Wheaties for Your Wallet

Wesabe is honored to be nominated for a 2008 Webby Award in the Banking/Bill Paying category. Thanks so much! It’s interesting that this year all of the nominees are startups — usually, well-established banks and credit cards get nominations. I think it says great things for the development of personal finance sites that so much great work is taking place, and getting so much attention. We’re very happy to be part of this fantastic movement.

Good reading for March 3rd:

• Nation & World | Consumers fight rising use of hidden fees | Seattle Times Newspaper - “For years, consumers ignored [fees] because they were relatively small and weren’t worth the hassle to fight. But multiply those small amounts by millions of customers and they become a multibillion-dollar corporate windfall.”
• Banking Fees Are Rising And Often Undisclosed - washingtonpost.com - “Banks are failing to provide consumers with information about fees on savings and checking accounts even though federal rules require such disclosures, according to a government report to be released tomorrow.”
• More Americans using credit cards to stay afloat - USATODAY.com - “Seven years in the credit-counseling business didn’t prepare Ann Estes for the alarming trend she began noticing last fall: As her clients’ mortgage bills became unaffordable, a growing number of them began paying their credit card bills before — and sometimes instead of — their mortgages.”
• I Will Teach You To Be Rich — Announcing the 2008 Tax Makeover Guide - “Today, I’m announcing a new eBook that covers all the basics of taxes. It’s called the 2008 Tax Makeover Guide.” Good timing…
• Tactics for the Frustrated Consumer (SmartMoney Magazine) | SmartMoney.com - “Consumers have had a lot to complain about these days. But where exactly do you go to get satisfaction? We looked at some tactics for the frustrated to employ.”

Good reading for February 28th:

• Demand Satisfaction! — Video: Panel, “Scaling Customer Service” - “At the Customer Service is the New Marketing summit, we had an excellent panel on the subject of ‘Scaling Customer Service,’ … moderated by Marc Hedlund of Wesabe.” — I had fun at this panel, lots of good info from the panelists.
• Bank of America, HSBC Most Prone to I.D. Theft, Report Says | Threat Level from Wired.com - “In a first ever study of which companies have the most identity theft incidents, Bank of America, HSBC, and Washington Mutual were named as the companies with the most incidents per billions of dollars of deposits…”
• When credit cards put you in jeopardy - CNN.com - “Consumers have racked up more than $2.2 trillion in purchases and cash advances on major credit cards in just the last year.”
• Exposing the Credit-Card Fine Print - TIME - “To credit-card companies, it’s not sufficient that customers pay their bills on time every month; they must also avoid a daunting array of borrowing habits that lenders deem risky. Like borrowing.”
• Want a better credit card rate? Just ask - The Red Tape Chronicles - MSNBC.com - “If interest rates are going down, why are credit card rates going up?” Bob’s blog (and his new book) are both great and well worth your time.

Good reading for February 12th:

• Why sadness can blow your budget - CNN.com - “If you’re sad and shopping, watch your wallet: A new study shows people’s spending judgment goes out the window when they’re down, especially if they’re a bit self-absorbed.” I think this happens to almost everyone (he says self-absorbedly…).
• Scanning Your Money to the Bank - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog - “Soon you will be able to deposit checks by scanning them at home and sending them electronically to your bank. No need to visit a branch or even an ATM.” (More on CheckFree’s offering)
• Economy Fitful, Americans Start to Pay as They Go - New York Times - “With the number of jobs shrinking, housing prices falling and debt levels swelling, the same nation that pioneered the no-money-down mortgage suddenly confronts an unfamiliar imperative: more Americans must live within their means.”
• Paper or Plastic? - washingtonpost.com - Looks like the right answer is “neither.”
• FindABetterBank launched - “We launched FindABetterBank last Friday and we’ve already crossed the 1,000 visitors mark.” Congrats, guys!
• CheckFree to Enable In-home Remote Check Deposits for Consumers and Small Businesses (NetBanker) - “CheckFree aims to change that with a new service targeted to consumers and very small businesses (press release here). The key is using existing consumer scanners and multi-function printers.” Cool.
• Tracking Consumer Savings on eBay - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog - “Writing in an coming issue of Information Systems Research, the researchers report that eBay buyers saved more than $7 billion in 2003 and $8.4 billion in 2004. Extrapolating from their data, they project that consumers saved $19 billion on eBay last year.”
• Put Buyers First? What a Concept - New York Times - “My Christmas story — the one I’ve been telling and retelling these last 10 days — began on Friday, Dec. 21.” (Oldie but a goodie.)

Good reading for January 11th:

• FBI wiretaps dropped due to unpaid bills - Yahoo! News - “Telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau’s repeated failures to pay phone bills on time.” Glad to hear they don’t discriminate.
• Technology Review: Second Life Closes Banks - …this week, Linden Lab abruptly banned virtual banks that can’t furnish “proof of an applicable government registration statement or financial institution charter.” The requirement appears likely to shut down all of Second Life’s banks.
• BusinessWeek: Delinquency Rates On the Rise - After a gloomy holiday season hobbled by rising unemployment and fears of a recession, the bad news just keeps coming for cash-strapped consumers. Rates of delinquency for credit-card holders rose in November…
• Fresh Air: Fees, Cheats and ‘Gotcha Capitalism’ - [Bob] Sullivan’s latest book is about the hidden fees found in many phone, cable, credit card and other bills. All told, he says, corporations are nickel-and-diming their customers to death — or at least to the tune of $1,000 or more a year.
• The 15 most rewarding credit cards - MSN Money - The thrill of a credit card rewards program is so fleeting. Yes, it’s wonderful to get free stuff — travel, cash back, money for college — just by using your credit card. But with so many rewards programs out there, it’s hard not to second-guess your choice.
• Conveniently Reduce Energy Consumption With Belkinâ��s Conserve Surge Protector - “The new Belkin Conserve is an 8-outlet surge protector that makes it simple to eliminate wasteful standby power to your electronic devices…” Nice!
• F.T.C. Asks if Carbon-Offset Money Is Winding Up True Green - New York Times - Corporations and shoppers in the United States spent more than $54 million last year on carbon offset credits … But where exactly is that money going?

Good reading for December 8th:

• Teaching Teamwork, but With Real Money - New York Times - “Six years ago, when they ranged in age from 5 to 15, he and his wife decided to entrust them with $5,000 each year. The children were to invest the money, which would be used for the family’s summer vacation.” FANTASTIC idea!
• The Finance Buff: Why Banks Push Debit Cards - Another excellent article from The Finance Buff. If you understand how banks are doing business, you can avoid fee traps and set yourself up to get the most (and lose the least!) from your accounts.
• Ka-Blog! — Blog Archive — Year-end financial goals - A good list of year-end financial goals, things that we should all do year-round, really.
• Lower Your Credit-Card Rates - Kiplinger.com - A *fantastic* article for people to read right now. If you get hit with a credit card rate increase, try this out and see what you can do to roll back the increase.
• Charge the Rent, but Only if You Don’t Need To - New York Times - I have to say that these types of schemes generally scare me a lot — it’s so easy to get caught out and then have a lot of debt. But, if your credit usage is under control, this is a good way to take advantage of cash-back cards
• Health Blog : Even With Insurance, Hospital Stay Can Cost a Million - How depressing is this? One of the most common reasons we here that people are in financial distress is because of a health problem eating away at savings and keeping them from work.
• Setting and Achieving Financial Goals — Get Rich Slowly - J.D.’s notes on setting financial goals.
• The Finance Buff: Unsure About Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) - An older post, but this topic comes up all the time in Wesabe’s Green Spending group. Very much worth a read.
• Exploding piggy-bank aims to scare Japanese into saving - Yahoo! News - “Greying Japan has a new weapon to scare people into saving for their retirement — an exploding piggy bank.” Um, wow.
• Big Fees for Little Credit - New York Times - “Some issuers of credit cards are ‘quietly collecting hundreds of millions of dollars in profits selling nearly worthless, predatory credit cards targeting vulnerable consumers, including those with bad credit,’ according to a report published this week b

The Online Banking Report (OBR) has awarded Wesabe another “Best of the Web” award for our Mac Dashboard Widget, launched last week. This is our second award from OBR — in the ten years the award has been given out, only five other companies have won it twice:

Wesabe is the only one streaming real-time balance updates thanks to its automated downloading of account data from linked financial accounts (aka account aggregation). Without the automatic updates a widget is more window dressing than a functional tool.

Therefore, we’re giving Wesabe its second OBR Best of the Web this year in recognition of its new widget which once again raises the bar for financial information delivery, if only for Mac users. …

In the past 10 years, 67 companies have won Online Banking Report’s Best of the Web award. Only five companies prior to Wesabe have won the award twice: Bank of America, Citibank, E*Trade, Everbank, and Wells Fargo.

Congratulations to Tim Mason, who built the Mac Dashboard Widget, and did a fantastic job with it. And thanks much to the Online Banking Report for the recognition.

Good reading for November 9th:

• 8 secret scores that lenders keep - MSN Money - “What you may not know is that credit scores are just the start of the way financial institutions evaluate you, and they’re not even the most commonly used scores — far from it.” Great article!
• Got a complaint? How to air it and get results - 10 Tips - MSNBC.com - “The following tips can help you lodge complaints in an effective — rather than a futile — way.” (Via Consumerist)
• Homeowners’ Reduced Equity May Slow Spending - New York Times - “The Whitteys and others like them are at the center of deepening worries that the economy is headed for a substantial slowdown, possibly even a recession, as the artery of cash from Americans borrowing against the value of their homes has sharply narrowe
• Beware of Citibank’s Retroactive Late Fee — Get Rich Slowly - “Here’s one way for banks to compensate for their losses during the subprime lending debacle: screw their other customers.” Go J.D.!
• Get More Bang for Your Buck by Using Coupons and Sales Wisely — Get Rich Slowly - “I saved myself $35/hour by being diligent. By using the coupons I had (and finding better ones), I saved between 20%-25% on all of my purchases (except at Target).”
• Credit “contagion” spreads - Yahoo! News - “The malaise in the mortgage market is starting to spread to credit-card and auto loans in what one analyst has dubbed consumer credit “contagion.” It’s an ominous warning signal for the economy.”
• Now, a way to stop ID theft - The Red Tape Chronicles - “For the first time, everyone in America can now do something to prevent identity theft. Read on and I’ll show you how.” Well worth reading.

Good reading for November 5th:

• The $915 Billion Bomb in Consumers’ Wallets - “Last month, as banks reported their worst quarterly results since 2001, concerns about rising credit card delinquencies began to make their way onto earnings announcements alongside mentions of subprime woes.”

Good reading for October 28th:

• Springwise: Bank run by street kids in New Delhi - “[I]n … New Delhi, India, … more than 1,000 street children have joined together to create a bank that helps them manage the small sums they earn each day. Launched in 2001 by a volunteer aid group called Butterflies, the Children’s Development Bank aims to empower children in several important ways.”
• For Those Born Rich, Lessons in How to Stay That Way - New York Times - “Teach them to rise above small things and look at the overall goal or problem.” Advice from rich parents to their kids — applicable, in part at least, to all of us. Goals are a great way to keep focused on money!
• Fight Thieving Restaurant Servers With Checksum Tips | Punny Money - This has been linked to a lot, but it’s an interesting way of tracking your money. A lot of work, but it would be easy to make a Wesabe API client that would do this for you automatically.
• Military Money - This blog by a Wesabe member stationed in Iraq has great advice in general, and especially for people in the military and their families.
• Living paycheck to paycheck gets harder - Yahoo! News - “Across the nation, Americans are increasingly unable to stretch their dollars to the next payday as they juggle higher rent, food and energy bills.”
• Mortgage industry facing more troubles - Yahoo! News - “In all phases of the mortgage industry this week, from the people who make the loans to the people who insure them, the news was bad — and most of them expect it to get worse.”
• Credit contagion infects your wallet - MSN Money - “My worst nightmare about the collapse of the subprime-mortgage market is coming true. The horrors let loose among mortgage borrowers and lenders by falling housing prices have begun to sink their fangs into the market for auto loans and credit cards, too.” (via Wesabe user Rob the Ordnance Soldier)
• Rate Chasers Are Online and Moving Cash - New York Times - “Rate chasers, they call themselves: savers who hunt for the best interest rates at banks and credit unions and quickly move their cash from one account to another.”
• Overdrafts: US Bank To Let You Opt-Out Of Overdraft Protection - Consumerist - “US Bank will let customer opt-out of automatic overdraft protection. This would mean that if you bounce a charge, you just get charged an NSF fee instead of your account going negative, incurring additional fees, and increasing the likelihood of more checks and charges bouncing.”