The internet is an incredibly powerful tool for sharing information, communicating, and learning, but it’s also an excellent resource that identity thieves use to obtain your personal information. Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the United States and nowadays most people don’t give a second thought to posting their full name, address, and phone number on popular social networks like Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter. Read more »

Recently my banking debit card was charged $34.84 by a company called Adipose RX for some dietary supplements. Because I have transaction alerts set for my online banking account, I was immediately notified of the unauthorized charge. Despite promptly contacting my bank’s representative and informing them of this problem, I was told that until the pending charges were processed there was nothing I could do. Thus a few days later I had to call them again to dispute the charge and begin the process of filing an official claim for the unauthorized charge. Read more »

Like many people, my financial software of choice is Quicken. It works great and for most simple transactions it’s not too difficult to figure out how to setup and use. In order to update it however, I must download the latest transactions from my bank account and then open that file in Quicken to import them all. It is possible to sync live with one’s bank account instead of downloading but some banking institutions charge for such use. I am still using Quicken Basic 2006 and while sometimes it automatically identifies common transactions and categorizes them accordingly, it doesn’t always do this, regardless if the title of the transaction clearly identifies the category it should be allocated.

One of Read more »

Social lending start-ups like UK based Zopa.com and the US based Prosper.com bring lenders and borrowers directly together to cut out the banker and help both parties save money. This business model is similar to eBay in that a listing is created and bids are taken from competing buyers. This enables the loan rate to get bid down giving the borrower a better rate while still giving the lender a good return on their investment. The loans are unsecured and amortized over three years with no penalties for early repayment. Read more »

HSBC Direct is breaking new ground with their online savings account. They report a 5.05% APY with no monthly fees! I was a bit skeptical at first so I gave them a call and verified their claims before opening my account.
I have been using my HSBC online savings account for about a week now and I must say that, not only am I pleased with it, but it has been a lot of fun. I can transfer funds between my HSBC account and my primary banking account, schedule reoccuring transactions, track my savings, and do much more with no monthly fees to worry about.

What I Like:
� Earning 5.05% versus 0.5% with my Read more »

If you’re like me you are probably solicited from credit card companies all the time and are tempted to take advantage of their teaser rates. Well, not only can you get great rates on credit cards these days but you can make money from them! That is, if you have a decent credit rating and are approved for a credit card (CC) with 0% APR on balance transfers for up to 12 months.

Here’s how it works:

1. Find a CC with 0% APR on balance transfers for at least 12 months
2. Research the