An interesting article on NPR recently discussed why there is a growing number of Americans not using traditional FDIC banks.  Why they are instead turning to cash advance services, such as ACE Cash Express, or other financial entities like Payday Loans.  How many people?  Right now 60 million and growing.
But why?
According to the article, the [...]

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So I have an HSBC online savings account and a brick and mortar Bank of America checking and savings account.  It’s to make it easier to segregate our daily expenses with our savings.  Plus the B of A atms are much more convenient.
On Tuesday I transferred $5k from our savings account to our B of [...]

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Okay, so whose fault is it when consumers get hit with overdraft fees?  On quite a few message boards, there is a common theme of I’m getting constantly hit with overdraft fees or bouncing checks.  So whose fault is it, the banks or the consumers?
Some would argue the bank, since they often have holding periods [...]

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Are you running scared of the market right now?  It seems like the whole market went to hell yesterday in a handbasket.  The Dow dropped 504 points yesterday.  And it ain’t over yet.  Yesterday the drop in the market was due to the Lehman Brothers failing and declaring bankruptcy.  While Merrill Lynch is in serious [...]

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I’ve been a huge proponent of online bill pay. I can’t recall the last time I mailed a check off to pay a bill.  It’s likely been years.  I pay our mortgage, utilities, HOA, credit cards, property taxes, everything online with Bank of America.
Well last month for the first time a check did not arrive.  [...]

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People wrote in to Money Magazine complaining about the “raw deal” that is overdraft fees.   People were complaining that they were hit with multiple fees because checks they had expected to clear had bounced.  The problem?  They didn’t have money in their checking accounts to cover some of the checks in the first place, which [...]

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