Last week I appeared on Today to join Forbes Editor Bill Baldwin (one of my former bosses) discussing a story from his shop about things you should buy before the recession ends. Essentially, these are things where prices have fallen because of lack of demand. But as the economy improves, they’re expected to go right back up.
I started fishing around and found some deals that weren’t on his original list. If you are one of those people who have already stocked the emergency cushion, maxxed out the 401(k), gotten the health and life insurance you need, feel your job is secure AND you STILL have money to spare, look no further: More…
MONEY 911
The segment from this morning’s Today – which you can watch on the video below – is heavy on the mortgage advice, including information on how to refinance without blowing your budget on closing costs, and how to turn an interest-only mortgage into a fixed-rate.
The ink on the Credit Card Bill of Rights (officially the The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act) is barely dry but banks have already figured out they stand to lose big bucks in lost interest and fees from consumers. Not surprisingly, they’re already figuring out how to make up that ground. Despite the fact that the new law won’t go into effect for nearly nine months, some of these fees/charges are already on the way – others you should simply watch out for.
* Higher Checking Account Fees: We’re already starting to see some changes in this arena. In recent changes: Bank of America (BAC) will increase its monthly account maintenance fee on its MyAccess checking from $5.95 to $8.95 per month in June. In particular, customers who don’t maintain significant balances should be on the lookout for additional or higher fees.
* Higher Overdraft Fees: It is already common to see overdraft fees of $35 – sometimes $39 – when you spend more than you have in your account. You’re then charged interest on the amount of money you’ve essentially borrowed to cover your bad checks or debits. Watch out in particular for two new kinds of overdraft fees: A tiered overdraft fee which means that with each successive overdraft the fees go up. Nine out of the 16 largest banks also have sustained overdraft fees, which means if you don’t pay off the overdraft amount and the fee in full, an additional fee gets tacked on. Sometimes it’s a per day fee and sometimes it’s a flat fees.
These overdraft fees – many of which are charged on debit and ATM transactions — are particularly annoying because banks do something called “stacking the debt.” They program their computers to process withdrawals not in the order that you make them but by the largest first. So if the largest withdrawal takes you over your funds, you’ll then incur overdraft fees on all of the smaller ones. And very few banks, according to the Consumer Federation of America, limit the amount of fees they’ll charge you in a single day. So if you swipe at the dry cleaner, the supermarket, the hardware store and the movies in a single day, you could be looking at $140 in fees. Ouch.
What can you do about it? One suggestion: More…
I know, I know, Jon and Kate Gosselin filed for divorce somewhere near their Pennsylvania home today. Having been there and done that, I can say I sympathize. And I cannot imagine what it must be like to go through something so soul shredding in the public eye.
But I can also say there is hope out there. This morning, I gave a speech in Montreal to a room full of credit union executives and board members. I sat next to a man twice widowed. He had lost both wives to cancer, the first diagnosed when she was only 28 years old, the second within a year to lung cancer (and, yes, she never smoked.) He had a smile on his face as he relayed this story courtesy of his third bride, who was at home recovering from surgery. (She is doing well, we hear, and we’re very glad.)
The third bride, a woman named Mary, works in a jewelry store. Not a place to meet men, she says, though she met her husband there (but that’s another story for another day). Late last week a man in his late 20s walked into the jewelry store to pick out a diamond ring for his bride. He’d been saving for this day, he said, since he was in his late teens and put a quarter in a jar — to eventually buy a ring for the woman he’d eventually fall in love with. To that jar he added another quarter, and another, and another.
Over a decade later, he walked into this Wisconsin jewelry store and poured out — onto a glass counter that must have been plenty thick — enough quarters to pay for a $2700 engagement ring. We are told a picture is forthcoming. (We will post it when we get it.) And we wish the groom-to-be, his new bride, our storytelling friend and his third-wife Mary all the best.
We are still believers in love that lasts.
I’ve suggested haggling over everything from your cable bill to your cell phone plan, but what about your credit card bills? These days, credit card companies are wising up to the fact that they’re better off getting some money than no money at all, and they’re more and more willing to work with you if you’re behind on your payments. Recently, I was on Today to talk about the ins and outs of negotiating with credit card lenders. Here’s a video of the segment:
