Do as I say, not as I do. Do you ever fall into that trap? New research from Debt.com suggests that you might have that attitude when it comes to budgets.
Debt.com recently surveyed the budgeting habits and attitudes of Americans and found a wide discrepancy in following through on budgeting beliefs. A huge majority
Banks
Your Christmas gift from the Federal Reserve is here. Surprise! It’s another 0.25% hike in the Federal Funds rate. Sure, you’ve already gotten this same gift three other times in 2018, and nine times since late 2015 – but what else would you expect to receive from the Fed?
Interest rate hikes from the Fed
Further Rewards for Good Credit You’ve worked hard to keep your credit score high. Why shouldn’t you be rewarded for your effort?
Banks agree and are looking for innovative ways to urge you to keep your credit score as high as possible. Financial institutions have always used negative reinforcement for poor credit scores – higher
Western Union has served as a reliable method for rapidly sending money over long distances since the late 1800s. Once known for telegraphs, it currently offers services to more than 200 countries across the globe. Unfortunately, Western Union is frequently used by scammers, thanks to convenience, speed, and limited means of recovery for fraudulent transactions.
Where do lower-income Americans turn when faced with immediate bills and no money with which to pay them? Most turn to the payday loan industry, which offers short-term loans in exchange for fees and high interest rates. These loans are generally $500 or less and are called “payday” loans because the borrower is expected to
How do you know that your bank is the best one for you? You can consult all the advertising flyers and conventional information available at bank branches — or you can do some homework on the fundamentals of your bank with help from the online Bank Data Guide from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
Which Is True? The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is an independent consumer and financial watchdog agency that offers advice to consumers and levies fines against financial institutions engaged in questionable practices.
The CFPB is an unchecked, poorly controlled agency that restricts the opportunity of financial institutions to operate within a free market and applies
Do you prefer not to do business with banks, even when it comes to your credit card accounts? Your local credit union may be able to help with a credit card that fits your needs perfectly.
Credit union credit cards operate in the same way as those provided by banks. Since credit unions are not-for-profit
The Fitch Group has recently released its U.S. RMBS Servicer Handbook for the most recent quarter. The handbook shows that many banks offering mortgages have halved the number of staff in their mortgage servicing departments during the last two years. The decision to downsize these departments is primarily the result of these lenders seeing their
It sounds like a Hollywood script. Thousands of employees at a major financial institution create false accounts in their customers’ names and shuttle money around temporarily to cover their tracks, all to gain larger bonuses and meet sales goals. These employees even go so far as to create fake PINs and contact information for these
Much of Wall Street was pleased in June when all but two of the largest U.S. banks passed the so-called “stress test” applied by the Federal Reserve. What is this stress test, where does it come from, and why do the results matter to Wall Street?
The stress tests come from the Dodd-Frank legislation that
Jumbo mortgages made at the six largest U.S. banks accounted for 24 percent of all mortgages in 2015. That’s an increase from 21 percent in 2014. All of these jumbo mortgages were larger than $417,000. Since 2008, they have become more popular with the larger banks, including Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, PNC
Bank of America (BoA) has reported 2016 first quarter earnings from mortgage banking as $433 million, a decline from their $694 million in the first quarter of 2015. This is due to the bank selling fewer secondary market loans, Chief Financial Officer Paul Donofrio reports.
Donofrio explained that the bank’s strategy is to place more
Financial news is filled with references to the Federal Reserve, especially given the recent interest rate hike and the hundreds of articles on the effect of the Fed’s actions. But do you know what the Fed really is and how it came to be?
The Federal Reserve is the federal government’s central banking system. Created
Love or hate them, you cannot deny that the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) is doing its job with gusto. The CFPB has taken on multiple large companies and financial institutions, levying heavy fines like the nearly $800 million fine against Bank of America. We can now add Citibank to the growing list.
Citigroup will
Banks constantly look to gain the loyalty of new customers. One great place for banks to find these ideal, new customers is at colleges, universities and other post-secondary educational institutions.
Students Make Easy Targets for Excessive Fees Unfortunately, students do not pay much attention to their finances, especially when it comes to the fine print
As a company owner, CFO or Controller, one of your most important tasks is to select the right business bank. It is easy to think that all banks are the same, but there are important differences in services, fees and culture. So it’s worth taking some of your valuable time to insure that the bank