The Sun's Financial Diary

Early last week, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance website has an article that discusses the relationship between credit score and insurance rate. The main message of the article is that insurers look at your credit history and credit score differently from lenders. For example, the number of new credits obtained within a year plays a key role [...]

Since last December, I kept getting a $37.90 charge on my American Express TrueEarnings card. The charge was from an internet payment company in Netherlands for a monthly subscription fee. After I noticed it in February, I called AMEX immediately to report the unauthorized use of my card and was told there will be an [...]

I have multiple accounts. Not just multiple online savings accounts, but pretty much every type of account: investment accounts, brokerage accounts, retirement accounts, etc. The only exception is checking account, which I have only one. Despite the seemingly large number of accounts, the whole saving and investing system so far has worked quite well for [...]

I got two new credit cards , but I really didn’t apply for any of them . Last night I received two new credit cards in the mail. One is from Bank of America and the other one is from Lowe’s. They are both replacements of the cards I already own. However, both of them [...]

On May 31, 2007, HSBC Direct, which offers the popular Online Savings Account with 5.05% APY, will unveil its latest product aimed to compete in the interest-bearing check account market. The HSBC Direct Online Payment Account is essentially a checking account that pays a moderate interest rate. According to the email I received yesterday, the [...]

A couple of days ago CNNMoney has an article with a list of seven credit cards that give cardholders generous rewards (well, that’s just relative to the 1% reward that I can pretty much get from any card). Out of the seven cards mentioned in the article, I own two of them, Discover Miles card [...]

News is out this morning that American Express (announcement from AMEX) will soon allow its card members to pay monthly mortgage with AMEX cards and earn rewards at the same time. According to MarketWatch, American Home Mortgage Corp. will be the first lender to offer the Express Rewards Mortgage program for eligible prime loans. American [...]

looks good. When I logged into my Bank of America account last week, I noticed that they have a new interface for online banking. The redesigned tool includes several improvements that aim to make account activities easier to manage. Among the changes made: Easily find and sort transactions using type and status icons Personalize your [...]