

Marc Acito Dec 7th 2009 @ 3:00PM EST Filed Under: Banks, Recession, Recession Diaries

"She's back!" screams the cover of Reason, the magazine "For Free Minds and Free Markets," featuring a photo of right-wing icon Ayn Rand looking suspiciously like the Bride of Frankenstein. (Seriously. Did you ever see the two of them together? I didn't think so.)

Like Frankenstein's monster, Rand's ideas are back from the dead and have attracted the attention of torch-bearing angry villagers like the teabaggers. Sales of her cinder-block-sized manifesto, Atlas Shrugged, are reportedly at their strongest ever (more on that later) and this Christmas we have not one but two Rand biographies from which to choose. (Apparently nothing says "magical holiday" like "angry screed.") There are also lots of "Who Is John Galt?" T-shirts and even the Atlasphere, an Ayn Rand dating and networking site.

So I felt compelled to find out what the buzz was all about.

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Why 30 million Americans lack banking services

Martha C. White Dec 7th 2009 @ 1:00PM EST Filed Under: Banks, Banking-checking-account, Banking-savings-account

More than a million Americans lost access to banks last year, bringing the total up to 30 million people in this country who can't even open a savings account or write a check. The issue of the "unbanked," as they're being called, is a serious one, and the recession is only making the problem worse.

According to the FDIC, which compiled the stats, poor, immigrant and minority members of society are most likely to have trouble finding a bank. In total, a whopping 25.6 percent of all citizens are unbanked or "underbanked," a situation which makes their day-to-day financing more expensive and makes it extremely difficult for them to attain upward mobility.

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Served in the U.S. military? This bank's for you

Vanessa Richardson Dec 7th 2009 @ 12:00PM EST Filed Under: Banks, Insurance, Credit cards

For anyone who is serving in the military, or served and was honorably discharged, you're now eligible to be a customer of one of the top-ranked banking and insurance companies in the country. USAA, started in 1922 by 25 military officers to insure each other's cars, is opening its doors wider. It recently announced an expansion of its customer base from enlisted military to all living service men and women who were honorably discharged.

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Should we break up big banks?

Martha C. White Dec 5th 2009 @ 5:00PM EST Filed Under: Banks, Debt, Insurance, Recession

Ever since the news got out that the U.K. plans to force some of its large, bailout-receiving banks to sell off some operations and become smaller, there's been plenty of speculation on this side of the pond that we might do the same thing.

Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, threw down the gauntlet when he said recently that banks considered "too big to fail" should be broken up to make the economy more stable. (Fisher's full speech on the topic is here if you're interested.) A committee in the House of Representatives is pushing for new legislation that would go even further and let the government break up other kinds of companies -- not just banks -- it deemed a threat.

It's a very satisfying idea: Banks that get too big to handle should be forced to downsize. Only trouble is, a lot of economists think it won't address the problem. "The problem is, the really emotionally satisfying things that we could do all create more harm than good," said Douglas Elliott, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, a think tank. On the subject of breaking up banks dubbed too big to fail, Elliot told WalletPop, "It would hurt the economy, which ends up hitting the average person."

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Bank practices: The good, the bad, and the ugly

Martha C. White Dec 3rd 2009 @ 8:00AM EST Filed Under: Banks

A lot of Americans have plenty to say about their banks these days, and it's not always pretty -- we've heard you in the comments section. We wanted to call out some of banks' slimier tricks for separating you from your money as well as recognize some of the helpful tools or innovations (yes, there are a few mixed in with all those fees!) some banks offer.

WalletPop got on the phone with a few top consumer finance experts at watchdog groups -- people who track what the banks are doing day in and day out -- to ask them what today's customers should appreciate and what they should avoid at all costs. Here's our roundup of the good, the bad and the ugly.

The Good
Direct deposit: If your employer or benefits distributor offers this, sign up for it. There's no question this is a good thing. Nearly all the experts we talked to said this is one of the most consumer-friendly practices banks offer today. Not only does your money get into your account up to five days faster than if you deposited a paper check, direct deposit eliminates the errand of physically going to the bank to deposit it. Often, direct deposit makes you eligible for free checking at most banks (although not Citibank, come February). "Generally it's safe to say direct deposit benefits consumers," Consumers Union staff attorney Lauren Bowne told us. In other words, it's a no-brainer.

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10 best electronic payment services

Janean Chun Dec 2nd 2009 @ 4:00PM EST Filed Under: Banks, Budgets, Extracurriculars, Banking-checking-account

Imagine a world where you don't have to write or mail a check, handle paper money or swipe your credit card -- all you have to do is enter some information into a Web site to make a financial transaction. That's the world of electronic payments, and if you haven't discovered the convenience of electronic payments, it's time to get with the e-program.

Whether you're shopping online, paying a bill or using online bill pay through your bank, making an electronic payment is as quick and efficient as a couple of clicks. If you automate your electronic payments, you can also eliminate the "D'oh! I forgot to make my payment" moments in your busy schedule. And as long as you make your electronic payments from a secure server, with a firewall, your privacy should be protected. Plus, you save trees and stamps.

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Early Toys R Us shoppers get worm: 2 charges for purchases

Sarah Gilbert Dec 1st 2009 @ 2:15PM EST Filed Under: Banks, Shopping, Black Friday, Credit cards

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I swiped my debit card to get on the light rail and was billed for a bus ticket the machine wouldn't give me. I had to pay $1.50 again to get my oldest son onto our next connection. I know! Frustrating.

As someone who's always living on the very edge of black in her checking account, I know too well the dangers of unexpected transactions, and for me they come in $29 overdraft increments. Customers at Toys R Us this weekend, shopping before regular store opening hours during Black Friday, experienced a similar and far more account-balance-deadly problem: double billing.

Keith Bossey, a marketing and strategy consultant in New York City, may not be at the edge of his bank account, but he just found out today he was double-billed for his purchase.

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Senate bank bill could allow 'too big to fail' banks to grow even bigger

Bob Cesca Nov 30th 2009 @ 5:30PM EST Filed Under: Banks, Borrowing

The chain grocery store where my wife and I shop has a bank in it. There's the frozen food section, the bakery section, the pharmacy and ... the bank. It's not even a particularly large grocery store, but there it is. A bank. With a vault, a sit-down area and everything.

I'm not sure how common this is, but it certainly represents the trend here which appears to be rapidly nearing a ratio of more banks than people. Or at least, more banks than McDonalds, Subways, Starbucks, Walmarts and Targets -- combined. That's not an exaggeration. Within short walking distance of my very suburban neighborhood, there are four banks not including the one in the grocery store. Two of those banks are directly across the street from each other.

And, by the way, there are fewer community banks and credit unions here.

With that in mind, I had no idea that there were local laws regulating how many branches a bank can open in a particular states. Oh, and, according to Ryan Grim, Congress and the Treasury Department is trying really hard to undermine those laws.

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Overdraft fees ruled legal in England

Geoff Williams Nov 30th 2009 @ 2:30PM EST Filed Under: Banks

It's probably not something that most Americans are following, but in England, the Supreme Court has been studying the legality of bank overdraft fees and whether the public should be refunded, and their verdict is in: the overdraft fees that have been soaking the British are legal.

Two courts had previously indicated that English banks might have to refund their fees, and I admit the thought made me rather gleeful, and last September in a WalletPop post, I started wondering if some similar lawsuit might make its way through the American courts. Why not? We borrowed The Office from England, and it's worked out so well here. Maybe we could take a real scenario in England and help us over on the other side of the Atlantic.

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Mortgage modifications, take two: Obama tries a bigger stick to make banks lower loan payments

Charles Feldman Nov 29th 2009 @ 10:00PM EST Filed Under: Banks, Real Estate, Mortgages

You know that old saying about how in life there are no second acts? Perhaps not. But that doesn't apply to government work.

On Monday, the Obama administration is set to try one more time to get mortgage companies to reduce payments in an effort to bring a halt to ever-mounting foreclosures.

The first effort was a huge flop: Of the half million or so loan modifications made since the first push was on, only about 2,000 became permanent, according to a Congressional oversight panel.

In an interview with the New York Times, Michael Barr, the Treasury Department's assistant secretary for financial institutions said, " The banks are not doing a good enough job ... some of the firms ought to be embarrassed, and they will be."

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