“I’ve been on Wall Street for many years, and I’ve never seen a weekend like this one,” said Michael Holland, 64, chairman and founder of New York-based Holland & Co. “We are unwinding what has been years of silliness in the financial markets, and the silliness is being vaporized as we speak, unfortunately with the stock price of a number of companies involved in it.”
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"Years Of Silliness" Unwound Over Single Weekend
By 9.15.08
Lehman Files For Chapter 11, BoA Buys Merrill Lynch
By 9.15.08
Bankers worked hard over the weekend to prevent the American financial system from imploding.
- Lehman filed for Chapter 11
- Bank of America bought Merrlil Lynch
- A special trading session was opened Sunday from 2-6pm to allow traders to try to unwind their positions
- The Fed is expected to temporarily make it easier for banks to borrow from the government
- European Central Banks stand ready to pump billions into the global market
- Washington Mutual’s new CEO’s disclosure of further writedowns and setting aside of capital calmed investors and stemmed the massive selloff of its stock
'Rudder' Provides Your Daily Financial Status Via Email
By 9.12.08
Rudder is a new personal finance service that differs from the dozens of other ones now available in two key ways: it presents a simplified overview of your available funds, which it calls “What’s Left,” and it delivers it (along with bill reminders and balance notifications) to your email inbox instead of requiring you to visit a website. Think of it as a highly customized “Very Short List” or “Daily Candy,” only the topic is always your current financial health.
FTC: Protect Gift Card Holders When Companies Go Bankrupt
By 9.12.08
Consumers Union (CU) filed a petition with the FTC Thursday to protect consumer gift card holders more when retailers go bankrupt. For as long as the stores remain open, CU wants companies to have to hold gift card funds in a secure trust, unless bankruptcy courts say otherwise. Currently…
Personal Finance Roundup
By 9.11.08
6 Ways to Save on Beer, Wine and Liquor [Smart Money] “Here are six ways to save on your favorite vintage, malt or brew.”
Blockbuster Double Dips In PayPal Account; Naturally, PayPal Does Nothing
By 9.10.08
Blockbuster debited Anthony’s PayPal account two days in a row for the same monthly plan. PayPal won’t help—they say it’s between Blockbuster and Anthony, offering further proof that PayPal is a great service only as long as nothing goes wrong.
Save For Specific Goals With SmartyPig.com
By 9.10.08
“Saving up.” It’s nearly an alien concept in this “buy with debt” world, but into that breach steps SmartyPig. The site lets you set and save for specific goals in their online savings accounts at a competitive 3.9% APY savings rate. There’s all sorts of built-in graphs and widgets to track your progress, but then you can make it social, if you like, by making a page where your goals public and having friends and family or other random people on the net (export to Facebook, etc) track and root for your progress, or even contribute to your goal.
FSA Ombudsman Solves Your Federal Student Aid Crises
By 9.10.08
Got a problem with your federal student loan? The Federal Student Aid Ombudsman specialists are here to help. First they’ve got a bunch of tips for you to fix your problem on your own. If all those don’t work, contact them by phone, fax, or mail and they will help you out. For reals. This is reader Trey’s great experience with them:
What Can You Do With $1,000?
By 9.10.08
It used to be that $1,000 was a good amount of money. Then again, it used to be 1980 once too.
Zombie Debt Collectors Find You At Grandma's
By 9.10.08
Palisades Collection is offering Jeremy a great deal: he can pay half off his debt of $237.64 and get the account settled! Small snag, though, Jeremy never ordered the Verizon service they’re trying to collect on, the debt has passed the statute of limitations, and he got it expunged from his credit report years ago. Still, Palisades persists in sending collection notices for him to his grandma’s house. What’s a boy to do? Read on and find out.
6 Horrible Investing Mistakes
By 9.10.08
It’s scary times for investors, so Bankrate has “6 Deadly Investing Mistakes” to avoid, most of which involve you not freaking out.
BoA's "Keep The Change" Program: Worth It?
By 9.10.08
What do you think of Bank of America’s “Keep The Change” program? How it works is every purchase you make with your BoA debit card you make gets rounded up to the next dollar. The difference between that and the actual price gets moved from your checking to your savings account. The idea is to help people save. Good idea, but there’s some potential downsides I can see:
3 Days Late? BoA Jacks Rate To 29.99%
By 9.9.08
Many of you know that if you’re late on your credit card bill payments they can raise your rates as high as 29.99%, but that’s just for scalawags, right? Nope. JLP at All Financial Matter’s brother was late twice on his Bank of America bill, once by three days, and once by one day. That was enough to make Bank of America say, OMG, this guy is way too risky and we need to penalize him and send his rates as high as they can legally go!
Quicken Beam Checks Your Balances On Your Cellphone
By 9.9.08
Sick of overdrafts? Don’t feel like juggling your bank balance in your head? Quickenbeam from Intuit is a new free service, in beta, that lets you check your account balances, no matter what bank you have, from your cellphone.
Beware Balance Billing
By 9.8.08
When insurers don’t pay the full amount of the bill, health-care providers are going after patients to make up the difference. It’s known as “balance billing,” and it’s often illegal, BusinessWeek reports. Under state and federal laws, doctors and hospitals generally need to be dealing with the insurers, instead of pressuring vulnerable patients. Have you had any success with fighting balance billing? Leave your story in the comments.
Give The Gift Of College For Your Next Birthday Party
By 9.7.08
Thanks to state-sponsored 529 plans, friends and family can finally contribute to college savings funds without drowning under long forms and boring paperwork.
55% Off Groceries At Amazon
By 9.5.08
Amazon is having a grocery clearance sale, 55% off regular price with coupon code CLRNCFTY. [Amazon]
Mailing Addresses For TransUnion, Experian, Equifax
By 9.4.08
Having trouble finding the mailing address for any of the three major credit bureaus, TransUnion, Experian, Equifax? Here they are:
