To learn more about Scottrade, be sure to check out my posts:

• Transfer Fund to Scottrade Brokerage Account Is Easy
• Scottrade Trading Platform Review
• Scottrade Launched Improved Mutual Fund Center

If you decided to open a Scottrade account, use promo code KGKP0724 to get 3 commission free trades.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

• Earn 1 point for each $1 spent on purchases.
• Earn an additional 1 point for each $1 of eligible airfare net purchases made online through the program booking tool.
• There are no maximum number of points you can accumulate in the program.
• There are no point expirations, or blackout dates, so you’ll be able to earn unlimited points with this travel credit card.

You can enjoy all these benefits with the Chase Sapphire Card with no annual membership fee.

The points you earned can be redeemed for statement credit. Points redemptions start at 2,500 points for a $25 statement credit to apply to any purchase(s) made with your Chase credit card and in 100-point increments for each additional $1 of credit. Statement credits will post to your account within 5-7 business days and will appear on your monthly Chase credit card billing statement within 1-2 billing cycles.

Right now, the Sapphire Card is running a promotion that will give each new approved cardholder 10,000 bonus points after the first purchase on the credit card (balance transfer to the new account is also good for the promotional bonus). That’s equivalent to $100 statement credit. In addition, you’ll get 10 points for every dollar spent shopping at select merchants through the Ultimate Rewards Mall.

If you are interested in getting a premier travel rewards credit card, open a Chase Sapphire Card so you can take advantage of promotional offer at the same time.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

If you also want to have a ING Business Savings Account and can make at least $250 initial deposit, then you can use any of the following referral link to open account and get $25 sign up bonus. That’s 10% instant return. Remember, you have to have a minimum of $250 in order to get the bonus. If you can’t meet the minimum initial deposit requirement, use this link to open an account instead.

1. ING Direct Business Savings Account $25 Bonus
2. ING Direct Business Savings Account $25 Bonus
3. ING Direct Business Savings Account $25 Bonus
4. ING Direct Business Savings Account $25 Bonus
5. ING Direct Business Savings Account $25 Bonus

BTW, if you see on the account application page a message in red saying that the referral link has expired, then you won’t be able to use that link to open an account and get the bonus. Simply go to the next link in the above list. I am sure you will find a link that’s still good (the list will be updated regularly).

These links are for ING Business Savings Account. If you are looking for bonus for regular ING Savings Account or Checking Account, use this link. There are plenty of links on that page.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

If not, there’s one good reason to try Zecco Forex: For a limited time, you can get up to 20% bonus up to $1,000 for deposit you make into the account!

I have discussed Zecco Forex Trading before when the platform was first introduced in April. However, since I don’t trade forex, I didn’t take advantage of their previous promotional offers and get an account myself, even though it also has a free practice account with no additional cost. I’d like to learn how to trade forex one day, though. Hope by then it won’t be too late for me to learn it

To qualify for this bonus offer, the following conditions must be met:

• You must either open a Zecco Forex live trading account (not a practice account) between September 15, 2009 and October 30, 2009 at 5pm (ET) or have an existing Zecco Forex account previously unfunded as of September 15, 2009.
• Your Zecco Forex live account must have funds deposited (received and cleared) during the “Deposit Period” which is between September 15, 2009 and October 30, 2009 at 5pm (ET).
• You must trade in your Zecco Forex account the number of standard roundtrip lots (listed in the table) during the “Trading Period” which is between September 15, 2009 and November 13, 2009 at 5pm (ET).
• You must have the promotion code “ZECCOCASH2TRADE1” associated with your account. Existing unfunded accounts must contact Customer Service.

If you are interested in trading forex and want to give Zecco Forex a try, all you need to do are:

1. Open a Zecco Forex Trading account;
2. Make your deposit before 10/30/2009;
3. Make the round-trip trade requirements before 11/13/2009;
4. Collect your bonus!

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

LifeLock Services

The main product is LifeLock Identity Alert, a system that provides you a wide range of identity coverage and early notification of potential identity threats by email, postal mail, and/or phone when such threats are detected. Usually,  the alert will be sent out when your personal information is being used to apply for, for example, credit cards, wireless services, retail credit, utilities, check orders/reorders, mortgage loans, auto loans, and non-credit related payday loans.  In addition, LifeLock also offers

• eRecon – The service scours known criminal websites for the illegal selling or trading of your personal information, including your Social Security number, credit card number,and  driver’s license. It will alert you when such illegal activities are found.
• TrueAddress – TrueAddress detect any new address information in address databases nationwide. If it finds the address is changed without authorization, LifeLock will work with you to avoid further damage  and restore accurate address information.
• WalletLock – If you lost your wallet, you can use WalletLock service to have everything in your wallet,  such as credit/debit cards, driver’s license, social security card, insurance cards, checkbook, canceled and replaced.

LifeLock $1 Million Guarantee

So exactly what is LifeLock’s $1 million guarantee? It isn’t that LifeLock will pay you, the victim of identity theft, $1 million for the damage. Instead, the guarantee program “will spend up to $1 million to hire lawyers, investigators, consultants and whatever else it takes to restore your name and help you recover the direct losses from the identity theft.” So basically, LifeLock will spend the money, up to $1 million, to heir a third party Recovery Specialist to restore your identity. Plus, the specialist will

• Educate you on the recovery process.
• Obtain additional information that is necessary to proceed with the recovery process.
• Give you the pre-fill forms, and step-by-step instructions necessary for your state jurisdiction and type of identity theft.
• Send over a Power of Attorney form that will allow them to act on your behalf.

Essentially, you will hand over the case to the LifeLock and the specialist it assigned until the issue is resolved, which, as LifLock claims, usually takes 30 days. However, if you decide to take the matter in your own hands, you will not be compensated for your time and effort under this program, as it explicitly states that the program doesn’t cover

Lost wages or business profits, loss of business or lost opportunities and direct out-of-pocket expenses like postage stamps, gas or mileage to go to local authorities, or any notary public fees, etc. The guarantee does cover the cost for lawyers, investigators, case managers but not any direct losses as a result of the theft. Under the Terms and Conditions, NO money passes directly to our LifeLock members.

Is LifeLock Worth the Money?

Though I have considered of getting a credit monitoring service myself, I don’t use any and generally think that the best protection is to safeguard my personal information carefully, instead of using a service to help me avoid any form of identity theft. For years, I have been getting free credit reports every four months to check if there is any information that rises read flag. Sure, it’s not a real-time service like LifeLock or any other credit monitoring program offers, but it has worked quite well for me.

However, if you are not confident about handling the task yourself or are too busy to do it, then an identity protection program like LifeLock may help.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

It’s Ally Bank’s Ten-Day Best Rate Guarantee, which guarantees that you will get the best rate available for the 10 days after a CD account is opened. Basically, what it says is that if you open a CD account with Ally Bank and if there’s any rate adjustment within the first 10 days, you will get the best rate during this period of time, regardless whether the rate is going up or down. Since there will be some delays between opening an account and having it funded no matter which funding method is used (by check, by ACH, or by wire), it’s possible that the rate may change while the account is waiting for the initial fund to come in. With this guarantee, you are assured that your CD account won’t be affected should the rate goes down shortly after the account is opened.

While the offer looks good on surface, I am not very impressed by it because, from my experience, Ally Bank made more frequent adjustments to its Online Savings account than CD account. In fact, one of the reason that I decided not to use Ally Bank is that I just can’t tolerate the Savings account rate being adjust every week. To me, I will be happier if Ally Bank not only offers a competitive rate, but also keeps the rate stable than its competitors, not a 10-day guarantee.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

While trading with OptionsHouse is cheap, I wasn’t very happy when I discovered that I have to leave $100 in my account, the money that the broker said is to cover commission cost for high-volume traders. But for me, who has a cash account, that doesn’t make any sense. I complained to the broker and eventually in August Opt ionsHouse decided to eliminate the requirement of having $100 in the account. But at that time $100 requirement is still listed on their website which, as far as I can tell, will sure cause confusions among investors. Now I am glad to see that OptionsHouse has finally cleared up the issue with an updated web page with the following information about the account minimum (you can find the updated information on their FAQ page):

Do I need to maintain a minimum account balance?

There is no minimum account balance. The minimum account balance is not the same as the minimum initial funding size. The minimum initial funding size is $1,000 for a cash account and $2,000 for a margin account.

So though the $1,000 account minimum is higher than other brokers such as TradeKing and Scottrade, at least you can invest every dollar you have in the account If you are interested in getting an OptionsHouse account, you can take advantage of a few promotions currently going on. For example, if you transfer your account from other brokers, you can get reimbursed for up to $100 charged by other brokers (though you don’t pay any fee to open an account with a broker, you will usually be charged a fee, such as $50, when moving your account out to another broker).

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

Available Windows 7 products include Windows 7 Home Premium ($199.99, upgrade $49.99), Windows 7 Professional ($299.99, upgrade $99.99), and Windows 7 Ultimate ($319.99, upgrade $219.99). If you purchase full or upgrade versions of Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate, on or after June 26, you will qualify for a Windows 7 Upgrade at the reduced price of $9.99.

Pre-order and select “Release Date Delivery” option at checkout. Amazon Prime members can select “FREE Release-Date Delivery” at checkout.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

• Quicken Deluxe: Was $59.99, on sale at $39.99 ($20 off);
• Quicken Premier: Was $89.99, on sale at $59.99 ($30 off);
• Quicken Home & Business: Was $99.99, on sale at $69.99 ($30 off);
• Quicken Rental Property Manager: Was $149.99, on sale at $99.99 ($50 off).

I have been using Quicken Home & Business to track my investments and credit card and bank accounts for years and like the software quite well. Check them out. Maybe you can find a product that you can use as well

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

Not only will a good credit history help get the loan you need or an apartment you like, it can even help get you the job you’re counting on. Today, consumers are recognizing the need to control their financial situation. A recent survey by Citi found that 92% of Americans feel that because of the economic downturn, it’s particularly important for them to focus on managing their finances responsibly. Yet 82% admit they could do a better job handling their money.

To help consumers build and maintain a good credit history, Citi Forward Card, the only credit card that lowers the purchase interest rate when cardholders use credit wisely and rewards them with ThankYou Points every time for paying on time and staying under the credit line, offers the following tips to make credit work for you:

• Understand that credit is not free money. All good things have their limits. Your credit does too. The credit your credit card offers you is a loan that must be paid back – with interest if you don’t pay the balance in full.
• Know your limits. Figure out how much credit you can afford. Don’t take on monthly credit payments unless you’re certain you can meet them. A general rule of thumb is you should keep your debt-to-income ratio – which looks at how much you owe each month compared to how much you earn – below 28%.
• Get rewarded for good behavior. The best way to start establishing a credit history is with a credit card. Get one that rewards you for good financial behavior, such as the Citi Forward Card – the only credit card that lowers the purchase interest rate by a quarter percent when you use credit wisely and provides reward points each billing period for paying on time and staying under the credit line.
• Pay on time, every time. If you can’t pay your balance in full, you should at least pay the minimum payment due on time, every month. Many card issuers offer free alert service that let you know when, for example, your payment hasn’t been received. You can sign up for payment reminders to make sure they never miss a payment.
• Don’t take on too much. Only apply for the credit cards that you need. Too much available credit can make you look like a risk to future lenders. Plus, the more credit cards you own, the harder it is to track how much you owe and keep up with timely payments.
• Conduct an annual check-up. Review your credit report at least once a year to make sure it’s accurate (you can get free credit reports from all three agencies at annualcreditreport.com). Serious errors can appear in a credit report at any given time, and can cause credit to be denied.
• Keep in touch. If you find you are having trouble making your payments, avoiding it in the hopes that it’ll go away is not a solution. In fact, it’ll cause more problems. Instead, call your credit card company right away to work out a plan.

The more you know about managing your finances, the better equipped you’ll be to secure a healthy financial future.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

What Is a Secured Credit Card?

To understand how secured credit cards work, you need to know what a secured credit card is. Unlike a regular credit card which allows the cardholder to “borrow” money from the card issuer to make a purchase (of course, cardholders agree to pay issuers back the balance or interests will be imposed), a secured card requires a security deposit before the card can be used and the credit limit of the card usually equals the amount of deposit.

How Does a Secured Credit Card Work?

As mentioned above, a secured card is secured by the deposit. Since a cardholder essentially uses his/her own deposit to make purchases with the card, secured credit cards can usually offers interest rates that are lower than those of regular cards. Also, secured credit cards don’t give card members those rewards that are usually available with regular cards, such as cashback or bonus, and every secured card charges an annual fee (some cards also charge application fee, processing fee, etc.) . Other than these, you can use a secured credit card wherever a Visa or MasterCard is accepted

Where Can You Get a Secured Credit Card?

If you want to get a secured credit card you can’t just go to any bank and apply for one because not every card issuer offers secured cards. Following are some secured credit card offers. None of them requires credit history to apply for the card and all of them report payments to major credit reporting agencies, which is essential to establish credit history.

• Applied Bank Secured Visa Card: Applied Bank Secured Visa Card has a fixed 9.99% APR for purchases and cash advances. Credit limits range from $200 to $5,000, depending on the amount of deposit. The card reports card activities to credit bureaus. Annual fee is $50.
• Public Savings Bank Secured Card: Public Savings Bank Secured Card currently has 11.24% APR. Security deposit starts from $300 to up to $10,000. Payment information is reported to major credit agencies to help cardholder establish credit history. No annual fee but one-time $79 application fee applies.
• New Millennium Bank Secured Platinum Card: New Millennium Bank Secured Platinum Card has 19.5% APR. Credit limits from $300 to $5,000. It reports to all 3 credit bureaus. Annual fee is $59 plus $99.95 account application fee.

photo credit: Ciaran McGuiggan

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

Scottrade is my first broker and I have been using it for 7 years (I also have an IRA account with them). I reviewed Scottrade briefly before and have talked about their excellent customer service and platform. Even though Scottrade is not the cheapest discount online broker, it is a solid choice if you don’t make a lot of trades (so the cost on commissions becomes small). If you can use the free trades, simply

1. Go to Scottrade.com
2. Use the promotion code KGKP0724 to open an account (a minimum of $500 is required)
3. Enjoy your commission free trades.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

So what is special about the Applied Bank Secured Visa Card?

Well, the major benefit of this card is the fixed APR of 9.99% for purchases and cash advances, which is reasonably low for a secured card. Unlike most secured credit cards, this card provides additional services and benefits including online account access and various fraud protection services. To apply for the card, a minimum security deposit of $200 is required and there is no requirement for income or credit history.  The maximum credit limit of this card is $5,000, which comes with the same amount of security deposit.

While the card has a low APR, it is also important to note that a major drawback of the Applied Bank Secured Card is that there is no grace period for purchases. This means that interest will be applied immediately to any charges made with the card. To avoid paying interest, it’s better to pay the balance right after a purchase. However, since the card reports account activity to credit reporting agencies, it will help cardholders build credit history from scratch.

Another downside is that this card does not pay interest to the deposit amount, which sets it apart from other secured cards that do. In addition, the card also charges an annual fee of $50.

In my opinion, the Applied Bank Secured Visa Card is a better option for people starting or starting over with their credit.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

Features of Starwood Preferred Guest Card

Starwood Preferred Guest Card is a travel rewards credit card (in the same category as the Citi PremierPass Card and Discover Escape Card) that earns cardholders rewards points that can be redeemed for airline tickets, hotel stays, or room upgrade. There are several ways you can earn Starpoints, in addition to the bonus points:

• You earn 1 point for every dollar you spend on every day items;
• You can also earn double points when you stay and make purchases on over 890 participating Starwood hotels and resorts in 95 countries;
• You can earn an additional point for every dollar spent at Starwood hotels and resorts when joining the Starwood Preferred Guest loyalty program (enrollment in the program is automatic for the cardholder).

In addition, as a cardholder, you also enjoy some extra services from American Express with the Starwood card for either shopping or travel, including:

• Return protection: Guarantees your satisfaction on designated items within 90 days from the date of purchase.
• Extended warranty: Mirrors manufacturers’ warranties for covered products purchased with your Card account, for up to one additional year.
• Purchase protection: Protects covered items for up to 90 days from the date of purchase if it is stolen or accidentally damaged.
• Emergency check-in: Check into a hotel and charge your stay with the Card, even if your Card has been lost or stolen.
• Assured reservations: Guarantee your hotel reservations with your Card and your room will be waiting for you even if you arrive late, or the hotel will provide you with a comparable room nearby, along with transportation to your new location.
• Travel accident insurance: Provides up to $100,000 in accidental death and dismemberment insurance.

All these benefits come with a $45 annual fee, though it is waived for the first year.

Starpoints Redemption

Starpoints earned with the Starwood Preferred Guest Card can be redeemed for free stays at hundreds of Starwood properties, including Westin Hotels & Resorts, Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, Four Points by Sheraton, St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, and W Hotels with no blackout date. If you prefer, the points can also be transferred to frequent flyer miles with more than 30 airlines, usually at 1 mile per point ratio. Redemption can be easily made online, by phone, or at the hotel.

Currently, Starwood Preferred Guest Card has a promotional rate of 2.90% APR for 6 months on purchase made with the card.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

In addition to the standard card, Citi Forward also has another version tailored for college students. It’s called Citi Forward for College Students, which has similar benefits as the standard card:

• 6,000 bonus points after $50 in purchases are made within 3 months of account opening;
• 5,000 bonus points when you sign up for paperless statements within 3 months of account opening;
• 5 rewards points for every dollar spent on dining, books, movies and music; 1 reward point for every $1 spent on other purchases;
• 100 points each billing period when you pay on time and stay under credit line;
• No annual fee;
• 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers for 6 months.

And like the standard card, you can get a 0.25% reduction in APR when you make a purchase, stay under your credit line and pay at least minimum amount due on time 3 billing periods in a row (up to 2% APY can be reduced through the lifetime).

Reward points are given as Citi ThankYou points that can be redeemed for merchants and gift cards at ThankYou Network.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

I was bothered a lot after seeing yields of my online savings accounts kept dropping like a rock since the new year began. The stock market has been a terrible place to be for investors for nearly one and a half years. Among various investment options, bonds and cash are the only ones that have been performed relatively well in this turbulent market. Unfortunately, that option has become less and less attractive as interest rates got pushed close to zero (see online savings account rates history for details on latest rates), even though it’s still the safest option. I can understand that commercial banks cut their interest rates following the Fed’s move. But lowering rates even when the central bank is idle is really troublesome.

After a score of popular online banks have rushed to lower their yields in the first three months, the situation seems to be stabilized recently. In early March, I announced that my short relationship with Dollar Savings Direct was ending as I was extremely disappointed by DSD’s near 2% rate cut in a little over two months. The bank which I moved my money to was FNBO Direct. The move, however, backfired because shortly after I transferred my money from DSD to FNBO, the later announced yet another rate reduction while DSD has been holding steady

Here are latest rates of banks I have account with:

• Dollar Savings Direct: 2.05% APY;
• Capital One: 2.01% APY;
• FNBO Direct: 1.90% APY;
• HSBC Direct: 1.65% APY;
• ING Direct: 1.50% APY.

Well, as you can see, the best option for me is going back to Dollar Savings Direct, which is exactly what I am doing: Move my money back to DSD and plan to stay there.

I always consider myself a rate chaser. Even though I didn’t always go to the bank with the highest rate, I want to get the most out of my savings. However, rate chasing in this environment doesn’t make too much sense because rates are changing very quickly and differenece between banks are getting smaller and smaller. It’s better to stay where I am instead of constantly moving around.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

It’s a nice commercial, but do you really get what is advertised?

While it’s true that you can indeed get a free credit report, which is the center piece of this commercial, you will also get something extra, something that’s not mentioned in the commercial, at the same time. And the price for that extra isn’t too light to ignore if you are not careful.

According to the Free Credit Report website, at the time when you order your free Experian credit report, you will also automatically “begin your free trial membership in Triple Advantage Credit Monitoring” service. The service is offered by Experian which lets you monitor all three credit files from Expeiran, Equifax, and TransUnion everyday, and receive email alert on any suspicious activity on your accounts. The price for this service? $14.95 a month.

The worst part actually isn’t the monthly membership fee. Unlike most other free trails that usually let you enjoy the programs for free for 20 or 30 days, the free trial of Triple Advantage only gives you 7 days to cancel your trail membership. If you forget to cancel it, then you will be automatically billed $14.95/month until you actually cancel it, unless you decide to keep it. I wonder whether they intentionally set the trail period to only 7 days so people will easily forget to call to cancel, ending up paying a high price for a free credit report they are entitled to by law.

Recent developments in the financial system underscore the importance of one’s credit worthiness. Without a good credit, you will find it’s becoming increasingly difficult and costly to get a loan or apply for a credit card. In addition to using credit responsibly, you also need to stay on top of your credit information. Getting and examining your credit report periodically is one way to make sure your information is current and correct. If a free credit report is all you want, then there’s a better place for to get it for free with no strings attached. In fact, you can get a free credit report from one of the three credit reporting bureaus in any 12-month period. So you are eligible for a total of 3 free reports every year. And you don’t have to go to FreeCreditReport.com to get your credit reports free!

BTW, there are occasionally free credit report and credit score offers that you can take advantage of. Free services like Credit Karma are an option to obtain free credit information.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

The EverBank FreeNet Checking Account has a promotional bonus rate of 2.51% APY for the first three months after the account is opened. After the promotional period, the rate will be determined by the account’s ongoing rates. Currently, the checking account has a tiered rate structure. Depending on the account balance, the current yields of the checking account are:

• Account balance $9,999 or less:  1.02% APY;
• Account balance from $10,000 to $24,999:  1.11% APY;
• Account balance from $25,000 to $49,999:  1.25% APY;
• Account balance from $50,000 to $99,999:  1.60% APY;
• Account balance from $100,000 – $10,000,000:  1.65% APY;

Even with a lower balance ($9,999 or less), the yield of the FreeNet Checking Account is still significantly higher than the yield of another popular interest checking account, ING Direct Eletric Orange Checking Account, whose yield is only 0.25% APY for balance below $50,000. If you have that amount of money in your checking account, you will get a full percentage point higher yield with EverBank. In fact the first year overall yield of the checking account is as high as 1.84% APY for balance between $50,000 and $100,000. For balance less than $10,000, the effective first year yield is still $1.35% APY. Not too bad.

In addition to the high-yield, the FreeNet Checking Account also offers:

• Free Visa check card;
• Free online banking;
• Free unlimited check writing;
• Free online bill pay;
• Overdraft protection;
• $6 ATM fee reimbursement per month.

The checking account requires a $1,500 initial deposit, the same as the money market account. There’s no monthly fee for the account as long as the balance is above $1,500. Otherwise, a $4.95 fee per month will be imposed.

Sounds good so far, right? Well, EverBank will make the deal even sweeter with a pledge to guarantee your satisfaction:

Try the FreeNet Checking Account for three months. If you’re not completely satisfied, we’ll send you a check for $50 to show how much we appreciate you for giving us a try. To qualify for the $50 satisfaction guarantee, you must have used our Online Bill Pay feature at least three times and your account must have been closed within 30 days of your three-month anniversary.

What do you think?

More information on EverBank, such as account opening process, rating, and routing number, ect., can be found in my previous EverBank Money Market Account post.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

Well, if you read the post, you know that I called the Discover card I owned a while ago a “black” card only because the card was printed with black color. That’s actually the only “feature” that made the card a “black” card. Nothing else. For me, I only have credit cards that don’t require an annual fee, those ordinary charge cards that simply give me a percentage point or two of purchases as rewards to encourage me to use them. That’s all.

So my “black” card is nothing but a fake one.

There’s, however, a real black card that seems to be more *affordable* than the American Express Centurion Card, if only looking at the cost of owning the card. It’s the Visa Black Card from Barclays Bank, a card that’s made with carbon, which itself is unique. Comparing to Centurion’s super-high $2,500 annual membership fee, Visa Black Card’s $495 annual fee does seem to be affordable, doesn’t it?  Despite the cost, by no means the card is for average Joe. In fact, according to Barclays Bank, the Black Card targets only 1% of the U.S. residents, those presumably super-rich 1%, by providing its members exclusive rewards and privileges such as Travel Lounge Priority Pass, 24-hour Concierge Service, and luxury gifts, etc. AdSavvy has a nice summary of what the Black Card can do for its owner:

For the ultra-rich, buying whatever you want can get boring; they need the ability to actually do something that other people can’t. A good concierge can do that. You need 12 Arabian horses for your daughters wedding? Call up the concierge, he’ll have them flown in from Dubai. You need a personalized and autographed copy of Richard Dawkin’s The Selfish Gene for your son’s birthday, call up the concierge. The ability to get difficult things done is what sets these cards apart from just a card with a very high limit. Just the knowledge that cardholders have that ability, 24-hours a day, keeps them happy. And that’s what makes this niche so profitable.

Of course, the concierge service is not free. It’s only good when you can afford it.

But exclusive isn’t the only feature of the card. Cardholders also get to enjoy a not-so-exclusive 1% cash back on purchase, which you can pretty much get from any credit card these days (like the “black” card I had ).

So how can you get a Visa Black Card if you want one? Well, it seems to be much easier to do: You can simply apply for one yourself because, though limited, the card is NOT by invitation only

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

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How Does EverBank Compare with Other Online Banks?

Currently, the EverBank MM account offers a 2.51% bonus rate for the first three months after the account is opened. To be fair, the rate isn’t the highest available (check out online savings account rate history for latest rates), but it does beat many popular online banks such as ING Direct, HSBC Direct, FNBO Direct, and E*Trade easily. While the bonus rate is nice, it only lasts for three month, after that the rate will depend on the current rate, which is at 1.67% APY now. Combining both the bonus rate and current rate, the yield of the money market account is 1.87% APY for balance up to $50,000 for the first year. To earn the rates, a minimum account balance of $1,500 is required at account opening. If the minimum balance requirement is not met, a $8.95 monthly fee will be charged.

What You Need to Open an Account with EverBank

To open an account with EverBank, you need to have your personal information ready such as name, email address, employer, SSN, and driver’s license. The online account opening process is rather straightforward, however, not every account opened online is approved right away. if their address does not match what the credit agency has on file, we cannot approve them instantly. For example, if during the account opening process, there’s an address match or answers to 4 random questions don’t match with what are on credit file, etc., the approval will be delayed for a few days for additional verification. I once had a conversation with a representative from EverBank and got the following information regarding the process:

Since we’re an online bank, we have a process in place that requires us to “know our customer.” Since we don’t do face-to-face account opens, we have to do credit checks, etc. We also still require a physical signature on all account opens. However, once an account is open (meaning, the customer has an account #) they can wire, ACH, etc. into that account. The lag time occurs when the account is open (the customer finishes the application) but we’re waiting on the signature page from the applicant. I know this sounds a bit tedious, but believe me, we are very careful with the “know your customer” rule (Privacy Act). We care about the lag time, but we care more about reducing our fraud. Right now, EverBank has pretty much, the lowest fraud rate in the industry.

And for every account that’s approved online, a physical signature card has to be mailed. I know some banks did this before (for example, HSBC asked for a signature card when I opened an account years ago), but it’s not a policy for many banks that do business solely online. Is it a good policy? Maybe.

How to Fund an EverBank Account

Once the account is opened, you can fund the account with either checks, wires (EverBank ABA Routing number is 063000225), ACH deposits(EverBank ACH routing number is 063092110), or ATM deposits. ACH is always the preferred method to transfer funds for me online. EverBank has the following policy regarding ACH transfer:

ACH funding is available for personal Checking, Money Market, and Asset Manager Service cash management accounts. You can fund just the minimum opening deposit or any amount up to a total of $25,000 per day. For funding more than $25,000, you’ll want to open now with $25,000 and send a check or wire for the additional amount.

For the ACH funding source account, you can use any account that supports check writing. You can verify ownership of your source account in 3 days through a small deposit and withdrawal.

Is EverBank Safe?

Finally, EverBank appears to be in a good financial shape. The bank has been FDIC insured since October 1, 1998 (FDIC Certificate number 34775) . Bankrate.com’s Safe & Sound Ratings rates EverBank an impressive 4 stars out of 5.

Interested?

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INO recently released a short educational video, explaining the relationship between the dollar and the yen using MarketClub analysis tool. Will the dollar keep going up? Watch the video to find out.

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This week, a number of popular online banks rushed to lower their already low interest rates. Now it’s hard to find a decent bank that pays above 2% APY at the time when people are increasingly nervous about the stock markets. The latest rate changes at some big names in the online banking business are:

• FNBO Direct from 2.15% to 1.90% APY;
• WTDirect from 2.01% to 1.76% APY;
• E*Trade from 1.70% to 1.45% APY;
• ING Direct from 1.65% to 1.50% APY.

And the list goes on (check out Online Bank Interest Rate History for latest rates). Surprisingly, Dollar Savings Direct, which has been very active in lowering rates in the past couple of months, has been quite lately. I guess they probably feel that they have done the job already with their aggressive cuts.

Since I started tracking interest rate changes last December, I noticed that smaller banks tend to hold their rates steady in comparison to big, popular banks. For example, Redneck Bank is maintaining the 3.10% APY for its money market savings account while others have dropped below 2%. And that’s not introductory rate.

Are smaller, less known banks the place to go for better rates?

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The More Card lets cardholder earn unlimited cash rewards on all purchases. Benefits of the More Card include:

• 5% cashback on purchases on travel, home improvement stores, department stores, gas stations, groceries, and restaurants, etc.
• Earn 0.25% rebates on the first $3,000 purchases elsewhere; 1% rebates on purchase after the first $3,000;
• Earn 5% to 20% cashback at ShopDiscover, Discover’s online shopping network;
• Rewards can be redeemed for gift cards as well as cash starting at $20; plus earned rewards never expire;
• No annual fee.

The card also has a promotional APR of 0% till October 2009 for purchase as well as 12-month 0% APR on balance transfer. However, it does charge a 3% fee on any balance transfer.

To apply for the More Card, use this link.

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If you are in need of a credit card to help you improve your creditworthiness, then you may find one of the Orchard Bank Classic MasterCards to be a good fit. The Classic Card is ideal for people who are interested in establishing good credit history but having trouble obtaining a premium card. The Classic Card from Orchard Bank is accepted at millions of locations worldwide where a MasterCard is accepted. In addition, cardholders also receive online account access as well as e-mail and text message payment reminders so you don’t miss a payment. Upon approval, you may qualify for a six-month 0% introductory rate on purchases and balance transfers, depending on your credit profile.

The Classic Card has an annual fee of $49 plus another $49 on-time account processing fee. The card currently has a variable purchase APR of 14.9%. For people with really poor credit, the Secured Card may be approved (which card will be approved depends on the screening process during account application). The Secured Card requires a $200 minimum security deposit but has a lower 7.5% APR and $35 annul fee, which is waived for the first year. Other fees charged include a Cash Advance Fee of 5% ($10 minimum) and 3% foreign transaction fee the U.S. dollar amount on transactions made in a foreign currency.

If you have a poor credit, then you may want to check out Orchard Bank Classic MasterCard when shopping for a credit card. Remember, whatever card you use, you have to use it responsbily in order for you to re-establish your credit. Check out how to improve your credit score for tips to stay on the top of your credit.

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Unfortunately, that policy is just about to change,  like what happened to other credit card rewards programs (such as Chase Freedom Card). Starting March 31, 2009, the TrueEarnings Credit Card will only give 3% cashback on the first  $3,000 spent on gas annually. Any over the limit gas purchase will earn only 1% rebate. Cardholders will continue to earn 3% rebate for restaurants, 2% for travel, and 1% everywhere else including at Costco.

Well, it’s just another example of how the deteriorating credit market has taken its toll on credit card rewards programs. Credit card issuers are cutting credit limits, bumping up interest rates, scaling back rebates, and raising the bar for new account applicants. Those days of easy credit and generous rewards are probably gone forever.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

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• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
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