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Joint bank accounts: what you need to know

Geoff Williams May 13th 2010 @ 1:30PM EST Filed Under: Family Money, Banking - Checking Account, Banking - Savings Account

When joint bank accounts make the news, the news is rarely good. Last year, for instance, Jon Gosselin of Jon and Kate Plus 8 fame made headlines when he reportedly drained $230,000 out of their checking account. Even going back a century, you can find newspaper articles that include warnings from personal finance experts about such accounts. A 1964 story entitled Joint Bank Account Is Marital Pitfall in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, quoted one expert as saying, "She doesn't keep track of the checks she writes. And he doesn't either. And before you know it, they're in a dither."

Despite the bad headlines and the misgivings of some experts, having a joint checking or savings account with your spouse isn't really worth worrying about. (Yes, your spouse has the right to drain the account if they want to, but then you have bigger problems in your marriage to contend with). Setting up a joint account with someone you aren't married to, on the other hand, can be a different story altogether.

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Lawsuit against Second Life brings real world problems

Linda Doell May 5th 2010 @ 4:00PM EST Filed Under: Saving Money, Investing, Consumer Ally, Banking - Savings Account

A group of gamers is looking for real money from the creator of the virtual world Second Life, charging fraud and false

advertising because of changes in how land is held in the game.

In Second Life -- and in online role playing games like World of Warcraft -- players create their own characters called avatars that they use to move about a virtual 3-D space. As Second Life avatars, residents -- as the players are called -- can do anything including run businesses, go to concerts, play sports, create or buy products, and talk and interact with others from around the globe. They can also buy land using Second Life currency bought with real money.

It's the issue of who is the ultimate property owner that's in dispute.

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Should you join a credit union? Here's what you need to know

Geoff Williams Apr 27th 2010 @ 12:30PM EST Filed Under: Banks, Banking - Savings Account, 101 banking

In the world of personal banking, credit unions always seem to come off as the good guys and banks, well, I probably don't need to tell you which role they're typically assigned.

But what makes credit unions so wonderful? And do they really live up to their shining reputation? Here's what you need to know:

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5 reasons to switch to online banks

Jim Wang Apr 23rd 2010 @ 5:30PM EST Filed Under: Banks, Banking - Checking Account, Banking - Savings Account

I still remember when online banks first appeared. People were wary of them because they were new. They were wary of putting their savings at a bank they couldn't visit. They were wary of the higher interest rates. They were wary of unfamiliar names.

However, over the last few years, online banks have assuaged these fears and I believe that an online bank account is pivotal piece in your financial plan.

An online bank account isn't the same as banking online, which is one of many services your local bank may offer. Online banks are different in that they have no physical branches you can visit. Most of your interactions will be on the Web or over the telephone, not with a teller or ATM. Not having a physical location may be troubling at first but as we'll soon see, there are many reasons why you should give them a look.

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Bank branches in high schools a good financial lesson

Vanessa Richardson Mar 9th 2010 @ 11:00AM EST Filed Under: Banks, Family Money, School, Banking - Checking Account, Banking - Savings Account

High schools with bank branches, ATMs and tellers to help students withdraw money? Can we trust teenagers with these just down the hall from chem lab? I gave it some thought last week when I went to pick up my cousin Cate, who I blogged about recently regarding her pondering the merits of public versus private colleges. She needed a ride home from her high school, but I needed to stop on the way and withdraw some cash from an ATM. "No problem," Cate told me. "You can do it here."

What? "Yeah, my school has a bank branch here," Cate said.

She led me down a hallway of classrooms to the newest branch of the Golden 1 Credit Union, opened last fall. It's a tiny room but it's stocked with computer screens, brochures on the credit union's checking and savings accounts, and student bank tellers working behind the counter.

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Sallie Mae unveils 2 ways to save for college

Geoff Williams Mar 4th 2010 @ 11:30AM EST Filed Under: Money College, School, Banking - Savings Account

Attention, beleaguered parents! If you're trying to save for your kids' college education, this little news item may be for you.

Sallie Mae, the nation's largest lender of college student loans, has just unveiled two ways to save: certificates of deposit and an FDIC-insured, online savings account. Let me quickly review the details on what Sallie Mae is offering.

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Banks use scare tactics to get you to sign up for overdraft protection

Martha C. White Feb 24th 2010 @ 11:00AM EST Filed Under: Banks, Banking - Checking Account, Banking - Savings Account

As we've told you previously, new rules about bank overdraft "protection" programs kick in this coming July. The new rules basically say you have to voluntarily sign up to let your bank keep processing debit card transactions even after your account falls into the red and also charge you around $35 each time.

It seems like a no-brainer, right? Why would you sign up for a service like this? Well, because banks have started alarming their customers with direct mail that makes not signing up sound very, very scary. The New York Times has a story that details some of the scare tactics banks are pulling out.

Maybe you've already gotten one of these letters (or more than one!). If not, and if you don't want to click on the Times link, here's the short version: They'll warn you that your debit card might not work. (Of course, it only won't work if you don't have any money in your account.) They use words like "emergency" to make you think of the worst possible scenario, and they underline words and use red ink a lot.

In other words, this is just a lot of hype. There are plenty of other ways you can protect yourself if your account runs low and you have an emergency, points out Kathleen Day, spokesperson for the Center for Responsible Lending.

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It's America Saves Week, so why aren't you saving?

Martha C. White Feb 22nd 2010 @ 3:45PM EST Filed Under: Saving Money, Banking - Savings Account, Economizer

It's officially America Saves Week, but according to the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC), far too many Americans aren't saving, and they're placing themselves at risk for a downward spiral of debt.

If you're an average American family, you only have about $10,000 in net financial assets -- and that includes the money you need to pay day-to-day bills and buy things like gas and groceries as well as pay for bigger things like the mortgage, car payments and credit card bills.

While the total savings rate has inched up a bit in the past few years, when we as a nation were literally spending more than we were saving, we still need to ramp up our savings efforts.

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A different, slightly cheaper kind of overdraft protection

Martha C. White Jan 22nd 2010 @ 9:00AM EST Filed Under: Banks, Banking - Checking Account, Banking - Savings Account

Let's get the obvious out of the way first: We don't want you to overdraw your checking account. Spending more money than you actually have is not ideal, to say the least, and always winds up costing you more -- sometimes much more -- in the long run.

But banks made more than $38 billion in overdraft fees alone in 2009, so it's apparent that a lot of Americans are spending more money than they have in their checking accounts.

New rules about overdraft fees kick in this coming July. As we've pointed out in other posts, though, this doesn't mean you're off the hook if you try to buy something when you account balance is at zero. Rather, you'll just get slapped with an "insufficient funds" fee, which can cost as much as that overdraft "protection" fee you thought you were avoiding.

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