bank rates credit cards insurance finance calculators

« Archive for the ‘Budgeting’ Category

Share, Don’t Own, Your Ride

Would eliminating your monthly car payment, and other related costs, like insurance, gas, maintenance and repairs make a difference in meeting your budget?
Maybe you should consider sharing rather than owning a car.
More than 300,000 drivers have already joined more than two dozen car share programs across the country, which allow the to use — and [...]

0% financing is the best incentive

“Cash for Clunkers” may be over, but our favorite discount is still available on dozens of new cars and trucks.
That’s 0% financing.
If a finance company is willing to lend you $20,000, $30,000 or more for free, we say, grab it.
Here’s why.
If you finance $25,000 for four years at 0%, you’ll pay $521 per month [...]

Let Angie’s List Turn You Into An Empowered Consumer

Looking to save cash and aggravation on everything from home improvements to health care by weeding out the bad guys?
Check out Angie’s List, which I just did for the first time.
A few friends had used Angie’s List to vet contractors — they wanted to find companies that others had raved about instead of looking [...]

Holding The Line On High-Yield Checking

We’ve been impressed with three banks that have not succumbed to the temptation to lower the rates or limit the reach of their high-yield checking accounts since last fall or winter.
They’re still paying more than 4% and offering their high-yield, or reward checking accounts as they’re sometimes called, nationwide.
Bank of the Sierra, with 22 branches [...]

Bankaholic’s Greatest Deals

Happy Birthday to us!
Bankaholic is three this summer and we thought it would be a good time to look back and pick our 10 favorite, dare we say greatest, deals.
We combed through almost 600 posts to find everything from the most sky-high CD rate to the all-time best gift for opening a new account — [...]

Let “Thrive” Help You Budget Wisely

Looking at your savings and bills and wondering how the heck to move financially forward?
Give Thrive, a free financial advising service, a whirl.

Designed with 20- and 30-somethings in mind, Thrive takes the account numbers and passwords to your bank, credit card, mortgage and investment statements and automatically downloads all of the info it needs.
It [...]

The air fare wars are back!

Over the past few weeks, airlines held the line on ticket prices to see just how much summer travel would be off because of the recession.
A lot, judging by the fare war that erupted Tuesday and is clearly aimed at filling a lot of empty seats between now and early winter.
Three discount carriers got the [...]

Trustmark’s new promotion not a winner

If you’re shopping for a new checking account, pick the one that has all the features you need at the lowest possible cost.
The chance to win a few days at a Florida resort shouldn’t figure into the decision.
But that’s the hook Trustmark National Bank of Jackson, Miss. is using to attract new customers.
Apply for a [...]

New calculators estimate college costs

It’s hard to know exactly how much money kids need for college because so much depends on where they plan to go.
But a new type of calculator is providing much better estimates of how much parents will be expected to pay, and what kind of financial aid a student might qualify for, based on family [...]

Raises will be smaller than ever in ‘09

Here’s another way the recession is hurting all of us — even those of us who still have a job.
A survey by Hewitt Associates shows employers are planning to boost base salaries by less than 3% this year, the lowest average increase since the consulting firm began tracking the data in 1976.
The rapidly deteriorating economy [...]

What is a Yankee CD?

A certificate of deposit that is issued in a U.S. market by a branch of a foreign bank. Most Yankee CDs come from New York. Yankee CDs are negotiable with a minimum face value of $100,000. As a negotiable certificate of deposit, a Yankee CDS is guaranteed by the bank and can be sold in [...]

8 Tips for Saving Money and Your Life

From simple colds and viruses to life-threatening diseases, any kind of health problem can put a huge strain on your pocketbook. By adopting certain habits you cannot only save money on fewer doctor’s visits and medications, you can preserve your cash in other ways.
Below are eight frugal living tips that will actually lengthen your [...]

Should I Lease or Buy a Car?

When you are looking into getting a new car, sometimes the option to lease instead of buy may be available to you. With advantages and disadvantages to each, how exactly do you know whether to lease a car or to buy one?

Mail or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule

This has been called the Information Age yet it is remarkable how many people have never heard of the Mail or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule. This rule covers merchandise you order by mail, telephone, computer and fax.
It requires merchants to have a reasonable basis for claiming they can ship an order within a certain time. [...]

Top 3 Money Saving Tips for Summertime

Summer is by far my least favorite season. Staying cool can be expensive, especially if you rely on central air conditioning. I’m trying to save some money, so I’ve been doing some research on how to cut back on my energy bill.
Tip #1 : Buy a portable air conditioner with a SEER (Seasonal energy efficiency [...]