Archive for the Category Banking

 
 

Bank Roulette

If your bank fails, you probably won’t lose any deposits or face hassles getting to your money.

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance:

At 98 and counting, the number of bank failures this year is beginning to rival the number of institutions shuttered in 1992, at the finale of the savings-and-loan crisis. Fortunately, when a bank goes belly up, most customers have a seamless transition to a new bank. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. currently covers $250,000 per depositor per bank. And most often, a failed bank is bought by another bank, assets are transferred immediately, and customers have uninterrupted access to funds in their accounts.

Read more here.

 

Over-The-Top Bank Fees

To avoid outrageous overdraft charges, keep close tabs and weave a safety net.

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance:

Paying an overdraft fee on your checking account is like having your mouth washed out with soap: The bank says it’s for your own good-but is it really? Just ask Ben Kohler, a 19-year-old Pizza Hut manager who’s paying his way through school at Wright State University, in Dayton, Ohio. Kohler has paid hundreds of dollars in overdraft fees. “How do I keep that stupid fee away?” he wonders.

Click here for the entire article.