The Sun's Financial Diary

After the latest rate cut by the Federal Reserve early this month, we are seeing many banks followed suit in the past by lowering the interest rates of the online savings accounts. As of today, UFB Direct offers the highest savings rate at 5.22% APY among banks I tracked. Update: Go to this post to [...]

The Federal Reserve just cut interest rate again and banks will soon, if not already, follow suit to lower their savings accounts’ rates. And according to some experts, such as PIMCO’s Bill Gross, the current rate reduction cycle is far from over, which means interest rates from banks are heading no where but south in [...]

Last February, I had a little incident on the way to work: I was pulled over for speeding out side our house. After delaying my court appearance for almost three months, I eventually went to see the judge and settled my case. The price was a fine of $220 plus two points. I got some [...]

I just shrank my wallet by one more credit card as part of my effort to simply our finance Back in July 2006, I applied for a Discover Miles card for the purpose of using its 12-month 0% balance transfer. Ever since I got the card, I haven’t used it for anything else, though Discover [...]

This is the third part of the 2007 Consumer Reports Ultimate Money Guide. The first two parts discussed shopping & spending and borrowing & debt. This part focuses on investing related issues. Steps to a golden financial future Mind your spending: Create a spending plan to track monthly spending. If spending exceeds income, find ways [...]

FNBO Direct recently introduces a new savings tool, FNBO Direct BillPay Account, which is more like an interest checking account (except no check-writing ability). The product currently is only available to existing Savings account members and it pays 3.50% 1.25% APY (rate as of March 10, 2010). Other features of the new account include: No [...]

Chase Freedom card is now offering a $100 after opening a new card and making the first purchase. I applied for this card in March was the bonus was $200 and my account was credited $200 less than 2 months after I used the card to make a small purchase. I was a little skeptical [...]

I am a credit card person. If possible, I will use credit cards to pay everything so I earn rewards for the money that I have to spend anyway. Half a year ago, American Express announced that it will let members make mortgage payments with AMEX cards. The news generated quite some buzz as it [...]