Personal finance
Bank Bonus Offers from PNC Bank and Investors Savings Bank
Here are a few bonuses in case you are looking for a new checking account with cash incentive.
PNC Bank is offering a $75 bonus for a new personal checking account (Free Checking, Performance Checking, or Performance Select Checking) with direct deposit. In order to qualify for this bonus offer, you must open an account between [...]
Ohio CollegeAdvantage Named One of the Best College Savings Plans
Last week, Morningstar released its annual evaluation of the nation’s 529 college savings plans and named Ohio CollegeAdvantage Plan, the one we are using to save for our younger daughter, one of the 5 best college savings plans. The Morningstar report cited the following features as what makes the plan stand out from the crowd:
One [...]
Life Insurance May Make Better Budget Sense Than You Think
Insurance is one of those necessary evils that people feel they must have, but resent paying for – especially during tough economic times. The law demands we have automotive insurance and most mortgages require a homeowner’s policy. With the current recession, the coverage that tends to get the ax first in the cost-cutting process is [...]
Citi PremierPass Card 20,000 ThankYou Points Promotion
Over the past several years, I have acquired a couple of travel rewards credit cards, including AMEX Delta SkyMiles Card, Discover Miles Card, and Citi PremierPass Card. Though I don’t travel a lot, I’d like to have a card that gives better rewards for travel than a everyday card like the Fidelity 529 Card I am [...]
Social Security Administration Has Answers to Your Questions on $250 One-Time Payment
Two months ago, I wrote an article on when social security recipients will receive the $250 payment as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Since then some readers have left comments, mostly concerning who are eligible for the economic recovery one-time payment. While I am glad that post helped some people [...]
PNC Bank Sucks
This isn’t the first time I complained about PNC Bank, with which I opened a business checking account at the end of January, but I hope it’s the last.
I heard some nice words about PNC before deciding to use it. However, my short relationship with the bank so far turned out to be a terrible [...]
Check Your Tax Refund Status Online
Like last year, I mailed out our tax forms one day ahead of the tax deadline, which is today. In the past I usually waited till the last minute to file, and, as you can imagine, it was never a pleasant trip to the post office on April 15th. I know, I could have used [...]
Random News: Best Toilet Paper, Bank of America Credit Card Rate Hikes, and (Vehicle) Size Does Matter
There’s an article on Consumer Reports website last week with the organization’s latest test results on toilet papers (which will also appear in the May issue of Consumer Report magazine). The article has some interesting findings that could affect which brand we will buy in the future.
We have been using Scott 1000-sheet single ply paper [...]
Recent Bank Findings: Darby Direct 3.00% APY, Heartland Bank Direct 2.30% APY
Good bank deals are rare these days.
You are lucky if your bank pays you 3.0% or more for your money, unless you use one of those high-yield rewards checking accounts that always have a cap on how much money you can put into the account to earn the sometime 5+% yield. And, as you can [...]
Fees Charged for Using Credit Cards to Pay Taxes are Deductible
Yesterday, I wrote a post on why it may not be a good idea to pay your federal taxes with credit cards. The reason is that fees charged by service providers (at 2.49% of the amount paid) cannot make cardholders benefit from the transaction, unless the card has a rewards program that can compensate the [...]
