Banking

Mortgage rates may be rising, thanks to Bernanke

Charles Feldman Nov 3rd 2009 @ 5:30PM EST Filed Under: Banks, Real Estate, Mortgages

Premature withdrawal could prove painful -- to your pocket.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is apparently set to stop the central bank's purchase of mortgage-backed securities in a few months, which could contribute to a full percentage point increase in the rates of 30-year mortgages.

Talk about shooting the alleged economic recovery in the foot before it has a chance to really get going.

Seems that Bernanke feels strongly, says a Bloomberg report, that by March it will be time for private investors to step in and start making the purchases in place of Uncle Sam -- or, in this case, Uncle Ben.

Continue reading Mortgage rates may be rising, thanks to Bernanke

Goldman's new role: repossessing foreclosed homes

Troy McMullen Nov 3rd 2009 @ 4:00PM EST Filed Under: Banks, Credit, Real Estate, Investing, Bankruptcy, Mortgages

Goldman Sachs spent years buying hundreds of thousands of subprime mortgages during the real estate boom, packaging them into high-yield bonds. Now that the bottom has fallen out of the property market, the Wall Street behemoth finds itself in a different role: taking homes away from Americans defaulting on their loans.

That's according to a lengthy investigation by McClatchy Newspapers . The report says there are hundreds of cases in which subsidiaries of Goldman have sought to contain bondholder losses by foreclosing on properties and evicting delinquent borrowers.

Continue reading Goldman's new role: repossessing foreclosed homes

Could banks be in more trouble than they've let on?

Martha C. White Nov 2nd 2009 @ 5:30PM EST Filed Under: Banks, Real Estate

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke recently talked about "green shoots" of economic recovery and declared the recession probably over, but some economists fear the worst is yet to come.

As bad as the residential real estate crisis was for banks, the impact of failed residential mortgages could be dwarfed by the problems now facing the banks regarding commercial real estate.

A loan for a commercial building like a shopping mall is very different from the mortgage you have on your home. Commercial mortgages have a much shorter term, usually only five to seven years. The bank doesn't expect the owner to pay the debt off in that amount of time, but when that time comes, they need to refinance the remaining balance into a new loan.

Continue reading Could banks be in more trouble than they've let on?

What to do if your bank follows the 115 that failed this year

Geoff Williams Nov 2nd 2009 @ 12:25AM EST Filed Under: Banks

Almost every Friday this year, usually in the evening, a grim announcement is released to the public: Another bank has failed.

Sure enough, Friday came and went, and with it, came the announcement that another bank had failed. Actually, not just one bank had failed -- but nine. That's the most that's occurred on any one day this year.

So far this year, that brings the total number of bank failures to 115. The nine new banks are in California, Illinois, Texas and Arizona, all subsidiaries of FBOP Corp, a holding company based in Oak Park, Ill. And while nine bank failures at once is a lot, because they're all part of the same company, it doesn't seem as chilling a day as it might otherwise would have been.

Continue reading What to do if your bank follows the 115 that failed this year

Ask the Dolans: Is my bank calculating my mortgage correctly?

Ken and Daria Dolan Oct 30th 2009 @ 1:00PM EST Filed Under: Banks, The Dolans, Video, Mortgages

Ken and Daria Dolan, America's first family of personal finance, answer your questions every Friday.

Click here to ask Ken and Daria your question.

Can you please help me understand how my bank calculates my mortgage interest and principal? Even when I pre-pay my mortgage, they seem to put most of it toward interest.

--Penny

For more answers to your debt management questions, visit Dolans.com

Need a credit card? Really? WalletPOP bloggers debate

Zac Bissonnette Oct 28th 2009 @ 2:30PM EST Filed Under: Banks, Credit, Credit cards

Over on our listserv, WalletPOP bloggers and editors occasionally -- and by occasionally I mean daily -- get into heated debates about personal finance topics that are way too boring to think about let alone discuss for the vast majority of people with healthy social lives.

Last week, we ended up debating credit cards -- and whether people really need a credit card. Here's my argument against credit cards:

The more I read about it, think about it, and live it, the more convinced I am that people should not have credit cards.

Fact: People who pay with credit cards spend more money. This has been demonstrated by at least half a dozen studies.

Continue reading Need a credit card? Really? WalletPOP bloggers debate

Reverse mortgages could be the next housing scam

Vanessa Richardson Oct 27th 2009 @ 6:00PM EST Filed Under: Banks, Home, Ripoffs and Scams, Mortgages, Refinancing

My mother-in-law is divorced, newly retired and wants to enjoy her Golden Years. Because she just turned 62 and owns her house, she considered a reverse mortgage to turn her home equity into a steady income stream every month.

But after I gave her the highlights of a new report from the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) that said, in short, reverse mortgages have the potential to start another subprime-style financial crisis, she decided to look elsewhere.

Walletpop's Mitch Lipka posted in July how the FBI issued a warning about reverse mortgages and the number of scam artists eyeing them greedily.

Continue reading Reverse mortgages could be the next housing scam

Mortgage debt waived after bank can't find paperwork

Martha C. White Oct 27th 2009 @ 4:30PM EST Filed Under: Banks, Real Estate, Refinancing

Score: Little guy, 1; bank, 0. It's a nice change.

Two weeks ago, a bankruptcy court in suburban New York did the formerly unthinkable: It waived a homeowner's mortgage debt after the bank trying to foreclose on the home couldn't submit any proof that it actually had a claim on the property.

According to the New York Times, when lender PHH Mortgage was asked to provide proof that it actually held the deed for the $461,263 mortgage, it couldn't give the judge any records.

Continue reading Mortgage debt waived after bank can't find paperwork

Quicken 2010: Faster, simpler and welcomes MS Money users

Josh Smith Oct 23rd 2009 @ 6:00PM EST Filed Under: Banks, Budgets, Simplification, Technology

This week Intuit released Quicken 2010, the latest update to the popular Quicken line of personal finance software.

Included in the release are several features and enhancements to provide a better user experience in Quicken 2010 as well as an easy-to-use conversion tool to help Microsoft Money users convert to Quicken 2010.

Of the enhancements and upgrades to Quicken, customers will appreciate the following five features that will make using and sticking with Quicken 2010 easier.

Faster setup -- New three-step guide gets you up and running faster than before.
Simplified navigation -- Easier access to the tools you want to use.
At a glance homepage -- All of your important info on one page; saving spending and bills.
Automatic categorization -- Transactions are now automatically added to the right category -- saving you time.
Easier to use -- More welcoming to new users and provides customization.

Continue reading Quicken 2010: Faster, simpler and welcomes MS Money users

Bankers party like it's still 2006 -- with your money

Zac Bissonnette Oct 23rd 2009 @ 5:30PM EST Filed Under: Banks, Wealth, Recession

The Service Employees International Union reports that the American Bankers Association is having a conference this weekend. The ABA is a trade group and powerful lobbying organization representing the banking industry. Because so many of its members received bailout money, it's fair to say that U.S. taxpayers are paying for this party.

Here's what the bankers will have to look forward to:

a luxurious riverboat cruise
a historical mansion tour
a roaring 1920s big band gala
celebrity appearances by Newt Gingrich & George Will

The first three sound like fun, but to be fair, having to sit through a Newt Gingrich speech is probably an excessive punishment for destroying the economy.

Gingrich is a strange choice to speak at the ABA party because he was, to his credit, a vocal opponent of the bailouts. Back in September of 2008, he was asked about the TARP plan on NPR and provided a surprisingly candid answer: "Well, I think you have a Goldman Sachs chief of staff to the president and the Goldman Sachs secretary of the Treasury. And they convinced the president that the American people ought to send $700 billion to Wall Street, which I think is a very, very bad idea, and I would argue is a very un-Republican idea. I don't understand what they think they're doing."

And yet now he's speaking at a conference for an organization that lobbied for the bailout -- and against regulation to prevent future financial disasters.

Worse? The money that he'll be paid for speaking will come -- in a distant sort of way -- out of the very bailout package that he so vocally-opposed. Everyone has his price, apparently.

Bank of America's incompetence creates mess for soldier's family

Zac Bissonnette Oct 22nd 2009 @ 5:30PM EST Filed Under: Banks

Here's a story that will make you want to storm your local Bank of America branch with a water gun: A soldier stationed in Afghanistan got a mortgage for his home through a now-defunct lender and the loan has since been acquired by Bank of America.

Bank of America isn't keeping track of the payments, and they won't talk to the solider's family -- even though they have a power of attorney.

She calls Dave Ramsey who proceeds to throw down the gauntlet. After urging her to call JAG for help, he says "Wow. Gosh folks. . . If you continue to do business with these mega banks. . . Citi and Bank of America and Chase when they continue to act this way to the consumer on a daily basis, why would you do that?. . . Why would you continue to do business with a bank that is that idiotic?. . . It comes down to just gross incompetence. . . It's like you're dealing with the federal government. It's ridiculous. . . As consumers, you have a vote in this. You can vote with your wallet."

So here's what I have to say: If the notion of Bank of America messing around with a soldier stationed in Afghanistan and his family doesn't make you mad as hell, there's something wrong with you. If it does make you mad as hell and you continue to do business with these banks, there's something wrong with you.

Out-of-network ATM fees? iPhone Apps to the rescue

Josh Smith Oct 22nd 2009 @ 9:00AM EST Filed Under: Banks, Budgets, Simplification, Technology, Economizer

When

one bank fee dies, another one is born to fill its place; so what's a consumer to do? Well, thanks to technology, keeping on top of your accounts and locating a nearby surcharge-free ATM is as easy as updating your Facebook status.

With ATM fees rising and bank fees as a whole on the rise, staying on top of your banking is an absolute must. RecessionWire has a very useful listing of iPhone Apps to help you avoid bank fees or at least minimize them when using an out-of-network ATM. Some of the most useful include:

Bank of America App (Free) - Account tracking and in-network ATM locating
Wesabe (Free) - Account tracking
PocketMoney (Lite version Free, $4.99 for Full) - Account tracking
Quicken (Free) - Account tracking and in-network ATM locating
Mint (Free) - Account tracking
TapFinder ($.99) -ATM locating

While Apple's popular iPhone certainly has the most apps available to help you avoid a bank fee, there are plenty of ways for Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Android and even regular cell phone users without apps and web access to do the same.

Several of the Apps listed above, like the Bank of America App, also work on Android and BlackBerry phones, giving users quick access to their accounts. Others like Wesabe, Mint and Quicken also offer mobile web versions of their site optimized for the small screen to let you query the balance in your accounts, and, in Quicken's case, where the closest ATM is. There are also several other applications in the Android marketplace to help members of specific credit unions locate ATMs.

If you don't have a web-enabled cell phone, fear not; you can still stay on top of important financial information via text messages. Yodlee, for example, is a free personal financial service which connects to your bank and credit accounts and can provide numerous text alerts based on criteria you choose, such as a low balance warning.

Finding a surcharge-free ATM with a text message is also easy. Just text message Google at (466453) with the name of your bank and your location and you'll receive a text message with the local listings. For example, "Bank of America Toledo Ohio" returned three local branches. I could then text message Google, "directions [my location] to [banks address]" to find out how to get there.

So, no matter what kind of cell phone you have, it's easier than ever to check your account balances and avoid costly bank fees while you're on the go.

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